to those guifts and qualifications which the Apostle layes downe in the first of Timothy the 3. 5. chapters and the first or Titus then the Church hath authority to chuse them for her Officers Num. 8.9.10 Ezeck 33.2 Acts 1.23.6.3.5 14.24 but though they be never so fitted guifted and qualified yet they are not to take upon them to officiate in the Church of God by virtue of an Office before they have a true and lawfull Call from the Church who only and alone hath power from Christ her only King and Head to instate them into that Office and whereas before they were but members or private men as you in the Church of England call them and could not lawfully doe those actions that belong to a true Minister or Officer in the Church of God to doe yet now they may doe them upon grounded grounds for it is only their lawfull Call into their Office that puts a distinction betwixt them and the other members or Brethren of the Church as is plaine out of the first of the Acts where Joseph and Matthias were by the Apostles and Brethren set a part for the Apostleship and Joseph for any thing I know was as well fitted for the Office as Matthias was for the Church was not able to put a difference betwixt them which was the more fit but yet for all this they were not both Apostles but only Matthias who was lawfully chosen and immediatly called by God into the Office and then those actions that he did and Adminstrations that he administred was the execution of his Office so that it any should have questioned him whether he was an Apostle or no he would not runne to the Administration or Execution of his Office to prove himselfe a true Apostle but he would goe to his Call into his Office which was from God and which gave him a being in his Office and power to Officiate and doe those actions that he did and though he had nevâ—â— lived to have executed any of those actions that belonged to his Office yet he had been a true Apostle for all thae by virtue of his Call into his Apostleship So that I say to you of your Ministers it is not sufficient for them when they tre questioned about their Calling and put upon it to prove it whether it be from God or the Diuell the one of which it must needs be to runne to the Execution and Administration of their Office to prove the lawfullnesse of their standings in their Office but they should goe to the power and Authority that instituted them into their Office of Priesthood and prove it whether it be true or no which if they cannot doe I say they are all false and Antichristain Officers and Ministers which all Gods people are bound in Conscience to detest as the Divell and oppose to the utmost of their power and strength and therefore I put you upon it to prove if you can the lawfulnes of their standing for doe you thinke that they which are Antichrists Ministers have a greater priveledge of exempion from proving the lawfulnes of their Calling and Office when they are questioned then either that great Prophet Jihn the Baptist or Josus Christ the sonne of God and his Apostles had truly I see no Ground nor Reason for it unlesse you will say their bare word is of greater Authority then the words of the Eternall Sonne of God and his Apostles For first of all John the Baptist when he was questioned by the Scribes and Pharisees what he was he doeth not say It is sufficient that I doe the worke of a Prophet and therefore you need not nor have noe ground to question me any further about my Authority no he knew such an Answer would not serve their turne and therefore when they aske him what he was he confessed that he was not the Christ what then art thou say they to him art thou Elias and he saith I am not who then art thou he said I am the voyce of one caying in the Wildernesse make straight the way of the Lord as saith the Prophet Esay as Joh. 1.19.20 and so forward So you see John brings Authority from the Scripture to prove his Office doeth not runne as your Priests doe to the Administration or Execution of his Office to prove his Office or the lawfulnesse of his standing in it Also Christ himselfe when he was questioned by the Jewes about his miracles and those great workes which he wrought by virtue of what authority he did them he answers and saith If I beare witnesse of my selfe my witnesse is not true and therefore he brings his Father and John the Baptist and the holy Scripture to beare witnes of him that he did not take up his authority that he exercised of himselfe neither did he come unto them of his owne head and in his owne name but brings the voyce of his Father and the authority of the Word to bear witnes that he was sent of God prophesied of old to be the Messias John 5.31.32.37.46 8.17.18 Also the Apostle Paul when he was questioned by his enemies about his authority or the lawfulnes of his office he goes unto his Call into his office and that authority that placed him in it and by