therefore it was not amiss to hear him As for the rest I should not have troubled you with their conjectures had it not been to let you see First what they think of us whom they call the Antichristian the Popish party the Gentiles and Nations the followers of the Dragon and such like Names Secondly what they think themselves who are in their own esteem the Witnesses of Christ Jesus the Godly party the Saints that are to rule the Nations with a rod of Iron the followers of the Lamb who are to ascend to Heaven the Seat of Justice and do execution upon us Lastly What a Sandy Foundation their hopes are built upon and how confident they are and well perswaded of themselves without any cause at all And that indeed is the chiefest thing I aimed at To make you sensible they have no ground for that high opinion they have conceiv'd of their own wisdom and insight into the things of God they being blindly lead by their own Imaginations and passionate Desires while they think they understand and see more than all the Wise men in the World So the last man but one that I named brag'd and vapoured glorying that he had found out that truth which none of the wicked should understand neither Priest nor Prophet Rulers nor Seers All is hid and covered from them and the reason is because they drank of the Cup of the Whore of which if a man take but one Sip he is utterly incapable to have the Visions or mysteries made known to him And therefore he triumphs in this manner over all our Nobles and Clergy Who will beleive of all our great men and learned Prelates that Jesus Christ is come in the Clouds of Heaven and is set down upon the Throne of Judicature in his Saints and Witnesses to judg that man of sin No indeed they had more wit And yet this the man thought in his self-conceited Wisdom to be as clear as the Sun N. C. I am fully satisfied that they were much out of the way And therefore more words are needless C. That the way you might have said and Spirit of Mr. Bridg is mostly and chiefly to be out of the way N. C. I leave those conceits to you C. And you will leave it to me also for you take no notice of it to tell you the cause of all this N. C. Because I do not know it C. It 's easy to see that is nothing else but their pride and vain conceit of themselves as if God would reveal all his secrets to them and hide them from others For they are the Watch-men upon the Tower the Embassadors of Christ the Angels of the Churches the Lords Worthies And they that follow them are the Holy ones the Dear people of God the little Flock the Lambs of Christ the Meek of the Earth the Redeemed ones and the Remnant of Jacob. Nay as soon as ever any person comes to hear them preach they hope there is a work of Grace in their hearts and that they begin to savour the things of God and to desire the sincere Milk of the Word As for our Ministers Alas poor Creatures they are the False Prophets blind Guides Idol Shepherds that have eyes indeed but cannot see at all And our people are the World the Wicked the children of the Evil one Enemies of God and such as remain still in Egypt At least the vail is before our eyes or we have taken a sip of the Cup of the Whore and that sends up such fumes into our heads that we cannot possibly discern the mysteries of God Hence it is that the meanest of you takes himself to be wiser than the best of us than any of our Bishops and Priests nay the whole Clergy put together And if we will not have such a man in the same esteem that he hath himself presently we are lookt upon as enemies of the power of Godliness formal fellows or meer moralists that hate the true seed N. C. Doth not David tell us that God had made him wiser than any of his Teachers C. See how you still equal your selves with men inspired From which vain conceit and arrogant Opinion I make no doubt it is that you take every sudden fancy and strong imagination that comes into your head to be an Inspiration of God And that you are so adventurous and bold in expounding the Holy Scriptures as if it were given you in that moment as it was the Apostles what you should think and what you should speak Nay so deep have you drunk of this Witches Cup and are so intoxicated with self-conceit and self-love that you imagine all your Devices and forms of Religion and Government must be received by all the world For your mind is the mind of God and your words the Oracles of God So even Mr. Edwards himself seems to fancy Epistle before his Antapolog when he exhorts all people that were waving and hung doubtful between Presbytery and Independency to wait upon God in that way of his and Assembly of so many learned and Godly men to see What he will be pleased to speak by them N. C. What is this to all the World were they bound also to listen to what this Oracle would utter C. You are too quick I was going to add that as they think themselves the best people here so the best in the world and look upon the Reformation it self as needing a Reformation And therefore hoped that if they setled Religion among us according to their mind there would be a pattern from the Word set up in this Island for an example to all other kirks abroad Thus the Commissioners of the general Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland tell us * Directions to Ministers anent Malignants p. 12. and therefore call upon the Ministers to stir up themselves and the people in Truth and Unity because say they it will be a powerful means to preserve our Religion and to propagate the same to other Churches groaning under their several burdens and panting for such a Reformation as the Lord in Mercy hath granted us And accordingly they indicted the Fast I told you of on the Lords-day for the promoting Unity in Religion and Uniformity in Government and the advancing the Kingdom of Christ i. e. their Discipline every where N. C. None excepted C. No. For Mr. Case tells the Commissioners of the General Assembly * Epistle before his book called The quarrel of the Covenant dedicated to them that God had honoured their Nation in making them the first fruits and pattern of a thorough and Covenant-Reformation to us and all the rest of the Christian World And withal sayes I am humbly confident that the same shore shall not bound this Covenant which bounds the now two Covenanting-Nations But as it is said of the Gospel so it will be Verified of this Gospel-Covenant The Sound thereof shall go into all the Earth and the Words of it to
you do then so may we if we list to do the same And upon that ground may meet in little companies where we please and leave our Churches quite empty A thing without all doubt which his Majesty abhors to think of You your selves have declared in times past that it is absurd to think that Laws nay Ordinances of Parliament even in matters of Religion should not equally oblige all the subjects of one Kingdom If therefore the Laws oblige us then they oblige you If they do not oblige you then they oblige not us neither We are all alike either bound or free But to leave all these Considerations there is something more remarkable me thinks in this case that deserves to be remembred above any thing else And truly I cannot but smile sometimes N. C. Why what is the matter C. I was going to say but the very thought of your odd humour hindred me a little that I cannot but smile to my self when I call to mind how you shift your Principles and change your Maximes according to your Interest There is no Weathercock more guided by the wind than You are by this For it was a Fundamental Maxime heretofore I well remember and obstinately maintained among your party who now fawn and flatter That the Law is the Kings Superior and that he hath not so much power over it as to be its Supream Interpreter That his Oath tyes him expresly to observe it and binds him to see it executed Upon which score all the Kingdom was filled with loud complaints about the Non-execution of Laws and of the Indulgences granted to several persons who offended against them For execution they said was the Life of the Law whithout which it became vain and useless This was the bold Doctrine currant not many years ago and he was held for a Malignant that did not believe it But now on a sudden we hear you sing a new Song in praise of his Majesties gracious Indulgence for so you will call it and withal you earnestly desire the Execution of Laws may still be suspended that is ly dead and become vain and useless For which alteration I can find no reason but this that now the Indulgence is to your selves and then it was to other folk Then also you thought your selves able to make the King bow to you and now your Weakness forces You to worship him N. C. Where do you find any such Maximes For my part I have forgot them C. I can send you to several Books where you may refresh your memory particularly to the Medicine for Malignants which tells you p. 25. That the King hath not power over the Law but the Law over the King But for your greater ease I will only refer you to one small Pamphlet called Known Laws in which you shall not fail to meet with more than I have said N. C. These I believe were the Maximes of the State-faction C. I know no difference between Them and your Divines in this matter I am sure Mr. Will. Bridges who differs from Mr. Will. Bridge as little as their Names do makes none at all In whom I find a passage so directly opposite to your present Opinions about the obligation of the Oxford Act and declaring so fully the sense of your Divines about the Kings Power that I must crave leave to mention it N. C. I am content to hear it But you must remember that these were but the Opinions of private persons C. You are mistaken This man made an Answer published by Authority 1644. to a Book called the Loyal Convert in which he tells the converted Gentleman that he speaks illegally if he say the King can protect a Papist any way His reason is Universal though his Instance be Particular for whom the Law Protects not the King either cannot or ought not to protect No he ought not as he tells us so much as to require the help of such persons to protect him For they ought only to be Tributaries and to hold themselves to their U B I to their place Which words I would have you apply to that business which begat this Discourse I would fain know of your Divines how his Majesties Power comes to be so variable at their pleasure Whence is it that He can dispense with your Residence in the V B I or place to which you are by the Law confined who could not dispense at all with others nor release them no not for his necessary assistance