to us further encouragement and punishing us not for Conscience since none hath suffered because he was for Presbytery or against Episcopacy but for unruly humors and practices Sir if our complainings and mournings were according to their just causes viz. our high handed Rebellion against God unparalleled breach of Covenant perjurious subversions and alterations of the Ordinances of God aswel as the Laws of the Land with the profanity ignorance and violence that have thence abounded and filled the whole Land neither should I or any of the fearers of the Lord have eyes to write or read this my vindication It is true all this iniquity and mischief is introduced and established by form of Law and thence you take the impudence to smooth it over as if there were no more in it then the alteration of Laws nay as if what before the Act Law made were righteously refused out of conscience after the accession of an humane injunction could not be forborn but out of humor And as if Conscience and Laws could not inteâ—â—ere you go on to tell us That the reason of our suffering is neither our adhering to Presbytery nor our nonâ— compliance with Episcopacy but only our unruly humors and practices But seing the colour of Law which you pâ—etend is indeed no relief of conscience but the greatest aggravation of that Apostacie and persecution whereof we complain and that notwithstanding of any reproch wherewith you do slander it the true cause of all our sufferings is none other then our stedfastness in the Oath of God binding us to the maintenance of Presbytery and extirpation of your Prelacy And lastly seing that we bemoan no violence either to death banishment bonds or spoile which the taking of your Declaration against the Covenant would not certainly have prevented the witness of our cause and sufferings who is in Heaven heareth and will reprove your lies As for our excess you say We make complaints to to God as if Heaven and Earth were mixed and adapt all the lamentations of Ieremiah to our sorry matters comparing the overthrow of Presbytery to the Babylonish captivity But oh that the causes of our grief were thorowly weighed and the hainousâ—ess of our provocations with the calamities come upon Gods House Ordinances and Servants laid in the balance together certainly then you should more regrete our defect then now you mock at our excess And in asmuch as sin is more grievous then judgment and judgments spiritual heavier then judgments temporal Nay Gospel Ordinances more precious then these of the old dispensation You would judge the overthrow of Presbytery visibly accompanied with breach of Covenant and the rejecting and expelling of the Lords ministry far more important at least in these respects whatever other aggravations there might have been in that distress then the Babylonish captivity To these objections you adde Now were your way what you imagine you should rejoice that you are called to suffer for it and not make such tragical complaints Who ever heard such ridiculous discourse in such a serious purpose Your N. C. doth only plead for a due concerning regard to the state of the Church and the interests of Iesus Christ you your self allow a fervent solicitude to God-ward in behalf of His Glory and the good of His People And we do not only propose for imitation the practice and exercise of Gods Servants who both of old of late in all times have from the love zeal of Gods Glory made the desolation of Gods Sanctuary the corrupting and removing of his Ordinances with the persecutions of his People matter of heavy complaint and deep mourning but do also greatly rejoice in that grace and glory whereby the Lord hath countenanced and beautified the tryals of particular sufferers amongst us no lesse then these of any other his Martyrs upon record And yet after you have confounded the complainings of the Lord's People of old for the desolations of his Sanctuary with their concernment in their own private losses and falsely and vainly distinguished betwixt the duty and deportment of Gods People under the old and under the new dispensation in order to afflictions you say dully without any connexion or regard to the mixtures of the cup of Gods People Our way is not what we imagine els we should rejoice that we are called to suffer for it But the Lord who giveth us both strength and joy in our sufferings doth also know and hear our mournings and will reprove your mocking But you say That our bitternesse against our enemies looks nothing like the mildnesse of Christ or the primitive Sufferers How long will you love vanity and seek after leasing That we approve not bitternesse against our persecutors upon any account is our serious profession whereunto our practices ought to be conform But with all that we hate their way pray that they may lay aside their opposition to the cause and people of God otherwise that such troublers were even cut off and when God enables and calls do stand up for the defence of the Gospell and our selves against evill doers is so far from jarring with primitive precedents that both Scripture Reason and the practice of all times do allow it And really Sir when I consider these your discourses so directly tending to the blunting nay extinguishing of all zeal for God and the perswading of a stupid not patient endurance of all injuries under the pretext of Christian Resignation that wickedness and violence so much at present prevailing may the better be estabilished as I cannot but regrete this point of your conformity to primitive examples not indeed these of Christians but of their persecutors who in the madnesse of their wickedness did often wheâ— their violence and intende their cruelty to the persecuted by their scornful reciting of the gospell precepts to patient suffering So I must tell you my fears that your pretendings to the serene and dove-like spirit are only collours to palliat your deep deceit and malice But making your N. C. decline your instance of the primitive Christians with a vain scoff of your own suggesting that far fowls have â—air feathers and appeal to the practice of late Reformers as such who universally resisted the Magistrate out of an exceding veneration as you pretend to the same Reformers you do undertake from undeniable evidence of History to convince us of the falshood of that vulgar error that the Reformation was carryed on by resistance But here in the entrance you must give me leave though I acknowledge that you take no advantage from it first to rectify your expression that the Reformation in many places where opposed by force was maintained by resistance Is that which we with as plain and full an evidence as can be instanced in any matter of fact do very confidently assert But that it was carried on by resistance Is not only inconsistent resistance sounding rather for the defence then the advance of any cause
208. l. 32. For r. To. p. 215. l. 17. r. fealty ibid. l. 34. r. and any p. 217. l. 3. r. That p. 220. l. 2. r. our p. 228. â—l 9. r. 1590. ibid. l. 10. r. doubted p. 242. l. 8. r. on p. 252. l. 9. r. one p. 253. l. 7. r fervent p. 269. l. 29. r. pattern p. 284. l. 17. r. ridiculous p. 341. l. 16. r. mostly p. 387. l. 6. r. mitigated p. 391. l. 31. r. ashamed p. 572. l. 14. r. this p. 496. l. 8. r. maintained p. 502. l. 17. r. convinced ibid. l. 18. r. qualifies Reader what others thou may find through a letter wanting or redundant or one for another or through a comma colon or the like misplaced or wanting thou mayest correct as thou readest The first DIALOGUE Answered SIR If I premise that your modest and free conference doth obviously appear to me to be rather a phantastick rancountre of a mocking Conformist and a Mock-Non-conformist it is not from any design to preoccupy by so severe a character but only to releeve both you and my self of the fruitless observation and tedious prosecution of the many impertinencies incident to such a practice and therefore as you are not to expect my particular noticing of the high pretensions weak replyes faint cedings ridiculous evasions plain concessions and flattering insinuations whereunto you prompt your Puppet-non-conformist either for your own advantage or diversion so in the tracing of these things that seeme to be more serious and important in your Dialogues I promise you all the candor and calmness whereof I am capable Yea though your double dealing in this cause which not content to impugne as a Conformist you go about also as a Non-conformist to betray might well warrant a more sharpe and large animadversion both upon your end and method yet being only desirous of truths vindication and in the occurrence of so many temptations justly jealous of my own infirmitie I do here francklie cease from and lay aside all wrath and bitterness that I sin not and shall as sincerely distinctly as I can review and answere your reasonings as they ly Before you fall to your direct accusations you suggest 1. That the Non-conformists do boast of their way as the Glory 2. That their Ministers tell them only of Christs death which is not to preach him 3. That they study more to convince them of the need of Christs Righteousness then of having anâ— of their own 4. That Non-conformists think they may quite the Communion of the Church if in their opinion noâ— in the truth in every point 5. That in former times they repressed some sins specially of the flesh but scarcely in a Gospel way and as for other sins were very gentle to them Nay were themselves guiltie of them Sir were I not very loath to irritate you in the entrie I would tell you that to commence your conference with such groundless odious and incoherent hints which you dare not positively affirme is more agreeable to a design of prejudice then to the charitie you so amply professe But to particulars to the first that the Non-conformists do boast of their way as the Glory 1. We bless our God our Glory who hath made all the manifestations and means of his Grace Glorious these are the overflowings of the excellent Glory by the streames whereof all our gloryings and praises ought to be carried back to concentred in and swallowed up of the Ocean-fountain whence they proceed 2. The Scripture is plain that Jesus Christ the Prince of Glorie in the revelation of his Glorious Gospel hath made the ministration thereof so farre to exceed in Glory that even he himself accounteth the Messengers thereof his Glory Whether these things be not sufficient to justifie both the Non-conformists boasting and regrete needeth not my assertion Sure I am if a pure Ministrie not modelled by the policy and pride of man but singly squared to our Lords institution if able Ministers of the New Testament declaring all the Counsel of God and imparting the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel And lastly if the growing and Multiplying of the word of God and his peoples desire after and rejoicing in it have any lustre of this Glory the present sad catastrophe whereby all these have been so wickedly and wofully changed to their contraries may more justly move every concerned serious soul to a lamentation for the departed glory then these occasions that first produced that complaint If you judge these to be swelling words of vanitie remember that as I do speak the true Non-conformist so it is your part by this your conference more solidly to redargue him The second thing you suggest is that the Non-conforming Ministers tell us only of Christs death which is not to preach Christ. Sir this allegeance short as it is presents it self with a disgust that I can scarce express Not that I think the Non-conformists are thereby in the least noted Nay on the contrarie I am confident that in whatsoever sense you are able to render the accusation pertinent the Non-conformists are most free to deny it and that with the universall evidence of all their unprejudicate hearers and the unanimous testimony of all their confessions and writings extant And whether this be more to their advantage or your dishonour I hope you will consider But that which in my heart I detest is to hear the glorious subject of the precious death of Christ so both slighted and narrowed within its Scriptural acceptation by such a Cold restrictive If the Apostle Paul desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified and Gloryed only in his Cross If the death of Christ doth necessarily suppose and did certainly confirme his preceeding Testament nay if in the Gospel it be often mentioned as the substance and root of all had you no fitter words for your intended accusation of N. C. then that they tell us only of Christs death I know your meaning viz. That to tell people onely of an interest in Christ while they are strangers to his Laws and Gospel is to deceive them is as sound as it is untruly charged upon the Non-conformists Neither would I have taxed an innocent lapse in the phrase observed but it s too visible tendencie to the discredite of the doctrine of Justification by the bloud of Christ and to the new rationall Method of more exalting our righteousness to an equality with his merit then pressing it in Conformity to his life and love is the cause of my aversion The Non-conformists therefore do indeed tell us of the death of our Lord Jesus not with your ill appropriat and restringent only but do preach to us alwayes and principally this doctrine of his Cross as that whereby both the great mean of our reconciliation â— and the strongest motive best pattern and most certain assurance of our dying unto sin and living unto God wherein our Sanctification consists are held forth 3.
