by the Word of God and the holy Scripture as the noble Bereans did Now whatsoever was written was written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the world are come and therefore as it was the errour of the Israelites that they received things barely upon report without consulting with the mouth of God and as it was the honour and praise of those noble Bereans that they searched the Scriptures to see whether the preaching of Paul were according to the holy Scripture so if we shall receive these new borne truths these new lights these new ways without consulting with the living Oracles we shall offend as the Israelites did in beleeving the Gibeonites upon their words and shall degenerate and be unlike to those the renowned Bereans who would not receive Paul's doctrine though an Apostle without searching the Scriptures whether things were so or no as he taught them and surely now much more ought we to try all things by the Word in these erroneous times whosoever they be that preach them unto us and if they be not evidently proved unto us out of the Scriptures we may not admit of them for it will be not only a sin but for our immortall shame to be deluded with novelties much more then it was our ancestors disgrace to be deceived by pretended antiquities And therefore it is the duty of every Christian seriously to consider with themselves that these are matters of God and concerne no lesse then our eternall welfare and in thâ—â— regard we may not call mens ways Gods ways but we are to seek for the old ways Jer. 6 we are to examine Christs and his holy Apostles ways in gathering of Churches and making of Members and it we find no footstep in all Gods Word of these new ways we ought to relinquish them and turn again into the pathes that God hath commanded us to walk in wherein we shall be sure to find rest for our souls and comfort in life and death and it will be no disgrace to any to be undeceived for they are deceived and that greatly and dangerously that think or beleeve that any men mortall can shew or teach a better way to Heaven or set down a better way of converting souls and of gathering of Churches and making of Members and of setting up Christ as King upon his Throne than that which Christ himself and his blessed Apostles have taught and set down to all posterity and from the which rule we ought not to swerve though an Angel from Heaven should teach us otherwise Galatians 1. ver 8. 9. When therefore the Ministers of the Church of England follow Christs and his Apostles way and method in their teaching and for the converting of men and hear only the voyce of Christ their King and the Christian Beleevers through the Kingdome under their Ministeries do all faithfully cleave unto the written Word and square both their faith and obedience according to that rule there is no just cause why the Independents should proclame them all enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and such as oppose his royalty and preach up themselves and their congregations as the onely people of God and his Saints and account all those that dissent from them as opposers of Christs government telling the people in their Sermons that they come over from beyond the seas thinking that they would have set up Christ upon his Throne and that they would have embraced him for their King and would have established his government and have gone on in a church-way and have set up the ways of God but they find it otherwiise that they deny disclaime and preach against Christs Kingly government and persecute the wayes of the Lord Christ so that they can find more favour from moderate Papists and common Protestants than from them by which their dealing say the Brethren they have so taken off the edge of Gods peoples affection from them that the Saints and servants of God cannot pray for them proclaiming themselves the Saints and people of God as if all the other beleevers through the Kingdome dissenting from them in their opinions were no Saints nor people of God Nay they affirme it in their Pulpits and in every Pamphlet that both Ministers and people are enemies of Iesus Christ and his Kingdome and all such as will not joyne with them in their new wayes And one of them not long since affirmed unto me that the church of England was a Strumpet and an arrant Whore and that shee being once a Whore could never be presented unto Christ as a chaste Spouse which was an expression not onely uncivill and unbeseeming a christian but untrue also for grant shee had beene so shee is now come out of Babylon and has entred into a publicke covenant against her and we reade of Judah and Samaria howsoever they had defiled themselves and played the Harlots yet upon their unfained repentance and true faith in Iesus Christ and renewing their covenant publickly of new obedience were presented unto Christ as a chaste Spouse so that what is impossible with man is possible with God But this is the generall opinion of the brethren and howsoever they will not all of them speake it out in plaine words as some of them doe yet they preach and practise a separation from all our assemblies and congregations as from a people not to bee communicated with and declare that by their deeds which they will not as yet publish in their writings nor in expresse words as hee did And one of the Independent Ministers not long since denouncing Gods judgements against all those that would not assent unto their new wayes nor light their candles at their new lights nor embrace their new-borne truths told them that by their standing out against the wayes of God for so they suppose these are and by their unkind usage of the Saints and persecuting of them they would at last drive from amongst them the praying people meaning themselves as if no other prayed but they onely and then they might looke that the judgements of God would speedily come downe upon them as it hapned to the Lutherans in Maydenburge in Germany who thrust out all the Calvinists out of their Towne a praying people and immediatly after the enemy came upon them with fire and sword and destroyed them all With these and such like expressions are their preachments stuffed and to say the truth of many of their Sermons they are like Taylors cushions consisting of a hundred severall shreds of various colours all independent making a fine shew but comely no where but in a Taylors shop and surely such kind of expressions as these are may beseeme their Pulpits but no grave and learned honest ministers for they have no just cause to complaine of persecution amongst us it is a calumny neither deale they christianly with us to accuse us that wee oppose the wayes of God for we doe not so we onely contend for the faith
same word is used Matth. 19. 5. For this cause saith our Saviour shall a man leave father and mother and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall cleave to his wife Now saith he we know that a man cleaves to his wife by a covenant and therefore why not so to the Church If he had said why not so unto Christ he had said something to the purpose for we are married onely unto Christ and not to the Church knowing that the Church is Christs Spouse and Christ is the Churches Husband and we are married unto Christ and not to the Church and one to another neither did any Christian yet ever deny but that all those that would be joyned unto Christ and so be received into his house and family and be subjects of his Kingdom they must take the oath of Allegeance unto their King Christ and therefore must enter into his house which is his Church by the covenant of Baptism this I say all men accord unto when men are first admitted into the Church And this covenant I say all that will be Christs Disciples and of his Kingdom and Family must take before they can be admitted But that they should after they are baptized enter into another particular explicite covenant and by that binde themselves to the Church I affirm there is neither precept nor president for it in all the holy Scripture either of the old or new Testament neither is there any such mystery in the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to imploy so much for we know the same word is used in the eighth Chapter of the Acts verse 29. Where the Spirit said to Philip go neer and joyn thy self to this Chariot Where the word joyn in the original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the which word Philip did not understand that he must joyn himself to the Eunuchs chariot by a particular explicite covenant No more ought any wise man to conceive that when Paul assayed to joyn himself to the Disciples that by that he would have taken a particular explicite covenant of Church fellowship This is nothing else but to beg the question and to amuse the simple and to deceive them by taintering the words of Scripture and stretching them beyong their native signification to make them fit for their occasions that they may juggle the better to delude the poor people which is a great wickednesse in these men thus to trisle about words till they loose the Truth which is the substance to the destroying of their poor souls The truth is that word is often used in the holy Scripture and is used metaphorically as being taken from Joyners and crafts men that joyn many things together by Glew And â—o ordinary discourse it intimates a close joyning whether natural as a branch to the Vine or an arm to the Body or artificial as when two sticks are joyned to become one in Ezekiels hand Ezek. 37. As when Masons joyn stones together or Carpenters timber to make a house But that this word joyn should alwayes imploy a particular explicite covenant to any Church or Congregation when any man takes on him a new relation to it and is made a member of it I affirm there is not one example of it in all the Word of God and as for any command that every member of a Church should do it there is none And therefore it is a meer Will-worship and one of their own Traditions and ought to be abandoned of all Christs Disciples and with so much the more detestation because they make it one of Gods Ordinances and part of his Service and Worship and the very form of a Church whereas it is a batch of their own leven by which they have of late much sowred the Truth But as I said before so I say now again that Christians are to swear fealty onely to their King and Lord Christ Jesus who is their husband and who is the onely Master of his own House and Church and whose voice is onely to be heard and whose Laws are onely to be obeyed and listned unto we swear no allegiance or fealty to the Church for we are all his servants domesticks and have no authority one over another to impose Laws upon each other or to enter in to any covenants amongst our selves without a special command from Christ And as when Stewards of Princes or Noblemen take any in to their masters families they swear them onely to their lords and masters we never hear that the servants enter into any covenant among themselves or joyn or unite themselves in covenant one to cleave unto another Such proceedings amongst servants would never be allowed or tolerated amongst men it would be thought rather a conspiracy or a confederation to do mischeif if they should attempt such a thing As when those men enterd in to a covenant amongst themselves that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul yea it hath ever been observed in all countreys That when servants began once to combine together and to joyn themselves by secret covenants they have alwayes plotted mischeif and therefore there hath been special care used to prevent such conspiracies And all men may well perceive by this their covenanting in their new gathered Churches what it tends to if God of his infinite goodnesse prevents not their designe Therefore I say we being Christs domesticks and his Church and being his house and he being the onely Lord of it and our King we are to smite our covenant onely with him and to swear fealty and obedience to him onely and his Laws and we are not to be the servants of men 1 Cor. 7. And therefore the Lord saith in Malachi the first If I be a father where is my reverence if I be a Lord where is my honor How is it that ye obey me not We are onely therefore to obey his voice and not to regard the traditions of men or to serve God after the commandments of men Now then when the Independents impose this their covenant upon the people as a part of Gods worship and will not admit of any into their new Churches without entering in to this conspiracy I say by all their proceedings in as much as in them lies they dis-throne Christ in preferring their own laws before his wherein they commit a detestable wickednesse And this shâ—ll serve to have spake concerning the fourth quere And now I come to the fifth of womens votes whether they are to be admitted in elections To which my Brother Burton thus replies Page 15. We saith he tie not the keys to womens girdles And I. S. page 19. But as for this of womens voting in the Church saith he we have no such custome nor any of the Churches of God that I know Thus he For answer to both my Brother Burton and I. S. I say thus much That they cannot be ignorant of the practice of the Churches in many of which and those the
scandalous so that if ever there were in any Churches a just cause of making a separation it was then and yet the Apostles bid not the Christians separate themselves from the communion and assemblies of the Saints and from the Ordinances for these mens causes but onely that they should looke unto themselves and examine their owne consciences that they may not offend and so make themselves unworthy of the holy things and gives them power to cast out the prophane but no way tolerates them to separate onely hee bids them not be familiar with such as walke disorderly that by this meanes they might learne to amend their lives and tels them of what judgements have alwayes happened to such as were wicked and bids them by their example to take heed how they provoke God by the like as it is at large set down in the tenth chapter and commands them to make no separation but from Idolaters and Infidels and so likewise in his Epistle to the Galatians he says for his own particular he could wish that they that troubled them were cut off yet he biddeth not the Galatians to separate themselvs into Independent congregations Nothing of all such things were taught before these dayes that true beleevers and the faithfull servants of God should separate from the Assemblies of their Brethren every way as dearly beloved of God as themselves and such as with the twelve Tribes of Israel serve their God night and day and would suffer any thing for the Gospell and that anv Christians I say should make separation from the fellowship of such or that such should be accounted as enâ—mies of Christ it was never heard of before our times by which their so dealing they have made the greatest schism in the Church that was ever yet made to the scandall of our holy profession I have been ever taught in Gods holy Word that those faithfull Ministers that preached Jesus Christ and him crucified and opened the eyes of the blind and turned them from darkenesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance amongst them that are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ and taught the people that they should repent and turne to God and doe workes meet for repentance and that instructed all men that they being delivered out of the hands of their enemies they should serve God without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of their life and teaching them that the grace of God bringing salvation hath appeared to all men for this very end that they should deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God of our Saviour Iesus Christ who gave himselfe for us that hee might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes I say I have beene ever taught by Gods Holy Word to beleeve that those Ministers that instruct the people to doe all these things and where the people by faith imbrace and receive this doctrine are the true Ministers of Iesus Christ those congregations under them the church of Iesus Christ and of his sheepfold and that Christ in all such congregations is set up as King in his Throne as who rules in the hearts of his people and the which are swayed and guided by the Scepter of his Word and Spirit and deserve none of those contumelious languages the brethren asperse both Ministers and people with Of the Ministers they thus speak and print That they deny disclaim and preach against Christs Kingly government over mens consciences and Churches so that such a conversion as is wrought by them comes not home to whole Christ and such with their converters do deny Christs Kingly government or at least and best they are converted but in part and that main thing is wanting to wit Christs Kingly office and of all the people and Christian beleevers through the Kingdome that are not in their congregations and new gathered Assemblies they speak and print thus We say the brethren the Independent Ministers exhort them to set up Christ King in their hearts We exhort them to become and professe to be those Saints of whom Christ is King for he is King of Saints Revel 15. 3. but they will not beleeve us say they they will not depend upon Christ as the onely Law giver and King over their consciences Now what would you have us to do in this case say they baptize the Infants of such Parents as will not in this respect professe nor confesse Christ to be their King Why do you not know say they that no Infants have any title to Baptism that are not within the Covenant visibly and how are they within the Covenant visibly but by vertue of their Parents faith outwardly professed and what outward profession of faith is there in the Parents that refuse Christ for their onely King that are ashamed or afraid to professe to be in Covenant with Christ as their King if therefore the Parents professe not yea refuse thus to be in visible Covenant can the children be said to be in visible Covenant and so to have a right in Baptism the externall seal of the covenant here is an obex a barre put These are their own words which I have set down at large the summe of them briefly is this that all the Ministers of the church of England that are not of their fraternity do deny disclaime and preach against Christs Kingly Government over mens consciences and churches and that all the people under their Ministery are men unconverted or at least converted but in part wanting the main thing to wit Christs Kingly office men visibly out of the Covenant of grace who have not so much as an outward profession of faith who deny Christ to be their King to whose persons and infants the very Sacraments and seales of grace with all church communion may and ought to be denyed Another of the Independents amongst many of the contumelious and disgracefull speeches hee uttereth out against the Ministers of the church of England calling them the blackcoats in the Synod who he is afraid will prove more cruell Taskmasters than their Fathers the Bishops who cowardly sit at home and in his apprehension for no other end but to breed faction and division amongst the well affected to the Parliament promoting their own interest which saith he is lazinesse pride covetousnesse and domination and amongst many such expressions as these hee proclaimes them the sworne enemies of Iesus Christ and desiring that the Parliament may be put in mind of their Covenant for he thinkes they have sworne to root out Popery he tels them they have established Tythes the very root and support of Popery which he doth humbly conceive is a contradiction to their Covenant and which will be a greater snare
What their Ministers have done since I know not but I well perceive it is as great a difficuly for a poore man to get into some of their congregations as to get into Suttons-Hospitall and that I conceive to be the onely occasion that makes some walke so long in many congregations before they come to be admitted members for if they be rich they are speedily received nay invited to be Members It is too well knowne that many godly and holy people have left their native countrey and transported themselves over into New England where this government is set up onely that they might enjoy the Ordinances there in their purity they were beleevers before they went and were baptized and such as were knowne before they went thither to be the deare servants of God but when they come there especially if they be poore they make them walke some a yeare some more yea some six or seven before they can be admitted Members of their Congregations and they baptize none of those children that are borne there before their Parents be joyned Members and except they will in all things conforme themselves to their owne conditions they shall never be admitted And some time the man onely is admitted and his wife left out still to walke and some time the wife is admitted and the man left out still to walke and both these notwithstanding are beleevers and baptized and after with a great deale of difficulty they are admitted to be Members a very small offence will be sufficient to cast them out againe if they be poore But for stories of this nature I doe not love to multiply them but I have heard many of this kind from those places and from such as have beene in New-England and men both then and now no way evilly affected either to the place or people serving God there But it is too notorious they lord it there over Gods poor Clergies in the superlative degree and every man that hath but eyes in his head may see it here in England in their congregations what difference they make between the rich and poor and that they have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons a sinne in Saint James his time highly blamed in Christians James 2. And as in their carriage towards the poor they are very lofty and look for great observance and attendance from them wheresoever they come so likewise a little thing will displease them if they speak a word amisse it is enough to be cast out of the Congregation presidents of this nature might be brought many And if all this be not to lord it over Gods Clergies I know not what it is to admit of none though beleevers and already baptized but such as will come in upon their own termes and keep out the poor either altogether or as long as pleaseth them without any other reason but because they are poor and cast them out again upon every slender occasion I say if all this be not a most diabolicall tyranny and lording it over Gods Clergies I referre it to any moderate man to judge of and if to unchurch all Churches but their own and at one blast to proclame them all enemies of Christ and his Kingdome and to deny all Church-fellowship with them be not more than a Diotrephian Prelâ—ticall and Papall Authority there was never any in the world and if this be not to lord it over Gods Clergies there was never any known Now I say if the Independent Presbyters do so timely begin their absolute lording of it what would they do if their government were established by authority Their Ministery and government is farre different from that of Christ and his holy Prophets and Apostles for they invited all the poor to come in and to buy milk yea to come in and buy milk without money Isaiah 55 〈◊〉 and Saint Paul for the encouraging of the poor to come in â—aith not many mighty not many noble but the meane and contemptible things hath the Lord made choyce of intimating unto the poore that they have as good right to Heaven as the greatest and chiefest and our Saviour Christ saith come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and ye shall find rest unto your soules Our Saviour hath no respect of persons but the poor are with him as acceptable as the rich if they be weary and heavy laden with their sinnes for that is all the condition that Christ requires in all that desire to be admitted Members of his Church Now when these Presbyters already make so great difference between the poor and the rich and between beleevers and beleevers as they will admit none but at their own times and upon their own conditions I do conceive that this is a most tyrannically lording it over Gods Clergies and Inheritance which when they dayly do it and the Presbyters of the Church of England do it not it is most apparent that their rule and domination is more prelaticall and more to be feared than that of the Presbyters of the Church of England for from the Independent Presbyters they can never expect any appeal for releife and redresse whatsoever wrong or injury they have sustained by them and therefore there is no just cause why any should so traduce the Presbytery of the Church of England as to think they will lord it over the people from whom they may ever expect farre better measure than ever they can from the Independent Presbytery which if it should once be established would tend to nothing else but to enslave the whole Kingdome and to bring in a confusion upon both Church and State But now it will not be amisse before the conclusion as we have compared the Presbyters of the Church of England with the Presbyters Independent both in regard of their doctrine and discipline so now likewise here to paragonate them together in their proceedings for the advancement of Christs Kingdome that all men may see in that regard also which of their endeavours tend most to the advancement of the Kingdome of Jesus Christ and which of them ought to be preferred before other and which of them doth more really and truly tend not onely to Gods glory but to the peace also of the Church and State For the Presbyters of the Church of England they 〈◊〉 and endeavour as there is but one body one spirit one hope one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father over over all who is above all and through all and one true Christian Religion Eph. 4. so that this onely may be established through the three Kingdomes and that all erroneous ways of worshipping and serving God and that tends to lead men to perdition and make disturbance in Church and State may not publikely be tolerated The Independents on the contrary both publikely and privately and in all their bitter railing and intolerable Pamphlets as that of the Compassionate Samaritan the Storming of Antichrist and that
dayes at her first comming to the Crown when there was a mighty Popish faction in the Court and through the whole Realm as all men know and when there was as great an indeavour for the bringing in of a toleration of that Religion as now there is for the setting up a Pantheon of all manner of Sects And such reasons there were then given for the establishing of the Catholique Religion as they called it as I beleeve if they should all be rehearsed there is few of those that now plead for a toleration of all can give the like but better I am most confident they cannon give For if multitudes of a contrary opinion armed with strength power also and they all furnished with malice and resolution to put them upon the imployment of their strength had been able to create danger to the Kingdome if the liberty of their consciences should have been denyed unto them then there was nothing wanting to terrifie a State to condescend to grant a toleration but all this could not then prevail nor all the art of perswasion they then used as that men of a contrary judgement were rather to be won with sweetnesse and lenity and loving perswasions and arguments and reasons then by any coercive way which often brought danger unto Kingdoms many arguments more with great worldly wisdom were then produced which with many that were reall Protestants and then in â—ouncel seemed of some weight but at that time there was a brave Nobleman present and a man of great understanding and as they usually call such a great Statesman but yet such an one as was never taken notice of to be any great zealot for Religion on either side Yet he demanding of the Councell that was then in debate about this businesse the greatest part of which seemed to make profession of the Protestant Religion and something incline to yeeld unto a toleration whether or no they thought the Protestant Religion was the true Religion and that way of serving God that he had appointed and the most of them replyed that they from their hearts and souls beleeved that it was Gods Religion and that which was taught in the holy Scriptures Then said this Nobleman my Lords set up and establish that Religion only and no other do you your duty and labour to authorize it and your life for mine God will help you to maintain his own honour and cause against what power and policy soever shall come against you for he can infatuate their counsell and enervate their strength and blast all their attempts in a moment who is all-sufficient and against whom no counsell nor understanding can prevail for he sitteth in Heaven and doth whatsoever he pleaseth for as there is no Lord or Master that can indure any servant that shall comply with his enemies give equall honour and service to his adversary that he doth to himself or connive at any so doing so God will never like of your service when you worship him if ye serve the devill also which you must do if you set up any other Religion or any other Religion or any other way of Church Government in the Kingdome then that you beleeve in your hearts God himselfe hath appointed for as two Religions so contrary one to another are incompitible with the glory and honour of God who hath said No man can serve two Masters so they will be destructive to the safety of the Kingdome And therefore my Lords saith he as we have but one God so I beseech your honours let us have but one Religion in the Kingdome and one kinde of Church Government amongst us and that ratified and established by authority for if their be a liberty left for every man or every faction to do what they please we shall speedily bring down the judgements of God upon the Kingdome and a confusion upon us all And many reasons more he gave to this purpose by which he so prevailed with the Councell that they agreed to give no toleration for Popery or allow of any faction in Religion but resolved with all speed to establish the Protestant Religion And truly the same argument may now be used for the establishing of one Religion and one kinde of Govrnment And as Elijah said to Baals Priests and to the people If God be God then follow him c. So if this way of worshipping God that is held forth in the Protestant Churches and hath for some generations been taught in the Church of England be that way then it will be for the honour and glory of God and the safety of the Kingdome that that onely be established which will bring peace to Church and State and take away all occasions of offence and jarrs amongst brethren For the examples of Poland Transsylvania and Holland they are no presidents to other Nations their politique proceedings are no examples for other Christian Countries and Kingdoms to follow for Christians are to live by the rule of GODS Word and Christ's their Kings laws and to follow the examples of his own people onely in their wel-doing and not in their failings and therefore we are to follow the example of Abraham Joshua Elias and the other Patriarchs Prophets and holy Apostles who never tolerated all Religions Yea we are commanded in Romans 12. Not to conform our selves to this world but that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may prove what iâ— the good and the acceptable and perfect will of God This Will of God therefore must be the rule and square that we must ever set before our eyes and hearts in matters of our God and in points of Religion and worship and not the example ot Poland and Transsilvania Now let us heare what is the good will and pleasure of Christ our Law-giver concerning this point of toleration who challengeth and that of all due and right to be our Master saying Matth. 23. 8. Be not yee called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and againe verse 10. neither be ye called Masters saith he for one is your Master even Christ this reiterating of the same prohibition and challenge to be our Master shewes that wee are not to make either men or Angels or whole Kingdomes or Countries our Masters but onely Christ we must alwayes therefore in matters of Religion have recourse unto his good word and will and heare his voice and therefore let us heare what the will of Christ is concerning this busines of Toleration who in in the 8. of Mark 15. speaking there unto his Disciples and in them to all Christians for the Independent Masters hold that the Disciples represented the whole Christian Church he charged them saying take heed and beware of the leven of the Pharisees and of the leven of Herod here wee find a treble caveat a Charge and a Take-heed and a Beware as if the Lord had said I cannot use too many words to make them take heed
