vs to be our own saviours we our selves must conquer the death divil and hell for as wee have heard our own Lovely Being that is H. Ns. Christ. And wheras the Apostles teach vs that forgivnes of syns is by Gods imputation of Christs righteousnes and death and not imputing our syns vnto vs and that our fayth in Christ is imputed vnto vs for justice Rom. 4. 6. 8. 24. 25. 2 Cor. 5. 19. H. N. hath put imitation in stead of imputation saying that through the dayly God-service and offring in the Holy in the taking vp of our crosse in the Imitation of Christ in his death we obteyn the remission of syns Therfore he willeth vs to follow after Christ in his suffring for those are the dayes of affliction heavines and death wherin Christ hath gone before vs in the Holy for to prepare vs throuh the same death of the crosse the everlasting forgivnes and redemtion of syns Agayn in his book called The spiritual land of peace he telleth vs of an Instrument wherwith all enimies be overcome This instrument of victorie is the crosse of Christ not that which Christ of whome we read in the scriptures died himself on and triumphed in the same over the principalities and powers Col. 2. 15. but that which we bear in imitation of Christ it is named patience or sufferance such as is mentioned Heb. 12. 1. Iam. 5. 7. and it sayth H. N. is the true altar in the Holy vpon the which the true meat offring is that is given to the faithful beleeving travellers to eat and also the true drink offring that is given them to drink which meat offring is named the flesh or body of Iesu Christ and the drink offring is named the blood of Iesu Christ. And the same body and blood of Iesu Christ is vnto the constant faithful traveiler in the proceeding on in his pilgrimage a true mediator to lay away the syn in the flesh to establish the promises with him that are made to the Fathers Thus the things which are spoken of Christ and his oblation of himself and of our partaking therof by faith this man perversly applyeth to our own patient suffrings and maketh Patience to be our victory contrarie to the evident doctrine of the Apostle who sayth that it is Faith 1 Iohn 5. 4 5. Agayn the scriptures teach not that our Christianlike nature but that Christ himself in his own person for vs by death destroyed him that had the power of death which is the Divil and so delivered al vs his children which for feare of death wer all our life time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14. 15. but H. N. teacheth that Christs death is our like suffring as appeareth by his First exhortation where he sayth that the man ought in his yongnes to learn to take vp his crosse on him to follow after Christ his Saviour in his like suffering and death of the crosse and to shew forth patience with Christ against all the assaultings vntil that all the enemies or adversaries of the Lovely life through the death of Christ that is in maner of suffering be vtterly vanquished By these wordes and the scriptures which he quoteth it is playne that he meaneth our own suffrings in imitation of Christ to be our vanquishing the enimies and our salvation which heresie he every where out of his own carnal wisdome vrgeth and perswadeth to the dishonor of our Lord Jesus and magnifying mens own sufferings and merits And if we look further what H. N. meaneth by his Death Divil and Hel we shal find these also to be idols and fictions of his own that in deed his victory is like his Christ even erroneous fabulous and blasphemous The holy scriptures teach vs of a death in syn when men are wholly given over therevnto Ephe 2. 1. contrary to which is a death to syn by sanctification of life Rom. 6. 2. They teach vs also of a death for syn that is a reward of eternal punishment in hel Rom. 6. 23. Gen. 2. 17. Iam. 1. 14. called the second death Rev. 2. 21. 20. 14. Vnto which the Divils and all reprobate men shal be condemned for ever and ever for their syns at Christs appearing Mat. 25. 41. 46. Now H. N. playing the part of the old Serpent which perswade Evah that she should not die perswadeth his disciples that here in this present world and life is death and hel so the judgement the fyre the condemnation threatned in the scriptures he maketh fantastical imaginations or humane affections For as with him the Love and to walk in the Lovely vertuous Being is Christ himself so on the other hand inveighing against them that speak evil by the service of Love and the minister of the same he sayth their false Being is the Divil the Antichrist the wicked Spirit the kingdome of Hel and the Majestie of the Divil himself Now the punishment for this is the Sentence which H. N. who as we have heard vaunteth that he sits on the throne of Christ to judge the world pronounceth his condemnation of the false Being is eternal death and hel fyre as appeareth