The Saints and people of God Seas Truths Sermon 6. p. 166. saith he they withdraw from the men of the World and do separate from them Now when we withdraw from men and from their worship we condemn their Worship and the men of the world do not love to be condemned To separate from them and from their Worship this they cannot bear The Saints do separate from them and therefore there is such a deal of anger and wrath in their hearts against them C. Alas Good man Doth he think we have such an opinion of him and his Saints as they have of themselves He flatters himself too much It is one thing to imitate the Saints and another thing to counterfeit them He shall never perswade me that quick-silver is better than gold and that turbulent and affrighted Imagination can be a surer guide either in the choice or exercise of our Religion than a calm Reason and a fixed well-resolved Judgment Let him call himself and his party Saints a thousand times or as oft as he breathes it shall never move me at all nor shall I think the worse but the better of my self for being none of them Let him pride himself in new devices of a different worship for the Saints and the rest of the world I am very well contented if they will but withdraw themselves far enough from us and let us be out of the hearing of their Gibberish Let him lead them to the Indies if he please and be separated from us by the wide Ocean it will be a great satisfaction to enjoy our worship quietly * Yet you must not hope for this For they must stay to power forth the Vials which next to the Separating from us is the thing that provokes the Antichristian party For they are to torment the men of the world and make them gnash their teeth and bite their tongues for pain As he tells you afterward pag. 179. to our selves Or rather let him retire into his Closet and think no company in the world pure enough for him but his Books and no Books but his own his preciseness I assure him shall never trouble me at all And I suppose I may pass my word for our whole Church that they will not complain for want of his company nor think it any disgrace to our Worship that such do not like it or perhaps abhor it nor any shame to themselves that they will have no Communion with us There were alwayes people of a morese and sowr humour whom nothing can please no not what they do themselves when once it pleases others too They must be of a contrary Opinion to the whole race of mankind And hate some things only because others love them And therefore if they not only withdraw themselves from us but also slight us and set us at naught the concern is not so great as to require my care Let them call Us the World and if they please the Dogs that are without the Holy City I value it no more than the barkings of an angry Cur Though in his vain conceit of himself and party he imagines we lay their disrespect to us mightily to heart For this you know is another cause which he is pleased to assign why the men of the world are angry with them The Saints and people of God do not regard the men of the World and the men of the World they think so Now for high and lofty men to be slighted and not regarded this makes them angry For which he cites Dan 3. and then repeats it They cannot bear this that they should not be regarded high and great men that they should not be regarded and therefore no wonder there is such a great deal of wrath and anger in their hearts against the people of God But let him repeat it as oft as he will tell him from me that it moves us not at all to want their regard for we do not think our selves honoured by their Esteem and Respect It is rather a reproach than an honour to be commended and praised by such mouths as value a composed countenance and a Sett of phrases more than the most composed and regular life and the best sense in the world Let them slight us therefore so much if they list as not to move their Hat or give us the time of the day or turn their face another way when they chance to meet us it is all one we shall have never the worse opinion of our selves or of our Worship We do not think them so able to judg of true worth or to discern between true and false good and bad as to concern our selves about their Opinion these being almost the same thing now adays and though all undertake to judg yet few know the difference We have something else also to support us than their favourable opinion of us and that is a sincere care with unblassed affections to search after the Will of God and a readiness to receive and do it whensoever we know it Let him bring us Reasons in stead of confident assertions and see if we will not studiously consider them and if they be good yield to them He spoke admirably who said that our Reason ought to yeild obedience to nothing but Reason and that Authority is a yoke which none but God hath a right to impose upon our judgments If God say it that 's reason enough but we shall never be perswaded that they only hear or understand what he sayes Let them talk as if they had not only slept in our Saviour's Bosom as a Gentleman I remember sometime said but even watch't in his heart and soul and as if there were none of his intentions hid from their knowledg They will never gain the greater credit with us unless we see more than words and confidence No though they should not only contemn and scorn us as altogether ignorant in the things of God but pronounce Anathema's and Curses against us as the limbs of the Apocalyptick Beast Heaven we know laughs them to scorn and we shall smile at their ridiculous presumption The Wolves we know will never be reconciled with the Shepherds flock and when we have done all that we can there will be an Envious and Malitious Generation who like the Rats and other imperfect Creatures which it is possible were bred in the Ark it self will still be gnawing the reputation even of the best Church in the World Every thing under Heaven is abused yea and what Heaven it self hath spoken is not safe from Injury and Violence and therefore why should we look to have a general respect or be cast down or angry either at the neglect of these men or if they please their Contempt and Reproach N. C. You say you are not angry but methinks you are in a great heat C. Not at their slighting us I assure you N. C. What then C. I told you that I professed a just indignation at some