put to silence the ignorance of foolish men The old Puritans of England had fully learned this Lesson of obedience to all authority both civill and Ecclesiasticall being commanded to obey them that have the rule over them and to submit themselves unto them as who watched over their soules as those that were to give account c. Hebr. 13. 17. and this doctrine they did inculcate incessantly unto the people and for the government Ecclesiâ—sticall the old Puritans of England did beleeve it was that Presbyterian Government that is now contended for by all the Presbyterians as is to be seene at large in the learned Workes of that ever to be honoured Master Cartwright in his disputations against Bishop Whitgift who for his zeale to that government was called the Father of all the Puritans They also did beleeve that all government both Ecclesiasticall and Civill was radically originally and inherently in God and Christ and from them derived to the Kings Princes Nobles and Iudges of the earth and to all the true Ministers of the Gospel in his Church who all have their authorities immediatly from God and by whom alone according to the Holy Scripture they rule and command they never durst be so blasphemous as to rob God of his honour and glory and the Kings Nobles and Judges of the earth and the Ministers of the Gospel of their severall powers saying that Kings and Nobles and the Rulers of the earth and Ministers in Christs Church and Kingdome were the creatures of the people and that the people were the soveraigne Lord both of Kings Nobles Parliaments and Ministers and that the authority which they exercised was inherently in the people and that they might give it and deposite it into whose hands they pleased and where they lusted and call any of their Rulers and Governours to an account and appoint them their times and seasons when they should meet and tell them what they should doe and displace them at pleasure as they shall thinke fit all these Lessons of Blasphemy the old Puritans of England were ignorant of which learned nescience of theirs is commendable They had beene better taught from all the Holy Prophets and blessed Apostles who both by precept and example have instructed the people of God in all ages to yeeld obedience to those that were Governors over them as wee may reade through all the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament where we find what reverence even Father Abraham the Father of the faithfull shewed unto all Kings under whose government he lived in the time of his Peregrination and where wee reade also what reverence Ioseph yeelded unto Pharaoh and how Iacob his Father demeaned himselfe with all the Patriarks to Pharaoh and those that were over them in authority and how Ieremiah behaved himselfe to the King in his time and how the three Children and Daniel carried themselves to the very Kings of Babylon though heathen Princes never speaking unto them nor comming before them but with all reverence deprecating all evil from them upon all occasions praying for their welfare yea Christs example ought to be for our imitation who opened not his mouth the same we find in all the Apostles whensoever they were brought before authority with what sweetnesse of language they carried themselves towards them and what reverent expressions they used to all in authority though never so wicked when they were brought before them yea if they had fayled but in the least expression how soone they would recall themselves for when Ananias commanded them that stood by Paul to smite him on the mouth Act. 23. and he in passion beholding his injustice said God shall smite thee thou painted wall when it was replyed unto him revilest thou Gods High Priest Paul stands not upon the justification of his words but meekly answers I wist not brethren that it was the High Priest for it is written saith he Exod. 22. 27. thou shalt not speake evill of the Ruler of the people Paul had learned his Lesson well and soone recollected himselfe acknowledging his error that he had deviated from the rule which is there recorded for all mens imitation in after times to the end of the world to square their lives and obedience by they are not by that to speake evill of the Ruler of the people whether he be Ecclesiasticall or civill and if they may not speake evill then they may not resist their authority and unihilate their power which is the extremity of evill and rebellion yea all men are forbid so much as in their Bed-chamber to curse or think evil of those in authority how much more are those then blame worthy that not only think evill but speak evill yea write and publish evill against Kings Nobles and Judges of all sorts both civill and Ecclesiasticall and divest them all of their authority speaking evill of Dignities and assuming the Soveraignty of them all to themselves that from God himâ—elfe calling themselves the soveraigne Lords of them all giving them Lawes to rule by and denying them their due reverence in the face of the Kingdome as lately some of the Independents and Sectariâ—s have done both to the House of Lords and Commons Surely such mens damnation sleeps not whatsoever they pretend and how highly soever they carry themselves and by whom soever in these their evill doings they are supported backed and seconded For Saint Peter in his second Epistle that knew very well the mind of God concerning such men in the second chapter saith this of all the wicked verse 9 10 11 12. c. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished but chiefly them that walke after the flesh and despise Dominion and Government whom hee cals presumptuous selfe-willed that are not afraid to speake evill of Dignities which the very Angels saith hee though they were greater in power and might would not doe against the Devill being in authority though it were usurped but those as naturall brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed speake evill of things they understand not and shall utterly perish in their owne corruption and shall receive the reward of unrighteousnesse Here is a fearfull Doome pronounced against all such people as spake evill of Dignities and Saint Iude likewise in his Epistle seconds Saint Peter verse 8 9 10 c. calling such men as despise authority and speake evill of Dignities filthy Dreamers and compares them to brute beasts and unto Cain and unto Balaam and unto Corah Dathan and Abiram pronouncing woe unto them all and proclaiming them spots and deformities in all companies and societies calling them moreover clouds without water creatures empty of all goodnesse trees whose fruit withereth yea without fruit twice dead here in this world in their sinnes and trespasses and eternally in the world to come and as if hee could never have spake enough of such men as
revile us and we have Christs example for it who said Father forgive them they know not what they do speaking of those that persecuted him which Saint Stephen imitating said Lord lay not this sin to their charge supplicating likewise for his enemies And so Saint Paul prayed for all those that forsook him when he appeared before Nero. Now when the Independents and Sectaries transgresse thus against precept upon précept and against the example of all the holy Prophets and Christ himselfe and his blessed Apostles and Martyrs and dayly by these their practices fight against God himselfe and are in every thing so unlike the old Puritans of England it is manifest that they have not outgrown them in this point of duty and that the way of Independency is not the way of righteousnesse but the way of error and open rebellion against God so that those glorious titles they assume unto themselves of being the onely holy and praying people and the Saints and but the old Puritans of England overgrown do not belong unto the Independents and Sectaries when they are so like the devill in all their practices For it is sufficiently known can be abundantly proved that many of the Independents Sectaries wil neither pray with the Presbyterians nor for them no nor for King and Parliament nor for the Assembly nor for the Scots yea if need be it can be proved that they have prayed and that publickly against them all yea their dayly Pamphlets witnesse what good affection they have towards them all whose chiefe imployment it is except it be now and then by the way of slattery when they coaks the Parliament a little to gain their favour that by their party in the house they may do the more mischiefe against the Presbyterians I say except it be at such a nick of time the whole imployment of all the Sectaries generally is abominably to abuse them and to raile and revile both the House of LORDS and COMMONS and the Assembly and the Scots and the City and for the King they cannot hear of his very name with patience I can say thus much of them and men also of good rank and reputation that I never have heard more reviling speeches in my life against any men then they have uttered in my hearing and in the audience of many and that at the Parliament door affirming openly that they were more tyrannicall then either Strafford or the Prelate and greater persecutors then those of the High Commission Court and this was the general language of all the Sectaries through the Kingdome within this twelve Moneths indeed since the recruiting of the House and since by that means they have strengthned their party and they have of late shewed lesse favour to the Presbytery and the City they have not been altogether publickly so boysterous in their expressions yet notwithstanding privately amongst themselves they can speak daggers both against many worthy Members in the House of Commons and against many of the Lords and against the City and against the Scots and especially against the Assembly all the which they traduce at pleasure with most of the proceedings of the House of Commons if at least they do not humor them to their desires and designes yea many of their printed Pamphlets can witnesse for me that I wrong them not and amongst others those that were writ by John Lilburne who is but the mouth of the rest who dares speak out what the other Sectaries dare but mutter and therefore he is adored and exceedingly animated and countenanced by them all and superlatively cryed up as the onely man of courage and animosity amongst all those of that fraternitie and he makes all the Lords but Prerogative and King creatures and the very House of Commons but the creature of the people who may call them to an account when they please and therefore for all their flatterie in their Petition it highly concerns the Great Councel and the whole kingdom timely to look into their proceedings their clandestine machinations lest that in recruting of the Parliament they doe so strengthen their faction that in fine they destroy not only the Parliament it selfe but the whole Kindome and make themselves soveraigne Lords indeed as they pretend they are over both the King and Parliament and all the people and so become really our Lords and Masters so that whereas formerly this nation was called the Popes and Prelates Asses we may now justly be called and termed the Independents Mules a monstrous brood indeed for it is sufficiently knowne and can be proved and that by good witnesse that it is their maxime that the Saints only ought to rule the world and to have the sword in their hand aud they prove this their Doctrine out of the 149. Psame where the Prophet saith v. 5 6 7. c. Let the Saints be jeyfull in glory let them sing abroad upon their beds let the high prayses of God be in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hand to execute vengeanee upon the Heathen and punishments upon the people to bind their Kings with chaines and their Nobles with fetters of Iron to execute upon them the judgement written this honour have all his Saints prayse yee the Lord. Upon this place of Holy Scripture they ground their opinion that the Saints only ought to rule the Earth now they account none Saints but themselves and all the Presbyterians enemies of Jesus Christ yea they have beene heard say when they are amongst themselves where they may speake freely that they see no reason why the Saints may not compell any nation by the sword to come under obedience to Christs Kingdome So that howsoever they challenge liberty of conscience now saying that conscience is a tender thing and that it ought not be forced yet if they but once get the day they will give no toleration I beleeve to any Presbyterians yea I am most assured had but the Parliament voted for Independency as they did for the Presbyterie they would have found Scripture enough then by which they would have proved that the Christian Magistrate might have forced any to come under obedience to Christs yoake and then the example of Nehemiah would have beene exceedingly urged by them all who seeking a through Reformation would not suffer so much as the language of Ashdod to be spoke within his jurisdiction but constrained them all to imbrace the true Religion and sweare by God that is to set up Gods true worship this example of Nehemiah I am confident would have beene urged and that eagerly by them all who at their first comming over from their pretended banishment I meane the Homothumadon Brethren and those of New-England as long as they had any hopes of setting up their Independency were very frequently heard speake of a through Reformation and alwayes commend noble Nehemiah for his zeale that hee would not suffer any false worship in Ierusalem but since they perceive their
seeing I have upon this occasion began to compare the old Puritans of England with the Independents and Sectaries who their Predicants assert are but the old Puritans over-growne that is Christians in all respects transcending them in all duties of piety and godlinesse and in all offices of Love and Charity towards others and in the whole frame of their lives and conversations and for their uprightnesse and honesty in their dealings and for their sincerity in all their actions and for their moderation in the temperate use of all the creatures and for their humble walking towards others I shall briefly here set downe the practices of the old Puritans concerning some of these particulars and parallel them with the proceedings of the Independents and Sectaries of our times It is sufficiently knowne that the old Puritans of England ever loved and honoured all the Orthodox faithfull painefull and diligent Preachers of the Word of God through the Land whether Conformists or non-Conformists and they never thought they could yeeld them reverence enough and were willing at any time to the uttermost of their abilities to relieve and supply them with all necessary accomodations for the support of themselves and their Families and they were so farre from taking from them any thing or hindring them of their dues either in respect of honour or maintenance that they would run and ride in their behalfe for the maintaining of their reputations and livelyhoods and if at any time they had beene oppressed by the power and tyrannie of the Prelates in any Court or by any wicked enemies of the Church they had the assistance and ever the good word of the old Puritans and their prayers and their purses to support them and sustaine both them and their Families they were never knowne to desert them or to give them an ill word and this was the carriage of the old Puritans of England towards their godly and painfull Ministers of all sorts and they never favoured any hereticall and schismaticall Teachers and this was that way of Righteousnesse they walked in Now if we looke upon the practices of the Independents and Sectaries they are chiefest enemies of all the painefull and godly Ministers through the Kingdome and the only friends of all Seducers schismaticall and hereticall Preachers so that it is well knowne they doe not only reproach and abuse them in words calling them Baals Priests the limbs of Antichrist and the Devils Ministers and a thousand such ignominious names but so persecute them in word and deeds that they cannot safely dwell by them where there is any number of the Sectaries yea there is scarce a Committee through the Kingdome where they have not persecuted their most faithfull Ministers yea it is their chiefe designe to take away their Tythes from them and to deprive them of their Livings by which they should support themselvs and their poor Families and they have made the lives of many of them so irkesome unto them and so wearied them with their calumnies and carriage towards them that though they highly honoured them before they turned Sectaries yet after that they became their mortall enemies and for no other reason but that they continued still to preach those orthodox doctrines they had formerly taught inveighed against the dangerous and blasphemous opinions that were now preached up every where by the Seducers of these times for this cause alone and for no other ground they have wearied many of them out of their very lives and forced others to leave their places of their habitations many presidents of this kind I could produce but one I cannot but instance and that is of one Master Beton of Rye in Sussex a most painefull orthodox and laborious Preacher and a man of no small fame as well for his godly life and diligence in his Ministry as for his singular knowledge in Hebrew and all the orientall tongues and yet this man every way so unblameable and accomplished did the Sectaries joyning with all the Malignants of that place drive from his habitation there The ful story of that particular businesse would make a pretty larg book which would sad the hearts of all such as are truly godly to hear that any that pretend unto Christian Religion should practise so contrary unto all Christian principles and the practice of the old Puritans of ENGLAND and yet what those Sectaries of Rye with their complices have done against that godly and learned Minister is generally practiced by all the other Sectaries and Independents through the Kingdome as can sufficiently be proved who generally implacably hate those that they have formerly loved and have still a cause to honour as who next under God have been a means of their conversion if ever they were really converted So that in these their proceedings they are not the old Puritans of ENGLAND overgrown which walked in the way of righteousnesse in honouring their faithfull Ministers according to Gods command 1 Thess 5. and Heb. 13. Which way the Independents do not walk in but in the contrary way of malice and hatred towards them as all their practices proclame Therefore inthis respect also the way of Independency is not the way of Righteousnesse And as for their charity and practice of love and their integrity and sincere dealing towards their brethren the old Puritans of ENGLAND were famous for their reâ—dinesse to pleasure them in any thing who would at any time ride â—un or go to do any neighbour that dwelt peaceably by them a good turn yea though they differed some thing from them in judgement whereas it can be proved that the Independents will take great and dangerous journeys to do any of their Presbyterian brethen mâ—â—chiâ—fe to defame and traduce them and to hinder their preferment yea and they will do it to such also as they seem to be very loving and shew an outward kindnesse to And yet at that very infrant of time they most faune upon them they will fearfully betray them yea it is well known that some of the Independents have betrayed their own fathers their masters their most familiar friends and acquaintance after they have turned from the Tresbyterian way to that faction especially they use exceedingly to hate such as they professed greatly to love if they have found them rigid as they speak or unmoveable in their Religion and would not connive at their Independent wayes I could say much upon my own experience how many of the Sectaries seemed not a little to honour me and spake as well of me as of any man living before they saw they could not prevaile with me to be of their mind nor to favour them in their erroneous opinions but as soon as they perceived that I was immoveable in my resolution their love turned into implacable hatred as it is well known And I am confident there might be thousands of presidents produced of the like nature many of which I know yea I may truly say this
two sconses and bulwarks of the same viz. The first that there were many congregations and assemblies of believers in the church of Jerusalem The second that all those severall congregations and assemblies were churches properly so called which when it comes to the main battell will be fully made good and withall it will be maintained that all those severall congregations made all of them but one Church and were all of them combined together and subordinate to one Presbytery that is to a Colledg of Presbyters who by Gods own appointment had the rule over them committed to them in common by all which the doctrine of the Congregationall way is utterly overthrown whose tenent and opinion it is that every Congregation of beleevers be it greater or smaller ought to be a distinct Church or body by it self exercising all Church power and authority within it self Independent and ought not to have reference or relation to any other church or congregation for matter of government no farther then pleaseth themselves and this they affirme to be Gods Ordinance and Constitution whereas in the Church at Ierusalem the Mother-church there were innumerable Congregations and Assemblies of beleevers and yet all of them made up but one Church For those severall congregations as the Burtonian Independents do affirme were but branches of that one entire Church these are their words By all which it now appeareth that it is Gods Ordinance and his Appointment that many congregations combined together in any city or vicinity within some Precinct should all of them within that jurisdiction make up but one Church and be under a Colledg of Presbyters to be governed by them in common which is indeed a meer ecclesiasticall Corporation and therefore this kind of government might without any offence or diviation from the holy Word of God be compared by me to any civill Corporation as that of London or the like For though I. S. and my brother Burton spend much time and many words to no purpose about my simile yet it will stand for ever immoveable and serve to all intelligible Christians for that very end I propound it viz. to declare the state of the question yea by I. S. his own words pag the fourth of his Pamphlet it is authorized for he there after much babble thus expresseth himself concerning this point when saith he we know the true nature of spirituall things of the devices of God as I may call them we may find a resemblance of them in things here below which are made after them but we cannot fetch the knowledg of heavenly composures from these earthly things Thus J. S. speaks there So that I having from the holy Word of God and from the constitution of the Church at Jerusalem the first true formed Church and originall Church found out the true nature of that spirituall and ecclesiasticall government that heavenly composure and that device of God as he grollishly calleth it it was then no sin in me in I. S. his opinion to find a resemblance of it in things below And therefore both he himselfe and my brother Burton might have saved all that labour they needlesly spent about that simile which will ever stand good against whatsoever they shall be able to say against it for the elucidating and cleering of the point of difference between the Presbyterians and the Independents which was the onely end I made use of it for and there fore all the pudder they made about that simile was but to beat the aire and to vent their own vanity But from all this dispute that I may now speak something concerning Nationall Churches which the Independents deny I farther gather That if many hundred Congregations being combined together under one Presbytery in any great City or Vicinity within any large Jurisdiction may all of them make up but one Church within that Precinct and may take its name or denomination from the City or place in which it is I see no reason why a thousand Parishes yea ten thousand all of them imbracing the Gospell and making profession of the true Christian Religion in what Kingdome Nation Province Country or Commonwealth soever they be may not all of them in those severall Countries being all of them combined together and under some grand Presbyteries take their severall names and denominations either from those respective nations or languages and be called either the Greek Church or the Hebrew Church or the Latin Church or the French Church or the Dutch Church c. or be called the Church of England Scotland Ireland or or such a Provinciall Church or such a Nationall Church I say I see no reason why if all those severall Nations coming in at the sound of the Gospel and all of them giving up their names to the profession of the Christian faith may not as well from those severall Nations take the name of the Church from the Nation as they may take it from Jerusalem or from any other City as that of Corinth Ephesus c. and so become Nationall churches I desire therefore any man to give me a good and solid reason to the contrary for this I am sure of that it was promised unto Abraham that he should be a Father of many Nations which he was not in respect of his naturall posterity for he was onely in that regard a Father of the Hebrews who challenged Abraham to be their Father and therefore it must necessarily be in respect of their faith and spirituall parentage in that they are all of them his children in regard of their common faith and beleif in the Messiah whose day Abraham by faith saw and rejoyced in it which all the Nations of beleevers do and therefore they likewise in that respect are called the children sons and daughters of Abraham and may therefore be truly called Nationall Churches which all the Independents with my brother Burton and I. S. deny for Christ is called the light of the Gentiles yea there are many glorious promises concerning the calling of the Nations and Gentiles as that in Isaiah 19. ver 23 24. where it is said In that day shall there be a highway out of Aegypt to Assyria and the Assyrian shall come into Aegypt and the Aegyptian into Assyria and the Aegyptians shall serve with the Assyrians In that day shall Israel be the third with Aegypt and with Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the Land Here all these three Nations are called three sister Churches if we mark the coherence And for farther proof of Nationall Churches under the Gospell it is said Isaiah 55. 5. Thou shalt call a Nation which thou knowest not and Nations which knew not thee shall run unto thee which words are spake of Christ under the Gospell in the which is set down both Gods Call of a Nation and the Nations Answer to that Call and there can be no more required to make a Church And it is prophecyed of Gospell times Psal 22. 27.