from that place to which according to your Doctrine they were immoveably chain'd The Law protects both alike that is not at all what is the cause then that he can give you Protection notwithstanding the Law and not them Mistake me not it is the farthest thing from my thoughts to call in question the extent of his Majesties Supream Power I only question your Principles who pretend to be no Changelings Answer me this If the King have a power to give an Indulgence and dispense with the Law why did you so rudely and barbarously clamour against him heretofore and say the contrary If he have not why do you every where seek to justifie your selves in your illegal Practices with a meer shaddow and fancy of his Indulgence N. C. There is a great distance of time between the one and the other and they have changed their minds upon second thoughts C. Very likely And you believe also that if Presbytery were in its height and Glory his Majesty might dispence wich the Laws of their making as well as with his own Do you not Alas good man you shall find I doubt to your cost if things were come to that pass that no Authority could remit the Rigour of them For they have condemned all Dispensations and Licenses as Antichristian Their Decrees are so sacred that as there lyes no appeal from their Courts so none may take Authority to relaxate their Laws For they take themselves to sit in Christs Tribunal Seat and so their Laws are no more to be dispensed with than his But why do I insist so long upon one thing since there are so many instances of your windings and turnings as your Interest leads you There was a time I remember when the Parliament was magnified as the only keepers of the Peoples Liberties We were told * Observator on his Majesties Answers 1642. that we might not so much as imagine the Houses could be injurious or that a Committee should have any private ends to mislead them And therefore they could nor sit too long nor prove a burden to the good people But now you are quite in another strain There is no greater grievance than a Parliament No more intollerable mischief than their long Continuance For which different judgment there is no reason that I can see but this that then the Parliament was for you and now it is against you The time was also as I told you before when the Commons alone might impose a Protestation
the End of the World * P. 62. of that Book N. C. Strange Presumption C. I suppose he could have found a text for it in the Revelation if you had presumed then to question his humble confidence For I observe the General Assembly tell his Majesty that if they may but have that Unity in Religion and Uniformity of church-Church-Government in the two Kingdoms which they petition him for it will appear then that the unhappy Commotions and Divisions among us were but the * Letter to his Majesty July 27. 1642. Noise of many Waters and the Voice of a great Thunder before the voice of Harpers harping with their harps which shall fill the whole Land with Melody and mirth and the name of it shall be the Lord is there The place to which they refer you know is 14. Rev. 2. Now immediately after this joy and Melody there follows as you may see v. 6. an Angel flying in the midst of Heaven having the Everlasting Gospel to preach unto every Nation kindred tongue and people That is as Mr. Case perhaps might have expounded it this Gospel-Covenant St. John saw upon the wing about to fly to the end of the World N. C. No man could be so absurd C. What greater absurdity is there in this than in the application which the general Assembly make of the foregoing words to the same purpose N. C. I approve of neither C. But then possibly they might have perswaded you it was a good exposition when Mr. Case made you believe the Covenant was an Ordinance of God and Holy Ordinance * V.P. 8. and other place of the fore-cited Book a pure and Heavenly Ordinance yea one of the most special and solemn being a joyning Ordinance which strikes the main stroke between God and us the Marriage knot whereby God and a people are made one a piece of Divine Worship and as far as I can discern a more holy or higher Ordinance in his esteem than the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud N. C. For shame do not abuse men C. I am far from it as you may see if you will but consult his Answer to this Objection which some made against it It is needless say they to take the Covenant or rather a prophanation of so holy an Ordinance since we have done it over and over again in our former Protestations and Covenants To which he replies * Pag. 40. You receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper once a month that is but a Seal of the Covenant Consider it be convinced N. C. I am convinced of this that you do not bely him C. Very well And therefore he exhorts the Ministers to indeavour to sanctifie the people for so holy a Service as the taking of it and tells the people they must get their hearts into an holy Ordinance frame Just as if they were going to a new mount Sinai to be entred into a new Religion and seperated from the Nations to be a peculiar people zealous of the Covenant And indeed he all along makes it of the same nature with that Covenant which the children of Israel made or renewed with God and so confidently applies all the places of Scripture which speaks of that to this holy service that one cannot tell by any thing he says but this was the Covenant which the Holy Books speak of Nay some of them when the Covenant came into England lookt upon it as the Ark of Gods presence as Mr. Feak tells us * Beam of Light upon the account of which they should certainly prosper And Mr. Case I remember tells us this was the sin of England in former times That our Fathers knew not this service it was hid from them they regarded it not and those times of Ignorance God winked at or God lightly regarded them N. C. Sure he did not imagine all our Pious Ancestors to be Heathens C. You shall judge by and by what thoughts these men have of us all when I have told you that in the strength of these high towering thoughts and lofty imaginations they taught the people to go to battle against their Soveraign and to fancy the Lord march't before them They were confident they should prevail because they were the Jacobs and we but Esau's and the Elder must serve the Younger nay we the seed of the Serpent and they the seed of the Woman and so they must wound our head i. e. give us an incurable mortal blow Thus they were taught by Mr. H. Wilkinson in an Epistle before a Sermon * Preacht before the Parliament 25. Octob. 1643. of his in which he tells the Parliament again that they have to do with a brood of Serpents p. 13. at the best that we are but a piece of Papal Christendom as his phrase is p. 8. Nay when the pride and passion boiles up to its height then they look upon us and the rest of the world but as Infidels and Pagans What other construction can you make of the letter of the Scots in Ireland to the General Assembly * Convened at St. Andrews in July 1642. In which they desire them to send over some Ministers to them God having now opened a fair door to the Gospel by the banishment of the Prelates and their followers Nay they call to them as if they made an address to so many Apostles and the Protestants in Ireland were but so many Heathens Pitty poor Macedonians crying to you that you would come and help us c. Send able men to help to lay the foundation of Gods house according to the pattern And agreeable to this Petition they returned an Answer * August 6. of the same year in the Apostolical language telling them though they are loth to stretch themselves beyond their own measure yet they dare not be wanting to the inlargement of Christs Kingdom And so they send them some men to plant and to water according to the directions of Jesus Christ and the Doctrine and Discipline of that Kirk wishing that they who are sent may come with the full blessing of the Gospel of peace and that they will with all chearfulness embrace make use of the message of Salvation Who would not think that reads this if he were a stranger to our Countrey that some few Christians in that Island had sent for some Apostolical men or Evangelists to plant the Gospel among a Pagan People And that the Prelates and Ministers under their obedience had been but so many Heathen-Priests that nurs'd up the Nation in barbarous Ignorance Such is the goodly conceit they have of themselves and their horrible contempt and scorn of all others From whence it is that they call us the Nations asking their people when they do any thing that we do Why do you imitate the Customes of the Nations And there used I remember to be no phrase more common than this when a man removed his dwelling to a place where
than those who have some sense in them from your great Champion Mr. Cartwright He tells you expresly that by offence the Apostle doth not intend that which displeaseth or discontents but that whereby occasion is given to any of transgressing against the Laws of God For he is treating of eating things offered to Idols even in the Temples of Idols or in the presence of such as were indangered thereby The Gentiles being hardned in their Idolatry the Jews provoked against Christianity and some Christians drawn by such examples to follow them doubtingly Take now the Word in this proper sense and I shall be cleared from this imputation and you your selves condemned for looking no better to your feet that they go not awry N. C. How so C. It is the very design of my Book to keep you from falling into sin any more and to direct you to such a Course that you may not break the Laws of God again your selves nor cast such a stumbling-block before others that they take occasion to break them too If any have misinterpreted my meaning or out of anger and vexation grown worse and more audaciously violent by my writing they must bear the blame which they would throw upon me Nay a far greater blame for they both take Offence when none was given and they notoriously give Offence to others whom I would have kept from offending N. C. They will believe both alike that you meant to take away Offences and that they lay any in the peoples way C. That is they seldom believe any good of others or any ill of themselves But I do not beg your belief for it is manifest to any unprejudiced reason that the Book was sent abroad on no other Errand than to remove stumbling blocks out of every bodies way especially your Shism which is the greatest of all And if notwithstanding you be scandalized and confidently affirm it