that proves that he tooke not that authority that he exercised upon him without good grounds but had it placed upon him by Jesus Christ himselfe Acts 22.10.11 so forward Also when he was questioned by the false Apostles at Corinth and Galatia about his authority he answers for himselfe that he was an Apostle and was free for I have saith he seen Jesus Christ who placed me in my office and by his authority gave me my Apostleship and called me by his voyce thereunto so that my authority and calling is not from men as you false Apostles are nor by men as the Ordinary Officers of the Church are who are called by the Church who hath authority from God so to doe but immediately from Jesus Christ our Lord as all his true Apostels are 1 Cor. 9.1 Gal. 1.1 So that you see Paul proved he was an Apostle and a true officer of Jesus Christ before ever he preached his Gospell and before ever he was an instrument to bring any to the knowledge and obedience of the truth and before ever the Corinthes became being begot by his Ministery the Seale of his Apostleship And doth John Baptist Christ and his Apostles whensoever they are questioned about their authority by their opposers prove their calling into their office by virtue of which they doe officiate and administer those administrations they administer and thinke your Ministers those Preists and Deacons of Antichrist to have more exemption then Christ or his Apostles had and therefore if they be ministers of Christ as they say they are I put you and them upon it to prove their calling and office from him that they were instated into their Ministry by
virtue of his power and Lawes which he hath left recorded in his last Will and Testament for the bodies of his particular visible Churches to elect chuse and ordaine their owne Officers either let them doe this or else I say and will against them all maintaine it that they are Antichrists Ministers set in by the power of Satan in the Kingdome of the seaven headed and ten horned Beast in direct opposition and professed hatred against the Kingdome and Septer of Jesus Christ the eternall Sâ—n of God for they are but false Prophets false Shee Pheards and false Teachers like those in Jeremiahs time that runne before ever God sent them and say they are of his sending when as indeed thiy lye Jer. 14.14 23.21.32 Ezeck 18.6.7 for he never sent any of them Rev. 9.3 Therefore doe you and all those that are under their Jurisdiction looke to it as they and you love your owne soules for the Lord hath not only threatned to plague false Prophets false Ministers and false sheepheards but also all those that give care and submit unto them and are seduced by them Esa 9.16 Jer. 14.15.16 23.15.16.34.39 27.15 29.8.9.18 Ezeck 13.8.9.10 So that it is not enough for a man that takes upon him to be a Prophet and a Sheepheard to come in the name of the Lord and doe part of those things which a true Prophet and Sheepheard of the Lord doth but first of all he must prove his Authority and that he is of the Lords sending else none of Christs Sheep are to give eare unto him John 10. the beginning for Christ hath bid them beware of such seeing many of them were and still aâ—e to come abroad into the World coming in such a foule deceiving flattering way that they should deceive if it were possible the very Elect Mat. 7.15 24.11.24 Mar. 13.22.23 2 Pet. 2.1 1 Jâ—hn 4.1 and the reason wherefore they should beware of them and try and examine their Authority from whence it is as the Church of â—â—â—â—esus did for which she is highly commended Rev. 22. is because that false Apostles and false ministers all of them are deceitfull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and ministers of righteousnesse Therefore all Gods people had need exceedingly to labour for true knowledge and understanding is it is their duty that so they may be able to try and know false Ministers and Sheepeards from true ones least their soules run vpon the Rockes and so be in great danger of suffering shipwrake in submitting and giving â—eare unto those Ministers and Preachers that never were of the Lords sending nor never received their errand from him in the number of which are all the Ministers in England as well the best as the worst done of them being Christs true Ministers but Antichrists Locusts which came out of the smoake of the bottomlesse pit and are fully described in the ninth of the Revelation But I know what evation you will have to prove your Bishops Preists and Deacons true which is to fetch and derive their lineall succession which Rabby Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabboth boasts of from his impiety of Rome that Antichrist and man of Sin and Son of Perdition 2 Thes 2.3 and so thinke to avoyde all that I have said against them and also you will rune to your greasie mouldy Consecration and laying on hands by which you give them your own Holy Ghost namely the spirit of errour of blindnesse and ignorance and therefore if you goe to the Pope and derive their authority from him as of absolute necessity you must this being your best and only Argument you have to prove them true which Mason to the utmost makes use of against the Papists who deny your Bishops Preists and Deacons to be true ones because you schismed away from them and so they want Cannonicall Ordination as they call it and therefore Mason in his booke of Ordination of Bishops Preists and Deacons proves it at large to be a false accusation and that they are true having had an inviolable canonicall Ordination and Consecration from the Bishops of Rome as there you may largly read pag. 10. 