the Common-Prayer is guilty of where the Minister makes the Gentleman presently confess it to be full of Popish Errors and to appoint horrible Blasphemies and lying Fables to be read to the People Nay makes him cry out almost almost as soon as they had begun their Discourse O horrible How have the Bishops deluded King Edward the Sixth Queen Elizabeth King James and our gracious King Charles and the whole State and made them believe there was nothing in the Service-Book that is amiss or any way contrary to the Word God Almighty deliver us from them I should blush to the end of my life if after our whole debate I had concluded as this man begun But this is the way of those Sots that talk as if they were infallible and would bear all before them by their bare word nay take it very ill if you be not converted as soon as they open their mouth Pythagoras is reviv'd in some of you and Mr. such a one said it is of as good Authority as the best proof in the world N. C. This was some ignorant Zealot I believe C. So one would think and yet he had so good an opinion of himself that he thought such Works as these fit for the eyes of the High Court of Parliament To whom I find he presented Certain Grievances an 1640. of the very same import with this goodly Dialogue but so absurdly slanderous that you cannot but be astonish't at his brutish stupidity For there he tells them as he doth the Gentleman at the conclusion of their Conference that the Bishops have appointed some portions of Scripture to be read on certain dayes and omitted others on purpose to pervert the meaning of Christ and to keep weak Christians in blindness The whole Book of Canticles for instance is never appointed to be read that the People as he will have it may not be able to see the ardent Love and affection of Christ toward his Spouse the Elect and they thereby be stirred up to love Christ and be truly zealous for his Glory Nay if you believe him the Books of the Kings all save the 8 first chapters and the Chronicles were forbid because they shew that Godly Kings did ever love Gods true Prophets and did hearken to them and were zealous of maintaining true Religion and suppressing Idolatry In which words he discovered the very grounds of their quarrel with the King viz. that he did not take such great Seers as himself into his bosom and suffer them to guide his Conscience as if they were of the Privy-Council of Heaven But he discovered withal how little esteem he for his part merited Or rather how well he deserved to be stigmatiz'd and branded in the forehead as one to speak in his own language that was a false-Prophet Prophesying lyes For was there ever any man before this so impudent as to put a Libel of this Nature against his spiritual Fathers and Governors into the hands of the Highest Court of the Kingdom Did any of the Priests or Prophets of Baal think you ever help themselves and their cause by such invectives against the Prophets of the Lord For my part I am of the mind that the Devil himself would be hard put to 't to invent more bold and malicious Slanders than these of this mans forging who wanted nothing but wit to make him like that Father of Lyes And yet I suppose he passed for a Godly man a precious Servant of Jesus Christ a Faithful Minister of the Lord Nay was cherished and incouraged as one of Gods Prophets who had told them things that could be known no wayes but by a Revelation His Book also no doubt found wonderful acceptance though it was stuft with so much Ignorance and railing The people read it with a blind Devotion just as he was transported with so blind a Passion as to accuse our Church of that which all that had eyes must needs acquit it of For both the Books of the Kings were Appointed to be read intirely in the later end of April and in May. As for the Chronicles they being little more than a Repetition of what was writ before might well be left to our private Reading together with some other Books not easy to be understood without great Labour and long Meditation N. C. I wish you would dismiss this man for he hath given us both too much trouble C. Your people would not when time was so easily lay his Book out of their hands as I am able to prove But let him go together with all the Crew of Revilers that were before him For you must know there were Dialogue-writers of the same Stamp in the dayes of your Fore-fathers In one of which Books called the Dialogue of White Devils the Author expresly tells us that if Princes hinder the bringing in of their Disciples they are Tyrants and may be deposed by their Subjects A Doctrine which with all your reading in the Books of the Kings and the Chronicles you will no where find justified For the people were better taught than to go about to depose those that did not favour the Lords Prophets I know you all disclaim this principle and I verily believe many of you abhor it but I mention it to let you see what the Maximes of some of your Predecessors imboldned some of their Posterity to do For this purpose I could relate strange passages out of some Books esteemed by your Party which would verify the censure of the Bishop of Down and Conner * In his Visitation speed at Lisnegarvy 1638. publish'd by Authority upon the Title of the Dialogue now named Which he saith was very fit for such mens Books for if ever there were White Devils or Devils transformed into Angels of Light it is in their persons who under the pretence of Sanctity labour to bring in all manner of Disorder into the Church and confusion into the Common wealth But you have no mind we should remember any thing that is past that so you may the more confidently fill the world with loud clamors as if there never were such doings as now Else you might know there was another Dialogue in Queen Elizabeths dayes between Diotrephes and S. Paul in which the Discipline and its Favourers are magnified as Apostolical but the Bishops of the Church of England made no better than so many proud Diotrephes's nay so many Devils and he of Canterbury so they speak is Beelzebub even the Prince of the Devils N. C. Still you will have all the talk to your self and I must hold my tongue Pray give me leave to inlarge my self a while for I am blam'd I assure you very much for saying so little in our last Conference C. Speak your mind N. C. I must ingeniously confess that we cannot accuse you of such speeches as these but yet you shew your great malignity to us otherwayes In particular it is very ill taken that you make our Ministers guilty of
he himself had just before let his tongue loose in a most riotous manner against us Telling him that the Cathedrals were a Nest and Cage of all unclean Birds a harbour of dumb Dogs proud Prebends and a crew of Ale-swilling Singing men And that they came daily to offer near the Holy Table the blind Whelps of an Ignorant Devotion of which one may say as the Apostle the things which the Heathen offer in Sacrifice to their Idols they offer them to Devils and not to God Nay as if his tongue was set on fire of Hell and could not be tamed immediately after he had given that caution out of St. James he falls into a rage again and in a most nasty manner compares our Prelates to Swine lying in their Ordure For he saith the Hogsty-Prelatical had been swept but twice since the Conquest and the Temple of Jerusalem three times in the 3. years of our Saviours Ministry What office he design'd himself in this sweet work I cannot tell nor how you will excuse this savoury language unless it be sufficient to say that he railed by Publick Authority N. C. I abominate such Reformers and think they deserved to keep Hoggs rather than feed the Sheep of Christ C. I am glad to hear you say so And hope you as much abhor Mr. Hughes his Reproaches who sayes the Common-Prayer may be likened fitly to the abomination of Desolation standing in the holy place N. C. By what you told me before I could expect no better from him whom I think worthy to have been preferr'd to the same office with the other C. But you would expect better language would you not from two such Holy men as Mr. Allin and Mr. Shepherd the famous New-England Preachers N. C. They sure were more Conscientious than to utter any foul speeches C. Yet they tell you the English Service-Book hath stunk above ground twice 40. year in the nostrils of the godly who breathed in the pure air of Scripture Defence of the 9. positions p. 61. N. C. No more of this Noisom language I beseech you which is enough to poison the Air we breath in C. As it hath done already and so diffused its venome among your people that they are generally infected with this Plague Nay they not only do such things themselves but take pleasure in them that do them Witness all the filthy reproaches they bestow upon our Divine Service Clergy and People and the great satisfaction and applause wherewith the late Cobler of Glocesters writings were entertained even by those whom you esteem Religious This shews what manner of spirit you are of and that your people are in danger to deprive themselves of all sense of true Religion to pave their own hearts and make them like the high-way through which all things may pass without any difference save only a few innocent Ceremonies even whole Cart-loads of dung and filth And of the very same spirit I must tell you this sort of Religious people have ever been For Martin Marprelate with whose Devil this man was possessed was received with the like Applause and his Writings so thumb'd that they were even worn out with continual reading and handling of them If you will not believe me yet I hope you will trust Mr. Brightman whose words these are as you may see if you look into his Comments on the 3. Rev. 17. p. 49. of the English Edit where speaking of the Nakedness of Laodicea i. e. in his opinion the Church of England he makes this an