And all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship before thee And Psal 72. it is said All Kings shall fall down before him and all Nations shall serve him And Psal 86. 9. All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy name Innumerable places to this purpose might be produced for the proving of Nationall Churches for all Nations are Christs by donation Psal 2. 8. Ask of me saith the Lord speaking to Christ and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Yea they are his by conquest who hath vanquished the strong man and disarmed him and vindicated the Nations into his own possession yea they are his by purchase also viz. all the elect of them for he hath redeemed them with his precious blood 1 Pet. 1. Acts 20. Yea they are his by call for he sent his Apostles into all nations to invite them to come in Matth. 28. Marke 16. And many of them obeyed the call and are his by covenant as we may see it Revel 11. v. 15. where it is said The Kingdomes of this world are become the Kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall raigne for ever and ever And Paul in the 11. of the ROM speaking unto all the Gentiles in as much as he was the Apostle of the Gentiles saith ver 17. That some of the naturall branches being broken off the Gentiles which were the wilde Olive tree were graffed in amongst them and with them did partake of the root and fatnesse of the Olive tree So that now all the Nations were equall in priviledges with the Jews in all respects so that as that was a nationall Church so are they and yet all make but one Church for there is but one shepherd and one sheep fold one Church consisting of Jews and Gentiles now as the Church of the Jews is said to be but one Nationall church because all the tribes in that Family or Nation and all the visible and publike assemblies of the same being parts of the catholicke church and living under one ecclesiasticall and civill government were by the profession of the same faith and fellowship and communion of the same worship and government united into one body ecclesiastick or ecclesiastical commonwealth So for ought I know all those Kingdomes Nations Countries and Provinces that shall imbrace the Gospel as I said before and come under the government of Jesus Christ the great high Priest and King of his church which was typified by the legall high Priest and the Kings of Judah and do yeeld obedience unto him and that government he hath appointed in his church may all of them being joyned in a particular consociation and community in any country Nation or Province or Kingdome receive their denomination from the several countries nations in which they are For the Church eatholick being an homogenial and similar body retains the name of church into what cities countries nations or Kingdomes soever it be divided into for as those many Congregations in the Church at Ierusalem made all of them but one church within its precincts and had its name from thence so may the many Parishes and Villages which being met together in their severall bounds in the profession of the same Christian faith make but one Church being all of them through that countrie combined together under one government both Ecclesiasticall and civill for as for the division of the nations it is not to be considered meerly as an humane and politicke Ordinance as many conceive and therefore would make Provinciall Churches and Parish Churches a humane invention for in the 32. of Deut. v. 8. it is said there when the most high divided to the nations their inheritance so that God was the Author of this division and gave their severall names unto them and set all their bounds and limits yea he hath set the bounds of every man as it is sufficiently proved by the Apostle Acts 17. where hee saith verse 26. that God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitations so that the division of the whole world into divers nations and those nations into severall Provinces and Counties and those counties into so many hundreds and Wapentakes or Rapes or Tribes and all these into so many severall Parishes is said to be Gods owne appointment for he is said to have divided the nations tohave set them their bounds and therefore I can conceive no reason why Parish Churches amongst us may not as well be accounted Gods Ordinance as Parish Synagogues amongst the Iewes and why citie Churches amongst us may not as well be Gods Ordinance now as it was then for so by divine institution they were then in the Apostles times esteemed and it is well knowne that in New-England all their severall Townes as that of Plymouth Bostorne Cambridge c. have all their bounds and limits prescribed unto them and all the people within that precinct and no farther that submit themselves to that their government are said to be Members of each severall Church and of no other and yet all this is as much politick as the division of our Parishes and Cities and those Churches constituted by the Apostles in every citie village and countrey were as much politick as ours and yet are called Gods Ordinances and truly I know no good reason why our parish churches should not farre rather and with farre greater reason be of divine institution then those churches of the congregationall way for it is well knowne that all the Members in our severall Parishes dwell within such and such limits and for the most part are all well and familiarly knowne one to an other and every weeke once at least see all one an others faces and can daily meet together for to watch over one another whereas those of the congregationall way dwell many of them twenty miles one from another and some threescore miles one from another and all for the most part a great distance one from another scattered here and there so that they cannot possibly one watch over an other as is pretended and behold one an others conversation for that is impossible and therefore for my particular I know that the parochiall or parishionall assembling of themselves together for the injoying of the Ordinances hath presidents for it in holy Writ and that many both in cities and villages but wee have not one president of such congregations as are now in our new Churches in all the whole Booke of God and therefore I conclude that all our parochiall meetings are farre more of divine institution and Churches properly so called then the Assemblies of the congregationall way And by the same
SCOTLAND then we should be abundantly thankfull to God and to the Parliament and we would rest satisfied for ever This to my knowledge was the language of all the Independents and all that I now say can be proved by a cloud of witnesses Now I desire all men to take notice how these men are satisfied with that Reformation which they so ambitiously desired and that is now established amongst us when God and the Parliament hath granted them all they could or did then desire and crave for they are yet as unsatisfied and as covetous for more things as that Doctor was of more money and so for ought I can conceive no state in the world will ever be able to satisfie their vast and unlimited wishes I may truly say of them that an unthankfuller generation both to God and authority never appeared in the world then these Sectaries are but withall I shall ever beleeve that their Teachers and Itinerary Predicants have been the principallest cause of all their unsatisfiednesse and of all their destractions and especially those Homothumadon brethren those fugitives that ran into Holland and New-England that cowardly left the cause and since have brought over their New Lights here amongst us to the darkning of the truth it selfe and disordering of all things and hindring of Reformation for they chiefly and those that have followed those ignes fatuos that they set up have occasioned these miserable distractions and divisions that are now every where through the Land which if they be not speedily lookt unto will bring desolation upon the three Kingdomes all the which giddy-headed unstable men I can compare to nothing more fitly then to the Turkish Drums Trumpets and Whissels and that in two respects They that have read but the History of the holy War shall find that when the Christian Princes went up to fight for the Sepulcher that many thousands of them found graves there for themselves which happened unto them not from any want of valour in the Christian Army but by the disordering of their ranks and files which gave occasion to the Saracens and those barbarous people to break in upon them and to cut off many thousands of them which disorder happened unto them upon this occasion The European horses being onely acquainted with the warlike musick of their own holy Army never having heard so much as the very sound either of the Turkish drums trumpets or whiffels those unsanctified instruments when the Christians and Infidels came to joyn battell and that the Armies approached one to another the Turkish drums trumpets and whiffels made such a barbarous noise in the European horses eares that they were so scared and affrighted that they began to run like madd and brake through all their own ranks and files and so disordered the whole Army that it was a thousand to one they had not been all cut apieces at the first encounter And even after the same manner have the Homothumadon brethren and all their disciples those their I tinerary Tub men like so many drums trumpets and whiffels with their barbarous noises out of their severall Tubs in the ears of poor creatures both men and women that were acquainted with no such musick as is exercised by those of this new militia as that of the Congregationall way and Church fellowship and the Church way and the way of the Saints and of new Lights and new borne Truths and of the great things of eternity which come only out of the womb of God and from between his leggs from Gods immediate hand by providence not to be explained just as a lot c. For these with many such are the noises they have now made in the ears of the poor silly creatures that they have made them all run madd to the disordering of all things and disturbing of the whole Christian Army that might by the power of God if we had been well ordered without these divisions and distractions they have made amongst us been able to have encountred with the whole host of Antichrist but there is this difference onely between the Turkish drums and whiffels and these our whiffellers that they onely scared a few horses and made them madd but these have made men and women madd amongst us with these their new and barbarous sounds of those their new wayes and this is the first thing wherein they are like the Turkish drumms and whiffels Now as those Turkish instruments though they made a terrible noise yet there was nothing in them but wind and ventosity so these our whiffellers Tubmen for the most part if they be but looked into there is nothing in them but meer vapour and frothy windiness which they spread blow abroad in the ears of simple creatures perswading them that the Presbyterians will be more tyrannicall and lordly then ever the Prelates were and that they are an Antichristian brood the sons of Belial the enemies of Iesus Christ and his Kingdome and that the people ought not nor cannot lawfully hear them or read any thing they write or publish to the world perswading them that all they write or preach tendeth to nothing but the disthroning of Christ the setting him up as a Pageant King but indeed all their indeavour is but while they cry hail Master to crucifie him as the wicked Jews did and with such uncouth barbarous noises as these they have put the people generally into such a heat fury and distemper against all the Presbyterians as they have deterred many thousands from so much as hearing them or coming into their presence yea if at any time any of them but accidentally happen into their company they find them more barbarous towards them then the very Turks were toward many Christians even when they had them at their mercy and I am confident were the Presbyterians at their mercy they would find lesse courtesie from them then from the very Saricens and I have very good grounds for this my perswasion from that insolent behaviour I my selfe have seen them exercise towards all sorts of Presbyterians but principally towards the Ministers whō they affront often and that in an unseemly manner in the very Churches whiles they are in their Ministery and when they go and passe along the streets and when they passe but through the Towns where there are any store or company of them for they cannot ride by any of them without some reproachfull calumny or other or without some uncivil behaviour which would not be tolerated in very barbarous Nations And as for my selfe it is well known that neither mywife nor my poor children can passe quietly by the streets for them without some contumelious disgracefull language from them and for my own particular though I never wronged them I can truly say and can also prove it that I have and that often after they heard I differed from them in opinion suffered such inhumanity from many of them as scarce ever any man did from
Truly if ever the Scripture were fulfilled in any age of the world it is now fulfilled in these our times there being not any part in this whole description of those dangerous seducers that doth not in every branch of it agree with the Seducers and Sectaries of ours the most dangerous times in that regard that ever were in the world And therefore it concerns all men that desire the peace of Zion and the welfare of their own souls to take heed of them all least they be found fighters against God for we have precept upon precept to this very end given by all his holy Prophets Christ and his blessed Apostles to shun them and Saint John in his second Epistle v. 10 11. saith there speaking to all Christians If there come any unto you that bring not the doctrine of Christ entertain him not into your house neither bid him God speed for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds Now we know the Sectaries of our times teach such doctrines as were never taught by Christ nor any of his blessed Apostles how then dare any that have the name of Christians be familiar with such and entertain them in their houses especially when Saint Paul saith 2 Tim. chapter 2. verse 19. Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity or evill And what greater iniquity and evil can there be then to live in the open violation of Gods Commands for in the very same chapter hee exhorted them ver 16. 17. to shun prophane and vaine bablings which is the practice of the Sectaries saying they would increase to more ungodlinesse and that their words will eate as doth a canker of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus who concerning the truth have erred saying that the Resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some he nameth some of the Sectaries there Now here also we are commanded againe to avoid all evill whether it be the evill of Doctrine or manners or evill company and especially to avoid and shun all false Teachers whose doctrines eat as a Gangrene such as are the new Doctrines of our times which are inferior to none for evill impiety and wickednesse that were ever yet taught in the world as yee may see in Learned Master Edward's Gangrena and therefore it concernes all to shun the evill of all Sectaries company and fellowship and in the 6 chapter of his 1. Epistle to Tim. verse 3. as if hee could never have given caution enough hee saith there If any man teach otherwise then he and Christ had instructed Timothy to teach and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to Godlinesse from such with draw thy selfe If Timothy which was a well grounded Christian an Evangelist by his place if he were againe and again by the Holy Apostle commanded to shun and decline the company and familiarity of all false Teachers and Seducers how much more ought all other Christians that are so much inferiour to Timothy in all respects to take heed of all Sectaries especially when we by our daily experience find how many they have misled and seduced Truly it hath been the great Rebellion of both Ministers and people in these our times contrary to the command of God to follow them and to lend them not only their eares but their Pulpits and Churches to preach in and doubtlesse whatsoever they may thinke they have both of them much to answer for before God as being the principall causes of the ruine and misleading of so many soules and if the State doe not speedily take order for the suppressing of all those wicked Deceivers the times will grow more dangerous and perilous not only in regard of the precious soules of many but in respect also of the peace and quiet of the Land for all things will speedily run to confusion and the Sectaries will bring downe Gods judgements upon the Land by their damnable and desperate Doctrines and ruine upon the very Parliament and the States of the Kingdome and there will one Iack Straw or other or one Wat Tylâ—r or some worshipfull Knipper or other be raysed up to be a deliverer of their Soveraigne Lord the people out of the hands of all Prerogative and King-creatures and out of the hands of their owne creature the Parliament The Lord awaken the Parliament the Lords and Peeres of the Kingdome and all the Governours through the same to stand now all upon their Guards they having had so many Warning-Peeces both in the Army and in the Citie both in Pulpits and Pamphlets what the Independents and Sectaries intend to doe Were there no other Books but Iohn Lilburns who knows the mind of his brethren and the great concourse of people that follow him and countenance him in his wicked practices it were enough to awaken the whole Kingdom But when wee daily heare and reade what Peters Salt-marsh Dell c. those worthy Saints both preach and print and what gallant Fellowes they have now with the sword in their hands and what priviledges they clayme unto themselves it is a matter of wonder and astonishment to me that they are not all of them timely looked unto and it stranges me most of all that there should be any of those Sectaries permitted through the Kingdome to beare any office of charge committed unto them or to have any other weapon offensive or defensive in their hands then a bodkin or a thimble which were the only iron many of them wore before these times for it is well known that all the Sectaries in the Kingdome within these six years were as much afraid of the Artillery Guarden and of the Military Yard as they were afraid of a Cathedrall Church and the roaring of the Ordnance and Canons and the noyse of a volley of shot the sound of a Trumpet and the beating of a Drum were as formidable Musick in their eares as the noyse of a paire of Organs or Sackbuts or the singing of the Choristers in Pauls Westminster-Abbâ—y or in the Kings Chappell and yet now they can begin to talke of the sword in their hands It is not good that such children as these are should be suffered to have such dangerous weapons in their fingers It was not thought fit by our Fore-fathers who were commended for their wisdome that any Papists should sit in the Parliament and our ever to be honoured Worthies now sitting in that great Conncell did not thinke it for the Kingdoms safety that any Papist should bee of the Kings Councell and at the first sitting of the Parliament no Monopolists or Gatherers of Ship-money or Pattentees or any such creatures though they were lawfully chosen by the people were suffered to sit in Parliament but were thrust out as being suspected they would prove bad instruments to the State and therfore I say notwithstanding the peoples election they were immediatly dismissed the great
and they onely in every Church had the rule of the people committed unto them as the head eyes ears and hands the more noble members and that the people as the other members under them were to yeeld obedience unto them in the Lord. And we find that in the holy Scripture every man is to look unto that Office that is committed unto him and that every one is to keep himselfe in that Station God hath placed him in as we may see it at large Rom. 12. ver 6. Having gifts differing according to the grace given unto us saith Saint Paul whether prophecy let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith or ministry let us waite on our ministry c. He that ruleth with diligence c. Here we finde that every man according to his place and office he is injoyned to wait upon it and not to desert it they that are appointed to rule they are ever to rule and the others that are under them are ever to obey every Member is to keep his station in this mysticall body the Magistrates and Parents and Masters whether ecclesiasticall or civill are to continue in their severall places and to keep their ranks as long as they are in those places and all those that are under them whether Subjects children or servants they are likewise to keepe their places and to obey all those that are over them in the Lord and that is their place for so the holy Scripture everywhere teacheth us and especially in the 7. of the 1 of the Corinth ver 19 20 21 22. Circumcision saith the Apostle is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandements of God That is the yeelding of obedience to the commandments of God and the obeying of those God hath set over us and the honouring of those that are in authority and doing the will of God in every thing to our power is that that commends any men unto God especially the honouring of God himselfe and the reverencing of our godly Ministers and painfull Pastors according to that of Saint Paul 1 Thess 5. 12. Know them which are over you in the Lord and esteem them very highly in love for their works sake For God hath made them Pastors and all the people their flock them fathers and the people children begotten by their Ministry them builders and the people the stones layd by them in the building them Stewards and the people Domestiques under them and their conduct So that every one in the Church of God is to continue in that Station God hath placed them in untill they by their gifts and graces and eminent abilities be removed to a higher calling or else for their misdemeanours are cast out and therefore Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 7. ver 20. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called and as if it had not bin sufficient to have once specified his mind in this businesse in the 24 verse he reiterateth this precept saying Brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God So that for the Ministers and Presbyters of the Church or for the Magistrates of the Common-wealth or for Masters or Parents of Families for either of them I say to leave their calling in their particular places of ruling and for either the flocks under the Pastors or subjects under the Magistrates or servants and children in the severall Families under their Parents and Masters to offer to take the Government into their own hands or to joyne themselves in Commission with them and to take the rule in either Church State or Families upon them is to leave their callings and so to transgresse against the commandements of God who hath injoyned the Magistrates Ministers and Pastors both in Church and State to command and all the people under them to obey and in their so doing they each of them abide in the same calling and station wherein they are called otherwise they will be found transgressours of the Laws of God and Violaters of that Order God hath appoynted in Church and State and bring confusion in both Now God is the God of Order and hath injoyned all men to keep his commandements and the commandement given to the Magistrates is to rule and the commandement given to the people in every Church is to obey their guides and yeeld double honour unto them the honour of reverence and subjection and the honour of maintenance they are ever bound to obey them in the Lord And this is the Order God appointed in all the Primitive Churches That the Presbyters only should rule in them and that the people should obey and not intermeddle in the government for that is not to keep themselves in their severall Stations and to abide in the same calling wherein they were called And to speake the truth the ignorance of this doctrine and the pride of too too many hath bin the onely cause of all those confusions that now the Church and State are imbroyled with for if every man had learned but this lesson To keep himselfe in the same calling wherein he was called he would know that the Magistrates place whether civill or ecclersiasticall is to command and that the subjects and peoples place under them in their severall aboads and habitations is to obey They would understand likewise that in every kingdome commonwelth corporation or in any Province and Country or church that howsoever businesse of publike concernment belongs unto the whole body in each of those governments yet the managing of them and ruling and ordering of them respectively belongeth and pertaineth onely to those in authority as in a kingdome or Republique howsoever the embasladours of other nations are sent into such a Kingdome and Common-wealth about businesse that may concern the whole Countrie yet none but the King and his Councell or the State have the ordering and managing of the businesse and the people and subjects under them intermeddle not in those high affairs for they are Arcana Regni and appertain not unto them And so it is in every Corporation howsoever the Letters or Mandates from either King Parliament or State are directed unto the severall Counties Hundreds or Corporations or Cities yet the Lieutenants Governors Sherifes Mayors Aldermen and Common-councells in each of them are to mannage the businesse and to put in execution what they are commanded and injoyned by either Letters or Mandates and the people under them severally are to yeeld obedience to what they order and command according to the severall exigences of the times as daily experience teacheth all men so that the directing of their Letters to the severall Counties or Hundreds or Corporations in generall doth not invest all the people with power or joyne them in commission with the Magistrates of those respective places but leaveth the transacting of all things to those onely in those severall jurisdictions that are in authority and armed with power which the people are not Yea