41. 58. 62. 64. 88. and so forward to the end Now if you goe this way to worke too as of necessity you must having no other way at all to goe to prove them true then what doe you else but even you your selfe prove your Ministers to be Antichristian whom Mason in his foresaid Booke pag. 77 doth prove by the authority of the Scripture that if they be so it is the duty of all Gods people to seperate from them And as for laying on of hands I say it was but a Ceremony which ceased when the visible working of miracles ceased which if you say to the contrary I put you upon it to prove it a durable and permanent action in the Church of God absolutely essentiall to the making of a true Pastor Teacher Elder or Bishop Also you will say one minister must make an other but your ministers and officers are made by other ministers and officers therefore they are true But I deny that either he that is made or he that made your ministers is true But for the Argument I absolutely deny the proposition and I affirme that it is not essentiall to the makeing of a true Bishop or elder which is all one Titus 1. to be made by other Bishops or Elders for those Bishops Elders and Deacons that were made in the Apostles times were elected and made by the Church who only hath power for that end and the Apostles and Evangelists did nothing else by that action of laying on of hand but shew their likeing and approbation of that action that the Church had performed and of those persons that the Church had made Officers to officiate in her and at the laying on of the Apostles hands God was pleased to worke miracles even to give the Holy Ghost unto those upon whom they was layd which were no officers in the Church Acts 8.17.18 19.6 and also at the curing the Father of Publius of his Feaver Paul laid his hands upon him and healed him Acts 28.8 yea Ananias who was no officer in the Church but a Disciple or a private man as you call them yet he laid his hands upon Saul at the doing of which he received his sight and also the Holy Ghost Acts 8.20.17 So that you see lâ—ying on of hands in the primative time was not only peculiar to the Apostles and Evangelists themselves bat also to others which were no officers but Brethren out of office and was not only used at the shewing their approbation and likeing of those men that the Church had chosen into office but also at the workeing of miracles as the giving of the Holy Ghost and healing of the Sicke so that I affirme that Action ceased when the visible working of Miracles ceased and is not in the least essentiall to the
making of Officers Againe in the New Testament you doe not find neither are you able to prove or shew one example that an Apostle was made by anorher Apostle or that on Evangelist was made by another Evangelist or that one Bishop or Elder was made by another Bishop or Elder or ever that one Officer made another Officer in the same Office that he himselfe was in so that your making of Bishops by other Bishops is an Invention of the Man of Sinne and his Fellowes therefore to make Officers by Officers will never be proved by you nor any others to be Essentiall to the making of an Officer and therefore I say of your Officers that both the makars and those that are made by them are all of them false not only in regard this action is a siction of your owne Invention but also because your Church is false and Antichristian Therefore if every Parish in England had power in themselves which in the least they have not to chuse and make their owne Officers yet for all this they would be false for a false and Antichristian Church as yours is can never make true Officers and Ministers of Jesus Christ and though that the Churches of the Seperation want the Apostles in personall presence to lay hands upon their Officers which lawfully they chuse out from among themseves yet have they their Lawes Rules and Directions in writing which is their Office and is of as great Authority as their personall presence Mat. 7.12 Luk. 16.29.31 Joh. 5.45 Act. 13.27 15.21 21.21 2. Cor. 3.15 All these writings doth shew that the Scriptures Lawes of Moses the Prophets was their Office for they themselves were dead long