discovery Now you think you have hit it and stopt our Mouths 1 I am glad you are not yet come so far as to say God loves their Sins 2. But the strain of Scripture is Gods hating the wicked not their wickedness that they are Enemies c. 3. So God hateth the Sins of the Elect after Conversion as well as before and if no more was meant then hating their Sins God might say I be said as truly to hate them after Conversion as before Cp. But doth not God Love them as his Creatures Ct. Yes and so he doth the Non-elect and if you please you may say the Devils themselves what is that to our purpose Cp. I could bring you good Authors that thus assert Ct. Yes jnst as Colonel Danvers would meddle openly with Divines work who citing the Magdeburgensian History about Baptism mentioning a place where they were said to confess Sin when baptized Hence drew this Inference They knew nothing of Infant-Baptism for Infants could not confess Sin when the next Words prove they baptized Infants Nisi propter aetatem loqui non poterant What shall we call this So is it as false That the old Waldenses were against Infant-baptism tho the Papist charged them so they not baptising their Children sometimes so soon as they they sometimes wanting an Administrater their Preachers being abroad For Perin who wrote the best History of them tells us these words in their Confession of Faith and Catechism and for this reason we baptize Infants The learnedst Anabaptist once in England told me he advised the Colonel to confess this Fault and that he replied No I will do as Mr. Baxter when a thing is out make the best of it But where did Mr. B. so grosly corrupt History I am sure my Lord Lambert when he heard of the Book said Had Mrs. Danvers wrote a Book on that Subject he had not wondered but thought him unfit for it But by such ungodly Tricks and Cheats he made many go down into the Water he had his end and that was enough Mr. Tombs and my Lord Laurence took no such base Methods yet I grant a very few not many seem to say what you plead Cp. Return then to the Scriptures Ct. He that believeth in him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already 1 John 8. Are not they Sons Children of God so by Adoption How then before sure you dream not as yet of an Eternal Adoption 1 Cor. 6.11 He shews they were not justified before Such were some of you 26 Acts 18. They are turned from Satan to God that they might receive Remission of Sin The Doctors Story of the Deer-stealer and such nasty Comparisons as Having a Knife in thy Hand to cut the Throat of Christ are loathsome And that I may appear impartially it was bad in Dr. Twisse to say God could not be such a Fool As in Parker to say an Almighty D. Or Twisse again As we cut the Throats of Fowls for our pleasure so c. Cp. You say we are justified by Faith we say freely without it and Beza puts the Point at the end of Justified 5 Rom. 15. being justified by Faith we have Peace with God But the Stream of the Chapter proves our reading and other places 3 Rom. 20.28 30. Therefore we conclude a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law He justifieth the Circumcision by Faith and Uncircumcision through Faith if we have by Faith Peace with God is not this what you will not always grant Cp. But is not a Sinner as a Sinner justified and pardoned sure you will not deny this Ct. Sure I will deny it A Quatenus ad omne valet consequentia then would every Sinner be justified and pardoned for all Men are such It is the believing Sinner that is justified the repenting Sinner that is pardoned Cp. But we are grosly belyed As if we made our selves the Subjects of Christs Mediatorial Righteousness Ct. Your Adversary did not say it plainly but thought it the Consequence of your Doctrine tho I wish he had let it alone seeing you are irreconcilable about it Cp. Well Man is in no Sense justified by Works it is meer Popery Texpect no such thing Ct. I believe we may think you are no Papist you think not to be saved by good works for none do you do Read Was not Abraham justified by Works when he offered up Isaac on the Altar 2 James 21.25 Was not Rahab justified by Works when she received the Spies So that saith James a Man is justisied by Works and not by Faith only 24. ver Cp. But Luther called this Epistle the Strawy one and said Homo non justificatur ex operibus ut delirat Jacobus Ct. Whether Luther continued in that mind I know not The Learned Whitaker proves against this Charge of the Papist many of the Ancients not accounted Hereticks denied this Epistle And Willet as I remember in his Synopsis proves the same this was therefore Luther's Error Man is justified declaratively before Men Shew me thy Faith without thy Works I will shew thee my Faith by my Works 18. verse 22. Faith wrought with his Works not his Works with his Faith As the Body v. