A DISSVASIVE FROM THE ERROURS Of the TIME Wherein the Tenets of the principall Sects especially of the Independents are drawn together in one Map for the most part in the words of their own Authours and their maine principles are examined by the Touch-stone of the Holy Scriptures By ROBERT BAYLIE Minister at Glasgow JER 9.3 They are not valiant for the Truth upon the earth JUDE ver 3. It was needfull for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints for there are certaine men crept in unawares c. Published by Authority LONDON Printed for SAMUEL GELLIBRAND at the Brasen Serpent in Pauls Church-yard 1645. FOR The Right Honourable the Earle of Lauderdaile Lord Metellane YOur Lordship I trust will not bee displeased that your name is set before these Truths which your heart does love and whereunto in the best companies of the whole Isle you have given at many occasions your chearfull countenance and zealous patrociny in the study whereof I have been oft both encouraged and assisted by your Lordships pious wise and learned informations It has been of a long time the wish of my heart to have had nothing to do with Polemick writings the bodies of sojours are no more subject to wounds and manifold hardships then the minds and names of disputant Divines do lie open to various vexations The weary starved bleeding souldâ—er longs no more for a safe peace then a spirit harassed in the toylsome labyrinth of thorny debates pants for that quietnesse which only the finall overthrow and full subjugation of errour can produce How pleasant will that day be to the sonnes of peace when the Lord shall make good that word which by the mouth of two of his ancient witnesses he has established when according to the Testimony of Isaiah syllabically repeated by Michah we shall beat our swords into plow-sheares and our speares into pruning hooks that we may walk together in the light of the Lord But so long as Divine Dispensation besets our habitations both spirituall and temporall the Church no lesse then the State with great numbers of daring and dangerous adversaries we must be content according to the call of the Prophet Ioel in another case to prepare warre to beat our plow shears into swords and our pruning hooks into speares in this juncture of time the faint must take courage and the weak say I am strong It seems that yet for some time the servants of God must earnestly contend for many pretious truths which erroneous spirits do mightily impugne for the help and encouragement of others in that warfare I though among the weakest of Christs souldiers doe offer these my endeavours It was my purpose to have made a farther progresse and to have handled all I mention in my Preface but being cald away from my present station by these who set me therein upon the occasion your Lordship knowes my studies in this kinde are broken off so that this essay in Brownisme and Independency must go forth alone or nothing at all My ayâ— in these two is and was in all the rest First in an historick way to set down the originall and progresse of the errour next its compleat parts together in one table that at one view the whole face of the way may be represented for I conceived it many wayes advantageous and very satisfactory in debating either a truth or an error to be brought to see the fountain and originall whence it hath sprung the streams and issues whither the Tenet tends of it selfe or is drawn by its followers to behold a way not in its pieces but the whole together from the head to the feet the begining midst and end without any concealment or disguise Thirdly my purpose was to have examined the principall parts of every errour in a short cleare and popular method considering the maine Scriptures that use to be alledged in the point either pro or contra I beleeve this my method will not be displeasing to any I know it was acceptable enough to many of the Congregationall way when lately I did use it against the Canterburian Faction but possibly some of the matter of my historick part may fall out to be fashions to the followers of the Tenets which I labour to lay open for it is inavoydable to make a true and a full narration of any erroneous way but such things must be told which will be displeasing to some yet I hope I have given as little offence in this kinde as any other could have done in such a way of â—reatising for all the passages that may be pungent of the tenderest skin are such as not only I conceive to bee very true but such also which I ever make presently good by sufficient Testimonies set downe fully at the end of every Chapter in the expresse words of the Authors Secondly the opinions or practises I alledge are such as the parties themselves to this day do openly avow or else have beene objected to them by very honest men long ago in print and to this day so farre as I know are not taken off by any tolerable answer in all that is over and above I will undertake to give ample satisfaction wherein soever I give the least offence to any I date appeale to your Lordships knowledge and to many others who have beene acquainted with all my by-gone walking how averse I have ever been from causing griefe to any especially good men so farre as I am conscious to my most secret intentions it is my hearts