by his Crying voice where he calleth al men to himself to Come al and cōfesse their syns and make known vncoveredly the inwardnes of their harts to the end that they may become justified or purged from all their synnes and received into the holy Communialty of the Love when as now in thissame day the wicked world becommeth judged with the Lords mighty hand Which wicked world sayth he is reserved or kept in store til vnto this same day of the Love to the fyre of hell for to be condemned in the self same day of the Love for evermore to her eternal cursing judgement of the fyers cruel vehemencie And a little after he addeth Verily now in thissame day when as now all vngodly and all selfwise with al vnrepentant persons and false harts of the scripture-learned c. inherite with much smart and grief in the vehement crueltie of the fyre of hel the terrible condemnation then shal the people of God namely the whol communialty of the Love of Iesu Christ c. rejoyce them in all Love c. And that this their joy is like Epicures in this present world and life and in their counterfeyt regeneration and godded estate he elswhere playnly confirmeth saying that in their citie of Peace there is a watchman on the wal therof that hath a trumpet named After-this-time-no-time-more and that the watchmā foūdeth out of the same last time as out of the last trumpet the sound of the everlasting life after the which there is no life more to be wayted for for the same life continueth for evermore Therfore in the conclusion of his Crying voice when he had bidden all Come now hither to the Love and her service he addeth Come now al hither to
c. to the forgiving and releasing of their synns Where agayn he perversly applieth that to obedience and mortification which is due vnto faith For when the Eunuch would be baptised Philip required nothing of him but to beleeve and Paul sayth to him that worketh not but beleeveth in him that justifyeth the vngodly his faith is counted for righteousnes Although therfore obedience to the faith must be given by all true Christians and they which are baptised into I. Christ are baptised into his death and buriall yet is not this done to the forgiving and releasing of their synns as H. N. Pharisaically inferreth but to shew forth the fruit and force of faith wherby the just doe live and lay hold on Christ whom God hath set forth for a reconciliation though faith in his blood to declare his righteousnes by the forgivnes of synns that ar passed through the pacience of God Wheras therfore H. N. doth gather from the premisses that this which he hath set down is the vpright Christiā baptisme in the name of the Son is the true forgivnes purging of our synns through Iesu Christ he is found a false witnes against God and Christ and would give vs a synful sink of error even a vayn perswasion of our own obedience righteousnes and sanctification to wash our selves in and hath royled with his feet the pure fountayn of Christs blood which clenseth all beleevers from all syn That vpon himself his own words may justly be retorted he boasteth himself of the baptismey of Christ and he hath not known him in any world Of like leven is H. Ns baptisme in the name of the holy Ghost which he maketh to be also the second birth out of the holy Ghost the true love of God Christ. And this even as the former of baptising in the name of the Father and of the Son we must not vnderstand of any outward action by the minister of Christ washing with water as did John the Baptist nor yet to be done at one and the same time with the former but as H. N. sayth in the oldnes of time when the dayes of the patience of Christ in the obedience of the holy and gracious word his service of Love are fulfilled that is when men have walked long ynough in the Familists religion that then the holy Ghost becommeth powred forth through Iesus Christ vnderstanding H. Ns Christ to weet the Lovely being over them all that have followed Christ in his death of the crosse obediently that is which have saved themselves from their synns by their own fantasticall suffrings and have kept his doctrine with the word of his patience even vnto the end Thus hath this deceiver of minds drawn all Gods ordinance of Baptisme which with men is outward and was by the Apostles admininstred with materiall water vnto a blasphemous imagined Being and conformity with God or regenerated estate and the holy doctrine of Justification by forgivnes of synns through the blood of Christ shed for vs and sealed vnto vs in baptisme he hath wiped away vnder colour of Sanctification or deification by our own following of Christ. Which things he teacheth by the same spirit that the Serpent taught Evah not to fear the outward eating of the forbidden fruit seing she should be like vnto God knowing good and evil H. N. 19. After such a like