Argument of it that this man had poured such great contempt and shameful reproach upon it which is the meaning of her being Naked There was one saith he that called himself by the name of Mar-prelate who set forth a Book wherein he dealt somewhat roundly with the Angel How were those bitter jests of his favoured among the People How plausible were they in a manner to all men How willingly and greedily with what great mirth were they every where entertained There is none so rude and unskilful but pondering that time in his mind would say thus to himself and that not without cause Truly the Lord hath poured out contempt upon Princes those that honour him doth he honour and those that despise him shall be despised He hath made our Priests contemptible to the whole People because they have broken their Covenant You may read what follows there if you think good For it is a great Demonstration how well those people were instructed in the Christian Religion and what rare devises you have been taught to blind your eyes that you may not see your sins For you may speak evil and rejoyce in iniquity and sport your selves in beholding your Fathers Nakedness and fancy all the time that you are fulfilling Prophesies executing the judgment written and pouring out Vials like so many Angels N. C. I should think rather this was the Devil with his followers fighting against Michael and his Angels C. And a Devil it was whom when you had once raised you could never conjure down again nor with all your Prayers and Fastings dispossess him Nay this foul Spirit grew in time so outragious that he flew at last in a foaming manner in your own face Which is a thing so remarkable that I cannot but put you in mind of it how you were served in your kind and felt the tongues of men sharpned against your selves which you had whetted to wound the reputation of others No sooner had you pull'd down the Bishops whom you had laid low before by such fellows as that Martin-Mar-prelate but out comes Martins Eccho which return'd all those Reproaches upon Presbytery Baal Babylon Egypt and all the rest of those Heathenish names were pressed to war against you which you had made to serve against us Presbytery was called a Limb of Antichrist a tyrannical Lordly Government a worse bondage than that under the Bishops a bondage under Taskmasters like those over Israel in Egypt Nay that Very Mouth which reviled our Church now reviled your intended Reformation Mr. Burton himself whom your people had so much admired and brought home with such joy and triumph that you fancied as I shall tell you before we have done that day to be the Resurrection of the Witnesses bestowed those censures on Presbyterial Government which he said * Dialogue called Conformity Deformity would bring us under perpetual slavery worse than either Egypt or Babylon And in the very same terms wherein you had rail'd against our Priests we heard the Sectaries railing against your Presbyters whom they called Romish bloody Priests Black Coats Diviners and Soothsayers Croaking Frogs the Devils Agents Pensioners to the accuser of the Brethren Nay the Assembly it self we were told had two horns like a Lamb but a mouth like a Dragon teaching the Parliament to speak blasphemy against the Saints that dwell in Heaven Your Vniformity also was as much disgraced as ours and stiled the Burden of the Saints
further perswaded touching the unlawfulness of those things than themselves they refused that also Now I would fain know of this Epistler whether he do not think Doctor Reynolds was one of those Most and whether he do not see that such men as he were ashamed the King should know that any of the Nonconformists to whom they wisht well were so weak as to call the things in difference simply evil N.C. I think you had best dismiss this man What say you to the Arguments in the Book it self C. Where shall we find them There are strains of railing Rhetorick ill applied similitudes which are the common way of deceiving abused Scriptures loose inconsequent-reasonings in a word no arguments that do not prove a great deal too much N.C. Methinks there is something in that p. 4. That it is impossible for a man to keep up his heart so much as in a tollerable posture of Devotion reverence and attention to such Prayers as having been fram'd by men and those no more excellent than their neighbours are grown familiar to us and can be said by roat beforehand we having heard them a thousand times already C. Nothing at all For by whom are their Prayers framed Are they Angels or glorified Saints in the Church Triumphant that must not have the name of Men Or dare they say the Spirit frames them And do they not repeat for ever the same phrases only not put together always in the same Order How many thousand times have you heard them beg that they might prize Christ more and Ordinances more and Sabbaths more and a number of such like things as these And besides all this what say you to the Psalms of David Could no man anciently joyn devoutly in singing them because they were so often repeated and so well known that the Jews had them by heart N.C. I cannot tell But God himself he saith judges it necessary to consult his glory I mean a Religious awe reverence and esteem to his counsels and works from men by concealing the one and the other till the time of their bringing forth that so they may come fresh and new to them VVhat say you to that C. I say he doth not write sense for it is as if he had told us that God doth not reveal his Counsels till he reveal them N.C. But you may guess at his meaning that God keeps secret what he intends to do till he bring it to pass C. That 's false For he foretold many things by the Prophets But were it altogether true it 's nothing to the purpose For though he surprizes us sometimes with events we never thought of and could not foresee and will not always ways let us know what be intends to do yet he doth not judg it necessary to conceal his will concerning that which we are to do No quite contrary He judges it necessary to declare it and hath made no new Declaration since the Apostles times And yet we may have a Religious reverence sure to his Counsels revealed in his Word though they come not fresh and new to us If we cannot all that I have to say is that then the same Exception lyes against them which you bring against the Common-Prayer Nor are your own Prayers so fresh and new as he pretends but we know beforehand the most you have to say only you have some new invented Words and Phrases which sometimes give us just disgust N.C. Doth not our Saviour say Mat. 13.52 that every Scribe every Teacher instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven i.e. meetly qualified for the work of the Ministry of the Gospel is like to a man that brings forth out of his Treasures things new and old C. What of all that N.C. Doubtless our Saviour spoke it upon this Account as he tells you C. Doubtless he was full of fancy as well as the rest of his Brethren which laid hold of every thing without any reason if it would but make a shew and serve to countenance their wild opinions Else he would have easily seen that our Lord speaks of his Apostles and Evangelists who were furnish'd with abilities to propagate the Gospel both by their knowledg in the Old Revelations in the ancient Scriptures and in the new which he made unto them N. C. But the Liturgy smells rank of the Popish Mass-Book which alone is sufficient to make it the abhorring of their souls that understand any thing of the severity of the Divine jealousie c. pag. 5. C. The old N. C. were not affrighted with such terrible Nothings as these But told our English Donatists the Brownists who objected this That it was more proper to say the Mass-Book was added to our Common-Prayer than that our Common-Prayer was taken out of the Mass-Book For most things in our Common-Prayer were to be found in the Liturgies of the Church long before this mass-Mass-Book you talk of was heard of in the world The Mass was patched up by degrees and added to the Liturgies of the Church now one piece then another And if a true man may challenge his goods wheresoever he finds them which the thief hath drawn into his Den then the Church of God may lawfully lay claim to those holy things which the Church of Rome hath usurped and snatch them away from among the trash wherewith they are mingled A great deal more to the same purpose you may find in Mr. John Ball * Answer to two Treatises of Mr. John Can. 1642. part 2. pag. 9. which I cannot now stand to tell you The sum is this That Popery is a Scab or Leprosie that cleaves to the Church It mostly stands in erroneous faulty gross and abominable superstructures upon the true Foundation whereby they poyson or overthrow the foundation it self But take away the superstructures and the foundation remains Remove the Leprosie and the man is sound N. C. You talk of Liturgies in the ancient Church We read of none in the Apostles time C. True But as the same person ingenuously confesses ** Ib. part 2. p. 17. they might be though we read nothing of them For the Apostles have not set down a Catalogue of all and every particular Order that was in the Church However a set form of Prayer to be used in publick meetings is not unlawful because it is of the number of things which God hath not determined in his Word c. And as to call that Holy which God hath not commanded is Superstitious so it is erroneous to condemn that as unholy or prophane which God allows or is consonant to his Word though not precisely commanded N. C. It is a common opinion that the Liturgy is a novel Invention in the dayes of blindness and laziness in favour of Idle and debauched Priests C. You are all as learned as the Prefacer to your Book But you might be more truly learned if you would read the Author now mention'd who tells you that though it 's hard to