before Christs time but their writings did still remaine wherefore the spirit of God is pleased to call them by their names shewong that they are of as great Authority as their personall presence were and those that now read them if they doe not obey them is as inexcusable as those that lived in their daies heard them from their mouthes and yet rejected them Even so now though we have not Peter Paul the rest of the Apostles in personall presence yet we have now their Lawes Rules Epistles directions which they sent gave to the Churches of God that was planted in their times these are there Office are of as great Authority Sufficiency as their personall presence yea and of greater as the very false Apostles themselves those enemies of Paul doe confesse for his letters say they are waighty powerfull but his bodily presence is weake his speech contemptible 2. Cor. 10.10 For Paul in the writing of the Scripture was so powerfully guided by the Spirit of God that it was not possible for him to erre in the doing of it whereas in his other personall actions he was subject to sin failings as well as Peter was Gal. 2.11 the rest of the Apostles some of which we read of Act. 22. which was his going into the Temple with others after the Ceremoniall Law of Moses to purifie himselfe when he knew his Lord Master Christ at his death had abolished and put an end both to the Temple all the Mosaicaâ—â— Rites Ceremonies Worship and he himselfe with the rest of the Apostles Act. 15. but the Spirit of God had decreed the same which they commanded the Churches inviolably to observe and also he himselfe before did preach the same so that I say the Apostes Lawes is their office and is of as great yea greater authority then if now we had them in personall being therefore in my judgement those that doe maintaine Apostles now in personall being doe maintaine an errour seing that the Apostle Paul calls himselfe and Barnabas the last as it were men apoynted to death 1 Cor. 4.9 if they were the last then none were to follow or succeed them in their Office therefore your Bishops are all Liars in calling themselves the Apostles successours for they are Antichrists Locusts Frogges which are said to come out of the smoke of the bottommlesse pot or out of the mouth of the Dragon Beast false Prophet Rev. 9.3 16.13 So that I affirme the Officers in the true Churches of the Sepearion that are called by virtue of the Apostles Lawes though they want them to lay hands upon them to shew their aprobation of their fitnesse for their Office yet they are as true Officers as those that they themselves caused to be made and laid their hands upon And thus have I sufficiently by the authority of the sacred word of God proved all your Officers Ministers false Antichristian none of Christs which if you can groundedly contradict shew your best skill challeng I you put you toâ— prop to hold up your tottering sandy Ch. Min. or else your great brags will prove no better then wind and fables and you your selfe found to be a liar 2. Againe in â—he second place if your Preists by their ministery do not accomplish the same ends that the Apostles by their ministery did then by your own grounds they are no true Ministers of Christ and that they doe not by their ministery accomplish the same ends that the Ministery of the Apostles did I prove it out of the 1 Cor. 11.2 where the Apostle doth praise the Corinthians that they did remember him in all things keep all the ordinances as he had delivered them unto them here was one maine end that the Ministery of the Apost did accomplish namely to bring the Saints in the ch of God to the obedience not only of some but of all the Lawes of Christ but your Ministery never did never will nor never can so long as they stand in their present calling and office accomplish this end in the heart lives of those that heare and give eare vnto them but rather by their Ministery they teach them flat Rebellion to the Lawes and Ordinances of Christ 1. As first Christ is not only the alone Preist of his Church and people to reconcile them by his blood to God his Father but also he is the alone and only Prophet of his Church to whom alone they are to goe for counsell and knowledge and to whose voyce only they are to give eare and to no other Prophet and this did his Apostles teach his people to observe Acts 3.22.23 for Moses truly said unto your Fathers a Prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you of your Brethren like vnto me him shall you heare in all things whatsoever he shall say vnto you and it shall come to passe that every soul that will not heare that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people and Gal. 5 1 there Paul bids them stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Jesus Christ hath made us free and bâ— nâ—t againe entangled in the yoke of bondage And in his giving Lawes to the Corinthians he would