were better to forbear such writings you shall be judged out of the mouths of some of the old and better Nonconformists Who tell their Brethren of New-England and I say the same to you when they would have had them forbear to read the Common-Prayer because of the scandal it gave to some It is a scandal taken and not given and by forbearing we shall offend you the more if to confirm men in error be to scandalize them yea we shall prejudice the Truth and it might be an occasion to beget needless scruples in others and draw men ignorantly from the fellowship of the Saints and the holy Ordinances of God and strengthen them who by your own confession are run too far into Schism already N. C. Whose words are these C. You may find them p. 16. in the Reply made 1640. by many Ministers in Old-England to the Answer which their N. E. Brethren gave to their enquiry about 9. positions in the year 1637. And I would to God your Ministers would lay them to heart and no longer continue to harden their Followers in Schism by forbearing the use of that which they know is lawful Remember I beseech you the famous observation of a great Author * Lord Bacon Essay of Unity in Religion that Heresies and Schisms are of all other the greatest scandals yea more than the corruption of manners For as in the natural Body a Wound or Solution of continuity is worse than a corrupt Humour so it is in the Spiritual Nothing doth so much keep men from the Church and drive men out of it as breach of Vnity One of his Reasons is because every Sect hath a divers posture or cringe by themselves which cannot but move derision in worldlings and depraved Politicks who are apt to contemn holy things It is possible you may thinks for you are very censorious that he was no better than one of those depraved persons and so take no heed to his words Let me remember your therefore that there was a time when the Presbyterians applauded this observation and laboured to serve themselves of it For I find it cited in a Book call's wholsome Severity reconciled with Christian Liberty licensed by Mr. Cranford 1644. where the Author likewise sayes that the experience of former times makes us so wise as to foresee that Heresie and Schism tend to the breach of the Civil peace and to a rupture in the State as well as the Church Of which he gives many instances especially the Donatists in Africk and the Anabaptists in Germany But now it seems you are grown stark blind and whereas you had a foresight in times past at present you cannot or will not see what is before your eyes N. C. I told you I would not enter into long disputes with you But I am heartily sorry that your have so much grieved all the Godly C. You still persist in your old Uncharitableness Pride and high esteem of your selves above all others Or if you mean only all the Godly of your way yet you are guilty of great partiality in taking a liberty which you will not give For you say what you list against that way wherein so many good people among us truly serve God and make it ungodliness in us to say any thing against yours Pray give me a reason when you have duly consider'd it of this unequal dealing You speak and write against the Bishops Common-Prayer the Ceremonies nay many of you openly revile them to the just grief of our People and all this with a reputation of great Godliness But we must sow up our mouths and not say a word against you and your devices or else be accounted ungodly and prophane nay it is well if we escape the brand of Atheism What is this but to imitate those Hucksters who have double weights and ballances one for buying another for selling To have one measure for your selves and another for all other folk N. C. I do not approve of this C. But you side with those that play these tricks And besides you that are so loth to be grieved in the vulgar meaning of the words make light of grieving others in the proper sense of it For you have so sorely galled and wounded many by your practices that the Anguish hath been such as according to the Observation now named to thrust some back who were coming to us and drive others out who were among us The Reproaches I mean which you have cast upon our Church the divisions you have made the confusion you have been Authors of have been such thorns in some mens way that when they were just at the door of our Church they have drawn back their foot and faln back to the Popish Religion Of this I have good evidence and such as you dare not question of the other that some have taken such distast at the state of things among us as to turn aside out of the right way into the by-paths of Romish Superstition and Idolatry Witness the Seasonable Exhortation of a great number of the London-Ministers who
should have their hearts over-ruled by God and their Spirits ordered to plunder and terrify those scandalous Baal-Priests As for the People that followed the King he calls them Marble-hearted Malignants implacable and inveterate haters of Holyness that were for meer formal Protest antism at large which is in effect down right Atheism This excellent Treatise was licensed by Mr. John White who was himself such another Reviler and called our Ministers by the same names nay far worse not only Priests of Baal but of Bacchus and Priapus And though you may imagine he speaks only of those particular men whom he put into his Centuries He will inform you otherwise if you look into his Epistle before the first of them Which he put forth as he tells us for this end that the World might see what manner of persons our Clergy be As if there was no difference but the People were to judge of all the rest by those stories which were told of some And truly so they did and so they do to this day N. C. I never observed these things But you must consider that this Vicars was old and so might be testy For no man well advised sure would approve of that disorderly action of the Souldiers much less make God the Author of it C. I remember indeed Mr. Burroughs * Vindic. against Mr. Edw. Gang. wonders that so old a Professor of Religion as he should be found jeering and scorning at it for he cast some reproaches on his way and can find no excuse for it but the infirmities that sometime attend an old Age. But as for that action of the rude Souldiers I remember very well it is applauded by M. Case in a Book licensed by the same Mr. White June 27. 1642. call'd Gods waiting to be gracious c. Where he makes this one of their Incouragements to expect the fall of Babylon because God had so wonderfully wrought upon the Spirits of men particularly on those souldiers who went he saith to fight the Bishops battles in Scotland that they pull'd down the Railes Threatned the Priests and kept such a Visitation in their progress as the Bishops hardly ever had done since Queen Elizabeths dayes This he saith p. 119. was the Finger of God the work of him that created the Spirit of man N. C. You tell me News C. It 's very stale But no news at all to us who are well acquainted with their pitiful way of arguing And I heartily wish your Ministers would seriously consider upon this occasion these two things First how wretchedly they were wont to reason and how they abused the poor people by incouraging them to draw the greatest hopes from the slightest grounds For what Connexion is there between these two things The disorderly Souldiers were uncivil to our Ministers and prophaned our Churches as they went into the North therefore the fall of Babylon is near at hand It is just like the reasoning of Mr. Henderson who told the Parliament that the Fast which they kept on St Johns day * Sermon on 27. Decem 1643. was a presage that by the blessing of God on theirs and the Assemblies proceedings the Superstition of observing Christmas should shortly expire and that it was at its last gasp As if one should say there was a solemn Fast indicted as they speak in the Church of Scotland on the second Lords day in Sep. 1642. for the promoting Unity in Religion and Uniformity in Government * Direct anent Malignants by the Commis of Gen. Ass and the Officers of the Army at Wallingford house turned that Festival again into a day of Humiliation therefore that solemn remembrance of Christs Resurrection shall shortly cease and Christianity fall to the ground N. C. I am asham'd of the incoherence of such Discourses C. So should they be too and do publick pennance for it As also for their gross hypocrisy and partiality in assuming a power to themselves less than which they condemn in other men For they may turn it seems a Festival of our Lords appointing into a Fast but we may not make a Festival in honour of him I would desire them also to consider in the second place whether their Connivance at nay their Approbation of such things as were done without any Authority I may add their praising the blind zeal of private men who took upon them to be Reformers and more than that their imputing it to the work of the Spirit and the mighty power of God did not help to embolden the Army afterward to do those things which they themselves abhorr'd with a perswasion that they were moved by the Spirit and had a call from the Lord though no Authority from men It is a thing much to be laid to heart and then honestly to be consessed and publickly bewailed And when we see them so humble and sincere as to take shame to themselves for what they have done we shall all have the better opinion of them N. C. I hope these speeches may be imputed to the rashness of a few men at least they were not approved by any Authority C. Think you so How came Mr. Wilsons Sermon then before the Parliament to be printed by their Order 28. Sept. 1642. In which he calls the Clergy about the King Croaking Frogs that crept into Kings Chambers Who are known by the gutter there he thought lay a jest whence they come out of the mouth of the Dragon out of the mouth of the Beast and the false Prophet They are the spirits of Devils which go forth unto the Kings of the Earth to gather them to battle c. The Frogs head is like their Caps Quadrata ranarum Capita Here is work for the Parliament that the king may have no more Croakers in his Chambers And here I may add is a tast of your sanctified wit or rather devout Railing though borrowed alas in great part from Paraus on the Revelation N. C. You take things in the worse part when you hear or read our Sermons C. You would have said perhaps if you had read Mr. Vicars that to the hearing of the Word there came as well ears of Scorn as ears of Corn. For sure you could not but have remembred such an admirable piece of wit as this which you may find in his Epistle to the Reader N. C. We do not regard Wit nor pretend to it C. It is not because you do not love it For according to the Proverb John would wipe his Nose if he had it N. C. There is wit in picking a lock but it is better to let it alone And therefore I will not vie Proverbs with you C. You are just like the Gentlemen we are speaking of who do things and know it not nay then do them when they say they will not Mr. W. Bridges for instance reproves the Loyal Convert for ill language and tells him be seems in vain to be Religious if he refrain not his tongue when as