perpetual in the Church as we read in Mr. Cottons Catechism Now having devised these things to name no more I observe that the Covenant in the same Church is in one and the same Form of words as well as matter and therefore put into writing and must be read by the party to be admitted or he must hear it read by some other and give his Assent to it Here is not only a Form of Holy Covenant a principal point of worship as W. R. notes invented by one or more men but imposed upon others even as many as enter into the Church and more than that to be read upon a Book What is this better or how is it more lawful than a set form of prayer especially since this Covenant is imposed as an Ordinance of God and absolutely necessary so as no Book-Prayer I think is I find also that by this Covenant the Members in some places †Church of Salem in New-Engl were restrained and tyed up from shewing their gifts in speaking or scrupling till they were called thereto that is they being allowed to prophesie publickly and so to propound questions and make objections which they call Scrupling they bound them up in this Covenant which had the force of Law from doing it uncall'd I would fain know whether this be not to limit the Spirit as you speak and to stint it to times as you say we do it to words For if a man be never so full he must have no vent without a call from the Church And how I pray you doth this differ from an Ecclesiastical Canon as to it's force and obligation but only that it hath another name and all old Canons must be lay'd aside to make way for this new Covenant They tell us also expresly that the Magistrate may compel men to keep their Covenant though not to enter into it †Ib. Narration of Church Courses cap. 15. And for spreading of infectious Doctrines Mr. Wheelwright a Minister and Mrs. Hutchinson a pretended Prophetess were banished the Countrey Several of their followers also were some imprisoned some fined some disfranchised some banished and all disarmed for petitioning the Court in behalf of Mr. Wheelwright and remonstrating with due submission so their words were that they conceived he deserved no such censure a Proceedings of the General Court holden at New-Town Oct. 2. 1637. and the Apology in defence of the proceedings holden at Boston 1636. And great many more remarkable things there are in that story which I cannot stand to recite But must proceed to tell you that as for others who are not of their way there is just no liberty at all For as they will not grant communion to members of other Churches not constituted as they are so if a company of approved godly people should sit down near them where their power reaches differing from them only in some points of Church Government some of them tell us not only that they shall not be owned as a sister Church but also be in danger of severe punishment by the Civil Magistrate b Narration c. cap. 10. N. C. What is all this to our Independents C. They extol both the Men and the wayes of New-England to the Skyes and therefore approve of them I suppose not only as good but as excelling all other The Men they say have testified their sincerity to all generations future by the greatest undertaking except that of our Father Abraham viz. leaving this Countrey to go thither meerly to worship God more purely c Apologetical Narration 1643. pag. 5. And as for their wayes and practices they are improved to a better Edition and greater refinement than those of other Reformed Churches d Ib. which makes it reasonable to believe that when they Covenanted to reform according to the example of the best Reformed Churches they had New-England in their eyes as their pattern For those General words as Mr. Feak e Beam of Light p. 25. rightly observes left it under suspence and undetermined which of the Reformed Churches had obtained the highest degree of Reformation The Scots and their Friends judged the Kirk of Scotland the best Reformed the Dissenting Brethren approved the Reformation of New-England to be most excellent But be this as it will we have learn't thus much from what hath been related that the Churches of a better Edition and greater refinement do not think it unlawful to use forms in Gods holy Ordinances unto which they bind those who come under their Power restraining them also from opening their mouths when perhaps they think themselves full of the Spirit and denying leave to others to set up a different way from theirs in their Neighbourhood As for our Independents I can shew from their Books that they think it necessary to be as severe in a great many Cases 〈◊〉 and I remember as heavy complaints of them as ever they made of the Presbyterians and have been told that they daily spet their renom privately and publickly against those that separated from them a Vanity of the present Churches p. 3. and 11. c. N. C. It will be too long to relate all those things But I would fain know how this will stand with Christian Liberty C. Do you think that it consists in being tyed to no Law at all N. C. None but Gods C. Take heed what you say N. C. In matters of worship I mean C. That 's absurd as I have shewn you Gods Law hath only given us the general rules whereby things to be ordered in the Church according to which our Governors are to make particular Laws and we are to obey them or else there will be nothing but confusion Yet still our Christian Liberty remains because First we are not tyed to this or that pattern or Model but our Governors have liberty to establish whatsoever being in it self indifferent shall seem to them most expedient for maintaining comliness and Order And secondly when any orders are established this is our Liberty as our Divines teach you that we do not use them as any part of Divine Worship as some of you do nor as meritorious and satisfactory nor as necessary to justification or salvation but only for discipline and good Orders sake And lastly by consequence the same Authority may alter them and hath not so tyed up it self to them but that it is at liberty to abolish those in case of inconvenience arising and establish others in the room But such a Liberty as leaves men loose from all Laws and Orders save those that they shall chuse themselves is a wild fancy which your Ministers condemn as well as ours Mr. Dury for instance a very moderate Presbyterian tells the Independent Brethren We must expect no such Liberty as shall break the Bond of Spiritual Unity which by the allowance of a publick tolleration of a different Church Government may be occasioned To keep therefore Unity intire a few must
Of their Canting phrases as Generation-work witnessing time from pag. 81. to 91 Dr. Wilkinsons confidence noted pag. 85 86 How they have shifted and changed phrases to serve their turn Ib. Of the power of phrases to hinder men from observing how they have been cheated pag. 88 The power they fancy they have to destroy us pag. 90 Their opinion of their knowledge and worth pag. 93 c. Of their practice and skill in expounding works of providence pag. 94 c. Their people not more knowing than ours pag. 99 Many know not what that is which they cry out against pag. 101 Instances in Popery superstition Will-worship pag. 102 103 c. About forms of prayer pag. 106 Their forms of railing which they use even in prayer c. pag. 107 Their small skill save only in phrases pag. 110 As appears by their easie turning to the wildest Sects pag. 111 A famous instance of this in New England pag. 112 Mistakes about the Spirits teaching and inspirations c. pag. 113 This together with the obscurity of their Doctrine a great cause of peoples doubts and desertions pag. 114 An instance of the intricate way of Mr. Hooker to satisfie a doubting Christian pag. 115 And to bring it to the promise as he speaks pag. 116 Hence the New England whimseyes pag. 117 Mr. J. Durants way of comforting believers and opening Scriptures pag. 118 119 They are no better at resolving doubts about particular actions pag. 120 How Religion hath been spoiled of late and exposed to contempt pag. 123 Non-conformists great want of Modesty pag. 126 c. Concerning eminent men pag. 129 Of judging others in what things we may in what not pag. 130 Charity covers a Multitude but cannot or may not cover all sins pag. 131 By what means prophaness came to abound pag. 133 Publicans and Harlots or Scribes and Pharisees which the worse pag. 135 136 The danger of Schism and separated Congregations pag. 138 139 Mr. Bridge his vain conceit that we are angry because they withdraw from us and slight us pag. 140 c. How 2 Cor. 6.17 is abused by him to countenance the separation pag. 144 By which and such like the old Brownists and more ancient Donatists justified their Schism pag. 145 The wise and charitable courses to which St. Austin directs us when men are generally bad pag. 146 147 Mr. Calvins judgment of a true Church and separation from it pag. 149 And Presbyterian Ministers judgment pag. 151 Act. 19.9 doth not countenance the separation pag. 152 The impertinent allegation of that place Rev. 14.4 by Mr. Bridg pag. 153 How the people have been cheated with the noise of such words as Babylon c. pag. 154 And by other means pag. 155 156 c. Of Idol Ministers pag. 158 c. The folly of those who think our Ministers out of respect to themselves are troubled to see people go to meetings pag. 161 The true reason of their trouble and the great danger of separation pag. 162 Not only to those who are of it but to others pag. 163 The great extremities it hurries men into pag. 165 The Presbyterian excuse that they separate not from us as Antichristian considered pag. 166 c. It makes their cause the worse if it be true pag. 168 Which tender conscienc'd men should consider especially remembring the issue pag. 169 170 The disorders among the Independents when in Holland pag. 