You say that you feare the Non-conformists do study more to convince us of the need of Christs Righteousness then of having any of our own 'T is answered this your suggestion is a great confirmation of my reflection on your last passage I have already shewed that the fear whereby you usher it in hath no reall nor palpable ground none were more serious sound and powerful in the pressing of holiness then the men you would accuse Neither do I stand to appeal to the fruites of their Ministery notwithstanding of your cavilling at our practice but I have a greater fear of your fear that it prove only proud reason spurning at the righteousnes of Jesus Christ and aspiring to adde a Mantissa an addition of your own to his sole purchase If I could conceive you a man to propose feares both groundless and designless I might be judged uncharitable but the certainty of the first by removing the second too plainly justifies my apprehension beside your fear is so solicitous for your own righteousnes that it doth not so much as allow the righteousness of Jesus Christ to be more pressed and yet you know that not only his righteousnes as being the price spring and acceptation of ours doth therefore acclaime an infinite preference but that the conviction of its necessity by reason of the untoward reluctancie of the pride of reason and blindness of unbeleefe doth require a more powerful perswasion And therefore I must again tell you that I almost suspect your insinuation of a very deep tincture of a greater Sophistrie then that which you give warning against but seing you do profess to beleeve that Christ came to lay down his life a ransome for our sins and Non-conformists are perswaded that without holiness we shall never see the face of God it is certainly the better part for me to applaud your good agrâ—ement Only that you may be assured of this necessarie holinesse and also of its acceptance see that you hold fast Jesus Christ as the sole foundation for he it is who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousnes and Sanctification and Redemption And remember that although Non-conformists love not to talk much of their own righteousnesse at best both freely bestowed and as in us Viatores while we are in the way such as of it self can no wayes endure the consuming fire of divine jealousie yet they not only subscribe to your necessity of holinesse but further do beleeve with joy that it is impossible for any man to lean truely and entirely unto Christ who doth not imbrace him and have him both his Redâ—emer Lawgiver and Sanctifier 4. You suggest that Non-conformists think they may quite the communion of the Church If in their opinion nor in the truth in every point at least you will have this to be the case betwixt you and your Non-conformist Really might it not offend your reverence I would remit you to Eph 4. 25. and abide the reproof of the 26. without more answer but because 't is like the sottishnesse of the person you confer with hath induced you to this mistake beleeve me in name of all true Non-conformists that as they do not think they may quite the Communion of the Church if in their opinion not in the truth unless the difference be both reall in profession practice so it is not every reall difference in profession or practice that they hold to be a sufficient cause Nor do they judge that even the cause being sufficient the separation should be alwayes carried to the extremity but the sound and clear rule which they propose for Christian practice in this matter is that where the controverted difference is such as would render a conjunction therein either sinful or contagious then a just and proportionat sepaâ—ation precisely and with all tenderness Commensurate to the exigence is the safer course As for your conceit stating the cause of Separation upon difference of opinion in a truth of greater importance then the article of our faith the Catholick Church the communion of Saints the examining of it by what I have said plainly discovers both its mistake and ambiguitie In the next place let me tell you in behalf of honest Non-conformists that the true reason of their present withdrawing is none other then what you allow That they account themselves bound to obey God in adhering to their true Pastors and disowning Intruding-hirelings rather then man commanding the contraire I will not digress to a more particular inquirie since you are pleased to carry your Non conformist by it but if you had made him give this answer together with a clear condescendence I doubt not but either he or I had made it out I might here take notice how smoothly and perswadedly you suppose that Non-conformists do separate from the Church although they for the most part think your conceiting your partie to be the Church no better founded then the rest of your usurpations but because this point will againe occurre I proceed to your 〈◊〉 hint that in former times Non-conformists repressed some sins specially these of the flesh but fcâ—rce in a Gospel way and for other sins were very gentle to them nay were themselves guiltie of them Sir your suggestion being so general and groundless I only wish that its latter part were as void of malice as its former is farre from truth I know that all men are sinners and heartily desire that all Non-conformists may be serioussly warned throughly and impartially to search and examine their wayes and unfainedly to repent of their transgressions Nay though the frequencie and high import of your generall accusations render the sinceritie of your meeknes in forbearing particulars many wayes suspected yet I urge it not Only remember that as I disown the Patrocinie either of mens failings or infirmities so I do as little hold the work of God chargeable with any such extrinsick and accidentall objections but should thy impudence make men hold their peace and when thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed When you offered to reflect upon the infirmities and failings of former times might not and should not the present irreligion and wickednesse every were abounding which are not only connived at by your Church-men but do visibly go forth from them into all the Land for they commit lewdnesse and walk in lies they strengthen also the hands of evil doers that none doth returne from his wickednesse have confounded you unto silence Certainly this your procedour cannot but suggest to all sober men that too applicable passage of the Gospel And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye And thus Sir I am arrived at your plain and set impugnation of the N. C. courses And to begin
you in a word what is the reason that the Christian world doth not patiently stretch out its neck to the Turkish Cruelty Sure you are not ignorant that the pretended cause of his invasions hath often been to destroy the Christian Faith if then the spirituality of Christs Kingdom doth altogether prohibite his Servants fighting wherefore do not Christian States and Princes lay down their Carnall defensive weapons and rest quietly in this that God who governs the world can maintain his own right and the wrath of man doth not work his righteousnesse as you are pleased to Cant to your N. C. I know the only reply you can make is that the case of free Estates and Soveraigne Princes against foreiners is very different from that of Subjects against their Rulers but doth not this plainly discover the Sophistrie of your Method you tell us first that Subjects may not fight for Religion against their persecuting Prince because the spirituality of Christs Kingdom forbids all fighting upon that account And then when you are urged with the incontrovertible practice of Christian Kingdomes you just recurre say that the instance not being of Subjects against their Prince doth not quadrat and not remembring that this is the very quaesâ—â—um you make the vain and emptie assertion of the irresistibilitie of Princes without any proofe both head and tail of all your reasonings I may not insist to tell you that if the spirituality of Christs Kingdom did cause the King of Kings and him who even on earth owned himself greater then Solomon to suffer without resistance The Soveraignity of Christian Princes cannot give them a contrary privilege I know these of your way and many others also carried away with their error forgetting both the Authority which Christ exercised and for which he was questioned by the jewish Rulers and also his own most expresse words no man taketh my life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again stick not to make an obligation of subjection to the then Tyrannes Murtherers an ingredient in his submission but I am tedious More consideration of the worth and wonderful love of our Lord Jesus Christ would teach you no doubt both a better understanding in the Truth of God and more reverend and tender vindications then these you make of the True and Faithfull Witness You proceed in the next place upon occasion of your N. C. alledging that you condemne our first Reformation carried on by Fighting to tell us that the ages immediatly after Christ afford the best examples in these the Christians though suffâ—â—iently numerous and cruelly irritate did onlâ— increase by suffering and not by fighting the force used in our Reformation was the enemies tares and no precedent of men is to be opposed to the expresseâ— word of God Sir to begin where you leave I hope I have already fully cleared that the expresse word of God is against you and not for you neither will I expatiat upon the undeniable Necessitie Righteousnesse Reason and evident blessing of that Force used in our first Reformation by which our Religion Libertie yea the Royall line and Crown were under God only preservedâ— Nay your reprochful likening of it to the devils tares is so far from lessening the evidence of that Spirit which after having resisted unto bloud and wrestled through many great and strong persecutions did animate the Lords people to a very noble defence countenanced by all the then Reformed Churches that it doth not so much as demurie my charitie that if you your self had been in these dayes you had taken part with the Congregation That which I shall stay a little upon is the practice of the Primitive Christians whereby you think fighting for Religion to be as much condemned as suffering is highly commended And because this objection doth lead unto the delightful search and vindication of the works of God for answere I observe first that as in the holy and determinate Counsel of God it became the Captain of our Salvation to be made perfect through suffering so it pleased him for the greater manifestation of the power of his Grace by the Foolishnesse of Preaching and Weakeness of Suffering to render the propagation of his Truth more glorious and thus in the first times of the Gospel the greater the crueltie and the more ineluctable that the necessity of the suffering was the more inexpressible was the glory of that presence and the joy of that consolation whereby the Church in its deepest distresse did most highly triumph 2. So unspeakeablie did the power of this assistance prevail to the dispelling of the fear and removing of the horrour of all these torments and afflictions that many instead of flying incontrovertibly lawfull did directly run to suffering and to a great part the Garland of Martyrdom became a most Ambitionat Crown by the mistake of the exuberance of which assisting grace not only many odd practices in precipitating themselves unto suffering and death but Opinions also then held such as that of the unlawfulnesse of all resistance for Christians even against Robbers and Murtherers can only be excused 3. But if the beautie and splendor of this grace did in some measure dazle the eyes of its more immediate witnesses how much more did it astonish its more remote and after admirers who receiving the report with fames increase and taking their measures more from their own good design then the exact simplicitie of truth by their pious and affectionat Rhetorications stopt not to strain matter of fact sometimes beyond probabilitie If you be a stranger to this truth advert how the almost immediate after Age magnifies their Patience and Sufferings such as veflra omnia repleâ—iâ—us with more then one grain of allowance 4. As this was the dispensation of the first ages of the Gospel so when the Lord advanced the Church to a certain and visible capacity of defence peruse Histories and you will find plenty of instances of Christians their fighting for Religion The Armenii very early even before Constantine his Empire Libertatem exercendi Christianismi Armis vindicant Clade afficiunt Maximinum as the History beares and how the persecuted Christians under the Persian and Arrian did implore and receive the aid of the Roman and Orthodox Emperours would be superfluous to narrate By these few reflections as I have cut of from your argument all the necessary suffering and strained capacities of the Primitive Christians so I have given you such a full and evident account of their not searching after or improving sooner any real measure of sufficiencie for defence which probably they did but little minde that this their omission cannot without manifest calumnie be adduced to disprove either their immediate afterâ— practises or the agreeable and universally approven examples of our late reformations Now if for proving their more early capacite for or expresse dissent from Defensive Armes