one of your Ministers was that he went to live under the Gospel And when they inquired of the welfare of their Friends the current Phrase was How do the Christians of such a Town According to the import of which language Mr. Bridge takes the boldness to call us Gentiles in the eares of the House of Commons * Fast Serm. Nov. 29. 1643. telling them that the Horns the Kings party may push and scatter for a time but the Carpenters viz. the Parliament shall fray them away and cast out these Gentiles And another bold Writer * Paraenetick to the Parl. and Assembly for Liberty 1644. tells them that the Army had often put the Armies of the Aliens to flight and therefore must be considered Nay he is so profane as to say take heed of resisting the Holy-Ghost for that mighty works have been done by these men you cannot deny p. 12. Miracles it seems were revived again to convince us who were either poor Legalists or Heathen Idolaters Yea God did by a continued series of Miracles and wonders if you will believe the Rump of the Parliament * Declar. of 27. Sept. 1649. exalt his name in the eyes of this and neighbor Nations by their means But alas we were the most reprobate and hard hearted of all other Aliens that could not be converted Vncircumcised Philistines in Mr. Case's language Nay Amalekites with whom the Lord would have war for ever N. C. Now you grosly abuse them C. Read the Preface to Mr. W. Bridges his Sermon * Preacht before the House of Com. Febr. 22. 1642. and judge whether I be guilty of that fault or no. N. C. What doth he say C. He tells you that the business of Christs Kingdom is lookt upon by the squint-eyed multitude under an Hexapla of considerations N. C. What 's an Hexapla C. Nay you must not trouble your self about his phrase for he tells you in the conclusion of that preface It is such as I can speak and I desire to be thankful it is no worse considering my deserts N. C. Well then let 's hear it as bad as it is C. After he hath done with the Theological the Historical and the Legal he comes to the fourth consideration which is Critical And what 's that think you N. C. You would not let me ask Questions and therefore I 'le make no answer to yours C. You would never guess if you did nor can the most Critical of you all tell why he gave it that name for it is only this My money shall never help to kill men To which he Answers well if you hinder the killing quelling of those who would both kill and quell us ours our Religion Kingdom you become friends of Gods enemies and ours and resolve to make peace with them with whom God hath resolved to have war Exod. 17. ult What think you now did not this man look upon us as Amalekites and wish the Servants of the living God to whom he addresses his Hexapla of considerations would have war with us eternally Do you not see what is like to become of us if men of this Spirit have Power again proportionable to their Will must not our name be blotted out and must not he be accursed that doth the work of the Lord negligently N. C. I pray no more Questions C. And then all your Victories will be called once more the return of prayers which you take to be as powerful as the lifting up of Moses his hands And all the Miseries which befal us the day of the Lords vengeance for the blood of his faithful servants For I must tell you another effect of your Pride is N. C. Do not put me among that number C. Their pride then is to think every favour that is done them to be their due and so they are bound to thank no body for it God they fancy makes the wicked serve them and causes them to do that for their sake which they had no intention to do And on the contrary if any justice be done upon any of themselves presently it is voted persecution cruelty enmity to the People of God and hatred of his Truth and Ways But let them exercise never so great oppression tyranny and cruelty upon their Neighbors it shall be cryed up as zeal for God and his cause Love to justice and pure Religion at least excused as a fulfilling the Decrees of the Almighty spoiling the Egyptians and acting for the Lord in the day of Vengeance N. C. This is your time and so you may say what you will against Christ's witness-bearing people while they are in their sackcloth condition It is now only their witnessing time but C. But what Why do you make a stop N. C. The times will mend and the Witnessing time they say will be over C. You would have me think then that you speak their sense not your own But I perceive you are a little taken with those new Phrases of the Witnessing time and witnessing work As indeed it was alway the humor of your party if a noted man invented an unusual Phrase presently to form their mouths to that new mode of speaking Just like a pack of Hounds that when one begins to open immediately all sollow and almost deafen one with the noise When a Preacher for instance from that text David served his Generation by the will of God raised this impertinent Observation That it is our duty to mind Generation-work instantly all Pulpits sounded with this Doctrine of Generation-work That was the phrase in those days In so much that you should hear both Minister and people bewailing it in their prayers that they had not minded Generation-work more Which made some good innocent souls that were not acquainted with the secret blush when they first heard it and wonder what they meant And to say the truth that was a hard matter to tell For the Presbyterians I think meant nothing but reforming according to the Covenant the Lord having given them such an Opportunity as the General Assembly speak in their Answer * Presented 25. Aug. 1642. to the Declaration of the Parliament of England Where they tell them that when the Supreme Providence gives opportunity of the accepted time and the Day of Salvation no other work can prosper in the hands of his servants if it be not apprehended and with all reverence and faithfulness improved And withall they add This Kirk when the Lord gave them the calling considered not their own deadness nor staggered at the promise through unbelief but gave glory to God And who knows but the Lord hath now some controversie with England which will not be removed till first and before all the Worship of his name and the Government of his house be setled according to his will This was their Generation-work But others meant by this Phrase the pulling down every thing that they imagin'd Antichristian Presbytery and all And some went so far as to
will often guide them unto as in finding Outways of Facilitation and Advancements for the business beside some other Accana and secret Preparations What these Out-ways were into which a man might lash and so skip over many difficulties he leaves us to guess You may be sure they are not the Common high-road of the King of Heaven as the Reply tells him His Arcana also he keeps to himself as if he was one of Heavens close Committee and so bound to Secrecy But the most likely person to disclose these Mysteries and reveal the Arcana if he be not sworn to secrecy too is Mr. Bridge of whom you may enquire And perhaps he will think himself much beholden to you for teaching him a New Phrase which he hath not yet used Out-wayes of Facilitation of the great and hard work now at hand These Out-wayes will do knight-service when they come to the business of restraining the higher powers and turning the still people to war and blood N. C. You are resolved I see to lead me out of my way and to take one occasion or other to divert me from the main business C. We are in our way yet But I was going I confess to lead you to the dancing on the ropes and then indeed you might have taken occasion to complain N. C. I think you are out of your witts Can you tell what you was going to say C. I was thinking with my self what Out-wayes the dancers upon the ropes could find to whom Mr. Bridg compares Reformers They have no Out-wayes sure but what may indanger to lead them out of the world N. C. Would you would rest a while and take a nap For I doubt you have heated your Brain by this long discourse and so begin to talk idlely C. I understand my self well enough and call to mind that I should indeed have said Walking which is more becoming the gravity of Reformers not dancing on the Rope For his words are these when he is exhorting the Parliament to lay the Stones of Reformation with most exactness You see that when a man walks upon the Rope he carrieth a pole in his hand to sway him and he looks diligently to his sect because if he fail be cannot mend his miscarriage And I say that in this work of Reformation if there be the least slip Sermon before the Commons 29. Nov. 1643. p. 21.22 it will be a hard thing to recover it when once a Nation is setled in that miscarriage Surely therefore the work is to be done with the most exactness N. C. Well and doth he not say true C. I should indeed have considered that Out-wayes are only to facilitate your getting the work of Reformation into your hands When you are about it then Out-wayes are dangerous All must be done by the Rule and by Line or in a new phrase by Rope according to the Word In brief I recollect now that this is the Out-waying time in order to those better times of Walking upon the Rope But I pray What was it that I diverted you from N. C. Oh now I see you are come to your self And will you then ever hear me speak a Sentence or two more I thank you for this small silence You have snapt of late at my words too hastily and cut me short in what I was going to say which was plainly this We observe the Multitude that run in your way to be a company of blind Ignorant Creatures that have scarce a drachm of the saving knowledg of Jesus Christ and the Mysteries of our Religion Nor do they care to know these things but only content themselves to come to Church and say their Prayers and learn their Catechism and hear perhaps a Sermon which they presently forget Whereas our People are very inquisitive after knowledg and can discourse rarely of