171 And more anciently among the old Separatists pag. 172 173 c. No security against the like or worse again pag. 175 In vain to bewail these Divisions unless we take a course to amend them pag. 177 What belongs to private persons to do in order to it pag. 178 c. Not study so much their Governors duty as their own and what that is pag. 180 181 Of yielding on both sides pag. 182 The ancient Non-conformists did not think they still ought to preach when they were deprived but the contrary that they ought not pag. 183 The idle pretence of some from that place Wo be to me if I preach not confuted pag. 185 186 And of not consulting with flesh and blood pag. 187 Non-conformists do it too much Ib. Else why do they not teach as the old Non-conformists did how lawful set forms are c. pag. 188 189 And teach this with great earnestness pag. 190 Especially considering how miserably some are prejudiced against them pag. 191 That exception answered though a form be lawful yet useless pag. 192 Some reflections on a Book called Common-prayer Book Dovotions Episcopal Delusions c. pag. 193 The prophaness and chollerick scurrility of it pag. 194 c. The Ignorance and boldness of the Prefacer pag. 197 Mr. Cartwright not against a set form of Prayer c. pag. 199 How vainly he vapours with the name of Mr. Parker Ib. And abuses Mr. Greenham pag. 200 But above all Dr. J. Reynolds who lived and dyed conformable in all things to the orders of the Church of England pag. 201 Some of the little reasonings in the book answered pag. 203 204 The abuse of a place of Scripture noted pag. 205 The Liturgy smels not of the Mass-book pag. 206 Antiquity of Liturgies by their own confession pag. 207 The presumption and uncharitableness of this Writer pag. 208 209 His main Argument answered pag. 210 After all his blustering he allows a prescribed form to be lawful pag. 211 And is fain to wrest some Scriptures in favour of conceived prayers pag. 213 His false arguing from Jer. 7.31 and such like places pag. 214 How that place Deut. 12.32 is wont to be misinterpreted pag. 215 It was the manner of Mr. J. G. to speak confidently be the cause never so bad pag. 217 218 Non-conformists generally guilty of too much confidence pag. 219 A gross corruption of Dr. Sibbs his souls conflict after his death noted Ib. 220 c. Of Forms of Prayer and of imposing them pag. 222 Smectymnuus allowed impositions in some cases pag. 223 The Presbyterians were against a Tolleration of the Independent way pag. 224 The Independents also impose their own devices have forms also c. pag. 226 c. Of Christian Liberty pag. 229 The opinion of Mr. Dury and Mr. Cotton c. about this pag. 230 231 Of Penalties pag. 232 The opinion of Presbyterians and Independents formerly about them pag. 233 How the King himself was abridg'd of his Liberty pag. 234 The Independents for punishments pag. 236 Some good Counsels out of Mr. Bernard pag. 239 How to behave our selves in doubts pag. 241 Some good Rules to guide our selves by pag. 242 What to do if we think that is sinful which Authority commands pag. 243 Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of faith is sin opened Ib. Of fear to offend others pag. 244 The great want of charity and such like graces pag. 245 How these good Counsels were contemned by the separatists pag. 246 A description of them Ib. The Resolution of the
tell us p. 10. That some are faln from the Truth which they saw so much despised and back slidden to Popery as the only Religion in their opinion wherein Vnity and Order is maintained And a little after p. 16. they say they are afraid lest too many may be too well conceited of that Religion finding Rome justified by Englands Confusion as Sodom was by Israels sin You may say perhaps according to your usual manner that all these were wicked But this is not so easily proved as peremptorily said And there want not good reasons to make us think that several well disposed persons by occasion of this Schism and the Scorn cast upon our Governors and Divine Service which accompanies it have forsaken our Communion and gone thither where they heard there was more Unity Order and reverence to Authority N. C. Our Ministers are as much against those who revile your Worship and Service or do not reverence Authority as you can be C. How doth that appear There is nothing more frequent with such as Mr. Bridge than to teach the people that our way of Worship and Church Government is Antichristian Read but the 5. of his Ten Sermons p. 370. and you will see I do not bely him Or for more full satisfaction I refer you to another Book of his called Seasonable Truths in Evil Times * Newly Princed 1668. where you may find him instructing them too plainly p. 118. that such as he have their Orders to preach or prophesy from Jesus Christ himself but Others by whom he can mean none but our Ministers have their Orders and power from Men from Prelates from the Beast for these are all one in his language Nay more than this he teaches the poorest weakest man or woman to go to Jesus Christ for a power to Prophesy remembring them what one Alice Driver said in Queen Mary's daies I 'le set my foot against the foot of the proudest Prelate of them all in the cause of Jesus Christ And therefore why should you not go to Christ says he and lay your selves flat upon the Promise and say to him O Lord I am a poor weak creature I fear I shall never be able to bear my Testimony but thou hast said I will give power to my two witnesses and I am one of thy witnesses Now then O Lord give power to me c. By which you may judge what he thinks of those Magistrates that uphold our Worship and Orders and allow no such weak creatures as his silly credulous followers to commence Prophets and Prophetesses when ever they shall fancy that Jesus Christ himself hath given them Power and Orders to preach and whether they be the Godly Magistrates or no Gods anointedones whom he speaks of p. 110. N. C. Those that I am acquainted withal dislike his boldness as much as your self C. If the rest of your Ministers have such an hearty abhorrence as I have of those that cast dirt even in the face of Authority it self let them shew it by some means or other Why do they not petition his Majesty now as some of your Churches did the late Protector not many years ago that he would chastise such Persons as these N. C. I remember no such thing C. But I do and you shall find it in the address presented to Richard Cromwel from the County of Northampton There after many high commendations of his Father whom they call the light of their eyes and the breath of their Nostrils and great expressions of joy that he had left him to them as a most choise Legacy they desire he would shew tenderness toward the name of God against the bold Blasphemers of his Magistracy Defamers of his sacred Ordinances Seducers from Truth Corrupters of his Worship And then that he would exercise just severity against despisers of Dignities and revilers of Authority Whose unhallowed Tongues set on fire from hell spare not to flash out their insolent reproaches and impious execrations against his Fathers Sepulchre and his own throne But I consider that in those daies it was their concernment to have despisers and revilers punisht Now they serve the Cause and help to disgrace the present establishment which is the reason I suppose that all the Churches are so mute in this matter N. C. You take the Liberty to say what you list but let me say little or nothing And when you have done you write a Dialogue between Your self and a Non-conformist in which you make him speak just what you think good and no more Is this fair dealing C. Where did you get the sole privilege of writing Dialogues You imagine perhaps we have forgot those that you entertain'd the people withal some years ago but our memories are not yet so slippery I call to mind for instance the Dialogue between a Countrey-Gentleman and a minister of the Word about the Common-Prayer answered by Authority 1641. And another between a Loyalist and a Royalist about our Civil Liberties an 1644. The first of these I can scarce forget if I would the Author of it Mr. Lowes Hughes imparting to me such an extraordinary piece of Learning as this that Kyrieleeson is a word compounded of Hebrew and Greek signifying in English Lord have mercy upon us He furnisht me also with a memorable reason why the Mass-Book leaves out the Dexology at the end of the Lords Prayer because the Pope saies he will have none of his Church neither Priest nor People to give so much honour and glory to God Which he was so well conceited of that he repeats it twice within the compass of a few leaves This good man I sometimes fancy would have been a chosen instrument and done marvelous well to write a RATIONALE of the Directory In which he might have told us that RATIONALE was a word compounded of Latin and English signifying All Reason And inform'd us in particular that the cause why the Assembly left it to mens liberty to leave out the whole Lords Prayer if they pleased was only this that all their Church might give all honour and glory to Jesus Christ So I suppose his Affection would have made him say though if he had followed his Reason it would have led him to this that as the Pope left out some of it because he would not do our Saviour so much honour so they permitted men to leave out all that every man might do him as little honour as he pleased N. C. You cannot for your life forbear to lead me now and then to some mirth C. I intended only to represent how your Ministers sometime abuse themselves more than any of us ever did As for my self I am not conscious of the least abuse I have put upon you nor that I have made you say any thing but what your people are wont to talk Certain I am that all the wit your Party hath shall never be able to find any such Absurdity in my Book as that Dialogue against
