is not locall remoovall from former pollution nor contrary practise that fitteth us for fellowship with Christ and his Church but that it is necessary also that we doe repent of such former Pollutions wherewith we have been defiled and enthralled 2. We grant further that it is necessary to Church-fellowship that we shou'd see and discerne all such pollutions as doe so farre enthrall us to Antichrist as to separate us from Christ But this we professe unto you that wherein we have reformed our practise therein we have endeavoured unfainedly to humble our soules for our former contrary walking If any through hypocrisie are wanting herein the hidden hypocrisie of some will not prejudice the sinceritie and faithfulnesse of others nor the Church-estate of all This though the Examiner doe rehearse it here in this Chapter yet here he answereth nothing to it though it be the very hinge of the Controversie If we meet with any Answer to it in the sequele we shall God willing consider of it in its place Onely let me adde this third thing to cleare the state of the controversie more fully That to this day we doe not see nor discerne that it is any Antichristian pollution at all for a member of any of our Churches going over into England to heare the word Preached by a well-gifted Minister in the Parish Assemblies TO CHAP. XI IN this Chapter the Examiner propoundeth a second third fourth and fifth Reason to prove that which I deny not to wit That a necessitie lyeth upon godly men before they can be fit matter for Church-fellowship truely to see and humbly to bewaile their spirituall bondage under Antichristian pollution and withall to obtaine some power and strength from Jesus Christ to bring them out of it This I say I deny not nor ever did But this necessitie I conceive to be Necessitas praecepti as they call it or officii as that which is the commandement of God and the duty of godly men to doe But not Necessitas medij ad finem such a necessitie as without which a godly person cannot be a member of the Church unlesse the spirituall bondage under Antichristian pollution doe so farre enthrall him to Antichrist as to separate him from Christ as he is the Head of the visible Church Which what it is we shall have fitter occasion to speake of in the sequele To his second Argument I would therefore Answer that as an holy Altar and Temple to God could not have been built to God in the midst of Babylon but the Builders must come locally out of Babel to build it in Hierusalem So a Church of Christ cannot be built to God but by such Builders as spiritually come out of Antichristian pollutions and inventions at least out of such pollutions as keepe them still in Babel and detaine them under Antichrist and separate them from Christ To his third Argument I would grant all that he saith in it to be true But how he applieth it to inferre his conclusion he neither expresseth nor is it easie for me to gather If his meaning be that Luther and other godly persons might not be received into Church-fellowship in those dayes because they saw not the bottomlesse gulfe of all those Antichristian corruptions which the Lord hath since discovered It is a conclusion that I durst not inferre nor will he be ever able to make good It is not alwayes full Moone in respect of spirituall light with every Church of God in all ages alike To his fourth Argument taken from my own Practise In that I doe not receive all Persons eminent for Grace and godlinesse forthwith to the fellowship of the Lords Supper till upon their entrance into Covenant with a Confession of faith c. I would answer it is not because I thinke such persons are not fit matter for Church estate but because they yet want a fit Forme requisite to Church-estate His last Argument is taken from a famous Passage as he calls it of a solemne Question put to me and to the other New-English Elders unto which I with the rest did answer Negatively That if godly persons coming over hither did refuse to submit to our way of worship and Government that then they could not onely not enjoy Church-fellowship together but not be permitted to breath and live in the same common ayre and Common-wealth together To which I answer 1. That it is suitable to his wonted boldnesse to affirme that of me which is more then he knoweth and indeed more then is truth For though he say that Mr. Cotton and the New English Elders returned that Answer yet the answer to that Question and to all the other thirty-two Questions were drawne up by Mr. Mader and neither drawne up nor sent by me nor for ought I know by the other Elders here though published by one of our Elders there Howsoever the substance of that Answer not which Mr. Williams rehearseth but which Mr. Mader returned doth generally suite with all our mindes as I conceive 2. In particular The Answer which our reverend and beloved brother Mr. Mader did returne unto that Question I have read it and did readily approve it as I doe the substance of all his Answers to be judicious and solide But this I must needs professe that his Answer to this Question is notoriously slandered and abused by the Examiner For 1. There is no word at all in that Answer that denieth permission to such godly persons to live and breath in the same ayre of the Common-wealth Let the Answer be perused It is too long for me to transcribe the Book is publiquely extant and obvious and see if there be a syllable sounding that way 2. In that Answer he distinguisheth out of Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Parker touching matters of Church Discipline and maketh some to be the substantiall and immutable others of a more accidentall and circumstantiall nature In the former he doubteth not but that we and all the godly Ministers in England should accord if they were here as beleeving that either we should satisfie them in our way or they us in theirs so as there would never be Question whether we should embrace one another as Sister-Churches In the latter to wit in matters circumstantiall we are all taught of God Placide ferre aliud sentientes 3. When the Examiner maketh it his own case not to be permitted to live and breath in the same ayre and Common-wealth though Mr. Cotton and others most incensed gave him a testimony of godlinesse c. Let him be pleased to look back to what hath been formerly laid open and he will finde this Instance of himselfe wholly impertinent For the casting of him out of the Common-wealth sprung not from his difference in matters of Church Discipline It was well knowne that whilest he lived at Salem he neither admitted nor permitted any Church-members but such as rejected all Communion with the Parish Assemblies so much as in hearing of the Word
shape of an Answer but as little substance The greatest Question here saith he would be whether the Corinthians in their first Constitution were separate or no from such Idols Temples And this Mr. Cotton neither doth nor can deny A Church estate being a state of marriage unto Christ Jesus and so Paul professedly saith He had espoused them as a chaste Virgin unto Christ 2 Cor. 11. Reply 1. To put any substance into this Answer or any force pertinent to the cause in hand it must be no great Question but cleare out of Question that these Corinthians in their first constitution were cleane and absolutely separate from such Idolls Temples and that not onely locally but in their soule and iudgement minde and heart utterly cut off from such uncleane Touches so that they both undoubtedly saw the evill thereof and from their hearts abhorred it and forsooke it For all these Acts of coming off in a way of separation from the Churches of England he requireth from us as absolutely necessary to enter into a true Church-estate Now if he thinke that Mr. Cotton to use his words neither doth nor can deny that in their first constitution they were thus separate from Idolls Temples I must professe though not to him yet to all that love and seek the Truth without prejudice that I both can and doe deny it that in their first constitution they were locally separate from Idolls Temples it is likely enough or else I suppose the Apostlewould have admonished them thereof in their first Plantation But that in their minde and judgement they saw the evill thereof and did in heart and soule bewaile it and confesse it before the Apostle and their Brethren and so enter into solemne Covenant expresly against it this is altogether incredible to me For would not the Apostle then out of his faithfulnesse have reproved them as well for their Apostacy as for their Fellowship in Idolatry Would he not as well have rebuked the prevarication of their Covenant as their pollution of their communion with Pagans What though a Church-estate be a state of Marriage unto Jesus Christ May not a married Spouse of Christ be ignorant of some part of her marriage-dutie towards him And what though Paul professe He had espoused them as a chaste Virgin to Jesus Christ May not he call them a chaste Virgin who had seene and bewailed their former worship of Idolls though they neither bewailed nor saw the evill of feasting with their neighbours in Idolls Temples Reply 2. Though the Examiner make it a great Question whether a Church can be truely constituted that in her first constitution is not seperate from all uncleane Touches so as both to see them and come out of them howsoever they may fall into such sinnes afterwards yet I looke at it as an ungrounded distinction to require more purity to the being of a Church in her first constitution then is necessary to the being of it after it is constituted I should thinke the longer a Church hath enjoyed communion with the Lord Jesus Christ the more shee ought to grow both in knowledge and purity Where more hath been given the more will be required of the Lord. Yea I conceive it more agreeable to the word of Truth that God will sooner separate from a Church constituted for their whorish pollutions then deny them Church-estate for the like pollutions in their first constitution The people of Israel were not constituted a Nationall Church till the Lord gave them Nationall Ordinances and Nationall Officers and entered them together into a Nationall Covenant Exod. 19.5 6. Their Church-estate before was rather domesticall dispersed into severall Families When they were thus constituted a Nationall Church and afterwards fell into an Idolatrous crime the Lord directed Moses to breake the Tables of his Covenant between them and did also seperate his Tabernacle from them till upon their repentance he renewed communion with them Exod. 32.19 with Exod. 33.3 to 7. But yet the like Idolatry if not worse being found in the same People when they dwelt in Aegypt it did not hinder the Lord from accepting them unto a Nationall Constitution of a Church-estate To CHAP. XVII XVIII XIX HIs 17 18 19. Chapters are taken up in Examining and Answering my Answers to his second Objection which he made to prove a Necessitie lying upon Godly men before they can be fit matter for Church fellowship to see bewaile repent and come out of false Churches Ministery Worship and Government To prove which his first Objection or Argument was taken from Isaiah 52.11 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. Whereto we have returned a Reply in the former Chapters His second Objection was taken from the Confession made by Johns Disciples and the Proselyte Gentiles before admission into Church-fellowship Mat. 3.6 Act 19.18 Whence he gathered That Christian Churcher are constituted of such members as make open and plaine confession of their sinnes and if any sâ—â—â—es be to be confessed and lamented Jewish or Paganish then Antichristian drunkennesse and whoredome much more c. Yea every sipping of the Whâ—res Cup. To which Objection of his to passe by all verball velitations for I love not to take up time about words the substance of my Answer was two-fold 1. That it was not necessary to the Admission of members that they should see and bewaile the sinfulnesse of every sipping of the whores Cup as he called it though the Whores cup doe more intoxicate the minde then the drunkards Cup doth the Body because bodily drunkennesse and whoredome are such notorious and grosse sinnes that no man having true Repentance in him cannot but be convinced of the sinfulnesse of them and of the necessitie of repentance of them in particular if he doe remember them But the whores Cup being a mystery of Iniquitie the sinfulnesse of every sipping of it is nothing so evident and notorious as that every repentant soule doth at first discerne it And therefore as the 3000. Converts Acts 2.37 to 47. were admitted into the first Christian Church upon the Profession of their repentance of the murther of Christ though they neither saw nor confessed all the superstitious leavenings wherewith the Pharisees had bewitched them so here c. Yea and the Disciples of John whom he instanceth in though they did confesse their sinnes the Publicans theirs the Souldiers theirs the People theirs to wit the notorious sinnes incident to their callings yet it doth not appeare that they confessed their Pharisaicall pollutions And the Gentiles in Act. 19.18.19 Though they confessed their curious Arts and burnt their conjuring Bookes yet it doth not appeare that they confessed all their deeds Whereunto the Examiner returneth a two-fold Answer 1. That spirituall whoredome and drunkennesse is not indeed so easily discerned as corporall but yet not the lesse sinfull but infinitely transeendent as much as spirituall sobriety exceedeth corporall and the bed of the most High God exceedeth the beds of men who are but
as hath more then once or twice been attempted should such an one by any ordinance of Christ be let alone in the Civill State Moreover if Popish Priests and Jesuites be rightly expounded to be the Rivers and Fountaines of water which drive the dead Sea of Antichristian pollution up and downe all Nations in Europe and if they by the Ordinance of Christ be in some cases to drinke bloud for they are worthy then they are not to be let alone but duely supprest and cut off from conveying up and downe their Idolatrous Hereticall and Seditious wickednesse Rev. 16.4 to 7. CHAP. 25. A Reply to his 25. Chapter Still discussing the meaning of the Tares THirdly The Tares cannot be hypocrites is as cleare as the Light because they when they are discovered and seene to be Tares are not to be let alone to the Angels in the end of the world but are to be purged out by the Governours of the Church with the whole Church Defender This objection hath been answered above and let it be againe denied till the Discusser prove the contrary which will never be That hypocrites when they appeare to be hypocrites and yet no worse then Tares are to be purged out by the Government of the Church It is true if Hypocrites having a forme of Godlinesse and yet denying the power thereof doe breake forth into such notorious scandalous Fruits of Hypocrisie as tend to the leavening of the whole lumpe they may then justly be proceeded against by the Government of the Church But otherwise if the Church proceed against an Hypocrite as such meerely for his hypocrisie for want of life and power of Godlinesse in his duties they may soone roote out sometime or other the best wheate in Gods Field and the sweetest Flowers in his Garden who sometimes loose their fatnesse and sweetnesse for a season Discusser Every Brother that walketh disorderly is to be with-drawen and separated from Defender True But who is a Brother that walketh disorderly Not every Hypocrite but onely such who either walke inordinately without a calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or idely and negligently in his calling For so the context carrieth it in the words alluded to 2 Thess 3.6 But that is not the case of every Hipocrite of whom their are many that follow their callings and are so farre from being burthensome to others by their idlenesse that they are even choaked with the cares and businesses of this world and yet are not behinde in liberall contributions to pious uses CHAP. 26. A Reply to his Chap. 26. Touching the danger of letting alone Anti Christians Discusser If any imagine that the Antichristians being let alone may doe a world of mischiefe before the worlds end by the infection of others I Answer 1. The Civill State keepeth it selfe with a Civill sword let Civill offences be punished and yet let their worship and Consciences be tolerated 2. The Church hath a thousand bucklers and weapons able to break downe the strongest hould 2 Cor. 10. and so to defend it selfe against the gates of earth or hell 3. The Lord knoweth who are his his chosen cannot finally be deceived Lastly the Lord Jesus himselfe in this Parable giveth 2. Reasons able to content and satisfie our hearts First least the good wheat be pluckt up out of the feild of the world Gods People the good wheat are generally pluckt and persecuted as well as the vilest Idolaters whether Jewes or Antichristians which the Lord Jesus seemeth here to foretell Second reason is when the world is ripe in sinne in the sinnes of Antichristianisme those mighty Angells of God will come with their sharpe sickles and downe with them and buildle them up for everlasting burnings then shall the man of sin be consumed by the breath of the mouth of the Lord Jesus c. Defender Reply 1. To his first Answer It is true the Civill State keepeth it selfe with a Civill sword if Civill offences be punished But when he would have their worship Consciences tolerated what if their worship and Consciences incite them to Civill offences How shall then the Civill State keepe it selfe safe with a Civill Sword As suppose a man that worshippeth the Beast and maketh Conscience of obeying his commandements shall thinke himselfe bound to subvert the Civill Prince or State who is excommunicated by the Beast If such a man must be tolerated in his worship and Conscience what sword can provide for the safety of such a Prince or State Reply 2. To his second Answer It is true the Church wanteth no Armories to defend it self and amongst others excommunication But if their members be leavened with Antichristian Idolatry and superstition and yet must be tolerated in their Idolatrous and superstious worship will not a little leaven so tolerated leaven the whole lumpe And how then is the safety of the Church guarded Reply 3. To his 3. Answ It is true the Lord knoweth who are his and none of his Elect shall perish But neverthelesse Is it not a tempting of God to presume upon Gods Election for our salvation and to neglect the meanes of our preservation In like case Paul knew by revelation that all his fellow passengers in the ship should be saved but yet he professed that if the Marriners went out of the ship they could not be saved Acts 27.24 with 31. So is it here The Elect of God shall be saved but yet if Idolaters and Seducers be tolerated as Jezabell was in Thyatira to seduce the servants of Christ to pollution and Apostacy the Church will stand guilty before God of the seduction and corruption of the people of God Reply 4. To his 4 Answer the 2. Reasons alledged by him out of the Text To the first There is no feare of plucking up the wheat by rooting out Idolaters and Seducers If any of Gods People should fall into Idolatry and Apostacy yea and should prove an instrument to seduce others also into the like wickednesse yet the censures inflicted on them would be blessed of God to their recovery healing yea and if they were cut off by the Civill sword yet the example and terrour of their punishment would be blessed of God to preserve their brethren who would all of them heare and feare and doe no more such wickednesse Neither is the just punishment of such any just pretence to punish the innocent lambs of Christ Reply To the Second Reason out of the Parable It may justly be Replyed that the charge given to the Angells to execute vengeance at the last day upon such Idolaters if that were sufficient to plead for the toleration of Idolaters It would as well plead for the toleration of Murtherers Robbers Adulterers Extortioners c. for all these will the holy and mighty Angells of God gather into bundles at the last day and cast them into everlasting burnings The place in 2 Thess 2. doth not say that the man of sin shall then be consumed with the breath
