contradict any Doctrine of mine Mr. L. That proves either that your Son never understood Dr. Owen or them or understood not you nor those neither whom he censures to bear the Number of the Beast and what have such private men to do with our Controversies who by this thing declares plainly he understands them not Dr. C. If he please you not I hope my good Friend Mr. Cokyan the wise will in his learned well-pen'd Epistle to his Precious Hearts who says He is confident all that are led by the Spirit of God will be satisfied He tells you as well as Paul and I If an Angel from Heaven preach other Doctrine he is accursed Mr. L. If they be accursed who bring in Works in Justification must not they keep them company who leave out Faith Is there not a Curse in taking from as well as in adding to Dr. C. In the beginning of my Book on 14 John 6. I am the way the truth and the life I told my Hearers that I would tickle their Ears and tickle their Hearts too and for this end I told them p. 3 of the Hiddeness of Grace and the Overmasterfulness of Sin and that there was a threefold Power of Sin 1 A reigning power 2. A tyrannical power 3. A bustling and ruffling power and also that Mr. A. Doctor stop I suppose you meant grate their Ears when you talk'd of tickling them Mr. W. Let him go on you shall hear worse by and by and then judge whether the Cry against me be true That I have misrepresented him Dr. C. Against Qualifications in them that come to Christ I often urge that pertinent place of Scripture 11 Mat. 28. Come unto me all you that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Mr. A. But why had you not urged another place of Scripture more pertinent than that Dr. C. What is that Mr. A. And the Gibeonites came to Joshua with old Shoes and clouted doth not that place prove as much as any the contrary to what you assert Dr. C. You and all the World know you may as soon teach a Cat to hold a Trencher as me to manage a Controversie or answer Objections and yet you will be pelting at me I am such a very Sir John no one expects it of me that knows me and is in his Wits Mr. A. Well Sir John then go on with your blunders in Divinity Dr. C. I often said also That God was never oflended or angry with a Believer nor could not be unless he was offended or angry where was no cause Mr. L. This is bustling ruffling Stuff but did you Answer such Objections The Anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses 4 Exod. 14. and a thousand such places of Scripture Dr. C. At what an idle rate doth this man talk I knew I could say what I pleased tho' I could prove nothing Instead of this I said That I declared all from God and in the name of the Lord and that if any Scripture seemed contrary we must believe what God in the Text says God cannot contradict himself Then I tell them of Love and other Graces as they call them Mr. A. Yes we know you often say as we call them and so the Scripture calls them What do you call them I pray Whims with our modern Deists Dr. C. I tell them of such as you all You make Gods Covenant a Bargain or Sale p. 24 I will do this and thou shalt do that c. but God will not set his Son to sale And somewhere I tell them Such shall have a Whip as soon as a Christ and p. 73 I tell them If they thought to get any thing by Duty they should get a knock Mr. A. Oh for Love and Pity sake send some one for a Cordial for I am ready to faint away to hear such Gibberish if this be tickling our Ears would his Master had tickled this Toby every day and taught him to speak tho' but at a common rate did you think you were at a Play Dr. C. I tell you you cannot endure sound Doctrine I brought more Proofs against Qualifications coming to Christ p. 35 If men thirst they may come that is have but a mind to Christ Mr. L. Why is not thirsting a Qualification Is a mind to some Drinks thirsting Dr. C. I told them I came in the Name of the Lord and that if this was not true God is a Lyar and Christ is a Lyar with reverence be it spoken and that you are ravening Wolves p. 56 and strait is the Gate I have expounded to admiration 6 Mat. 13. Mr. L. Oh thou blasphemous Wretch dost thou think to speak of Christ as if of Oliver's Porter with reverence be it spoken some think gilds all their nasty Phrases If you should have a Promise from the King and you doubted not his word would you dare to say If it be not so your majesty is a Lyar with reverence be it spoken Offer it now to thy Governor say I as the Prophet in a ease not so bad Mr. W. Seeing you make so bold with Christ which is intolerable had your Doctrine been as true as it is false I hope I may make bold with you his Enemy and mine and of all the Churches of God