reward of a Physician N. C. Discharge of your duty you should say disgorging your Choler and Gall. Nay they will never believe if they hear what you now Discourse but that you wrote out of meer malice on purpose to disgrace them and that you deserve the reward of such Physicians as kill more than they cure C. How came they by this faculty of searching the heart N.C. How came you to ask this question C. I forgot my self Since they can see what God doth in the Spirits of men no wonder they can spy our thoughts and intentions N.C. I meant that they can see by your Book what your intentions were C. So they may For I told them plainly in my preface that I intended only to awaken them to see their Errors but it seems their Spirit look't into mine when I wrote those words and could see my thoughts better than my self Hath W. B. or his disciples had some Revelation about this matter N.C. None but what they received from your Book which contradicts they think your Epistle and declares the hatred you bear to them C. To their Schismatical spirit you should have said For I can sincerely profess as Mr. Edwards doth in another case That I have no personal quarrel with any of them no old grudge or former difference and therefore had not Truth constrained me Pref. to Antapolog I had out of respect and love to some of them forborn to say any thing of these matters And therefore let not my Book by reason of its truth and plainness be branded for a bitter railing and malitious Writing But let them consider that they need such a Book as doth not flatter and extol them but be plain and free with them For the truth is as he goes on they have been too much flatter'd both in their Persons and Churches and are undone for want of being plainly and freely dealt withal A Candle hath been too long held to them I hope my Book may do them much good to abate their swelling and confidence And if many of our Ministers would deal more plainly with them it would be better both for them and us I remember a passage concerning Luther in an Epistle of Calvin's to Melancthon they are still the same mans words which the persons being changed may be fitly applied to my purpose If there were that mind in us all that ought to be perhaps some remedy might be found And certainly we transmit an unworthy Example to posterity while we cast away all liberty rather than offend a few men Will not their vehemency rise and grow the more while all bear with them and suffer all things from them Undoubtedly it will Our base silence doth but make them open their mouths wider to declaim against us We cherish their insolent behaviour while we make no Opposition and give no check to their violence They imagine we allow them to be so worthy as they fancy themselves while we sit still and only see and hear their Folly And therefore to shew that we know them not that we hate them I took the Freedom to write those things which you accuse of Malice N.C. But as I told you they tend to their Disgrace C. No man ought to think himself disgraced by Truth nor reproached by just Reproof He should rather think he dishonours himself a thousand times more by still persisting in his Errors and justifying his faults And if you resolve upon this Course and seek rather to cast reproaches on us than amend your selves I doubt not it will turn at last to your greater disgrace and make you more vile in the esteem of all indifferent men N.C. Assure your self you had better have been otherwise imploy'd and never have meddled in this business C. I am not afraid of any evil Tongue nor of any thing else that man can do unto me But as your Mr. Cartwright once said am of Alcibiades his mind who trusting to the power of Truth when one lift up his staff ready to smite him if he would not hold his peace boldly replyed Smite me so thou wilt but hear me N.C. No they will not smite but they will defend themselves C. With all my heart But be you assured as he said in another case their heels will sooner ake with kicking against the prick than it suffer any hurt by receiving their broken and strengthless Resistance N.C. You are very warm and confident C. To tell you the very truth I have long observed in the fiery men that oppose our Church a strange Pride and conceit of the godliness of their own party beyond all reason together with a most shameful despisal of us as if our Piety were little or none at all This moved my Indignation and it will stir I think the spirit of any honest and cordial Christian to read such haughty Censures as these from the mouth of your most famous Divines That the Bishops are a generation of the Earth earthly Preface to the Dioces Trial. An. 1621. and savour not the things of God They are the words of Mr. Paul Bains approved by no less man than Dr. Ames who is pleased to add in his great modesty that there was as much agreement between them in their management of Religion except two or three and their powerful Preachers as between the light which comes down from Heaven and that thick mist which arises from the lowest pit And that there is more of God and his Religion in some one congregation of a silenc'd Minister than in all the Bishops families in England I appeal to all the world whether I had not reason to stomack these proud vaunts and scornful speeches And whether it was not absolutely necessary to let you see the emptiness flatness to say no worse of those men who now insult over us in like manner and would bear the world in hand that they are the only powerful Preachers who alone savour the things of God N.D. You have only cull'd a few sayings out of one or two Books C. They should have thankt me for that And might have seen if they pleased by that moderation that I was not desirous to publish their shame more than needs but studied their amendment by disclosing a little of their folly and concealing the rest If they will not believe but that I did my worst and revealed all I knew let them but signify this distrust of my Charity and I shall give them abundant satisfaction Mr. T. W. I am sure hath no cause to complain who with so much labour brings forth childish fancies and is so curious to speak absurdly and takes so much care to avoid serious and solid sense in the most weighty Arguments that his great Pains is conspicuous in these Defects Of this I did but give a small tast and that not out of the worst of his conceits which he ought to look upon as the Civility of a Friend and not as the want of skill in
shame But when the same sickness hath taken hold of very many there remains nothing else to the good but sorrow and be wailing that so they may escape that destruction which is like to come on the multitude of the wicked And in very deed saith he if the contagion of sinning hath invaded the multitude the severe mercy of Divine discipline is necessary but the counsel or enterprises of separation are both vain and pernicious yea sacrilegious because then they become both impious and proud and give more trouble to the good which are weak than they correct the sturdy ones who are evil And concluding this point he gives this Advice Let a man therefore with Mercy correct what he can and that which he cannot let him bear with patience And with love let him mourn and lament until He from above do either redress and amend or else differr until the harvest to root out the tares and to winnow out the chaff And here he alledges the example of St. Cyprian that holy Martyr who had been Bishop of Carthage and describes the multitude as full of gross sins yea many of his fellow Bishops as spotted with very foul crimes but yet he communicated with them though not in their sins which he evermore reprehended yet in the Sacraments and holy Worship of God Nay he shews that our Saviour himself did not separate in Body from the Pharisees and Saduces and multitude of common people but met with them at the Temple And it is also plain that the African Church in St. Austin's dayes besides their evil manners had some other blemishes which cannot be charged on ours for by his own complaint it appears there were such a multitude of Rites and Ceremonies then in use that they were a very great burden and the Church was oppressed and groaned under them And therefore I think your preciseness in separating from us is more like the disdainful and proud Religion of the Scribes and Pharisees than the humble and charitable purity of our blessed Saviour N. C. If you take these old Fathers for your Guides they will lead you I now not whither They held many strange Opinions C. I suppose you would separate from them too if they were alive But what think you of Mr. Calvin He is a more modern Father and you may think perhaps more inlightned will you stand to his judgment N. C. Why What says he C. He tells you that Wheresoever the Gospel is purely preached and the Sacraments administred according to the institution of Christ there is the Church of God Instit Book 4. Cap. 1. Sect. 9. And if the very multitude hath and doth honour these it deserves without doubt to be esteemed and judged a Church because it is certain that these things are not without fruit And if you look a litle further to the next Section he repeats it again with much earnestness Sect. 10. There appears in such a multitude as he mentioned before neither a deceitful nor doubtful face of a Church Of which no man may either despise the Authority or refuse the Admonitions or resist the Counsels or mock at the Corrections much less depart from it break in sunder the Unity of it and go unpunished For the Lord so highly esteems the Communion of the Church that he counts him for a Traiterous Runaway and forsaken of Religion whosoever shall stubbornly estrange himself from any Christian fellowship So that it be such a one as hath a true Ministry of the word and Sacraments He so