or sweare fealty to any King who is owned by the people and whole Kingdome to be their lawfull King as appointed and set over them of God and is openly proclamed through the whose Realm to be their King though at that time hee be in an other Countrey and but now comming to take the possession of his Kingdome I say I demand whether such subjects as take the oath of allegeance and sware fealty unto him before he comes and sits visibly upon his Throne be not by this their oath become that Kings subjects as truly and as really as if the King were bodily present I demand further when hee is in person come into his Kingdome and visibly amongst them saluted and entertained and owned by the people for their King whether or no those subjects that then take their oath of allegeance and promise by that their oath their subjection unto him bee not as really and truly his subjects as those that after hee is inaugurated and gone into one of his other Kingdomes take then the oath of allegeance and sware subjection unto him in all his just commands I am confident that all men that are but a little skilled in politicks or any good learning will acknowledge that either of the former subjects are as truly and really subjects unto him though they never saw him as many hundred thousands never did their Kings as those that tooke the oath when hee was gone in triumph into an other of his Kingdomes And thus it was with those that were baptized by Iohn the Baptist that great Officer of Christs kingdome and the blessed Apostle those Stewards Secretaries privie Counsellors Embassadours of his Royaltie who all baptized those that came unto them into Iesus Christ the King and Messiah as well before his death as after and all they owned him as well then for their King as after crying Hosanna thou sonne of David and strowing their garments in the way saying Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord peace in Heaven and glory in the Highest Luke 19. vers 4. and therefore it is a senslesse reason yea contradictory unto it selfe that I. S. bringeth considering there is no difference for the substance of the matter though there be some variety in respect of the circumstance of time and in this fond error of I. S. is my brother Burton and the Papists who thinke there was a great difference between the Baptisme before Christs death and that after his death when indeed for substance there was none no more then was betweene the Sacrament of the Lords Supper before Christs death and after And therefore all those that received either of those Sacraments or both of them before his passion were as good Christians as those that received them after for hee was owned by them at that time to be the Lambe of God that was to take away the sins of the world of beleevers and to be the King of the Iews the Saviour of his people to be the anoynted Christ they took the Sacraments upon it which is as much as the oath of allegeance to any King which were sufficient to make them as good Christians as any that should come after them and therefore they that were baptized by Iohn the Baptist into Christ to dye which I. S. doth acknowledge they were all as good Christians as any now baptized by the Independents and therefore that hee faith to the contrary and in opposition to this truth is a meer babble and a contradiction of himselfe And this shall suffice to have spoke to his first answer to prove that those that were baptized by Iohn the Baptist were as good Christians as any other that were baptized after Christs death His second is as senselesse which is this To say saith he that the Baptisme of Iohn was the same with Christs and the Apostles is flat contrary to the assertion of Iohn himselfe and the Apostles Mat. 21. 25. Act. 18. 25. I baptize you with water saith he but there comes one after me who shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire These are the words of his second argument to prove that those that were baptized by Iohn the Baptist were no Christians In the entrance of this his answer he beats the ayre and fights with his owne shadow and falsifies my words for I never said nor thought it that the Baptisme of Iohn was the same with Christs for the Scripture relateth that Christ baptized not at all Iohn 4. vers 2. I said indeed it was the same with the Apostles and that is manifest out of many places of the holy Scriptures as out of the 3. of Luke ver 2. Iohn the 1. v. 33. where Iohn himself speaking saith hee that sent mee to baptize with water the same said unto me c. Yea one of those places quoted by himselfe Matth. 21. vers 25. sufficiently declares that Iohn had his Commission from God himself whose Prophet he was to baptize with water and the Apostles themselves before Christs death and Ascention baptized but with water and had no other Commission but that Saint Iohn the Baptist had and Iohn baptized with the Baptisme of Repentance saying unto the people that they should beleeve on him which should come after him that is on Christ Iesus Act. 19. vers 4. and the very Apostles Baptisme before Christs death vvas no other but the Baptisme of repentance and to beleeve in Christ yea faith and repentance was the summe of all the Preaching both of Iohn and of all the holy Apostles both before Christs death and after as wee may see Acts 20. vers 21. where the Apostle saith Testifying both to the Iewes and also to the Greeks repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ Now when the Baptisme of Saint Iohn and the Apostles both before Christs death and after was all one for substance and all into Christ as wee may yet further see Acts the 8. 16. where it is said they were baptized in the name of the Lord Iesus It was no error in mee to say that the Baptisme of Iohn was into Christ Iesus and the very same with that of the Apostles for the Holy Ghost which is the spirit of truth hath so taught mee and therefore all those that were baptized by Iohn the Baptist were as good Christians and beleevers as those that were baptized by the Apostles if repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ and being baptized into him could make good Christians which were blasphemy to gain-say and nothing else but to give the spirit of God the lye and therefore J. S. affirming that there was a difference between the Baptisme of Iohn and that of the Apostles and denying that those that were baptized by Iohn were Christians gives the spirit of God the lye for the holy word of God which was penned by his spirit asserteth the contrary And for that text that he citeth
For the Scripture never speakes of that of the congregationall way And this shall suffice to have spoke at this time and in this place concerning the manner of the Administration of the government both in respect of the Ceremoniall service and morall worship under the Law and what it ought to be under the Gospel And now a word or two concerning the manner of admitting members then into the church of the Iewes and what was reputed necessary for the making of any one a member and Proselite there after the old testament forme and what is required now for making of any a member of the Christian church The whole Scripture of the old testament and the new declares that all those that were aliens and strangers unto the common-wealth of Israel if they desired to be made partakers of the priviledges of the Iews and to be all accompted in the number of the people of God they were to be instructed in the Law of Moses and they were to yeeld obedience unto that and in token that they beleeved in the true God and submitted themselves to his Law and to that discipline he had taught in the bookes of Moses and the Prophets they were to be circumcised which when they yeelded unto and tooke the Covenant of Circumcision they were forthwith made members of the Church of the Iewes and had as good right to all the ordinances of God under that government as any other of the Iewes and this I say is sufficiently confirmed in the holy Scriptures everywhere Now under the New testament the Church of God being compared sometimes to a Kingdom and Empire and sometimes to a city and all the members of it being compared to free Denizons and citizens where so ever the Gospel of this Kingdom and City is faithfully preached and the people by the Embassadours and Ministers of the same being invited to come in and yeeld obedience unto it if they do believe and obey that is if they do beleeve and repent and willingly submit unto the sound of it and offer themselves to make profession of it and in signe of this their obedience and faith receive the seale of this Covenant and are baptized they are forthwith to be admitted without any reluctation and having once received the seale of this Covenant the seale of Baptisme they are forthwith made free Denizons of this Kingdome and free-men of this city and have as good right to all the priviledges of the same as any other and may through the whole world of Christians partake in all the Ordinances of that Kingdome and City as well as any other Christians as in the Roman Empire and now in all Corporations through the world they that were Citizens of Rome or they that are Freemen in any of them as they did then partake in all the priviledges of the Romans and might abide and dwell in any place and trafficke buy and purchace in what part of it they pleased injoying all those inmmnities that any then did and so likewise now as those that are Free-men of any city or corporation do in their severall precincts injoy all the priviledges of each of them and may set up in any Parish or in any part of the city or within the jurisdiction of the same and exercise all their severall trades and have as much priviledge for their so doing as any of the other Citizens so I say in the same manner it is in the Kingdom of Christ and his city which is his church Every one that makes profession of the Gospell that beleeves repents and is Baptized has as good right to all the Ordinances of the Church as any Christian in the primitive times or any Independents now in the world and that by vertue of the great Charter of this Kingdome and City the Gospell and by the practice of Iohn the Baptist and the Apostles who required no more of all men and people in their time for the making of them members of Christs Church but that they should repent and beleeve and be Baptized as we may see in the third of Matth. and in the second of the Acts and in those of Samaria in the 8. Chapter and in the Eunuch Paul Lydia and the Goaler and those of Cornelius his house of all the which no more was required for the making of them Christians but to repent and beleeve and to be Baptized by which they were invested with a right to all the priviledges through all Churches in the world and might partake in all the Ordinances of Christs Kingdome where so ever they came as we may see in Paul and those that accompanyed him in his journies Wheresoever they came they communicated with them in all Churches in all the Ordinances as in the breaking of bread and prayer So that to repent and beleeve and to be baptized is all that according to the Gospell of Jesus Christ is required of any man or of any people to cast them into a Church mould according the New Testament forme and to make them not only members of the Catholike visible Church but of any church in particular if the Word of God is to be beleeved and given credit unto Now when all those that came out of Ierusalem unto Iohn did repent and beleeve and were baptized by Iohn the Baptist they were cast into a Church mould after the New Testament forme and were all made as good members of that church as any that were baptized after Christs death and ascention by Peter and the other Apostles and might whensoever they went from Jerusalem to any other place where christians dwelt partake in all the ordinances as those did that by reason of the persecution were scattered who we read of that wheresoever they came they went into their Synagogues and Churches and they preached and converted the people and partaked and communicated in all the ordinances amongst them without any gain-saying and so all the Christians that are true Beleevers and are baptized wheresoever they travell or dwell whether in France or Germany Italy or the Low Countryes or in any part of the world amongst the true Protestants they have as great right to all the ordinances in those churches as any of the Natives For they are all free Denizons of Christs Kingdome and free men of the city the church of God which is Christs mysticall body and therefore as members of the same may partake in all the Priviledges and Benefits that any member may do I mean in respect of the ordinances as breaking of bread hearing of the word preached and in prayer and all the essentiall priviledges for to all those they have right unto by their very admission into the church by their baptisme and whosoever shall refuse communion with them that beleeve and are baptized and live a godly holy and pious life unlesse they will observe their own traditions they are Delinquents Prevaricators against the King of his church Iesus Christ and do no way set
I say as he affirmeth and whether I have not both Scripture and reason for what I say through my whole book and if he shall upon mature examination perceive that I have good authority for what I say then let him judg whether or no M. Knollys all his complices that thus upon all occasions traduce me bee not a generation of the accusers of the brethren and whether both Mr Knollys and all his confederats be not a company of calumniators raylors and Lyers rather then Saints For I bless God I have both Scripture and sound reason for all that I say and I speak it here in the presence of the great GOD that if I had ever seen the least ground of truth in all the Scripture of truth for what they of the congregationall way hold about their Church I would rather have suffered any misery in the world then ever have opened my mouth against their way much lesse have written against it but finding it not only a novell Opinion but hereticall indeed the very sourse of all heresies and errors and of dangerous consequence and such an one that if it be not speedily looked unto will not onely bring down the plagues and judgements of God upon the Nation and overthrow all the Christian Religion and all power of godlynesse but all government in Church and State through City and Country and bring a miserable desolation and utter ruine upon the 3 Kingdoms which God of his infinite mercy and goodnesse prevent And the consideration of all these things in the presence of God I say it again and no other put me upon this imployment to oppose the error of the wayes of all the Independents and Sectaries and in this course I am now in by the grace of God and his blessed assistance I will persevere in with all my endeavours to the last period of my dayes And now I come to reply to what Mr Knollys hath here set down by way of answer and although I have formerly given an answer to all the fond cavills of the Independents concerning their severall meetings together in the Temple and in Solomons Porch which the Reader I am confident will say is satisfactory enough to any that know what reason is yet here again for Master Knollys farther satisfaction if he will with any thing be satisfied I answer as followeth to what he childishly bables against this Argument of mine This argument of the Doctors saith he I answer first by denying the Assumption c. One would have expected that when Master Knollys began with this word first which amongst learned and rationall men in disputing it being a word of relation hath ever reference to some second answer at lest if not a third and fourth that he had had some second and third reserve of reasons at least to have fallen upon my argument with this I say all wise men would have imagined And yet there followes neither a second third or fourth answer But howsoever he may speak nonsense by his calling and by vertue of his Independency I will take no advantage against him for that I will examine onely the futility of his denyall which he calls a reason which indeede is a meer contradiction not only of himselfe but of the holy Scripture and is a giving of the spirit of God the lye as at other times as will forth with appear For whereas he saith that the Scriptures produced by me do not in expresse words declare that there were divers Assemblies and Congregations of Beleevers in the Church of Jerusalem and that the Scriptures quoted do in expresse termes declare the contrary it is most abominably false and that by his own confession as we shall by and by see For should I grant unto Master Knollys which I cannot do for many reasons set down in my foregoing Discourse That when there were but three thousand converted and added to the Church that they might then all meet together in any one place or congregation to partake in all Ordinances and that when there were five thousand more added to them they might still likewise all meet together either in the Temple or in Solomons Porch to hear the Word I say should I to gratifie Master Knollys grant him all this yet it will not follow that when there were dayly new additions upon additions of other Converts and Beleevers and that of many thousands that then they could still doe the same But I cannot grant all this for it would be against all reason and contrary to daily experience which tels us that eight thousand men cannot meet in any one Congregation to partake in all acts of worship to edification Yea if I should grant this to Master Knollys both hee himselfe and all his Fraternity would laugh at mee all learned men would conclude that I were indeed a mad man as my brother Burton speakes of mee for it is most certaine that all the Beleevers and Converts in the Church of Ierusalem did never all together partake in all Ordinances and in all acts of worship either in the Temple or in Solomons porch for wee never reade that they either baptized or brake bread in either of them neither would the Magistrate have ever indured or suffered it and yet both these were the discriminating and sealing Ordinances by which all Christians were distinguished from Jewes and Gentiles and all Vnbeleevers and it is well knowne that there was no room in any private house that could containe such a multitude to partake in all Ordinances to edification and this my brother Burton accordeth to saying in expresse words that there was no roome or place large enough to containe them all and the very Scripture also is cleare in this point in many places Yea Master Knollys assenteth to this though hee takes no notice of what hee sayes at any time But because hee perhaps will beleeve himself rather then me and because also his Followers and Schollers will give credit to his words rather then to any reasons produced by mee let them I pray heare what hee saith The Apostles and all the Beleevers in the Church of Jerusalem saith hee met together with one accord in one place to wit the Temple and in Solomons Porch and brake bread from house to house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Domatim not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per singulas domos and thus they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quotidie day by day and they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer c. These are Master Knollys his owne words From the which all learned men may easily perceive the force of truth and the weaknesse and feeblenesse of errour for whiles the man labours to enervate my Argument he contradicteth himselfe and the holy Scriptures and overthrowes his owne Principles and confirmes my opinion for by his owne words it is evident there were many Congregations and Assemblies of Beleevers in Ierusalem
remove mountaines and have not charity I am nothing And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burnt and have not charity it profiteth nothing So that by the doctrine of Saint Paul all gifts are nothing without that grace of love And Saint James in the second chap. ver 17. saith That faith without works is dead and that such as shall not relieve and helpe their Christian brethren in their necessities their Religion is not so good as that of the devills for they beleeve and tremble for pure Religion and undefiled is to visit the fatherlesse and the widdow and to releeve them in their necessities J am 1. therefore they that are so far from relieving their brethren and doing good to them and loving of them as they do them all the evill they can pretend they what they will they are no Saints Yea Saint John also in his first Epistle saith ver 10. In this the children of God are manifes t and the children of the devill whosoever doth not righteousnesse is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as Cain who was of that wicked one slew his brother All they therefore that work not righteousnesse towards their neighbors but do them evill and slâ—y murther them in their reputations and honour they are no Saints but such are the Il-dependents notwithstanding all their gifts as all their practises declare for they do all manner of evill in word and deed against their neighbours in persecuting them continually with their tongues and pens and by all reproachful actions as dayly experience teacheth all men And here I shall take an occasion to bring to the memory of the Il dependents some passages of their uncharitable dealing towards my selfe lately that all men may see how unjust and partiall judges they are and how they upon all opportunities will condemne any Presbyterian for that which they count a pleasantery and an elegancy or matter of mirth in their own mouthes The story briefly is this When the Earle of Strafford was in question before the great Councell of the Kingdome the high Court of Parliament as if that supream tribunall had wanted either judgement or prudence and sufficient understanding and knowledge for the tryall of a Delinquent or had wanted courage or resolution or a minde to execute justice against so eminent an offender as he was who notwithstanding carryed on the whole businesse with such wisdome and moderation and in so fair a way as by which the Parliament hath gained an immortall fame to the worlds end yet at that time those of the Il-dependent party were the chiefe agents of all those tumults at Westminster who made it their imployment dayly to run thither to cry for justice against the Earle abusing him though then in the hands of authority with all the reproachfull words that with the tongues of men could be uttered as all the standers by can witnesse describing him from all the parts of his body and from every one of them gathering some presage of evill that should first be acted by him that should finally bring him to an evill and untimely end and this for the most part was the theam of all their spitefull discourse concerning him as he was carryed both to and from the Parliament Amongst other of their expressions they said he looked like the belly of a toad and that his teeth stood in his head like a pot-fish and that he was so rotten with the poxe that if they could not by their clamours procure justice against him yet they comforted themselves in this that he could not continue long for said they he will fall apeeces he is so rotten with that noysome disease These and many other expressions they dayly and openly uttered against the Earle ever affirming that he was the ugliest man that ever they beheld This language I can depose I learned amongst them as never having heard it in all my life from any man before that time and they took no small pleasure in venting these words upon all occasions and they used them as the flowers of their rhetorick and it was thought neither blasphemy in them nor a lie nor any scurrility neither were there any then of that fraternity so severe as to think that any that used such words could not have the least dram of grace in them But upon their clamours and through their exorbitant insolencies against him I being one day at Westminster waited for his passing by that I might see what a hideous creature he was that I might at another time say I had seen him and in beholding of him I heard their uncivill and reviling speeches against him but observed nothing in his looks and person but had his actions been as serviceable to the Kingdome as they were destructive to all the Kings Dominions and to himselfe there was nothing wanting in the man either for person or courtship or any other accoutrements that might not have made him lovely and venerable in any part of the world And I may truly say this of him that he had more generosity in his look then halfe the Il-dependents that ever I saw were they put all together but thus they did asperse him for his very looks and complexion And in the same manner they spake of those Cavaliers that accompanyed the king when he came to the House of Commons to demand the five Members of all the which they said they looked like so many devills furies and feinds from Orco and Hell it sefe and used all the odious expressions people could imagine to set them forth And of all the ministers of the Church of England they say they are belly-gods and such as run from one end of the Kingdome to another to get preferment and to do mischiefe Now upon an occasion not long since of a mutinous company of Il-dependents that sought the life and blood of many honourable Members in the House of Commons and had entred into a wicked conspiracy to that end whose immaculate reputation notwithstanding they could not with all the breath of their calumnies in the least thing blast I say upon this occasion being cited and commanded to appear at the Committee of Examinations about that businesse and coming thither I found such a rabble rout of odd fellows that for the illnesse of their looks and the badnesse of their complexions and the manner of their behaviour I never saw the like or any man that was there that I talked with as they are all ready to witnesse they being so rude and uncivill towards all especially towards my self they being also such a company of squanderling fellowes not one of six of them having a cloak to his back as if they had come only to make a tumult or an uprore and therefore had laid aside all impediments that might