desire that all our present controversies might quickly either be ended or composed by calme meek and peaceable meanes and these alone That lately renewed Committee for Accommodation Oh if it might please the Lord to shine upon it however I may not stay to see its successe yet wherever I am my best wishes shall be poured upon it especially when I shall heare as I have great reason to beleeve is only intended that it abides circumscribed within the bounds of that prudent Order whereby it is renewed For first that Order is so farre from holding out an Accommodation for all the sects of the Land that it speaks only of the differences that are among the members of the Assembly Liberty of Conscience and Toleration of all or any Religion is so prodigious an impiety that this religious Parliament cannot but abhorre the very nameing of it Whatever may be the opinion of Io. Goodwin of Mr Williams and some of their stamp yet Mr Burrowes in his late Irenicon upon many unanswerable arguments explodes that abomination Likewise our Brethren who seek to be accommodate will be willing I hope to professe their going along with us without any considerable dâ—ssent as in the Directory for all the parts of divine worship so in the confession of Faith and Catechism Secondly the Order expresses only the differences in Church-government what
added it shall begin in the 1650. but it comes not to full head till fourty five yeers more DD Ibid. In the Epistle take this rule That all Texts of Scripture are to be understood literally except they make against other Scriptures or except the very coherence of the Scripture shew it otherwise Ibid. p. 17. Indeed if we be put upon allegorical senses we may put off any Scripture but if we take them literally why should we not Ibid. p. 21. Christ is described in the 19. of the Revelation with his Garments dyed in blood when he doth appear to come and to take the Kingdom when he appears with many Crowns upon his head that notes his many victories Ibid. p. 17. The promise that is made Revel 12. He shall rule them with a Rod of Iron and as the Vessels of a Potter they shall be broken to shivers What shall we make of this EE Ibid. p. 14 15. The raigning with Christ 1000. yeers is not meant of raigning with him in Heaven but it must be meant of Jesus Christs coming and raigning here gloriously for 1000 yeers FF Ibid. p. 17. What shall we make of this except there be a glorious raign of Christ with the Saints Christ is said to make them Kings so as to have power and dominion in the world GG Ibid. p. 13. There is no reason why that of the 26. of Matth. v. 29 I will drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom may not be taken litterally HH Archers personal raign p. 5. I call this last state of his Monarchical because he will govern as earthly Monarchs have done that is universally over the world in these dayes known and esteemed and in a worldly visible earthly glory not by tyranny oppression and sensually but with honour peace riches and whatsoever in and of the world is not sinful having all Nations and Kingdoms doing homage to him as the great Monarchs of the World had II Burrows upon Hosea p. 145. These are the new Heavens and the new Earth that are to be created and this is meant of the Church plainly For the Text Verse 12. speaks of building houses and inhabiting them and of planting Vineyards and eating the fruit of them upon these new Heavens and this new Earths Creation Ibid. p. 191. And literally we are to understand many Scriptures that tend this way concerning the fruitfulnesse of the Earth and the outward external glory that then shall be in the Creatures KK Archers comfort for beleevers p. 41. God may as truely and easily have a will and hand in and be the Author of sins as of afflictions Ibid. We may safely say that God is and hath an hand in and is the Author of the sinfulnesse of his people LL Ibid. p. 36. The fear of some of these inconveniences hath made Divines not to acknowledge so much of God in sin as is in sin They have erred on the other hand and made sin more of the Creature and it self and lesse from God then it is They grant that God is willing sin should be and that he permits it and orders circumstances about its production and hath an hand in and is the Author of the Physical or Moral act in and with which sin is but the essence of sin that is the Pravity and Ataxy the Anomy and Irregularity of the act which is the sinfulnesse of it God hath no hand neither is he any Author at all thereof This opinion goes wrong another way and gives not to God enough in sin Let us imbrace and professe the truth and not fear to say that of God which he in his holy Book saith of himself namely That of him and from his hand is not onely the thing that is sinful but the pravity and sinfulnesse of it MM A short Declaration of the Assembly by way of Detestation of the abominable and blasphemous opinion The Order of the House of Lords runs thus Complaint being this day made to the Lords in Parliament by the Assembly of Divines that a certain blasphemous and heretical Book intituled Comfort for Beleevers is printed and published being written by John Archer their Lordships much abhorring the said blasphemies do award and adjudge that the said Book shall be