commends the Churches Authority That when it is violated he judges his own diminished Do you hear this N. C. Yes But C. To prevent all your exceptions look further into the 12. Sect. and there he will tell you that the fellowship of such a Church is never to be cast off though it swarm full of many faults Yea and there may be some faultiness crept into it in the Administration either of Doctrine or of the Sacraments yet it ought not to estrange us from the Communion of it For all the Articles be not of one sort And therefore we ought not rashly for every light dissention forsake the Church c. But then in the next he tells you that in bearing with the imperfections of life our gentle tenderness ought to go much further And in the next but one that it is one thing to shun the private company of a wicked man and another for hatred of such to forsake the Communion of the whole Church Which is to be more rigorous than St. Paul And although this temptation to forsake the Church may by an indiscreet zeal of righteousness Sect. 16. enter into the thought of a good man yet we shall find that too much preciseness grows rather out of Pride Disdainfulness and false Opinion of holiness than of true holiness and true zeal thereof They that are bolder than others and as it were the Standart-bearers to make any departing from the Church for the most part do it upon no other cause but their despising of all men to boast themselves to be better than others But I think I had best let the rest alone lest you say I rail upon godliness of which this Separation is now grown a great note though in Mr. Calvins words N. C. We are not to mind what men say Nor to have their persons in admiration C. No Not what your own Ministers say Sure their words are another Gospel with you or else how come you so to misunderstand the old N. C. They are good men and so we value what they say C. I 'le shew you then that they have said the very same in behalf of our Form of Divine Service that I did the last time we talkt together And that they condemn this withdrawing from us which Mr. Bridge makes the mark of a Saint N. C. Pray let it alone It will be too long C. Let me tell you thus much That they told their Brethren of New-England heretofore that if we deny communion with such a Church as ours there hath been no Church these 1400. years with which a Christian might lawfully joyn Nay Letter of many Ministers in Old England requesting the judgment of their Brethren in New Engl concerning 9. Positions 1637. with their Answer 1639. And the Reply 1640 Published afterward by Mr. Simeon Ash and Mr. W. Rathband 1643. that if such scruples as are now in your heads may take place it will be unlawful to hold communion with any Society under Heaven And that as for making an Idol of the Common Prayer which by the way was a phrase they themselves made use of afterward it might be as well said that they made an Idol of their conceived Prayers And therefore what evil spirit is it that now possesses so many of your Presbyterian Ministers and hath driven them as if they were out of their wits from our Church and their own Principles and from all the Churches of
no end of Schisms But every two or three members if they pleased might set up a Church by themselves Witness the rent in that Church where Mr. Bridge and Mr. Sympson were teachers at Rotterdam Where Mr. Sympson Antapologia p. 29. p. 117. as Mr. Edwards informs us having only a Merchant and his Wife joyning with him at the first separated from Mr. Bridge and set up a new Church of their own Of which a Woman Mrs. White was the soundress as Mr. Bridge himself hath said And when they were thus torn in sunder both parts of the Division fell together by the cars among themselves There was a new rent in Mr. Sympsons company and Mr. Ward colleague to Mr. Bridge was deposed from his Ministry and office by Mr. Bridge his Church for some frivolous differences And such was the bitterness revilings and reproaches expressed in the letters that passed between them that the Readers ears would tingle should he hear them In short the Jews and the Samaritans were not greater Enemies than these were one to another as my Author affirms N. C. Mr. Edwards you mean C. Yes and I hope you think him a good one now as you did heretofore If not I can justifie what he sayes out of a learned Dutch writer if you please N. C. I am not much concern'd about this C. But you are concern'd to keep in mind these scandals in separate Congregations And it will do you no hurt I am sure to reflect a great deal farther back and consider what work the ancient Separatists of our Nation made in the same Country Johnson and Ainsworth fell out at Amsterdam and their Congregation was divided into two one of which excommunicated the other The two Johnsons also though Brethren in nature as well as Religion fell into such a fiery contention upon a small occasion that George the younger became a Libeller and loaded his Brother and others with many reproaches and that in Print to remain for ever The Elder broke fellowship with him and with his own Father who took part with George and curfed the other with all the curses in Gods Book and this breach was confirm'd by the heavy sentence of Excommunication and both Father and Brother delivered up to the Devil But then at Leiden J. Smith condemned them all and accused them of Idolatry telling them that their Constitution was as very a Harlot as either her Mother England or Grandmother Rome and that the Separation was the youngest and fairest daughter of Rome the Harlot The reason was because they look't into their Bibles when they preach't and into the Psalter when they sung For the Holy Scriptures he said were not to be retained as helps before the eyes in time of worship and particularly that it was unlawful to have a Book before them in singing of Psalms Besides their Government he thought was Antichristian because they joyned to Pastors other Doctors and Rectors which was an human invention And so he fell to the Anabaptists where he made also a new sect by baptizing himself if you please to have some of his words perhaps they may be useful to you When Popish prelacy saith he was suppressed and the Triformed Prebytery viz. Pastors Teachers and Elders substituted In his Book called the Differences of the Churches of the Sepation one Antichrist was put down and another set up in his place or the Beast was suppressed and his Image advanced And therefore as they that submit to the Prelacy are subject to that wo of Worshipping the Beast so they that submit to the Triform'd Presbytery are in like manner liable to that wo denounced against them that worship the Image of the Beast N. C. I perceive what you are going to say you would have me mark again how every Party paint their Opposites in the shape of this ugly Beast to terrifie simple people with it as we do children with Bug-bears C. And whosoever reads and considers these things will be I think of old Mr. Bernards mind who told this Nation threescore years ago that * it is better to endure Corruptions in a Church Mr. R. Bern. Plain Evidences Ann. 1610. p. 6. than be turmoiled with such Distractions and to be brought into such Confusions even a Babel of Languages of Opinions of Assemblies of Governing of Government and what not It is a blessing to be Well but a greater blessing to know it and so to abide For besides other Separations which I could tell you of the issue and result of all was this the decay of all true piety and a turning all Religion into wrangling censuring and condemning one another For as all that have declined to that Schism mark it I beseech you if the character do not concern some of you are found to be exceeding proud Consutation of the separatist agreed upon long since by the joynt consent of many Non-conformists Ministers published by Mr. W. Rathband 1644. part 4. p. 62 and disdainful towards all that are contrary-minded Yea even such as before they were infected with that leven were patterns of all love modesty and humility to others So will they not acknowledg nor reverence any of the most excellent graces that God hath given to any of his servants among us nor so much respect them as the very Papists will do No they profess greater detestation and despight to the most godly and most sincere men among us than they do to such as are most notorious in Prophaneness and Malice to the Truth And a Divine more ancient than these gave this remarkable Description of the fruits produced by separate Congregations Look upon the people saith he and you shall see very many who not regarding the chief Christian Virtues and Godly Duties as namely to be meek to be patient to be lowly to be full of love and mercy to deal uprightly and justly to guide their families in the fear of God with wholesome Instructions Mr. G. Gyfford's plain Declaration in which he undertakes not to vindicate every thing in our Church but that there was no sufficient cause of separation An. 1590. and to stand fast in the calling in which God hath set them give themselves wholly to this even as if it were the Sum and Pith of Religion namely to argue and talk continually against matters in the Church against Bishops and Ministers and one against another on both sides Some are proceeded to this that they will come to the Assemblies to hear Sermons and Prayers of the Preacher but not to the Prayers of the Book which I take to be a more grievous sin than many do suppose But yet this is not the worst For sundry are gone further and faln into a damnable Schism and the same so much the more fearful and dangerous in that many do not see the Foulness of it but rather hold them as godly Christians and but a little over-shot in some matters Which words I have the rather recited that