by the Authority of the Scripture and deny either of them and prove against them if you be able Againe your second Argument to prove the Church of England a true Church is this That Ministry which doeth accomplish the same and which the Ministry of the Apostles did must needs be a true Ministry But the Ministry of the Church of England doeth accomplish the same ends that the Apostles Ministry did namely conversion and confirmation Therefore the Ministry of the Church of England must needes be true But to prove your Argument you bring not one Place of Scripture but take that for granted which I confidently thinke neither you nor none in the Ch. of Engl. are ever able to prove therefore I absolutely in every respect deny your Arg. two manner of waies prove against it 1. I will prove that if the Ministry in the Ch. of Engl. did accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostles did yet for all that that is not sufficient to prove it a true Ministry for to judge the cause by the effect is a Leaden and false Rule 2. I will prove that the Ministry in Engl. doth not accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostls did therfore by your own Arg. is no true Ministry Now for the first of these which answers the Major of your Arg. I say it hath beene and still may be possible for a man to accomplish the same ends that you here speake of namely to be an Instrument to bring Gods people to the manifestation of Faith also to build them up yet be no true Officer or Minister in the Ch. of God I prove it out of the Acts of the Apostles in which we read that when the Ch. began to encrease Saul raised a great persecution against it upon which all the brethren viz. the members of the Ch. were scattered abroad they went up down preaching the word Act 8.3 but the Apostles themselves they stayed still at Jerusalem Vers 1. Now all those that were scatterd abroad were not true Officiall Ministers for they were but Lay-men according to your distinction in the Church of England yet divers of them who were no true Officers but Bretheren Disciples or private men as you call them yet they preached the Word to the Gentiles there begot by their preaching maany of them to the Faith for the Text saith The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number of them beleeved and then came Barnabas from Jeausalem who was yet no true Officer in the Church of God being as yet uncalled to his Apostleship and he confirmed and strengthened and more fully built them up in the Faith of Christ and in the Knowledge of the wayes of God Also Aquilah and his wife Priscilla did further instruct and build up that Eloquent man Apollos Act. 18.26 Also there were certaine women that laboured with Paull in the Gospell Phil. 4.3 So that here you see and I have proved it that people may be called to the manifesttaion of Eaith and further built up by those that are no true Officers or Ministers in the Church of Chirst but if your Argument were true then it would follow that all those men yea and the women too were true Officers and Ministers in the Church of Christ because they were Instruments of bringing Gods people to the manifestation of Faith and further built them up but your Argument is rotten and unsound and falls here flat to the ground and therefore if I should grant it which I doe not that your Ministers by their Ministry did accomplish the same ends that the Apostles by their Ministry did yet this would not be sufficient to prove them true Officers or Ministers for the excecution of an Office doeth not prove an Officer but only a true and lawfull call into the Office which all your Priests and Minnisters in England want and therefore are no true Officers nor no true Ministers of Jesus Christ For you know that a King hath many in his Kingdome besides himselfe that doe those actions administer those administrations that is peculiar to him alone to doe and administer unlesse they were Authorized by virtue of a power given and derived from him to do such actions without a lawfull Authority given and received from him they might loose their lives for the doing of them but now if your Argument were true that all those men that are meanes or Instrumensts to bring Gods People to the manifestation of Faith and obedience to the Law and will of Christ were true Officers and Ministers of Christ it would follow by the same Argument that all those men that doe the actions of a King or accomplish the same ends that Kings by their actions doe accomplish are true Kings but so to conclude in England is little better then High Treason Therefore your Argument is erroneous and false and hath not validity in it for if so be you will have their Administrations to prove the lawfulnesse of their Office then I pray you wherein doth the execution of their Office consist for an Office and the execution of it are two distinct things for a man by