Sottishness of the People that will be still cosened by such like Canters Will you never open your eyes and see how vain their pretences to the Spirit are Will you never be convinc'd of their presumptuous Boastings and empty Confidence Will you still believe that these men are highly illuminated who call that darkness which a little while ago was light and then cross themselves again and say no it is but Darkness Are these the men whom we must all follow who run we see in an endless round of contradicting their own Professions or must we shut our eyes and give them our hand that they may lead us whither they please Must we forget all that is past and believe they are now possest with an infallible Spirit This is the thing no doubt they desire We must resign our belief to their Declarations We must allow all their Reasons and Excuses whatsoever they be We must at least suffer them to justifie themselves by those very things which they formerly condemn'd and say nere a word And then we love them then we favour the people of God then they have some hopes of us and it 's possible God may have mercy on us though we be out of the way and do not follow them I know you will say that such as you are none of the Army-Saints that you condemn their Practices and hate their leud pretences to Religion as a great scandal to it All which I verily believe But let me tell you the Army had a copy set them of unconstancy and double dealing by those men whom you admired For there was a time when the Lords and Commons could see some good in the Liturgy and Government of the Church by Law established Nay more than that they made a Declaration * April 9. 1642. caused it to be printed and published in all Market Towns That they would take away nothing in the one or the other but what should be evil and justly offensive or at least unnecessary and burdensome And yet when they had more power they were of another mind Every thing was offensive at least unnecessary and burdensome nothing would serve but taking away all the Common-Prayer and plucking up Episcopacy by the very roots The reason I suppose was because this became as necessary to promote their Designs in process of time as that Declaration was at the beginning If they had rested there and gone no farther they had lost the hearts of the most spiritual who would never have seen such a glorious anointing upon them from the Lord Beam of Light by Ch. Feak as now appeared Now they very fifth kingdom men could not but see it and acknowledge it in Print though it was not long before they also chang'd like all the rest and had lost the sight of this glory being able to spy no Vnction any where but upon themselves For they helpt to profane the Crown of these annointed ones and cast out the greatest part of them as if they were but scum and filth But I think it 's best to trace your windings and turnings no further for fear they lead us too far out of the way N. C. A good Resolution Too much of one thing you know is good for nothing C. True And I think the first thing I said about your pretences of a tacit Indulgence is sufficient to shew that you are perfectly like men in danger of drowning who catch hold indifferently of what comes next to hand be it a naked Sword or an hot Iron N. C. Pray make an end of this for you have quite tired me with your Discourse In which you have largely proved the truth of the common talk that you are of a barsh nay a bitter and jeering Spirit and was in a cholerick mood when you wrote your Book C. Rather they that say so prove what I have been saying all this time that they blow hot and cold out of the same mouth and condemn that in others which they allow nay praise in themselves For you shall hear them call that Salt and Smartness of wit in one whom they love which is Bitterness and jeering in him whom they hate And that passes for innocent Mirth and Pleasantness in one of their party which is Levity and Frothiness in one of ours Nay it is Zeal for God and his cause if you aggravate the faults of other men or rashly charge and bring even a false Accusation against your Betters but it is malignity of Spirit hatred of God and the power of Godliness if we do but tell a plain and true story of your miscarriages No man ever opposed you resolutely but you said he rail'd No man discovered your Partiality and other vices but you complain'd of his Bitterness and said he was in a rage against you If by this you meant nothing else but that I write with some heat and earnestness I would confess it and say it is not to be condemn'd For who can contend coldly and without affection about those things which he holds dear and precious A Politick person indeed may write from his brain as my Lord Bacon I think observes without any touch or sense on his heart as in