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Breath is dead so Faith without Works ik dead also The breath maketh not Man alive but proves him so They who plead for a Faith that worketh not are a scandal to the Protestant Religion James describes Religion from its Effects 1 Jam. 27. Pure Religion is to visit Fatherless c. having to deal with the Libertines or right Antinomians of that Age. Dr. Tully hath proved well that there is a declarative Justification 1. Coram hominibus 2. Coram Angelis 3. Coram ipso Deo Hereby I know thou fearest God 22 Gen. 12. God knew it sure before but Abraham gave another Proof of it before God This is evident was not the first Act of Justification that was long before Cp. I cannot get over what you said before 1 Rom. 23.24 Tho they were not beloved yet God might Love them before they were called or they might be loved tho not called Beloved Ct. Beloved is passive as Love is active To say tho they were not beloved yet God might love them will not hold here and to say God called them beloved pray mind the next Words Who were not beloved not Who were not called beloved Yet according to you they were called beloved Jacob have I loved Before he knew God did love them when in Sin before Conversion 2 Eph. 4. It is plainly said but it was not a complacential Love as I named before but with a Love of purpose or good will Cp. But you make Obedience good works the way to the Kingdom when Christ is the way the truth and the life You act for Life c. Ct. So Old Protestants before us plead that of Austin against the Papists Bona opera sunt via
it cannot be done better than by Mr. W. and there I refer the Reader being not willing Actum agere But to this great Objection I remember when I first read Mr. Pemble of Grace that great Man and found him tainted quoad hoc and that he smartly replied to many Objections that lay before him I expected an Answer to one which I saw he thought not of if he had thought of it had he been of that Opinion I demand therefore Did not God once love the Apostate Angels whom now he hates when they once loved him with a Complacential Love and praised him with Joy and Delight before his Throne Who can say These were not some of the Angels that sang and shouted for Joy when God laid the Foundation of the Earth How strange would it be to deny their Complacential Love to God to follow Gods complacential Love to them Did God hate them when they Lov'd him Speak out if you think so Well Doth not God hate them now since their Apostacy and will he not do so for ever Now if God could Love Angels and then hate them and not be changed because they be so then can he hate unconverted Men and afterward Love them and not be a changeable God but they are changed Men. Love in affectu or effectu I meddle not with in God onely Love I grant and you cannot deny is not predicated Univocally of God and us as if it were a thing of the same Nature No it is not so much Nor yet 2. Is it spoken of God and us equivocally It is not so little As if only one Name for two distinct things quite different But 3. Analogically some resemblance there is between our Complacential Love and Gods God speaks to us after our manner as Nurses to Children This being the result of free thoughts in then Reading and never meeting with it from any Man and finding many pleas'd with it I have desir'd a reply from some Crispians Say they 1. It may be those Apostate Angels stood not long not so long as Man Apage nugas A Thousand Years and an hour is all one in this Case 2. It may be those Angels were Sinners as soon as Creatures That cannot be 1. They could not be said to have left their first Station if they had no first Station antecedent to that of Sin and Misery They could not be said to fall if they had not once stood They fell from the Love of God actively and passively consider'd their Love to God or Gods Love to them Heaven had never been the place of their Make but Hell a fitter one if this black Notion were true They were no sooner Creatures then Sinners For large Discourses about Imminent Acts I care not It was ever Accounted by Divines no small Error in Thomas Aquinas That if he met with any Axiom or Proposition in Aâ—istotle especially his Ethicks against any Doctrine or Dogma of his he would as gravely reply to it as if he had met with any Text from Scripture I care not for Philosophical Essays about these matters Is it not enough and often exprest in Holy Writ That God hateth all the workers of Iniquity It is evident all unconverted Men be workers of Iniquity therefore the Conclusion is good God hateth them all Doth God hate them and yet complacentially Love them too Doth not God and the Devil divide the whole World Are not all unconverted Men call'd every where in Scripture the Children of the Devil I profess I am ashamed to attempt to prove it Were they My Masters never of the Devils Kingdom but always of Christ Who are said to be Translated from the Kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of Christ Pray Sirs Awake Be not so drowsy any longer Open your Eyes Rub them well Look upon your Bibles once again You may see many of your Notions as wild as that of your Master That Christ when he suffer'd had the Filthiness of our Sin upon him and so it continued till he sweat it out and could not see the Face of God till after he Rose from the Dead Where was he in the mean while 1. Was he in Hell to suffer there as Bishop Latimer thonght in one of his honest homespun Sermons before King Edward Not to triumph there neither as others say 2. Was he not with the Thief in Paradise as he assur'd him Did he