these corruptions and superstitious practices whereunto in a convenient compliance with the present course you cunningly endeavour to subjecte us you make you N. C. preface That there is no good to be hoped from you who are so fierce against us and to add with little serious reverence but God be thanked an ill-willed Cow hath short hornes Whence taking the occasion you tell us of your extreme aversion from fierce and violent courses your love to all Christians your pitie of such as you judge mistaken and that you quarrel with no man for his opinion in these lesser matters Which are but the skirts and suburbs of Religion and so forth Sir if Censure were either my Genius or office how easie were it for me to strip both you and your partie of this your sheeps clothing We have heard in the preceeding Dialogues your frequent accusations of Rebellion and Faction your virulent calumnies of the most inhumane unnatural and barbarous Wickedness that can be paralleled your insolent mockeries at fancied mistakes and lastly all that hath preceeded a continual quarrel about these things which you call lesser matters and all this against the generality nay against the whole of the Godly and sober in the Land but especially the Lords faithful and suffering Ministers and yet you have the boldnes to wipe your mouth and make a boast of your singular gentlenes Christian love compassion upon them that are out of the way and tender forbearance toward dissenters in lesser things But I have already medled too far in this concention only as I would not have men mistaken concerning you so for preventing of their mistake of us from your N. C. suggestion I assure you plainly that though any man may affirme without fear of a contradiction that the Prelatick Spirit mingled in the midst of you is irreligious false fierce jealous cruell covetous and proud and in these few years bygone hath less or more appeared in all these evill qualities yet as the seen fury folly and prophanitie of your Bishops and Curates and a secret conviction in all men of the consistencie of true Loyalty with the Countreys just aversion from them may in politick prudence induce our Governours to restrain some what of the rage of that Partie which we are thankfully to acknowledge so it is our Prayer to God that he would lead them on to a full and just consideration of the true causes of all our grievances and to serious repentance and returning unto God who alone with truth can restore unto us true peace and establishment You subjoine here the late King's advice of Moderation to his Son who now reigneth and would forsooth have us to beleeve that his words to express both your opinion and temper and really though I cannot altogether acquit their strain of prejudice nor carrie their designe higher then the ends of Policie yet they contain so much of sound reason and the later part of them viz. take heed that outward circumstances and formalities of Religion devour not all or the best encouragements of Learning Industrie and Pietie is so sadly verified in the present condition of affaires that I cannot but with wonder reflect how such a rational instruction taught to the Author by long and costly experience should at his Majesties return have been so much neglected and even to this day after so visible an accomplishment so little remembred But the use you make of this passage is only to bewray your N. C. childishnesse and shew a little of your own affectation by causing him first to say It seems you are a Latitudinarian and then by your answering that if by latitude be meant charity you glory in it but as I have already demonstrat in the second Dialogue that it is conveniencie more then sincerity which relaxes and dilates your charity and as it is too too evident that it is the love of Peace more then of Truth which doth recommend men to the favour of your good opinion so I would have you to consider that rectitude and not latitude is the measure and character of the wayes of God Nay when I remember our Lord's words Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction but strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life The fairest gloss whereof your latitude is capable cannot reconcile me to the designation It is therefore in the streightness yea and straitnes of this Rule and in the practice of the new commandement of Love that you may truly glory but only in the Lord The assuming of Names other then that of Christian is but an emptie vanity and that of latitude is so little expressive of pure Christian charity that you see it is the very Gospel-epithet of the broad way of damnation In the next place taking as it appears with this new name of Latitudinarian for all your disowning of it within a few lines preceeding you and your N. C. together playing to others hands compound a prettie garland of praises for your self and complices And where he acknowledgeth That you live very good lives are strong witted People sound against Socinianisme clear and free from Popish errors you add on your part That your principles are neither dangerous nor loose that there are none greater haters of and enemies to Atheisme that you give a rational and convincing account of Christianity to all clear witted men that with a due measure of Charity for Papists and regard to the union of the Catholick Church you disclame all errors and give a most clear and scriptural account of the points debateable and lastly that even where the attributes of Gods soveraignity and goodness seem to interfere by faith you stope the mouth of weak reason Certainly then the men of the latitude are sound and orthodox men nay no doubt but ye are the people and wisdome shal die with you Yet if I might a little search you out I would demand 1. Why you thus distinctly characterize your self under a peculiar name for that you do not understand these Epithets of all your partie nay not of your Bishops and most of your Curates is evident even from the first whereby you assert that you live very good lives which I am certain many of them do not so much as pretend to 2. If the principles of you Latitudinarians be the same that we have set down in the preceeding Dialogues viz. that preaching is not to be termed the Word of God and consequently that Ministers are not his Messengers that the Church and we know not what Church may antiquat and cause to cease the obligation of practices such as the washing of feet and anointing the sick with oil though as punctually and perpetually enjoined in the Scripture as either of the Sacraments that Christs Kingdome is so inward and spiritual that Offices and Officers can no more be thence pleaded for in the Church then the stamping
above all things plead the necessity and alone sufficiency of the Righteousness of Jesus Christ for our Justification But to restore your words to their own channell you say that since all must be condemned if God enter into judgement therefore God gave his Son unto the death for us that thereby we might obtain Salvation And though by this passage it be clearly enough imported that it is before God and by the sentence of his Law that all men stand condemned and that therefore he hath given his Son whose Death and Bloud is the Propitiation and in whom he is well pleased to be a ransome for liberation and acceptation to all that believe on him whereby Justification by faith in Jesus Christ without the deeds of the Law is in substance granted yet for ushering in your good works to share with faith in Justification by a strange connexion you subjoin And all judgement is committed by the Father to the Son and Iesus Christ hath proposed life through his death to as many as receive his Gospell and live according to it But I must take notice 1. That by laying down the commission of judgement given to the Son as a ground to his proposing of the Gospel offer you manifestly repugne to our Lords own words and testimony expressly distinguishing the character of his first coming which was in the form of a servant to minister not to be ministered unto and by performing the Fathers commandment to save the World and not to judge it from that of his second coming which shall be with power and great glory to the Salvation of all that look for him and to judge and to execute judgement upon all that are ungodly 2. By making our Lords commission to judge antecedent to his ministration of the Gospel you invert Truth and plain Scripture-evidence whereby it is clear that our Lord was first sent into the World to preach the Gospel and lay down his life for sinners that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life And then because of his compleat and perfect obedience is exalted to be the Head of all things unto the Church and hath Authority also to execute judgement committed to him because he is the Son of Man But. 3. By this your doctrine you in effect subvert the grace of the Gospel in as much as in the place of the Gospel-covenant offering pardon and peace to poor lost sinners through Christ Jesus and with and in him all grace and glory you introduce our Lord as having by his death indeed merited the privilege of a new offer of life unto sinners but making and renewing the same in no better termes then these of the Law-covenant for as the Law sayeth that the man that doth these things shall live by them so you tell us that the termes of the Gospel-tender are to receive the same and live according to it Now if the Law doth offer life to such as receive and live according to it and our Lords proposal stand in the like termes admit the proposers not to be the same yet the proposals are certainly coincident and therefore although the eternal transaction betwixt the Father and the Son may be of Grace yet it is undeniable that in your opinion the tenders of the Law and Gospel as to us-ward do rune in the same tenor and the condescendence of both prerequiring our works is equally to be reckoned of debt These being the consequences of that Gospel-method by you here contrived and its designe no less evident to make works with saith the condition and procuring cause of our Iustification at least in the sight of Christ as the Judge appointed I add 1. That your attributing of Iustification to Christ as judge ordained over all in the last judgement is contrary to the Scripture that telleth us that it is one God that justifieth it is Christ that died marke the distinction made and no doubt reason it self informing us that it is the Law and Law-giver and not the Judge which define dutie determine paines and condemne the transgressors poenae enim persecution non Iudicis voluntati mandatur sed legis authoritati reservatur It doth also confirm that it appertaines unto God only as the Law-giver to remit the punishment incurred and accept and justify sinners upon an aequipollent satisfaction 2. The Authority to execute judgement being given to our Lord as the Mediator and because he is the Son of Man in which respect he is not the principal Author and efficient but only the meritorious cause of our Iustification not the very act but only the solemn declaration thereof can be ascrived to him in this capacity unless you can conceive that our Lord is not only both the Ransome and the accepter thereof but that by becoming the Propitiation he also becometh the partie to be appeased which are palpably inconsistent 3. The plain Scripture-truth in this point is that our Lord having compleatly obeyed the will of God and being made perfect through suffering is therefore highly exalted above every name and hath all power and judgement committed to him whereby as he doth here in time enrich with all Grace guid support and preserve all that beleeve in him and also over-rule restrain and punish all his and their Adversaries so shal he in the last day appear first to receive and welcome all his redeemed ones formerly justified by his Righteousnesse and sanctified by his Grace unto his Fathers joy And then with them to judge the reprobate and take vengeance on all that know not God and obey not the Gospel by which it is evident that Justification proceeding from God for Christs sake and necessarily preceeding both our Sanctification here and Glorification in the last day cannot be referred unto that judgement which is only declarative and executive according to these words Come ye blessed of my Father nor explicate according to its scheme And therefore although our Lord do therein for our encouragement in well doing and the commendation of the riches of his bountie make mention of our good works and shall certainly in that day also crown his own free grace in us with a reward yet thence to inferre that our Justification before God and in order to his holy justice having for its alone cause the Righteousnes of Jesus Christ and imported in the compellation ye blessed of my Father is founded on our weak love and scant charity which even the Righteous in that day seeme ashamed to owne is both a groundless error and high presumption But I proceed to your next words viz. That Christ Iesus hath proposed life through his death to as many as receive his Gospel and live according to it That this is a manifest perversion of the free Grace of God whereby our Lord Jesus doth freely hold out himself unto us not only for to be our Righteousnesse for Justification but also our Sanctification through his Spirit unto the glory of God and therefore
toward God as the blessed effects of the souls union with him is that which I rather observe And here indeed it is and in your declaring self abhorrence and abnegation and humble applications of the soul unto Jesus Christ to be that strait passage and low gate which is by violence to be entered for attaining unto that heavenly state wherein spiritual solaces here and immediat Divine enjoyments hereafter do not only compense and swallow up all the preceeding anguish but surpass all possible apprehensions of that unconceived glory that I do most heartily embrace that saving truth if rightly understood of Faith and Repentance which hitherto I have desiderat O that in the possession of so great a joy and the hope of a greater blessedness expected we would all vigorously set about the duties of a Christian life not intangling our selves with the pollutions of this world nor with the affaires of this life how to serve our own lusts and ease and comply with every device and invention of men but enduring hardness contradiction reproach and all persecution that we may please him who hath chosen us to be Souldiers Certainly he whose heart is thus fixed on God in and through Christ Jesus his life and actions will quickly manifest that he hath not only the forme but the power of Godliness his rational and unconcerned contempt of this present world his hatred of base and debasing lusts his undervaluing of the things of sense his well squared and solid indifferencie for all conditions and occurrents and lastly his love of truth and study of innocencie and delight in goodness in all his words and works do evidently shew forth the love and fear of God to be as it were the vital springs of all his thoughts and motions while self-denyall emptieth and humility vaileth him as nothing and out of the world the native and genuine lustre of free grace in him is thereby rendered more conspicuous and his light doth the more shine unto the praise of God who hath called us unto Glory and virtue He peaceably and chearfully obeyeth the publick Father of his Countrey but only in the Lord he remembreth and honoureth such who watch for his soul who speak unto him the word of God of these he is a follower as they are of Christ following their faith and considering the end of their conversation he pursueth Charity as the Crown of perfection Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect hath not with him a more commanding Authority then an inviting and soulâ—aâ—ishing attraction Hence it is that as his bounty and beneficence toward men is prompt and unconfined so his obedience toward God is most punctual and circumspect having