maner witnesseth Paul of the supper of Christ wher he sayth so many of you as have eaten of one bread are become partakers of one body Hath any man now rightly vsed the supper of Christ the same is then become partaker of the body of Christ according to the mentioning of the scripture 20. Therefore see vnto it yea see vnto it everie one which sayth that he hath fulfilled the service of Christ or would be a disciple of Christ. For those services and ceremonies which are ministred through the comandement of the holy Ghost out of a Christianlike Being they have the promises whiles they are rightly obeyed that should receive the pledge of the godly inheritance which is the holy Ghost And where that cōmeth not to passe vnto them ther is not the Christian service ministred let them make them then so like fashioned to the scripture as they wil. For whatsoever is served without the spirit of Christ it is an abomination before God therein may everie one think freely H. A. That which is here sayd of the supper of Christ if an honest faithful mā had written the same might wel be yielded vnto for in the words ther would lurk no frawd But coming from this old seducer H. N. and being affixed to his former heresies I deny that after such a like manner as H. N. before treated of Bapisme Paul witnesseth of the supper of Christ. For Paul sayth not that we ar one Being with Christ but that we are the body of Christ and that the bread which we break is the communion of his body which body we eat and have communion with by faith not really and essentially as fleshly men imagine and we ar caled the body of Christ not properly but figuratively by way of similitude and in great mystery for as a man joyned to a woman is one flesh so he that is joyned vnto the Lord is one Spirit But as the woman notwithstanding her conjunction is not the man neyther hath the Being of the man so the church notwithstanding her conjunction is not Christ neyther hath the Being of Christ but by faith is coupled vnto him as he sayth by the prophet I will mary the vnto me in faith Now that H. N. hath the like grosse understanding of the Lords supper as he shewed before of Baptisme appeareth not onely by his entrance saying After such a like manner c but also by his words in his Gospel wher speaking of the Passover he sayth Christ gav his disciples to drink out of the cup which is his passion his true blood which is his holy life of the New Testament Thus applyeth he all things about Christ to a holy life even then and there wher it is playnly spoken of death For though blood whiles it is in the body is the life of the same yet when it is shed out of the body as Christ ther sayth his was it signifieth death not the life of the party as also the Apostle testifieth so oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew the Lords death til he come And as David would not drink the water that came out of the well of Bethlehē because it was the blood of the men that fetched it that is because they jeoparded their lives vnto the death to fetch it so we when we drink the wine out of the cup in the Lords supper doe drink the blood of Christ that is his death which for our synns he did vndergoe But H. N. by
fal down before idols wil deny their God of Love and wil worship the Papists God of bread in the Masse yea wil cōfesse or deny any point of doctrine and submitt vnto any Gods-service or religion And if they wil thus doe in things concerning God how much more may we think they wil so doe in things concerning men That if any Prince should be so wicked as to forbid al mariage on payn of death and cōmand or permit a community of womē or whordome these mē rather thē y e māly creature should perish would not spare to defile their bodies as wel as their sowles in al manner filthynes Yet syn they not as they perhaps think if their God of Love have their hart in hold and they be obedient to the requiring of the service of the Love for as H. N. sayth They know not of any other religion or godservice then of the service of Love But let vs further see if we can comprehend what H. Ns. position here doth imply If it be Gods wil that the manly creature should live and this be absolute and without restraynt then may not the Magistrate put any to death for any crime or make warre vpon any occasion for H. N. wil tel the magistrate he made not the natural man wherfore he cannot belong vnto him but vnto God his wil is that al shaped creatures should live and that it mought goe wel with them This Anabaptistical error is built on H. Ns. rotten ground and that the Familists doe indeed deny the vse of the sword vnto the Magistrate contrary to Pauls doctrine Rom. 13. and al vse of warrs may appear by H. Ns. words otherwhere complayning of the Land of ignorance which is every where but in his Familie that they make there