a speculation that pertains not to him But a Feeling Christian will express in his words a Character either of Zeal or Love which you know are warm Passions For my part I think I have expressed both but nothing at all of wrath and bitterness And therefore as to that censure which your Friends pass on me I believe he will speak a great deal truer that affirms the Authors of it were full of choller themselves Otherwaies they could not but have discern'd a charitable spirit in my writing and easily seen that the Indignation I expressed against some vices is such as consists with Christian Meekness and ought not to be condemn'd as an unmanly Passion Do you not find that Moses was very wroth when Israel committed a great sin and yet his Meekness is commended above all other mens And what think you of St. Paul when he calls the Galatians a foolish sort of people and plainly tells the Corinthians that he could as well use a Rod as the Spirit of Meekness and bids Titus whom a little before he warn'd against rash anger to rebuke some persons sharply Nay what think you of our Saviour himself was not he angry at the hardness of the Jews heart Mark 3.5 Was he in any fault when he said to his Disciples O fools and slow of heart to believe Undoubtedly I may sincerely and heartily love you when I express a just Indignation against you and you may as heartily hate me when you seem very gentle and kindly affected toward me It is possible you may have met with this saying out of St. Austin which is ordinarily cited by our Writers and worth your consideration It is so far from being true that every one that is angry with others bates them that sometimes he who is
whensoever you see these things come to pass as he tells you when you see the Witnesses have power to restrain the highest powers in Church and State from their wonted influence and that they have power to turn the still Nations into war and so they themselves are slain for the present then you may lift up your heads and comfortably say Now is our Salvation near For God will bring near his righteousness and his Salvation shall not tarry N. C. God forbid I should thus understand his Revelations Truly it would make me hang down my head If I thought any such things were now a brewing I hope for Salvation in another way and had rather it would tarry than be thus accomplished C. Take it as you will these things are near if he may be believed and will not tarry The influence of the Higher powers he imagines I conceive are already very much restrain'd There wants nothing but the troubling of the quiet and still people that they may restrain them more powerfully and that may soon be effected if his doctrine be received N. C. He says no such thing C. Not in express words he is wiser than so but it 's the plain sense of his Discourse For he tells you the 1260 years of their prophesying in sackcloth began about the year 400. and therefore surely the end of the time we must needs be about as his words are p. 114. Now if you mark what they are to do toward the end of the time you will see it as plain as the nose on my face that he thinks we must needs be about the time of shutting the Heavens and turning the waters into blood N. C. We are past the time my good Friend for if we add 1260. to 400. the year when they ended their prophesie was 1660. O how glad I am that he was mistaken I hope we shall have no wars nor tumults and that God will open these mens eyes to see their errors since no powers were then restrain'd but those that would have kept the King from his throne to which he was restored in that happy year C. You are an honest hearted man I see which makes you less suspect the craft of others There 's one word in his discourse which you do not observe viz. thereabout That salves the business and serves him for a little while For he tells you the 1260. years might begin in 406. or 410. after our Saviours Birth If you take the former number then the prophesying in sackcloth ended in 1666. the year when they expected such great matters that some confidently cryed to the people out of the Pulpits before they left them Be patient for 1666. will make a mends for all But it failing their expectation and producing nothing according to their mind that 's the reason I conceive why he hath since that put in the year 410. for the beginning of the years 1260. and so adjourns us for their ending to 1670. which is now approaching Then no doubt he fancies the Witnesses must be slain when they have first troubled us and after three years and a half rise again For he asks his people p. 115. If Christs Witnesses shall lie in sackcloth 1260. years will not you be contented to be in sackcloth three or four years Christians will you not be contented to be in sackcloth three or four years And in the next page after tells them Why now according to the calculation there is not much time to come There is but a little time of sackcloth to come Shall we not watch with him one hour and wear sackcloth with him one hour Wait a while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry And then he tells them they shall wear white robes and come out with Palmes in their hands that is the kingdom shall become theirs and they shall reign and triumph over us N. C. He doth not apply these things to us in this Nation as you seem to understand him C. He tells us indeed p. 124. That he will not apply them to times and places But those words are only a gross equivocation which he must be very thick-scull'd who doth not discern for he had done it already Having told his Hearers