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A33276 Ill newes from New-England, or, A nar[r]ative of New-Englands persecution wherin is declared that while old England is becoming new, New-England is become old : also four proposals to the Honoured Parliament and Councel of State, touching the way to propagate the Gospel of Christ ... : also four conclusions touching the faith and order of the Gospel of Christ out of his last will and testament, confirmed and justified / by John Clark ... Clarke, John, 1609-1676. 1652 (1652) Wing C4471; ESTC R19361 89,149 98

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mind of the Lord to root up the wheat also 4. To countenance and incourage as through Gods mercifull hand on your hearts in some measure you do such as are faithful and upright in the land by this means shall a wide and effectual door be opened and so shall the word of the Lord which is the Gospel of Christ go forth run and be glorifyed through all those parts of the world that acknowledge your power and that which is of God shall stand encrease and be propagated and that which is not of God shall fall decay and come to nothing Thus shall you also accomplish the words of the Prophets of old in becoming nursing fathers unto the servants and children of God who under you shall lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty and shall be greatly obli●ged to improve their interest in the father of mercies by their presenting to him constant and earnest petitions supplications intercessions and giving of thanks on your behalf And for the furtherance of those worthy thoughts of your hearts they shall not cease to preach and declare to great and small what they have seen and felt and heard touching the Gospel of Christ and to pray the lord of the harvest to send forth faithful and painful labourers into his harvest which is also the constant hearty and earnest request of Your humble and faithful Subject JOHN CLARK To the Honored Magistracy the Presbytery and their dependency in the Mathatusets Colony in New-England The Author wisheth repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ HOnored Friends for so without scruple or dissimulation can I call you some of you I honor for your parts others for your places sake and both for many good things I see in you and for evils reformed by you I call you friends for my love to you in truth is unfained neither are there I bless the Lord notwithstanding the discourteous usage which I and my friends received from you any evill thoughts in my heart towards you because I judge you were put upon what you did by a zeal I would not think unto private or caanall interests but towards God thinking thereby to do him service although I confidently believe and therefore boldly do affirm that his soul abhors it And that I may deal plainly with you as a friend I will tell you what in my heart I think and judge that such a zeal of God is not according to true knowledge or knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ which would soon take you off and free you from that soul murdering and blood thirsty lie I hope you will not be offended to see this Narrative brought forth into the publick view it being upon the point forst from me by your friends agent here seeing also the matter which is contained therein is of no less than of publick concernment was not done in a corner is the fruit of your zeal and that wherin I suppose you glory and count your selves herein a worthy pattern for all that sear the Lord to follow you and withall their might to be conformed to which if a truth I then save you a labour and further your design yea I publish your praise and glory but my own disgrace and shame but if a mistake and falsehood I shall then hereby give occasion unto your faithful friends whose words may be of more prevailing power and force than mine through prejudice for present are like to be to tell you friendly and yet plainly that you do but glory in your shame so that the time may come if so be the will of God that you may smite upon your thigh and say within your selves what fruit had we then of those things whereof we are now ashamed neither let it be offensive to your spirits to see my testimony for which thing sake among you we were shamefully entreated being also strangers to you and belonging to another jurisdiction where and by whose means divers of you and yours and such as have been of chiefest note and most highly esteemed by you have enjoyed curtesies with far greater liberties in point of conscience no man gainsaying let it not offend I say to see this testimony when none of you upon the oft repeated motion would come forth to oppose it then to be made yet more publick by the word of God and testimony of Christ Jesus the Lord to be brought forth into the open view of all confirmed and justifyed neither take it ill that fith I could not with freedom and upon equal terms speak with you and discuss these points for which we have been sentenced that then I have made bold to write unto you some few lines that thereby I might remind you least you let it slip that we were brought before you as by a hand from beneath so not without a speciall and good hand from above and that to be a testimony against you in these two weighty particulars first to bear testimony against your standing with respect to the worship of God appointed by Christ which in plain terms for it is not now a time to dissemble seeing the Lord is at hand is false and evil not the order of the Gospel of Christ as you pretend and therefore disorder confusion and that which in Scripture language is called Babel And secondly to bear testimony or witness against that way by which you maintain it which being chiefly as it appears by carnal weapons which cannot reach to the heart or spirit of a man which is the principal part and upon the point the whole in the worship of God without which there is no acceptance with him this I say must needs also be fals but yet far worse it being no way appointed or approved of Christ nor yet groundedly expected or practised by Christians who first trusted in Christ and therefore upon due examination will prove most unchristian yea Antichristian I shall use but these two arguments in this place to convince you The first wherof standeth thus That order and way to maintain it which neither hath precept from Christ and his Apostles in his last will and testament nor yet president or example among those that first trusted in Christ that order cannot be the order of the Gospel of Christ nor that way his way to maintain it But the order which you call the order of the Gospel of Christ and the way which you say is his way to maintain it hath neither precept nor president in his last will and testament The first proposition I suppose none of you can deny unless you can find a later than that which is called his last will and testament and as for the second the truth thereof will as easily appear if you bring your order and way to maintain it to the precept of Christ and practise of those that first trusted in him and first for your order what precept from Christ or