many swords halberds spears bowes arrows guns pellets powder armor or harnesse c. for that the tyrannical oppressors and those that have a pleasure in destroying should vse warr battel therwithal one against another And because the taking away of the sword is the frustrating of the magistrates office for wherfore serveth he if not as for the wealth of the good so to take vengeance on them that do evil therfore it followeth necessarily that they condemne al magistracie in the church as do also the Anabaptists for H. N. sayth of his lovely city that no man reigneth over an other and that pleaseth God wel namely that the one man of God reigneth not over the other Thus vnder a colour that Gods creatures al should live he would abolish Gods ordinances who hath commanded that some malefactors should die and not live and bring confusion vpon civil polities as he hath vpon Christian religion Agayn in that he sayth al shaped creatures should live and then the manly creature so wel as any other wil it not folow also herevpon that Beasts must live may not be killed for the food of man For they are shaped creatures and made by God not by vs and so by H. Ns. learning cannot belong vnto vs and therfore may not be killed for our sustenance though God do playnly permit it in his law Gen. 9. 3. Deut. 12. 20. 21. 22. And so here is another doctrine of Divils as the holy Ghost caleth it comprehended in this Oldest Fathers deep head whiles by consequence he commandeth to absteyn from meates or els his ey-sight fayled him when he set down this reason But the Apostle gathereth quite contrary to this man as namely because The earth is the Lords and the plenty therof therfore we may eat al flesh 1 Cor. 10. 25. 26. Accordingly should H. N. if he had savoured the things of God have reasoned and concluded The Lord made our bodies and our sowles therfore it belongeth vnto vs to look that with both we glorify him The body is for the Lord therfore not for fornicatiō the body is the temple of the holy Ghost therfore it may not be prostrate before idols for what agreement hath the temple of God with idols the body is the Lords therfore it may not sit at the table of Divils and whatsoever the hethens or Antichristians offer they offer vnto Divils and we cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Divils Thus should H. N. if any Christian wisedome or grace had been in him have collected and inferred and not as now he doeth perswade the two daughters to communion with the church of Rome which the holy Ghost caleth the habitation of Divils because their bodies or lives are the Lords and it belongs not vnto them to lay down their natural lives for the testimony of Jesus at any time But if H. N. had known in any world what the true life meaneth he would not so have disswaded from suffring temporary death for the Gospels sake This present life which he so much estemeth is a dying dayly as the Apostle teacheth the true life is when the body having been sowen in dishonour shal be raysed in glory Of which raysing vp this Sadducee H. N. is vtterly ignorant as after shal be shewed and in his ignorance perverteth al religion and even reason it self for to maynteyn a momentany natural life though it be to the perpetual damnation of body and sowl in hel His conclusiō what the man must forsake that he may be recōciled to God not any thing els but his own life that is the man of syn c. is like his premisses ful of guile and errour and what truth is in it is against himself Erroneous it is to say or to insinuate that we may be reconciled to God by any thing that we can forsake be it syn or what els For our reconciliatiō to God is wrought by Christ alone not by ourselves when we forsake synn of which poynt we have before spoken Guileful it is to say or insinuate that Christ in willing vs to forsake our lives for his sake meant that by so doing we should be reconciled to God or that we do so esteem of any martyrs death The man doth by it as Christ signified of Peters death glorify God vnto whom he was before by Christs death reconciled False it is to say a man must not forsake any thing els but his own synful life for Christ telleth vs further of forsaking howses brethren sisters father mother wife children lands for his names sake and these I trow are not also the Man of syn that lieth hid in mans hart But it was farr from H. Ns hart to forsake any of these for Christ he loved his sensual life so wel Erroneous it is that our synful life is that man of synn spoken of 2 Thes. 2. of which poynt is to be spoken in the next place And this onely truth that we should forsake our own synful life overthroweth H. Ns doctrine and his disciples practise For syn it is and a continual synful