than they were Christs Witnesses and that now they were in a sackcloth condition as his phrase is but that it would not last long and that before it was ended they should have power to restrain the higher powers and trouble the people What need he tell them more It is enough I make no question to make them lift up their heads as he oft exhorts them and bear them very high as being likely in short time to have Dominion over us And I cannot for my life but look upon them as satiating their fancies with the imagination of this day of vengeance Methinks I see them to use the words of a famous Writer against our Church and State in another case like a man who in the drought observes the Skie sitting and watching when any thing will drop that may solace them with the likeness of a punishment from heaven upon us which they streight explain as they please No evil can befall us but presently they positively interpret it a judgment upon us for their sakes and as if the very Manuscript of Gods Judgments had been delivered to their Custody and Exposition they make the people believe that the Witnesses are smiting the earth with plagues and finishing their testimony against us But thanks be to God their Reading declares it abundantly to be a false Copy which they use For to speak in his words again they often dispense to their own bad deeds and successes the testimony of Divine favour and to the good deeds and successes of other men Divins wrath and vengeance And besides they have abused the people so oft with their false Predictions from these and other Prophesies that I hope the world will see these are false Witnesses if I may use the words of David to a different sense that are risen up against us breathing forth cruelty who behold lying Visions and prophecy out of their own hearts whose thoughts are thoughts of iniquity as the Prophet Isaiah speaks wasting and destruction are in their paths And I would to God you for your part would seriously consider to use his words once more that to counterfeit the hand of God is the boldest of all forgeries and that he who without any warrant but his own surmise takes upon him perpetually to unsold the secrets and unsearchable Mysteries of high Providence is likely for the most part to mistake and slander them and approaches to the madness of those reprobate thoughts that would wrest the sword of justice out of Gods hand and imploy it more justly in their own conceit It is but a small thing for such men as these to grasp at all power here on earth when we see them doing little less than laying hands on the Weapons of God
Heaven that it rain not is the power to hold all tidings of forgiveness mercy and peace from the Antichristian Gentiles i. e. such as We while they continue such and declaring them a people to whom no Heaven no Forgiveness belongs while in that condition i. e. while we oppose your desires You may read this p. 70. p. 73. N. C. Enough of this I see their Vanity plainly C. Nay let me tell you a little more for fear you should forget all this and shut your eyes again About two year after this Prophet another who will not name himself arose and dedicated a Book to the parliament with this Title The great Mystery of God or the Vision of the Evening and the Morning Opened Printed 1645. In which he tells us the two Houses of the Lords and Commons are the two Witnesses which the Spirit of Christ foretold should be raised up to Heaven the high place of Justice and Judicature For though all the people of God were Witnesses for 1260 years yet they in a more especial manner because they were not only to protest against Antichrist but were that judgment which should sit and take his Kingdom and Dominion from him raised to Heaven by the power of Christ for that end 7. Dan. 26. * For the Ruin of mystical Babilon he tells you in his Title page and erecting the Spiritual Jerusalem were the ground of our Commotions which were not to cease till by that Parliament the work was so compleated that Christ in and by his Sts. should raign on earth a 1000. years And therefore he is very confident that our Lord reckoned the 1260. years from the year 375. So that the time of the Witnesses prophesying in Sackcloth ended 1635. Then they were slain i. e. deprived of their civil power if they spoke any thing against the Pope and Prelates and those three Gentlemen mention'd before he tells us were a lively Emblem of the rest But then between 1638. and 1639. the Spirit of God entred into the hearts and Spirits of the Godly party both in England and Scotland as he did into Cyrus and they took all the power and strength they had to free themselves from that dead and slavish condition whereinto Antichrist had brought them And a great fear fell upon all the Antichristian party both in England and Scotland yea such if you will believe him was the terror of their appearance at Rome it self And then presently they heard a voice from Heaven i e. the place of Judicature saying come up hither i.e. that Wise Godly men would ascend now to those places to do justice upon Antichrist This Voice was heard first from the whole Commons in Scotland in whom mind it well for it's rare Doctrine all the power that is in Heaven did originally reside ☜ and afterwards in England both from the whole Common-wealth likewise from the King himself who sate in Heaven And they ascended to Heaven i.e. to the high places of Judicature the same time 1639. in Scotland and afterward here in this Kingdom For the rest of the godly were with Child with this great Truth that the Lord Jesus in and by his