judge quick and dead and now because I am under reproach and sensure by many and the more by reason of some words spoken by your self as though I were an evill person in life and conversation and although I may be accounted as a fool yet hear me a little to plead mine innocency and I hope you will not too far condemn me untill you hear me speak Sir I acknowledge only free grace and that by his power alone I have been kept and what my life and manner of conversation was for six or seven years while I was with you I appeal to your self and the experiences you have had of me and to your Elders and to the whole Church who ever reproved me of evill and ye recommended me to others and for four years time I walked with them at Rehoboth who also should have reproved me if under Sin but when it pleased the Lord to cause me to hear his voice and I separated from them which was occasioned by an unrighteous Act of theirs as I judged which was that seven of the Brethren should pass an Act of Admonition upon a Brother without the Consent of the rest we being 23 in number who might all in one hours space if in health have come together so when I heard of it I went to Mr. Newman and told him of the evill which he and the other six had done he told me they were the Church Representative and if 4 of them had done it it had been a Church Act when this comes to the Congregation with much a doe he got five more to himself and then they were 12 and we eleven then they owned themselves to be the Church and so began to deal with me for saying they had abused the Church and had took from them their power whereupon I told them I should renounce them and not have any more fellowship with them till either they saw their Sin or I further light after which divers others to the number of seven or eight fell off from them and we met once a week and every first day and so continued for a long space of time yea and the day was known when we intended to be Baptized and there were many Witnesses observing our Faith and Order and yet not one Man or Woman of Mr. Newmans company that ever came to deal with me for evill neither in Judgment nor Practice untill a long time after that appointment of our Lord was dispenced Thus I say when I had separated from them and a long time after I understood by their Messenger that they intended to proceed against me so I desired the messenger to tell me for what evill he told me I should know when I came there so I sent one of their own Brethren to tell them from me though I owned them not as Brethren yet if any Man or Woman had ought against me I would come to them although they had not delt with me according to any rule but none came to me nor charged me with any evill and when upon occasion I came before all the Congregation and strangers I demanded for what cause it was that they proceeded against me seing I had sent to them before and no man accused me Mr. Newman told me it was for non appearance and now judge of the evill in your own way and that for my Excommunication as you call it I am by you rendred that wicked person as for the suspition of that most abominable evill of uncleanness and Adultery which many think I am guilty of by reason of some persons speeches I desire to bless my Lord who hath caused me to deny all uncleanness and wickedness and God forbid that I should take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot and I challenge all Men and Women that dare stand before the judgment seat of the Lord to come forth and say if they ever heard unclean words proceed out of my mouth or any unseemly gesture much less action to any in my life at Salem Seacunck or elswhere yea let them come forth before any to meet me in private or publick upon any friends request without the Magistrates Warrant but I remember my Lord was called Belzebub and what though I be called an Adulterer or Witch or Blasphemer and every one saith what he pleaseth yet I stand before the judgment of my Lord And whereas it was also reported I Baptized Goodwife Bowdish naked I bless the Lord he hath taught me to do that which is comly and of good report yea and I know a Man or Woman may be drowned in their Cloathes or buryed in earth with their Cloathes but that she had comly garments from the Crown of her head to the sole of her foot many being present with her husband can testifie and if any be pleased to reproach me behind my back and not to speak to my face let them know the Lora knows how to deliver the innocent unto whom I commit my self with my prayers for you and am Yours still as formerly to command in all Lawfull things Obediah Holmes Whilst he through the spirit of the Lord that rested upon him bore these bloody strokes with so cheerfull a spirit as if he felt them not divers of the standers by beholding it were so affected with joy that when he was loosed could not forbear to come to him and to shake him by the hand thereby to manifest their rejoycing with him that the Lord had supported him but information hereof being given to the Magistrates warrants were sent forth as is reported to the number of 13 whereupon some through fear were fain to hide themselves and being strangers to hasten away or change their habit two of them were taken as aforesaid that is to say John Spur and old Iohn Hazell and committed to prison as the Warrant herewith declares To the Keeper or his Deputy BY virtue hereof you are to take into your custody and safe keeping the body of Iohn Spur for a hainous offence by him committed hereof not to f●il Dated the 5th of the 7th Month 1651. Take also into your safe keeping Iohn Hazell By the Court INCREASE NOWEL John Spur profest to me and before many Witnesses that his heart was so taken with what he saw and heard that he could not but go to him take him by the hand and blesse the Lord who had been so present with him but to save me a labor his own words here followeth Mr. Cotton saith he in his Sermon immediatly before the Court gave their Sentence against M. Clark Obediah Holmes and Iohn Crandell affirmed that denying Infants Baptism would overthrow all this was a capitall offence and therefore they were soul-murtherers when therefore the Governor M. Iohn Indicot came into the Court to pass Sentence against them he said thus you deserve to dy but this we agreed upon that Mr. Clarke shall pay 20 li. Fine and Obediah Holmes 30 li. Fine and Jo.