now I have answered yours and Mr. Baxters which consists of neer sixty sheets in about eighteen sheets Now let all men judge betwixt us If you shall say it is no full answer I answer It is the better for you and your cause will be the more advanced and I pray take your advantage and spare not But time will manifest all things Againe I remember you say that we are the people that subvert whole housholds To which I answer Sir you much mistake your selfe as Ahab did when he told Elijah that it was he that troubled Israel who answered and said I have not troubled Israel but thee and thy Fathers house in that ye have for saken the Commandments of the Lord and followed Baalim So say I to you It is not we that subvert whole housholds for we baptize none of any house but those that beleeve and manifest their saith according to the commandment of Christ and example of his holy Apostles Mar. 16 15 16. Act. 8.12 with ver 37. but it is you Mr. Cooke that subvert whole housholds when you baptize Children and all and by that means you subvert whole nations for filthy lucre sake so that you may well say with Demetrius Act. 19.25 to the rest of your Brethren Sirs you know that by this craft we get our wealth the which mystery of your iniquity I shall now make more manifest in shewing the reasons of our dissenting from the Church of England and all other Churches which stand upon these four Pillars that is to say 1. Humane learning for take away that which you had at Cambridge or Oxford and you have no Ministry but all men may preach as as well as you nay I might say better 2. Your Rantizing or cozening of poor Babes in their Cradles take away that and you have no Church But others who have faithfully preached the Gospell and converted Souls to the faith and baptized them to in the name of Jesus Christ have a far greater 3. Your Tythes or forced maintenance The wages of unrighness 2 Pet. 2.15 after which you all go astray take away that and we may preach who will for all you By which it appeareth you are all hirelings and will labour no longer then you are paid for it neither do you care for the flock any longer then you are paid for it by all which you make that old papistical Proverb good upon your selves which is No peny no Pater-noster so say all you in effect No money no Preaching c. 4 The Magistrates sword by which you have been upholden these many yeers unto which you have applied your selves when poor Souls out of conscience have denied you to eat of the Milke of that flock which you never sed and to taste of the fruit of that Vineyard which you never planted then you have gone to the Magistrate for assistance that you might take it away by force pleading that you have right to it from the Scripture and that you can prove your right by the Scripture when it is no such thing And thus have you made the Kings and Rulers of the Nations drunk with the Wine of the wrath of your fornications and have caused them by your delusions to give their power and strength to the Beast and to make warre with the Lamb but he shall overcome them for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithfull See Rev. 17.13 14. These therefore are the reasons of our dissenting from you 1. Because you take Tythes or a forced maintenance even from those which you call Hereticks whereas the Priests under the Law when they were at the worst never demanded Tythes of the uncircumcised Gentiles that were not of their religion but counted it an abomination Againe Though Tythes were by the Law to be paid to the Preists by the people under the Law yet when the Gentiles were converted by the preaching of the Gospell and questioned what things they should observe concerning the Law Act. 15.24 the Apostles answer was ver 28 29. It seemeth good to the holy-Ghost and us to lay upon you no greater burden then these necessary things viz. That you abstain from meats offered to Idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication from which if you keep your selves you shall do well c. these we see were necessary things and this was all the burthen as conserning the Law that it seemed good to the holy Ghost and the Apostles to lay upon the Gentiles wherein there is not one word nor sillable spoken about that intolerable burthen of Tythes which is Antichristian and denieth Christ to be come in the flesh who changed the priesthood and therefore there is of necessity a change of the law see Heb 7.11 12. Now seeing that both the Priesthood and Law are changed I pray where is your ground to take Tythes as Priests or what law compels the people to pay Tythes to you as unto Priests answer if you can But it may be you will say you are Ministers of the Gospel and the Ministers of the Gospel must live of the Gospel Answ Then it seems you have granted they must not live of the Law but Tythes are by the Law therefore they must not live by Tythes Secondly whereas you say they must live of the Gospel I answer why do you not then and be quiet and take what people will give you and eat what is set before you as Christ hath commanded Gospel-Ministers to do and be content Mat. 10.10 with Luke 10.6.7 But it may be you will say this maintenance is not sufficient and if it be left to the people they will starve you Answ If it be not enough then you may labour with your hands the thing that is good to supply your wants as Paul and the other Apostles did which were as good and better Ministers of Christ then you are See Act. 18.1 2 3. with 1 Cor. 4.11 12. and 2 Thes 3.7 8. 2. Whereas you say as I have heard some that the people would starve their Ministers if it were left to them I answer Then they are no Christians as you have born them in hand they were for if they were Christians they durst not let their Teachers starve if he took but any honest course to live But to conclude the truth is if you can neither trust God for a livelyhood whilst you are about his work nor be content with what the people will freely give you nor yet labour with your hands to supply the rest of your wants you are not yet fit for the work of the ministery and therefore you may leave it to those that are better able to go through the work and to be content with the wages that Christ hath allowed them Your next is 1 Cor. 9.7 Who goeth a warfare at his owne Charge Answ It is true neither do any go a warfare at their enemies charges but the