respect unto all Gods commandments and esteeming his precepts concerning all things to be right and hating every false way a latitude of love and good will toward all men he heartily acknowledgeth and rejoiceth in but a latitude of compliance with sinful courses and indifferency even in the smallest matters of God under whatsomever pretext he from his heart abhorreth These indeed are a few of the faire lines that compose the Christians Character by which as you may see in part wherein Christian Religion doth consist so it is too too apparent that many who in their vain vaunting of serene and still speculations and high abstractions do alledge the strickness of Conscientious practices to be but loud pretenses do themselves sadly and most dangerously recede from it O how much is it to be desired that not only such but all would in their secret retirements often review and examine their actions that discovering their errors and faâ—lings they may be humbled and brought unto the renewed and more serious exercise of repentance stirred up by a more lively and active faith to lay hold on Jesus Christ and from him and by the power of his grace quickened to new vigour and alacrity in the wayes of God! Then should the Divine love in Christ Jesus inflame and elevat the soul and captivate the whole powers thereof unto these pure and free resignations wherewith God is well pleased then should the power of the grace of our Lord mortify sin overcome temptations and advance in every thing acceptable unto God And lastly then should the offerings of our praises to God for all his mercies especially for the invaluable and unspeakeable Gift of Christ Jesus ascend with gladness and bring back the returnes of more grace and joy and our prayers and supplications in the name of Christ according to the will of God for all things that we may be careful in nothing and for all men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all Godliness and honesty should be set forth before him as incense and mount up as the evening Sacrifice And it is from these heavenly exercises and the communications of Grace which flow therein that the heart is firmly fixed and strenthened to order and do all to the glory of God and the minde continually bended by the strong applications of fear and love to direct all its wayes as in his sight And these truely are the frame and fruits of inward and secret devotion As for publick Worship he who considereth it as commanded by God for the avowed and more solemn acknowledgement of our dependence upon him and testifying our union with his Church and that therefore not only in reason but also by express precept it is to be seriously and sincerely performed with and from the heart and in that holy and pure manner which he himself hath prescribed without the contaminating mixtures of mens presumptuous and vain inventions will certainly go unto the congregation of the Lords people met together in his Name and sincerely professing thus to seek his face not out of custome or formality whereunto of all things the devising and imposing of humane forms and modes do most powerfully delude but that he may jointly with others cordially adore and praise his Maker and Redeemer and give not only an external concurrence according to the Rule and decency of the Worship but with his soul and all that is within him will blesse his holy Name and joine his Amen Thus you have my hearts assent to the truth that I find in your conclusion my desire to God is that both you and we were by a serious humble and holy practice and not by talking only experimenting the solid edification and pleasure that lyeth in these heads If this you had minded more you and your partie would have been farre from vexing the Lords Church and people in these Lands contrary to the Word of God solemn Oaths and Covenants established Laws sound Reason and Policy and the general inclinations of all with that grievous yoke of wicked and pervese Prelacie and these vain and burthensome corruptions wherewith in all Ages it hath been attended Which things as to your own recollected
done to these most dearly affecting concernes of God's Glory and his Churches welfare ought not to be more tenderly afflicting and poweâ—fully exciting to duties of prayer and all righteous indeavours then the Lords high and holy Soveraignity is both most strengthening to these duties and comfortably excâ—usive of all sinful anxiety and dejection the heavâ—nly return made to our Lord I have both glorified my Name and will gloriâ—y it again doth abundantly hold out this consistency and is so far from being contrary to a holy touching grief upon that account that on the other hand you may find the necessary cercainty of God's Glory the ground both of the earnest and assurance of our Loâ—â—'s supplication and of the comforting answere made to his troubled soul whence it did proceed But that which I would enquire is how you come to make such an answere to your N. C. challenge which being very rational and sound complaining only of a stupid misregard and profane indifferency without the least â—â—exure to the other extreame of sinful anxiety had in my thought been better and more ingenuosly answered by a simple denial then by your unnecessary cautions To oppose one truth to another can have no innocent design Nay iâ— I may use your own maxime that all things have two sides I fear this your discourse prove also double faced and that under the colouâ— of excessive anxiety dejâ—cting melancholy you do indeed condemn that mean of a concerning solicitude for Gods Glory and his Churches wellfare which you seem to allow and by iâ—sinuating joy to be the end and fruit of Religâ—on resolve all its seriousness into the indifferency objected But lest you judge this challenge which is only an anticipation to be want of charity I proceed to what ensues which is first your N. C's reply to wit That all this your preceeding discourse is still contrary to the holy men of God the Psalms Prophets Lamentations are full of sad complaints and certainly a greater measure of zeal becomes the more clear manifestation of the love of God under the Gospel And to that return which you give to it running out upon the difference of the old and new dispensation shewing forsooth that outward desolations and losses which under the former were curses and grievous under the later are pronounced blessings and matter of joy and so forth What strange dealing and doctrine is this Your N. C. tells you of the complainings and mournings of the holy Men of God in old times for the desolation of Gods house departing of his Glory and the blasphemie of his Adversaries Which I am certain every serious soul will take to be no other then the same careful regard to the Glory of God and the good of his Church which just now we heard you approve and is no doubt inseparable from the true Love and Zeal of God in all ages But you in your present Answere would have these regretes to be only suteable to a carnal dispensation and nothing agreeing to that of the Gospel Now if this be not a palpable discovery of your sinistrous design let all men judge Or if you think that I do wrest your words do you or any man els make them pertinent in any other sense I am content to bear the blame But neither is this your doctrine in it selfe more sound You say That outward desolations and afflictions were of old signes of Gods displeasure curses but now they are pronounced and made blessings Pray Sir make you no distinction betwixt a sign of Gods displeasure and a curse Or do you think that sufferings and afflictions may not be both signs of displeasure against sin and yet profitable corrections yea matter of joyous consolation in the event Certainly if you had consulted Scripture in this matter you would have found that as the sufferings of Gods People under the New Testament are accounted chastisements and consequently signs of the Lords displeasure against sin which thereto provokes so under the Old they were no less to be by them regarded as the chastenings of a loving father and the rebukes of love But it seems you have forgotten the exhortation which under both dispensations speaketh unto the Lords People as unto children My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth the chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Nay blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest out of thy law being so plainly said of oldâ— I wonder how you could lapse into thir mistakes I grant that the Jewish dispensation is much countenanced by temporal promises and that even the manner of divine service thereby appointed did much depend upon their performance Whereas that better Covenant being established upon better promises is in effect so ordered that afflictions and persecutions did and do tend rather to its advancement But if thence you conclude either that the People of God in old times were to regard their sufferings as they respected themselves differently from what is commanded to and commended in Christians or that their complaints for the corrupted or suppressed Worship of God and the departed Glory by reason of prevailing backsliding or outward desolation may not now under the Gospel in the like calamities be lawfully and laudably resumed over and above your evil design mentioned you bewray palpable ignorance I might here further adde that you may not only observe the same patience and fruit of chastisements under the old that is found under the new dispensation but also read the grace and glory of their confessions and martyrdomes in almost the same termes wherein you go about to represente the sufferings under the Gospel as new and singular Others were tortured not accepting deliverance they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were sâ—ain with the sword they wandered about in sheep-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy Pray Sir who were they or wherein is this account short of that which you exhibite of Christians their rejoicing in sufferings except in the vain excess of your superstitious festivals viz. the dayes of the death of Martyrs observed by the Church under the name of Natalitiae Martâ—rum But I have already sufficiently demonstrate both the folly and falshood of this your impertinent distinction And the mixture of the cup of Gods Children being clearly confirmed by the experience of all ages your taxing of our mourning because of a broken Covenant a profaned Sanctuary and abounding wickedness and violence as sinful repining because of personal sufferings notwithstanding that the joy and strength of the Lord hath been very conspicuous in our dying Witnesses and our other Sufferers doth plainly adde malice to your ignorance But in our complainings you reprehend both injustice and excess and for injustice you tell us That the reason thereof is only the alteration of the Law 's and the Magistrat's denying
from the setting up of the Papal tyranny doth contribute nothing to your advantage And where you say that since the Reformation the Supremacy hath still been stated as one of our differences from them 'T is very certain that it hath been granted by all the reformed Churches that Princes may and ought to reassume their own power and Kingdome given unto the Beast in so far as in the times of the prevailing of the mystery of iniquity it was either by force extorted or by fraud elicite from them But that any King or Prince upon the pretense of recovering his own from the Pope should lay claim to all that he hath usurped either against our Lord or over his Church nay to more then ever any Pope did arrogate which is the case and import of your Supremacy is that whereunto I am confident no true subject of Jesus Christ and enemy of Antichrist can judiciously assent And therefore if in this we do more solidly soundly maintain the differences betwixt the Reformed and Popish Churches and while we assert our Lord's prerogative and his Churches priviledge against the Pope do not betray them to any other pretender we hope our differing from you aswell as the Papists in this matter shall only witness us to be the more upright defenders and no deserters of the Protestants plea and the truth of God Now this is That Supremacie which as I have very plainly and graphically represented without making use of Scolastick termes or distinctions in my opinion not more frequent then superâ—luous in a matter so palpable so I am confident that every one who hath that true understanding of the fear of God and the sincere love of our Lord Jesus will ever abhorre it with all its wicked effects But you in your crastines do not only make your N. C. cede as it were to your reasonings but in a manner own the late pretended Indulgence as flowing from the Supremacie on purpose to fix upon these few Ministers of ours who have been thereby restored at least a constructive approbation of this evill And thus you move your N. C. to say that he hopes you are so much for the Supremacy as not to quarrel at this Indulgence lately granted and by way of reply you tell him how good Subjects you are not to criticize upon your Soveraign's pleasure and how much more moderate then we who would not have received ann 1641 such a proposition from the King in favours of the Doctors of Aberdeen And from this falling to touch our opposing the readmission of Malignants to the Army against the Englishes you exceedinly please your selfe in your own well-natur'd compliance and would have even the jealousy and aversion which some of you have for this favour commend your submission as the greater vertue because against your inclination But not to lose time in these your trifflings the weak shadowings of your vain imagination to be brieff and round with you I differ from your N. C. and am so much against the Supremacy that I abominat the Indulgence under this name That God hath disposed the King to restore in any measure what was so sinfully taken away we account it a great blessing wishing that he may be in such manner satisfied with the fruits of this course as may more and more convince him of its righteousness and encourage him to its prosecution But if you or any els do think by this poor and scant restitution to bribe the Lords People to a consent to the rest of your usurpations and a more tame compliance with all the other wrongs and mischiefs that you have done and are still doing we trust the Lord shall deliver his own from so fearfull a snare And that as hitherto our Ministers have looked upon themselves as such neither of man nor only by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father so they will accordingly acquit themselves and in a special manner as they expect our Lords presence to be with them testify for his right and ordinance