say Come let us go up out of this Babel and confusion Let us return to Sion though it be with weeping and Supplication There the Lord dwelleth and there he is truly worshipped For whatsoever they may acknowledg sometime the poor people whom I pity with all my soul are strangely and passionately possessed with an opinion of the sinfulness of being present at our Divine Service Many of them esteem one of our Ministers how well soever qualified and diligent in his calling however blameless and exemplary in his conversation no better than a Corrupt man a Time-server a Formalist Popishly affected or at least a man blinded and deceived through Ignorance Nay there are those who call them the Sons of Perdition and make them men of no Conscience Some have questioned whether they may marry a Conformist as if they were the people of a strange God To hear such a Minister they look upon as a great crime At least they think if any other be to be found they must go to the Non-Conformist though far the weaker man And as if they thought that to be godliness in themselves which they call tyranny in other men there are some that impose this upon their Children never to hear the Common-Prayer And charge them as I have heard upon their blessing to obey them in this Command And when for very shame they 01 cannot but acknowledg the gifts of some Ministers then they limit the use of them only to the information of mens Minds in the letter of the Scripture and discovering gross sins But that they may convert Souls and work Faith and Repentance in them they very much doubt if not flatly deny Nay so far doth this conceit carry some of them that they will scarce give a friendly countenance or salutation to us And they commonly call any small company of their own party the Church the people of God the Christians of such a town As if we had no portion in Christ but they had got him wholly to themselves These Humours were observed in the old Separatists and since they abound in you also there is great need to warn you to purge out the old leven lest it be transmitted from generation to generation N. C. But though a set Forum be lawful yet it is useless because there is no able Minister that needs one and we ought not to provide Crutches for those that are not able but rather remove them C. You would fain be Governors I see not subjects and we should have fine doings if you were in the Throne Unless you were as wise and honest as some of your Predecessors have been who made this discreet answer to your Exception There may be good Ministers who want the gift of extemporary conceptions of Prayer and by consequence need a Form For St. Paul setting down the requisites to a Bishop saith Mr. Geree * Resolution of 10. Cases Licensed by Mr. Cranford and dedicated to Mr. Rith Capel An. 1644. 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tit. Neither names nor intimates this for one of them And where the Scripture speaks of Ministerial gifts given to the edification of the Church this gift of prayer is never mentioned * 1 Corinth 1. to the 11. Rom. 12.6.7.8 Ephes 4.11.12 Tell me then if a man have all that St. Paul requires in a Bishop and yet wants this gift is he a lawful Minister of the Gospel or not No doubt there are such who cannot express themselves without confusion or to the edification of others without the help of a Form And experience tells us very excellent men have constantly tyed themselves to it As Dr. Taylor a couragious witness to the Truth used the Communion-Book even in private when he was in Prison and bequeath'd it as a Legacy to his Wife He instances also in Dr. Sibs and Mr. Hildersham who used constantly one form of Prayer before their Sermons And I find indeed the two last Sermons of the Doctor sent abroad by two eminent men with that Prayer before them * Upon 14. John 1. published by Mr. Tho. Goodwin and Mr. Philip Nye and dedicated to my Lord of Warwick By which you may see the Assembly were much out of the way when they told you the Lord Jesus furnishes all those whom he calls to the Ministry with this gift of Prayer Or else these men were among the idle and unedifying Ministry who did not put forth themselves to exercise their gift Preface to the Directory N.C. I have many things to say about Forms of Prayer and yours in particular especially about the imposing them if you have the patience to hear me C. With all my heart Only contract what you have to say because I have some business stayes for me N.C. You have seen a Book I perceive which hinders several persons I am told from joyning with you and they think it unanswerable C. What Goliah should that be N. C. It is called Common Prayer-Book-Devotions Episcopal Delusions Or the Second Death of the Service-Book C. A terrible Giant-like Title N.C. The Preface to which seems to call your Ministers the Sons of Perdition as you just now noted C. O I remember now it is said by his Friends to be writ by Mr J. Goodwin and printed in the wonderful year 1666 when they thought to see us tumble down with a powder N.C. It is full of his peculiar phrases and therefore C. I am not concern'd at all who was the Author Let 's consider what he says I took it to be a piece so soul and scurrilous nay so prophane and blasphemous against those Devotions wherein so many thousand Souls offer up themselves to God that I never expected to hear you name it without abhorrence N.C. You pass a very hard sentence on it C. If you had read the two first leaves seriously you would not say so Where as if he imagin'd himself in a Tennis-Court when he chanc't to peep into a Church he rudely calls the Minister's and People's answering one another Bandying and tossing of Devotions to and again a witty expression you think but borrowed alas as the rest of his Book from the Railers that were before him * It is as old as the Admonition in Qu. Elizabeths time Nay his fancy stept immediately from thence into an Ale-house and he tells us that these Devotions much resemble the jolly Scent of a set of Ale-inspired Companions chanting their drunken Catches upon a Bench. Which is such a leud and impious Scoff at the Devotions inspired by the Holy-Ghost which directed the Antient Saints thus to answer one another * 15 Exo. 1.21.15 Rev. 3. that to speak in Mr. J. Goodwins phrase he must be the first-born of prophanness who can deliberately commend such writings N.C. But what do you say to the rest of the Book C. I say he was in such a Cholerick fit and laid so furiously about him when he writ it that neither the admirable Song of St. Ambrose nor
he have any of that vertuous colour left N.C. Was not Cartwright of his mind C. No. For he declared his meaning was not to disallow of a prescript form of Prayer and an Vniform Order in the Church His quarrel was onely with some things in our service-Service-Book But yet he professed he did not oppose the Ceremonies as simply unlawful but only as inconvenient And therefore perswaded the Pretchers rather to wear the Surpliss than cease their Ministry and the people to receive the Sacrament kneeling if they could not have it otherways because though that gesture was as he conceived incommodious yet not simply unlawful All which and a great deal more I will prove out of his own works and other good Authors if it be contradicted as also that he lost his Professors-place at Cambridge upon other accounts and after all went to Warwick where he was born and dyed in the discharge of his Office as their Minister And Mr. Edwards I remember tells us that he citing a passage out of Mr. Cartwright's Comments on the Proverbs in a Sermon he preached a little before the Wars to perswade the people to take heed of the White Devil viz. the separation upon greater pretence of Purity Mr. John Goodwin came to him when he had done and gave him great thanks for it As for Mr. Parker he indeed went further and said the Ceremonies were unlawful either to be imposed or used But he was far from being so great a Schollar as this man fancies at least his learning was not well digested For taking upon him to maintain that Popish Idolatry is every whit as bad as Pagan he brings a passage out of Saint Augustine to justifie this that a Heretick is worse than a Pagan Which are the Words of another man whom Saint Augustine in that place confutes and asks him by what rule he concluded this seeing our Lord said If he hear not the Church let him be to thee as an Heathen not worse than an Heathen By which you may see how how forward men of this spirit are to catch at any thing that may seem to favour their Opinions and to make a shew of learning when they think it will serve them though they slight and undervalue it as a carnal weapon when it is in their Adversaries hands And if I thought this man understood him I should imagin he had learnt of Mr. Parker to magnifie those of his own party beyond their deserts For he extolls the refusing of conformity as such a singular piece of service done to God that he compares such persons as were therefore deprived to David Worthies and the three hundred men that followed Gideon Most brave flourishes How can you chuse but yield your felf captive to such Champions believing this Preface upon his word that those he Musters up were in the number of the Worthies But he belies Mr. Greenham too as I am able to prove from good Testimony even from himself But for brevities sake I shall only let you know that Doctor John Burges assures us that on his own knowledge and in his hearing Mr. Greenham denied to perswade any man against the use of the Ceremonies and professed he would be loth to be put to the solution of this Objection as he called it wear the Surpliss or Preach not Which is an argument that though he did not like them yet he did not hold them unlawful much less Idolatrous as this Ignorant Writer would perswade us I can prove also that he abuses Doctor Ames but that I make haste to tell you the