have hindred their activity as those that stoned Stephen that they might be the more nimble left their garments in other mens keeping When I saw so â—ude a company and hearing withall that they were of all Religions and that they had combined themselves together by swearing to take away the life of many in the House of Commons and that their businesse might go on the better and with the greater success that whiles some of them were there acting of their parts in a disorderly and tumultuous manner others of them were in the city at a private Humiliation a speciall day being set a part to seek God as they said that they might have justice done against some of the Members of Parliament that were not favourers of the Il-dependents as Jezabell caused the Elders of Jezreell to call a Fast when shee took away the life of poor innocent Naboth This that I now say was related unto me by one of that company that not long after went out of the room who was the onely person I knew amongst them all But I not knowing the cause of such a concourse of uncivill people demanded the reason of it and it was replyed that there was not a third part of those that were to come up for the whole city would appear there in that businesse the day following to demand justice against such and such as guilty of High Treason but that now they were seeking God and in private Fasts and that some were assembled in such a mans house naming the party In this formall manner things were related unto me as the righteous Judge of the whole world knoweth all which proceedings I suppose was to do evill to their neighbours Now when I had well viewed and considered all these men and saw their complections â—arre worse then that of the Earle of Strafford and beholding all their behaviour and seeing their incivility towards all men and especially towards my selfe whom they causelesly reviled saying that they had kept mee from hanging not long since and that I had lived on their almes and that they had prayed for my deliverance out of my troubles and that now I was come home with a vengeance unto them for I was turned an Apostate and a Persecutor of the Saints so that they could not in their hearts pray for mee and many other reviling speeches they used in the presence of many honourable Gentlemen as they can all witnesse and that without giving them any occasion in word or deed as the standers by are ready to depose I say I seeing this their disorderly behaviour and withall hearing them with open mouth traduce the great Councell of the Kingdome and accusing them all of injustice affirming that their proceedings were as tyrannicall as those of Strafford and the Prelates and not onely saying it but printing it in a Pamphlet in the which they had most shamefully and falsely belyed mee as the whole Parliament knew in all which they did evill to their neighbours I in replying to that Pamphlet in my just defence thought it an abuse of gravity to use it upon such whibling Fellowes and chose rather by way of merriment to answer them then seriously to spend time about them and therefore calling to mind some of their owne expressions against the Earle of Strafford as that hee had got a blow with a French Coulstaffe and that hee looked like the belly of a Toad and remembring also what they had spake of the Cavaliers that came with the King to the Parliament that they looked like so many Furies and Fiends out of Hell and recollecting withall what they had often spake of the Ministers of the Church of England how that they ran from one part of the Kingdome to an other to get Church preferments and regarded nothing but their bellies and sought nothing but the inslaving of the King himselfe and all the Gentry and Nobility of the Kingdome that they might the more tyrannically domineer over all the people and how they had polluted all the Church of God with their idolatries and superstitions and with all manner of heathenish and antichristian defilements and abominations and remembring also many of Martins expressions against the Presbyters of the Church of England in his blasphemous Pamphlets as that of the Arraignment of Mr. Persecution and his Eccho and his Hue and Cry the which Bookes were entertayned amongst all the Independents and read with great delight they making themselves upon all occasions merry with them and especially with those expressions wherein hee bringeth in all the Presbyters and Master Simon Synod with great ironteeth and such luxuriant tushes as one might picke them with a Rowling-pin and I say I calling to my remembrance all these their expressions in which they greatly delighted and pleased themselves when at any time they inveighed against the Presbytery and studied to make them all odious to the people as they have done in all which they have done evill to their neighbours thought it not amisse to make choyce of some of their owne Rhetorick which I did purposely to find out the humour of the Cattle and that all men might see the partiality of the Independents and indeed the vanity of all unstable men in generall who are won with an apple and lost with a nut and will prayse and disprayse they know not for what and one day commend that in themselves which an other day they will condemne in any of a contrary mind and at one time extoll a man for that which upon an other occasion they will censure him for with all manner of aggravations The consideration of these things and with what disguised aspects and hideous lookes and odde complexions they appeared in all the roomes about the Committee and how they grinned at mee with their teeth made mee in the description of them use the same expressions that they had formerly done of Strafford and the Cavaliers and the Presbyters of the Church of England when both in their countenance and actions they paralleld them and say they looked like so many furies and like the belly of a Toad and as if they had got a blow with a French Coulstaffe and that one might picke some of their teeth with a Bedstaffe all which were their owne expressions and as they accused the Presbyters for belly gods so they also were very sensible of good cheere and that as the Presbyters had with their superstitions polluted the Church so they did pollute them with their scummering and pissing in them and that as they sought to inslave the Gentry and Nobility and the whole Kingdome so the Independets if they could but once attaine the mastery would doe no lesse and for this my so speaking I had very good reason being well acquainted with their language and dialect having often heard some of them say that the Gentry and Nobility had beene the cause of all the miseries of the Kingdome and that if they continued in their greatnesse
Characters are evidently visible and apparent and those that either countenance vile persons and honour not such as fear the Lord or break their vows promises and covenants with either God or men they in Gods repute are not Saints indeed pretend they what they will but are wicked and ungodly men and such as bring down the wrath of God upon the place where they live For as Solomon saith By the blessing of the righteous the city is saved so by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown Prov. 11. ver 11. Wicked and ungodly men are the cause of the ruine of Cities and Countryes according to that of Saint Paul the second of Timothy chap. 3. ver 1 2 3 4 5. This know also saith he that in the last dayes perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankfull unholy without naturall affection covenant-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traiterous heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God having a forme of godlinesse but denying the power thereof from such turne away For of this sort are they which creep into widdows houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins led away with divers lusts c. In the which words briefly we may take notice that the Apostle setting down the reason of the perilousnesse and danger of the latter times saith not that either in respect of wars or pestilences or famines or earth-quakes or inundations or murthers slaughters and robberies or for any such calamities the lastdayes and times shall be perillous but they shall be perillous times saith he for that men shall be lovers of themselves covenant-breakers false accusers covetous c. So that selfe-love covetousness false accusations of their brethren and covenant-breaking c. are the cause that makes times perillous and brings down the judgements of God upon any city and places where the Inhabitants are practicers of these sinnes And therefore the Apostle after he had forewarned all such as fear God of the cause of all the evills that are comming upon the world commands all the true Saints indeed to take heed of such men and in expresse words sayes from such turne away have nothing to do with such for all covenant-breakers and false accusers and such as countenance vile persons and honour not them that fear the Lord and such as keep not their word and promise with neither God nor men are the cause of the perils and miseryes that shall come upon the world and therefore all such are not Saints indeed but ought to be abhorred and avoyded according to that of Solomon Prov. 4. ver 14 15. Enter not saith he into the path of the wicked and go not into the way of evill men Avoyd it passe not by it turne from it and passe away Here we see the wise man as if he could never have given caution enough to all his schollers by many reduplications of his words gives all the people of God a strict charge not so much as to company with such men and that for the many reasons set down in the following verses but this reason specified by Saint Paul may suffice who saith That all covenant-breakers and false accusers and self-seekers are the causes of perillous times and so are all such in whose eyes a vile person is not contemned and who honour not such as fear the Lord and who keep not their covenant and promise For all such are no Saints in Gods esteem and therefore a wicked generation of men and such as make the times wherein they live perillous and dangerous and therefore ought by all the true Saints and godly to be shunned and avoyded Now if it can be proved that the Independents be such as in whose eyes a vile person is not contemned and such as honour not those that fear the Lord and such as keep not their word and promise neither with God nor man but are notorious covenant-breakers or assenters to all such persons then it will follow that they are not Saints indeed For the Characters of the true Saints are to contemn a vile person to honour those that fear the Lord and to keep their vowes and promises both with God and men for not onely the Psalmist thus describeth the true Saints but Saint John also saith By this men are known to be Saints if they love the brethren by this saith Christ ye shall be known to be my Disciples that is Saints indeed if ye love one another I shall therefore demand of any well grounded Christian Whether they beleeve that those that run from place to place and joyn with any wicked and ungodly men and seeke their advancement that to places of the greatest trust in the Kingdome and prefer them before such as they dayly acknowledg to be godly and truly religious and will run from Committee to Committee to do the most wicked and vile men and known Malignants any courtesie and will both in word countenance and deeds favour and honour them I demand I say whether they think that in such mens eyes as will do all these offices to wicked persons and that in opposition to any of their godly brethren and that will at any time joyn with any such against either the godly and painfull Ministers or their Presbyterian brethren to defame them or do them any mischiefe or to remove them from their places and livelyhoods or for the hindring of their preferments yea and which is more for the hindring of the work of Reformation in the Church I demand I say of any truly godly Christian whether they think that in any such mens eyes as do all these offices and courtesies to wicked and ungodly men a vile person is contemned when he dayly seeth the contrary that they honour them and prefer them before such as fear the Lord I am most assured he will conclude and affirme That in their eyes a vile person is not contemned Now that this is the dayly practice of the Independents I undertake upon my life to prove it by a cloud of witnesses and that there is not the vilest person nor the wickedest wretch that they will not joyn with to do any of their Presbyterian brethren a mischief that they will not give credit to in falsly belying their brethren yea it can be proved that when the Independents have been demanded by some godly and orthodox Ministers why they have left the publick Assemblies seeing there was now no ceremonies nor any thing in their doctrine that they could finde fault with and they have replyed That it was in regard that their Congregations were mixt that tagg ragg and all sorts of men were admitted to the Sacrament with whom they could not joyne Whereupon the Ministers that they might remove this scandall and offence laboured by all means to perswade the people so to behave themselves as they might manifest unto
all men they were worthy communicants otherwise professing unto them that they durst not administer the communion unto them and therefore for some moneths abstained from the publick administration of the Sacrament and used all their best endeavour in that interim by their faithfull and painfull preaching and exhortations to fit all men for the better receiving of the Sacrament and that by this means they might gratifie their tender consciences I say in this interim of time it shall be proved that these Independents who those godly Ministers had such a desire to please went unto these wicked and ungodly men that the Ministers excepted against for their conversation as ungodly and prophane and joyned with them against their Ministers saying unto them What will you give tythes and maintenance to such Ministers as shall thus deal with you as to deny you the Sacrament of the Lords supper surely were I in your condition were I a Member of your Congregations I would never own such a man for my Minister nor never give any allowance to any such as would not administer the Sacrament unto me By which practices of theirs they have made those painful Ministers so odious to the people by joyning with those wicked varlots as they have not only deprived them of their livelyhoods and maintenance but so persecuted them with all manner of reproaches and evill language as they have forced them to leave their places and to wander about the world to get themselves a poor living for the supportation of themselves and their distressed families by all which proceedings if the Independents do not declare themselves to be such as countenance a vile person and to be enemies of those that fear the Lord I know not what ever any men did to deserve those Characters by all which they proclaim themselves to be no true Saints if the Lord himself knoweth how to describe Saints indeed This that I have here related I shall by Gods assistance be able to prove by such witnesses as against whom there can be brought no just exception And that all the Independents are notorious covenant-breakers or assenters unto such as violate their oathes and promises both to God and men all the Kingdome can witnesse for me especially those Ministers of the Reverend Assembly with whom the dissenting brethren have brake all promises and solemne agreements not once but many times so that it would be a needlesse work to expatiate any further in proving them to be no Saints indeed when they manifest by all their practices that they neither walk uprightly nor work righteousnesse nor speak the truth in their heart and when they backbite their neighbours with their tongue and do evill unto them and receive a reproach against their neighbours and countenance vile persons and honour not such as fear the Lord and keep not their promises either with God or men by all which they declare unto the world that they are not Saints indeed when all these Characters are the badges onely of wicked men to do contrary to that description of true Saints Now when all the Churches of the Congregationall way consist of such Members as these are it followes that they are mixt Assemblies as not consisting of visible Saints therefore ought justly to be separated from and not to be communicated with in holy things and that from their own principles For they pretend they separate from our assemblies onely because they are mixt of tagg ragg and such Saints as Job would not set with the dogs of his flock Many other Arguments also might I here bring against both the Ministers and people of the congregational way to prove them no visible Saints and that not from any private information or clandestine practices but for open delinquency and scandalous walking and that in the veiw of all men and such as can be proved by such personages as against whom there can be no just exceptions But before I conclude this businesse let me say that which a learned man once uttered reading Christs Sermon upon the mount and the holy Evangelists either this is not the Gospel saith he of Jesus Christ or if it be the men now living are no Christians After the same manner I may truly say of those of the Congregational way that either this discription of the true Saints is not the word of God or if it be those of the Independent Assemblies are no Saints for there is no agreement between them and the description of those Saints there specified as all their practices sufficiently and apparently declare And now the fourth and last part of my Minor Proposition remaineth only to be proved viz. That the Independents and all those of the Congregationall way despise their Christian Brethren and separate from them as being more holy then they which is so apparently true as besides their words and Pamphlets in all which they protest against us as enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ his Kingdome and as an Antichristian brood their dayly practice declareth it who have moulded themselves into innumerable sucking Congregations which they terme the onely true Churches and have separated from our Aslemblies as from so many Synagogues of Sathan for this is their language So that it may be thought a needlesse spending of time to use any Arguments to evince that which is in the view of all men which the Independents themselvs avouch Having therefore thus proved all the parts and branches of my minor proposition the major being undeniable the conclusion will necessarily follow That the Churches of the Congregationall way are not true Churches after the New Testament forme as not consisting of all visible Saints but are mixt Congregations and therefore by truly godly people ought not to be communicated with in holy things and that from their own principles So that now it is apparently evident to the judicious Reader from that I have formerly spake from my brother Burtons words and from their own definition of a Church That neither the Church of Ierusalem nor any of the Primitive and Apostolical Churches were true formed Churches after the New Testament form if my brother Burtons and I. S. his words and their definition of a Church be true and that the very Churches of the Congregationall way as not coming within the bounds of that definition are no right constituted Churches as not consisting of all visible Saints coÌ„municating in all Ordinances and which is more That if they will be right formed churches they must al be dependent All this I say is sufficiently proved fâ—oÌ„ all the foregoing discourse to any intelligible impartiall Reader in the which I have been the more large that if it be possible I might undeceive the poor deluded people and perswade them to take no notice of them as the Independents do not of those multitudes baptized by Iohn Christs disciples as formed into a church or Churches after the New Testament form for the first formed
persons The third Essentiall part of soveraigne power in any state is this to make warre and peace at pleasure either forraigne or domesticall upon any just occasions and to have the managing of the Militia c. so that those only in whose hands this authority lyeth they are reputed and indeed are the supreme Rulers in that state The fourth Essentiall property of superlative power and authority in any government or state is this to have a Court of ultimate resort to the which all men may fly for reliefe and to the which all Appeales by all persons from all parts within their jurisdictions and from all inferiour Courts are made upon any unjustice done them there or upon any pressures or grievances by any one in authority and in whose power it is to end and determine all controversies and differences or to redresse all abuses and to relieve the oppressed so that in whose hands soever this authority resides they onely are said to exercise the soveraigne power and to bee the sole Governours and Moderators in that state The fifth and last paâ—t of supreme authority in any state consists in this that they have the power of pressing and stamping monies and coynes and setting the valution upon them or any other monies that are currant in their countries or have the disposing of the treasurie of those states in which they live and have the Exchequer in their hands and all the revenues of them and to whom all the tributes subsidies assessements customes benevolences and collections of the people that are gathered for the common reliefe and preservation of the whole countrey or state are sent and who have the disposing of them according to their wisedome in those mens hands I say that this power â—esideth of disposing the treasury or revenues they and they onely are the supreme Magistrates and Rulers in that state as at this day it resides with all the former essentiall properties in the hands of King and Parliament that great Councell of the Kingdome by all which it sufficiently appeareth that all soveraigne power resides in them onely and is soly exercised and managed by them so that if Master Knollys should say that it doth not prove that the government lyeth now in the hands of King and Parliament that great Court because the contributions collections and excises from all parts of the Kingdome are sent unto them and are now at their disposing I beleeve the great Councell would teach him a little more wit and all those his brethren that should joyne with him in this his argumentation a little better manners Now if wee will compare things together wee shall find that whatsoever can prove the soveraigne power in all secular governments to be in those mens hands which exercise it the same may be said concerning the Ecclesiasticall Government in the Church at Ierusalem and of the Apostles and Presbyters of that Church who were the chiefe Officers and men in authority in it that the government and soveraigne power in that Church lay in their hands onely So that it will then undeniably follow that my argument will for ever stand good against Master Knolly's fond cavils for the proving of these two truths viz. that the Presbyters in the Church at Ierusalem and in all other churches were the onely Governours in those churches and that from this reason because the almes were sent unto them and because they had the disposing of the treasury of the Church This I say will in the first place necessarily follow The second truth that will result out of the words is this that the Apostles and Presbyters governed and ruled that Church by a common-councell and Presbyterie both which Master Knollys vainely denyeth will follow from my Argument But for the farther elucidation of this truth and that it may the better appeare unto all men I will briefly run over the essentiall properties and parts of supreme and soveraigne power that were exercised in that church and shew that they resided onely and solely in the Apostles and Presbyters hands who were the Governours of that church and that the people had nothing to doe with them and for the first to wit the legislative power it was in the church of Ierusalem and committed onely into the hands of the Apostles and Presbytery of that church as who had received the Keyes Matth. 16. and Matth. 18. For so saith the Prophet Isaiah chapter the 2. verse 2. out of Zion shall goe forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem and Acts the 1. vers 2. 3. it is said that Christ for the time that hee remained upon the earth after his Resurrection through the Holy Ghost gave commandements unto the Apostles whom hee had chosen speaking to them of the things pertaining to the Kingdome of God and commanded them that they should not depart from Ierusalem but waite for the promise of the Father which was that hee would send them the Holy Ghost the comforter which should teach them all things and bring all things unto their remembrance whatsoever Christ had said unto them and that hee should abide with them for ever Iohn 14. verse 26. and leade them into all truth and in the fifteenth Chapter hee cals his Apostles his friends telling them that hee had made knowne unto them all things that hee had heard from his Father verse 15. and hee promised that the Holy Ghost should bring all those things to their memories and in the same Chapter in the 26. verse Christ saith when the comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father hee shall testifie of me From all which places and from the 28. of Matth. verse 18 19 20. Mark the 16. verse 15 16 17 18. and Iohn the 20. verse 21 22 23. and many more that might be alleaged it is apparently evident that the Apostles and Presbyters in the Church of Ierusalem were invested with a legislative power so that whatsoever they preached or writ that wee find recorded in the Holy Word of God they are all the Statutes and Lawes of the King of his Church Christ Jesus and by the which all Christs subjects to the end of the world are to be regulated and governed The Apostles and Presbyters in the Church of Ierusalem had power also to abrogate old Lawes and to enact and establish new ones as wee may see Act. 15. and Act. 16. yea they had power of life and death of which wee have one example in Ananias and Saphira Act. 5. yea they raysed the dead cured the lame and healed the sicke with their very shadowes and all this power was given unto them for the ratifying of their authority and to shew they were sent of God withall they had the power of erecting new offices and creating new Officers not onely in Ierusalem but in all the Churches as that office of Deacons in the sixth of the Acts and the