virtue of being instated into the Office of a Judge though he never live to execute any of those acttions or Administrations that belong to his place or Office but he must first receive power to sit in Court of Judicature before he dare take upon to fit there as Judge and when he hath receiced power from the King by virtue of which he is instated into his Office and doth become an Officer then doth he lawfully sit in Court of Judicature and condemneth fellons and guilty persons and acquit the innocent and doth there passe sentence according to the Lawes for the King under whom he is a Judge But now if this Judge should usurpe his place and come into it by virtue of a false Authority and then condemne the Kings Subjects to death though they be theives and malefactors yet he would be in danger of loosing his life for all that though he doe the act and actions that belong to a true Judge to doe because he had no lawfull Authority from the King so to doe for it is the Kings Authority placed upon a man that doth make that person to be an other kind of person then before he was for before he had received this power he was but a private man but now he is an other kind of man namely a a publike person in Office and Authority and may lawfully do those actions now which if he should have done before would have cost him his life Even so is it with the Ministers and Officers which Jesus Christ hath instituted in his New Testament and left personally to officiate in his Church they must be members of an incorporated or constituted City body or visible Church and then if the Church find any amongst themselves fitted or qualified according
would have her so confidently to beleive your Arguments without any proofe unto them from the Authority of the Word of God which is the only binder of the Conscience Indeed she hath but a blind Guide of you an ignorant Leader if she follow your guiding leading you will lead her into more Rebellion against Jesus Christ his Scepter and Kingdome and so bring misery inough upon her for Christ hath threatned to slay all those his enemies which will not have him to rule over them Luke 12.21 and if he dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses that rejected Moses Law of how much sorer punishment thinke you shall they be worthy of that reject the commandements of Jesus Christ as both shee and you do for the present therefore let her looke to it and take heed of giving to much credit to your Hereticall and Erronious sayings for are the things that you say of more authority then the sayings of Christ himselfe or his Apostles or the Angells of heaven that she must believe them before by the divine Scripture you have proved them truly you take more Authority upon you then Christ would doe for he would not have the Jews to beleeve him upon his bare sayings but the Scripture that did beare witnes of him Joh. 8.17.18 It is written in your Law saith he that the Testimony of two men is true non saith Christ I am one that beare witnesse of my selfe and my Father that sent me beares witnesse of me So that you see Christ would not have the Jews to beleeve him upon his bare sayings only but he brings his Father and the holy Scripture to beare witnesse what he is and then commands them to beleeve him Also Paull would not have the Galathians to beleeve either him or an Angell from Heaven but to hold them accursed if they bring any thing contrary to the Scripture Chap 1.19 but you would have your Friend to beleeve your Arguments and yet doth not bring two Portions of Scripture to prove them all therefore I againe advise her neither to beleeve you nor your sayings because there is no light of trueth in you seing that you goe not to the Law and the Testimony to prove that you say as you ought and should do Esay 8.20 therefore she is bound to reject your Arguments as Vngrounded Antichristian and Erronious and to Search the Scripture her selfe for that is it that truly testifies of Christ and of his waies Joh. 5.39 4 You would have her to remember the danger that will follow upon the neglect of them Your saying were very good if it were grounded upon the word of God but seing as I have already and will more fully make it appeare they are not I would have her remember the danger that will follow the observation of them which will be very great and terrible for the things that you would have her to give Eare unto will teach her to rebell against the voyce of God himselfe who hath commanded all his faithfull people and servants to give Eare to Christ only and alone in all things that pertaine to life and Salvation and his Worship and Service Act. 3.22.23 For Moses truly said unto the Fathers a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me him shall yee hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you and it shall come to passe that every Soull that will not heare