If the Doctrine be false and the Expressions blasphemous you are a filthy Heretick with reverence be it spoken or an ignorant impudent Fellow with reverence be it spoken and that you had need to be sent to School again with reverence be it spoken because of your notorious Contradictions childish Repetitions of the same things c. Dr. C. Such may thus find fault that never read over my Book nor observed the coherence of things Mr. A. I have read it over every word but I confess I never observed as you say the coherence of things for little is there of this but incoherence enough have we all observed Dr. C. I told them also men might come to Christ in any pickle c. That justifying Faith is to believe a man ' Sins were laid on Christ Other things were not necessary as not to concurrence so not to presence c. That the general tender of the Gospel was the best Security we could have c. I often harp on this thing God justifieth the Vngodly in whom is no change and I unanswerably proved it from 55 Isa 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters incline your ear hear and your soul shall live 22 Rev. 17 He that is a thirst let him come Some will not have Christ unless they pay for him I said I wish they were cut off that trouble us and little less than damn them all Mr. A. Prithee Crisp how long hast thou been crazy If this be proving return to thy old way of telling these are Proofs for your Adversaries and Objections for you Dr. C. I said to them from the Lord That Sin could be no bar to them from
Baxter that it is true Seeing you have him beware of him for he hath one unpardonable Fanlt we cannot forgive him for neither I doubt will you Mr. L. What is that I pray Mr. H. He hath too much Wit for one man Mr. L. Now I will speak roundly Honest Mr. Williams I am in a rapture or transport with joy let you and I have a Friendly Debate for I doubt we have been mistaken in one-another and these Gentlemens Opinions of us both true and right I know you are afraid of Crispianism or Antinomianism as well you may a filthy poysonous abominable Weed and I have written against it for which they revile me as they do you and the Apologist I have been much afraid of Arminianism and Socinianism now grown to a great heighth This might make us not so well to understand one-another as else we might Mr. A. A Friendly Debate Gentleman that is a word out of joint and is an unlucky Omen you will talk but little Sence or Truth A Friendly Debate the Phrase is grown odious since Patrick thirty years since wrote his Friendly Debate wherein the friendly Con tells the Noncon He was no good Subject and therefore no good Christian for living in a Corporation or within Five miles of it contrary to Law He brings in the Noncon as a Fool I pray Sir explain your meaning I am not skill'd in definitions And when the Question was whether our white Caps under our black ones might justifie Laun sleeves the Answer is Any thing becomes a good Man On goes Jack to prove the Bishops good men his Comparison of the Gentleman 's praying in the morning at nine of the Clock in the Parlour requiring his Servants to come then and there not in a Stable with clean Clothes Faces and Hands not all dirty was as much to the purpose about Symbolical Ceremonies of human appointment as his Story of the Cupboard of Plate God had and would return to it but it must be well beaten first and that was when the King must pack up and be gone Who I pray sent their King packing since Gentlemen I shall for this reason protest against a Friendly Debate but should be glad to hear a Friendly Conference between you Mr. H. I could wish Mr. Baxter alive were it proper to wish the greatest Saint that ever went to Heaven here on Earth again to see what his reputed Advocate but real Adversary said to take the Chair since his death hath said and written Mr. L. If these men judge right what have I done to be so tenacious of a Phrase Commutation of Persons and so to raise such a Dust to trouble Bishop Stillingfleet and D. Edwards famous Men my Friends as I thought by their Books but your Friends as I find by their Letters And many say our late Controversie is one of the most fruitless ones that ever was brought on the Stage A Story of matter of Fact and a Phrase and my Friends as well as Adversaries say That by my Rashness all is in a flame for tho' we long since lost our Vnion yet our Peace continued but now that is gone too Mr. W. I doubt I have been mistaken too in some things seeing you confess your mistakes I do mine So true is that Incidit in Syllam You ran so fast from the Tents of the Socinians that you might come in some Phrases too nigh the Tents of the Crispians and