and the Doctor might as well have affirmed that the Brethren even the whole Church might say it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Thus Master Knollys disputeth not onely against all sound Divinity but against all reason whiles hee would make all the people to have equall suffrage and voices or votes with the Elders in that Councell and therefore Master Knollys shall never be my Master who had hee known any thing concerning governments either in Church or State or had hee ever read any thing concerning Councels in either hee would never have so argued For Councels in all governments consist of peculiar and select men who for their Gravity Wisedome Learning and their inveterate experience are made choyce of and set apart for that purpose and to whom the rule and government of the Kingdomes and Countries wherein they live is committed so that the ordinary people are not to intrude or intermeddle in those affaires whose place it is only to obey and to yeeld subjection to their Ordinances and they that would goe about or indeavour to change this order appointed by God himselfe would speedily bring confusion upon themselves and others and as it is and ever has beene in the matters and affaires of the State and in the Kingdomes of this world so it is in the Kingdome of Jesus Christ which is his Church all things are to be managed with order and decency and by such men only as upon whose shoulders God hath laid that government and into whose hands he hath committed the Keyes those ensignes of authority now when Christ the King of his Church hath given the Keyes to his Apostles and to the Presbyters only and to be continued in their hands to the end of the world they only are to manage the affaires government of the Church to the consummation of all things whose calling and place it is to rule and govern them as who have the care of the churches who are the prime men in authority in them for the ruling and governing of them and the people are onely to obey them and their Ordinances in the Lord and are not to intermeddle in the government of the Church or have their voices or votes in matters of government as hath beene often proved And therefore Master Knollys in saying That the Brethren even the whole Church the multitude how many soever the Doctor can make of them were present as well as the Presbyters and had their voices there is altogether mistaken in his commentary exposition for he by Brethren understanding that the whole Church the whole multitude of Believert men women and children then in Jerusalem for so his words doe import were present in that Councell speakes hee knows not what for it is most certaine by the holy Scripture that the tenth part of the Believers that were in Ierusalem could not have met together in any one place and therefore all the many ten thousands that were there could not possibly have come together in one Synod or Councell and besides the impossibility of it all men know that the Members of Synods and such as have their voices there are Presbyters and Ministers of the Gospel only and such as are sent Commissioners and delegated out of the severall Presbyteries to those Councels for the right ordering and well managing of the government in them and this is their calling and for the other people as the secular Magistrates Masters of Families Wives Children and Servants they are every one of them to continue in that calling and statiou God had placed them in 1 Cor. 7. and all under authority are therein to abide and every one of them to follow their particular negotiations and affaires yeelding obedience in their severall places to those that are over them and women especially by a statute Law from heaven 1 Cor. 14. are injoyned silence in all the Churches and are commanded if they have any doubts to aske their Husbands at home and to be subject and obedient unto them they are not to vote it in Synods neither were women ever that I have read or heard of before such Teachers as Master Knollys and his Fraternity appeared in the world permitted to have their voices in the Churches and Synods which when it is an apparent transgression of the Law of God I am confident that the Apostles and Presbyters then assembled in the Councell of Ierusalem would not have suffered any women to have brake the Lawes of God before their faces and therefore I may with good authority out of Gods Word conclude that there was not a woman in that Synod for the Scripture saith the Synod consisted of brethren and not sisters who had never the Keyes committed to them or any voice there as Mr Knollys vainly asserâ—eth and therefore for women they were not there so that there was not the whole multitude how many soever the Doctor can make them when the sisters are exempted there being none but brethren Besides it was against another statute law from heaven made by the Apostle Paul in the 14. of the Romans ver 1. that weak brethren should be admitted to doubtfull disputations who saith For those that are weak in the Faith receive but not unto doubtfull disputations or ambiguity of disputes for they being not well setled and grounded in Religion would have either been more imbittered against one another or filled more full of scruples then resolved as dayly experience teacheth all men who see what a confusion such paultry fellows as Master Knollys is have already brought inâ—o the world by admitting their weak brethren to their doubtfull disputations and vain janglings uâ—on all occasions Neither will I ever beleeve for my part that the Apostles â—ould be transgressors of their own Laws and teach one thing and practice the contrary now when Saint Paul had made that law that the weak brethren should not be admitted to doubtfull disputations shall we think that the Apostles and Elders at Ierusalem would have admitted the whole multitude of all the beleevers amongst the which there were so many weak brethren into the Synoâ— to those disputes and so have violated this law and statute from heaven especially can any rationall man believe this when they were not at that time so well acquainted with their Christian liberty For this would have tended to nothing but a confusion of all things would have put the people in an uâ—rore as is evident from very good reason for if many years after the preaching of the Gospell and the free grace of God and the teaching of them their Christian liberty they remained still so zealous for the observation of the ceremoniall law of Moses as we may read in the 21. chapter of the Acts that they out of a distempered zeal would have destroyed Paul and onely because they heard that hâ— taught the Gentiles not to observe the law of Moses how would all those weak brethren have been inraged against all the Apostles
his Throne all such as these are I say make Christ a Pagent King and salute him with haile Master as the Jews did to usurpe some of their own rhetorick and learned elequence but indeed they disthrone him For what is it to disthrone a King if writing of Warning Peeces and Pamphlets against Kings service and Kings-honour be not And what I pray is it to disthrone a King if this be not to passe all acts of Government in the peoples name and to send out all their warrants and mandates in the peoples name and to command all their officers to manage all their imploiments in the peoples name never so much as mentioning or taking notice of the King in a publique act of Government Are not all these actions and passages to any rationall creature a sufficient demonstration that the King in that Kingdome is either absolutely disthroned or is but a King to them in ludibry as Christ was to the wicked Jews I am confident that all understanding men will so conclude Now when in all the new congregations those new gathered churches the Ildependents there have such amongst them that write books and that with their approbation against Iesu-Worship that is against the Worship of Iesus who is the eternall King of his Church and when every day in all their particular churches they exercise all the acts of Government in the name of their churches and not in Christs the Kings name and that against the command of Christ and his Apostles I affirm and by the grace of God I hope ever to make it good that all this is not onely a robbing Christ our Lord and King of his due honour but a blasphemous and more then a Papall usurpation and derogating from his Kingly dignity and royalty yea it is indeed a plain disthroning of Christ their King and thrusting him out of his place and putting themselves in it which whether or no it be not the highest point of contumacy rebellion and blasphemy I leave to the judgment of others as for my self I know not what either of these things be if they be not blasphemy for when I learned Divinity I was taught that blasphemy consisted in this either to give unto God that that belonged not to him and to the excellency of his Majesty divine nature or to detract from him that that peculiarly belonged either to the essence persons or glorious attributes of the diety or to give the honour properly and peculiarly due to God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost or to any person in the glorious Trinity to any creature or malitiously or wickedly to speak evill of God his essence attributes word works c. or to do or act any thing obstinately and wilfully that is or may be derogatory to the dignity and honour of the Divine Majesty of God blessed for ever any of these things when I studied Divinity were thought blasphemy and worthy of severest punishments and those that perpetrated any of those crimes were reputed unworthy to live and proclamed blasphemers and men unsufferable and yet there are many such kind of creatures in our new gathered Churches who are guilty of all that can be called blasphemy and that rob Christ the Lord of his Worship and write against Iesu-worship blaspheme the holy Scriptures and deny the diety of Christ and the blessed Trinity c. and disthrone Christ in their new Congregations whiles they cry hail Master exercising all acts of Government amongst themselvs in the name of the Church never so much as mentioning the name of Christ the King and many more intolerable insolencies they dayly commit against the Soveraign Majesty of heaven and earth the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord and King and all these notwithstanding are counted Saints that commit these vices and malifices and great books are writ in defence of all these wicked blasphemous wretches and both their errors and their persons are countenanced and that by their great Rabbyes and Champions all which notwithstanding are in Gods dialect and in his holy Word both old and new counted abominable creatures and men unholy and displeasing unto God and the acters and abetters and countenancers of all such blasphemies and wickednesses were thought equally guilty and great and fearfull judgements were denounced against them all as it is apparently evident out of Gods holy Word and yet these great evills are counted but the infirmities of the Saints amongst our Independent masters Now then I say when the Illdefendents are guilty of all these crimes as partly acting them partly tolerating such as are both actors and abetters or conniving at them and countenancing them pretend they what they will of setting up Christ upon his Throne I hope to be ever able to make it good that they all of them disthrone Christ manifest to the world that as much as in them lies they would not have him raign over them and so make themselves guilty of that crime they lay to the Presbyterians charg whom they dayly accuse to be enemies of Jesus Christ his Kingdom and such as would not have Christ rule over them when notwithstanding the Presbyterians do and ever will by Gods divine assistance set up Christ King upon his Throne and shall ever desire that all honour and glory and praise may be given for ever and ever to the King eternall immortall invisible the only wise God the King of Saints and King of Kings and that he may solely rule for ever and that all his enemies and such as rob him of his honour and dignity may be made his footstoole in the number of which the greatest part of the Sectaries are and all such as comply with them And this shall suffice to have spoken concerning the first part of my undertaking against I. S. which was to set forth the wickednesse of the Independents and to shew how by their doctrine they rob Christ of his honour and Kingly dignity when they pretend they set him upon his Throne which is an unsufferable blasphemy in them And now I come to prove against I. S. that I undertook in the second place to make good viz. that by their doctrine they not only rob Christ of his honour but all Christs blessed Apostles Ministers and Servants of their power and leave them nothing but the name and shadow of authority which is a horrid injustice and wickednesse in the Sectaries and Independents to do which although I have briefly proved before yet I shall here again for the more full elucidation of the truth and for the better setting forth of the Ill-dependent wickednesse a little further expatiate in this business and answer to all that I. S. hath materially or with any colour to speak in behalfe of his cause where I presume he hath spake as much as he and his complices thought and conceived made for it and for which their vain and impious jangling they must one day give a dreadfull account I undertake therefore now to prove
Independent way as well as any Independent in England and I farther undertake if the great Councel of the Kingdome shall call me and all the dissenting Brethren before them that I shall be better able in halfe a dayes space to deliver in what modell they would set up if they will deal ingenuously before God and the world and speak their conscience then they all put together shall be able to do I may perhaps be thought something presumptuous But J. S. his fond expressions makes me speak that I do which notwithstanding I still undertake to make good And if I have not been mis-informed there was one of the congregationall way and none of the meanest of them hearing my brother Burton speaking very trivially of me after he was gone out of his presence and passing a long with a friend of his and of the same fraternity much blamed my brother Burton saying that he had heard him speak as hyperbolically of me both for my learning and honesty as ever he heard man speak of another and added moreover that though I differed from them in opinion yet he conceived that I was the same man still in all respects that I was when my brother Burton spake so well of me and said withall that he did verily beleeve whatsoever Master Burton spake in a vilifying manner of me that I was better acquainted with their Way then he himselfe And there will be no great difficulty if occasion serve to prove all that I now say And therefore J. S. playes the child to babble thus to me who by Gods assistance and the power of his might shall be able to confound ten thousand such as he is and to teach both him and all his complices whether assembled or not assembled that their tenents are most wicked and abominable And I hope that succeeding ages will say that God inabled me to be as good as my undertaking for in his might I shall ever come out against all the Independents and Sectaries And now I come to answer to all their Replies to my Quaeries And first whereas they babble about the generall stating of the question and divide those things that I had joyned together and made but one generall question of they shew themselves but triflers and not serious Christians For I never made any doubt but that the Ministers of the Gospell may gather Churches for God in all ages sent his Prophets and Ministers for this very end to gather in the lost sheep of the house of Israel and all such as belong unto his election into his house for I know that the ordinary way to bring men to the knowledge of God and of Christ wherein consists life eternall is by the ministerie of the Gospel this I say is the ordinary meanes God uses for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the body of Christ and this I have learned from the holy Scripture Ephes 4. 11 12 13. 1 Cor. 12. 28. And therefore all the pudder that I. S. and my Brother Burton make with their grollish Interrogations about that busines is but to beate the ayre and nothing to the purpose and no answer to my Quere as the Reader may well perceive if hee lookes but backe to the question and first quere neither can my Brother Burton or I. S. make it good by any one example out of the holy word of God that the ordinary Ministers of the Gospel did ever leave their owne ordinary charges to which they are called and whereto they are fixed with a command not to leave them and that under a pretence of a new way or new light did run about to gather converted men from among converted men and so picke out of other mens folds and flocks the best and fattest sheepe and molded them into severall Congregations and Assemblies as separate and distinct bodies and Churches from them and who had no Church-fellowship with other Congregations but were independent from them and absolute amongst themselves I say and affirme that neither my Brother Burton nor I. S. nor any predicant of the congregationall way can shew me any one President of this kind either in the Old or New Testament and this was the question whether there were any such thing to be found in the Scripture and not whether the Ministers of the Gospel may gather Churches as both J. S. and my Brother Burton deceitfully make it Now whereas in the 12. page hee compareth our Churches and Congregations with the Popish Assemblies and saith that they professe themselves to be Christians as well as the Protestants and that their gathering of people out of our Ministers flocks is as tolerable as gathering them out of Popish Parishes and Assemblies for this is the drift of his reason hee dealeth most uncharitably and unchristianly with his brethren for hee himselfe in his booke called Babell no Bethell hath there by the helpe of learned Calvin and Chemnicius and other Orthodox Writers proved that the Church of Rome is both Idolatricall and hereticall and errs in the foundation and that all the Papists living and dying in that their Faith and beleefe are in the state of damnation So that they being considered in his notion are as Infidels and aliens from the common wealth of Israel and the gathering of churches out from amongst the Papists is to open their eyes and to turn them from darknesse to light from the power of Satan to God and as bringing men out of heathenish idolatry or from Jewish obstinacy from the companies and congregations of the which all Christians have an injunction to come out they being commanded to come out of Babylon Now I say in that my brother Burton compares all the Christian brethren in our congregations to the idolatrous Papists he sheweth the uncharitable opinion he hath of us all so that now it is no wonder that upon all occasions he proclames us all the enemies of Jesus Christ and his Kingdome But blessed be God We beleeve that through the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ we shall be saved as well as any Independents think they shall be saved Act. 15. v. 11. Seeing God hath put no difference between us them purifying our hearts by Faith And therefore he deals very unchristianly unbrotherly with us to compare us to the Papists especially when according to our Covenant our Parishes and Churches are purged both of the Service Book Hierarchy and all Popish Superstition as he himself acknowledgeth in the 13. page of his uncharitable Pamphles and therefore this his instance of gathering Churches out of our congregations who beleeve in God as well as they answers not to the question And for his other instance in the 13. Page Where he asks me if I know not that the ancient Church of the Jews was then a Church when the Apostles by their preaching gathered a Church out of it a Christian Church out of the Iewish Synagogues For Answer I say first that I
to obey now when these of the congregationall way have neither precept nor president for these their proceedings in their admission of Members it is but a vaine tradition of their owne braine and ought by all Christs true Disciples to be abhorred and abominated But whereas my brother Burton saith that they that are to walk together should first be agreed together and cites these words out of third of Amos ver 3. Can two walke together except they be agreed To this I thus Reply First that if the Independents were Gods and all the Presbyterians went on in wicked and sinfull courses then this question of his had been to the purpose but when it is certain that the Illdependents are sinners as well as the other Sonnes and Daughters of Adam and many of them known to be notoriously scandalous not onely for their damnable and hereticall opinions and schismaticall doctrines but for their lying rayling hypocrisie pride covetousnesse c. and all of them guilty of the sin of seducing and misleading the poor people I say in all these regards I see no reason why there should be any necessity layd upon Gods heritage and people to be acquainted with them and their ways except it be that all such as fear God and will walk in his pathes by knowing of them may shun them and their by-wayes which they are bound to do both from precept Prov. 4. v. 14 15. Ps 1. v. 1. and from the example of our Saviour Ioh. 2. ver 24. where it is said that Iesus did not commit himselfe unto them because he knew them And so all good people and such as truly fear God should make use of their knowledge to shun such seducers and deceivers and to decline all their by-wayes But secondly I answer that God hath no where injoyned or required that those that either are to be made Christians or to be admitted into Church fellowship should either know the faces of all the Members of the congregation or should be particularly acquainted with the whole church that he is to be admitted a Member of For we have no warrant for such practice in the whole Scripture neither is there any example of it from one end of the Bible to the other and therefore it is meer Will-Worship and a serving of God after the commandments of men which is so often condemned in holy Scripture as Isaiah 29. Matth. 15. Mark 7. Coloss 2. and therfore ought to be abhorred as an intolerable yoke of bondage which neither we nor our forefathers could bear Acts 15. Whereas Christs yoke is easie and light and they that take his yoke vpon them finde rest unto their soules Matth. 11. ver 28 29 30. who saith unto his people Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest He doth not say If you will come to me and be admitted into church fellowship you must first walk sometime with my people and be acquainted with them I say Christ the King of his church hath given no such command either to those that are to be admitted or to his Ministers and stewards of his house which is his church of any such practice Thirdly I answer that as there is an impossibility almost for any man or woman to be acquainted with a whole Church so it is neither necessary nor usefull For that knowledge that is required as necessary to salvation and for the making of any fit to be church Members consists in these things that they repent and beleeve and be baptized and that they should know the onely true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ John 17. And this is the first thing absolutely necessary to salvation which is required of all such as will be Christs Disciples The second thing is the knowledge of our selves which consists in self-denyall and regeneration For if any will be Christs Disciples they must deny themselves and take up his crosse dayly For so saith Christ our King Matth. 16. Luke 9. And again John 3. ver 3. Christ speaking unto Nicodemus saith to him and in him to all men Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdome of God ver 5. Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God He must be a new creature saith he And this is the knowledge that Christ the King of his church requires as necessary for their salvation so for their admission into church fellowship and he that has these qualifications has as much as Christ requires and there is no need of any particular or familiar acquaintance with all those of the congregation or with the whole church or that they should walk some time with them therefore it is wickedly done in all those of the congregational way to impose laws of their own making upon the people of God their brethren who are a free people and therefore they that desire to serve their King Christ Jesus and to hear and obey his voice only ought to detest all these false teachers that would so inthrall them especially they ought to abominate their practices because they make these their traditions Gods Ordinances But whereas my brother Burton saith that abundans cautela non nocet and that they look not so much at circumstances in conversion as the substance I affirme it is a most arrogant expression in any so to speak for in his thus speaking he makes as if it were in the power of poor mortall creatures to search mens hearts and judge of the secrets of the same which is onely Gods peculiar but that is not all but in this his expression there is a high strain of confidence in the man that he will seem to be wiser then Christ himselfe that was the King and Lawgiver of his Church and the mighty Councellour and yet he gave no precept for this abundans cautela and yet it is most certain that he revealed the whole will of his Father and his Disciples also delivered unto the church the whole counsell of God Act. 21. And yet neither Christ nor his Apostles did ever deliver this doctrine of walking with the church sometime nor never spake of this abundans cautela therefore I gather it is neither part of the will or councell of God that they injoyn this walking upon his people therefore all the true subjects of Jesus Christ and all his leige people ought to abominate and abhorre all such usurpers as my Brother Burton and his complices are that trample down the Laws of Christ our King and impose their own inventions and traditions upon his people for Christs Ordinances and Statutes And this shall suffice to have spak to what my brother Burton had to say to my second Quâ—rie To the third quaerie concerning the consent of the people and congregation my brother Burton replyes that it is answered before which was no answer to that quaerie But now learned I. S. comes in and Page 18.