Saints was to rule all nations with a rod of Iron Which is spoken of he saith 12. Rev. 1. c. And they cryed and travail'd in pain to God by humble and servent Prayers and to his Witnesses which sate in Heaven by humble petitions from the year of Christ 1639. to 1641. That the Lord Christ that man-child v.p. 5. p. 26. might in and by his Saints rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron Whereupon the great Red Dragon i. e. the Popish Lords and Prelates bestirred themselves to devour this man-child as soon as it was born but the people of God bestirr'd themselves both to God by Prayer and to the godly party in Parliament that these Popish Lords and Prelates might be cast out And these Petitions and prayers were heard of Christ and his Witnesses 12. Rev. 5. And so the Church did not only bring forth the Man-child of Government mark that for it tells you some Presbyterians taught that all power was originally in the People but it was likewise received up to God and his Throne into the high place of Judicature But the Dragon with his tail drew a third part of the Parliament to fall off at the same time and likewise a war was raised between the Dragon and his Angels i. e. the King and his Followers and the Lord Jesus and his Witnesses sitting in Parliament In short he tells you that what was done here should be done in all other Kingdoms in the year 1655. When Christ and his Witnesses should take the power of all the Ten Kingdoms which Antichrist had into their hands and should raign Yet so that there should be some little reliques of Antichrist in the hearts of men till the year 1700. Then the New Jerusalem he assures you shall be built and the Lamb be married to his Church and Antichrist cast not only out of the World but out of the hearts of men These are some of the goodly Dreams or Visions call them which you please of your Divines heretofore And no doubt they were then as much believed as Mr. B's Predictions are now Who if he live to see himself deceived will be able it 's like to invent some new beginning for the 1260. years and you will still be so foolish as to give him credit unless these things convince you of the madness of the Prophet But if he be at a loss and think such a blind creature as I can give him notice of any thing he sees not already I may help him at a dead lift and direct him to a Book where he shall find relief All my fear is that he will give me little thanks for my pains because it will make his heart sick to hear his hope is like to be so long deferr'd For after these Writers I have mention'd Mr. Tho. Parker of New-England printed a Book about these things The Visions and Prophec of Dan. opened 1646. in which he layes down two wayes of accommodating the years If they begin when there were but dark and weak beginnings of the signs mentioned that was he thinks in the year 390. and so the 1260. years end with 1649. Then the Turks will cease to be loosed and the next year after they may begin to fall together with the Pope if this way of accommodation hold If it do not then we must stay a great while For the more evident open and perfect state of the things foregoing was not till the year 600. and so no shutting of the Heavens no turning the water into bloud at least no putting off their sackcloth which Mr. B. now expects till the year 1859. N. C. Stop Sir I beseech you once more For I think you have told me too much of this stuff C. The last man speaks modestly and
by forbearance all this while they have fretted like a Gangrene into the Bowels both of City and Country And I fear we have kept their Counsels so long that many of them are already past cure and we almost remediless in our rents tending unto Ruin Narration of some Church Courses in New England by W. R. p. 51. Nay do not frown as if I were too sharp and severe They are not my words but some of your own against the Independent Brethren and may with as much or more justice be now applied to you all N. C. I think there are other courses more dangerous than those that ought to be lookt after Prophaneness I mean is the great thing which both you and we ought to set our selves against and that I must tell you abounds more among you than any where else C. I cannot tell N. C. What cannot you tell Whether prophaneness should be opposed by both with the greatest Vigour C. Be not so fierce First I cannot tell whether Prophaneness abound more now than it did in the days when you reigned I told you the last time what the Assembly told the Parliament of the sudden growth of wickedness since they began to sit And I am sure it was not checkt in the following years but the seasonable exhortation of the greatest part of the London Ministers complained no longer ago than 1660. of the great Wickedness broken loose among us which it seems was chained and bound up while the Bishops governed and as a great instance of it tell us in the conclusion of that sad Lamentation that some as we are credibly inform'd are grown to that height of wickedness as to worship the Devil himself p. 10. And then secondly I cannot tell whether the Wickedness that hath so much abounded beyond that in Elder days be not in great part to be imputed to your selves For all the time you declaimed against the Ignorance and blindness of the people you cast many fearful stumbling-blocks before them as an honest Suffolk-man told you some years agone while they could not but see or hear your scornful censuring and condemning others greedy panting after and gasping at the Riches Honors Mournfull Complaint to the Knights and Burgesses