not there see the face of God What mad stuff is this I hope you will not think as I once heard a Great Dr. of Divinity say in his Pulpit Christ â—ent with the Thief to Heaven to welcome him there and went down to Hell after I Pray Sirs Tell the Drunkards and Covetuous Men That they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God and of Christ Not that God Loves them with a Complacential Love if they be Elect whilst unholy I know it is true Jacob have I loved Rom. 13.9 And I will not say he might be sanctified from the Womb If so yet this iâ— spoken on a Reason common to all the Elect How With the Love of Benevolence not Complacency till Conversion Laugh on at this distinction I will make it good if occasion be If King William now saw a most deformed Woman Deformity it self of the worst body temper and morals in the World Her Face and Hands and all full of running sores Her Tongue full of Blasphemies against God and Him she cursed both and spit at the Name of all that waâ— august and sacred Suppose King William knew that God would or he could after some Years make her the most comely the most wise the most Pious Woman upon Earth and so the best Wife and he intended when this change was made to make her his Queen Could King William Love this Woman with a Complacential Love when he saw saw her sores dropping their filth wherever she went and Cursing him every word she spake What fearful frightful words to some Ears are the words Repentance Duty Obedience to the Gospel Good Works c. They must be fed with Sugar-Plumbs who had need of other Diet. They must have Cordials that are not sick nor faint but rather want working purging stuff How weakly talked Saltmarsh of Free Grace Mr. Baxter said truly He was fitter to learn a Catechism than trouble the World about his Notions Was not this a Golden Rule to be laid down to Doubting Persons O poor Christian believe till you do believe And when the Question was of God's Work within a Man he would answer to God's Work without a Man Christ hath ropented saith he and believed for thee c. Will not the Howling of the followers of that Man of Ignorance and Confidence that hath lately troubled the World yet convince His Doctrine and Morals are talkt of every where God testifies from Heaven against this untoward Generation I saw several Letters lately from Worthy Congregational Divines and People to some here in London who greatly bewail these Abominations
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set you free and be not again intangled with the yoke of bondage It seems too narrow to say from Ceremonies God once appointed if Men may bring in theirs when he hath thrown out his Paul saith Be ye not the servants of men if your Injunctions were indifferent yet the imposing them on the weak is forbidden 14 Rom. What Man on Earth can take me off from Pauls Determination at large Let us judge one another no more a Chapter as if written on purpose against your Act of Vniformity 2 Collos 14. Did God nail to the Cross of Christ his own Ceremonies Did he call them beggarly Rudiments carnal Ordinances What worse Names do yours deserve that are of a base Descent and Badges of abominable Superstitions If I must have Ceremonies give me the Old Jewish ones of Gods own making that were once good not yours of whose making shall I say that were never good If it becomes not a grave chast Matron to be found in a Whorish Dress it becomes not us to use Mass Priests Sacred Garments What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols deserves consideration here I take Clerick Conformity to be a very great sin and Lay Conformity to be no small one the former for these reasons Church-Wardens must be again sworn if occasion be What one Man of them did or can keep his Oath Must Ministers study ways to drive Men to Hell as it they did not run fast enough of themselves I could write at large here but Verbum sat Sapienti This one thing convinceth me beyond all doubt or dispute some Men are falsly called Fathers in God who rather are Fathers in the Swear they must again if occasion be to persecute the best of Men that they may be Excommunicated and delivered to the Devil about a Toy and Ceremony Swear must I to obey my Ordinary in his Injunctions and how far pro re Nata I will not now determine Would you dare to deal thus with Austin for some of his Opinions and other Fathers were they alive for some of theirs contrary to yours as well as B. Hooper was Imprison'd for scrupling your Ceremonies and Calvin is almost damned for an Heretick and Traytor Your great Hooker says That in his Eccles Pol. that would necessitate him to be a Non conformist if now alive I affirm I were bound by my Oath to read a Writ of Excommunication against Arminians were I a Parish Priest which I dared not do tho they be very Erroneous and Condenmed by your Church Are Seven Years spent in a Grammar-School and Seven more in the University to bring a Minister to this pass to be a Reader and a lazy Prelates Curate Who now examines before Admission to the Sacrament or keeps off the Scandalous Who are they that have Ears if not Mouths for all Discourse It is Accounted a high Commendation of such a Minister now to say He is an honest Man When