burnt by the hand of the common Hangman NN Doctor Stewarts Duply to M. S. second part pag. 128. Not long since I heard one of the Ringleaders of the Independents Sect deliver this doctrine in a Sermon at the Abbey of Westminster viz. That to a saving knowledge of God it sufficeth not to know him in the Book of nature or secondly as revealed in the holy Scriptures but that we must also know him as abstract from his mercy and all his attributes OO Ibid. If I know God abstracted from his mercy I know him out of Christ and out of the Gospel for God in Christ and in the Gospel is not abstract but concrete with mercy If God be considered as abstract from all his attributes it is no more a knowledge of God but some idol of the Independent brains PP Antap. p. 36. Master Good win did anoint a Gentlewoman whose name I conceal when she was sick and she recovered after it say they QQ Ibid. Anointing the sick with Oyl was held in that Church of Arnhem as a standing Ordinance for Church-Members as laying on of hands was a standing Ordinance for Church-Officers RR Ibid. p. 60. I propound it to you whether a little before your coming over into England some Members of the Church of Arnhem did not propone the Holy Kisse or the Kisse of Love to be practised by Church-Members Nay Whether by some persons in that Church was it not begun to be practised SS 1. Ibid. p. 36. A Gentleman of note in that Church did propone in the Church that singing of Hymns was an Ordinance which is that any person of the Congregation exercising their own gifts should bring an Hymn and sing it to the Congregation all the rest being silent and giving audience SS 2. Antap. p. 262. Some of Arnhem hold strange conceits Daily the Independent Churches like Affrica do breed and bring forth the Monsters of Anabaptism Antinomianism Familism nay That huge Monster and old fleeing Serpent of the Mortality of the soul of man SS 3. Ibid. p. 261. I have been told of some odde things preached by one of you five both in England and Holland and of some points Preached in the Church of Arnhem never questioned there and since Printed not very Orthodox as for instance among others That the souls of the Saints do not go to Heaven to be with Christ SS 4. Archers personal raign p. 23. This Objection supposes the souls of the dead Saints to be in the highest Heavens which is not so It is likely the souls of the dead Saints are not in the highest Heavens but in a middle place which is meant in the New Testament by paradise into this paradise went Christs soul and the theifs which was
not Heaven It s most probable that Christs soul never went into the highest Heavens till his Body went also Ibid. None but Christ and so none before Christ ever entered the highest Heavens The way to Heaven was never opened till Christ the high Priest entered Body and Soul into it The highest Heavens never had but one man into them namely Christ nor shall have till the worlds end Ibid. p. 25. If you ask where this place of Paradise is I answer It must be below the highest Heavens therefore surely it is in the Region or Element of fire where the Sun and Stars are or in the highest Region of the Ayr. SS 5. Archers personal raign p. 35. At the day of judgement the wicked shall be sent with the Devil unto Hell which Hell shall not be that which is now called Hell but another for the Hell that now is is but a prison and not the place of execution At the last day this Hell that now is shall cease This Hell which is at present to be sure is in some of the places of the Air or the Waters and not in the Earth But the Hell which shall be the everlasting torment of all the damned shall be all this lower and visible World All the places of the Earth Water Air Sun Moon Stars and the Fire called the Heavens and the Earth The things which God immediately made out of nothing shall never change As the highest Heavens and the Angels in them and the souls of men and this Chaos called the Earth but all other things being made out of something even out of this Earth or Chaos they shall after a time change and so all this World shall come to an Earth or Chaos again God in time did make two places Heaven and Earth immediately out of nothing to be eternal places the one of Joy the other of Torment Thus you see when Hell was made but it was quickly covered and shall not be uncovered till Christ do it at the last day TT Antap. p. 36. The Gentleman censured brings an accusation against Master Nye charging him with Pride want of Charity c. And this being brought before the Church continued in debate about half a yeer three or four days in a week and sometimes more before all the Congregation divers of the Members having callings to follow they desired leave to be absent Master Goodwin oft professed publikely upon these differences If this were their Church-fellowship he would lay down his Eldership and nothing was more commonly spoke among the Members then that certainly for matter of Discipline they were not in the right way for that there was no way to bring things to an end VV Vide supra TT CHAP. V. The Carriage of the Independents at London YOu have gotten a taste of the Fruits of this Tree as it grows in New-England and Holland When it is transplanted to Old-England consider if the Grapes of it