against all invasions and that so much the more as the hard condition of the present times hath in some sort ingaged them to a seeming allowance of which they ought to purge themselves in the first place As for your being better subjects to the King then we are we know indeed that many if not all of you either principally designing or els simply deluded by outward peace and ease do in order to this end not only acknowledge the King as Supreme but in effect adore and revere him as the most high and for the freedome of your persons and fortunes really enslave your consciences to his dictates But as this is a subjection no more stable and fixed then the mutability of that interest whereon it depends so it is a measure thereof for which we do neither envy you nor for the want thereof fear to be less accepted either with God or man Only let me tell you that I take your not criticizing upon the late Licence a thing though very hardly resolved upon and no better digested by your evill natures and foolish malice yet in it selfe most conducible and in its effect very advantagious to your ends to be so much the concernment of your interest as scarce to be a mark of just and ordinary subjection let be to furnish a complement to your slavish flattery But you talk to us also of your greater moderation O the impudence The Prelates having raged several years in persecution and violence against persons only chargeable with a simple not-countenancing of their evill courses to the ruining of a part and distressing of the whole Countrey and to the manifest hazard of turning all to Confusion a few of our Rulers more wise foreseeing the consequences are at length perswaded to a small relenting and in hope thereby more assuredly to compass their end of suppressing and extinguishing the party by them feared they resolve rather to allay and break them by pretended favour and seeming indulgence And this having succeeded more happily then either reason or sense can convince the ever-jealous and cruel Prelatick Clergie you would have us so stupid as to applaud you for your moderation as exceeding any thing by us practised But to convince you by the retortion of your own instance Will you or any knowing man affirme that if there had been no more of necessity and interest to plead for us then appeared in the behalfe of the Doctors of Aberdeen we had notwithstanding have attained to this favour For my part I think it may be demonstrate that had that freedome been used by us in open disputing and opposing which was permitted nay allowed to the Doctors instead of Answers and Answers to Replyes as they are termed we had certainly got Prisons and Gibbets And yet for all your calumnious alleageance that they and other worthy persons whom nevertheless you wisely forbear either to name or number were by us driven away by tumults and
most High not prostitute to mens lusts devices While I say you are still such what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness what communion hath light withdarkness And what concord hath Christ with Belial Or what part hath he that keepeth Covenant with him that avowedly breaketh it If these be schismatical insinuations we are very willing to be accounted such and do heartily imbrace the reproach nay if I should tell you that such are the nature and circumstances of the present defection that it doth not only enjoyne a necessarie separation from your pretended and corrupt Ecclesiastick Courts for eviting the sin that attends a conjunction but also a witnessing withdrawing to testify against backsliders I might as easily evince it both from Scripture-precept and example But may be I am too prompt if the termes that you are about to offer be as fair as is promised that is as can be demanded by any rational person no doubt they will satisfie all our scruples And therefore wishing that the event may redargue this apparent anticipation I goe on to your following promise viz. to give your N. C. at next meeting a full prospect of the state of the ancient Church and you doubt not to convince him that their frame was better suted for promoting the ends of Religion then ever Prebyterie could be Sir your performance is expected and for your encouragement I am free to tell you that though the improbabilitie of the undertaking may possibly give the world a disappointment yet it will be no surprise It is not the first promise that you have failed in upon more unaccountable reasons Mean while you forbid us to abuse our Soveraign's royal goodnesse nor the tendernesse of these he sets over us But this in my opinion is a superfluous caution the Prelats have taken a surer course to prevent your fears for such hath been their care to secure this goodnesse and tendernesse from our abuse that hitherto they have thought fit to keep it without our reach I know this will appear a hard reflection to some of your party who would have even the common air estemed his Majesties and us to breath it by his indulgence But a flattering mouth worketh ruine and the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips We despise not his Majesties favour nay we desire and long for it that it may come down like raine upon the mowen grasse But while there is so great a short-coming in the things which are right in the eyes of the Lord and righteous toward his servants why should flatteries deceive And thus we are come to your Conclusion of Prayers for and exhortation to peace love and charity a very expedient one to so bad a cause so badly managed your rebellion against God your usurpation against our Lord Jesus Christ the wrongs done to his Church and People by which your Prelats have got into the chair and in compliance wherewith you your self do at least find ease If they cannot be mentioned by reason yet may in a manner be secured by peace And no doubt the love and charity which you crave would go a great length I will not say with Iehu what have you to do with peace But there is no peace to the wicked saith my God And that ought to be unto you of more moment then if Iehu with all his fury and forces were at your heels But you are of that number who would have peace though you walk in the imagination of your own hearts nay you seduce this people and heal their hurt slightly by saying peace where there is no peace But if you had stood in the counsel of the Lord and had caused his people to hear his words then you should have turned them from their evill way and from the evill of their doings am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God a far off Can any hide himselfe in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord. I have heard what the Prophets said who Prophesie lyes in my name and do cause my people to erre by their lightnesse yet I sent them not nor commanded them therefore they shall not profite this people at all saith the Lord. As for the love that you desire should we love them that hate the Lord you know whose profession it was do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee And am not I grieved with these that rise up against the I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Neither are these the words of one only under the old dispensation which elswhere you are pleased to terme more carnal and fierie He who wished that they were even cut off who troubled the Church appeareth to be of the same Spirit Nay God who is love and perfect in goodnesse to all his creatures is neverthelesse a consuming fire unto his adversaries And our Lord Jesus who came in lowlinesse and meeknesse to seek sinners and dye for enemies enjoyning love as a badge and legating peace as his proper blessing to all his followers doth notwithstanding pronounce many a sad wo unto the hypocritical proud covetous in a word if as shamlessly irreligious Prelatick Pharisee Let us therefore above all things in the first place contend for the love of God and to be found and to abide therein This once purging our hearts from dividing and distracting lusts will only happily cement us by its own bond But if you continue your opposition against God perversion of his righteous wayes and persecution of his Saints you do in vain pretend to that peace which is the Saints their priviledge and without which outward peace is no better then one of these snares that the Lord raineth upon the wicked Your next wish is for charity and O! that it might be both your and our blessing in its full extent charity not rejoycing in iniquity but rejoycing in the truth would quickly produce a desireable Accommodation but this is not the charity which you study 't is like a charity thinking no evill of your evil doings beleeving all your imposings enduring all your usurpations and bearing all your rigours would please you well And at this rate the most violent irreligious persecutor would become your concurrent But we have not so learned Christ. It is a very easie and advantagious thing to men possest of their desires to wish for security in the peace love and charity even of their adversaries And yet we are not so short of rememberance as to believe that this was alwayes the language of your partie At first it was make a chaine the land is full of bloodie crimes and the city is full of violence and your cry was rase it rase it even to the foundation And when after much crueltie and blood your Prelats would scarce by the restraint of more safe counsel be taken off their eager pursuites how hardly are they prevailed upon even
there is that truth in them that though David's wished for wings may better suit your desire of rest yet Ieremiah's waterie head and weeping eyes with his retirement to a wildernesse would be the more agreeable wish to our condition But our relieff is that the Lord seeth and who knowes but he is displeased that there is no intercessor and that therefore his arme may bring salvation when he shall put on righteousnesse as a breast-plate and an helmet of salvation upon his head when he shall put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and cloath himself with zeal even that zeal which you go about to maligne as with a clock However this is most certaine that the Redeemer is come to Zion and unto them that turne from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. But your N. C. recals me and tells us that the further he seeth in the great businesse of Religion he is the the more coovinced of a serene and placide temper which so qalisies the soul for Divine converse And these words do ravish and unite your heart to him in such a manner that for a conclusion to these your roving Dialogues you do very agreeably evanish in a fancied transport And really Sir I do as little question that the further a man seeth and is seriously exercised in the great businesse of Religion he will certainly be therby rendered of a more serene and placide temper The statutes of the Lord are indeed right rejoyceing the heart the commandement of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes the divine light doth certainly give pure joy and pure joy no doubt doth elevat above all carnall perturbations and drossie pleasures there is a vertue in Religion that powerfully rebuking not only the windes of our tempestuous passions and the tossings of our vaine desires but the dreadful tempest of Gods anger doth make a great calme which bringeth unto Jesus Christ for refuge unto God for our rest and blesseth us with his peace that passeth understanding and filleth us with all joy in believing But your insinuation as if a serene and placid temper not flowing from but previously disposing unto Religion and fellowship with God were of special influence as to divine converse is at best but a continuation of your delusion I shall not say deceit suited to your great designe of preferring peace to truth and fraiming Religion to your own accommodation And truly in order to that end the advantages of a serene indifferencie and placide compliance resolving all difficulties by the conveniencie of ease and not striving in any case against the Authority and commands of such on whom our outward peace depends can not be denyed But seing it is the great work of Religion first to open the eyes and to turne from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God that we may receive forgivenesse of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith and in these excellent graces true peace and full joy let him who would have a minde truly serene and not only a placide temper but a tranquill and joyful conscience studie and walk in this light discovering and abhorring every evill way and by purity and faithfulnesse even in that which is least make sure his peace and so shall he not only be qualified for but certainly attaine unto divine converse Serenity and tranquillity of minde when flowing from that wisdome from above which is first pure then peaceable and is the product of pure Religion and undefiled is no doubt no other then that light wherein God dwells and that calmness and weakness of Spirit wherein he delights But as for your serene and placid Temper whith you exhibite to us rather as preparatory then subsequent to Religion I must again tell you my feares that I find it so little agreeable to Religion's genuine methode and so very suitable to your carnal designes that I greatly apprehend that instead of advancing you to true divine converse it only seduce you into a fools paradise of your own dreams and imaginations Whether your ensuing raptures do thence proceed I leave it to others to judge But sure I am were you as earnest to pray Deliver my soul O Lord from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue as you would appear serious in the following regrete of having too long dwelt among them that hate peace You had rather choosed to suffer affliction with the people of God esteeming the reproach of Christ even treason and sedition great riches and respecting and looking for the recompense of the reward the eternal love and peace of God then to have taken the compendious way of a sinful compliance for obtaining this worlds ease and quiet Which I am confidentâ— that holy man whose words you usurpe would have abhorred at the rate As for the thick fogs and mists of contention which you complaine of if this life were indeed to you a valley of tears as you give it out while all light and purity is almost destroyed by the lust and ignorance of your prelatick party it would have been to these infernal vapors and clouds of smok by which our Sun and air are darkned and not to the just and necessary opposition of a small faithful remnant against your apostacy that you had ascribed the noisomness which you mention But behold the nimblenesse aswell as the delusion of the mans fancy he hath for outward ease cast away a good conscience