honesty will bring the Hearers or them to Heaven we may all be content with an honest Minister Sanctification by a Man 's own free will Justification by his own Righteousness salvation by his own works is no strange Doctrine now Thus some not only build Wood Hay Stubble on the Foundation but make the Foundation it self so that make sanctification so and build Justification on it Whatever talk of Curious Structures and Churches Uniformity Order there is whilst the Members and Communicants there are Deists or Drunkards all is nothing Thus were there Serpents and Crocodiles within the Egyptian Temples when beautiful without What an Advocate for the Church of England was Parker's E. Pol. What Atheistical Blasphemous Expressions had he He was notwithstanding greatly magnified by some Men when as the Mouth of that Church he discover'd his own and their sanguinary is one said affections to us as if both like Romulus and Remus had been Nursed up by some Woolf. The Dissenters need no other Commendation but to be hated and maligned by such What Stories tell they saith he of Communion between them and the Lord Christ I am forced to write of some things in haste as they occur to my mind I must do my work this Evening knowing I shall have unusual and extraordinary business the next Week I Pray you therefore Pardon my not putting every thing in its order or doing some things Ex abundanti Some things I have mention'd as contrary to several places of Scripture are so to more Whatsoever things says Paul are comely and of good report Offend not thy Brother shun the appearance of Evil. If you say some may be better then they before censur'd A Quia me vestigia terrent To return to the Consideration of Ceremonies c. Moses and David and Solomon about the work of Gods House and the Council of Jerusalem did and imposed what seem'd good to God not themselves to the Holy Ghost not their own fancies Things of a civil Nature common to Men 〈◊〉 â—ell as Christians to civil Aâ—â—â—â— as well as Religious as Love feasts Kiss of Charity may be done without Divine appointment All our Anti-Ceremonial Men with one conseut grant to all the world the natural signs of Devotion as the lifting up the Eyes and Hands to Heaven bowing the Knee before God if not injoyned tho they are so might be used Also civil signs of Subjection as Eleazers laying his hand under Abrahams Thigh things done by Divine Instiust things extorted by necessity and extraordinary Providences are no precedent to us as Anointing with Oil which was pro tempore as was the miracle annexed to it these things are affirmed by Ames and others I pray by the way give over boasting Hooker was never answer'd till Dr. Ames's Fresh Suit be so Had it been the mind of God to teach his Church by Ceremonies would not he himself have appointed them as once he did What place may not or cannot the Cross be used in Did Dr Stillingfleet well answer Mr. Stillingfleet's Irenirum or the excellent Preface thereto I suppose you do remember The Church's power to appoint Ceremonies was not in the old 39 Articles How came they in the new ones 147 Psalm To make the power of the Church to bind the consciences of of Men was put in the Contents by some Innovators to make it canonical seeing they could not find it in the Text. It is often said by the Papists and truly I think when you plead against them you use our arguments and when you plead against us you use theirs God never made Ceremonies under the Law antecedently necessary or in their own nature but consequently so by virtue of a Divine Command Shall human commands make things thus necessary that a Divine Command once did May men thus usurp Gods Throne and when there act Satan's part If Clerick conformity be very unlawful for reasons before given no power on earth can take ministers off their work or make them as private
men especially when they see so little conversion work elsewhere if they must preach others must hear and countenance them suffering in their righteous cause yet I question not the Integrity of many Liturgical ceremonial men and hope yours in particular God often accepts the man when not the worship I dar'd not accost a Persenage of your figure and character I thank you you were pleased to write the first Letter and that you do not so triumph in your Ceremonies as to give them anctuary from our Exammation Many Arguments I could assonate with and annex to these of the same complexion against your modes of Worship but the fewer the better You see my plainness without any dress of words to set off my apprehensions with your Church above all other Protestant Churches shews herself such a Plenipotentiary as some observe as if tâ— could turn all things tho never so odd into Orthodox as what is Fabled Midas toucht was Gold many of your Bishops those great little men are better acquainted with their Service Booâ— and Ceremonies than with the Bible I will nor say all I know of this I saw an instance of this when a smart Boy of eighteen years old suddenly gagmd a Bishop having thousands by the year yet alive as you would confess should I tell you the Story when the Bishop sent for him to his chamber and was pressing him to conformity What beauty sits on the face of