that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the People So you see what Doome the Scripture saith will befall all those that will not give Eare nor stoope unto all the Lawes of Christ as well for the governing of his Church as the Salvation of their Soules for Jesus Christ hath been as faithfull yea more faithfull in his House then Moses was in his under the Law Hebr. 3. who was strictly tied to make all things according to the patterne shewed him in the Mount yea even to the very Pinnes of the Tabernacle Exod. 25.9.40 and 26.30 and 27.9 Which Moses caused accordingly exactly to be made and accomplished Ex. 30.43 this Moses did but as a servant but Jesus Christ was faithfull in all things that pertains to the welfare of his Churrch under the Gospell as a sonne and none may adde or defract from that which he hath done and left in his last Will and Testament but now if she should give Fare to your Grounds she should declare and say in her actions that Jesus Christ hath not been so faithfull in his house or Church as Moses was in his which were to tell the Spirit of God he lyes therefore let her looke to the danger that will follow her keeping those things which you would have her to observe 5 In the fift and last place You would have her to goe to God by Prayer to make them Effectuall to her for her good but if she should doe so she should put up an unacceptable and sinfull prayer for the prayer that any puts up to him for the keeping and confirming them in their Errours is detestable and Odious to him but those things that you would have her to goe to God for that they might be Effectuall for her good are grosse Errours and therefore I affirme it is her sin if either she pray to be kept in them or doe not forthwith reject them Well but now to come to grapple with your strong Arguments and the first of them is thus framed Arg. 1 That People or Nation that is dayly within the voyce and call of God calling them to Repentance that so they may be saved that same is a true visible Church But the People generally of England are within the voyce of God calling upon them to repent and beleeve that so they may be saved Therefore the Church of England is a true visible Church Answ 1 This is the Frontispiece of your worke and in the laying of it downe you declare that you doe not in the least understand what the matter of a true Church is which is to consist of beleevers Acts. 2.41.47 and not of people uncalled to God and the knowledge of his trueth Act. 2.30.5.13 And this I will by the strenght of God fully prove by and by and therefore if the rest of your Arguments be no stronger then this they will prove no stronger to bind your opposers then the Philistims flaxen Cords were to bind Sampson who when he had a mind to be loosed from them they became as flax burnt with fire and just such are your Arguments no more able to hold off and keepe backe the trueth from being set at Liberty then Dellilahs greene Withes with which she tyed Sampson were able to keepe him bound that his Enemies might cease uppon him for he broke them as a Threed of Tow is broken when it toucheth the fire Judg. 16. 9. But now to the matter I absolutely deny your Argument And first for your Major I cannot but expresse
of England Antichristian And when you or any other doe by the Authority of the unerring and pure Word of God sufficiently confute what I have writ against it I doe promise you I will be a member of the Church of England againe but if that be not done I will by the strength of the Lord of Hosts for ever separate from Church Ministery and worship in England as all and every one of them Antichristean and false yet thus much I say and doe acknowledge and the Scripture proves it that God hath a people or an elect number in spirituall Babylon yea in the Kingdome of Antichrist part of which the ch of England is and none of them shall perish but â—e eternally saved yet I say it is the duty of all Gods Elect chosen ones that as yet in the whorish â—osâ—… of the ch of Engl. or in any part of Antichrists regiment iâ— separate away from it and come out of it least God plague them for their staying there 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 forward 51.6.9.11 2 Cor. 6.16.17 Rev. 14.9.10 18.4 Now from all that which hath been said I frame these Arguments First that every lawfull Pastor Bishop Minister or Officer in the visible Church of Christ ought to have a lawfull call and be lawfully chosen into his Office before he can be a true Officer in the Church of Christ Acts 1.24.25 26. 