and rule a thousand yeares Revel 20.4 Shall their freedome from persecution be a dissolution of the Church-Estate The like may be said of the New Jerusalem the Churches of the Jewes after the destruction of Gog and Magog when God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes and take away Death violent Death sorrow crying and paine Rev. 21.4 shall they then cease to be Churches when persecution ceaseth Beside to persecute is not alwayes a marke of a false Church for then it would be a marke of a false Member of a Church or a marke of a Member of a false Church but the contrary appeareth in the example of Asa who persecuted the Prophet of God for his holy Message sake 2 Chron. 16.10 And it hath been shewed above that Stephen complaineth of the persecution of all the Prophets Acts 7.51 And if they were persecuted it was by the Church of the Old Testament and if therefore the Church of the Old Testament was false God had then no Church extant upon the face of the Earth It is therefore a begging of the Question to affirme that those Churches cannot be truly Christian who by themselves or by the Civill power of Kings doe punish such as dissent from them or are opposite against them And indeed a double begging of the Question it is For 1. It beggeth that for the Question which is not the Question for it is no Question but out of Question that it is not lawfull for a Christian Church to punish men for dissenting from them or being opposite to them But the Question is whether Christian Magistrates may not punish Apostate Hereticks and Seducers not for dissenting from the Church but for seducing from Christ and blaspheming against his Name And if you will whether the Church may not stirre up the Christian Magistrate after all milder helps used without a vaile to doe his Duty in such a case 2. It is another begging of the Question to take that for granted which is not yet proved that it is a marke of no true Christian Church to procure the civill punishment of incurable obstinate Hereticks and Seducers Discusser When the Answerer saith that to Excommunicate an Heretick is not to persecute I answer If the Answerer were throughly awaked from the Spouses spirituall slumber Cant. 5. and had recovered from the Drunkennesse of the great Whore who intoxicateth the Nations Rev. 17. It is impossible that he should so answer For who questioneth whether to excommunicate an Heretick be to persecute Excommunication being of a spirituall nature a sentence denounced by the word of Christ Jesus the spirituall King of the Chureh and a spirituall killing by the two edged Sword of the Spirit in delivering up the person Excommunicate unto Satan Therefore who seeth not this Answer cometh not neere the Question Defender I must still professe my selfe to be one of them that see it not For first the Author of the Letter did no where expresse himselfe to put any difference neither between Church and Court in point of censure for cause of Conscience nor between causes of Religion whether true or false If it be unlawfull to banish any from the Common-wealth for cause of Conscience it is unlawfull to banish any from the Church for cause of Conscience The Church ought to be more tender of the Liberty of Conscience then the Court as being more acquainted with the tendernesse of Conscience Secondly if the censure of a man for cause of Conscience by the civill Sword be persecution it is a farre greater persecution to censure a man for cause of Conscience by the Spirituall Sword by how much the more sharp and keen the spirituall Sword is above the civill Sure I am Christ Jesus reckoneth Excommunication for persecution Luke 21.12 They shall lay their hands on you and persecute you delivering you up to the Synagogues and into Prisons To deliver up into Synagogues is as much persecution as to deliver into Prisons And will the Discusser then say that if Christ had been awakened from his spirituall slumber and from the Drunkennesse of the great Whore it had been impossible he should have accounted Excommunication a persecution Me thinks if a soule were awakened unto spirituall sobriety he should judge it a sorer and a deeper affliction to be bound with spirituall chaines both in Earth and Heaven then to be bound in materiall chaines on Earth onely Discusser But Hilary his complaynt speaketh not to Excommunications but to civill censures Defender Therefore my Answer was to him partly by proportion partly by concession Hilary said the Christian Church did not persecute but is persecuted Whereto I Answered 1. That Excommunication of an Heretick is no persecution and therefore by proportion neither is the civill punishment of an Heretick persecution And the Reason in my words following reacheth both for to persecute is to punish an Innocent But an Heretick is not an Innocent but a culpable and damnable person 2. I answered by concession of Hilaryes words in Hilaries meaning it is true what Hilary saith neither did the Apostles nor may wee propogate Christian Religion by the Sword c. Discusser But a Christian Church doth no more persecute then a Lilly doth scratch thornes or a Lamb pursue and teare the Wolves or a Turtle Dove doth hunt the Hawkes or Eagles or a chast modest virgin fight and scratch like Whores and Harlots Defender If by persecution the Discusser meaneth as it seemeth he doth the infliction of the civill punishments his speech is true and the proportion holdeth civill punishments are as improper for Christian Churches to inflict as for Lillies to scratch Thornes or Lambes to teare Wolves c. But if the Lambes he speaketh of in his comparison were as reasonable as the Lambes of Christ be though they would not themselves pursue and teare the Wolves yet they would runne to their Shepheards and civill Magistrates are the shepheards of all their people to send out their dogs after the Wolves to pursue and teare them I see no reason why the chast and modest eye of a Christian Church should any more spare and pity a spirituall Adulterer that seeketh to withdraw her from her spouse to a false Christ then the eye of an Holy Israelite was to spare and pitie the like Tempters in dayes of old Deut. 13.8 CHAP. 66. A Reply to his Chap. 69. Discusser THe Answer by concession to Hilaryes words may surther be discussed It is true saith the Answerer as Hylary speaketh that neither the Apostles nor we may propagate Christian Religion by the Sword But if Pagans cannot be wonne by the word they are not to be compelled by the Sword Neverthelesse this hindreth not but if they or any other should blaspheme the true God and his true Religion they ought to be severely punished and no lesse doe they deserve who seduce from the Truth to damnable Heresie and Idolatrie In which Answer I observe First his Agreement with Hilary that Christian
is lovingly and respectively sent for and to convince them of the errour of their way before the Lord and to seek to bring them back againe to the Bishop and Shepheard of their soules Sure I am that in a case of greater defection of the Churches of Galatia then Mr. Williams imagined was found in the Church of Salem Paul did not reject them but professed I desire saith he to be present with you now and to change my voyce for I stand in doubt of you Gal. 4.20 Mr. Williams acknowledgeth in the next Paragraph That the Church of Colosse might say to Archippus Take heed to thy Ministery and that Archippus might negligently and proudly refuse to hearken to them but for his case his faithfulnesse and uprightnesse to God and the soules of the people will witnesse for him when his soule shall come to Hezekiahs case on his death-bed and in the great day approaching I do not know but that Archippus might as justly refuse to hearken to the Church of Colosse as Mr. Williams to the Church of Salem What though Colosse was more eminent in gifts then Salem yet the mutuall power and subjection of Pastor and people dependeth not upon eminency of gifts but upon the Institution of Christ and their mutuall Covenant and Relation If it had been a negligent and proud part in Archippus as Mr. Williams confesseth to refuse to hearken to the lawfull voyce of the Church of Colosse admonishing him of his slacknesse in his Ministery I know not but it might be such a like part in Mr. Williams to refuse to hearken to the voyce of the Church of Salem admonishing him to take heed of deserting his Ministery Whether is a greater sinne in a Minister not to fulfill his Ministery or to desert his Ministery Neither doe I know but that Archippus might have pretended the like evasions with Mr. Williams if not fairer For he might plead there were amongst them such as spoyled them through Philosophy and vaine deceit after the Traditions of men and Rudiments of the world and not after Christ Col. 2.8 that beguiled them also in a voluntary humilitie and worship of Angels not holding the Head ver 18 19. Yea so farre that themselves come to be dogmatized with the Traditions of men ver 20 21 22. And why might not then Archippus as justly refuse to heare the Church of Colosse as Mr. Williams refuse to heare the Church of Salem Let not Mr. Williams please himselfe in suiting his faithfulnesse and uprightnesse to Hezekiahs case Hezekiah faithfully and uprightly endeavoured and through grace procured the reformation of the Apostate Church of Hierusalem in the dayes of his Father Ahaz But Mr. Williams in stead of reforming one Church renounceth all For his neglect of hearkening to the second voyce the voyce and testimony of so many Elders and Brethren of other Churches He saith because he truely esteemeth the Persons he will not answer the Argument of numbers and multitudes against one as our men are wont to answer the Popish universalitie that God stirreth up sometimes one Elijah against eight hundred of Baals Priests c. But this he saith that David himselfe and the Princes of Israel and 30000. of Israel carrying up the Arke were not to be hearkened unto in their holy intentions of rejoycings and triumphs when the due order of the Lord was wanting to them In which case one Scripture in the mouth of a Mechanick is to be preferred before a whole Councell Answ I will not here observe as Mr. Williams doth in a like case in Chap. 38. of his Bloudy Tenent his hast and light attention to the Scriptures which himselfe alledgeth The Text speaketh but of 450. of Baals Priests 1 Kings 18.19 Now for him to multiply them to 800 is to fetch in also the Prophets of the Groves the Prophets of Jeroboams Calves whom the Text expresly distinguisheth from the Prophets of Baal But to let that passe as not materiall to the Argument no more then the misquotation which he observeth of Titus for Timothy we will not reply as the Papists doe against single witnesses let him call for fire from Heaven as Eliah did and we will submit the testimonies of many to one single witnesse No we call not for Miracles at his hand but let him produce one testimony of holy Scripture rightly understood and applyed against the advice and voyce of those Elders and Brethren and then though he be but one yea though that one were but a Mechanick too we shall gratifie his demand and by the Grace of Christ be ready rather to hearken to him then require that he should hearken to us Meane while we answer him as the Apostle did to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 14.36 What came the word of God out from you or came it unto you onely It is true David and the Princes and the 30000. of Israel were not to be hearkened unto nor followed in their disorderly carrying of the Arke because the word of the Lord had given expresse order to the contrary requiring that the Kohathites should beare the Arke upon their shoulders and not touch it least they dye Num. 4.15 Let him shew us the like order violated by us and we shall freely excuse him yea and justifie him in not hearkening to us nor following of us But suppose some one Prophet or Brother of Israel had discerned the disorder of David and of the whole Congregation of the 30000. of Israel and had therefore not onely refused to follow them but had proceeded further as many of Christs Disciples did with him Joh. 6.66 to goe back from them with an utter Apostasie and to walke no more with them no not though they were willing to reforme their disorder if any were made knowne to them Would Perez Vzzah have justified that Or did that disorder of David and of that Congregation of Israel dischurch them all from fellowship with God or discharge their Brethren from having any fellowship with them as with the Church of God TO CHAP. III. HIs third Chapter is taken up in answering to a Phrase in my Letter in which I had said I endeavoured to shew him the sandinesse of those grounds upon which he had banished himselfe from the fellowship of all the Churches in this Countrey The summe of his Answer is That his grounds were the firme rocke of the Truth of Jesus and that my endeavours to prove them sandy are but the weake and uncertain sand of mans Invention which shall therefore perish and burne like hay or stubble And the Rocky strength of his grounds shall appeare in the Lords season and that my selfe also may yet confesse so much as I have since I came to New-England confest the sandinesse of the grounds of many of my Practises in Old England and the rockinesse of their grounds that witnessed against me and them for Instance that himselfe had discovered to me and other servants of God his grounds against the use of the
too much wound his own Conscience with such a generall charge he acknowledgeth That we have borne witnesse against Bishops and Ceremonies and doe constitute onely particular and Independent Churches and have therefore so farre at least seene the evill of a Nationall Church But I dare say further that his own Conscience beareth him witnesse that we have witnessed also both in Profession and Practise against Prescript Liturgies and mixt Communions both in Church-fellowship and at the Lords Table What hath been then wanting to us That we doe not fully see the evill of a Nationall Church How doth he make it to appeare By two Instances By our constant Practise in still joyning with such Churches and Ministery in the Ordinances of the Word and Prayer and by our Persecuting of him for his humble faithfull and constant admonishing of us for such an uncleane walking between a particular Church and a Nationall Reply Our joyning with the Ministers of England in hearing of the Word and Prayer doth not argue our Church-Communion with the Parish-Churches in England much lesse with the Nationall Church as hath been shewed above in Chap. 14. Besides when Jeroboam heard the word from the young Prophet of Judah and joyned with him in Prayer I demand whether in so doing he joyned in Church-Communion with the Nationall Church of Judah If yea then was the Church of Judah pollutedly the uncleane Communion of Idolatrous Jeroboam If not then the Examiner may easily discerne how weake an Argument it is to argue our Communion with the Nationall Church of England from our members joyning in the Hearing of the Word and Prayer in the Parish-Churches of England His second Instance to make it appeare That we see not the evill of a Nationall Church from our Persecuting of him c. In this I choose rather to blame his memory then his conscience But the one of them is much to blame in that it maketh him so farre forget himselfe and the Truth as boldly to avouch a notorious falshood That we Persecuted him for his humble and faithfull and constant admonishing of us of such uncleane walking between a particular Church and a Nationall It is one notable falshood to say that he did constantly admonish either our Elders or Churches of such an offence much lesse humbly and faithfully If he did so admonish us where are his witnesses His Letters his Messengers sent to us Besides It is another falshood and no lesse palpable that we did persecute him for such admonishing of us It hath been declared above upon what grounds the sentence of his Banishment did Proceed whereof this Admonition which he pretendeth was none of them neither did they persecute him at all who did so proceed against him Now whereas in that Passage of the Letter even now recited I said He knew not what Professions we had made in our Churches of our Humiliations for former Pollutions nor had he admonished us of our defects therein He demandeth how be could possibly be ignorant of our estate who had been from first to last in fellowship with us an Officer amongst us had private and publique agitations concerning our estate and condition and at last suffered for such Admonition to us the misery of a Winters Banishment amongst the Barbarians Reply As if every man in fellowship with us an Officer amongst us one that had private and publique agitations with us must needs know what our members professed in their admissions to the Church or what our Elders confessed in their dayes of solemne Humiliation when himselfe was generally absent both on the Lords dayes and on the dayes of solemne fasting Or as if the private and publique agitations that he had with us were taken up about our Communion with a Nationall Church I am yet to learne what Arguments he did propound to us in that cause what convictions he left upon us When he is still so full of the miseries of his winters banishment amongst the Barbarians it maketh me call to minde a grave and godly speech of a blessed Saint now with God reverend Mr. Dod Where sinne lyeth heavy afflictions lyeth light where affliction lyeth heavy sinne lyeth light TO CHAP. XX. THe maine Objection which Mr. Williams made against the Estate of our Church-members was chiefly this That though he acknowledgeth them to be godly yet not sufficiently separate from Antichrist And that he endeavoured to prove 1. From the Texts that call for separation from Babylon Isa 52.2 Cor. 6. Rev. 18.2 From the confession of sinnes made by Johns Disciples Mat. 3. and the Proselyte Gentiles Acts 19. To both these we have returned Answer already His third Objection followeth from Haggai 2.13 14 15. where the Prophet telleth the Church of the Jewes That if a Person uncleane by a dead body doe touch holy things those holy things become uncleane to him And so saith he is this Nation and so is every worke of their hands and that which they offer here is uncleane And from hence he argueth That even Church-Covenants made and Ordinances practised by persons polluted through spirituall deadnesse and filthinesse of Communion they become uncleane to them and are prophaned by them which he solemnely desireth might be advisedly weighed Whereto my Answer was That if he had well weighed this place himselfe he would never have alledged it to his purpose His purpose was to prove that Churches cannot be constituted of such members as are uncleane by Antichristian pollutions or if they be so constituted they are not to be Communicated with but separated from To prove this you alledge said I this place where the Prophet acknowledgeth the whole Church to be uncleane and yet neither denieth them to be a Church truely constituted nor stirreth up himselfe or others to separate from them If you say why but they were uncleane I answered Be it so But were they therefore no Church truely Constituted Or to be separated from Did not Haggai and Zachary themselves Communicate with them And did they not call others also to come out of Babel to Communicate with them even whilest Joshua the High Priest was still polluted with his uncleane Garments Zach. 2.6 7. with Chapt. 3.8 Whereupon I tooke occasion to cleare up to him the occasion and scope and true sence of the words at large as may appeare in the Letter which having gathered up I said That if he did apply it to the Point in hand it would reach nothing neere to his purpose Hypocrites in the Church yea and godly sincere Christians themselves whilest they attend to the world more then to the things of God as at that time the Jewes did both their persons and their labours and their Civill Oblations are uncleane in the sight of God Therefore the Church of Christ cannot be constituted of such or if it doe consist of such the People of God must separate from them You might well have gathered Therefore the Church of Christ and the members thereof must separate
themselves from their hypocrisie and inordinate love of this world or else they and their duties will still be uncleane in the sight of God notwithstanding their Church-Estate This Collection tendeth to edification the other to dissipation and destruction of the Church and wresteth Bloud instead of Milke from the Breasts of holy Scripture This Text is so evident and pregnant and full against himselfe that I could not but marvell why he should alledge it and especially why he should desire it might be throughly weighed and the Lord to hold the scales himselfe How doe you then thinke that he will hence inferre his Conclusion That Godly persons if uncleane cannot constitute a true Church or if they doe they are to be separated from Surely not from the words of the Text nor from the sence which I make of it nor from any sence which himselfe can give of it How then Onely from his mistake of my words and that surely either through a drousie Oscitancy or a sleighty Precipitancy What saith he have I spoken more then Mr. Cotton himselfe hath uttered in his Explication and Application of this Scripture As 1. That Godly persons may become defiled and uncleane by hypocrisie and worldlinesse 2. While they lye in such a condition of uncleannesse all their offerings persons labours are uncleane in the sight of God notwithstanding their Church-estate 3. The Church cannot be constituted of such worldly Persons though otherwise godly and Christian Or 4. If they doe the People of God must separate from them These be saith he Mr. Cottons own expresse words Reply He might as well say these be the expresse words of Christ Hang all the Law and the Prophets because Christ saith Mat. 19.40 upon these two Commandements Hang all the Law and the Prophets So these be my expresse words The true and genuine meaning of the place if you doe apply to the Point in hand it will reach nothing neere to your purpose Hypocrites in the Church and godly Christians themselves whilest they attend to the world more then to the things of God their persons their labours their Civill Oblations are all uncleane in the sight of God Ergo. The Church of Christ cannot be constituted of such or if it doe consist of such the People of God must separate from them Who seeth not that attendeth to what he seeth that in these words I expresse not mine own meaning or reasoning but his and that I expresly say The true meaning of the Text will nothing neere reach to his purpose and so bring in his reason in forme of an Enthymeme which he draws from it But if I had made that Enthymeme the expression of mine own meaning and of the meaning of the Text it had sully and closely reached his own purpose The next words following might also plainly have cleared my meaning to him when in stead of that false collection which he gathered I tell him you might well have gathered therefore the Church of Christ and the members thereof must separate themselves from their hypocrisie and their inordinate love of this world Or else they and their duties will he still uncleane in the sight of God notwithstanding their Church-estate This Collection tendeth to edification the other to the dissipation and destruction of the Flock and wresteth bloud instead of milke from the Breasts of holy Scripture Doe I not here plainly expresse two severall and contrary Collections from the Text the one his the other mine own the one tending to edification the other to destruction And yet this false collection and misapplication of the Text which is his own and a manifest Perverting both of the Text and of my words he will needs force upon me contrary to my meaning and contrary also to my expresse words above in the entrance of mine Answer to this Text. Where I say Your purpose was to prove That Churches cannot be constituted by such persons as are uncleane by Antichristian pollutions or if they be so constituted they are not to be communicated with but separated from To prove this you alledge this place where the Prophet acknowledgeth the whole Church of the Jewes to be uncleane and yet neither denieth them to be a Church truely constituted nor stirreth up himselfe or others to separate from them What by the way he discourseth of the Excommunication in the Nationall Church of the Jewes somewhat hath been spoken to it above When he saith That their Ceremoniall Excommunication was either putting to death in Canaan or Captivitie out of Canaan If he meane this was all their Excommunication I cannot assent to it King Vzziah was neither put to death in Canaan nor carried captive out of Canaan and yet he was Excommunicated both from Temple-worship Synagogue-worship and all familiar communion of the Saints Againe when he maketh it an Excommunication from God in case God sell his Church into spirituall Captivitie to confused Babylonish Lords and worship and that so he driveth them out of his sight He might remember that God sometime sold his people under the Bondage of Babylonish Lords even in the Land of Canaan Jer. 40.9 42.10 11 12. And yet he had not straight way driven them out of his sight TO CHAP. XXI IT was my serious and unfeigned endeavour in my Letter which the Examiner hath answered to have removed those two stumbling blocks out of his way which I perceived had turned him off from holding fellowship with these Churches The former was The want of fit matter of our Churches The latter Our dis-respect to the separate Churches in England under affliction when neverthelesse our selves practise separation in peace From the beginning of his tenth Chapter he hath endeavoured to fasten the former of these stumbling blocks that it may still lie in his way and stand as an everlasting wall of partition between us Which neverthelesse I have as you see through the helpe of Christ endeavoured to dig through the sandinesse thereof that if it were the holy will of God it might fall downe like the walles of Jericho before the Arke of the Lord and neither detaine him nor others from Communion with us The latter stumbling block he goeth about to re-establish in this and the following Chapters to the end of his Booke Come we therefore to consider whether there may be any hope of removing this stumbling block also and the establishment thereof by the same helpe The stumbling block lieth somewhat broader then at first was propounded The Examiner takes it as a great offence That we walke between Christ and Antichrist 1. In practising separation here and not repenting of our preaching and printing against it in our own Countrey 2. In reproaching himselfe at Salem and others for separation 3. In particular that my selfe have conceived and spoken That separation is a way which God hath not prospered as if saith he the truth of the Churches depended upon the countenance of men or upon outward peace and libertie To the