and preferred all along peace unto truth All the disturbance he meeâ—eth with is the dissent of a few faithfull unto God and stedfast in his Covenant whom he and his party do therefore persecute This small innocent non-complyance he complaineth of as if he were the most refined and tender Saint grieving for the wicked and rageful persecution of the ungodly from which imaginary and feigned distresse with the same artifice and facility he pretendeth that his relieff is in divine contemplation whither as to the mountaine of God he flieth forsooth for Sanctuary that he may take rest But this triumphing of your presumption shall be but short the joy of the hyhocrite is but for a moment though his excellency reach up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung they which have seen him shall say where is he he shall fly away as a dream and be chased away as a vision of the night for who Lord shall dwell in thy holy hill and who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousnesse and speaketh the truth in his heart he that backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evill to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour in whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift vp his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his Salvation If therefore your pretensions be such as you professe you must not overlooke the way that God himselfe hath designed but walk in it with fear Your vain phantastick soarings will not carry you either over or by it Nay in the end they will prove a lie and tumble you into destruction For what is the hope of the Hypocrite when he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Think not that these things are from ill nature and spoken in bitterness Nay Sir I may very seriously protest that when I reflect on your laxe and unsound principles not only in the matters of Government and Worship but even in the head of justification and several other parts that you have given me occasion to touch with your enmity and reproaches against the work of God and the Kingdome Ministry and Ordinances of our Lord Iesus Christ and how on the other hand you endeavour to shreud your self under the high pretenses of peace love charity and devotion wholly heavenly I can scarce refrain from trembling in the thoughts of such deep and abusive hypocrisie And therefore though you should scorn my compassion yet will I not forbear to give you my best advice You seem to have the forme of knowledge and of the truth in the word Nay thou makest thy boast of God and divine contemplation the secret of Gods presence and the refreshfull shades of the Almighty where joy unspeakable and the most pure solaces flow appear to be your familiar retreat But as it is too too evident that neither your principles nor practice are very suitable to this profession nay that there is no noise heard of this profession while you are bussied in serving mens designs and your own fancies And that it is only after you have striven to the outmost in perswading or contradicting that you seek to evade or delude by these pretensions So my earnest request is that in place of fancie that evaporats all your knowledge into imagination faith and love may suck down the truth into your heart to convert you indeed unto God and reveal in you with power his Son Iesus Christ that you may love the Lord with all your soul and strength and trust in him alwayes have respect unto all his Commandements and observe all his Ordinances then should you walk in the way safely and the Lord should be your confidence And though you should be exercised with the same perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindes the same strife of tongues and persecution of adversaries whereof we have so large an experiment yet amidst all these boisterous windes and tossing waves God would be your Rock light joy strength and salvation for ever Sir this is our faith and also our victory for which when you shall as seriously contend as you do vainly pretend to outward peace and mans favour then shall true peace even that peace which the World neither gives nor can take abound unto you to establish you unto the end Let us therefore fight the good fight keep the faith and lay hold on eternal life that we may finish our course with joy so shall we receive that Crown of Righteousnesse which the righteous Iudge shall give unto us at that day and not unto us only but unto all them also that love his appearing Even so come Lord JESUS FINIS
remember how Plinie in his Epistle to Trajan does paint the tender and conscientious Practice of the Primitive Christians with the same vermilion of Superstition but I am apt to think it is still the same Spirit of opposition to the Puritie of Ordinances power and practice of Godliness which prompts men to these unjust representations of such as dare not run the same course with them or who are constrained by the love of Christ to hold fast that which is below their Luke-warme temper to contend for But I need not be further solicitious in this vindication being confident that you are not able to proselyte into a beliefe of this reproach any sober or rational men nor will I envie you the advantage you are like to reap as a just retribution from every unprejudiced Reader and that is not to be beleeved afterward when ye speak the truth having with so much calumnious confidence solicited them into the beliefe of what they know to be a falsehood But Sir to shut up this Dialogue with you though raro vidi Clericum penitentem I have seldome seen a Clergy man a repenter hath been mostly verified in the men who have perverted the right ways of the Lord yet the Calumnie is so gross and groundless that I would willingly â—latter my self into a hope that when ye think on what ye have said ye will smite upon your thigh and be brought to an acknowledgement of the sin of unjust accuseing the brethren And I assure you Sir our joy would be almost equal with your advantage to see you weep over the falshoods and calumnies and evil designe of this first borne of your strength The Second DIALOGUE Answered YOu begin with a question What great goodnesse it was which so commended our Partie and having made your N. C. make a pitifull simple vaunt that you may out-vaunt him you proceed to accuse and censure as you list Sir if we dared to make our selves of the number or compare our selves with them that commend themselves we want not matter wherein we might indulge a little to the foolishnesse of boasting but seeing that he whom the Lord commendeth and not he who commendeth himself is approved we will not boast of things appertaining to our selves but endeavour that all our Glorying may be in the Lord. I have already told you how God blessed us with his Ministery and that Ministery with Power and Presence It was he who gave the word and great was the company of these that Published it it was he who clothed his Priests with Salvation and made his people to shout for joy It was he who in the more special times and shinings of his love made the Graces of his People to flow and Souls were ravished with these discoveries And if not only in the Publick Assemblies Gods fear was Great but Families also did seek him apart If the vulgar whom you undervaluingly so name did greatly delight in the Law of the Lord and the Sabbath was called a delight the holy of the Lord honourable we cannot but account these great matters and the very paths and Methods which do most assuredly lead to the great hights of Christianity Yea surely these Gospel Ordinances do lead unto the living God and to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant and unto Communion with him and the Participation of all Graces I know there is a shorter way which too many take who forming unto themselves faire Ideas and words of Self-denyal resignation abstraction of minde and the like do entirely and pleasantly rest in the phansie and talk of these things and as much of a specious outward converse as may in some sort salve their reputation from these many forfeitures which by the sinfull accommodations of their love of ease they manifestly incurre and these men commonly in their self-elevation do not only slight the true Ordinances and from the infirmities of â—raile men intrusted therewith do take advantage to mock but license themselves unto an absolute compliance with every mode and dress in Church-Government and worship which humane policie or Sathans Malice please to invent nothing regarding how much thereby they may make themselves partakers of the Perjury Bloud and Violence which promove and the Profanity that followeth the courses that they approve but as they prudently provide for their own advantage and credite by the abused pretext of an illimited respect to Authoritie so they easily quiet all the reluctancies of their inward Light with any verball slender and inoffensive dissent This is the New convenient contrivance of Religion which indeed desires to be admired for its pretended Mortifications high attainments and peaceful enjoyments but in effect doth only recommend it self by a luke-warme and quiet indifferencie in the Matters of God a flattering and safe deference to Authority and a sinfull and sweet veneration of outward peace Whether your discourse and practice do â—avour or not of this way I do not judge I hope the serious seekers of God will still see and ask for the Old Paths and do know that it is the Good way wherein neither by a Pharisaick show of external devotion not yet by vain and Notionall pretendings but by humble and sincere waiting upon God in the means of his own appointment they have really attained to these graces in the names whereof you boast and so do finde rest to their Souls And certainly if to such the present sad alteration which for the former light power and frequencie observed in the Assemblies of the Lords People hath covered his house with darkeness death and desolation doth minister suitable reflections it can be no matter of wonder When David remembred these things and did consider the like changes he poured out his soul in him because he had gone with the multitude and went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise for this Ieremiahs heart diâ—d faint for these things were his eyes dimme because of the Mountain of Zion which was desolate the foxes walking upon it O what want had they of you for a comforter who could have carried them farre above these external shaddows and taught them Resignations and abstractions in such a hight that neither the corruption nor the removing of Gods Ordinances should have overclouded their Easefull Serenety But you insinuat that N. C. do overprize Ordinances and undervalue Moralitie I have already told you that this is but a calumny and that an holy and pure conversation is the greatest and best part of Religion is not by us in the lest questioned without the endeavour of holinesse the other parts may possibly in Hypocrisie be pretended but cannot indeed have any reality only remember that Christ Jesus who is our all is also our Sanctification and let your Morality be indeed Christianity In the next place you fall upon Particulars and alleage That our Discipline was wholly different from the rules of the Gospell and far short of that of the Ancient
Who would think that this were the accusation of Non-conformists who from the very beginning of Reformation have been continually vexed by your impositions and not rather conceive the objection to be made by them against your violent pressing of Crosse Surplice Service-book Book of Canons and other â—rash wherewith the Lords people have been uncessantly urged as the main yea only things of Religion But I cannot stand upon every one of your calumnies the Lord deliver you from this perverse spirit Only if by the driving objected you do understand our causing the people of the Land to stand stedfast and adhere to the Lords Covenant whereby they were formerly obliged it is already fully answered But that which you say is of greatest weight is that we are guilty of the waxing cold in Love to which our Saviour knits the abounding of Iniquity And this challenge you qualify by our judging you in Matters which are doubtful disputations spreading tattlesâ— of you as you call them carrying sowrly toward you and casting odious aspersions upon you as Apostates and the like with petulant railings and this you adde is a greater persecution then any little suffering of ours in the World Sir though I cannot sooth you as you do your felf by the mouth of your N. C. whose tongue you teach to speak lyes in your smooth words of deceit by telling you that too much of what you speak is true Yet I heartily wish there were more Charity on all sides but where you accuse us of waxing cold in Love and thence would inferre our accession to the present abounding iniquity I would first have you to read the text aright which runeth thus And because iniquity shall aboâ—nd the love of many shall wax cold which is a plain inversion of your causality 2. Admitting your ground to be good I seriously wish without vanity that the waxing cold in love both toward God and your Neighbour were not more your sin then ours then had we not been scorched into a blacknesse and consumed almost into ashes by these fiery trials kindled blown and kept into a flame by the Grandees of your way pourtrey them as you please whose heat speaks them to be set on fire against the Work People and Interests of God 3. To call the causes of our Differences matters which are doubtfull Disputations when both by Scripture Reason and Solemne Engagements and many sad experiences they are so fully determined is indeed to put false glosses upon things and to pretend to be a good Christian and to acclaime the charity and kindnesse of others in an avoued persistence in open Perjury Opposition to the Cause of God and persecution of his People is it not to wipe your mouth and say you have done no wickednesse But you say it is from the spirit of the Devil to fasten the brand of Apostasie upon the leaving of a partie and that to grow wiser is not to play the changling nor is a consciencious obedience to standing Laws time-serving Sir as I love neither to irritate nor prejudicate by hard words so I approve not either your or your N. C. tattles but if to leave God and not a Partie be Apostasie if to forsake the way and Truth of God be to play the changling and if to obey and conforme to mischief framed by a Law be time-serving I am sadly apprehensive that what you account to be but the Malice of the spirit of the Devil shall one day be found the Verdict of the Spirit of God Whether it be thus or not in our controverted differences let the things themselves and the issue of our discourse