Gospel simplicity Would some men as Mervil expresseth it if commanded by your Church carry Salt bags on their backs to put them in mind of having salt in themselves or as Zanchy wrote to Queen Elizabeth were her Subjects bound to put on Turkish weeds or Garments if she commanded them Saith he No much less he adds the execrable Garments of Mass Priests It is now past Eleven of the Clock I received your Letter abroad this Afternoon and came not home till between eight or nine of the Clock I take your Question to be comprehensive and therefore have taken the more liberty I find our friend Mr. K. and others could wish we proceeded not I told them I was not very desirous to disturb you in greater more necessary or more useful work wherein you have obliged the World therefore writing once more I thought I would write my mind fully and plainly If you see fit to Reply you may to what you please and let other things alone And I intend to be concise and follow you where you please to lead me or if you think a private conference before a few judicious Persons best your pleasure in this is a Law to your Servant I greatly honour your old famous Advocates as Hooker Fisher the blind Cambridge man his Dialogue between Ireneus add Novatus Sprins Cassander Anglicanus or others who exercised my mind several years But for Patrick's Friendly Debate and now Bishop King and others make woful work in comparison of the Old Workmen Durel and such writers I am greatly offended with who tell the world of I know not what stories of the Presbyterians neglect of the Lords Supper in the Inter-Regnum I know the contrary where I have been they once a month administred that-Ordinance and Mr. Hickman in a Latin Tract Apologia pro Ministris in Anglia vulgo Non Conformistis hath sufficiently answered that charge I only add what I have known that where some Presbyterian Ministers came into some Parishes they hardly could find a man but what was guilty of gross ignorance or Prophanness Then they did forbear according to your order tho not practice till Religion might take place where was not common civility before for you know K. C. the I. and Bishop Laud by the Book of sports and other ungodly proceedings had banisht almost all Religion and Good manners out of the Nation In Oxford they thought it not enough to be a Member of a Colledge to be so of a Church Therefore several serious Persons receiv'd some of one Famous Doctor or Preacher some of another and so did many Towns People Men and Women I knew This perhaps occasion'd not doing it in some Churches where Persons disown'd by your good constitution would be ready thrust in Your Ministers ought to forbear where men be Ignorant Scandalous or Contentious If I have erred in any thing I have written or given you any occasion of offence I beg your Pardon as not a thing Ex in-dustria To tell you that I greatly value you would be but an Idle Complement Did you never hear that Doct. F. pleaded in a Sermon in Oxford for Reverence and said Eleazer when he pray'd made the Camels to Kneel Or of one desiring a Minister to read Prayers of Thanksgiving for Recovery from a Bull Gooring read the Prayer for Purification We thank thee for delivering this thy Servant from the great pain and peril of Bull Gooring Or of one whose House being on fire sent for the Parson to read the Prayer for Rain and when he read gentle showrs The man cryed out Good Lord Buckets full Yet your Prayers are said to be such that the wit of men or Angels cannot mend I am displeas'd with some Dissenters broken Prayers as much as you some few of them are almost as confus'd as your Liturgy Conformist YOur Argument that we may be guilty of adding to Gods Law tho not as Gods Law else the Pharisaical Men of Old and the Papist in most of their Ceremonies were not guilty say you Guilty of what There are other Guilts besides that of adding to Gods Law and even as to Ceremonies they may be too many insignificant and burdensome and men may lay too great stress upon them beyond the Nature of the things and yet come not to the length of adding them to Gods Law which the Pharisees did by those traditions which they said were delivered by Moses on the Mount and descended orally down to their times and therefore of as great Authority as the Written Law which gave occasion to the oral traditions of the Church of Rome Again some of their traditions did point blank contradict the Law of God as that of Corban Mat. 15.6 And some tho not contradicting the Law of God yet in practice were prefer'd to the Law of God and these traditions our Saviour did confirm only Corrected the abuse These things ye ought to have done said he but not to leave the other undone Now there are several Errors men may commit as to the Ceremonies but all are not alike all may be reprehended and redress desir'd with the decency and regard which is due to our Superiors But all are not sufficient cause for Schism and that is the only point which I now pursue I say none are a sufficient cause for Schism except those which are injoyn'd as part of Gods Law or which are appointed as means of Grace which includes both the former There may be many burdensome and inconvenient Laws of the Land and Redress may be sought