not first a Puritan For as Mr. Can hath unanswerably proved the grounds and principles of the Puritans against Bishops and Ceremonies and prophanesse of people professing Christ and the necessitie of Christs flock and discipline must necessarily if truly followed lead on to and enforce a separation Reply 1. If there were hardly ever any conscientious Separatist who was not first a Puritan then it seemeth that if there be any Conscience in the Separatists it was first wrought in them by the Ministers of those whom he calleth Puritans 2. Say it were true that he pretendeth That the principles and grounds of Puritanisme did enforce Separation yet I doe not understand what it maketh to the point in hand 3. Neither doe I understand how it suiteth with the Examiners profession who is wont to renounce all communion with Antichristian inventions so frequently to take up into his mouth and pen the Nickname of Puritans which was at first devised by Sanders the Jesuite to cast a reproach upon the persons and way of reformers to render them suspicious and odious to the State The righteous hand of the Lord struck him with madnesse who invented the name nor doth he delight in them that delight to take up a reproach against the innocent 4. How unanswerably Mr. Can hath proved the necessity of Separation from their grounds and principles I will not judge because I have not seene his Booke But to separate from the Churches of England as no Churches or false Churches from their Ministery as a false Ministery from their Sermons as false worship from their professors as no visible Saints And to prove all this out of the Principles and grounds of those holy Saints of God whom he misnameth Puritans will require a strong efficacy of delusions to make it appeare probable to a sad and judicious spirit that is not sorestalled with prejudice or partialitie But the Examiner proceedeth in his Answer to enquire What should be the Reason why the Separatist who witnesseth against the Roote of the Constitution it selfe should finde more favour then the Puritan or Non-conformist And he telleth us Doubtlesse the reasons are evident 1. Because most of the Separatists have been poore and low and not such gainfull Customers to the Bishops their Courts and Officers Mr. Ainsworth himselfe though a worthy instrument of Gods praise lived upon nine pence in the weeke with roots boyled c. Reply In part I will not deny some truth and weight in this reason But take it for granted and it doth but confirme what I said that the Separatist found more favour then the Non-conformist whatsoever the reason was The second reason that he giveth is That it is a principle in nature to preferre a professed enemy before a pretended friend The Separatists have been looked at by the Bishops and their adherents as knowne and professed enemies whereas the Puritans have professed subjection and submitted to the Bishops their Courts their Officers their Common Prayer and worships And yet the Bishops have well knowne with no greater affection then the Israelites bore the Aegyptians cruell task-masters Reply 1. What the Non-conformists did beare it was no more then they thought they might beare with a good Conscience according to the light they had received If they did beare more then what in Conscience they judged lawfull to be borne they had no reason to beare with themselves in so doing But if the Bishops bore the lesse with them in such their subjection it was because they looked at them not as pretended friends but as more dangerous enemies as knowing both that the Lord was with them which made Saul the more afraid of David 1 Sam. 18.28 29. as also that the grounds which they gave of their judgement and practise were more agreeable to Scripture and to the judgement of all reformed Churches and therefore more likely in time to prevaile to the utter overthrow of their usurped Hierarchy But as for the Separatists the Bishops did not discerne either the Lord going forth in like sort with them or their grounds so likely to subvert their freehold Though the Separatists struck at the roote of the Constitutions of their Churches which was indeed a greater blow then to strike at the roote of Episcopacy yet because the Episcopacy saw that the Separatists struck at the things of Christ together with themselves they knew such stroakes would not much hurt their standing The next word which the Examiner answereth is unto that I said God hath not prospered the way of Separation neither with peace amongst themselves nor with growth of grace His answer is 1. That want of peace may befall the truest Churches of the Lord Jesus as them at Antioch Corinth Galatia Reply The distraction at Antioch was soone healed by the Counsell of the Synod at Hierusalem which is a way of peace which the Churches of the rigid Separation have not knowne nor will condescend unto which makes their dissentions destitute of hopes of reconciliation without separation one from another The like may be said of the Churches of Galatia and Corinth I doe not read their differences were healed by Separation but by listning to Apostolicall Counsell 2. His second Answer is that it is a common Character of a false Church maintained by the Smiths and Cutlers shop to enjoy peace none daring for feare of civill punishment to question or differ c. Reply Though it be a common Character of a false Church to enjoy a forced and violent peace yet it is a peculiar Character of a true Church to enjoy holy peace with God and one with another which where it is wanting there is something else wanting either in their Faith or Order 3. His third Answer is That Gods people in that way have sometimes long enjoyed sweet peace and soule contentment in England Holland New-England and other places c. Reply The Answer had been more cleare and evident if he had named those Churches who have long enjoyed such peace in that way in that way I say of rigid Separation separating from the Churches of England as altogether false in their Constitution Ministry worship and therefore refusing to heare the word in the best of the Parish Assemblies It is a wise Proverb of a wiser then Soloman The back slider in heart from any Truth or way of God shall be filled with his owne wayes They that separate from their brethren further then they have just cause shall at length find cause or at least thinke they have found cause just enough to separate one from another I never yet heard of any instance to the contrary either in England or Holland And for New-England there is no such Church of the Separation at al that I know of That separate Church if it may be called a Church which separated with Mr. Williams first broke into a division about a small occasion as I have heard and then broke forth into Anabaptisme and then into Antibaptisme and Familisme
to be disturbed as wholely to breake up and to be dissolved No matter saith the Discusser though they doe wholly breake up into peices and dissolve into nothing For neverthelesse the Peace of the Citty is not thereby in the least measure impaired or disturbed because the Essence or being of the Citty is Essentially distinct from those particular Societyes c. The Citty was before them and standeth absolute and Entire when they are taken downe c. Reply If by Peace be meant as in Scripture Language it is all welfare It would argue a man that liveth in the world to be too much Ignorant of the state of the world to say that in the breaking up and dissolving of such perticular Societyes the Peace of the Citty or Countrey is not in the least measure impaired or disturbed For 1. Though such Societyes of Merchants and other Trades be not of the Essence of the Citty yet they be of the integrety of the Citty And if the defect of one Tribe in Israel was a great trouble to all the Common-wealth of Israel Judges 21.2 3. then sure the breaking up and dissolving of so many particular usefull Societyes cannot but much impaire and disturbe the Peace and wellfare of the Citty and Countrie 2. Though these Societyes of Trades be not of the Essence of the Citty yet they are amongst the conservant causes of the Citty as without which the Citty cannot long flourish no nor well subsist Common sense will acknowledge so much Now then if all these particular Societyes and severall Companyes of Trades they and their peace and wellfare doe much concerne the wellfare and peace of the Citty and Countrey and therefore it behooveth the Civill Government to provide for their peace and wellfare I demand whether the Church also which is a particular Society of Christians whether I say the Peace and wellfare of it doe not concerne the Peace and wellfare of the Citty or Countrey where they live If it be denyed it is Easily proved First David saith they shall prosper that love the Peace of Jerusalem and seeke the good of it Psalm 122.6 c. And Solomon saith where the Righteous rejoyce there is great Glory Pro. 28.12 And what is the Church but a Congregation of Righteous men If the Rejoycing of the Church be the glory of a Nation surely the disturbing and distracting and dissolving of the Church is the shame and Confusion of a Nation 2. Consider the Excellency and Preheminence of the Church above all other Societyes She is the fairest amongst women Cant. 1.8 and 6.1 She is the Citty and House of God Revel 21.2 Psal 48.1.1 Tim. 3.15 The world and all the Societyes of it are for the Church 1 Cor. 3.21 22. The world would not subsist but for the Church nor any Countrey in the world but for the service of the Church And can the Church then breake up into peices and dissolve into nothing and yet the Peace and wellfare of the Citty not in the least measure impaired or disturbed 3. It is a matter of just displeasure to God and sad greife of heart to the Church when Civill States looke at the estate of the Church as of little or no concernment to themselves Zach. 1.15 Lament 1.12 Object 1. Many glorious and flourishing Cittyes of the world maintaine their Civill Peace yea the very Americans and wildest Pagans keep the Peace of their Townes and Cittyes though neither in the one nor in the other can any man prove a true Church of God in these places Answ It is true where the Church is not Cittyes and Townes may enjoy some measure of Civill Peace yea and flourish in outward prosperity for a time through the Patience and Bounty and Long-sufferance of God The times of Jgnorance God winketh at Act. 17.30 But when the Church cometh to be Planted amongst them If then Civill States doe neglect them suffer the Churches to corrupt and annoy themselves by pollutions in Religion the the staffe of the Peace of the Common-wealth will soone be broken as the Purity of Religion is broken in the Churches The Common-wealth of Rome flourished five hundred yeares before the Kingdome of God in his Church came amongst them and the decayes of the Common-wealth occasioned by the persecutions of the Church were Repaired by the Publick establishment of the Churches peace in Christian Emperors But when the Churches begun to pollute themselves by the Idolatrous worship of Images and the Christian Emperors tooke no care to reforme this abuse in Churches the Lord sent in amongst other barberous nations the Turkes to punish not onely degenerate Churches but also the Civill State for this wickednesse And therefore the Holy Ghost upbraideth them for their continuance in Image worship though the Turke were let loose from the River Euphrates to scourge them for it Rev. 9.14.20 Goe now and say the estate of the Church whether true or false pure or corrupt doth not concerne the Civill Peace of the Sate Object 2. The Peace of the Church whether true or false is spirituall and so of an higher and farre different nature from the peace of the Countrey or People which is meerely and Essentially Civill and humane Ans 1. Though the inward peace of the Church be spirituall and heavenly yet there is an outward peace of the Church due to them even from Princes and Magistrates in a way of godlinesse and honesty 1. Tim. 2.1.2 But in a way of ungodlinesse and Idolatry it is an wholesome faithfulnesse to the Church if Princes trouble the outward peace of the Church that so the Church finding themselves wounded and pricked in the house of their friends they may repent and returne to their first Husband Zach. 13.6 Hosea 2.6.7 Ans 2. Though the peace of the Countrey or Common-wealth be Civill and humane yet it is distracted and cutt off by disturbing the spirituall purity and peace of the Church Jehu cutting short his Reformation God cutt short the coasts of the Civill State 2 King 10.31.32 Ans 3. Civill Peace to speake properly is not onely a peace in civill things for the Object but a peace of all the persons of the Citty for the Subject The Church is one Society in the Citty as well as is the Society of Merchants or Drapers Fishmongers and Haberdashers and if it be a part of Civill Justice out of regard to Civill Peace to protect all other Societyes in peace according to the wholesome Ordinances of their Company is it not so much more to protect the Church-Society in peace according to the wholesome Ordinances of the Word of Christ CHAP. 7. A Reply to his seventh Chapter Discussing what it is to hold forth a Doctrine or Practise in an Arrogant and impetuous way tending of it selfe to the disturbance of the Civill Peace HERE 2. Things he complaineth of 1. That I have not declared what this Arrogant and impetuous way is 2. That he cannot but expresse his sad and sorrowfull
Truth CHAP. 19. A Reply to his nineteenth Chapter Discusser That the Lord intendeth not Doctrines or Practises in this Parable It is cleare For 1. The Lord Jesus expresly interpreteth the good seed to be Persons those the children of the Kingdome The Tares also to signify men and those the children of the wicked one ver 38. Defender If the Discusser had cast his eye a little lower he might have found that Christ interpreteth the Tares not onely to be Persons but things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things that offend as well as those that doe iniquity ver 41. But I shall not stick upon that at all let the Tares be Persons whether Hypocrites like unto true Christians or holders forth of scandalous and corrupt Doctrines and Practises like unto sound Discusser 2. Such corrupt Doctrines and Practises are not to be tolerated now as those Jewish observations were for a while Rom. 14. nor so long till the end of the world For can we think that though the Lord tendered the tender conscience of the Jews in the observation of the difference of meates and drinks which were sometimes his owne Ordinances that therefore Persons must be now tolerated in the Church for I speake not of the Civill State in superstitious forbearing and forbidding of flesh in Popish Lents and superstitious Fridayes c. Defender Who can tell what this Discusser would have The Tares he would have to be Persons not corrupt Doctrines and Practises And yet when he commeth to prove that corrupt Doctrines and Practises are not to be tolerated he proveth it from the unlawfulnesse of tolerating corrupt persons for can we thinke saith he that persons must be now tolerated in the Church in the superstitious forbearing or forbidding of flesh in Popish Lents and Fridayes Such is the inconstancy of the spirits of men whose hearts are not stayed and steered by the Spirit of Truth that sometimes Tares must not be corrupt Doctrines and Practises but persons because Tares and so persons must be tolerated till the Harvest not so corrupt Doctrines and Practises And yet all the reason given why corrupt Doctrines and Practises must not be tolerated is this because Persons that hold them forth must not be tolerated CHAP. 20. A Reply to his twentieth Chapter what is meant by Tares Discusser The Originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying all those weeds which spring up with the Corne as cockle darnell Tares c. seemeth to imply such a kinde of people as are commonly and generally knowne to be manifestly differing from and opposite to the true Worshipers of God c. Defender 1. It is not true that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifyeth all those weeds that grow up with the Corne. For they be a speciall weed growing up cheifely amongst the wheat but when it commeth to the earing it groweth more like to Barley yet having a narrower leafe fatter and rougher and a leaner seed in a prickly barke bearing a purple flower as Dioscorides testifyeth Now this is farre from a description of all sorts of weeds that grow up with Corne. 2. Neither is it true that Tares are commonly and generally known assoone as they appeare For Hierom who for a time lived in Jury testifyeth that Inter triticum et zizania quod nos appellamus lolium quamdiu herba est et nondum culmus venit ad spicam grandis similitudo est et in discernendo aut nulla aut perdifficilis distantia Comment Mat. Cap. 13. Yea the Text it selfe though the Discusser deny it holdeth forth as much For the servants of the Husbandman in whose Feild the Tares were sowen by the enemy did not discerne the tares from the wheat till the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit for then it was and not till then that the Tares appeared to be Tares Mat. 13.26 what though the Text holdeth forth no such time wherein the servants doubted or suspected what they were It is like enough they did not suspect them at all by reason of the grandis similitudo the great likenesse that was between them whilest they were both in the blade Which still maketh good the Exposition that Tares are not bryars and thornes but so like to the wheat that till they come to earing the one cannot be discerned from the other Discusser The one appeared as soone as the other and when the wheat put forth its blade and fruite the Tares were as early they put forth themselves and appeared also 2. There is such a dissimilitude and unlikenesse between them that as soone as Tares and wheat sprung up to blade and fruite every husbandman could tell which is wheat and which is Tares Defender It s true the Tares put forth their blade assoone as did the wheat and appeared above ground one as early as the other but they were so like one to an other that the husbandmen could not tell which was wheat and which Tares till the blade was growen up and they both brought forth their fruite And though when they both brought forth their fruite there was no apparent dimissilitude yet still it is evident that at first the dimssilitude did not appeare The Tares may therefore still stand for Hypocrites who are so like at first unto good Christians that they cannot easily be discerned one from another till in processe of time the difference of the fruite discover them Discusser But when was it that the House-holder gave charge to let them alone was it not after they appeared and were knowne to be Tares which should imply by this interpretation of the Answerer that when men are discovered and knowne to be Hypocrites yet still such a generation of Hypocrites in the Church must be let alone and tolerated untill the Harvest or end of the world which is contrary to all Piety order and safety in the Church of the Lord Jesus as doubtlesse the Answerer will graunt Defender If the Answerer know his owne minde as well as the Discusser doubtlesse the Answerer will not graunt that it is contrary to all piety and order and safety that hypocrites knowne hypocrites be tolerated in the Church till the end of the world For though it be against the safety of the Church when the Officers or body of the Church prove hypocrites for that threatneth a dis-churching Rev. 2.5 yet till the fruits of hypocrisie grow notoriously scandalous and ripe for Church-Censure it is not contrary to all piety and order safety to suffer them but rather more safety to suffer them least some of Gods own Saints true wheat who for a time may degenerate and bring forth like fruit with the Tares be plucked up with them If foolish Virgins be cast out of the Church the wise Virgins may be sometime found sleeping as well as they Mat. 25.5 CHAP. 21. A Reply to his Chap. 21. VVhat is meant by the world and more of the Tares Discusser 2. The Tares cannot signifie hypocrites in the Church for
the field wherein they both grow is interpreted by Christ himselfe to be the world which lieth in wickednesse and is a wildernesse of wilde Beasts Fornicators Covetous Idolators c. In this world as soone as the Lord Jesus hath sowen the good seed the Children of the Kingdome true Christianitie or the true Church the enemy Satan presently in the night of Securitie Ignorance and Error soweth the Tares which are Antichristians or false Christians Those the Ministers and Prophets of God would straight runne to Heaven for fiery Judgements from thence to consume them But the Sonne of man commandeth a Permission of them till the end of the world when Goats and Sheep Tares and Wheate shall be eternally separated c. Defender Answ 1. It is true Christ expoundeth the Field to be the world ver 38. But he meant not the wide world but by an usuall Trope the Church scattered throughout the world as Christ is said to have loved the world Joh. 3.16 and to be the Propitiation of the sinnes of the world 1 Joh. 2.2 Reas 1. Else there had been no place for the servants wonder at the appearing of the Tares Sir didst not thou sow good seed in thy field from whence then hath it Tares ver 27. Did ever any of the servants of Christ wonder or saw any cause to wonder that the world should be full of Fornicators Idolaters Murderers Robbers c Was it ever otherwise since the world was replenished with Inhabitants Reas 2. What calling had the Ministers or Prophets of Christ to offer to pluck up all such notorious vicious persons out of the world Did ever any Ministers of Christ demand such a Question of Christ Wilt thou have us goe and gather up all notorious vicious Persons out of the world As they doe indeed demand the like concerning these Tares in Christs field ver 28. Reas 3. The Discusser himselfe reckoneth up Goats and Sheep as parallell with Wheat and Tares as generally Interpreters doe Now evident it is that Goats were cleane Beasts as well as Sheep cleane for food yea and cleane also for sacrifice and yet they were tolerated not onely to live in the same world but in the same Church For after the destruction of Antichrist when purest times of the Church shall come the Members of the Church shall all of them be Virgins none Idolaters though some wise and some foolish all of them servants though some thristie some unprofitable all of them cleane though some Goats some Sheep And therefore the Kingdome of Heaven that is the Church is at that time resembled to such a mixt state after the ruine of Antichrist and conversion of the Jewes untill the coming of Christ to Judgement Mat. 25.1 c. Answ 2. If the Field should be the world and the Tares Antichristians and false Christians it is true Satan sowed them in Gods Field but he sowed them in the Church The mystery of their Iniquitie did secretly work in the very bosome of the Church till in processe of time it grew so ranck and grosse as transformed the Churches that drunke it up into spirituall Babylon But if Antichrist be an Apostate and Antichristianitie Apostasie then it was first sowen in the field of the Church and not of the wide world Answ 3. It is not the will of Christ that Antichrist and Antichristians and Antichristianitie should be tolerated in the world untill the end of the world For God will put it into the hearts of faithfull Princes as they have given their Kingdomes to the Beast so in fulnesse of time to hate the whore to leave her desolate and naked and to burne her flesh with fire Rev. 17.16 17. And after this we reade of a visible state of a new Hierusalem which shall flourish many yeares upon Earth before the end of the world Revel Chap. 20. Chap. 21. Chap. 22. Neverthelesse I willingly grant that the first fruits of Antichristians and false Christians may be reckoned up amongst the Tares which Satan sowed in the field of the Church which afterwards grew to be Briars and Thornes and so destructive to the wheate that the wheat could not be suffered if discerned to live amongst them Discusser But Christ the wisdome of the Father would never in opening this Parable so farre obscure it or to call the Church the world Nor doth it agree with the nature of the Church or Garden of Christ to be styled the world Defender It is no impeachment to the wisdome of Christ to call his Elect Churches and Saints throughout the world by the Name of the world Else Paul spake not by the wisdome of Christ when he said God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe 2 Cor. 5.19 And though the Church within it selfe be a Garden and severed from the world yet all the Churches being scattered and dispersed throughout the world it is no more an improper speech to call the Church the world then to speake of Christ as dying for the world when he dyed for his Church CHAP. 22. A Reply to his 22. Chapter more of Tares Discusser In the former Parable the Lord Jesus compared the kingdome of Heaven to the sowing of seed The true Messengers of Christ are sowers who cast the seed of the word of the Kingdome upon 4. sorts of ground which 4. sorts of grounds or hearts of men cannot be supposed to be of the Church nor will it ever be proved that the Church consisteth of any more sorts or natures of ground properly but one to wit the honest and good ground And the proper work of the Church concerneth the prosperitie and flourishing of this sort of ground and not of the other three sorts In the field of the world then are all those sorts of grounds High-way-side stony thorney Hearers as well as the honest and good ground And I suppose it will not be said by the Answerer that these three sorts of bad grounds were Hypocrites or Tares in the Church Defender Answ 1. But what if the Answerer will say so It may be contrary to his supposall but not to the Truth For I demand did not Christ himselfe who was the chiefe Sower did not he Preach and sow the seed of the word to all those foure sorts of Hearers And yet he was the Minister of Circumcision Rom. 15.8 and Preached seldome to any but to Church-Members Members of the Church of Israel Answ 2. It 's an error to say The Church consisteth of no more sorts of Hearers but one the honest and good ground for if the children of Church-members be in the Church of the Church till they give occasion of rejection then they growing up to yeares become some of them like the High-way-side others like the stony others like the Thorney as well as others like the honest and good ground Answ 3. Though it be not the proper work of the Church to attend the prosperitie and flourishing of the three sorts of bad ground to