declare What you tell us of the primitive application of the word Apostasie is no restriction of its proper acceptation And for your other petty conceits in this place with your mock-complaint of the persecution of a just but disdained censure they are not of that moment to stop my procedour to that part of your conference which concerns Episcopacie This head you say falls asunder in two the one a general consideration of that Government the other supposing it were amisse how far it ought to be separated from And for the Government in place of all these weighty and unanswerable objections viz. the want of our Lords Warrant 2. Repugnancie to his and his Apostles Precepts and practice of restless labour simplicity equality humility and contempt of the world c. 3. Disconformity to the first and purer times of the Primitive Church 4. The pride avarice usurpation and cruelty to which it naturally tends and hath been depraved And lastly these evil and bitter fruits of profanity ignorance and superstition that it hath ever in its prevalencie produced which have been charged upon and made out against it by many of the Lords faithfull Witnesses you make your N. C. faintly and poorly to aledge I cannot think that Church-men should be called Lords and be great Persons that this is a desingenuous prevarication is obviously manifest Yet such is the weaknesse of your cause that the meanest argument you could put in your N. C. mouth is stronger then your answere wherein you tell us That this belongs not to the thing it self but is an addition of the Christian Magistrat But I must remember you first that Church-men and Ministers are not capable of every addition Civil offices and administrations are very lawfully bestowed by the Magistrat upon fit Recipients but as for Ministers they are not only an intolerable distraction many degrees above that charitable imployment which the Apostles could not bear but so inconsistent with the nature manner and end of their Ministrie that even our Lord while in this capacitie doth bruskly decline to be so much as an amicable trister And therefore to justify Bishops titles from this ground that they are extrinsick additions or from their civil place and voice in Parliament is no wayes concludent 2. Though this were not yet I am confident that who ever considers the received use and import of this title of Lord amongst us will find it an addition as full of fastuous vanity for Ministers as the title of Rabbi even admitting that its excess did lye another way therefore excepted against and prohibited by our Lord was unlawfull for the Apostles but 3. This title is not an addition flowing from the Christian Magistrat as you pretend but the very product of that pride and usurpation that at first exalted Prelacie which as as first it was assumed by the connivence of if not rather forced from the Civil Magistrat so now by the Bishops it is only derived from him in consequence of that Supremacie which both falsly against our Lord Jesus Christ and traiterously to the Pope in this respect their proper head they have for their own conveniencie transferred upon him But you add that we consider not that Sir and Lord Gentleman and Nobleman differ but in degree since therefore a Minister by Office â—hes the temporall â—onour of
Devil did that and so do all Sects do you therefore mean that it should be laid aside as an insufficient Judge or that we use it no better then the Devil did I desire you may explain your self if not for our concernment at least for the Scriptures vindication In the mean time I am heartily willing that both what you and what I have said be rightly pondered and whether the Church in matters of Government be lest to rove in your pretended liberty or more excellently established by the infinite wisdom unspeakable love and most tender care of its only Lord and Head let Scripture and Reason impartially decide But to conclude all you tell us with a preface That the Angels of the Churches afford us fairer likely hoods for Bishops then ever we shall finde in the Bible for Presbyterie It 's answered seing you your self do acknowledge that nothing in it whether you mean in this place or in the whole Scripture the words are ambiguous amounts to a demonstration I remit the matter to the Scriptures by me adduced whereby I am confident all your Likelihoods are more then counterballanced He who is further desiâ—ous to have them removed may consult M. Durham upon the Text for my own part since ever I had the understanding to consider that the Râ—velation was made in a Mystick phrase that the Seven starres who are the Angels do certainly signifie the many teachers that were in every one of these Churches that in the Candle-sticks as in the Starres we finde the same oneness and number and lastly that though to the Angel be the inscription for address yet we finde the body of all the Epistles written directly to the whole Churches these things I say occurring I protest I could never discerne more reason in this argument for subjecting these Churches unto seven superior single Prelates then for making the same Prelats really Angels or turning every Church into a Candle stick Or if I may adduce another instance not absimilare to your Faire Likelihoods for interpreting the two Witnesses to be the two Arch-Bishops of St. Andrews and Glasgow When you have spent your endeavours upon the Authority of Episcopacie you think to seconde it in the next place with its Antiquity derived you say from the times next to the Apostles whereupon you conclude in these words That how this excrescing power should have crept into the whole Church and no mention when it came in no Prince or Universal Council to introduce it in the times of persecution when the Church usually is purest and most free of pride no Secular consideration to flatter but the first brunt of the persecution alwayes against it and how none opposed it if this was not introduced by Apostles or Apostolicall men passeth my Divination And really Sir as to its particular Methods and increase so doth it mine And so much more then it doth yours that I am perswaded from clear Scripture that it was not only not introduced but plainly reprobate by our Lord and his Apostles Yet am I so little thereby stumbled that the more dark and obscure I finde its rise and progresse I am the more confirmed that it is the very Mysterie of iniquity and do so much the more admire the incorruptible and eternall Truth of the Gospel which as in the beginning it foretold the coming and took very early Notice of the first motions of this prodigie of wickednesse So hath it through the many ages of its exaltation preserved it self against and now in the latter dayes overcomes its Malice But to review your discourse more particularly I have already shewed that the Ministery and Government institute by our Lord and confirmed and practised by the Apostles was plainly Presbyterian if so what place for further inquirie Is your alledged traditional subsequent humane institution of Prelacie of greater moment 2. That even in the Primitive times and for 140. years after our Saviour no vestige of Prelacie appears upon record is the consentient opinion of the best Searchers both on your and our part 3. This plea of Antiquity hath already been so fully handled and improved both by yours and ours specially Hamond on your part and Blondel Salmasius and other Learned servants of Christ on ours that there needs nothing be added and where the advantage is the Ingenuous may easily discerne He that desires a solid and short accompt of the matter may read the appendix to the jus Divinum Ministerii Evangelici But you proceed to give in some poor scrapes of pretended Antiquity which not only the most sure and clear and farre more ancient Scriptures of Truth but even the convincing answeres which they have often receaved might well have made you to forbear And first you say That Ignatius his Epistles are plain language And so they are indeed but too plain for you to have cited as the following passages compared with the Scriptures subjoined may evince In the Epistle to the Tralliani we have what is a Bishop but he that is possest of all Principality and Authority beyond all as much as is possible for men Reverence the Bishop as ye do'Christ as the holy Apostles have Commanded c. As the Lord Christ doth nothing without his Father so must ye do nothing without your Bishop Let nothing seem right or equall to you that is contra to his judgement In the Epistle to the Philad Let the Princes obey the Emperours the Souldiers the Princes the Deacons and the rest of the Clergie with all the People and the Souldiers and the Princes and the Emperour let them obey the Bishop no doubt the Bishop of Rome In the Epistle to the Smyrnenses The Scripture saith honour God and the King but I say honour God as the Author and Lord of all things and the Bishop as the Prince of Priests resembling the image of God of God for his principality of Christ for his Priesthood c. There is none greater then the Bishop in the Church who is consecrated for the Salvation of the whole World c. Let all men follow the Bishop as Christ the Father c. It is not Lawfull without the Bishop to baptize or offer c. He that doth any thing without consulting the Bishop Worshippeth the Devil Now on the other hand let us hear what the Scripture saith to this purpose Who then is Paul who Apollo but Ministers by whom ye beleeve Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ for we preach not our selves but Christ Iesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Iesus sake Not that we have dominion over your faith but are helpers of your joy for by faith ye stand But so shall it not be among you whosoever will be great among you shall be your Minister and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be Servant of all to these adde the practices and other professions of the Apostles concerning themselves and their fellow-Labourers and really Sir when
doth not require our holinesse as an antecedent condition seing it is indeed his own subsequent Giâ—t the obvious evidence of so clear a truth may sufficiently confirme and the following argumeâ—ts do unanswerably evince 1. Our Lords own words the surest Rule for understanding the proposal controverted do contain a free tender and not the termes by you represented Hear what he saith to Nicodemus Whosoever beleeveth in the Son of man shall no perish but have eternal life For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Iohn 3. 15 16. Iohn addeth he that beleeveth on the Son hath everlasting life chap. 3. v. 36. And again our Lord sayeth this is the work of God that you beleive on him whom he hath sent And this is his will that every one which seeth the Son and beleeveth may have everlasting life Verily verily I say unto you he that beleeveth on me hath everlasting life Iohn 6. 29 40 47. Surely these are Gospel proposalls yea the very summe and substance of its offer whereof your condition of a conformable life maketh no part I might add Paul's words to the Jailour believe on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shall be saved but it is so much the strain of the whole New Testament that it were unnecessary to enlarge 2. If when we were Enemies and not for works of Righteousnesse which we have done we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son then the proposal of life and Justification is made through faith in his Name without the condition of these good works which you join with it but so it is that the antecedent is plain Scripture therefore that the consequent is identick with it as Justification and Reconciliation are cannot be denied 3. That which is the end of our Election Calling and Redemption by Jesus Christ is his undertaking for us in that respect and is the fruit of our faith and of our acceptation therethrough yea and is the product of the Fathers care over us as accepted in the Beloved cannot be said to be required of us as a condition antecedent to our justification no more then the same thing can be thought to be really both antecedent and subsequent But so it is that we are chosen and called to be holy and created in Christ Iesus unto good works through faith it is and that not of our selves it is the Giâ—t oâ— God that we become partakers of Christ for Reconciliation and of all his graces for Sanctification and lastly we are in him Gods husbandrie that we may bring forth the fruits of righteousnesse Therefore c. 4. Your requiring of good works together with faith previous to our acceptance by Jesus Christ is an uncertain and desperat thing in as much as it is evident that unless we be first accepted of him and united to him it is not possible for us to do any thing without me you can do nothing are our Lords own words Say not that this Argument equally militats against previous faith if we did hold faith as it is our act to be required as a proper potestative foregoing condition of our acceptance the objection might be of some moment but since we do affirme faith to be only the instrumental act to which the word of power exciting the Soul doth thereby lay hold on and close with Jesus Christ it is thence manifest that immediatly without any other prerequisite he becometh our propitiation peace and all 5. To these may be added that this your Doctrine joining good works to faith for attaining to our Lords acceptation subverteth the peace taketh away the joy of Beleevers checketh Paul's exultation in his so much professed assurance of the love of God in Christ Jesus and lastly as to sinners in extremity called immediatly before the twelfth hour removeth all ground of hope but I am already too full in a matter so clear and so largely handled by many more able Pens I might here subjoin that as your joining of good works as a condition with faith in the proposal of the Gospel is a manifest perverting of the free grace of God upon which these good works having a subsequent dependence cannot by any reall antecedent influence possibly move it so your turning faith by this conjunction to be a motive of the same nature and to be also respected in the quality of a condition is a palpable depravation of its use and comfort It s true our Divines taking the word condition in a large sense as it signifieth any thing prerequired do ordinarily say that faith and faith only is the condition on our part of the Gospel-covenant but that it is not therein a condition as a condition doth properly and legally import viz. that which though by convention only yet hath a meriting or moving influence upon the other parties performance and such as works previously required either in the Covenant of works or in that of Grace as you would have it certainly hath and can have no other I firmly maintain I further grant that the requiring of faith as a proper condition doth no less exact the existence of the thing then if it were repute to be necessary as an instrument yet that it clearly changeth the office of faith in the new Covenant unto that of the condition of works under the old and that by respecting it as a condition on our part it doth diminish that immediat regard we ought to have to and comfort which we derive from Jesus Christ and his Righteousnesse tendered unto us to be laid hold upon as the alone motive and satisfaction acceptable to God for our Justification cannot be denied But I go on with your discourse you add And as that which giveth us a title to the favour of God is the bloud of Christ so that which giveth us an interest in his death is faith with a life conforme to the rules of the Gospel But passing your conjunction and this your third and which I am certain would require more study to discover therein a connexion then you did adhibite in the using let me ask if the bloud of Christ giveth us a title to the favour of God is it not then the sufficient and sole price and purchase of our Iustification in his sight And must not faith its alone proper application render us accepted to the Beloved What then can your So further import Viz. so that which giveth an interest in the death of Christ is faith with a life conforme to the Gospel Can you or any man elsâ— conceive that a man by faith alone in the propitiation the bloud of Christ should be reconciled unto God and yet not attain to an interest in Christs death without a holy life superadded and concurring in the same causality Nay these things are plainly inconsistent 2. The fairest sense that your words can bear is that as we are restored to a