us that we are such as the Apostle speaks of when he saith The end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart a good Conscience and faith unfeigned from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling desiring to be teachers of the Law understanding not what they say nor whereof they affirm and here you think you hit us home Answ Sir I must confess now you have catched us out of our Element and in your own for we know you are scholars and have learned to contend about words to no profit which tends to the subverting of the hearers but be it as it will Seeing we erred in saying we affirm a Negative we will either confess our errour or else shew you a president which may justifie us in our practice Rom. 3.12 Paul saith There is none that doth good no not one here Paul affirmeth a Negative saying There is none for there is is an Affirmative therefore if you had been by him you might have taught him to have said I deny that any doth good no not one and then he had spoke as like a scholar as your self Again Isa 45.5 the Lord saith by the Prophet I am the Lord and there is no God besides me now Sir if you dare presume to be a teacher here it should have been thus I deny that any God is but my self And I pray shew us the word negative in the Scripture if you can Lastly to conclude Job 1.20 When they sent to John to know who he was the Scripture saith He denyed not I pray observe if he denyed not then he affirmed and what did he affirm Answ He said I am not the Christ here John affirmed a negative confessing and saying I am not c. now that I am is to affirm is evident for vers 23 he saith I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness c. And now let me shew poor souls the mystery of Mr. Cooks iniquity about the affirming a negative 1 The word negative is not to be found in all the Bible but hatched up in the schools and now is nursed by them and grown to such a stature that none must say they affirm a negative without great dishonour amongst them and yet to affirm is but to say a thing is so and to deny is also to say a thing is not so As if I should say or affirm when the Sun shines it is day and when it is down I should say or affirm it is night all honest men will understand me without prejudice Again that man that saith he will prove a Negative is among scholars much derided because they stand upon punctilioes but yet the thing may be honestly done thus If I say I will prove a man is not alive if I shew others that he is dead do not I prove he is not alive Again if I affirm or say a man is not in his house if I go and shew others his house and he is not in it do not I prove he is not in it and so prove a negative viz. that he is not there c. And now seeing you will make us offenders for a word may not we justly say that you are one of those the Apostle speaks of 1 Tim. 6.3.4 in these words If any teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine that is according to godliness he is proud and knoweth nothing doting about Questions and strife of words whereof cometh envies strifes railings evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindes destitute of the truth supposing gain to be godliness c. And now do not you doat about words viz. the affirmative and negative whereby you gender envie strife c. And do not you count gain godlinese viz. an hundred or two hundred a yeer for Preaching and Baptizing Infants and rather then you will part with it you do dispute perversly like a man of a corrupt minde destitute of the truth as it is in Jesus I beseech you in the fear of God consider it And know also that although we have affirmed a Negative yet you cannot justly apply that Scripture to us 1 Tim. l. 5 6 7. because we desire not to be teachers of the Law and therefore Mr. Baxter saith we are Antinomians and deny the Law But I answer Both you and he desire to be teachers of the Law witness your running to Moses to prove Baptism of Infants and Church membership from Circumcision and the Old Covenant that was faulty and therefore done away Heb. 8.7 and another to be established upon better promises vers 6. and in this I am sure you nor Mr. Baxter know not what you say nor whereof you affirm therefore take the Scripture wholly to your selves and consider it well And thus Mr. Cook I shall at present take leave of you for a time and apply my self to Mr. Baxter Sir in the first place to your Positions in the first of which p. 3 you say thus It hath pleased the holy Ghost to speak of some things in the Scriptures more fully and of others more sparingly and where God spake more sparingly the thing must needs be more difficult and yet truth still Answ But he never speaks of Infants Baptism in all the Scripture neither fully not sparingly therefore none of his Truth nor ever was But you instance in four particulars but that which is pertinent to the matter in hand is your fourth wherein you say The New Testament speaketh more sparingly of that which is more discovered in the Old and say you what need the same thing to be done twice except men should question the authority of the Old and if God should reveal his minde in one part of the Scripture what use should we make of the other Therefore say you how silent is the New Testament concerning a Christian Magistracie which made the Anabaptists of old deny it And say you further Where finde you a Christian in the New Testament that exercised the place of a King or Parliament-man or Justice of Peace or the like And so of an Oath before a Magistrate of war and of the Sabbath how sparing is the New Testament and why say you because it is said enough in the Old To all which I answer You have spoken many words to no purpose except it be to deceive the hearts of the simple for whereas you say That which is spoken on in the Old Testament need not be spoken of again I answer Infants baptism is nowhere spoken of neither in the Old nor New Testament therefore you ought not for shame to speak of it 2. As for your saying Where finde we a Christian Magistrate in the New Testament I answer Surely you have forgotten the Deputy that was turned to the faith by Paul Act. 13.12 Sergins Paulm by name Likewise the Eunuch a man of great authority under Candace Queen of the Ethiopians who had the charge of