wit whilest they remaine bad yet it is their worke to seek the changing of the bad into good ground that so they may come to prosper and flourish For is it not the proper work of the Church to bring on their children to become the sincere People of God as well as to keep themselves in that estate Is it not a maine Branch of their Covenant with God that as God giveth himselfe to be a God to them and to their seed so they should give up themselves and their seed to be his People Besides hath not God given Pastours and Teachers as well for the gathering together of the Saints as for the edification of the body of Christ And hath he not given the Church and the Gospel Preached in the Church to lye like Leaven in three Pecks of Meale till all be Leavened Mat. 13.33 Answ 4. There is not such resemblance between High-way-side ground and good ground as is between Tares and Whea nor would the servants of the Husbandman ever wonder that weeds should grow in the high-way-side ground as they do at the growing of Tares in the Field Nor would they ever aske the Question whether they should pluck up weeds out of the High-way-side or stones out of the stony ground or pluck up Thornes out of the Thorney CHAP. 23. A Reply to his Chapt. 23. Still touching the Tares Discusser These Tares I shall evidently prove to be Idolaters and in particular properly Antichristians For first these Tares are such sinners as are opposite and contrary to the Children of the Kingdome visibly so declared and manifest ver 38. Defender Answ 1. These Tares are not such sinners as are contrary to the children of the Kingdome for then none should be opposite to them but they For contraries are such quorum unum uni opponitur But evident it is there be more wicked ones opposite to the children of the Kingdome then Idolaters and Antichristians to wit those notoriously scandalous wicked ones whom the Discusser nameth in the next Chapter Drunkards Thieves uncleane Persons Answ 2. It is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a begging of the Question to say that these Tares are such sinners as are opposite and contrary to the children of the Kingdome visibly so declared and manifested For the Tares were not discerned at first as hath been shewed above till the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit Discusser These Tares are the Children of the wicked one which wicked one I take to be not the Devill for the Lord Jesus seemeth to make them distinct The Tares saith he are the Children of the wicked one or wickednesse the Enemy that sowed them is the Devill Defender Answ 1. The Devill and the wicked one may well meane one and the same Person For if the Devill sowed these Tares then these Tares were the seed and so the children of the Devill Why should they be called the seed of one and the children of another Answ 2. Suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be translated the children of the wicked one or wickednesse that style will agree to hypocrites as well as to other Persons Sure it is the Lord Jesus often calleth the Scribes and Pharises Hypocrites Mat. 23. and he calleth them also a wicked and adulterous Generation Mat. 16. And therefore still these Tares will not appeare to be others then Hypocrites CHAP. 24. A Reply to his 24. Chapter Still touching the Tares Discusser Though all Drunkards Thieves uncleane Persons c. be opposite to Gods Children yet the opposition of the Tares here against the Children of the Kingdome is such an opposition as fights against the religious state and Kingdome of the Lord Jesus Christ 2. It is manifest the Lord Jesus intendeth no other sort of sinners in this Parable then Antichristians unto whom here he saith let them alone in Church or State For then he should contradict other holy and blessed Ordinances for the punishment of Offenders both in Christian and Civill State For 1. In the Civill State God hath armed Parents Masters Magistrates to punish evill doers Murderers Quarrellers uncleane Persons stealers extortioners such ought not to be let alone neither in lesser nor greater Families Townes Cities Kingdomes Rom. 13. but seasonably supprest c. 2. In the Kingdome of Christ whose Officers Lawes punishments weapons are all Spirituall and of a Soule-nature he will not have Antichristian Idolaters Extortioners Covetous c. to be let alone but the uncleane Lepers to be thrust forth c. Therefore if neither the Offenders against the Civill Lawes State and Peace ought to be let alone nor the Spirituall State the Church ought to beare with them that are evill Rom. 2. I Conclude that these Tares are sinners of another nature Idolaters false Worshippers Antichristians who without discouragement to true Christians must be let alone and permitted in the world to grow up untill the great Harvest Defender Answ 1. As all wicked Persons be opposite to Gods children for the children of the Kingdome of Light and the children of the Kingdome of darknesse cannot but be opposite so the opposition that is in all the wicked against the children of God doth fight against the religious state and Kingdome of the Lord Jesus For such as stand for the Kingdome of Satan as all wicked men doe they stand in opposition to the Kingdome of Christ No man can serve two Masters If he cleave to the one he standeth in enmitie to the other Mat. 6.24 Answ 2. It followeth not that because Christ biddeth his Ministers Let the wicked alone in Church or State That therefore he intendeth no other then Antichristian Idolaters Neither should Christ contradict any Ordinance of his own for the punishment of Offenders both in Christian and Civill State though he should command other offenders to be let alone besides Antichristians For no Ordinance or Law of God nor just Law of man commandeth the rooting out of hypocrites either by Civill or Church-censure though the Church be bound to endeavour as much as in them lyeth to heale their hypocrisie Answ 3. Neither is it true that Antichristians are to be let alone by the Ordinance of Christ till the end of the world For what if the members of a Christian Church shall some of them Apostate to Antichristian Superstition and Idolatry as often falleth out by the seduction of the Emissaries of Babel doth the Ordinance of Christ binde the hands of the Church of which they are Members to let them alone In chapter 19. The Discusser himself would not have the superstitious observation of Lent-Fasts to be let alone And surely Christ ordained by his blessed Apostle Paul that if any Brother proved an Idolater whether Pagan or Antichristian such an one should be cast out by excommunication 1 Cor. 5.11 Besides What if any Antichristian Persons out of zeale to the Catholick Cause and out of conscience to the command of their Superiours should seeke to destroy the King and Parliament
that they will doe it without some excitement from the Angells no more then the Angells powred out their vialls till they were stirred up by a great voice out of the Temple Revelations 16.1 It is an evasion as groundlesse as the former that Elijahs stirring up of Ahab to kill all the Preists and Prophets of Baal was figurative For all Figures in the old Testament have their Accomplishment â—n the New Now evident it is Ahab an Apostate Idolater was no Type of Christ nor was Israel after their Apostacy a Type of the true Church of Christ A Tabernacle it was but not a Tabernacle of Christ Aholah but not Aholibah To make this act in Israel a Type of Christs act in Christian State or Church is to make darknesse a type of light Ceremoniall Lawes were generally Typicall not so Moses his Judicialls especially those which had in them morall equity It is Morall equity That Blasphemers and Apostate Idolaters seducing others to Idolatry should be put to death Levit. 24.16 Deut. 13.5 Ahab forfited his owne life because he did not put Benhadad to death for his blasphemy 1 Kings 20.23 28. and ver 42. yet Benhadad was no Israelite nor was his blasphemy bleched out in the Land of Israel but the externall equity of that Judiciall Law of Moses was of morall force and bindeth all Princes to expresse that zeale and indignation both against blasphemy in such as fall under their just power which Ahab neglected and against seduction to Idolatry which Ahab executed or else Elijah or some others by his consent But before I leave this dispute touching the meaning of those words Let them alone let me add another Interpretation which I see doth rather more satisfie others and it may wel stand Let them alone is not a word of precept by way of Ordinance But a word of permission by way of Providence God in his Providence will permit some or other Tares ever to be found in his Church to the last Judgement Which yet he would not have his servants offended at For them he will pluck up by his Angells at the last Harvest CHAP. 28. A Reply to his 28th Chapter VVhich is a Recaptulation of what Points the Discusser supposeth He hath proved in opening this Parable Defender The Discusser in this Chapter is onely a Rehearser of what he conceiveth himselfe to have evidently demonstrated to the Conscience from Chap. eighteene to this Chapter twentieight Five Points Negatively and Five Points Affirmatively But because what he rehearseth hath been reversed in the Reply to those severall Chapters I will not Actum Agere nor Dictum dicere CHAP. 29. A Reply to his twentininth Chapter Discussing the Text in Matth. 15.14 Letter The second Scripture brought against such Persecution for Cause of Conscience is Matth 15.14 where the Disciples being troubled at the Pharises cariage towards the Lord Jesus and his Doctrine and relating how they were offended at him The Lord Jesus commaundeth his Disciples to Let them alone and giveth this Reason that the blinde lead the blinde and both should fall into the ditch Answ of the Letter Christ speaketh not there to publick Officers whether in Church or Common-wealth but to his private Disciples concerning the Pharises over whom they had no power And the command he giveth to Let them alone is spoken in regard of troubling themselves or regarding the offence which they tooke at the wholesome Doctrine of the Gospel As who should say Though they be offended at this wholesome saying of mine yet doe not you feare their feare nor be troubled at their offence which they take at my Doctrine not out of sound Judgement but out of blindnesse But this maketh nothing to the cause in hand Discusser To passe by this Assertion of the privacy of the Apostles in that the Lord Jesus commanded to Let them alone that is not onely to be offended themselves but not to meddle with them It appeareth it was no Ordinance of God nor of Christ for his Disciples to have gone further and have complained to and excited the Civill Magistrate to his duty Which if it had been an Ordinance of God and Christ either for the vindicating of Christs Doctrine or the recovering of the Pharises or the preserving of others from infection the Lord Jesus would never have commanded them to omitt that which should have tended to these holy ends Defender Reply 1. To passe by the Assertion of the Privacy of the Apostles It is not an Act of courtesie and loathnesse to strive but out of defect of just pretence to make any colourable exception against it For though the Apostles were called to a publique Ministery Math. 10. yet it seemeth not as then to a constant office but to a transient Administration pro illa vice for that time Their constant calling required to attend continually upon Christs Ministry to prepare and ripen them for the publique constant office which they were to be called to after Christs Resurrection Acts 1.21 22. Besides in that transient Administration they were not sent to the Scribes and Pharises who were no bitter then Wolves and Foxes but to the lost sheepe of the House of Israel Matth. 10.6 And therefore the Apostles not being sent to the Scribes and Pharises they had no power over them but stood as private men to them Reply 2. And as they had no calling nor power to correct or censure them themselves so neither had they a calling to excite the civill Magistrate against them For first it was no just cause for the civill Magistrate to punish the Pharises for that they tooke unjust offence against Christs wholesome doctrine For neither was the doctrine it selfe a fundamentall truth nor was their offence against it a fundamentall errour though it was dangerous Besides the civill Magistrates had no Law established about doctrines or offences of that nature And therefore they could take no judiciall cognizance of any complaint presented to them about the same Moreover our Saviour who sent forth his Apostles to preach to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel gave them a charge of caution to beware how they medled with Scribes and Pharises Behold saith he I send you forth as sheepe among wolves Be ye therefore wise as serpents innocent as doves Beware of men c. Mat. 10.16 17. The Apostles therefore having received this caution could not meddle with the Scribes and Pharises but trespasse against this rule of serpentine prudence as much as for a flocke of lambes to complaine to a kennell of wolves of the wolves out-rage Yea Christ himselfe was sparing to reprove them himselfe though called to a publicke Ministery till the last yeare of his Ministery when his houre was comming of departure out of the world as knowing they would not be able to beare it and their exasperation might have been some hinderance to the free passage of his Ministery before his houre was come CHAP. 30. A Reply to his Chap. 30.
affaires thereof Ephes 4. 1 Cor. 12. The other a Civill Ministery or office meerely humane and Civill which men agree to constitute therefore called an humane Creation 1 Pet. and is as true and lawfull in those Countries that never heard of the true God and his holy Sonne Jesus as in any part of the world where the Name of Christ is not taken up Defender If Magistrates be the Ministers of God as Paul calleth them then their Ministery or office is not meerely humane but as the Apostle saith it is of God and ordained of God Rom. 13.1 And if it be of God it must also be for God or else he is a Minister and servant not of God but of the world It is true men agree to constitute it to wit this or that forme of it in respect of which influence of men it is called an humane Creation but the Truth is Government it selfe is of God and ordained by God and every lawfull forme of Government whether Monarchy Aristarchy or Democracy or some mixt of these according to the State of the People they are all of God and so acknowledged and authorized by God in his word and though they be as true and lawfull in those Nations that never heard of the true God or of his holy Sonne Jesus yet it was from the guidance and appointment of God in the very light of Nature that such Nations did erect such and such Governments and Governments for the good of humane society and that not onely in worldly matters But in matters also of Religion Whence it is that in all civill Nations whose Acts are recorded either in sacred or prophane Authors their Magistrates have had not onely a due care of Justice and honesty but a reverend care of Religion also Joseph in Egypt provided for the preservation of the Lands of the Priests without Impeachment and that not out of respect to their superstition which he could not but dislike but out of regard to the Aegyptian Lawes Customes to preserve their Religion and the maintenance thereof inviolate Gen. 47.22 In Babell Nebuchadnezzar being convinced of the soveraigne Divinity of the God of Israel made a capitall Law against the blasphemers of his Name Dan. 3.29 Darius of the Medes and Persians enacted a Royall Law to like purpose Dan. 6.26 The like did Artaxerxes Ezra 7.26 and Darius before him Ezra 6.11 In Athens they had a Law against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Irreligion upon which suffered three famous Philosophers Socrates Theodorus and Protagoras Socrates as Laertius reporteth in his Life was accused by Melitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who commenced his Action against him in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodorus was firnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as Socrates was condemned to death by poyson so was this man also as Laertius reporteth out of Amphicrates in the life of Aristippus Protagoras as Tully reporteth of him de Natura Deorum Lib. 1. having thus expressed himselfe in the beginning of his Booke concerning the Gods I have not to say whether they be or whether they be not his Bookes were publickly burnt and himselfe banished out of City and Country How the Ephesians stood affected to the destroyers of their Religion appeareth by the excuse which the Towne-Clarke made for Paul and his Companions you have brought these men hither saith he which are neither robbers of Churches nor yet blasphemers of your Goddesse Acts 19.37 The Romans how zealous they were in defence of their Religion the slaughter of many thousand Christians will be a perpetuall Monument to all Ages All which things I recite not to justifie the misapplying of their zeale to the maintenance of false Gods but to make it appeare that as the Pagan Nations who never heard of the true God and of his Sonne Jesus did erect by instinct of Nature Governments and Magistrates so by the same instinct their Lawes and Magistrates tooke care of the maintenance of that Religion which they tooke to be of God What a shame were it that Pagan Magistrates should be more carefull and zealous of the honour of their Idols then Christians of the Honour of the knowne true God the Lord our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier CHAP. 52. A Reply to his Chap. 52. Discusser MAny object out of ver 4. of Rom. 13. that the Magistrate is to avenge evill and therefore Heresies false Christs c. But I answer First that the word is generally opposed to civill goodnesse or vertue in a Common-wealth and not to spirituall good Secondly I have proved here as not intended evill against the spirituall or Christian State handled in chapter 12. But evill against the Civill State handled in this 13. chapter Defender What is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evill no man that I meet with Interpreteth more fully then Pareus There is saith he a foure-fold evill of which the Magistrate is the Avenger contrary to the foure-fold good whereof the Magistrate is the Preserver A naturall good a Morall good a Civill good a spirituall good A naturall good as Life and safety of our bodies A morall good as Temperance Chastity a Civill good as our goods and Lands and civill Liberties A spirituall good as the free passage of the Ordinances of God and pure Religion In opposition to these there is a foure-fold Evill Naturall as the killing and wounding and beating of our bodies morall as Drunkennesse and whoredome Civill as stealth and robbery and oppression Spirituall as Heresie Idolatry and disturbance of the free passage of Gods Ordinances As the Magistrate is bound by his office to preserve the good of the Subject in all these kinds so is he to avenge the evill done against the Subject in any of these What the Discusser hath proved to the contrary as he saith hath been Answered already in his place Discusser The Elders of New-England grant the Magistrate may not punish some evill as the secret sinnes of the Soule nor sinnes handled in the Church in a private way nor such sinnes as are private in Families As the complaints of Children against Parents Servants against Masters Wives against Husbands nor such sinnes as are between the Members and Churches themselves From whence I observe 1. That the Magistrate is not to punish all evill 2. I observe how they take away from the Magistrates that which is proper to his cognizance as the complaints of Children servants Wives against their Parents Masters Husbands c. Defender When wee say the Magistrate is an Avenger of evill we meane of all sorts or kindes of evill not every particular of each kinde secret evills in thought or affection yea in action too but neither confessed nor proved by due witnesses the Magistrate cannot punish Discusser The distinction of secret or private and publick evill will not here availe because such as urge the Terme evill viz. that the Magistrate is to punish evill they urge it strictly eo nomine because Heresie Blasphemy c.