like manner if they will still persist go on in these wicked and ungodly courses to seduce his people and pretend that they have authority from him for their preaching and practising of all these things notwithstanding they have neither precept nor example for them in all the holy Word of God that he may in justice let the devil loose upon them for the beating of them all out of their TUBS Certain I am they by all these their dealings highly provoke the Lord to jealousie and that daily so that if the Christian Magistrates do not take some speedy course for the vindicating of Gods Honor I do verily beleeve the Lord will from Heaven shew some fearful judgement upon this whole Kingdom and visit it with so many plagues and such sore calamities as all the Inhabitants thereof will desire wish that the Mountains may fall upon them and the Hills cover them from the presence of the Lamb and from him that sitteth upon the Throne the which that they may not happen upon this Nation shal be my daily constant prayer And this shal serve to have spake concerning the Church of Ierusalem the first formed Church and concerning the ordinary admission of members in it I will now come to the Church of Samaria and that of Corinth and Ephesus all formed Churches according to the Gospel-Form and briefly shew how members were admitted into them all and by whom and upon what conditions that all men may see there is no want of presidents to convince the Ildependents of their Grolleries In the eighth of the Acts it is related there that through the miracles of Philip and through his preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Iesus Christ they were baptized both men and women from the greatest to the least Verse 10 12. And were all admitted unto Church-fellowship and that by Philips sole authority and this his method of gathering of Churches was ratified by the authority of the Apostles Peter and Iohn and the whole Colledge of the Apostles at Ierusalem And this was a true formed Church after the New Testament Form For in this Christ himself had planted a Church and converted many as it is at large set down in the fourth Chapter of the Gospel of Saint Iohn and here it is said That the people with one accord gave heed unto those things that Philip spake and that there was great joy in that City Verse 6 8. And that they were all baptized both men and women Here we have neither any walking required at their hands for he better assurance either of Philip or the Church of the soundnesse of their conversion Here is no publike confession of their faith required before their admittance into Church-fellowship Here is no evidences of their conversion called for Here is no particular explicite covenant demanded of them Here is no consent of the people desired before their admission into Church communion and yet this was a Church established according to the Gospel-form So that according to the practice of the two Mother churches in Iudea and Israel all beleevers were admitted members and received into Church-fellowship without the conditions those of the Congregational way now require of all those of their new gathered Churches Whether therefore it be not a high presumption and arrogancy in all the Independents to slight the Laws of Christ the King of his Church and the example of Christ himself and the example of all the blessed Apostles I leave it to the judgement of all prudent and advised Christians I will now to satisfie my Brother Burtons desire visit some Churches of the Gentiles formed according to the New Testament Form and I will first in this visitation begin with that Church which he himself hath set before all Churches for a patern of imitation viz. the Church of Corinth In the eighteenth of the Acts it is recorded that when Silas and Timothy were come unto Paul to Corinth the Jewes refusing to receive the Gospel of Iesus Christ that hee shooke his rayment against them and said unto them your blood be upon your own heads I am cleare from hence-forth I will goe unto the Gentiles and departing thence hee entred into ones house named Iustus one that worshipped God and preaching the Gospel there it is said that Crispus a chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue beleeved on the Lord with all his house and many of the Corinthians hearing beleeved and were baptized Here wee see in a Church put into a Gospel forme the Members of that church were admitted by the sole authority of Saint Paul and that barely upon their hearing and beleeving for the Apostle required no other conditions of them for their admission into church Fellowship hee said not unto those many that were baptized that before they could be made Members of that church they must walke some time with the church that they might have experience of the truth of their conversion neither did he injoyn them for satisfaction of the people to make a publicke confession of their faith or to bring in the evidences of their conversion or to enter into any particular explicite covenant or to have the consent of the whole church nothing of all this did Paul require of the Corinthians in this church after the Gospel forme but following Christ the Kings commission upon their Faith Repentance and Baptisme hee hy his owne and sole authority admitted them The same way of admitting of Members wee shall find in the Church of Ephesus as it is at large to be seene in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts where the manner of admission of Members there is fully set downe and that was a Church also my Brother Burton sets downe amongst those that must be brought in for the making up of a compleate paterne now in all those Churches they were all admitted upon Christs owne termes and by the Apostles and Ministers sole authority without either walking sometime with the Church or without any publicke confession of their faith to the Congregation or bringing in their evidences or entring into any private explicite Covenant or without the consent of the people How unsufferable a thing therefore is it now then in all those of the congregationall way to demand other conditions of all their Members before they can be admitted into Church-fellowship with them then those that Christ the King of his Church and all his blessed Apostles demanded If this be not the highest point of presumption that was ever heard of I leave it to the consideration of the very ruggedest Independents upon due deliberation desiting they may all seriously lay it to heart and timely repent of it for if they doe not they will indeed be found fighters against God and dis-throners of Christ the King when they shall slight both his Lawes and example and the example of his blessed Apostles and the practise of all those glorious Gospel formed Churches and set up new Lawes and
a pattern of imitation to bind all Churches to the end of the world which both Master Knollys and my brother Burton learnedly inferre but as far as it makes for the advantage of the Presbyterian opinion and to shew that the Presbyters have the sole authority of admitting Members into Church fellowship from the example of Philip Ananias Paul in baptizing the Goaler and Lydia and Peters baptizing of Cornelius and admitting of him and those that were with him Members into Church communion by their sole authority without those conditions they propound and without the consent of the people then they cry out that they are extraordinary examples or meer extravagants Now whether this be not with the Papists to make the Word of God a nose of wax or a leaden rule that they may either work and mould it or bend it into what fashion they please I leave it to the judgement of the learned and experienced Christian But by the way also I desire the Reader to take notice what my brother Burton granteth viz. that the receiving of those Gentiles and the admitting of them by Peter into the Church by Baptism was to make them one Church with the beleeving Jews these are his own words From which it is sufficiently apparent that be men baptized and admitted into the Church either after an ordinary way or after an extraordinary it is sufficient to incorporate them into Church-fellowship both with the beleeving Jew and Gentile and to make them Members of Christs Church which is as much as I contend for So that it is most certain as those that are Members of any particular Church are by vertue of that Members also of the whole Catholique visible Church so in like manner those that are made Members of the Catholique visible Church may also by vertue of that be Members of any particular church for the Church of Christ is his Kingdome and it is but one Flock and one Sheepfold and there is but one Shepherd of it and King that governs it and therefore in whatsoever part of this Kingdome of Jesus Christ they are admitted Members and after what manner soever they be admitted whether in an ordinary or an extraordinary way they are Members of the whole Church and may communicate in all ordinances with any particular Church whatsoever as being subjects of Christs Kingdome and injoying all the immunities and priviledges that any of Christs subjects can challenge And all this I learn from my brother Burtons doctrine who so long as he holdeth out any truth unto me I will listen unto as he hath done in this point but no farther Again as all those viz. the Eunuch Paul Cornelius Lydia and the Goaler were admitted to be Members of Christs Church by the sole authority of the Ministers Evangelists and Apostles and without any of those conditions urged by the brethren so are all other Christians by the sole authority of the Presbyters to be admitted into church-fellowship and that upon Christs own conditions viz. Faith Repentance and Baptism Having upon the occasion of my brother Burtons and Hanserdoes words spake thus much I will now come to my Answer to them both And first whereas they peremptorily affirme from the interrogation of Peter to those that came along with him where he saith Can any man forbid water that these men should not be baptized c. that it doth imply that the brethren have power also of admitting Members into the church and ought to have their voices as in the receiving of them in so in the casting of them out It is a meer non sequitur and a very groundlesse illation and inference for the interrogation plainly manifests the contrary as will appear from other presidents and reason as for example in the eighth of the Romans ver 33. 34. Saint Paul saith Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Who is he that condemneth who shall separate us from the love of Christ All the which interrogations do not imply as the Apostle himselfe answereth that any creature can lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect or that any creature can condemn or that any creature can separate the Elect from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus Another instance to omit many we have of the same nature with that of Peter Acts 8. 35. Where the Eunuch said unto Philip See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized I demand of any whether or no this interrogation of his doth not imply as much as if he had said no creature now can hinder me from Baptism seeing that we have water that element that is appointed for it and I do beleeve And so much may be gathered from Philips Answer to him who saith nothing could hinder his baptism and admission into the Church if he did beleeve in Christ with all his heart whereupon the Eunuch answered I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he was forthwith baptized So that by this it is sufficiently manifest that that inference they would gather from Peters words cannot groundedly be made viz. that it is in the power of the people to hinder any as is yet more evident from Peters own words and reasons when he was questioned about this businesse in the 11. of the Acts the story whereof is there set down at large with Peters Answer to all their Objections Who told them ver 12. that the spirit bad him go with those that came from Cornelius nothing doubting c. saying in the conclusion of his discourse and that with an irresistible reason ver 17. For as much then as God gave them the like gifts as he did unto us who beleeved in the Lord Jesus Christ what was I that I could withstand God All the which discourse of Peter and this his reason do sufficiently prove that his interrogation saying Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptiâ—ed Doth not imply as my Brother Burton and Master Knollys would have it that it was in the power of those that were with Peter or any other to have hindred their baptism and admission into the church of Christ seeing they beleeved For if Peter himselfe should have refused it he had been disobedient to God himselfe and had doubted which he was forbidden and withall had resisted in as much as had been in him the spirit of God For so saith Saint Peter What was I that I could withstand God From which I gather and that by very good reason that all those of the congregationall way that will not admit all such as beleeve and are baptized into their new gathered churches without they walk some time with them and without the making of a publike confession of their faith and the bringing in of their evidences of their conversion and entring into a particular explicite covenant and without the consent of the whole church are all fighters against God and withstanders of his spirit And if they do
their own and therefore if the name of Presbyters be odious in the Ministers of the Church of England no reason can gainsay it but that they also should be as odious to the people as their brethren for they also are Presbyterians But that the truth may the better appear whether the Ministers of the Church of England or the Independent Ministers be most guilty of all the accusations laid to their charge it will not be a misse to compare the practice of the Ministers of the church of England and the proceedings of the Independent Ministers together and that both for their doctrine and discipline and in their severall studies and endeavours for the advancing of Christs Kingdome and by so doing it will be easie for any to judge which of their governments and which of the Ministers are more intolerable and which of them are most guilty of those foule reproaches the Ministers of the church of England are aspersed with by their Brethren for he hath a shallow understanding and a very dim sight that cannot discern whether those that advance Christs their Kings Word and Laws onely and follow his commission and the example of the holy Apostles in their Ministeries and that of John Baptist and the primitive Preachers or those that set up their own inventions and prefer them before the Laws of Christ and have neither precept nor president for their doings in all the holy Word of God He I say that cannot judge which of these most advance Christ for their King either those that obey Christs Laws or those that observe their own neglecting Christs is of a very shallow capacity But now let us compare them together the Ministers of the Church of England preach faith and repentance the Law and the Gospell according to Christs commission given to his Apostles and they receive all into the Church that beleeve and are baptized and such as but desire to be admitted they demanding of them what they should do to be saved and in their so doing they have both precept and presidents For Christ in his commission unto them hath given them authority so to do Neither did he ever say unto his Apostles and Ministers admit none into the church although they beleeve and are baptized without they walk with you some dayes weeks moneths or years that you may behold their conversation and manner of life and after you have had some tryall and experience of them see then that they make a publike confession of their faith before the church and give in the evidences of the truth of their conversion before the congregation and enter into a private and solemne Covenant and be admitted by the consent and approbation of the Church or otherwise if they will not submit themselves to this Law and come into the Church upon these conditions receive them not into your Assemblies nor admit of them for members Here is nothing of all this in Christs Commission nor in his holy Word nor any president of the same in sacred Authority and therefore John the Baptist and the holy Apostles and primitive Ministers admitted all that came unto them and such as but demanded of them what they should do to be saved and baptized them and received them into the Church without any gainsaying or question as we may see in the third of Luke and in the seventh chapter of the same book and in the second of the Acts and no sooner did the Eunuch desire baptisme but Philip granted it the Goaler did but aske Paul and Sylas What they should do to be saved and they said Beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house and it is related that the Goaler and all his were streight way baptized Acts 16. vers 31 32 33. that is they were forthwith admitted into the Church without either walking any time with the Church for their approbation or without either making a publike confession of their faith before the Church or giving in evidences of the truth of their conversion to the congregation or entring into a private covenant and without the consent and allowance of the Church And Christ notwithstanding was imbraced by them as their Lord and King and was preached by Paul and Silas as the Lord and King of his Church and was set up upon his Throne as King by them as well as he is in any Independent Churches and yet they had none of all their new borne truths and they could then see how to set up Christ upon his Throne without their new lights and as Christ was then by Paul and Silas and the other Apostles set upon his Throne as King in all those primitive Churches so he is at this day in all the true Protestant Churches through the world as well as in any of the Independent Assemblies and yet they were and are all ignorant of their new way so that any understanding christian may gather that all their new borne truths are no way requisite for the setting up of Christ as King in his Church nor for the advancement of Christs Kingly government for if they had Christ would have put them into the Apostles Commission and the Apostles who were led into all truth by the holy Ghost who brought whatsoever Christ had taught them concerning the Kingdome of God Act. 1. into their memories would have suggested all these things The new way the new borne truth the new lights to them that they might have been recorded if they had been necessary for the setting up of Christ upon his Throne but when neither Christ nor the holy Ghost nor the blessed Apostles have prescribed any of all these to the church nor called for them nor required them of any that desire to be saved or made Members of the church whether this be not a great temerity in any men to preach all these things as the lawes of Christ I leave it to the judgement of any ingenuous minded christian and whether this be not to preferre their own inventions and traditions before the commandements of God and the lawes of Christ the King of his church and whether this be not rather to set up themselves than Christ I referre it also to any judicious and impartiall christians to weigh and consider I shall now demand of any moderate christian therefore and let him answer me candidly whether of those Ministers and people most advance the Kingdome of Christ and acknowledge him to be their onely Lord and Law-giver that both in their teaching and beleeving follow his commission and Word and teach nothing nor beleeve nothing as they are injoyned but what Christ their King commands them or those that to the commission and commands of Christ adde their own inventions and traditions and preferre them before the lawes of Christ the King and Law giver of his Church I am confident if he will deale impartially he will answer me that those Ministers and that people most advance Christ for their King
to touch his anoynted people and forbad them to doe his Prophets any harme and by the speciall blessings that hee rained downe upon his people and by his miraculous preserving of them in fiery furnaces and in Lyons dens from the fury of Savage-beasts delivering them so often out of the hands of all their enemies he struck such a terror into the heathen nations that they durst not oppresse his people so that the singular providence of God who watcheth over them alwayes for good was their shield and Buckler so that what they did in tolerating them and their Religion was not of their good nature but it was Gods speciall favour towards his own peculiar people and for the maintenance of his owne cause and that Religion which they had learned from him and therefore those heathenish examples are not for Christians imitation to tolerate all Religions who are bound to obey Gods commandements and to follow the example of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and all the holy Prophets and Apostles who all of them have condemned the toleration of all Religions amongst his people and have denounced Gods judgements against them for so doing Againe wee must consider the principles of the heathen Philosophers and the practice of all wicked godlesse Politicians in all ages for the Philosophers though they were sufficiently convinced by their naturall reason that there was a God and that this God was the Author of all good and the punisher of all evill and therefore that he ought to be feared and served of all nations and people yet because they by that naturall light of understanding which was but darkenesse in them could not comprehend what that infinite Majesty and divine being and God-head was and were not in themselves able to set downe a description of him nor how to conceive of that invisible Deity nor what worship would be most pleasing unto him which they could never doe without God himselfe had revealed himselfe unto them as hee did to his owne people they served him after some traditions they had received from their Fathers and left all nations cities and families to serve God as they thought best and according to their owne vaine imaginations and for the Atheisticall Politicians of all ages all Religions are one to them who never regard any one more than another and therefore tolerate all for their owne base ends and thinke it best for the enriching of all their countries as the experience of all ages and histor es can sufficiently witnesse and many of them doe not refraine to say that Religion was onely brought into the world out of policy and to keepe people in awe so that God of his infinite goodnesse having the ordering of all mens hearts in his hands did so dispose of all things that by their owne principles they should give toleration of all Religions in their severall countries and jurisdictions so that his people being scattered here and there through other nations by their sinnes yet found this favour that they also for the most part enjoyed the liberty of their Religion though they met sometimes with most hot persecutions but all this is ever to be ascribed to God alone as I said before and to his overswaying providence and guidance who ever preserved those that trust in him and served him according to his revealed will though it be in Babylon it selfe and therefore it is not to be attributed to the good nature of the Heathen neither would that toleration now be tolerable in Christians who have learned Christ otherwise than to set up any Religion but that which he the King and Prophet of his Church hath taught them But now I will briesly answer to what they pretend out of Scripture and runne through the severall Objections drawne from thence And first to begin with that of Ioshua 21. where hee faith choose you this day whom you will serve c. In these words by their favour there is no toleration of many Religions for he was to follow the Law of God and not to decline from it either to the right hand or to the left Ioshua 1. and by that Law hee was forbid to suffer or tolerate any Religion but that which Moses had taught them and therefore those words were a meere scrutiny and to find out those that were idolaters to punish them as any wise governour may at any time make use of the like Querie to find out men not well affected to Religion or to their Countrey that by this meanes they may be brought to condigne punishment As if now any Officer or Commander under the Parliament should say to a company of men that hee was jealous of being desirous to discover them and find them out choose you this day who you will serve whether the King or the Parliament but for my selfe and my house wee will serve the Parliament would not any by and by gather that hee spake this onely to find out Malignants to punish them Even so Joshua a wise and religious governour did the same not that hee ever intended to give them a toleration of all religions for that had beene against the Law of God and against their owne example for in the 22. of Ioshua we reade that because the people had built but an Altar on the other side of Iordan they intended forthwith to make warre upon them a president to teach Christians that they may fight for their religion and they had gone out to battell against them and had destroyed them had they not given a satisfactory answer that they had no intent to bring in any innovation in Religion and therefoâ—e this is but a poore cavill Now for that they pretend out of Gamaliâ—ls speech Acts 5. verse 38 39. where hee saith Refraine from these men speaking of the Apostles and let them alone for if this counsell or this worke be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found fighters against God Ergo all Religions are to be tolerated This Objection doth sufficiently shew that our brethren the Independents that thus argue may well be made fellowes of Gotham Colledge as knowing not as yet their Primer in politicks nor their Catechisme in divinity For who knowes not that it is as easie with God who is of infinite wisedome out of mens foolishnesse to procure safety for his owne people as it was for him out of Achitophels wisdome to bring destruction upon himselfe and to turne his wisdome into foolishnesse for that which Gamaliel spake was neither as a wise man nor as a Christian for he would never be thought a wise man that hearing of any commotion in the Kingdome and had the power in his hands to suppresse it should say if it be of men it will come to naught but if it be of God if we shal oppose it we shall be found fighters against God and therefore let us let them alone would not all the world