AN EPISTLE SENT VNTO TVVO daughters of VVarwick from H. N. THE OLDEST Father of the Familie of Love VVith a refutation of the errors that are therin by H. A. Rescue me Lord and deliver me from the hand of strangers whose mouth talketh vanity and their right-hand is a right-hand of falshood Psal. 144. 11. Imprinted at Amsterdam by Giles Thorp 1608. To the Christian reader wisdome grace AS ther are many enimies of the truth of the gospel and many that write to broach and spread their errors so is it needful that some write against them least troden truth be quite forsaken and silly sowles be wrapped in error vnto perdition It is not easy for al men to espie Satans subtilties nor the deceitful sophismes of his ministers both he they can trāsforme themselves like Angels of light Such therfore as discern them through the grace of God should give warning vnto others that as the foolish womā is troublesome babling lowd inviting her ghests to the depth of hel so the maidens of wisdom may lift vp also their voice and make their crie be heard on the highest places of the citie What wormwood and bitternes even deadly poison is sparsed abroad in Henry Nicholas his writings who caleth himself the Father of the Family of Love the children of wisdome that do read the same may by the light of Gods law soon perceive yet with faire and flattering speeches he hath beguiled many vnstable sowles such as have had no love to the truth have been givē over vnto his lies And never had Satan a fitter time to work his malicious wil on the sons of Adam then in these last evil dayes when Atheisme and iniquity doe so much abound Never had he a fitter religion for Atheists and carnal hypocrites then that which H. N. out of his corrupt and fleshly hart hath set abroach It taketh away the crosse of Christ persecution for righteousnes sake and teacheth men to cōmunicate with al religions services and ceremonies so as they cleave in hart to his feighned service of the Love It maketh them pure and without al syn in their own foolish imaginations yea more then which the Serpent himself did never teach it deifieth them with God In a word it bringeth a fretting leprosie vpon al religion overthroweth the grounds of faith layd in holy scriptures which H. N. by foolish allegories perverteth to the destruction of himself and his Family And for the principles of theologie he hath written more blasphemously and absurdly then ever did Mahomet in his Alcoran For this cause in answering this his letter as I was requested by some that heard how much it was boasted of among the Nicholaitans I have touched by the way some of the impious heresies that are in his other writings without knowledge wherof his frawd in this Epistle cannot easily be perceived For as a child of darknes he laboureth to be obscure in his words y t men may admire the deepnes of Satan by which he speaketh and himself when he is folowed can no other way escape may have this for his last refuge that men vnderstand him not But al things when they are reproved of the light are manifest for the light is that which maketh al things manifest Now the word of the Lord is a lantern his Law a light by it therfore have I assayed to discover the snares of this seducer not doubting but God who causeth the Morning to know his place that it may take hold of the corners of the earth that the wicked may be shaken out of it wil notwithstanding al the dark delphick speeches and glozing allegories of these falsers declare their works and manifest their impieties and wil turn the night in the darknes wherof they think to be shrowded and they shal be destroyed Let therfore the prudent reader make trial of that which on both sides is said by the word of truth least as the serpent beguiled Evah through his subtilty so their harts be withdrawn from the sincerity of Christ. And the Lord give them vnderstanding in al things and preserve them from this generation for ever for the wicked walk on every side whiles vilenes is extolled among the sons of Adam Henry Ainsworth The preface made by some of H. N. his disciples THis Epistle was written by the author vnto two maydens that were before purposed out of zele to have suffred death for the confession sake of the Christiā ceremonies which as he saith in divers places of his works are no more but outward meanes set forth by God his ministers to direct people to the inward righteous life of Christ in the spirit supposing therin that they should rightly have obeyed fulfilled the cōmandemēt of Christ who willeth vs to forsake our own lives for his sake But vpon better consideration therof through the grace of God and these distinct godly testimonies and reasons both touching that point and divers others herein conteyned their mindes as it hath bene reported by some of that followship wer altered herin to an other vnderstanding of the matter and they did willingly indevour themselves afterwards to follow his good