I ran so fast and far from the Tents of the Crispians that I might err as I am sure you did Mr. L. Who is this that comes towards us with so much Rage and Fury Mr. W. It is Dr. Crisp Mr. A. No that cannot be for I remember that of old they pictur'd him like an old Hermit and had I been a Manichean I should have spent time to consider who made him This looks more comely sure it is not he Mr. W. Why Sir you must know his Son hath been so troubled about it to see his Father pictur'd as if with Cain his maker had set a mark on him that he hath play'd the Barber himself like a kind Son to make his Father look better or if you will less ugly and hath clapt a few tolerable Sermons to make the intolerable Sermons go down the better Dr. C. Have I found you O my two Enemies that have written against my Doctrine You Old-Testament-Daniel and you New-Testament-Stephen some say that as the Old and New Testament make one Bible so you two are one in the main I say as that Heretick Humphreys you two are one in Doctrine tho' you differ in Phrases You are both corrupt tho' I say it on a different account You both deny Justification without Faith and make Gods Covenant a Bargain c. Mr. L. You will find Gentlemen this man cannot express himself he had need get one to do it for him Dr. C. What! do you make me such a Dunce that am a Doctor Mr. A. I have heard of a noted Doctor Head of a House in Oxon in the Interregnum famous for advising young Students never to go into the Water till they first learnt to swim c. That once telling a Story how the Proctor alwaies at night seeing a Candle in his Study said That man will be a Doctor or a Dunce his Servant replied In good truth Master you are both I apply not the Story before a D. in D. Dr. C. Will you deny that there are any good things in my Book Mr. L. In what Book are there not some good things Your Book may therefore be called good as some Philosophers call an Ethiopian white not simpliciter but secundum quid about the Teeth Dr. C. You Mr. L. are neither for Mr. Baxter nor me but have written against us both When some say If he be not in the right I must be so if not I he must be so Mr. L. I have heard of a Captain in our Civil Wars who meeting with a poor man on the Highway asked him who he was for for the Kings Souldiers or the Parliaments and promised him if he spoke his mind no harm should come to him Then Master said the poor man I am for both How so said the Captain Why said he for the hanging of both sorts for Master said he we cannot keep a little Bacon in the House but one comes one time and another at another time till all be gone So say I we cannot keep a little Protestant Doctrine in the Church one pulls one way another another way till all be gone Yet I wisht well to Mr. Baxter's Person and so to yours but to neither of your Doctrine Dr. C. See how Daniel Williams that pure Stick sits there like a Sheep-stealer he hath nothing to say I think my Disciples have done his Work for him and told the World of his lewd Life Mr. A. He hath said so much to you already that he hath done enough for one man and need say no
they do not this and that they shall come under the wrath of God P. 559 Against Qualifications at which I strike on all occasions even Faith it self for they make the Covenant of Grace a Covenant of Works P. 633 I make this notable Remark 16 Luke 20 The young Prodigal return'd to his Father like a Rogue then the Robes were put on him Mr. L. Was not this an excellent Proof No he return'd not like a Rogue neatly phras'd like a D. of D. by the way tho' if you will so untheologically express it he went away like one for it is said before When he came to himself I hope by the way you may in time he was you find so changed there was Humility in his Heart Confessions in his Mouth and a begun Reformation I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me one of thy hired Servants Dr. C. I see you will still be objecting which thing I could never endure being known to be the weakest and feeblest Sect-master that ever was since the Creation But what makes you smile Mr. Alsop Mr. A. To see a man plead for a Faith without Repentance or Sorrow and Sadness and make such Proselytes It puts me in mind what the King of the Ammonites did to David's messengers 2 Sam. 10.4 shaved off one half of their Beards and cut off their Garments to the middle even to their Buttocks and sent them away So you send away and so look your Converts with Faith without Repentance but David bids them tarry at Jericho till their Beards were grown Let Repentance grow else you are not compleat but half Christians Hanun paid dear for what he did and so may you Dr. C. Do you think I am a Witch to answer such a man as you Mr. A. No truly they would do you a great deal of wrong that should so charge you Mr. L. Brother Williams and Brother Alsop let us be gone I care to stay no longer to hear such abominable Phrases Doctrius and Heresies from such a Brainless man Dr. C. Pray Sirs come back I will now endeavour to say something that may please you I said after all p. 638 Good works are comfortable Evidences that we are in Christ Mr. W. Well said Dr. then a man may fetch some comfort from his Graces Consider what Paul said 1 Cor. 2.