matters of Religion and repeat Sermons and besides are very careful to know the pure Gospel-way of Worshipping God And truly when I consider things well I cannot but wonder how sottish many of your Conformable creatures are who never scruple any thing and would without all doubt conform to the grossest Superstition and Popery should it be injoyned But we are very tender and solicitous as you your selves confess to have pure Ordinances and to know the very mind and way of God C. I perceive you have little or nothing more to say of this matter therefore I pray let me tell you what I think I cannot deny that many of our common People are very Ignorant Nay they themselves are sensible of it and will confess it But I must add that yours are generally Ignorant too only think themselves very knowing Now which of these think you are the worse they that are Ignorant but humble and void of self-conceit or they that are as Ignorant but very Proud and conceited of their Knowledg Nay bold confident of their own skill taking upon them to instruct their betters to dispute with our Ministers and that as if they were their Equals if not Superiours without any respect to their learning or office For I must tell you withall that as to their duty towards God and man a great number of those on whom you bestow only your pitty and esteem Ignorant creatures have more understanding at least more conscience than many of those that sigh over them They are more reverent in their Devotions and addresses to God more respectful in their behaviour to his Ministers more obedient to their Governours more humble and modest before all their betters and as far as I can see more just and charitable toward all men And therefore are in a better disposition to learn more and increase in knowledg than your prating self-conceited people And if there be such Effects as these of the little knowledg that you despise and sew better fruits than talkativeness malepert contradictions of their Elders censuring and contemning the ignorance of others from that great high knowledg which you boast of I would fain know which of these you judg are like to be most saving But of these things perhaps we may have occasion to discourse some other time As for the Rest I flatly deny that your people are more knowing For of those that are the most earnest for pure Ordinances Gospel-worship and cry out upon our Liturgy nay abhor it as Superstitions Popish Idolatrous c. there is not one in an hundred that knows what those words mean Be but so true to your self and studious to understand men aright as to ask the next you meet and bid them deal plainly and freely with you what Popery Superstition or Will-worship is and I doubt not you will find they are like a company of Piggs running after an old Sow which falls a grunting squeaking and making a fearful cry they know not for what N. C. You use a very homely Similitude C. It may pass well enough in common talk and was the first that came to hand to represent
the rude and senseless noise which the multitude make with those words only by imitation N. C. But you compare them to Swine C. No. I only compare their cryes together which are both alike unreasonable Do but ask for instance what they mean by Popery and some of these Ignorant Zealots will tell you it is to do that which is practised in the Church of Rome Which is no better than the voice of a Brute If this be Popery all our Religion is Popery We must turn Jews or Turks or Pagans that we may not be Papists And yet that will not do neither for this Popery will still be found among us that we pray and give thanks to God which are actions common to all the world with the Church of Rome N. C. You need not have spent one word to confute such a gross Conceit as this C. True But this sottish Definition of Popery you will be sure to meet withal from some if you will but take the pains to enquire Others it 's like will tell you that it is Popery to do any thing after that manner that the Papists do And then we must never kneel nor lift up our eyes or our hands nor meet together in a Church N. C. Why do you fetch such a sigh C. I sigh to think of the intolerable blockishness of those people that will pretend to know all the Mysteries of God For others who think themselves more wise than the rest will tell you that to use any ceremonies in use among them is certainly Popish And then we must use none at all and so make no outward expression of Religious devotion which must be done in some manner or other or else they must be such as are confessedly absurd and ridiculons Nay all civil Ceremonies and Customes will be forbidden us in time by these men At least for every thing that they hate this shall be the name Popish Antichristian or Babylonish For O. C. himself True Catalogue p. 15. I well remember could not be carried to his grave without their clamours that it was a needless chargeable Popish funeral solemnity because there was black Velvet a Bed of State and a Waxen Image Nay let Monareby look to it self for that is Popish and Antichristian too in such mens opinion and this Kingdom one of the Ten Horns of the Beast And down shall my Lord Mayor go also when they are able as an Image of that Government together with all the pomp and foolery which attends him as their words formerly were N. C. I hope there are no such dangerous persons now among us C It 's well if there be not But you will certainly find some who will tell you that all Ceremonies invented by the Pope are Popish and think themselves much wiser than their Neighbors if upon this ground they furiously rage against our Church But the best of it is that this is nothing to the purpose For none of ours were invented by him The Cross was used among Christian people long before the name or power of the Pope was heard of And so was kneeling and white garments and bowing the body in adoration of our Blessed Saviour N. C. But I have heard some say that it is Popish to do any thing of this nature but what is prescribed by the Word C. This is as sottish as all the rest For it supposes both that nothing may be done in or about the worship of God but what we have a Command for in Holy Scripture and that the Pope and his followers are the only persons who have done any thing not prescribed there Else why should they call it Popish or Romish more than Patriarkish or Greekish N. C. Is not the Supposal true C. No. All the ancient Christians did many things in Divine worship appointed by the Scriptures for which they had no particular prescription there Nay such is your Ignorance you your selves do so too and never mind it For what direction is there to make a new prayer twice or thrice a day And one Prayer before the Sermon and another after To receive the Sacrament of Christ's body and blood in the morning and not after Supper To deliver it into the hands of every person that receives it with Prayer for him or Exhortation to him or both N. C. Pray stay You will let nothing at all be Popish if you be let alone At least nothing of this Nature C. Yes We are taught by our Divines that to ordain such a multitude of Ceremonies as will imploy most of our thoughts and care in time of Divine Service how to do them aright deserves that name Or if we make any of them an essential part of Gods worship or give them power to obtain pardon for us or work grace in us Or lastly it we make them Apostolical and necessary Commands that bind the Conscience as the Laws of God do Then call them Popish and Antichristian or what you please N. C. You say well And I confess I know a little more than I did C. O that you would help to reduce those silly and many of them I hope well-meaning souls who through mere Ignorance and blind prejudice are departed from the grave and sober way of serving God among us to follow their own vain fancies and perhaps conceit they are Witnessing against Popery and the wayes of Antichrist that is against they know not what N. C. I am not come so far yet nor hold my self able to Witness against such persons but this I can say that all is not Popery which is so called C. Nor Superstition neither Though with the same doltish Ignorance they charge us with that vice which they are most guilty of themselves and do not know it As appears by what I told you at our last meeting N. C. They like not your definition of Superstition C. That 's because they like nothing that we say And because it makes them so plainly guilty of that which they condemn But do they like Mr. Calvin's definition of it better N. C. What is it C. You may have met it's possible with his Institutions for they have been long in the English Tongue There he tells you almost in the beginning of the Book Book 1. chap. 12. pag. 41. that as Religion hath its name from binding and is set as contrary to wandring Liberty because it binds men up and prescribes bounds and limits to them in which true Piety consists So Superstition hath its name from going beyond all measures being a humour that will not be bounded nor limited or as his very words are that not being contented with the manner and order prescribed heapeth up together a superfluous and order prescribed heapeth up together a superfluous number of vain things Do you like this I say or no If you do then I will shew you that as in Prayers so in other holy Duties your humour is to keep no measure nor order but to heap up one