counsel Answer THe drift of this Epistle being at the best to disswade from the pacient and cōstant witnessing of the truth of Christ especially in the outward ordinances of the gospel and open profession of the same Under a colour of inward and spiritual confession and service of God in the holy Ghost it shal not be amisse to look a little into the sleights of Satan wherby as it seemeth he hath deceived and would stil deceive the simple and to shew the weaknes and insufficiencie of the reasons alleged in this Letter as also to manifest how the outward obedience of the body must be conjoyned with the inward of the mind and spirit and the external ordinances of Christs testament professed and practised if we would have the spirit and life which is of God And howsoever H. N. accounteth the ordinances of the gospel but ceremonies yet in that he confesseth them to be outward meanes set forth by God to direct people to the inward righteous life of Christ in the spirit he manifesteth himself to be but a seducer in perswading the two maydens not to suffer death for the confession sake of them seing the outward meanes of mans salvation and of the righteous Christian life is to be stood for vnto the death as in handling the particulars shal by Gods grace appear And if by the authors counsel those daughters were drawn as here is insinuated from their outward confession suffring affliction for the ordinances of Christ against the Romish Antichristian doctrines ceremonies their faith was but weak they forsook the inward righteous life of Christ in the spirit and their mindes were perverted to a very evil vnderstanding If also they assented to other points of H. Ns. heresies
Christs cause at any tyme which is a doctrine of the serpent he maketh a discourse of our spiritual life in synn and the old man corrupted with vices that we ought to lay down and forsake which we al acknowledge to be a truth And from this he gathereth a great overshooting and misunderstanding of such as say Christ meant the natural or elementish man which is a false and deceitful conclusion We know that these both are required at our hands the one which is the mortifying of lusts and synful affections of al men if they would be saved the other which is a suffering of natural death for Christs sake of so many as God calleth thervnto in times of persecution But H. N. vrgeth the one that he might abolish the other with as good reason as if one should perswade vs not to serv or worship God with body because Christ sayth we must worship him in spirit or as if to defend fleshly filthynes he should reason in this manner The wordome which God condemneth is the whoring with mens own inventions Psal. 106. 39. the fornication with stones and stocks Ier. 3. 9. the going a whoring after other Gods Deut. 31. 16. Is not this then a great overshooting or misunderstanding that the children of mē can say teach of that commandement Thou shalt not comit whordom Deut. 5. 18. that God meant hereby fleshly whordom done by the natural or elemētish man Loe this is the mould of H. Ns argument and may as truly be alleged for defence of carnal fornication as he allegeth it for defēce of carnal idolatry which he would perswade these two daughters to commit with the man of syn rather then to suffer bands or death for the witnesse of Christs truth Neyther is it to be thought but he thus vnderstandeth in deed the 7. commandement who so erroneously vnderstandeth and expoundeth the second for the maintenance of his fleshly ease But Oh he woulde have vs vnderstand advisedly what he doth write of the forsaking of our own life God sayth H. N. had created the man that he should be of one Life one Being one spirit and of one nature with God this he meaneth as before we have seen to be godded with God and that the man should be al that God was Which blasphemous error I have before by the scriptures refuted Neither doth H. N. confirm his cursed doctrine here by any scripture because in deed he cannot For al that the scripture sayth is that God created man in his own image and likenes Gen. 1 26. 5. 2. but that the man should be of one Being with him it sayth not but H. N. hath forged it out of his arrogant mind who would thrust himself into Gods throne The image of God is expounded by the Apostle to be in knowledge righteousnes and true holynes and H. N. addeth to be of one Being which if it had been true then could not man have fallen any more then God himself and if he had had the same life essentially with God then should he have ben immortal and incorruptible death could never hav seised on him 1. Tim. 6. 