of that County 1656. and Preferments of this World fraudulent circumventing and over-reaching your Neighbours cruel revenge upon those you judged your Enemies when you had power bitter quarrelling and contending one against another and yet notwithstanding all those sins which might have justly caused you to lye in the Dust they saw you lifted up boasting of the glorious times you had made proudly appropriating to your selves the honourable name of Christians Saints and the godly Party Nay the people were not so blind but they could see how you measured the Saint-ship of your selves and others rather by some private opinions or small punctilio's of worship than by the great things of Faith Righteousness and Mercy For they found some men whose profession of Christianity was attended with these accounted no better than civil men while others were cryed up for Saints and Godly who were much deficient in them Besides your Ministers took no care to Catechise the youth in the Country Nay brought that Ordinance into such Contempt that to this very day a man is not thought to do his Duty who spends the afternoons of the Lords day in that instruction They heard nothing but Orations in the Pulpit morning and evening and those God knows very sorry ones in most places As for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper a great many honest-hearted people were frighted from it You made such lofty Rails as he observes about the Table that few or none of the poor people could come at it As if you thought it a matter of great piety to confine the Members of Christs Body to a little room and cause his Death and Passion to be known and remembred only by a few As if it were an honour to Christ and an advantage to the world that his name and memorial should perish from the hearts and mouths of a great part of the people professing his Name and ingaged in Covenant to him Nay in many places they never saw it administred to any at all for many years Your Ministers chusing rather to deprive themselves and others of whom they had a good opinion of this Heavenly Banquet than afford it to many well-meaning though no talking people And so while they complained of their living in known sins they themselves lived many years in a notorious omission of this Duty Sometimes indeed they would invite men to this feast but then by their preaching they hindred and discourag'd the most if not all in a Country-congregation as if they were too forward to acknowledg the benefits of Christ and keep up his remembrance In short many of them accounted the people no better than Heathens and upon that score would not baptize their children and thereby indeavoured to make them so and quite thrust them out of the flock of Christ O that you would all search your hearts as that honest man said to find out the true root of this Spirit of Separation and observe narrowly whether under other specious pretences or with some pious intentions there were not a bitter root of pride and haughtiness causing you to affect singularity and desire to appear alone to the view of men thinking it below your worth to be found in Communion with those whom in opinion you have laid so much below your selves But let that be as it will Thirdly I cannot readily tell which are worse the Publicans and Harlots or the Scribes and Pharisees This I know that there have a long time been a great many of the last who justified themselves and lookt upon all others as abominable Dr. Burges * Fire of the Sanct. uncov an 1625. in the preface I remember tells us with a great confidence that those who kept heretofore such a frantick coyle about ceremonies and thought they never took their level right but when at every bolt they shot they struck a Bishops cap sheire off his head were more fantastical Ignorant Proud self-willed negligent and deceitful in their particular callings than many whom they despised and condemn'd to hell for Carnal men As any observing Eye might easily discern Now what to think of these men in compare with the other let honest Martin Bucer tell you who was one of the first Reformers and whose name I know you cannot but reverence as well as I on many accounts N. C. How do you know what Martin Bucer saith C. I understand a little Latin and besides I have seen the latter part of his Comments on the Prophet Zephaniah translated into our tongue where he tells us towards the Conclusion That there were some among them under a pernicious Mistake abhorring only these gross things to wear brave clothes to fare deliciously to drink and swill to whore to heap up riches carefully to
things more particularly to see the Scripture so wretchedly abused wrested even in this very case to justify their Separation and with-drawing from us N. C. You mean I believe that to the Corinthians cited by Mr. Bridge Come out from among them and be ye separate 2 Pag. 166. touch no unclean thing 2 Cor. 6.17 C. Yes N. C. And doth it not require us to have no Communion with the wicked of which your Congregations we think are full C. But do you think then we are all Pagans and Infidels i. e. such people as do not so much as acknowledg Jesus Christ to be the Lord N. C. God forbid C. Then you apply those words impertinently to us as you do the rest of the Scriptures who are nothing like those from whom the Apostle would have the Corinthians withdraw It is an exceeding great shame that you have been so long turning over the Bible and talking of the word of God and yet not understand so plain a thing as this You seem to me to be like those the Apostle speaks of in another