shame But when the same sickness hath taken hold of very many there remains nothing else to the good but sorrow and be wailing that so they may escape that destruction which is like to come on the multitude of the wicked And in very deed saith he if the contagion of sinning hath invaded the multitude the severe mercy of Divine discipline is necessary but the counsel or enterprises of separation are both vain and pernicious yea sacrilegious because then they become both impious and proud and give more trouble to the good which are weak than they correct the sturdy ones who are evil And concluding this point he gives this Advice Let a man therefore with Mercy correct what he can and that which he cannot let him bear with patience And with love let him mourn and lament until He from above do either redress and amend or else differr until the harvest to root out the tares and to winnow out the chaff And here he alledges the example of St. Cyprian that holy Martyr who had been Bishop of Carthage and describes the multitude as full of gross sins yea many of his fellow Bishops as spotted with very foul crimes but yet he communicated with them though not in their sins which he evermore reprehended yet in the Sacraments and holy Worship of God Nay he shews that our Saviour himself did not separate in Body from the Pharisees and Saduces and multitude of common people but met with them at the Temple And it is also plain that the African Church in St. Austin's dayes besides their evil manners had some other blemishes which cannot be charged on ours for by his own complaint it appears there were such a multitude of Rites and Ceremonies then in use that they were a very great burden and the Church was oppressed and groaned under them And therefore I think your preciseness in separating from us is more like the disdainful and proud Religion of the Scribes and Pharisees than the humble and charitable purity of our blessed Saviour N. C. If you take these old Fathers for your Guides they will lead you I now not whither They held many strange Opinions C. I suppose you would separate from them too if they were alive But what think you of Mr. Calvin He is a more modern Father and you may think perhaps more inlightned will you stand to his judgment N. C. Why What says he C. He tells you that Wheresoever the Gospel is purely preached and the Sacraments administred according to the institution of Christ there is the Church of God Instit Book 4. Cap. 1. Sect. 9. And if the very multitude hath and doth honour these it deserves without doubt to be esteemed and judged a Church because it is certain that these things are not without fruit And if you look a litle further to the next Section he repeats it again with much earnestness Sect. 10. There appears in such a multitude as he mentioned before neither a deceitful nor doubtful face of a Church Of which no man may either despise the Authority or refuse the Admonitions or resist the Counsels or mock at the Corrections much less depart from it break in sunder the Unity of it and go unpunished For the Lord so highly esteems the Communion of the Church that he counts him for a Traiterous Runaway and forsaken of Religion whosoever shall stubbornly estrange himself from any Christian fellowship So that it be such a one as hath a true Ministry of the word and Sacraments He so commends the Churches Authority That when it is violated he judges his own diminished Do you hear this N. C. Yes But C. To prevent all your exceptions look further into the 12. Sect. and there he will tell you that the fellowship of such a Church is never to be cast off though it swarm full of many faults Yea and there may be some faultiness crept into it in the Administration either of Doctrine or of the Sacraments yet it ought not to estrange us from the Communion of it For all the Articles be not of one sort And therefore we ought not rashly for every light dissention forsake the Church c. But then in the next he tells you that in bearing with the imperfections of life our gentle tenderness ought to go much further And in the next but one that it is one thing to shun the private company of a wicked man and another for hatred of such to forsake the Communion of the whole Church Which is to be more rigorous than St. Paul And although this temptation to forsake the Church may by an indiscreet zeal of righteousness Sect. 16. enter into the thought of a good man yet we shall find that too much preciseness grows rather out of Pride Disdainfulness and false Opinion of holiness than of true holiness and true zeal thereof They that are bolder than others and as it were the Standart-bearers to make any departing from the Church for the most part do it upon no other cause but their despising of all men to boast themselves to be better than others But I think I had best let the rest alone lest you say I rail upon godliness of which this Separation is now grown a great note though in Mr. Calvins words N. C. We are not to mind what men say Nor to have their persons in admiration C. No Not what your own Ministers say Sure their words are another Gospel with you or else how come you so to misunderstand the old N. C. They are good men and so we value what they say C. I 'le shew you then that they have said the very same in behalf of our Form of Divine Service that I did the last time we talkt together And that they condemn this withdrawing from us which Mr. Bridge makes the mark of a Saint N. C. Pray let it alone It will be too long C. Let me tell you thus much That they told their Brethren of New-England heretofore that if we deny communion with such a Church as ours there hath been no Church these 1400. years with which a Christian might lawfully joyn Nay Letter of many Ministers in Old England requesting the judgment of their Brethren in New Engl concerning 9. Positions 1637. with their Answer 1639. And the Reply 1640 Published afterward by Mr. Simeon Ash and Mr. W. Rathband 1643. that if such scruples as are now in your heads may take place it will be unlawful to hold communion with any Society under Heaven And that as for making an Idol of the Common Prayer which by the way was a phrase they themselves made use of afterward it might be as well said that they made an Idol of their conceived Prayers And therefore what evil spirit is it that now possesses so many of your Presbyterian Ministers and hath driven them as if they were out of their wits from our Church and their own Principles and from all the Churches of
Christ that now are or ever were N. C. Pray do not say so C. They have granted me that for 1400. years there never was any Church with which we might hold Communion if not with ours And I will prove that there hath been none for these 1668. years N. C. You are strangely bold C. No bolder than Mr. Calvin who will give you good satisfaction if you read the Chapter to which I referred you that the Church of the Jewes in our Saviour's time and the Apostolical Churches afterward tolerated greater Vices in manners and fouler Errors in Doctrine than were in any Church from which in his days a separation was made And I will shew you distinctly either now or when you will require it that those Churches planted and watered by the Apostles had those Corruptions in Doctrine Worship Manners Discipline and Government which cannot be pretended to be in ours And yet there was no separation of some Members from the rest Nay the Apostles notwithstanding all these speak very well in general of some They call them all Believers and Saints And none knew then any other Men of the World and Vnbelievers but Pagans such as did not acknowledg Jesus to be the Lord. N. C. I am loth to give you so great a trouble But I pray answer me one Scripture which seems to be against this when it saith The Apostles separated the Disciples Act. 19.9 C. Admirably argued The Apostles separated the Disciples from those that were not Disciples and therefore we may separate Disciples from Disciples N. C. How say you C. The Apostles I say were sent to preach the Gospel and make Disciples to Christ baptizing them into his Name who believed on him Those who would make profession of Christ they gathered into a new Church from among the Jewes and Pagans who disown'd him And accordingly here in this City having won some to believe and made them Christs Disciples they separated them from the rest of the Jewish Synagogue who blasphemed Christ and would acknowledg no other Religion but that of Moses to be a distinct Society by themselves and no longer Members of the unbelieving Synagogue From whence you would inferr that one Christian is to be separated from another Christian and believers gathered from believers if one part appear to us Pious and the other Vicious Which is just as if the Apostles out of those few Disciples separated from the Jews had made another lesser Church separated from the rest of the Disciples N. C. I see my Error plainly And shall remember hereafter if I can not merely to nibble at the Scripture as you called it but take it altogether But Mr. Bridge affrights us horribly with one place which prophesies he sayes of the greatest separation in the latter dayes that ever was It is in the Revelation where the Spirit cryes Come out of her my people that you be not partaker of her sins There shall be the greatest separation and that provokes the Antichristian party as his words are p. 179. of the Book before mention'd C. I remember them very well Rev. 18.4 But do you still take Mr. Bridge for a Prophet Have I not shown you what a rare Seer he is in the Revelation N. C. I have heard others beside him mention this place Mr. Case I remember gave us this reason to hope that God would be gracious to England Englands Incouragement to wait on God p. 69. and that Babylon should shortly fall because he had begun with such a distinct and audible voice from Heaven to call his people out of Babylon saying Come out of her my people c. Rev. 18.4 her Idolatrous bowings cringings Altars Crosses and cursed Ceremonies false Worship false Doctrine C. You need say no more I have it perfectly in mind as well as you And you were wont I know in those days to believe that they knew the designs of Heaven as well as if they had been Counsellors of State in that kingdom And conceived the News they told you of what was coming as sure and certain as if they had layn in the Bosom of St. John as he did in our Saviour's But I hope by this time you are convinced they were only drowsy dreamers that knew nothing of his Mind And see that they are but like a poor Mouse which having but one hole is easily caught Babylon Babylon was all they had to say then and thither they run now These are the Magical sounds whereby they would astonish you The Mystical words whereby they practise all their Sorceries upon you Stop but your ears against these and you are free from their Enchantments for they can never prove that the Church of England is this Babylon from whence his people are call'd or that she hath taken so much as one sip or kiss'd the Cup of her Fornications N. C. I never askt them indeed to prove this C. No You took it very lovingly upon their word And ran after those whom you fancied and were inamoured of with an implicit Faith as if you had tasted too deep of the Cup your selves If you did but hear them say Mystery Mystery the very word you know in the forehead of the whore presently you bowed to them and thought you were under the teachings of an infallible Spirit And you remember I suppose very well that those two and all the rest of the Ministers that were wont to preach before the Parliament and in the greatest Congregations generally chose their texts out of the Old-Testament seldom out of the New unless it were the Revelation N. C. What of that C. By which means they furnished themselves in an abundant measure with such Comparisons as did them admirable service They could easily contrive it so that they might seem such a select number as the Jewes the peculiar people of God and we like the Aegyptians and Babylonians or what other accursed Nation they pleased And so applying all those places which spoke of them to us and our times they excited in you the same hatred against us that was in the Jews against those Nations and made you think it as necessary to separate from us as for the Jews to come out of Babylon Nay by a wonderful Art or prodigious Inchantment rather which argues your great dulness they first raised your fancies put words into your mouths and taught you to expect all that they had a mind should shortly come to pass and then they made the expectation they had wrought in you an argument that it should come to pass Thus I remember one of your Divines incouraged the Parliament to expect the overthrow of Babylon because said he the General talk throughout the Houshold among the Domesticks is Mr. H. Wilkinson Sermon upon Zach. 18.19 pag. 21. that Christ their King is coming to take possession of his Throne This they not only whisper but speak publickly Now you know before Kings go to a place their purpose is first known among