16. So H. N. must eyther deny the fal and corruption of man wherof not onely the word of God but nature it self and dayly experience wil convince him and himself yeeldeth or els he must hold a God subject to corruption and mortalitie Which if he doe then is he a monster among men and a wonderment to the very hethen For wheras the Stoiks of old esteemed their Gods subject to al humane changes and corruption a hethen man writing against them sayth It may be one may meet with some barbarous and savage men that think ther is no god but ther hath not been any one man found who thought their was a God and yet the same not free from corruption and eternal Let this errour therfore which draweth such hethenish and blasphemous consequences after it returne into H. Ns. bosome wher first the Serpent hatched it The next deceit wherwith he would beguile his reader lieth in this word Life wherby he meaneth mans cariage or conversation according as the Apostle speaketh of walking in newnes of Life Rom. 6. 4. wheras the Life which Christ telleth vs we must be ready to lay down for his sake is an other thing both for Name and signification For the Name is Psuche the sowl Luk. 17. 33. 9. 23. 24. which word howsoever we may translate Life because the sowl is the life of the body yet can we not take it for a Life or conversation whch the Apostle in Rom. 6. caleth Zoe Wheras therfore H. N. speaketh of the Life of God and then of mans own life and life of the Divil as if Christ spake or meant of it when he speaketh and meaneth of the Sowl and natural life herein he vseth fraud and not Christian simplicity or ells bewrayeth grosse ignorance Which may yet further be thus proved Our saviour speaketh of such a Life as himself layd-down for vs saying I lay down my life for my sheep now let H. N. say what life that was whither it were not his very natural and elementish life as he caleth it for I hope he wil not be so wretched as to say that Christ had any wicked synful life or life of the Divil in him to lay down seing we know that in Christ ther never was synn or if he should be so absurd as to say it yet Christ him self wil convince him saying I lay down my life that I might take it agayn for was he to take agayn a synful life far be it from Christian thoughts Now from this example of Christ the Apostle reasoneth thus Hereby have we perceived love that he layd down his Life for vs therfore we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren So then what Life or Sowl Christ layd down for vs the like ar we to lay down for our brethren and for Christ himself as Peter sayd he would but that was no synful life or conversation but the natural life which he did lay down therfore ours must be the like Agayn this is further confirmed by Christs words saying he that looseth his life or sowl for my sake shal find it meaning in the world or life to come but I hope we shal there find no synful life such as H. N. fansieth Christ here to mean Agayn the words folowing make it more playn Christ saying For what should it profit a man though he should win the whole world if he loose his own life or sowl But it is our greatest profit to loose our synful life Of that therfore Christ speaketh not as any reasonable man may perceiv So the Psyche sowl or life which we must be ready at Gods pleasure to lay down for Christs cause is not onely the synful life but also the natural life of the natural or elementish man and H.
N. is but a carnal worldling to love his elementish life more then Christ and teach men so vnder colour of forsaking our own wicked life and life of the Divil If the prophets and Apostles had known this deep vnderstanding which H. N. conceiveth and had not thought they were also bound to lay down the natural and elementish man they would never have endured such things in their flesh as is witnessed of them What needed Shadrach Meshach and Abednego to have changed the kings commandement and yielded their bodies to the fyre rather then they would serv or worship his image or Daniel have jeoparded his life among the Lions or Stephen have been stoned to death for confessing of Christ or others to have been racked scourged prisoned hewen asunder slayn with the sword c or what meant the Apostles to shew vs these patterns and wil vs to take the prophets for an example of suffering adversity Was is not thinketh H. N. a great overshooting or misunderstanding in al these to teach both by word and practise that afflictions should be suffred in the natural or elementish man Or rather had not al these holy martyrs first layd down the spiritual synful life and then gave vp the natural life also How cōtrary then is this H. N. to al holy men that ever were or wrote that thus disswadeth frō the outward crosse vnder pretence of inward holynes Therfore let vs al y t lov the Lord Jesus say Anathema to such false prophets as thus teach doctrine cōtrary to the scriptures for to favor the flesh avoid afflictiō as is best pleasing to their sēsual minds Let the same mind be in vs that was in Christ Jesus who besides