be any thing sweeter These Five last yeers the chief of that party both from Arnhem Roterdam and New-England have kept their residence at London to advance by common counsels and industry their Way in these days of their hopes A full account of their courses in that place cannot be expected so long as many passages concerning them lie in the dark and the end is not yet come But three things seem to be clear which make their Way at London no more lovely then in the places mentioned First they have been here exceeding unhappie in retarding and to their power crossing the blessed Reformation in hand Secondly they have pregnantly occasioned the multiplication of Heresies and Schisms above all that ever was heard of in any one place in any former Age. Thirdly they have occasioned such Divisions in the State that had it not been for the extraordinary mercies of God the Parliament and all that follow them had long ago been laid under the feet of their enraged enemies and the whole Isle long before this totally ruined As for the first The Reformation of Religion so much wished for by all the godly for so many yeers all know it could never have been attained without the help of an Assembly of Divines Who opposeth the necessary Mean cannot be taken for a friend of the End The Assembly the necessary means of Reformation was for a very long time hindred by the diligence of the Independent party to be called A and when to their evident grief and discontent the Parliament had voted its calling they may remember their extraordinary industry to get it modelled according to their Principles both in its members and power B to have it an elective Synod onely for advice to consist of so many of themselves and of their favourers as was possible not any known Divine of any parts in all England of their opinion being omitted How cautious they were by great slight of hand to keep off so many of the old Puritan Unconformists and how much more enclinable towards men of Episcopal and Liturgick principles themselves do know This their underhand-working before the sitting of the Assembly was seen but by few but so soon as the Synod did sit it did then appear to the whole Company who were the men who made it their work and greatest studie to keep off by their endlesse Janglings the Assembly from concluding any thing that might settle the distracted Church C so that to this day after two yeers time and above in more frequent and learned Sessions then every we read of in any Assembly since the world began D There is nothing at all set up for the comfort of the afflicted Kingdom Their aversenesse to the Assembly doth appear not onely in their opposition to its calling in their retarding of its proceedings but in their pressing of its dissolution I do not speak of the huge Contumelies which some of their party have poured out upon the face of that most Reverend Meeting in a number of very wicked Pamphlets which to this day were never so much as censured though the Authors by name and sirname are complained of in Print But that which I speak of is the expresse Article of the Independent Petition desiring the Parliament in formal terms according to Master Peters dictates to dissolve the Assembly D 2. Had either the Popish faction or the Episcopal party or the malignant Courtiers procured the continuance of our woful Anarchie our anger would have been greater then our grief or shame But when the mercies of God now for some yeers have removed the Papists Prelats and Courtiers so far from us that by word or deed they have not hindred us in the least measure to heal the diseases of our Church at our pleasure that her wounds to this day should be multiplied and all kept open to drop out her best blood alone through the obstinacy of our Brethren though we compresse our indignation yet we cannot but be oppressed with a great measure of
to this day which were much against the currant of scripture since all this while he hath beene sitting upon the Throne of his Father David and ruling his Church as King and Monarch thereof yet it were uncomely to confine the time of his reigne to come to a thousand yeares this were too small an endurance for his Monarchy Many humane Principalities sundry States and Empires which have beene and this day are in the world might contend for a longer continuance for this cause it seemes to be that Master Archer the most resolute Doctor in this question that I have met with makes the thousand yeares we debate of to be onely the evening of Christs Personall reigne but to the morning therof wherein at leisure all the processes of the Last Judgement are gone through he ascribes a great many more yeares readily another thousand and why not two or three or more thousands It is good to be wise to sobriety arrogant curiosity and presumptuous wantonnesse of wit â—s detestable though in the best men Seventhly the place makes Satan to be bound up onely from seducing the Nations that he should not be able as before the comming of Christ he was to misleade the Nations of the whole world to Idolatry a free doore then being opened to the Gospell in every Nation for their conversion to the truth but our new Doctors extend the place much further they will have Satan bound up for a 1000 yeares not onely from seducing