24.23 Gal. c 11. Heb. 5.4 But the Ministers and Officers in the Church of England have not a lawfull call neither are lawfully chosen to be Officers in the Church of Christ see the Booke of Ordination of Bishops Preists and Deacons compared with the Scripture Therefore all your Ministers are false and Antichristian Officers Rev. 9.3 2. Secondly The doing of those actions that belong to the execution of an office doth not prove a man to be a lawfull officer but a lawfull power instating him into his office Acts 8.4 11.28.24 18.24.26 But all the Ministers in the church of England have nothing to prove the lawfulnes of their standing in their Ministery but the actions of a Minister and are not able to prove that they are instated into their Ministery by vertue of a lawfull power and authority Therefore they are not true Ministers of Christ but false and Antichristian Ministers of Antichrist 3. Againe in the third place upon your own grounds I frame this Argument Those that by their Ministery doe not accomplish the same ends that the Ministery of the Apostles did are no true ministers But the ministers of the church of England doe not accomplish the same ends by their ministery that the ministery of the Apostles did 1 Cor. 12.2 Therefore your ministers are no true ministers So you see I have overthrown your second Argument and that in your own way and deny that which I have said and prove against it if you be able 3. Againe your 3. Arg. to prove your scratched and deformed mother a true visible church is this Whatsoever people doe enjoy outwardly submit themselves to the true worship of God they are a true visible ch of Christ But the people of Eng. dâ—e outwardly enjoy and submit themselves to the true worship of God Ergo the people of England are a true visible Church Answ 3. And for the proofe of your Arg. you say that the Separation grant and teach the proposition but the assupmtion they stifly deny as well they may do but you will stifly maintaine and prove it to their shame But first of all I will prove your Arg. false to your shame and then I will examine your proofe of it Therefore I deny your proposition assumption and conclusion And first you say the Separation teach where there is true worship there is a true Church what they teach I doe not very well know for I never heard any of their Sermons but only one neither have I read but very few either of their Books or writings but yet I say your Major is not found for true worship doth not prove a company of people to be a true visible church of Christ for they must be a true visible church before they tender and offer up any publike worship to him therefore true worship doth not provâ— a true church but rather a true church proves true worship for the cause must ever goe before the effect which it produceth but a true Church produceth true worship and not true worship a true Church Now to the makeing of a true Church there must not only be true matter but also a true forme 1 Cor. 15.13 Col. 2.5 or an entrance into that heavenly state or spirituall city called the New Jerusalem which comes downe from heaven and which is in the last end described in the Word of God and so becoming a politike Kingdome or Body that makes them a true church or an vniting joyning or combining of a company of Beleivers together amongst themselves and so unto Christ their only and alone head and King promising perfect obedience to all his Lawes and to walke in all his wayes that gives them the denomination of a true visible church of Christ by virtue of which they come to have Christs power to execute all the Lawes that Jesus Christ hath left and bequeathed in his last will to his welbeloved Spouse and to administer all his administrations which out of this state cannot lawfully be administred as I have already proved at large in my Answer to W. G. an eminent Professâ—… in your Church but yet an earnest pleader for Antichrists Kingdome and dominion as well as your selfe and therefore for this particular I referre you to that And as for your Minor and Assumption which is that you in the Church of England doe enjoy and outwardly submit your selves to the true worship of God It is most false and a notorious lie and untruth and as well might wicked Faux and the rest of the Gun-pouder plotters say that they submitted unto noble King James Lawes and Septer when they went about to blow up the Parliament House that so they might destroy him and all his for you doe not only oppose and justle out the true worship of God and throw downe and trample upon the Septer of Jesus Christ his Son but also you set up a false and Antichristian worship the inventer of which is the Divel and the man of Sin his eldest and most obedient Son Therefore I am ashamed to heare you who boast your selfe to be such a mighty champion as you â—ay you are having as I heare you have said that you have confuted many of the Separation to reason so shallowly and ungroundedly and against the knowne and confessed truth and therefore you are but like Goliah the Philistins great champion who exceedingly reviled as you doe the Hoast of the Lord and kept a mighty challinging of them as though none of Gods people had been able to encounter and graple with him when as poore David that yongue