Redemption of sinners through Jesus Christ and proclaiming that whosoever beleeveth on him shal not perish but have everlasting life to reconcile us enemies and bring us aliens nigh unto God and then being thus accepted that in the same Lord Jesus we may be filled with all grace by the Spirit of grace to the knowledge and acknowledgement of God his wonderful bountie his unmeasurable love his glorious holiness his eternal truth and faithfulness and unto the exciting in usâ— of that ravishing and constraining love that filial and perswasive fear and that comforting and joyous hope which graces more and more moulding us into a lively conformity unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own bloud and is become our life our light and our all and thereby causing us to bring forth the fruite of holiness meekness patience brotherly love and of all virtues to the praise of God are the sweetness excellency and delight of Grace here untill it shall be perfected by and swallowed up of Glory hereafter This this is the work and purpose of the Gospel And seing it shall availl us nothing to gain the whole world and lose our own souls it ought indeed to be the great designe of our lives to conforme unto it even to hearken unto the call of God and by beleeving in Christ Jesus that we may be delivered from the wrath to come to labour to be fouâ—d in him not having our own righteousness which is of the Law but the righteousness which is of God by faith that so we may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and still reaching forth unto these things which are before press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus The way then to purify and save our souls is not barely to affect a little virtue or morality nay nor yet from our selves without the Mediator to apply our mindes to God God not in Christ Jesus is a consuming fire the contemplations of his Glory and Holiness instead of deriving into our souls his excellent perfections would but fill them with amazement and horrour If the externall shew and figure only of this sight was so terrible even to Moses that he said I exceedingly fear and quake How do you think that poor sinners can approach We are therefore to apply onr minde unto God but only in and through Christ Jesus that by him obtaining peace and from him grace we may have access and by faith not by speculation only have our hearts purified Your precepts of stilness and abstraction of minde to become of a thinking temper and give up with passions c. and use much inward recollection As by you proposed for the way to spirituality without Jesus Christ who is the only true way are but stoical dreamesâ— and deluding vanities The awakened sinner whom sin affrights and wrath terrifies findeth no rest nor refuge but in Christ Jesus and the peace and favour of God in him and being in him accepted is by his grace purified and made to partake of that blessedness pronounced by the procurer of it Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God And thus with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord he is changed into the same image from glory to glory untill that hereafter he be brought to see him as he is and thereby be perfected these are the great means to attain to and continue in converse and fellowship with God If any man love me saith our Lord he will keep my words and the Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him And thence no doubt it is that not only all that sweetness of the meditation of God and his attributes the admiration of his mercie and love in Christ the adoration of his excellencies and these soul breathings and continual aspirings toward him which you here mention will flow in into the soul to its constant satisfaction in an entire submission and delightsome complacencie in all Gods wayes and actings but also the Beleever will be stirred up prompted and animat in the holy and pure zeal of God's Glory to fight out the good fight of faith acquit himself strenuously in that warfare with the World Sin and Sathan wherein now we stand ingaged and readily to embrace every occasion whereby he may approve himself unto him who hath so dearly loved us and walk worthy of God who hath called us unto his Kingdom and Glory but to suppose that a man may think himself into this frame or by the simple means of that Metaphorick assâ—â—ilation that is in meer thinking attain to this Divine likeness is no less groundless then the active militant state of Christians within time is ill defined by your imaginary stilness Now if any man would understand wherein the sweetness that is to be found in Divine converse doth consist The stilness wherewith the minde is overflowed the clearness of the judgement stedfastness of the will and calmeness of the passions wherein you place it are indeed qualities which do highly advance a man unto the perfection of his nature and the Divine touches that you mention whereby the soul is sometimes carried unto sublimities not utterable are also found in the records of Christian experience but the only proper answere which can be returned is O tast and see that the Lord is good The unsearcheable treasures of his goodness have no measure the excellencies of his glorious perfections have no parallel the poor narrow soul admitted unto these felicities by attributing unto God the very form essence and substance of all its pleasure and magnifying him as its alone love joy and delight hath by these as by the application of whatsomever else it doth conceive to be amiable and delectable endeavoured to adumbrat this Divine satisfaction But as the constant result of these refâ—ections hath been ever admiration and wonder so a forced silence in that transport of the Spouse her raptures yea he is altogether lovely is only its most significant period What part our affections and passions have in these enjoyments it is not needfull to mention certainly God who hath commanded that we love him with all the heart with all the soul with all the strength and with all the minde will both purify and satiat all these capacities As for your telling us that sensible passions may be very high in an impure minde and of a natural devotion specially in a person melancholick a woman or hysterical which may mount very high but doth not humble or purify the minde I judge it to be such an unsavorie and little pertinent mixture that I must expresse my fears that it doth denote a minde in your self little humbled and less purified But that which you add of Persons Divinely acted their deniedness unto all things their absolute resignation unto and intense delight in and desires
by their own interest to teach this doctrine of peace It is not many weeks since the chief of your Fathers as you terme them preaching before the King's Commissioner and many members of Parliament on that Text Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace told his hearers in the very entrie that the particular rules of mutual for bearance and tendernesse given in that Scripture by the Apostle were only convenient for the then state of that Church wanting a Christian Magistrate But now there being a Christian Magistrat his authoritie should quiet all scruples and might not be demurred by these pretenses and going on to show that the only way to peace is to allow to the King not only an outward coercive power but also an inward directive architecktonick uncontrollable power O fear the Lord all ye his Saints over conscience in the matters of Worship with much ado as eye and ear witnesses do attest he stammered through a part of the first chapter of a new Piece entituled a Discours of Ecclesiastical policie And thus he delivered to us the very same doctrine of peace which in several places of your Dialogues you do very plainly hold out Whether or not then it be in the same principle and for the same end that ye do here pray for peace love and charity let men judge For our part your power riches and dignities in themselves to say the truth the very meenest of these trifles are by us neither coveted nor envied Our souls desire and earnest prayer to God both in your and our own behalfe is that God would open our eyes turne back our hearts heal our backslidings and restore unto us his Gospel and blessed Ordinances in power and purity O turne us again Lord God of hosts cause thy face to shine and we shall be saved then shall Glory dwell in our Land mercy and truth meet and righteousnesse and truth kisse each other then should the work of the Lord appear unto his servants and the beauty of the Lord our God even peace unity and love be upon us As for these Scriptures wherewith you second your wish for peace Were I not more tender in opposing Scripture to Scripture then you are in abusing it to your own designe it were easie for me to repay your admonition to love by a more seasonable exhortation to you of repentance But since the very consideration of the words by you cited may rectify your misapplication my single desire is that you had pondered or could yet ponder them If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies let us fulfil the Lords joy that we be first of a sound minde then like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory a short discharge of all the pride persecution and pompe of your prelatick order but in lowlinesse of minde let each esteeme others better then themselves Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among us let him show out of a good conversation his◠works with meeknesse of wisdome But if you have bitter zeal or envying For seeing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wanting this adjunct signifieth also envie without the least reflection upon that holy zeal of God's house which is said to eat up even the pattern of meekness Prince of peace your poor criticisme in altering the translation shewes more of your malice then your learning and strife in your hearts glory not and lye not against the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be Zealous there fore and repent of your perjurie and Covenant breaking this wisdome descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish for where zeal or envying The word is indeed still the same and so is your folly in this remarke and strife is there is confusion and every evill work But the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable not first peaceable and then impure as that of your partie is Gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercie and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie O desirable quality And the fruit of righteousnesse is sowen in peace of them that make peace Let us put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave us so let us do and above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness And let the peace of God rule in our hearts to the which also we are called in one body and let us be thankfull Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdome teaching and admonishing one another in Psalmes and Hymns and Spiritual songs singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord and whatsoever we do in word or deed pray observe this fundamental direction Let us do all in the name of the Lord Iesus What shall we then say to these who in the Bond to the Publict Peace would not admit the name of the Lord to be mentioned Giving thanks to God and the Eather by him In all this I wish we were sincerily agreed And that these words were more deeply infixed in our mindes for I confesse I am wearie of vain janglings as much as you are and do long for truth and peace as much as you do for your much courted peace and indeed there is nothing that doth so much portend the Lords displeasure and imminent wrath as that not any pleadeth for truth they trust in vanity and speak lies they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquitie they hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spiders web he that eateth of their eggs dieth and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper their works are works of iniquitie and the act of violence is in their hand they do much love outward peace but the way of peace they know not and there is no judgement in their goings they have made them crooked Pathes whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Therefore is judgement far from us and justice doth not overtake us we waite for light but behold obscurity for brightness bot we walk in darkness for our transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testifie against us for our transgressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them in transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falshood and judgement is turned away backward and justice standeth afar off for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter yea truth faileth and he that departeth from evill maketh himself a prey Whether you or your N. C. account these words to proceed from a fretted minde or not I know not sure I am