Epistle who are ever learning but never come to the knowledg of the Truth Nay you are like little children that tear and rend their Book into little scraps or like those imperfect creatures I spoke of before you nibble at a bit of the Scripture and instantly start away and leave all the rest Could you not have cast your eye back but to the 14. verse There you might have seen who they are the Apostle speaks of Be ye not unequally yoked together with Infidels saith he i. e. Either do not marry an infidel or do not joyn with them in any of their rites belonging to their Idolatrous service Be not at their Idol feasts the thing he admonisht them of in the former Epistle and touches upon here again as some think lest they should not be cautious enough in this particular For the Apostle having told them an Idol was nothing they might hold these festival entertainments to be indifferent things and so when their kinsfolk or friends invited them not deny that Civility to accompany them to their Temples Stay says the Apostle consider what you do What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness c. these things are as contrary as Light and Darkness you cannot partake of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devils too as he told them in his first letter And then he renews his Exhortation Come out from among them and be ye separate from those Idolatrous Infidels touch no unclean thing meddle not with their Idolatrous services nor any of their wicked ways You would be more assured that this is the sense if you would but turn to the place from whence these words are cited as the Margin directs you Isa 52.11 where the Prophet bids not the more holy sort of Jews to separate from their prophane Brethren but the whole Body of the Jews to flye out of Babylon as any body may see that reads the place And therefore they cannot be urged without a notorious force to prove such a separation as you are in of one part of a society professing belief in Christ and baptized into his name and renouncing all Idols whatsoever from the other And so Mr. Geree I remember a discreet Presbyterian confessed and explained the words to the same purpose that I do And so did a noted person long before him * Arin 1610. Mr. Rich. Bernard plain evidence p. 140 141 c. and far more largely in his dispute against the Brownists For I must tell you those old Separatists condemned by all honest Nonconformists in former times sought to justifie their Schism from the Church of Christ from this very place and the very truth is so did the Ancient Donatists Who to make a fair shew for their fearful Schism cryed out just as you do now Come out from among them touch no unclean thing Depart depart Separate your selves Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness Be not partakers of other mens sins What hath the Chaff to do with the Wheat which are the very words now Ignorantly imployed by your Party against us with as little knowledg of their sense and meaning as of their being the rotten Tools wherewith those Schismaticks sought to overthrow the whole Church N.C. How come you by more knowledg than other folk in this matter Can you tell what the Donatists said C. Yes without reading St. Austin For I can believe an old English Divine who lived above half an Age since that acquainted me with this and shewed withall that those proud people had the same answer to this place from that Father Mr. G. Gyffard plain Declaration that our Brownists are full Donatists p. 19. An. 1590. which I have now given you These words saith he They understanding carnally have cut themselves into so many divisions into little bits in this Africa alone For they do not understand that no man is joyned with Infidels but he that commits the sins of Pagans or else doth favour those that do such things c. And who hath fellowship with darkness but he that by the darkness of his consent forsaking Christ doth follow Belial Who puts his part with Insidels but he which is partaker of that Infidelity For that way he ceaseth to be the Temple of God neither otherways doth he joyn himself to Idols N. C. I am convinced of this But may we not gather by proportion that we ought to separate from the wicked sort of Christians though it be not here intended C. Hear what Mr. John Geree answers to this No. Resolution of 10 Cases 1644. All that can be inferred is that we should avoid needless familiarity with the wicked and all s ciety in sin To keep them from the Sacrament if we can But if it be not in our Power not to omit the Sacrament because they partake of it In which he followed the resolution of St. Austin who immediately after the words before mentioned adds these as my Author tells me B. 2. against Parmen cap. 18. And they which are the Temples of the living God and in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation appear as lights in the world having the word of life nothing doth infect them which they tolerate for Vnities sake nor are they pent up in any straight because God doth dwell in them and walk in them And they depart in the mean time out of the evil and are separate at least in heart lest haply while they would separate by the sedition of Schism they should rather be spiritually separated from the good than carporally from the bad This old Divine also admonishes us very well out of the same Father that when the multitude of the Assemblies of the Church are free from that crime to which Excommunication is denounced it is very healthful and because so many avoid him he will be stricken with fear and healed through