the troubles and anguishes in his hart humbled himself and became obedient vnto the death evē the death of the crosse And he which suffred these things for vs hath left vs an ensample as sayth the Apostle that we should folow his steps who his own self bare our synns in his body on the tree And let vs learn with Paul to take pleasures in infirmities in reproches in necessities in persecutions in scripes and prisonment in hunger and thirst in cold and nakednes and al other anguish for Christs sake for when we are weak then are we strong and this is a part of our mortification and denyal of our selves vnto which when true faith and obedience in the spirit is adjoyned God 's work goeth forward in vs towards perfection the end wherof wil be everlasting life H. N. 25. Oh comprehend I beseech yow the vnderstanding We our selves have not made the natural mā wherfore he cannot belong vnto vs. For the heaven with the earth and al that is therin belongeth vnto God and it is Gods pleasure and will that al shaped creatures so wel the manly creature as any other of al those which God hath created should live and that it mought goe wel with them 26. What shal the man then forsake that he mought be reconciled to God not any thing els but his own life that is the man of syn which hath so long lien hidd in the hart of man which is the temple of God and hath sayd that he was God 2. Thes. 2. H. A. IT is hard to cōprehend any good vnderstanding in any thing which H. N. doth write he is so ledd with the spirit of error in al his wayes yet may we comprehend that his first reason here is against himself we have not made the natural man wherfore he cannot belong vnto vs. Very true but God hath made it therfore it belongs to him If he made it and it be his then may he require it when he wil and we must not deny him his own Now he requireth it when for witnesse of his truth men wil shed our blood though they doe it vnjustly yet his requiring is just and we may not deny him or his truth for the saving of our lives as before is proved Of this reason therfore which H. N. bringeth we may say with the prophet his sword hath entred into his own hart His next reason is a depth of iniquity for seeming to plead for God he seeketh to draw men from God Gods wil is sayth he that al shaped creatures so wel the manly creature as any other should live that it might goe wel with thē So then to save their natural lives y e Familists think they may deny forswear Christ al true religion may cōmunicate with al idolatrie worship of divils if Princes vpō payn of death shal so cōmād This was the intendement of this present Letter sent to two maydens that refused as it seemeth the idolatrous Masse and subjectiō to the Romish Antichrist with hazard of their lives This is the dayly practise of the Nicolaitans H. Ns disciples who rather then they wil suffer imprisonment banishment death or the like for their religion wil joyn with Papists Protestants Arrians Anabaptists or any religion if the magistrate authorize and cōmand it For though they hold that their God of Love as they cal him is the true living God and besides him ther is no God more and his Gods-service of Love which they minister vnder the obedience of his Love is the true safe-making Gods-service and besides the same ther is not any Gods-service more neyther in heaven nor yet in earth yet wil they partake with any of the Godservices vsed in the world though they be contrary one to another For H. N. in his new Gospel complayneth that many have vnorderly rejected and blasphemed the services and ceremonies of the catholik church of Rome rented the concord nurturable sustentation of the same turned them away therfrom even so out of their knowledg which they took out of the scripture brought in certayn services ceremonies in another wise or order c. But his disciples in England which land hath rejected and departed from the catholike church of Rome as many other nations have doe pretend in their late supplicatiō to the King y t they ar his true faithful loyal and obedient subjects to al his lawes and ordinances spiritual temporal and doe deny that they vary or swarve frō the now established religion in this land eyther in services ceremonies sermons or sacraments Thus eyther H. N. or these his folowers or both must needs be hypocrites that so doe write and professe of two adverse churches and religions when in deed they approve of neyther but think as H. Ns Co-elder avoucheth that they which remayn without them and their Communaltie and without the Requiring of the gracious Word and his Service of Love or withdraw them selves therfrō have no living God nor yet true God-service but are without God and without Gods-service in this world yet notwithstanding this their judg mēt and profession rather then the manly creature should die they wil