Nations to Idolatry but from tempting any person to any sin this is contrary to these Scriptures which makes every Saint in all ages to fight not onely with flesh and bloud but with Principalities and Powers which makes Satan always to goe about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure and that so boldly that in the very presence of Christ he doth seeke to winnow the best of his Disciples yea the place in hand gives to Satan in the very time of the thousand yeares so great power upon multitudes of men who never were sanctified but ever his vassalls led by him at his will that he makes them compasse the holy City and the Campe of the Saints to fight against God till fire from heaven did destroy them Beside this famous place Master Archer Master Mattoun and T. G. in his glimps bring a number of other scriptures for their Tenet wherewith we neede not meddle for Master Petree and Master Hayne in peculiar treatises have answered them all onely the cheife of them which Master Burrows in his treatise upon Hos 1. is pleased to chuse out we will consider He builds much upon Daniel 12. as if it did prove the resurrection of some of the godly to an earthly glory a thousand yeares before the last Judgement he borroweth from the glimpse foure arguments word by word there is a fifth also in the glimpse which the most of that party doe much insist upon the first is taken from the second verse of that 12 chap. At the last Judgement say they all shall rise but in that place many doe rise not all Answer We prove that the Prophet speakes here of the last resurrection by two grounds which our Brethren will not deny First the resurrection unto life eternall is onely at the last day but the resurrection whereof Daniel speakes is expresly to life eternall not that prior resurrection which out Brethren aime at to a temporall Kingdome of a thousand yeares Secondly the resurrection of the wicked to eternall shame is onely at the last day for according to our Brethrens Doctrine the wicked have no part of the first resurrection and rise not till the thousand yeares be ended now the resurrection whereof Daniel speakes in verse 2. is expressely of the wicked to shame and death as well as of the godly to life and glory As for their Argument from the word Many it proves not that all did not rise but onely that these that did rise were many and a great multitude Therefore Deodate Translates the words well according to the sence of the Originall The multitude of these that sleepe in the dust The Collectives omnes multi are sometimes Synonemy's according to the matter in hand as omnes must sometimes be taken for multi so multi must sometimes be taken for omnes Secondly They reason from the third verse that in the last resurrection the bodies of all the Saints shall shine as the Sunne But in the resurrection whereof the Prophet speakes no body shines as the Sunne but some as the Starres others as the Firmament Answ The preceding verse evinces unanswerably that the Prophet here is speaking of the last resurrection to life everlasting as for the argument it doth not follow that they who here are said to have so much glory may not elsewhere be said to have more for that which here the Prophet intends to expresse is not the absolute but the comparative glory of the Saints however the least disciple should shine as the Sunne yet if ye compare his glory with the greater light of an other you may expresse the glory of both in the similitude of lightsome bodies lesse glorious then the Sunne if so these bodies differ one from another in degrees of glory for all that the Prophet here aimes at is onely this difference of glory Christ in the Gospell makes all the Saints to shine as the Sunne yet the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.45 distinguishing the different degrees of glory that is among the Saints scruples not to expresse the glory of the most of them in the similitude of bodies lesse glorious then the Sunne There is one glory of the Sunne another glory of the Moone another of the Starres for one Starre differeth from another Starre in glory so also is the resurrection from the dead Further will our Brethren affirme that the bodies of the Saints on earth during the time of those thousand yeares shall be so farre changed as to shine like the Starres and yet to eate drinke and sleepe so much glory can hardly stand with so much basenesse Thirdly They reason from the fourth verse The last resurrection is no mystery nor any secret to be sealed up to the end of the vision But the resurrection here spoken of is such a mystery as must be sealed up Answer First according to Mr. Burrowes expresse profession in the same place the Argument may be inverted for the first resurrection to the thousand yeares of glory he makes a Doctrine very well knowne and much insisted upon by all the Prophets before Christ but the Generall resurrection and life everlasting he makes to be a hid and secret Doctrine which the Prophets in the old Testament doe scarcely touch Secondly Life eternall and death eternall heaven and hell are to this day very great Mysteries to the most of the world and Scriptures concerning these are hid and closed above any other Thirdly The words speake not onely of the resurrection but of the