and so bemyred himself that he hath been fain to be washed and hath attempted the chastity of divers women sold his tythe-calves for kisses with them and having lockt himself up in a Chamber in an Inne with a lewd woman after a long time the door was broken upon him when he refused to unlock it and he found in a very suspitious manner upon a bed with her after which he conveyed her secretly away and sent gifts unto her and hath affirmed that the Land is governed by wicked men and that the Papists were the Kings best subjects and is a common swearer of very great Oathes 7. The benefice of Humphrey Dawes Vicar of the Parish-Church of mount Nezing in the county of Essex is sequestred for that he hath discouraged his Parishoners from assisting the present defensive war affirming that they are damned and are Traitors to the King that have lent money to the Parliament and that he hath read the book of sports and encouraged his Parishioners to prophane the Sabbath and hath been often drunk and came so drunk to Church on the Lords day as he bade his people sing a chapter in the Hebrews in stead of a Psalm not knowing what he did 8. The benefice of Anthony Hugget Parson of the Parish of the Cliff in the County of Sussex is sequestred for that he hath preached that it was more lawful to Steal or to do any work on the Lords day then to go to other Churches to hear Sermons though they have none at home and hath sued divers of his parish for going to other Churches and forced two of them to do penance for it and hath been bound to the good behaviour at quarter Sessions for severall misdemeanors and instead of a Sermon did read to his people the late new Cannons and is greatly suspected of incontinency and hath had the and was cured thereof by one Mr. Abel for ten pounds promised him and the said Huggets Wife asking him for a piece of Gold which he took from her and gave to a light Woman in fury he spurned her on the belly when she was quick with Child so that she was forced presently to her Chamber and was delivered of a dead Child notwithstanding which he vowed he would never have more Children by her c. who is now without naturall fection 9. The benefice of Peter Allin Vicar of the Parish-Church of Tolsbury in the County of Essex is sequestred for that he hath lived incontinently a long time with several Women that is to say Mary Time who went from his house with Child by him Frances Smith by whom he had a bastard and Anne Cooper whom he hath kept for the space of seven yeers last past and yet he keepeth her in his house who miscarried a of Child begotten by him refused to administer the Sacrament to such as would not come to him at the railes there and hath been very negligent of his cure so that he absented himself that the dead have been left unburied several daies and hath expressed great Malignity against the Parliament 10. The benefice of John Hurt Vicar of the Parish-Church of Hordon upon the Hill in the County of Essex is sequestred for that he is a common frequenter of Taverns or Ale-houses and a common drunkard and gamester a common swearer and curser and hath been convicted before the Justice of peace of six oathes at a time and then swear by-God he did not swear and hath a very ill report of uncleanness and abuse of Women and hath spoken basely of the Parliament expressing great Malignancy against them c. 11. The benefices of Paul Clapham Vicar of the Parish-Church of Farnham in the County of Surry and Parson of the Parish-Church of Martinworthy in the County of South-Hampton are sequestred for that he hath lived in Adultery with several women and hath had divers bastards and hath charged the Parish with keeping them and hath two bastards at this time kept one of which he payeth for the maintenance of and is bound with his Son to pay for the maintenance of the other and hath called the Parliament and their adherents Rebels and Traitors and exhorted men to contribute and take up armes against them and hath deserted his cure and betaken himself to the Army of the Cavaleers c. 12. Lastly The benefice of Robert Sheppard Parson of the Parish-Church of Hep-worth in the County of Suffolk is sequestred for that he is a common drunkard and frequenter of Taverns and Ale-houses lying and continuing drunk in the said houses divers nights sometimes twice or thrice a week and greatly suspected of incontinency having had many Maid-servants depart from his house great with Child none living in the house with him but himself and some have returned againe to live with him and within a short time have been with Child again and he hath been a great practiser of the altar-worship and inforcer of his Parishioners to receive the Sacrament at the rails and hath put fifteen at a time from the Sacrament for refusing to receive it there and in his Catechising and preaching calls his Parishioners black-mouthed hell-hounds limbs of the Devil fire-brands of Hell plow-joggers bawling-dogs weaverly-jacks Church-robbers affirming that if he could tearm them worse he would and hath endeavoured to perswade poor men to forswear themselves for him and hath affirmed that the Parliament were but a company of factious Spirits c. And thus have you a relation of the practices and carriages of some of them verbatim as it is written in the forenamed Book intituled The first Century of Scandalous and Malignant Preists Ordered to be printed by authority of Parliaments Therefore none may think I devised it or any of it because the Book is still extant by which all that I have written here about them may be tried more I was not free to write First because of the tediousness of it And Secondly because some things are gross and abominable that I judged them not fit to be named although the Parliament was forced to record them for the vindication of themselves in shewing their reasons to the World why they ordered them to be sequestred and what they have recorded of these men and the grossest of their wickedness is proved by no less then five or six witnesses as is affirmed in the Epistle to the Reader but the truth is I should not once have mentioned any of these things but as Paul saith to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 12.11 in another cause I am become a fool in glorying but you have compelled me So say I in this I confess I have but acted a fools part in laying open their nakedness by repeating of what was formerly writen but Mr. Baxter and Mr. Hall hath compelled me by letting their tougues and pens fly at such uncertainties accusing us of things they canot prove as their fore-Fathers Ananias the high Preist and the Elders of Israel with Tertullus the Orator did by