I have expresly said it and proved it before that it is and ought to be the care and worke of the Church also to suppresse and punish seducing Teachers and scandalous livers in a Church-way as well as the Magistrate in a civill way Discusser First this joyning of things of such different kindes is not an homogeneall but heterogeneall commixture of things most different in kinds Defender But these different kinds they agree in one common kind they are both of them evills and evills destructive in their severall wayes to the common good of Gods people which ought to be preserved both in Church and Common-wealth The Termes of Homogeneall and Heterogeneall are in this case only words of noyse and of an empty sound fit to take with simple people that know not the meaning nor use of them Discusser Who knoweth not that many seducing Teachers of the Paganish Jewish Turkish or Antichristian Religion may be cleare and free from scandalous offences in their lives and from disobedience to the civill Lawes of the State Defender Now you may see the Discusser was willing to make use of founding words which himselfe it seemeth knew not well the use of For what if there were many seducing Teachers of all Religions that may be cleare from scandalous offences the distinguishing therefore of evills into these two sorts into seditious Teachers and scandalous offenders is so much the more allowable and accurate If a man shall say the worke of the Creation on the sixt day was either of man or of Beast shall a man goe about here to observe a great evill that here is not an homogeneall but an heterogeneall commixture of things most different in kind For who knoweth not that there are many Beasts Lyons Leopards Wolves Beares that never were men but are cleare and free from all humane nature Such a like reasoning is that of the Discusser here What if many seducing Teachers whether Jewish Paganish Turkish Antichristian were never scandalous livers but obedient to the civill State yet are they not all of them evill and accordingly to be restrayned by lawfull Authority And is the joyning of them together the great evill of an heterogeneall commixture Againe let the Discusser be pleased to observe that which hath been often touched afore that we looke at it as more tolerable for seducing Teachers to seduce those who are already in the same gall of bitternesse with themselves as Pagans to seduce Pagans Jewes to seduce Jewes Turkes to seduce Turkes and Antichristians to seduce Antichristians Though this also ought to be prevented by wise and wholsome meanes by a Christian Magistrate in all those that are under his dominion so far as there is power in his hand without the hazard of the publick State Lastly let me adde this Reply to the rest that it will be hard for the Discusser to finde Antichristian seducers cleare and free from Disobedience to the civill Lawes of a State in case that Antichrist to whom they are sworne shall excommunicate the civill Magistrate and prescribe the civill State to the invasion of Forrayners Discusser Again who knoweth not that a seducing Teacher properly sinneth against the Church against the Spirituall State and Lawes of it and therefore ought most properly and onely to be dealt withall in such a way Defender These twise-sod Coleworts the Discusser hath often set them before us heretofore but with as little savour now as before For what if a seducing Teacher having sinned against the Church be cast out by the Church and still continue seducing yea what a weake and guilfull evasion would this prove for the Discusser to referre a seducing Teacher to a Church-way when himselfe doth not acknowledge any Church of Christ extant upon the face of the Earth Discusser A second evill which I observe in coupling seducing Teachers with scandalous livers is a silent and implicit Justification of all unrighte us and cruell proceedings of Jewes and Gentiles against all the Prophets of God the Lord Jesus himselfe and all his messingers and witnesses whom their Accusers have ever so coupled and mixed with notorious evill doers and scandalous livers c. Defender Is this a silent and implicite Justification of all the injurious and cruell handlings by wicked men of the Lord Jesus and his witnesses to say that seducing Teachers and scandalous livers are to be punished by Authority because the Lord Jesus himselfe and his witnesses have suffered under those names What if the wicked Jewes and Gentiles did injuriously and blasphemously put those names upon the Lord Jesus and his faithfull witnesses and upon pretence of such evils put them to death doth it therefore justifie such proceedings to say that seducing Teachers and scandalous livers are to be punished by Authority If those who are indeed seducing Teachers and scandalous livers ought to be punished will it therefore justifie the like proceedings against them who are no such persons but falsly so called if a man should say a murderer is to be punished with death will it therefore justifie the Islanders of Melita to put Paul to death because amongst them he was so reputed doubtlesse a murderer Acts 28.4 yea let the Discusser seriously confider whether this kind of reasoning of his doe not more then silently and implicitely testifie that the Lord Jesus and his witnesses were seducing Teachers and scandalous livers CHAP. 55. A Reply to his Chap. 57. Discusser THe Scripture alleaged by the Answerer to prove that it would be an evill to tolerate notorious evill doers whether seducing Teachers or scandalous livers is written Rev. 2.14.20 Where Christ hath something against the Church of Pergamus for tolerating them that hold the Doctrine of Balaam and against the Church of Thyatira for tolerating Jezebel to teach and seduce Vnto which I may answer with some admiration and astonishment how it pleased the Father of Lights and most Jealous God to darken and vaile the eyes of such a man as not to seeke out and propose some Scriptures in the proofe of so weighty an assertion as at least might have some colour for the influence of the civill Magistrate in such cases For these Texts concerne neither the City nor the civill Magistrates of Pergamus and Thyatyra but the Churches and Elders c. Defender It was no part of my meaning to alledge those Scriptures to prove it unlawfull for Magistrates to tolerate seducing Teachers but unlawfull for Churches If the Discusser say there needed no proofe of that that was out of Question I may truly tell him that was more then I knew For the Letter which he intreated me to Answer so stated the Question as in generall to argue against persecution for cause of Conscience And if the Question be put in such generall Termes I knew the Church might as well be complained of for persecution for cause of Conscience as the civill Magistrate For if persecution be taken properly for affliction or oppression for righteousnesse sake I
Prophets and seducing Teachers doe bring downe showers of Gods blessings upon the civill State 1 Kings 18.40 41. Fifthly it is an honour to Gods Justice that such Judgements are executed Rev. 16.5 6 7. Discusser But such Executions in Queen Elizabeths dayes had raysed almost all Europe in combustion the warres of 88. the Spanish Invasion had speciall respect to this And had not the Lord borne witnesse to his owne Law and to his people herein by defeating the Intendments of their Enemies it might have been the ruine both of England and the Netherlands which are the words of Mr. Cotton himselfe on the third Viall Defender The words Answer for themselves The Devill and his Instruments raged against such Lawes and such Executions but God bare witnesse to both by mightily defeating the Invasions and Conspiracies of Enemies Discusser It is no Argument that God bare witnesse to his people in such Deliverancies and Victories For 1. Events and Successes come alike to all and are no Arguments of Love or Hatred Defender Events and successes are indeed no Arguments of a mans spirituall Estate of the Love or hatred of God to a mans person in which sense Solomon speaketh Eccles 9.1 2. But otherwise they are ordinary witnesses good Events of a good cause if it be well handled ill events of an ill cause or at least of the ill handling of a good cause Psal 1.3 4. Jer. 22.15 16 17. Discusser Secondly Papists in their warres have ever yet had both in Peace and warre victory and Dominion And therefore if successe be the measure God hath borne witnesse to them as in the Warres between Charles the fift and some Germane Princes where the successe was various between Philip of Spaine and the Low-Countries the King of France and his Protestant Subjects sometimes winning sometimes loosing But most memorable is the History of the Waldenses who fought many Battles against three succeeding Popes with various successe But the finall successe and Victory fell to the Popedome and Romish Church in the utter extirpation of those Waldensian witnesses Defender Reply 1. I will not inquire of the meaning of the words how the Papists in their warres have had both in Peace and Warre Victory and Dominion But this I cannot excuse from contradiction that the Papists in their Warres ever had the Victory and yet have often fought with various successe sometime winning sometime loosing Nor can I tell how it standeth with Truth that Papists in their Warres ever had the Victory since Queen Elizabeth ever had the Victory over them Reply 2. Though Papists have fought with various Successe it is Gods manner to nurture his people with some crosses that they might at length learne to fight not in their owne strength but in the Lords Reply 3. The story is evident that the Waldenses never lost Battell but when they complyed with the Papists and trusted more in their false pretences then in the Lord. Neither is it true that the finall successe ef the Victory fell to the Romish Church to the utter extirpation of those Waldensian witnesses For it never came to an utter Extirpation of them but only to a dispersion into sundry Countries of Europe as Bishop Vsher sheweth in the last words of his Booke De successione Christianarum Ecclesiarum But dispersion is one thing utter exterpation is anoother Seed is dispersed and the more multiplyed but exterpation tendeth to withering and destruction Certaine it is the Waldenses long after those warres and that dispersion wrote Letters to Luther and Calvin which are extant to this day Discusser It is most true what Daniel in his 8.11 and 12. Chapters and John Rev. 11 12 and 13. Chapters write of the great successe of Antichrist against Christ Jesus for a time appointed Defender Not against Christ Jesus for who ever warred against him and prevailed Job 9.4 But true it is against his servants Antichrist prevailed for a time appointed but it was when either the Saints suffered for the Truth and then the Saints were the true Conquerours or else when they complyed with the corruptions of the times and then though their cause was good yet they handled it ill Discusser Gods servants are all Conquerours when they warre with Gods weapons in Gods cause and worship as in Rev. 2. and 3. Chapters and in Rev. 12. they overcome the Dragon in the Romane Emperours by three weapons the bloud of the Lamb the word of their Testimony and not loving their lives unto the death Defender It is true those are the weapons of the Ministers of the Gospel and those are also the weapons of private Christians but if the Magistrate be the Minister of God in bearing his sword then the Sword also is a weapon of God which when it is drawne out in Gods cause and worship according to God with confidence not in the arme of flesh but in the Lord of Hosts it goeth forth Conquering to conquer Rev. 17.14 with Rev. 19.14.19 20. Gideons Sword was the Sword of the Lord Judg. 7.20 CHAP. 65. A Reply to his Chap. 68. Discussing the Testimonies alledged from Ancient and later writers and first that of Hilary Discusser THe last Head of Arguments produced by the Author against persecution was from the Judgement of Antient and later Writers to some of which the Answerer pleaseth to answer Defender Some of which as if any of them were omitted or as if all of them were not answered compare the Prisoners Letter and my Answer together and see if I have balked any one of them Discusser If it be a marke of the Christian Church to be persecuted and of the Antichristian or false Church to persecute then the Churches cannot be truly Christian according to the first Institution which either actually themselves or by the civill Power of Kings and Princes given to them or procured by them to fight for them doe persecute such as discent from them or be opposite against them Defender I say againe if persecution be properly taken for the punishment of the Innocent for Truth or Righteousnesse sake it ought not to be found in a Christian Church but is usually found in a false and Antichristian Church but I cannot as the Discusser doth make it a marke of the Christian Church to be persecuted and a marke of a false Church to persecute For a Marke is such a signe as belongeth omni soli semper as a marke of the Church must agree to every Church and at all times to the Church and onely to the Church But to be persecuted is not found in every true Church at least not at all times For after the conversion of Paul unto the Faith of Christ the Churches had rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria Acts 9.31 shall we say they were then no true Christian Churches because they wanted this marke of the Church to be persecuted Againe wee read that after the destruction of Antichrist the Churches of the Saints shall have rest
the Colledge that he might be trained up to knowledge for the help of his Country-men But no violent course taken with them at all to constraine them to the Faith or Profession of Christianity The time is hastning we hope when all the vials of Gods wrath will be poured out on the Antichristian State and then we looke for the fulnesse of the Gentiles to come in and with the Jewes multitudes of Pagans But till the seven plagues of the seven Angels be fulfilled wee cannot easily hope for the entrance of 〈◊〉 New multitudes of men into the Church according to the word of the Lord Rev. 15.8 No man that is no man out of the Temple no Pagan was able to enter into the Temple till the seven plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled But to returne to our Discusser he speaketh at randome when he intimateth that we walke not by Rule but partially as if we permitted not the like liberty of worship to our Country-men nor to the French Dutch Spanish Persians Turkes Jewes which wee doe to the Indians For we Neither constraine them to worship God with us nor restraine them from worshipping God in their owne way Persians Turkes and Jewes come not amongst us those of other Nations of Europe when they doe come amongst us their manner of Worship is not taken notice of amongst us Our Country-men worship God with us for the most part if some of them come not to our Assemblies by reason of the distance of their dwellings from us they have Liberty of publick prayer and preaching of the word a-amongst themselves by such as themselves choose without disturbance Discusser The Answerer addeth a further Answer to Tertullian for whereas Tertullian had said that one mans Religion doth neither hurt nor profit another the Answerer saith it must be understood of private Worship or of Religion professed in private Otherwise a false Religion professed in publick by the Members of the Church or by such as have given their Names to Christ will be the ruine and Desolation of the Churches Rev. 2. Whereto I Answer 1. Those that are Members of the Church and those that have given their names to Christ are all one the distinction therefore is unsound Defender The Discusser must excuse me though I doe not take them for all one For men of yeares must give up their names to Christ before they can be received Members into the Church as is evident Isaiah 56.6 7. Therefore they are not all one the one precedeth the other Discusser I answer secondly that Tertullian doth not there speake of private but of publick worship and Religion Defender Tertullians speech may possibly be meant of either publick or private But as I said to make the speech true it must either be understood of private or if of publick profession of Religion it must be understood not of Christian but of Pagan and of Pagan during the time of Gods Patience and their ignorance But after God revealed the Truth of the Gospel-Religion to them it was not safe to continue a publick Profession of Pagan-Religion for after the White-Horse hath revealed the Gospel a Red and Black and pale-horse follow to avenge the rejection of it upon the Romane-Pagan-Empire Revel 6.2 to 8. Discusser I answer thirdly although it be true in a Church of Christ that a false Religion or Worship permitted will doe hurt according to those Threats of Christ Rev. 2. yet in two cases I beleive a false Religion will not hurt which is most like to have been Tertullians meaning 1. A false Religion out of the Church will not hurt the Church no more then weeds in the Wildernesse will hurt the inclosed Gardens nor poyson hurt the body when it is not touched or taken yea and Antidotes are received against it 2. A false Religion and worship will not hurt a Civill State in case the worshippers breake no civill Law And the Answerer elsewhere acknowledgeth that the civill Peace is not broken where the civill Lawes are not broken And this onely is the point in Question Defender If this onely be the point in Question where then lyeth the controversie for if I say as the Discusser saith I doe that the Civill Peace is not broken when the Civill Law is not broken and if a false Religion or worship doe not hurt the civill State unlesse the Worshippers breake some civill Law then where lyeth the pinch of the controversie But I would not have the Discusser mistake himselfe I doe not remember that I have any where said that the civill Peace is not broken where the civill Law is not broken He saith I say so elsewhere If he meane that I say so in the Modell drawn up by my Brethren the Elders of those Churches he wrongeth and polluteth himselfe much Crimine falsi when he saith that Mr. Cotton with the rest of the Ministers of New-England composed that Modell of Church and civill power It is no new thing with him to say I did that which I did not that Modell was drawen up by some other fellow-Brethren but not by me There is a Truth in the speech which they speak rightly understood but not as the Discusser here taketh it For first what if no civill Law be made for the establishment of Religion nor against the violation of the Fundamentalls of it this very defect of so needfull a Law may bring the wrath of God upon the civill State as did the defect of a King in Israel Judg. 21.25 Againe secondly there may be a Law made for the establishing of true Religion and it though it be violated yet the Discusser will say no civill Law is violated because no Law concerning the second Table is violated But that is his mistake to thinke the civill Lawes concerne onely the outward Estate of the People and not their Religion That is a civill Law whatsoever concerneth the good of the City and the propulsing of the contrary Now Religion is the best good of the City and therefore Lawes about Religion are truly called civill Lawes enacted by civill Authority about the best good of the City for the promoting and preserving of that good of the City But having thus spoken to his second case first wherein he saith a false Religion will not hurt a civill State I come now to his first which was that a false Religion will not hurt if it be out of the Church no more then weeds in the wildernesse will hurt the inclosed Garden But what if the Garden be inclosed in the midst of a wildernesse what if the weeds grow so neere the inclosure or hedge round about the Garden that they easily creep into the Garden what if every blast of wind blow the seeds of the weeds into the Garden which are ready to overspread the Garden and to choak the good herbes The Discusser will say they that keep and dresse the Garden should weed them out True so they ought to their best endeavour But
the Church be not nursed with poison in stead of milke And in so doing they keepe the first Table Reforme the Church judge in causes Ecclesiasticall Againe If the the same Princes shall bow down to the Church with their faces towards the earth and lick the dust of her feet as the same Text expresseth then they being members of the Church shall be subject also to Church-Censure In one word Princes sit on the Bench over the Church in the offensive Government of the Church yet may themselves being members of the Church be subject to Church-Censure in the offensive Government of themselves against the Rules of the Gospel The Examiner himselfe contesseth that in severall respects He that is a governor may be also a Subject Behold here are severall respects to wit severall objects of Judicature In the Mal-Administration of the Church the Magistrate sitteth as Judge and Governor in the Mal-Administration of a Church-Member-Magistrate contrary to the expresse rules of the Gospel he is subject to the power of Christ in the Church If it be said nay rather The Church is subject to the Magistrate in civill causes and the Magistrate is subject to the Church in spirituall causes I Answer That easeth not the difficulty no more then the other For suppose the Magistrate a Church member live in Incest breake forth into murder and notorious oppression these are all civill causes belonging to the second Table If the Magistrate sit as Judge and supreme Governor in this case then must the Church tolerate him herein to the dishonour of the great Name of Christ to the leavening of the Church and to the perdition of his soule If it be granted that in such a case though civill the Church is bound to deale faithfully with the Magistrate and not to suffer sinne upon him let the like power be granted to the Magistrate to deale faithfully with the Church in the notorious transgressions of the first Table as is granted to the Church to deale with the Magistrate in the notorious transgressions of the second Table and the controversie is ended If any further matter be claimed in making the Supreme Magistrate the Supreme Judge and Governor in all causes aswell Ecclesiasticall as civill I doe not understand that the Ministers or Churches of Christ are called to acknowledge such a meaning Sure I am the Interpretation of that high stile which godly learned Reynolds made of it in the 10. Chap. of his Conference with Hart It was accepted of the State in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth And the same Interpretation if no more be intended by that stile doth well stand with our defence But wherefore doe I put my Sicle into the Harvest of my Brethren my Brethren who penned that Modell are richly furnished by Christ with ability to defend it I therefore leave it to them whom it cheifly concerneth to maintaine the Truth which themselves have witnessed in that Modell And the Lord Jesus Christ himself the God of Truth who came into the world that he might beare witnesse to the Truth be pleased to beare witnesse from Heaven to his owne Truth and bl … that peace a fraudulent and false peace which the Examiner proclaimeth to all the wayes of falshood in Religion to Heresie in Doctrine to Idolatry in worship to blasphemy of the great Name of God to Pollution and prophanation of all his holy Ordiannces Amen Even So Come Lord Jesus A REPLY TO Mr. VVILLIAMS his EXAMINATION And Answer of the Letters sent to him by JOHN COTTON SUch a Letter to such a purpose I doe remember I wrote unto Mr. Williams about halfe a score yeares agoe But whether this printed Letter be a true Copie thereof or no I doe not know for the Letter being sent so long since and no Copie of it that I can finde reserved by me I can own it no further then I finde the matter and style expressing the judgement which I then had of his cause of Separation and the affection I bare unto his person And for ought I see the Letter doth not unfitly expresse both But how it came to be put in print I cannot imagine Sure I am it was without my privitie and when I heard of it it was to me unwelcome Newes as knowing the truth and weight of Plinies speech Aliud est scribere uni aliud omnibus There be who thinke it was published by Mr. Williams himselfe or by some of his friends who had the Copie from him Which latter might be the more probable because himselfe denieth the publishing of it and it sticketh in my mind that I received many yeares agoe a refutation of it in a brotherly and ingenuous way from a stranger to me but one as I heare well affected to him Mr. Sabine Staresmore To whom I had long agoe returned an Answer but that he did not direct me where my Letter might find him But I doe not suspect Mr. Staresmore nor Mr. Williams himselfe to have published it but rather some other unadvised Christian who having gotten a copie of the Letter tooke more libertie then God alloweth to draw forth a private Admonition to publick notice in a disorderly way But howsoever it was upon the publishing of this Letter Mr. Williams hath taken occasion as is observed by some who are acquainted with the Spirit of the man first to rise up against me the meanest of many in the examining and resuting of that Letter And then as if one Mordecai were too small a morsell to stand forth against all the Churches and Elders in New-England in his Bloudy Tenent And then as if New-England were but an handfull from thence to rise up against the choisest Ornaments of two populous Nations England and Scotland the reverend Assembly of Divines together with the reverend Brethren of the Apology and above them all to addresse himselfe according to his high thoughts to propound Quaeries of high concernment as he calleth them to the High and Honourable Court of Parliament So a Bird of prey affecting to soare aloft getteth first upon the top of a molehill and from thence taketh his rise from Pale to Tree till he have surmounted the highest Mountaines In this apprehension of him they are the more confirmed as having discerned the like frame of Spirit in his former walking amongst us Time was when of all Christian Churches the Churches of New-England were accounted and professed by him to be the most pure and of all the Churches in New-England Salem where himselfe was Teacher to be the most pure But when the Churches of New-England tooke just offence at sundry of his proceedings he first renounced communion with them all and because the Church of Salem refused to joyne with him in such a groundlesse Censure he then renounced communion with Salem also And then fell off from his Ministery and then from all Church-fellowship and then from his Baptisme and was himselfe baptized againe and then from the Lords Supper and