most palpable forgery of all is the putting Doctor Reynolds into the Catalogue of his Mighty Men. And since he pretends to understand Latine I will send him for his more full conviction to an Author no less learned than that excellent Doctor and a far better Schollar than any of the rest and that is Doctor Richard Crackanthorp who tells the Arch-bishop of Spalato that the Doctor was no Puritan as he called him but he himself a Calumniator Defens Ecclsiae Anglicanae c. cap 69 pag. 419. An. 1529. For first he professed that he appeared unvillingly in the cause at Hampton Court and meerly in obedience to the Kings command And then he spake against not one word there against the Hierarchy Nay he acknowledged it to be consonant to the word of God in his conference with Hart. And in an Answer to Sanders his Book of the Schism of England which is in the Arch-bishops Library he professes that he approves of the Book of Consecrating and ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons He was a strict observer also of all the Orders of the Church and University both in publick and his own Colledg wearing the Square Cap and Surpliss Kneeling at the Sacrament and he himself commemorating their Benefactors at the times their Statutes appointed and reading that Chapter out of Ecclesiasticus which is on such occasions used In a Letter also of his to Arch-bishop Bancroft then in Doctor Crackanthorps hands he professes himself conformable to the Church of England willingly and from his heart his Conscience admonishing him so to be And thus he remained perswaded to his last breath desiring to receive Absolution according to the manner prescribed in our Liturgy when he lay on his Death-bed Which he did from Doctor Holland the King's Professor in Oxford kissing his hand in token of his Love and Joy and within a few hours after resigned up his Soul to God What think you now was Doctor Reynolds one of those that abominated our Worship suffered extream persecution deprivation and banishment too Or must he that lately stood among the most learned and godly men in the World be now blotted out and put in the black list of Idolaters and touchers with Graven Images What say you Will you never see how these men deceive you Must the most knowing men on our side that report things to us from solid testimony be thought lyars and these impudent sots be believed on their bare word N.C. I am convinced he understood nothing of these matters C. And yet he writes like a Teacher though I believe he never studied their own Writers about these points If he had the silenced Ministers in those dayes would have taught him a great part of what I have said For they have told us in Print * Christian Modest Offer as they call it of the silenced Ministers in which they call for another disputation Anno 1606. that Most of those Ministers appointed to speak for them at Hampton Court were not of their chusing or Nomination or Judgment in the matters then in question but of a clean contrary For being intreated at that time to dispute against those things as simply evil and such as could not be yielded to without sin they professed to them they were not so perswaded and therefore could not do so And being then requested to let his Majesty understand that some of their Brethren were
only observe that heretofore your Ministers thought it no light Argument against the Separatists that all Reformed Churches acknowledged the Church of England as their sister and consequently did not think her wicked for imposing Forms of Prayer So you may read in the Book I told you of before published by Mr. Rathband p. 6. though the truth is those Ministers have taken that Argument out of the Book of Mr. Bernards * Errors of Barrow and Greenwood confuted 1608 pag. 178. who speaks discreetly when he saith That though we do not make this our only or chief defence whereby we seek to approve our selves to God or the consciences of his people yet it is a thing that gives some reputation to us For even Saint Paul who received not his calling either from or by men alledges for the credit of his Ministry that three chief Apostles approved him and gave him the right hand of fellowship And which is more he seeks to win commendation and credit even to those Orders which he by his Apostolical Authority might have established by the example and judgment of other Churches * For which he cites 1 Cor. 7.17.11.15.14.33.16.1 N. C. Then you are for imposing C. I am for that which all men of any discretion think necessary viz. that every body should not be left to do according to their present humour and fancy when they come to worship God in the publick Assemblies Even the famous Smectymnuus allowed impositions in some cases For they propound this as an expedient that if it shall appear any Minister proves insufficient to discharge the duty of prayer in a conceived way it may be imposed on him as a punishment to use a set form and no other †Answer to the Humble Remonstrance p. 14. This was indeed a contrivance to disgrace the Liturgy as if it were fit for no bodies use but the duller and heavier sort of People but yet it shews their judgment above imposing which you now complain of And I would fain know what they would have done with such insufficient persons as had a good opinion of their gifts and thinking themselves wrong'd in being condemned to the forenamed Pennance would not obey them Would they have forced them to obedience or no If not their expedient signified nothing If they would then why should not the Magistrate do it now who knows that most of those who love liberty have a better opinion of their own abilities than they ought N. C. We wish the Common Prayer was left at liberty to be used or not as men found themselves inclined C. Do you so That 's because you despise it and think it good for little or nothing But were there one of your own Inventions to be established you would never leave us at Liberty if you had power to make use of it or let it alone Nothing should stand in competition with it but every thing else as well as Common-Prayer fall before it as Dagon before the Ark. Did not the Independents incur your displeasure for craving an allowance to order a few Churches after their own fashion Mr. Dury himself I remember a man of peace and composer of differences resolved their way was not to be tollerated For it would lay said he †Epistolary Discourse p. 21. Licensed by Mr. Cranford July 27. 1644. the foundation of strife and Division in the Kingdom to have two wayes of Church Government which may agree with some Matchiavilian but no Christian Policy And therefore it will be no wisdom in the State to yield to the Suit of the five Brethren except it be induced thereunto by the Necessity of avoiding some greater inconvenience than is the admitting of a seed of perpetual Division within it self which is in my apprehension the greatest of all other and most opposite to the Kingdom of Christ Now the less the cause of separation is the greater is the fault in those that make it and the less cause the State hath to give way to the making of it You remember therefore what Ordinances were made for the electing of Elders and that all Parishes and places whatsoever as well priviledged and exempt jurisdictions as others should be brought under the Government of Congregational Classical Provincial and National Assemblies a Ordin of 19. Au. 1645. And this was according to their solemn promise of setling Uniformity which part of the Covenant they said if you will believe them was alwayes before their eyes b Ordin 14 Mar. 1645. In pursuance of which also the City desired c Humble Remonstrance and Petition May 26. 1646. that some strict and speedy course might be taken for the suppressing of all private and separated Congregations And the House of Lords ordered the Printing of their Petition which was grounded upon a Remonstrance †Decemb. 15. 1642. of the House of Commons wherein they declared that it was far from their purpose or desire to let loose the golden rains of Discipline and Government in the Church or to leave private persons or particular Congregations to take up what form of Divine Service they please As for the sacred Covenant that Holy Ordinance as Mr. Case calls it and choice piece of Divine Service you know no man could be a Minister or an Elder no nor practice as an Attorney or Solicitor at the Law unless he took it and the refusal of it was generally made a Mark of ungodliness as I will prove when you please N. C. I know not what reasons they went by then C. The same whereby they would proceed now if they had the same power and the same hopes And so I believe would the Independents too who are for imposing their own things as much as they are able For they have invented you must know a Model and form of their own heads which is not appointed in Holy Scriptures As first that the Members must be examined and give an account of the manner of their conversion which is in a certain Method and Form too in New-England and that before the Church Narration of some Church Courses in N. England by W. R. collected out of their own reports c. chap. 4. pag. 16. Then it is required that they enter into a Church-Covenant which is not the Covenant of grace but distinct from it For they acknowledge a man may be within the Covenant of Grace who is not in this and one may be in this who is not in that And yet it is a Sacred not a Civil thing which must be made publick before all the Church vocal and express so binding that none can be loosed from it without the consent of the Church And then it is held at least by many that the Members must prophesy i. e. exercise their gifts in and before the whole Congregation by preaching expounding applying the Scripture by instruction confutation Reprehension with all Authority †Which they say is an Ordinance