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the World Have you not denied fetching Comfort from hence because all from Christ and argued all-along at such an idle rate as if I preaching in those words 1 Tim. iv 16 So shalt thou save thy self and them that hear thee I should lay down this Doctrine Ministers are their own Saviours and the Saviours of their hearers then God is not their Saviour nor Christ c. Dr. C. I will think of it I said also That Christ draws without an absolute necessary compulsion but draws sweetly and freely to good works Mr. L. What! is the Physick poured down the Throat come to this Dr. C. And p. 676 in the Sermon about the Fast appointed by my good King C. the first whom I there commend I said The end of a Fast is 1. The humbling us for Sin 2. The pleasing of God 3. The averting of Wrath. That Faith that justifies alone stands not alone without good works 685. Then I tell them when a Man sees Christ as the chief of ten thousand and all sair then he comes to him 101. That God hides his Face from a Believer when he harbours Sin 688. Mr. L. But did you not say things over and over and with great Zeal things diametrically opposite Is the justified blind man at the same time a seeing man Sees Christ fair c Sure these be unusual contradictions No doubt Mr. Edwards's Charge in his Crispianism Vnmask'd is too true but I doubt after all this the Vertigo will soon take you again notwithstanding some intervals Mr. L. I doubt Brethren this man makes not a few Atheists or Scepticks Tho' great is their folly that conclude Christ is not of God because we contend about his person and offices As if because there are disputes among Philosophers whether the Sun be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether it heat formaliter or eminenter whether the old Ptolomaicks or new Capernicans be right about the Suns motion or the earths motion therefore should conclude there is no Sun nor Earth neither and so might we name a thousand other things M. W. You speak honestly and soberly good Mr. Lob You know this man's Followers preach up that Conversion changeth not a man's state but nature only Dr. C. Oh how Herod and Pontius Pilate became Friends against Christ how friendly you two are against Free-Grace Mr. A. Lay aside the Comparison of Herod and Pontius Pilate they have served all turns and are grown thread-bare and therefore 't is high time to let them alone Dr. C. Look to your selves I tell you If any man Preach any other Doctrine than I do you know the Consequence as I say in my Book Look yonder here is coming my Brother Toune and my Brother Eaton they will justifie me and knock you all down For some say they write something like sence and truth who will by no means grant that I do Mr. L. What say you Mr. Toune Mr. T. Gentlemen you are men of known worth and therefore you cannot be ignorant that to understand a Polemical man you must consider against whom he writ I wrote against the Arminians Dr. Taylor in particular not against the Calvinists as Crup did whose madness hath ruin'd our Cause he is as 1 Tim. 1.7 a Doctor of the Law and understands not what he says nor whereof he affirms Read worthy Sirs p. 115. of my Book of Free-Grace if p. 33. seems harsh I am not of your opinion great Sirs I modestly confess and be sure not of Crisps for on my principles as well as yours he is guilty of damnable Heresies Dr. C. Bless me Did I send for thee Toune to justifie me and knock down my Enemies and dost thou justifie my Enemies in their Charge against me and knock down me Good Brother Eaton speak one word for me let your lips drop as the Honycomb Mr. W. What say you Mr. Eaton Mr. E. Brethren I hope I may call you so tho' our Heads differ yet I cannot call this tattling prating Dr. so being of your Opinion and Mr. Toune's he is a notorious Heretick for if it please you read the beginning of my Honycomb and you will find I was so far from Crisp's mad definition of Justification that I rather gave one more like yours than his These are my very words Justification is when we feeling what loft creatures we are in our selves and in all our works and