for these are the dayes of vengeance when the Antinomians deny the whole Law the Anti-Sabbatarians deny the Morality of the fourth Commandement the Papists deny the Negative part of the second Commandement It is a wofull opportunitie that God hath left Mr. Williams to now to step in and deny the Affirmative part of it also as the Papists doe the Negative and so He and the Papists to combine together to evacuate the whole second Commandement altogether For take away as Mr. Williams doth all Instituted worship of God as Churches Pastors Teachers Elders Deacons Members publick Ministery of the Word Covenant Seales of the Covenant Baptisme and the Lords Supper the Censures of the Church and the like what is then left of all the Institutions and Ordinances of God which the Lord established in the second Commandement against the Institutions Images and Inventions of men in his worship But it is an holy wisdome and righteousnesse of the Lord that he that refuseth the Communion with the Churches of the Saints should joyne in communion with the enemies of the Saints even Antichristians and that in such a worke as to blot out and extinguish that holy second Commandement of the Law The violating whereof kindleth the jealousie of the most High and the observation thereof would have opened a doore of mercy to a thousand Generations It is no vaine word of our Saviour He that shall breake one of the least Commandements and shall Teach men so to doe he shall be called the least in the kingdome of Heaven This advice would I shut up this Point withall if I had any hope of an open eare in him to heare it he that separateth from all Churches and all Ordinances let him at last separate also from himselfe and so he shall then be better able to discerne the way to returne againe unto holy Communion with the Lord and his people Let me conclude this Preface with this Advertisement to the Reader who may perhaps marvell that I now so much against my usuall custome should lay open the nakednesse of another to publick view I blesse the Lord I am not ignorant That love covereth a multitude of offences and that the Disciples of Christ when they are reviled are taught to Blesse And therefore were the case meerely mine own and all the reproaches and slanders cast upon my selfe had terminated in my selfe I should have been as a deafe man and as a dumb man that openeth not his lips But when through my sides not onely so many Elders and Churches in this Countrey who had as much or more influence into his sufferings as my selfe and yet none of us any further influence then by private and publick conviction of himselfe and of the demerit of his way yea when Courts of Justice suffer for Justice sake yea further when the Truth and Righteousnesse of God also suffer for inflicting just recompence of reward upon the disturbers of Civill and sacred Truth and Peace and under pretence of maintaining Liberty of Conscience Purity of Conscience is violated and destroyed In such a case as this just it is and equall rather that the name of an evill-worker should justly suffer then that the name of God called upon Judgement seats upon the Churches of Christ and upon the Ministers of the Gospel should unjustly suffer for his sake To his CHAP. I. MY Letter to Mr. Williams which he undertaketh to Examine and Answer began it seemeth with this Compellation of him Beloved in Christ For I considered he had been not onely a member but an Officer of the Church at Salem and though from thence he was then Excommunicate yet I took the Apostles Commandement for a Rule Account him not as an enemy but Admonish him as a Brother 2 Thes 3.14 If a Brother of the Church though cast out of the Church yet not cast out of Christ then in Christ at least in judgement of charity And if in Christ though but in judgement of charity yet in charity to be Beloved But saith Mr. Williams how can it be well-pleasing to Christ that one beloved in Christ should be so afflicted and persecuted by himselfe and others for such causes as to be denyed the common ayre to breath in and a civill cohabitation upon the same common earth yea and also without mercy and humane compassion be exposed to winter miseries in an howling Wildernesse Answ If Mr. Williams may be Judge in his own cause himselfe hath been persecuted without mercy and without humane compassion And which the more concerneth my selfe to enquire into he hath been so persecuted by me and some others but chiefly it should seeme by me for I onely am charged herewith by name and those others who ever they were are not so much as described much lesse expresly named But such Priests and Persons as be thus partiall in the Law the Holy Ghost threatneth to make them base and contemptible in the eyes of all the People Mal. 2.9 Which the Lord give him to foresee and feare that he may timely prevent such a Judgement But to weigh his words particularly Persecution is the affliction of another for Righteousnesse sake Now two things it will be requisite for Mr. Williams to prove to make good his charge 1. That the cause for which he suffered was a cause of Righteousnesse 2. That he suffered this Persecution which he complaineth of by me And to make this latter charge good in such manner as he layeth it upon me it were further requisite that he should prove two things more 1. That my selfe was the principall mover and actor in this his Persecution for I onely am singled out by name 2. That this hath been evidenced to him by two or three witnesses at least if he account me for an Elder of a Church 1 Tim. 5.19 But whether he account me for an Elder or no Elder I claime no priviledge of Office yet I require attendance to an eternall Law of morall Righteousnesse One witnesse shall not rise up against a man for any Iniquity or for any sinne at the mouth of two witnesses or at the mouth of three witnesses shall every word be established Deut. 15.15 But on the contrary if it doe appeare that the cause for which he suffered was not for Righteousnesse sake and that the affliction which he did suffer was not put upon him by me at all much lesse in any eminent and singular manner then it will behoove Mr. Williams in Conscience to understand that himselfe is the Persecutor as of other servants of God so of my selfe especially For it is a case judged by the Holy Ghost that he who mocketh or reproacheth any of the least of Christs little ones for walking in his way he is a Persecutor Gal. 4.29 It hath been the lot of the faithfull of old to be tryed by cruell mockings Heb. 11.36 If a man be publickly accused to the world as a Persecutor in case the accusation be proved true Persecution is a
Philistims and yet not disanull their Church-estate And by like proportion so may a Church of Christ take up some orders as the carting of some part of their worship upon a Book after the manner of Antichrist and yet not forthwith evacuate their Church-estate But this let me further adde that a godly person may have some kinde of communion so farre as hearing the word from a Minister well gifted by Christ to whose calling some corruption may cleave both in his Church-estate and in his Ordination And yet neverthelesse no Antichristian Pollution at all may cleave or redound to the hearer by his hearing of him And this being the Principall Exception which the Examiner taketh against some of the members of our churches against all the churches for their sakes we shall further God willing cleare when the Examiner putteth it upon us in the sequele Meane while we professe as we doe beleeve that such an action is not any Church-cōmunion with Antichrist nor doth so enthrall the People of God unto Antichrist as to separate them from Christ no not as he is Head of the visible Church The Answer which upon occasio of this Point the Examiner giveth to the Papists Question Where was your Church before Luther though it seeme to him well and good yet it gratifieth the Papists and straitneth the holy Counsell of God in Scripture The Question saith he is thus well answered to wit That since the Apostasie of Antichrist Truth and the holy Citie according to the Prophecy Rev. 11. 13. have been troden under-foot and the whole Earth hath wandered after the Beast yet God hath stirred up witnesses to Prophecy in sackcloth against the Beast during his 42 moneths Reigne Neverthelesse these witnesses have in their times more or lesse submitted to Antichrist and his Church Worship Ministery c. And so consequently have been ignorant of the true Church that is Christ taken for the Church in the true Profession of that holy way of worship which he himselfe at first appointed This Answer giveth away the cause to the Papists They demand Where was your Church before Luther This Answer giveth it for granted that since the Apostasie there was no particular church extant in the world This fully satisfieth their desire and expectation for if there were no Church of Christ in the world for so many Centuries of yeares till Luther then they readily conclude That their Church of Rome was before Luther the onely Church in the world For they urge it and I know not how we can fairely deny it that the Church of Christ even that Church to which the keys of the kingdome are committed which is the visible Church is that against which the Gates of Hell shall not be able to prevaile and so not all the Power of Antichrist If then the visible Church of Christ shall never cease and yet during all that time of the Apostasie of Antichrist no Church was extant in the world but the Church of Rome then during all that time which is not yet expired the Church of Rome is and hath been the onely Church of Christ these many ages Besides as this Answerer gratifieth the Papist and maketh the promise of Christ Mat. 16.18 19 of none effect so it straitneth the Counsell of God in the very Texts of Scripture alledged by himself For in that Text Rev. 11. where the outward Court is given to the Gentiles that is Ecclesiasticall Courts given to Antichrist his Clergy v. 2. There also a rod or reed is given by the Angel unto John to measure the Temple of God and the Altar and them that worship therein v. 1. Which evidently holdeth forth that even then there was somewhere extant the Temple that is the visible Church of Christ which had communion with Christ as Head of the Church there called The Altar and the Temple was furnished with true worshippers and all measured according to the Patterne of Apostolicall Rule What if Ecclesiasticall Stories be deficient in telling us the times and places of their Church-Assemblies Is therefore the Word of God deficient or the Church deficient because humane Stories are deficient Great hath been the industry and vigilancy of Satan and Antichrist to blot out as much as in them lay all Monuments and Records of such holy Assemblies but yet sometimes their own Inquisitors confesse that the Churches of the Waldenses or men of that way have been extant a tempore Apostolorum Furthermore evident it is that when the Dragon persecuted the woman that is the Church the Church fled into the Wildernes and was there nourished for a time and times and halfe a time Rev. 12.14 which is all the time wherein the Beast reigned Rev. 13.5 And wherein the Gentiles having obtained Rule in the Court trod downe the holy Citie under-foote Rev. 11.2 Moreover evident also it is that all the Angels or Ministers of Gods wrath that poured out their Vialls upon the Antichristian State did all of them issue forth out of the Temple and out of the Temple as then opened Rev. 15.5 6 Which argueth that the Temple or Church was not onely then visible but openly visible not visible onely to the secret Assembly of the true worshippers but openly conspicuous to them that had not seene it before Now how all those seven Angels should come out of the Temple and it openly visible and all of them poure out their Vialls upon the Antichristian State by seven Degrees to the utter desolation of it and yet no Church extant either before Luther or since Luther till the utter extirpation of Antichrist passeth all my comprehension TO CHAP. XIII HIs 13th Chapter is taken up in Examining and Answering a second Answer which I gave to his Objection propounded above in Chap. 10. The Answer was this as he setteth it downe Secondly we deny that it is necessary to Church-fellowship that is so necessary that without it a Church cannot be That the members admitted thereunto should all of them see and expresly bewaile all the pollutions which they have been defiled with in their former Church-fellowship Ministery worship Government c. If they see and bewaile so much of their former pollutions as did enthrall them to Antichrist so as to separate them from Christ and withall be ready in preparation of heart as they shall see more light so to hate more and more every false way This we conceive to be as much as is necessarily required to separate them from Antichrist unto fellowship with Christ and his Churches c. For Answer hereunto the Examiner desireth three things to be observed 1. Mr. Cottons own Confession of that two-fold Church-estate worship c. The former false or else why to be so bewailed and forsaken The second true to be embraced and submitted to Reply This observation is more then is intended or can justly be gathered from my words For even a true Estate of a Church Worship Ministery c. may be bewailed
though not in regard of the falshood of the estate yet in regard of the pollutions that cleaved to it which were as so many false wayes in the Administration of it 2. The second thing which he would have to be observed is my own confession of that which a little before I would make so odious in him to hold to wit That Gods People may be so farre enthralled to Antichrist as to separate them from Christ For these were my words If they see and bewaile so much of their former pollutions as did enthrall them to Antichrist so as to separate them from Christ Reply 1. His expressions of himselfe in that Point were so incommodious as that a plaine Reader such as my selfe unwonted to heare such language in his sence could not easily conceive that he speaking of godly persons no lesse unfit for Church-fellowship then Trees and Quarries unfit for a Building I say I could not easily conceive that by Trees and Quarries should be meant any other persons then unregenerate and it seemed to me to imply a contradiction to call them ungodly who were unregenerate Reply 2. The Examiner wrongeth himselfe and me to say That I would have made it odious in him to say that godly persons cannot be so enthralled to Antichrist as to-separate them from Christ The odiousnesse he speaketh of is a contradiction And it was himselfe not I that forged that contradiction as hath been shewed above Reply 3. My words out of which he gathereth this observation are misreported and the contradiction ariseth from his misreport not from my words For Gods People and godly persons are not all one Any Church-members may be called Gods People as being in externall Covenant with him Psal 81.11 and yet they are not alwayes godly persons Gods People may be so enthralled to Antichrist as to separate them utterly from Christ both as Head of the visible and invisible Church also But godly persons cannot be so enthralled to Antichrist as to separate them from Christ as the Head of the invisible Church though as I said before they may be separated from him as the Head of the visible Church 3. The third thing which the Examinen would have to be observed in my words is How easily a soule may wander in his generalls for thus I write though they see not all the pollutions wherewith they have been defiled in their former Church-fellowship Againe if they did see so much as did enthrall them to Antichrist and separate them from Christ And yet saith he he expresseth nothing of that all the pollutions nor what so much is as will separate them from Christ Reply 1. Though these words might seeme generall to a stranger who knew nothing of the occasion of them yet to the Examiner himselfe to whom in private I writ them it was easie and obvious to poynt with the finger at the particular I intended in these He knoweth the Question was Whether the hearing of the Ministers of the Parishes in England was such an Antichristian pollution as either to cut off such persons from Church-fellowship or the Churches themselves from Christ Our Answer was 1. That it was no Antichristian pollution at all 2. If it were it was more then either our members or our Churches yet saw or were convinced of and then generall confessions and generall repentance would serve for unknowne knowne sinnes To the same purpose is this generall Answer framed here which himselfe well knoweth upon what particular occasion it grew and to what particular case it had reference Reply 2. Besides why should we count the Answer as wandring in Generalities when it was fitted to his generall Objection His Objection was Chapt. 10. That a necessitie lay upon godly men before they can be fit matter for Church fellowship to see bewaile repent come out of the false Churches Worship Ministery Government Now here are onely generall words no particular mention of the falshoods that lye in the Churches Worship Ministery Government Why should he blame wandring in Generalitie in the Answer when his own Objection wandereth in the like Generalities Reply 3. If he please to look back to the Reply given in his 12. Chapter he may finde me plaine and punctuall in Instancing in particulars But thus having passed over his Observations upon my former Answer he now cometh to returne Answer to me by demanding a Question or two to wit 1. Whether if a godly person remaine a member of a salsely constituted Church and so consequently in that respect of a false Christ whether in visible worship he be not separate from the true Christ Answ That I may not delude neither him nor my selfe by answering to obscure and ambiguous termes I would know by some that understand his speech what he meaneth by a falsely constituted Church or else give me leave to explaine the termes my selfe There be but two things intrinsecally necessary to the constitution of any thing so of a Church to wit a fit matter and a fit forme The matter of a Church are visible Saints Proâ—essors of the faith of Christ The forme is an holy Covenant or Agreement either explicite or implicite to joyne together in one Congregation to worship the Lord and to edifie one another in the Administration of his holy Ordinances Now if in stead of visible Saints professing the Name of Christ there be a company of prophane persons Idolaters Hereticks that shall covenant or agree together to joyne in a Congregation to worship Idolls and to build up one another in Heresie and Apostasie This is Ecclesia Malignantium a false constituted Church And consequently the Head of this Church is a false Christ and every member of this Church who joyneth with them in this way is in visible worship separate from the true Christ In this sence I would answer to the Examiners first Question Affirmatively His second Question then is Whether it be not absolutely necessary to a godly persons uniting with the true Church that is with Christ in true Christian worship that he see and bewaile and absolutely come out from that former false Church or Christ and his Ministery Worship c. before he can be united to the true Israel Answ I would readily answer this Question Affirmatively also unlesse there be a fallacy in the latter absolutely For his Question is Whether it be not absolutely necessary unto uniting with a true Church to see and bewaile and come out absolutely from the false Church or Christ or Ministery or Worship c. This latter absolutely if it imply no more then coming out altogether from all that separateth from true Christ I grant it absolutely but if he meane coming out from every thing of theirs say from every good gift yea from every error amongst them which doth not separate from Christ and then I deny that it is absolutely necessary either to see or bewaile all or in that sence absolutely to come out of all His similitudes brought to