flock committed to their trust From whom notwithstanding the People of Israel were not to withdraw nor to renounce all communion with them and obedience to them But besides this I would have you know that if there be any Ministers among us that are but like Idols and Images of men there are those and thanks be to God good store who hear and see and speak and do the will of God in the places where they are set N. C. I am convinced of all this C. But I pray once more observe whether all such Writers and Preachers as Mr. Bridge and the rest of the separation in which you are ingaged do not take more pains to prove the danger of Idolatry and the hainousness of the sin than to tell you what Idolatry is and to prove that it is Idolatry to joyn with us Their way alwayes was to prove little and to accuse stoutly to declaim loudly and not to reason to terrifie the people by a dreadful sound of words and raise great passions in them not to inform their judgments what they are to do and what to avoid And for that purpose nothing hath ever done them better service than Babylon and Aegypt and the Golden Calves and Idol Ministers Idol Service and such like words of no certain and determinate meaning And to say the truth in this as Mr. Can himself could not but observe a great while ago consists a great difference between Christs institutions and mens inventions Whatsoever God will have us do or not do he layes down the same openly precisely manifestly but when Satan speaks by his Instruments he speaks so ambiguously and cloakedly that one knows not how to take it nor which way to apply it * So I find his words cited in Mr. J. Balls book against him pag. 88. Which if you will but apply as Mr. Ball told him to your own manner of disputing and alledging testimonies It will discover your-selves to be the deceivers who affect ambiguous and equivocal speeches and seek by mists and foggs of strange and unusual arguments and sentences wrest to a contrary sense to blind the eyes and puzzle the understandings of the simple For you hide your selves under the terms of false Church false ☞ Ministry false Prophets false Worship flying from Idolatry taking heed of Idols c. which you have taken up in a peculiar sense and running along in that strain you pervert the Scriptures wrong Authors confound things to be distinguished dispute sophistically and while you boast of clear proofs divine precepts examples and practises of Forefathers c. you only raise a dust to dazzle the eye For let the matter be lookt into and you have neither divine Precept nor Example of godly Forefathers to justifie your separation What you teach hath been condemned in Schools cryed down in Sermons disallow'd in all the Churches of the Saints from the very beginning to this day N. C. You are heated now to some purpose C. It is better you should blame my zeal than I blame my own chilness and I had rather a great deal be condemned of some violence than of a lazy indifference in these matters For who is there that values his Religion and reverences the Sacred Scriptures that can hear them thus abused and not have his spirit stirred in him N. C. There are those who think they smell something else that stirs the spirits of your Ministers C. What should that be N.C. Envy and Anger that any men should be liked better than themselves It troubles them to see any body leave their Churches and follow our Ministers because they would not be thought less able than they And it 's possible their congregations may be thin when so many have withdrawn themselves from them C. There is an old saying that No man ever sought another in the Oven who had not been there before himself Had not your Preachers been heretofore tickled with the sight of full Congregations and the fancy of having many followers they could never think Multitudes and throng'd Assemblies which many do not want so necessary to the contentment of any man of worth among us And were not you intollerably proud and conceited of your selves this imagination could never have entred into your heads that it dejects our Ministers to want your company What are you that they should tremble to hear you say in a threatning manner We will never hear him more Are you the only men of Wisdom the sole Beauty of Christian Assemblies Is all their labour lost if you be not there to commend it Are the rest of the people no better than the walls and the seats Speak man Is it a great courtesie to a Minister that you will be pleased to hear him Must he think himself beholden to you that you vouchsafe him your presence Nay take it for an honour that you come and help to make a numerous Auditory in which you shine as the precious stones in a Ring O prodigious Vanity I have heard indeed that some of your Ministers made low reverences to you and studied to humour you as if they thought you deserved much of them for honouring their Assemblies but I know none of that mind If you will not come to hear them you may stay away and I wonder who will have the worse of it you or they N. C. If they are not concern'd in this why do they keep such a stir about Separation Cannot they let the people do as they will and say nothing To what purpose is it to make so great a noise about such little things C. How say you little things Hear Mr. J. Ball I beseech you a person whom you reverence I suppose who tells you in another Book of his Trial of the grounds of separation Epistle to the Reader that how small soever the things in themselves may seem to be the evil consequences that follow thereupon be both many and great It is no small matter to bury that under the condemnation of false worship as Mr. Bridge doth which the Lord the Author of all Truth the Determiner of his true pleasing and acceptable worship doth allow in his service It is no small offence to forsake the prayers of the Congregation to depart from the Table of the Lord when he calls to feast with himself and to break off Society and communion with the Church of Christ to fill the hearts of weak Christians with doubts and distractions as not knowing what to do or what way to take to spend time in reasonings and disputings of this kind which might much more profitably be imployed in the practice of Repentance and holy obedience to expose Religion to contempt and the truth of God to reproach among them that delight to speak evil These are sad effects of this Separation which I oppose Which tends not as he speaks in his Answer to Can to the overthrow of Antichrist but to the renting of the Church the disgrace of Religion the
affirm'd in the view of the Covenant p. 34. a Limb or Claw of the Beast as the Brownists-phrase was but now are of another opinion let us know it that we may rejoyce in the change Wise men sometimes change Opinions and Counsels though Fools do not And they will change for the better as Mr. Bridge hath done for the worse For there was a time when he and his Brethren made this Declaration before God and all the world concerning the English Churches In which say they through the grace of God we were converted that all that Conscience of the Defilements we conceived to cleave to the True Worship of God in them Apologet. Narration 1643. pag. 6. or of the unwarrantable power in Church-Governours exercised therein did neper work in any of us any other Thought much less Opinion but that multitudes of the Assemblies and Parechial Congregations thereof were the true Churches and Body of Christ and the Ministry thereof a true Ministry much less did it ever enter into our hearts to judg them Antichristian Why they should say Multitude and not all since they had the same form of Divine service and were under the same Government I know not for it cannot be meant of such Churches where the Ministers were chosen by the People which were but few Nor am I concern'd to know the sense of those words but I would gladly know if they please why they cannot now see multitudes of such Churches and by what new light or Revelation Mr Bridge hath discoverd our Worship and Churches to be Antichristian from which the Saints must come forth and separate themselves Or rather for now you would have me speak to you alone why so many Prosbyterians withdraw themselves from our Prayers and Sacraments and hold separate Assemblies in opposition to ours You do not make your cause the better but the worse by this acknowledgment that you do not depart from us as no true Churches of Jesus Christ and stand condemned by your own declared Principles and all the writings of your Forefathers To forsake the true Churches of Christ saith Mr J. Goodwin himself and the Ministry thereof where men have been converted and built up Letter to Mr. Thomas Good win from Mr. Jo. Goodwin before he turn'd Independent and have converted and built up so many with the setting up of new Churches against the leave and will of the Civil Magistrate without the consent of those Churches departed from and to the seandal and grief of so many godly Manisters and Christians nay the scandal of all reformed Churches and this under the pretence of spiritual power and liberty purchased for them by Christ had need have a clear and full proof and not be built only upon such weak slight grounds as flattering similitudes witty allusions remote consequences 0 strain'd and forced