offenders whether they be delinquents in doctrine or manners And although Christians by the Gospel are freed from the ceremoniall Law yet wee are not freed from the substance of it for he that said to the Israelites be ye holy as I am holy saith also to all Christians be ye holy as I am holy 1 Pet. 1. so that although the ceremony be abolished yet the substance remaineth still in force and although the rigor of the judiciall law be taken away and Christians are not tyed to that manner of administration of justice yet the equity of that law doth still continue and righteous judgements is every where amongst all Christians to be executed and satisfaction to be made to all such as have been unjustly damnified and although we are freed from the curse malediction and coaction of the morall law yet we are not freed from the obedience of it so that whatsoever was commanded in it to the Israelites or forbidden them the same is both commanded and forbidden to all Christians to the ends of the world and whatsoever was death by the law of God and nature then for ought I know ought to be punished with death now amongst Christians as blasphemors wizards witches idolaters and all such as despise Moses law under the mouth of two or three witnesses if they be people within the pale of the Church and make profession of the Christian Religion for Christians have nothing to do with those that are without to judge them except they offend against the civill and municipall laws of the Country and against the laws of nations and nature when they live amongst them for Christ came not to change the morall law but to ratifie it in all things And although the Sabbath be changed in respect of the day yet for the holinesse of the first day of the week which is the Christians Sabbath and which is in place of it I am confident it ought most carefully to be observed and that the whole day ought in all sanctity and holinesse to be kept and besides the fourth Commandment for the sanctification of a seventh day we have the example of the Primitive Christians and blessed Apostles who alwayes had their meetings on the first day of the week and spent the whole day in the duties of piety and charity for in the 20 of the Acts we read that on the first day of the week the Disciples came together to break bread that was for the hearing of the Word and for the administration of the Sacraments and for the exercising of all holy duties and that Paul preached there untill midnight and that when Eutichus was fallen downe with sleepe Paul restored him to life againe to all their comforts so that here we have one president that the whole Lords day wasspent by all those Christians in the workes of piety and charity Againe in the first of the Revelations Saint John saith that hee was in the Spirit on the Lords day that is the first day of the weeke called by Saint Iohn the Lords day and there the Angel preached unto him that day and commanded Saint Iohn to take so much of his Sermon by writing as God in his wisedome thought fit to reveale unto his Church and hee that shall diligently reade what is there written will gather that the whole day was taken up by Saint Iohn and spent in hearing and writing and meditating of what hee had heard for without doubt Saint Iohn made it his whole dayes worke to be spiritually imployed and as the holy Communion is called the Lords Supper and all the time of that action is holily to be imployed as being ordained by Christ himselfe to that end even so the Lords day being a day dedicated unro Christ and ordained by him for holy duties and for the hearing of the Word and for the administration of the Sacraments and prayer the whole day ought both privately and publikely to bee taken up in the imployments and workes of piety and charity as hearing reading meditating prayer repetition of Sermons in their Families and catechizing and instructing their children and servants singing of Psalmes in visiting the sicke and them that are in prison relieving the poore and necessitated c. These examples of the Primitive Christians are for our imitation for so Saint Paul in the third of the Philippians in the 17. verse saith Brethren bee followers together of mee and marke them which walke so as ye have us for an example for our conversation is in Heaven And in the 4. chapter verse 8. hee saith Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any prayse thinke on these things Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seene in me doe and the God of peace shall bee with you By the which testimonies to omit many more we are tyed to follow the examples of the Apostles and to imitate them in all that is holy and good and of good report now it is prayse worthy and of good report to spend the whole Lords day in holy imployments and wee have the Apostles examples and the Primitive Christians for so doing and therefore wee ought to spend the whole Lords day in the workes of piety and charity and by this the sanctifying of the Christian Sabbath which is every seventh day is ratified the prophanation of the which in the reformed Churches and in many places through these three Kingdomes has beene one of the causes of all those heavie judgements the whole Christian world now groanes under and so much more would the Lord bee provoked by the toleration of all Religions amongst us which would give just occasion of violating of all the Commandements of God and of disobedience both to God and man for it is most sure that the Morall Law is not altered in any thing for substance and that God that by it injoyned but one Religion to the Israelites and commanded them to keepe that pure and undefiled and to punish all Idolaters Blasphemers and Seducers hath injoyned the same to all Christians and hath not suffered or permitted them to tolerate all Religions or any sects or heresies which by the Apostle in the fifth of the Galatians are called the workes of the devill who declareth there also that they that do them shall not enter into the Kingdom of God So that those that would bring in a toleration of all Religions have a desire to send men to the devill which is one of the greatest impieties and wickednesses that can bee perpetrated by the sonnes of men Truly if God had such a care for the preserving of the very natural life of man that charissimum animal as hee made a Law that it should be death in any to tolerate or suffer any beast to goe at liberty and range abroad if
corrupt Courts in the Kingdome yet even in those Courts there was an appearance of justice in this kind so that if any man had any just exception against any mans testimony if it did not totally overthrow their witnesse which it many times did yet it so enervated their evidence that it was never so valid and prejudicall to him as otherwise it would have been as you your selfe can witnesse it was in my cause in the High Commission Court where I making it appear by sufficient witnesse that Thomas Newcomin and John Danet and Richard Daniel had formerly been expunged in the Chancery for Knaves and had for that out of malice put me up into it were all my adversaries and perjured varlots their testimony by the whole Court was rejected and they were by them all accounted a company of Knaves all over soul and body for so some of the Court said of them and I was onely condemned for my book And this part of Justice in many causes remained even in those Courts in the worst of times in all Courts of the world there was ever leave and liberty given unto the accused to make his just defence and bring in the evidences of his own innocency and non-guiltinesse his just exceptions against both his accusers prosecutors and witnesses and this by the very law of nature for so said Festus that it was not the manner of the Romans to condemn any before they had been brought face to face with their adversaryes and that they had bin fully heard what they could speak for themselves for otherwise if they had condemned any without either of the former conditions they had not proceeded according to law nor condemned them judicially Fourthly those that are judged judicially and according to the Lawes of God and nations they must ever be within the jurisdiction of that Court and of those that judge them and under their Lawes Neither doe any wise Judges take any cognizance of things without their jurisdiction and if any should bee so unjust or unadvised to attempt any such thing the party accused hath the benefit of his Appeal as wee see in the cause of Paul when hee appealed from the Tribunall of the Jewes to Caesars Barre And all men know that the Courts of one Countrey doe not judge and condemne the subjects that dwell in an other and that are under an other government yea the Courts secular and the Courts Ecclesiasticall even in the same Kingdomes and Common-wealths doe not intermeddle with one an others imployments except it be by speciall appeale which is granted unto them by some caution upon just occasions but they leave each Court to the managing of those causes that are of speciall cognizance there and within their jurisdiction for otherwise it would breed confusion speedily in a Country and therefore those distinct Courts and Jurisdictions take the cognizance of those things onely that are peculiar and proper to themselves and within their spheare and never intermeddle and exercise any power over others that are out of their jurisdictions be they never so facinorous or accused of never so high a crime yea if any information or accusation be put up against any man into any Court be it true or false if the Judges conceive that the parties impleaded against belong unto an others jurisdiction they will send them thither to be judged and decline sentencing of them and this method of judgement the very Law of nature teacheth all men yea Pontius Pilat though a most wicked and unjust Judge yet understanding that Christ was of Galilee of which Herod was the Tetrarcke or Governour and conceiving him to be under Herods jurisdiction he sends him forthwith unto Herod intimating that the examination and tryall of his cause peculiarly belonged unto him if Christ were judicially to be proceeded against Yea Paul himselfe saith What have I to doe to judge those that are without Those that were without in Pauls opinion and under an other jurisdiction hee professed that hee had nothing to doe with them The fifth thing required for the judiciall proceeding and handling of any cause is this that they that are to be Iudges may not be both parties witnesses prosecutors Iury and Iudges in the same cause for it they be they cannot be said judicially to give sentence All that I now write unto you Brother I am confident your conscience tels you is just and true Now in all nations and well governed Kingdomes and countries if there have beene any faylings in either of these conditions and requisites the subjects have the benefit of the Law against both their Prosecutors and Iudges and may appeale unto the King or supreame Court of judicature in the Kingdom crave justice there against such Iudges and such proceedings and if they cannot obtaine justice there God will call them to an account one day for it for in the judgement of all men such proceedings have ever beene counted illegall and unjust and all those Iudges that have at any time given sentence without observing those rules and conditions did never censure any man judicially neither can their judgement be said to be judiciall in any just mans understanding Now Brother if your proceeding against mee be examined by these rules and by such men as are judicious and truly godly without faction you will not be thought judicially to have censured condemned me for it is most certain you have not in all the carriage of this busines beene a judiciall Iudge for in this your sentence you have gone against all the Lawes of God and nature yea against the practice of the most corrupt Courts in the world in that you have accused me arraigned me and condemned mee without either Articles Bill Libell saving your owne Booke allegation or information and without any lawfull citation into your Court or any Court you have also condemned mee before I knew who were my Accusers and that without hearing mee ever speake for my selfe yea you have condemned and adjudged me an innocent man withou any lawfull witnesse for as I am not conscious to my selfe of ever having done any thing that deserves convention before any Court of Iud icature in this world much lesse to have sentence given against mee so I am most assured that if ever these your dealings against mee shall be brought to a tryall and a judiciall hearing indeed as they may be if the time once grows more quiet I shall make it clearly and evidently appeare that the ground of this your beastly accusation brought against me viz. that I am a scandalous Walker to the shame of the very name of Christian Religion did first arise from one of the most infamous notorious creatures though an Independent that now lives upon earth for all manner of villanies a shame dishonor to her name kindred known to be one of the most prodigious impudent Whores that is this day in the world except the Whore of Babylon and yet
name of the King or Emperour and for any Magistrate or any Court to issue out any writ warrant mandate or summons in their owne name and by their owne authority makes them fall into a Praemunire and makes them guilty laesae majestatis so that all warrants run in the name of the King or Emperour and whosoever fayleth in this kind as not to command in the Kings or Emperours name doth make himselfe a Delinquent and this if I am not mistaken was one of the charges against the Prelate of Canterbury that hee issued out writs and summons in his owne name or in the name of his Court. Now Christ is the eternall King of his Church that immortall and mighty Potentate in whose name all the Prophets of old â—ssued out all their warrants and mandates speaking ever to the people in the name of the Lord saying thus saith the Lord nothing was done in the name of the Church or in the name of any creature in those dayes and God never changed the stile of issuing out his warrants neither did Christ resigne his regall dignity or put it into the hands of the Church but is still their King and he keepes the same tenure still all through the New Testament as well as through the old commanding that all should be done in the name of God saying Matth. 28 19. Goe ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you all even to the end of the world amen By the way take notice the very Apostles themselves were limited what to preach they might not exceed their bounds they must teach nothing but what Christ the King of his â—hurch commanded them but Christ never taught his Apostles or any of his true Ministers to issue out any thing in their owne name for that was the custome of all false Teachers neither did hee ever teach them to issue out any thing in the Churches name or say unto them at at any time what you doe in all Administrations let it be done in the Churches name Christ I say taught nothing of all this that is but the new blasphemous stile of our new gathered churches and of our new church officers who J. S. sayes must exercise their authority Iurisdiction in the name of the church whereas Christ our King and Law-giver as in the place above quoted so in Mark 16. v. 17. In my name saith he they shall cast out Devils c. all in the church was to bee done by all the faithfull Ministers and people of God in Christs name the King of his church And so S. Peter accoring to his Masters command in his Sermon in the 2. of the Acts preaching unto all the people and new converts sayes nothing to them in the name of the Church but in the 38. verse saith Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ c. Hâ—e was a faithfull officer and did nothing in the churches name hee was not acquainted with our new Divinity and in the 3. chapter when hee cured the Creeple verse the 6. In the name of Iesus Christ of Nazareth saith hee rise and walke and so Saint Paul had learned his Lesson well who when hee cast out the spirit of Divination out of the Damosell in the 16. of the Acts verse 18. saith unto it I command thee in the name of Iesus Christ to come out of her and hee came out at the same houre Nothing was done in those dayes in the Churches name but in the name of their King Iesus Christ to omit many other places we have a speciall command in the 3. of the Coloss verse 17. whatsoever you doe saith the Apostle in word or deed doe all in the name of the Lord Iesus giving thankes to God and the Father by him all Christians are bound to doe all in Christ their Kings name Yea the Apostle in the 1 of the Corinth the fifth chapter verse the 3. and 4. teaching the Corinthians and in them all Christians in whose name all acts of Church governemt should be managed and exercised saith I verely as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already that hee that hath done this doed in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Iesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may bee saved in the day of the Lord Iesus Here the Apostle teacheth all Ministers of all Churches that as all beleevers are to be received into the Church in the name of the Lord Iesus their King so when any for their disorderly walking are to be cast out they are to exercise all those acts of government and to cast them out in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ their King hee knew nothing of this new stile that our Independents and learned I. S. publish to the world who in terminis saith that that Authority and Iurisdiction that is proper to the officers is to be exercised in the name of the Church these are his words in the name of all his brethren saying the Officers ordaine and they pronounce excommunication they leade and direct in al government disputes have the executive power but the people have a power and interest too that is in his learning the officers must yet exercise their power and Iurisdiction in the name of the Church so that the Ministers are but the churches servants at pleasure and their executioners This is our American Divinity so that whereas wee are taught by Christ himselfe and all his blessed Apostles to doe all in the Church in the name of Christ our King these our confiding brethren and our Itinerary Ill-dependent Predicants have brought in a new stile of exercising all acts of church government and that not in Christ the Kings name but in the name of the Church and whereas the Church of Jesus Christ is the most absolute Monarchy in the world in the which all things should be done and acted according to his command and in his name they have changed this Monarchy into so many thousand sucking Democrasies or rather so many Anarchies in all the which they transact all things and send out all their Writs Warrants in the name of their severall new Churches and so have dis-throned Christ whom notwithstanding they pretend to set up as King in his Church But whether in this their so dealing with Christ and with his people and subjects they are not more Independently and arrogantly blasphemous then the Pope himselfe or any Prelates that ever the world yet saw I leave it to the saddest thoughts deepest consideration of all such as truly love the Lord Iesus and desire from their soule the glory of his Kingdome and
that hee may be our sole Monarch and eternall King and may perpetually rule in his Church and have all things done in his alone name and according to his owne appointment to the judgement I say of all such cordiall subjects of Iesus Christ and to their seriousest thoughts and censures I leave the consideration of this weighty busines I am confident they will conclude their blasphemy was yet never paralleld by the very Pope himselfe or by any of his shavelings who were never yet so notoriously usurping and iniurious to Christ the King of his Church as to send out their Mandates in their owne name but all things issued out in in nomine domini hence came up the Proverbe when they heard of any thing from the Pope that they usually said in nomine domini incipit omne malum for he always pretended to do al in the name of Christ the King for that stile notwithstanding did that man of sinne ever observe and keepe continually ever setting forth his grolleries in nomine domini whereas our Independent Brethren act all their baggatelly and trifling busines in the name of their severall churches their officers ever saying when they carry or bring any learned Messages one from an other that they come in the name of the churches and what they doe they would have them know they doe it as officers in the name of the church Christs name the King of his church is never so much as heard amongst them in the transacting of their church affaires so that wee may truely say that whatsoever they pretend of setting up Christ as King upon his Throne their practise sheweth the contrary for in the government of all their severall churches they act all not in the name of Christ but in the name of their several churches so that Christ the Kings name is not so much as mentioned amongst them as wee have learned not onely from their daily practise but from I. S. and our American monstrous Divinity To all that I have said for proofe that all the Independents by their doctrine disthrone Christ and set themselves in his place whiles they most of all pretend they set him up upon his Throne I may for a corallary add their new traditions and practises which they impose upon all the Members of their severall new gathered churches as the commandments of God and as the practises of the Saints of old and injoyne them and urge them as the statutes ordinances and decrees of God yea I might here farther shew how they practice contrary unto Christ's the King and Lord of his Church commands For whereas he sending out his Disciples and Apostles setting down the conditions upon which all men should be admitted into the Church which were to repent and beleeve and to bebaptized in token of their beliese and repentance which whosoever should accept of and imbrace they should thereupon be received into Church fellowship the Illdefendents notwithstanding regard not Christs commands but unto it add their own vain traditions for the which they have neither precept nor president in all holy writ nor the practice of any well reformed church and they force men to conforme unto them or else there can be no admission howsoever they offer themselvs to do as much as Christ their King commands them to do And whereas Christ the King of his church layd the Government of it upon the shoulders of none but his Ministers to whom he had given the Keyes the Il-dependents not onely dispense with this law at pleasure but absolutely oppose it for contrary unto this law is their doctrine and practice who teach that the power and interest lies in the people and that is their part and that the Ministers are to exercise their authority and jurisdiction in the churches name and so they spoile the Ministers of their power and invest the people with it and give lawes unto the people of God yea unto the Lawâ—iver Christ himselfe whether all these dealings therefore of the Illdependents with many more paslages of the like nature that might be produced if not worse be not to disthrone Christ when they slight his Laws and prefer their own traditions before the commandments of Christ the King of his church and revile and reproach his servants and officers offering all the indignity that can be committed against men to them all I leave it to the judgement of the wise and godly Again I refer it to the wisdome of any discerning spirit to consider and judge what difference there is between the Sectaries and the Pope and his conclave in this point whenas they both assume all authority to themselves and take it from the Ministers and make them but their executioners Surely they will finde them both equally guilty and both Antichristian in rebelling in all things against Christ For Christ saith to all men that they that despise his Ministers despise him and they that despise and slight Christ in as much as in them lies they disthrone him and therefore when all the Independents dayly practice all the malifices above mentioned and that in a higher manner and strain pretend they what they will of setting up Christ upon his Throne they plainly disthrone him dishonour him which may yet further appear if we consider some of their other passages for it is well known that some of the chiefe pillars in their houses and churches those Atlasses that some of them confide so much in for their strength and so much extoll for the preaching up of Christs Kingdome and for the setting of him up upon his Throne I say some of these as it is well known have upon the Frontispices of their Pamphlets set this title Against Jesu Worship Now although it be praise worthy in any in maintenance of Gods true worship and service to write against all Idolatricall or Superstitious worship of the true God or Jesus yet it is a thing no way beseeming any Christian to write agaist God Worship and Iesu-Worship which are both commanded because that some faile and erre in the manner of the Worship of either God the Father or God the Sonne Yea it would have been thought in any Christian Nation an unsufferable thing to have tolerated the very reading or publishing of any books with such a title and inscription though the matter in them might have been good for no man much lesse a Christian oâ—ght to write against Iesu-Worship no more then he ought to write against God-Worship for Iesus also is God blessed for ever the eternall Son of the eternall Father who hath commanded all his Disciples Iohn 5. To worship the Son as they worship the Father Now then if it be an unsufferable thing to write against God-Worship no lesse intolerable is it in any to write against Iesu-Worship and all such as write such books and all such as allow of them and approve of them and their authors let them pretend what they will of setting up Christ upon