the contrary may perswade a selfe-pleasing fancy but will not convince nor satissie any solid Judgement Might not the Israelites that came out of Aegypt borrow Jewells of silver and gold from the Aegyptians yea and carry up also a mixed multitude of People and yet build a Tabernacle to the Lord in the Wildernesse Exod. 12.35 to 38. Might not the Jewes come out of Babel and accept from all the People where they had sojourned vessells of silver and gold with goods and beasts and other precious things and yet build a Temple at Hierusalem Ezra 1.4 5 6. May not a soule be married to Christ and yet his former husband his corrupt nature not be so absolutely dead as the husband of a wife must be before shee can be lawfully married to another The Graft cut off from one tree may be engrafted to another and yet carry forth his old leaves with him The kingdome of Christ that is cut off from the Romane Monarchy may yet for a time have some entercourse with the Romane Monarchy The Corinthians though united with Christ and washed from their former Idolatry as well as from other sinnes yet still were defiled with communion in Idols Temples and with Fornication The Thessalonians turned from their former Idolls to serve the living and true God yet they had some amongst them that walked inordinately after their entrance into Church-estate as well as before 2 Thes 3.6 Besides for a further answer to his similitudes the Examiner may remember that though Israel came out of Egypt locally before they could sacrifice to God in the Wildernes yet in their hearts and soules they were still for Aegypt Exod. 14.11 12. Yea and for Aegyptian Idolls Act. 7.39 Ezek. 20.7 8. which is more then we doe allow to our selves TO CHAP. XIV HIs 14th Chapter is spent in Examining and answering a Reason that I gave of my second Answer to his Objection which was propounded and cleared in the former Chapter The Reason was this The Church of Christ received many thousand Jewes who beleeved on the Name of Christ although they were still zealous of the Law and saw not the beggarly emptinesse of Moses his Ceremonies Act. 21.20 And the Apostle Paul directeth the Romans to receive such unto them as were weake in the faith and saw not their liberty from the servile difference of Meats and Dayes but still lay under the bondage of the Law Yea he wished them to receive such upon this ground because Christ had received them Rom. 14.1 to 6. And lest it should be objected there was not the like danger of lying under bondage to Moses as to Antichrist It was said that even the bondage under Moses was such as that if it were continued in after instruction and conviction it would separate them from Christ Gal. 5.2 and bondage under Antichrist could doe no more For Answer hereto the Examiner would have two things to be carefully minded 1. That the Ordinances of Moses were sometimes the Ordinances of God and when they were to vanish they were to be taken away with solemnity The Ordinances of Antichrist were the Inventions of Satan and from first to last never to be received nor submitted to no not for a moment 2. He would have the difference of times to be observed which saith he Mr. Cotton himselfe confesseth after instruction and conviction Moses Law was deadly and would separate from Christ Therefore there was a time when they were not deadly and did not separate from Christ to wit untill Moses was honorably fallen asleep c. To apply then Paul observed a vow and the Ceremonies of it Circumcised Timothy c. May therefore a Messenger of Christ now as Paul goe to Masse Pray to Saints performe Pennance keepe Christmasse and other Popish Feasts and Fasts c. Reply 1. I never heard or read till now that Paul ever went to Masse Prayed to Saints kept Christmasse or the like nor did I ever imagine that any ingenuous minde would thinke that ever it came into my heart to plead for such things now or for the retaining of any Popish Rite at all But the wit and lip of man being let loose and left to it selfe may inferre quodlibet ex quolibet If it be said his Parenthesis as Paul had reference onely to a Messenger of Christ as Paul not to any such like act of Paul then his Argument is no more conclusive then a Baculo ad Angulum What colour were there that any man now should plead Pauls example to doe that now which Paul never did nor any thing like it Reply 2. The Examiner requireth two things here to be carefully minded In answer whereto I desire but one thing to be carefully minded to wit to what end I alledged the ignorance of the Jewes in the Primitive times and the indulgence of the Christian Churches for receiving them into Church-fellowship notwithstanding such ignorance And then see if it doe not inferre that which I brought it for If in the Primitive times the ignorance of the Jewes in many waighty Points of Religion and some of them fundamentall did not hinder their receiving into Christian Church-fellowship nor disanull their Church-estate who so received them then it is not so necessary to Church-fellowship as that without it a Church cannot be that the Members admitted thereunto should all of them see and expresly bewaile all the pollutions wherewith they have been defiled in their former Church-fellowship Ministery Worship Government c. But the former is true as hath been opened from Acts 21.20 Rom. 14.1 to 6. Gal. 5.2 To which may be added Acts 15.5 with 24. Where it appeareth some of the members of the Church and of the Synod held forth such Doctrine and Worship touching the necessitie of Circumcision and observation of the Law as tended to the subversion of soules and yet neither their membership nor the Estate of the Church was thereby disanulled The Conclusion is evident from these Premises It is a vaine thing now to alledge that the Ordinances of Moses were sometimes the Ordinances of God but so the inventions of Antichrist never were and there is not the like honourable respect and tendernesse to be shewed to the inventions of Antichrist as to the vanishing Ordinances of God For though this were of weight in case I had pleaded for the practise of any Antichristian inventions which indeed was farre off both from my meaning and words yet in this case it is wholly impertinent For that which I pleaded for was the capablenesse of godly Persons of Church-estate notwithstanding their ignorance of some weighty and necessary truths and the soundnesse of their Church-estate notwithstanding their admission and toleration of such ignorant members unto which the difference of the severall objects of their ignorance maketh nothing at all For the ignorance of weighty Truths of one sort as well as another necessary to salvation is a sinne of like destructive nature of what kinde soever the
Truths be Besides there is no need either for the clearing of our members or of our Church-estate to plead for the capablenesse of godly persons of Church-estate notwithstanding their ignorance of the Truths of God whether more or lesse necessary For wee doe not look at it as any point of ignorance at all for our members to believe they may partake in the gifts of the godly Ministers in England in hearing the word of God from them I know the Examiner is vehement and peremptory in pleading for an absolute necessitie that godly persons before they doe joyne to a true Church and Ministery should see and bewaile so much as may amount to cut off the soule from a false Church whether Nationall Parishionall or any other falsly constituted Church Ministery Worship and Government of it But the voyce of God is not alwayes in every vehement and mightie winde that rendeth mountaines and breaketh rockes 1 Kings 19.11 The Examiner is not ignorant that we have seene and bewailed Nationall and Parishionall Church-estate and have cut off our selves by the Grace of Christ from any invented worship or government of it yea and from such entrance into the Ministery or Administration of it as was corrupt either by Nationall or Parishionall Relation But this is that which he requireth further He I say but not the Lord that wee should cut off our selves from hearing the Ministery of the Parishes in England as being the Ministery of a Nationall or Parishionall Church whereof both the Church-estate is falsly constituted and all the Ministery Worship and Government thereof false also But two things here may suffice to answer this clamour 1. Suppose all this were true that he clamoureth but prooveth not yet this would I faine learne wherein lieth the sinne of our members in hearing the godly Ministers in the Parishes Why saith he in that they doe not cut off themselves from a false Ministery Now by the Ministery may be meant either the office of the Ministery or the exercise of the office and gifts of the Ministery From the office and from the exercise of the office our members have cut off themselves partly by submitting themselves to a Ministery of their own Election in these Churches and partly by submitting themselves to no act of their Ministeriall office in England but what an Indian or any Pagan might partake in who yet is cut off farre enough from fellowship in their office Cutting off is an act of disunion and somewhat more violent and keene then it may be the Examiner requireth The sinne he chargeth upon our members in hearing such Ministers is union or communion with them And what shall wee say is there no Communion between our members and the Ministers in England whom they doe heare Yes doubtlesse For 1. There is a naturall communion between the speaker and the hearer the one giveth counsell or instruction or reproofe or comfort and the other receiveth it 2. There is a morall Communion between a Teacher and a learner and doubtlesse our hearers may learne many precious Truths from them 3. What shall I say further Is there not also a spirituall Communion between the Preacher and the Hearer when the Preacher communicateth many spirituall and heavenly Points and the Hearer receiveth them Answ 1. Some would say It is not necessary that this should breed a spirituall Communion between the Preacher and the Hearer No more then it maketh a Mathematicall Communion between a reader of the Mathematicks and the learner of some Principles or Conclusions from him But 2. I would rather answer otherwise For suppose a member of our Churches though a visible Saint here yet indeed an hypocrite should occasionally heare a Minister in England and by the Power of the Spirit of Grace breathing in his Ministery be effectually brought home to Christ and by lively faith united to him Here is a spirituall Relation and Communion wrought between them the one is a spirituall Father the other a naturall Sonne in the Faith Neverthelesse this I would say that this spirituall Communion is not between this Hearer and this Minister in respect of his Office but in respect of his Gifts and of the Power of the Spirit of Grace breathing in the dispensation of his Gifts In which respect this Communion doth not amount to Church-communion Any stranger might enjoy as much Any Pagan Corinthian might come in and heare in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 14.24 25. and reape a blessing thereby who yet had not Ecclesiasticall Communion with their Office Also the Prophet Jeremy heard the false Prophet Hanani yea and in some sence said Amen to his Prophecy yet had he no communion with his false Office Jer. 28.1 to 6. If he still urge that we have not yet cut off our selves from communion no not with the false office of the Ministery of England and with their false Church-estate in as much as we still retaine their Baptisme wherein we subjected our selves to their Office and to their Church-estate which are both false as well as their Worship and their Government Answ This is a further Objection then he held forth whilest he continued with us and therefore no marvell if my Letter spake nothing to it But therefore let me now propound another Point which may suffice both for an Answer to this Objection as also for a second Answer unto the former clamour and exception against hearing of the godly Ministers in England The Point is this That I doe not see how the Examiner can justifie his grievous charge that their Church is falsly constituted whether Nationall or Parishionall and accordingly that their Ministery Worship and Government are all of them false Foure things he chargeth to be false 1. Their Church constitution Parishionall and Nationall 2. Their Ministers 3. Their Worship 4. Their Government For the first touching the constitution of their Parishionall Churches let it be considered what I said before that where there be visible Saints there is the true matter of the Church and where there is a Covenant or Agreement whether explicite or implicite to assemble together in one Congregation to worship the Lord and to edifie one another in the Ordinances of Christ there is for substance the true forme of a Church And where there is the true matter and true forme of a Church it cannot be truely said that such a Church is falsly constituted For there being but two causes of which a thing is constituted matter and forme whatsoever hath true matter and true forme is truly constituted Against this what he will accept I doe not know and therefore know not how to prevent him with a fit and just defence But by others two things are wont to be objected Object 1. From the matter of the Church Object 2. From the efficient cause of the Church From the matter of the Church it is objected that there be not onely visible Saints in the English Parishes but with them are mingled many
into the true Reply I said indeed that Godly Persons repenting of all knowne sinnes may be received to Church-fellowship although they doe not see the utmost skirts of all the pollution they have sometimes been defiled with But saith he the Question is not of utmost skirts but of the substance of a true and false Bed of worship What he meaneth by the Bed of worship I know not If he meane the Church to be the Bed of worship and the Churches of England to be false Churches that Point hath been cleared above that no voyce of Christ hath declared the Churches of England to be false Churches But yet further the Examiner answereth That if there were but filthinesse in the skirts of an Harlot he beleeveth Mr. Cotton would not receive an Harlot infamous for corporall whoredome without sound repentance not onely for her actuall whoredomes but also for her whorish speeches gestures appearances provocations And why should there be a greater strictnesse for the skirts of common whoredome then for spirituall and soule-whoredome against the chastitie of Gods worship Reply 1. There may be the greater strictnesse about the skirts of bodily whoredome not because it is a greater sinne but because it is more easily discernable and convinceable by ordinary light 2. Where any speeches gestures appearances provocations of spirituall whoredome shall discover themselves we beleeve there ought to be as great strictnesse about them as about the like whorish appearances of bodily whoredome But when will the Examiner discover to us what those spirituall whorish gestures or speeches be wherein we shew lesse strictnesse then the chastitie of Gods holy worship requireth Touching the Polygamy of the Fathers the Examiner answereth three wayes 1. By observing what great sinnes Godly Persons may be subject to notwithstanding Godlinesse in the Roote Wee consent to that especially in case of ignorance 2. He demandeth If any godly Persons should now beleeve and maintaine that he ought to have many wives and accordingly did so Practise whether Mr. Cotton would receive such a godly Person to Church-fellowship Yea whether the Church of the Jewes if they had seene the evill of it would ever have received such a Proselyte into fellowship with them The same Answers may serve to both the Demands 1. Neither would I receive them nor doe I thinke the Church of the Jewes would in case the sinne had appeared so plaine and palpable as by the light of the Gospel it hath been discovered 2. This is not the case in hand what my selfe or a Church ought to doe about receiving a member living in knowne sinne but when he that liveth in no knowne sinne none knowne either to himselfe or the Church whether the Church if they receive him doth thereby evacuate their Church-estate Or whether the Church and every member thereof be so farre bound to a distinct knowledge of all appearances of spirituall whoredome that if they be ignorant of any one or two of them they are utterly uncapable of Church-estate For a third Answer to the case of Polygamy the Examiner demandeth what was this personall sinne of Polygamy in the godly Patriarchs Was it any matter of Gods worship any joyning with a false Church Ministery Worship Government from whence they were to come before they could constitute his true Church and enjoy his Worship Ministery Government c. Reply 1. Polygamy if it had been knowne to be as great a sinne amongst the Israelites as it is now knowne to be by the Doctrine of the Lord Jesus it is of so hainous a nature now that every godly person guilty of it must come out of it before he could lawfully be received into a pure Church of Christ 2. If a Church were now ignorant of such a knowne case and should in their ignorance admit sundry members living in that sinne into fellowship with them though it would much defile them yet I doe not conceive it would evacuate their Church-estate 3. The Examiner will never proove that the estate of the Churches in England is false their Ministery false nor their worship false And as for their Episcopall Government he is not ignorant we have come out of it both in place and heart Neither will he ever be able to prove that any of our Churches partake in the communion of any such knowne sinne either in Church-estate Worship Ministery Government as Polygamy is But touching that place in 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. urged by the Examiner that I might give a further Answer then before I adde further in my Letter That the place was wrested besides the Apostles scope when Mr. Williams argued from it That such Persons are not fit matter for Church-fellowship as are defiled with any remnants of Antichristian Pollution nor such Churches any more to be counted Churches as doe receive such amongst them For were there not at that time in the Church of Corinth such as partaked with Idolaters in their Idolls Temples And was not this the touching of an uncleane thing And did this sinne reject members from Church-fellowship before Conviction Or did it evacuate their Church-estate for not casting out such members To this Argument the Examiner giveth as he calleth it an Answer in foure Paragraphs whereof the three former hold not forth so much as the face or shape or colour of an Answer For in the first Paragraph saith he This was indeed an uncleane thing from which God calleth his People and Mr. Cotton confesseth that after conviction any member obstinate in these uncleane Touches ought to be rejected But what is this to the Argument Againe In the next Paragraph Vpon the same ground saith he that one obstinate Person ought to be rejected out of Church-estate upon the same ground if a greater company or a Church were obstinate in such uncleane touches ought every sound Christian Church to reject them and every sound member to withdraw from them But is this any more to the Argument In the third Paragraph Further saith he it is cleare that if such uncleane Touches obstinately maintained as Mr. Cotton professeth and practiseth be a ground of a rejection of a Person in a Church questionlesse it is a ground of rejection when such Persons are to joyne unto the Church And if obstinacy in the whole Church after Conviction be a ground for such a Churches rejection questionlesse such a Church or number of persons obstinate in such evills cannot congregate nor become a true constituted Church of Christ But still the Argument is where it was not onely unshaken but untoucht Neither is the Text in 2 Cor. 16. any whit at all cleared by these discourses to argue them to be no true constituted Churches who live in such uncleane touches without conviction without obstinacy For the Text speaketh nothing of obstinacy nor conviction but onely implieth that such uncleane Touches were found in the Church of Corinth and yet that did not evacuate their Church-estate His last Paragraph holdeth forth some more
first of these I answered in my Letter That in stead of halting betwixt Christ and Antichrist the Lord hath guided us to walke with an even foote between two extreames so that we neither defile our selves with the remnants of pollution in other Churches nor doe we for the remnants of pollution renounce the Churches themselves nor the holy things of God amongst them which our selves have found powerfull to salvation This moderation so farre as we have kept it in preaching or printing we have seene no cause to repent of it But if any shall shew us cause why we should repent of it we shall desire to repent of it yea and to repent that we repented no sooner The Examiner here undertaketh to prove this middle walking to be no lesse then-halting of which we have cause to repent And this he endeavours to prove to me out of mine own Confessions First saith he Mr. Cotton himselfe confesseth that no Nationall Provinciall Diocesan or Parish Church wherein some truely godly are not are true Churches Secondly He practiseth no Church-estate but such as is constituted onely of godly persons nor admitteth any unregenerate or ungodly persons Thirdly He confesseth that a Church of Christ cannot be constituted of such godly persons who are in bondage to the inordinate love of the world Fourthly That if a Church consist of such Gods people ought to separate from them Reply If these which he calleth confessions of Mr. Cotton have been stumblings to him I shall by the helpe of Christ soone remove them out of his way For I doe professe that I never made any such Confessions but looke at them all as contrary to my judgement both in former times and to this day For the first Though there were no truely godly persons in a Church yet if there be such as professe godlinesse such as they call visible Saints to meete together in a Congregation to worship the Lord and to edifie one another in the administration of his holy Ordinances I doe beleeve there is truth of Church-estate It is true I doe beleeve and confesse that God requireth more then profession of godlinesse even sinceritie of holinesse in Church-members and it is no small sinne in them if it be wanting But what if some if most if all beleeve not Shall their unbeliefe make the faith of God of none effect God forbid Rom. 3.3 4. If an hypocriticall Church were no Church then an hypocriâ—â—call Minister were no Minister and his administrations nullities Cultus institutus in the whole latitude of it as Churches Min isteries Seales Censures c. they are all ordained for the Elects sake And the Elect God would have them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without carefull scruples and distractions If truth of Churches and Ministeries and Ordinances depended upon the personall sincerity of the godlinesse of the dispensers the Elect of God would ever be intangled with inextricable scruples touching their coÌ„munion here or there with this or that Church or the administrations of the Officers thereof But God hath called us in peace For the second part which he maketh of my Confessions he had said true if he had said I endeavour such a thing that our Church should be constitute of godly persons but I doe not say I have attained it for God seeth not as man seeth man looketh at the outward appearance but the Lord regardeth the heart 1 Sam. 16.7 And sure I am we looke at Infants as members of our Church as being foedurally holy but I am slow to beleeve that all of them are regenerate or truly godly As for the third and fourth point which he maketh of my Confession That a Church of Christ cannot be constituted of godly persons taken with the inordinate love of the world or that a Church consisting of such ought to be separated from These are onely his own palpable mistakes of those words of mine which I expressed as the summe of his words which he through hast conceived to be mine whereof we have spoken in the 20th Chapter Let him not say as he doth that when I would not have Parish Churches to be separated from for the remnants of pollutions I mean onely Ceremonies and Bishops neither let him say that I doe extenuate and mince the roote masse and substance of the matter of Nationall Churches though for the greater part unregenerate by naming onely a remnant of pollutions For he knoweth we wholly avoyde Nationall Provinciall and Diocesan Government of the Churches by Episcopall Authority He knoweth also we avoyde their prescript Liturgies and Communion with openly scandalous persons in any Church-order He knoweth likewise or at least may know that it is a continuall sorrow of heart and a mourning of our soules that there is yet so much of those notorious evills which he nameth still continuing in the Parishes worldlinesse ignorance superstition scoffing swearing cursing whoredome drunkennesse theft lying I may adde also murther and malignity against the godly suffered to thrust themselves into the fellowship of the Churches and to sit downe with the Saints at the Lords Table But yet I count all these but remnants of pollution when as the substance of the true estate of Churches abideth as I opened above in their Congregationall Assemblies And in so speaking I follow the holy patterne of the Prophet Isaiah who acknowledging a great forsaking or Apostacy in the midst of the Land yet resembleth the estate of the Church to an Oake whose substance is in it when the leaves fall off and maketh the holy seed to be that substance Isai 6.12 13. TO CHAP. XXII THe second offence which the Examiner tooke at our neglect of the Churches of the separation Was the reproach of himselfe and others at Salem for their separation To which I answered in my Letter That I knew no man who reproached Salem for their separation nor did I beleeve that they did separate Howsoever if any did reproach them for it I did thinke it a sinne meete to be Censured but not with so deepe a Censure as to excommunicate all the Churches or to separate from them before it doth appeare that they doe tolerate their members in such their causlesse reproachings The errors of men are to be contended against not with reproaches but with the sword of the Spirit But on the other side the failings of the Churches are not forthwith to be healed by separation It is not Chirurgery but Butchery to heale every sore in a member with no other but Abscission from the body Whereto the Examiner answereth That the Church of Salem was knowne to professe separation and publickly reproached yea he could mention a Case wherein shee was punished for it implicitely Reply This answer is so implicit that I cannot make an explicite answer to it That which I said was I knew no man that reproached Salem for their separation nor did I beleeve that they did separate His answer is That the Church of Salem was knowne