interpretations from hard and much controverted Scriptures What clear proofs he afterward sound I cannot tell but when he had rent himself even from the Presbyterian Churches he could not but give this Honorable Testimony to ours * Sion Coll. visited That Travellers from all parts confirm'd that there was more of the Truth and power of Religion in England under the late Prelatical Government than in all the Reformed Churches besides Therefore I must beseech you again to consider what solid grounds you have for forsaking such a Church as this which hath been the Mother of so many pious souls and extorted such praises even from those undutiful children who out of I know not what humor lift up their heel against her What spot do you spy in her now which you could not discern heretofore Or if there be any what soul Monster should it be that thus affrights you if indeed we be not the Beast nor any limb of him You that profess so much tenderness of Conscience should rather methinks be horribly afraid since you think we are a Church still united to Christ lest by separating from us you cut your selves off from him and run in time to the greatest extremities and utterly renounce and disown us For as Mr. Ball hath well observed They that have once broken off from us have run from one error into another after the fond imagination of their heart till they have dasht themselves against the Rocks And indeed how can you expect it should be other wise There is but one Body the Church but one Lord or Head of the Body Christ Whosoever separates from the Body therefore separates from Christ in that respect And if we withdraw our selves from him where he graciously invites us to feast with him may we not justly fear he will withdraw himself from us and make us seek when we shall not find him This voluntary separation from the Lords Table and the Prayers of the Congregation is a willing excommunication of our selves from the Visible tokens of the Lords presence and Love And if it be a grievous sin in Church Governors to deprive any Member of the Church of all Communion with the Visible Church upon light and unnecessarv occasions is it not a greater sin in the Members to deprive themselves of the same Communion upon the like or less occasions Without all doubt this sin will be punished with blindness of mind if you persist in it Such offenders having run as I am able to prove from one thing to another with the greatest confidence till they came to think themselves inspired and full of the Holy-Ghost even when they rail'd and reviled all other Churches And when those heats sailed to think that all Religion was a mere Hypocondriacal Delusion This Mr. Calvin assured you long ago would be the fate of Separatists from such a Church as Ours Because they dissolve saith he the sacred Bond of Vnity no man shall escape this just punishment of his divorce that he shall intoxicate himself with the most pestilent errors and most foul dotages Nay your own Ministers could admonish you heretofore that when Religion either by choice or force is propagated in Corners Advertisement upon Phil. 1.1 before the Annot on the Bible 1645. many Heretical Doctrines are hatched and preached and afterward it may be printed too which had not been conceived nor divulged if the Authors of them had continued in the society of publique Assemblies And therefore you me-thinks above all other men should dread the sad effects of this new separatition as much as those men do the Sea who feel themselves yet wet and come forth dropping from a wreck Remember your own sad complaints and Lamentations the Shrieks and the Cries which are yet fresh in our ears Remember what Rocks you dash't against when you had once forsaken our Company and broken the Bond of Vnity Call to mind how many perished and in what danger all were to be lost Did you not pray the five Brethren to consider in the beginning of the Storm that in their Church-way into which many were running there would be
no end of Schisms But every two or three members if they pleased might set up a Church by themselves Witness the rent in that Church where Mr. Bridge and Mr. Sympson were teachers at Rotterdam Where Mr. Sympson Antapologia p. 29. p. 117. as Mr. Edwards informs us having only a Merchant and his Wife joyning with him at the first separated from Mr. Bridge and set up a new Church of their own Of which a Woman Mrs. White was the soundress as Mr. Bridge himself hath said And when they were thus torn in sunder both parts of the Division fell together by the cars among themselves There was a new rent in Mr. Sympsons company and Mr. Ward colleague to Mr. Bridge was deposed from his Ministry and office by Mr. Bridge his Church for some frivolous differences And such was the bitterness revilings and reproaches expressed in the letters that passed between them that the Readers ears would tingle should he hear them In short the Jews and the Samaritans were not greater Enemies than these were one to another as my Author affirms N. C. Mr. Edwards you mean C. Yes and I hope you think him a good one now as you did heretofore If not I can justifie what he sayes out of a learned Dutch writer if you please N. C. I am not much concern'd about this C. But you are concern'd to keep in mind these scandals in separate Congregations And it will do you no hurt I am sure to reflect a great deal farther back and consider what work the ancient Separatists of our Nation made in the same Country Johnson and Ainsworth fell out at Amsterdam and their Congregation was divided into two one of which excommunicated the other The two Johnsons also though Brethren in nature as well as Religion fell into such a fiery contention upon a small occasion that George the younger became a Libeller and loaded his Brother and others with many reproaches and that in Print to remain for ever The Elder broke fellowship with him and with his own Father who took part with George and curfed the other with all the curses in Gods Book and this breach was confirm'd by the heavy sentence of Excommunication and both Father and Brother delivered up to the Devil But then at Leiden J. Smith condemned them all and accused them of Idolatry telling them that their Constitution was as very a Harlot as either her Mother England or Grandmother Rome and that the Separation was the youngest and fairest daughter of Rome the Harlot The reason was because they look't into their Bibles when they preach't and into the Psalter when they sung For the Holy Scriptures he said were not to be retained as helps before the eyes in time of worship and particularly that it was unlawful to have a Book before them in singing of Psalms Besides their Government he thought was Antichristian because they joyned to Pastors other Doctors and Rectors which was an human invention And so he fell to the Anabaptists where he made also a new sect by baptizing himself if you please to have some of his words perhaps they may be useful to you When Popish prelacy saith he was suppressed and the Triformed Prebytery viz. Pastors Teachers and Elders substituted In his Book called the Differences of the Churches of the Sepation one Antichrist was put down and another set up in his place or the Beast was suppressed and his Image advanced And therefore as they that submit to the Prelacy are subject to that wo of Worshipping the Beast so they that submit to the Triform'd Presbytery are in like manner liable to that wo denounced against them that worship the Image of the Beast N. C. I perceive what you are going to say you would have me mark again how every Party paint their Opposites in the shape of this ugly Beast to terrifie simple people with it as we do children with Bug-bears C. And whosoever reads and considers these things will be I think of old Mr. Bernards mind who told this Nation threescore years ago that * it is better to endure Corruptions in a Church Mr. R. Bern. Plain Evidences Ann. 1610. p. 6. than be turmoiled with such Distractions and to be brought into such Confusions even a Babel of Languages of Opinions of Assemblies of Governing of Government and what not It is a blessing to be Well but a greater blessing to know it and so to abide For besides other Separations which I could tell you of the issue and result of all was this the decay of all true piety and a turning all Religion into wrangling censuring and condemning one another For as all that have declined to that Schism mark it I beseech you if the character do not concern some of you are found to be exceeding proud Consutation of the separatist agreed upon long since by the joynt consent of many Non-conformists Ministers published by Mr. W. Rathband 1644. part 4. p. 62 and disdainful towards all that are contrary-minded Yea even such as before they were infected with that leven were patterns of all love modesty and humility to others So will they not acknowledg nor reverence any of the most excellent graces that God hath given to any of his servants among us nor so much respect them as the very Papists will do No they profess greater detestation and despight to the most godly and most sincere men among us than they do to such as are most notorious in Prophaneness and Malice to the Truth And a Divine more ancient than these gave this remarkable Description of the fruits produced by separate Congregations Look upon the people saith he and you shall see very many who not regarding the chief Christian Virtues and Godly Duties as namely to be meek to be patient to be lowly to be full of love and mercy to deal uprightly and justly to guide their families in the fear of God with wholesome Instructions Mr. G. Gyfford's plain Declaration in which he undertakes not to vindicate every thing in our Church but that there was no sufficient cause of separation An. 1590. and to stand fast in the calling in which God hath set them give themselves wholly to this even as if it were the Sum and Pith of Religion namely to argue and talk continually against matters in the Church against Bishops and Ministers and one against another on both sides Some are proceeded to this that they will come to the Assemblies to hear Sermons and Prayers of the Preacher but not to the Prayers of the Book which I take to be a more grievous sin than many do suppose But yet this is not the worst For sundry are gone further and faln into a damnable Schism and the same so much the more fearful and dangerous in that many do not see the Foulness of it but rather hold them as godly Christians and but a little over-shot in some matters Which words I have the rather recited that