is Christs feeding of his flock Cant. 1.8 Christs kissing of his Spouse Cant. 1.2 Christs embracing of his Spouse in the marriage bed Cant. 1.16 Christs nursing of his Children at his wives breasts Cant. 4. And is there no communion between the Shepheard and his sheep the Husband and the wife in chaste kisses and embraces the Mother and the child at the breasts Answer 1. The dispensing of the word in a Church-State that is by Church-Officers to Church-members united together in Church-State it is indeed an expression of familiar and deare Communion between Christ and his Church as between the husband and his spouse between the nursing mother and the child and between the shepheard and his flock But suppose Pagans and Indians should ordinarily frequent our Church Assemblies as they are wont to doe in hearing the word doth he think I would maintaine that there is the like spirituall and familiar Communion between Christ and them as between Christ and his Church Answer 2. Besides the question is not what communion Christ may have with a stranger in the hearing of the word in the Assembly of his Church but what communion there is between the Officer of the Church who preacheth the word and the stranger Christ out of his soveraigne grace may dispense himselfe to the stranger in what relation he pleaseth hee may make the word both as spirituall seed and as food to him and so may declare himself both a father and a Pastor and husband and a mother to him and yet no such Church-relation passe between the Church-Officer and the stranger Aâ—swer 3. Suppose there did grow some spirituall relation between the Church-Officer and the stranger as God might so blesse his Ministery as to make him a spirituall Father and feeder to the stranger yet this Relation is not between the Preacher and the stranger in respect of his Office but in respect of his gif as I declared above The reason of the difference is evident 1. Church-relation between a Church-Officer and Church-member is constant and permanent and not to be dissolved but by consent of the Church but this relation between the Preacher and stranger is transient and the intercourse of the exercise of their relation easily changeable at the discretion of the stranger without the consent or cognizance of the Church 2. Church relation between an Officer and a member carrieth on the duties of Church-worke between them unto full accomplishment If any offence grow between an Officer and a member the one hath power to deale with the other in a Church-way unto a perfect healing but there is not the like power or liberty either in preacher or stranger so to proceed one with another in case of any such offence The Examiners second Argument is taken also from mine own confession as if there were no waighty Argument to be found in this case but what might be gathered up from the weaknesse or unwarinesse of my expressions But thankes be to God that hath so guided my words that no such advantage can justly be taken from them as to countenance so ungodly an error Mr. Cotton saith he confesseth that the fellowship in the Gospel Phil. 1.5 is a fellowship or Communion in the Apostles doctrine Community breaking of bread and prayer in which the first Church continued Acts 2.46 All which overthroweth the doctrine of lawfull participation of the word and prayer in a Church-state where it is not lawfull to communicate in the breaking of bread or seales Answ If this be all the Conclusion that he striveth for that participation of the word and prayer is not lawfull in a Church-estate where it is not lawfull to communicate in the seales I shall never contend with him about it I should never thinke it lawfull there to enter into a Church-estate where I thought it lawfull onely to partake in hearing and prayer and not in the seales also But this is that I deny A man to participate in a Church-estate where he partaketh onely in hearing and prayer before and after Sermon and joyneth not with them neither in their Covenant nor in the seales of the Covenant To CHAP. XXVII THe third part of the Examiners discourse touching English Preachers taketh up this 27. Chapter and it is concerning the calling and commission of the English Preachers Mr. Cotton himselfe saith he and others most eminent in New-England have freely confest First That notwithstanding their profession of Ministery in Old England yet in New-England till they received a Calling from a particular Church that they were but private Christians Secondly That Christ Jesus hath appointed no other Calling to the Ministery but such as they practise in New England and therefore consequently that all other which is not from a particular Congregation of godly persons is none of Christs As first a Calling and Commission from the Bishops Secondly From a Parish of naturall and unregenerate persons Thirdly From some few godly persons yet remaining in Church-fellowship after the Parish way Fourthly That eminent gifts and abilities are but qualifications fitting or preparing for a Call to an Office 1 Tim. 3. Tit. 1. All which premises duly considered he desireth that Mr. Cotton and all that feare God might try what will abide the fiery Triall in this particular when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed in flaming fire c. Reply It is a weake cause that is maintained onely by the testimonies of adversaries and them either mistaken or falsified It is in him either a mistake or a fraudulent expression of our mindes to say That notwithstanding our former profession of Ministery in Old England yet till we received a Calling from a particular Church we were but private Christians This speech may be so conceived as if notwithstanding our former profession of Ministery in Old England yet indeed we confest our Ministery there was no Ministery and this is a false expression of our mindes It may be also conceived that we confest we had no calling from a particular Church till we came to New-England And this is also a false expression of our mindes likewise Or it may be conceived that notwithstanding our former profession and exercise of Ministery in Old England yet being cast out from thence by the usurping power of the Prelacy and dismissed though against their wills by our Congregations save onely such as came along with us we looked at our selves as private members and not Officers to any Church here untill one or other Church might call us unto Office This sence of our profession is true but nothing availeable to the Examiners intendment Secondly It is in him another mistake or else a fraudulent expression of our mindes when he saith Wee hold and freely confesse that Christ Jesus hath appointed no other Calling to the Ministery but such as we practise in New-England And that any other Calling to the Ministery which is not from a particular Congregation of godly persons is none of Christs Though we doe
ignorant and scandalous persons drunkards whoremongers despisers and persecutors of them that are good Prophane swearers that have not so much as a forme of godlinesse but doe utterly deny and deride the power of it Answ This is indeed just matter of mourning and lamentation to all the Saints of Christ and may be also in due order just warrant of some degree of separation from them as from a corrupt Church It cannot but offend and deeply grieve the spirit of a Christian to sit downe at the Lords Table and drinke the bloud of the Lord with such who may be ready the next day to spill the bloud of sincere Communicants as Puritan Round-Heads But whilest the Saints of Christ continue amongst them the mixt fellowship of ignorant and prophane persons doth not evacuate or disanull their Church estate The store of malignant and noysome humours in the body yea the deadnesse and rottennesse of many members in the body though they may make the body an unsound and corrupt body yet they doe not make the body no body When the Prophet Isaiah complained that in the Church of Judah from the soale of the foote to the crowne of the head there was no soundnesse in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores yet whilest there was a Remnant amongst them of faithfull Saints they were not yet no Church they were not yet Sodome and Gomorrha though but for that Remnant they had been as Sodome and like unto Gomorrha Isa 1.6 with 9. Say not though Hierusalem and Judah were at that time degenerate yet they had been at first an holy Nation a faithfull Citie Isa 1.21 and so had a true constitution which the Churches of England never had For 1. I might answer That though in regard of some prime members Hierusalem was counted a faithfull Citie and the Nation Holy by Priviledge of their Covenant yet for the body of the people Hierusalem was alwayes a City of the provocation of Gods wrath from the day they built it Jer. 32.31 32. And for the body of the Nation Moses charged them Yee have alwayes been rebellious against the Lord since the day that I knew you Deut. 9.7.24 And Stephen protesteth against them They had alwayes wont to resist the Holy Ghost they and their fathers Act. 7.51 2. I doe not understand but that according to Scripture those corruptions which doe not destroy a Church constituted the same do not destroy the constitution of a Church The Church is constituted and continued by the same Grace 3. The estate of the Churches of England was not corrupt in their first constitution Baronius himselfe confesseth that England received the Gospel ten yeares before Rome and that from the Ministery of the Apostles and Apostolick men who doubtlesse constituted the English Churches not after the manner of Rome which was then Pagan but after the Apostolick Rules and Patternes This may suffice touching the matter of the English Churches Now touching the second thing objected which was from the efficient cause of their constitution It is said they were gathered not by the preaching of the Gospel by which Churches should be planted and constituted but by the Proclamation of Princes Answ 1. The efficient cause of a Church is a thing without the Church and so no essentiall cause of the Constitution of a Church The Proclamation of King Hezekiah and of the Princes drew on multitudes of Apostate Israelites to the Communion of the Church at Hierusalem and many of them in much pollution yet neither their own pollution nor the Proclamation of the King and Princes did evacuate their Church-estate but encourage them rather in their Church-worke 2 Chron. 30.5 to 9. and verses 11 12.17 18 19 20. It was no pollution to the second Temple at Hierusalem that it was built by the encouragement of the Proclamation of Cyrus Ezra 1. Answ 2. Wheresoever there be visible Saints gathered into a Church they were first gathered by the Ministery of the Gospel For Proclamations cannot make Saints but the word of the Gospel onely If any hypocrites or time-servers doe for feare joyne themselves with the Saints in such a worke though their fellowship may weaken and blemish the worke yet it doth not destroy it Thus much touching the constitution of their Parishionall Churches Now touching their Nationall Constitution it standeth partly in their Nationall Officers Archbishops Bishops and their Servitors partly in their Nationall Synods and convocations and partly also in their Nationall Ecclesiasticall Courts The Examiner is not ignorant that by the Grace of Christ we have withdrawen our selves and our Churches also from this Nationall Constitution and from all Communion with them If it be said But we still keepe Communion with the Parish-Churches in hearing the Word there who doe subject themselves to these Nationall Officers Convocations and Courts Answ 1. Though the Parish-Churches were lately subject to them it was a burden which as they did discerne the iniquitie thereof they groaned under and now by the mightie Power of the gracious Redemption of the Lord Jesus they have shaken off through the helpe of the Honorable and Religious Prudence and Piety of the Parliament 2. Though those Nationall Courts in their Officers did for many yeares tread downe the Parish-Churches yet they did not extinguish their Church-estate The Text is plaine The Gentiles that is men of Gentile-like prophanenesse and malignitie and iniquitie who had the keeping of the Church-Courts they did tread downe the Holy City Rev. 11.2 Tread downe I say but not destroy the Holy City Yea though the Translation reade it They did tread it downe or Tread it under-foote yet the Originall word may be rendred somewhat more mildly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may expresse their walking upon it or else the Peripateticks were a more violent sect then either their Principles or their Practise did declare them I come now to speake of the second Falshood which the Examiner chargeth upon the English Churches which was the falsenesse of their Ministery which wherein it lyeth he should have done well to have told us for himselfe disliketh it in me to wander in Generalities But for our selves we are farre from that supercilious and Pharisaicall arrogancy as to condemne such for false Ministers in whom we finde Truth of Godlinesse Truth of Ministeriall Gifts Truth of Election and acceptance unto Office by true Churches of Christ Truth of sound wholesome and soule-saving Doctrine and Truth of holy and exemplary Conversation And such are all the Ministers whom either the members of our Churches affect to Heare or our Churches doe allow them ordinarily for to Heare And when I say Truth I speake it not in opposition to Eminency for sundry of them excell in Eminency of sundry of these things but in opposition to the falshood which the Examiner objecteth I know not what exception lyeth against their Ministery to argue it of falshood save what hath been excepted and answered already touching the constitution
of their Parishionall Churches but onely the falsenesse of the Power from whence their Ministery is derived to wit from Episcopall Ordination But the Examiner is much mistaken if he take us to conceive or if he himselfe conceive that the Power of the Ministeriall calling is derived from Ordination whether Episcopall or Presbyteriall or Congregationall The Power of the Ministeriall Calling is derived chiefly from Christ furnishing his servants with Gifts fit for the Calling and nextly from the Church or Congregation who observing such whom the Lord hath gifted doe elect and call them forth to come and helpe them For from that ground Paul and Silas to use the words of the Text assuredly gathered that the Lord had called them to preach the Gospel to the Macedonians Acts 16.9 10. to wit because a man of Macedonia in the name of the rest had called unto them to come into Macedonia and helpe them Pastor and flock are Relatives and Relatives doe consist ex mutuâ alterius affectione Their mutuall acceptance of one another is the essentiall cause of their Relation Ordination is but adjunctum consummans as Dr. Ames rightly observeth of the Ministers Calling the Relation between him and the people was truly wrought before As the Coronation of the Prince is not that which giveth the Essency of his Princely Calling but Election by the People where the Government is Elective so neither is Ordination that which giveth Essence to the Ministers Calling but the peoples choice Ordination by Imposition of Episcopall hands doth pollute an Adjunct of the Ministers calling to wit the solemnitie of it but doth not destroy the essence or nature of it much lesse derive a false power to it to evacuate the true The third Falshood which the Examiner chargeth upon the English-Parish-Churches is the False worship And truly whatsoever hath been corrupt in their worship whether Prescript Liturgies or undue Honour put upon Saints or Angels in denominating Dayes or Temples after them and such times and places dedicated to God which he never required and what ever other Devices of like nature I had rather bewaile before the Lord then excuse or justifie before men And I should thinke it had been a better service to God and his Churches and a greater comfort to the soule of the Examiner to have expressed particularly what the false worship had been which he beareth witnesse against and to have cleared wherein their falshood lyeth rather then to have rested in condemning all false worships in overly Generalities and especially at such a time when through mercy the State is set upon Reformation and calleth for light He that shall cry out against all false wayes in Travels by Land and exclaime against all Rocks and Quick-sands by Sea and give no particular notice where they lye what helpe doth he afford to the carefull Passenger or Marriner either by Land or Sea When Trumpets give such an uncertain and obscure sound who shall prepare themselves to avoyd the danger on the one hand or on the other But for the present two things would I say touching the point in hand 1. It is not every corruption in worship that denominateth the worship to be false worship It was doubtlesse a corrupt worship to Sacrifice in the High Places yet God doth not call it a false worship but rather seemeth to accept it as done to himselfe 2 Kings 33.17 False worship to speake properly is as good as no worship nor is the God of Truth wont to accept that which is false But there may be many aberrations in the manner of worship when yet both the object of the worship is the true God and the substance of the worship is true worship and God may accept that which is Truth from an honest and true heart and passe by many aberrations as infirmities and not reject all as falsities The second thing I would say is That whatsoever we have discerned to be corrupt or irregular in the worship of God we have beleeved it to be our duty both to judge our selves for it before the Lord and to reforme it in our practise If any shall discover any further failings in our worship or in the worship of those Churches whom wee communicate with I hope the Lord will not shut our eyes against the light The fourth Falshood which the Examiner chargeth upon the English-Churches is false Government which if he meane the Government of the Parishes by the godly Ministers with whom our people communicate in hearing that Government is chiefly administred by the publick Preaching of the Gospel and by private admonition Which he that shall challenge it to be a false Government though it may be defective in some Directions verily the spirit of Truth and Grace in those who are governed and led by it from darknesse to light from the Power of Satan unto God from a state of Grace to assured hopes of eternall Glory in Christ Jesus will convince all such slanderous tongues of notorious falshood But if he speake of the Nationall-Church-Government we must confesse the Truth there indeed Truth is fallen and falshood hath prevailed much For whether we speake of the Hands by which that Government hath been administred or of the Ecclesiasticall Courts in which it is administred or of the Rule according to which it is administred or of the End for which it is administred All of them are forsaken of Truth and can challenge no warrant of Truth but falsly The Hands by which that Government hath been administred are the Prelacy and their Servitors who though they have of late challenged Institution by Divine Right yet the claime is utterly false The Divine Authoritie hath none to attend upon Rule and Government in the Church but such as are inferior to Pastors and Teachers in Congregations who labour in Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5.17 Diocesan Bishops in the dayes of the Gospel are like Kings in Israel in the dayes of the Judges both of them wanting Divine Institution What a pity is it that some men eminent for Piety and Preaching and others for learning and moderation should come to be as Jothams Parable speaketh advanced over their Brethren and so leave their fatnesse and sweetnesse and fruitfulnesse wherewith they had been wont to serve both God and man The Ecclesiasticall Courts in which that Government is administred are like the Courts of the High Priests and Pharisees which Solomon by a spirit of Prophecy styleth Dens of Lyons Mountaines of Leopards Cant. 4.8 And those who have had to doe with them have found them Markets of the sinnes of the People the Cages of uncleannesse the forgers of Extortion the Tabernacles of Bribery The Rule according to which the Government is administred is not the word of God which alone is able to make a Church-Governour perfect to every good worke 2 Tim. 1.17 but in stead thereof the Canon Law the Decretalls of Antichrist and most unworthily and falsly applyed to the Government of