the kingdome as they all deserved they are all now murmured against as Moses and Aaron were by those Bricklayers as soon as they were delivered from their fiery furnaces and with them we desire to returne into Egypt and wish our old Masters againe and think their tyranny a good government and all this is done not by the Malignants and the ordinary Protestants only but by those that seem the greatest promoters of reformation such as would be thought the only Christians Saints as they term themselves bidding all others depart from them as being more holy than they and flye in the very face of one of those men who they had with singular encomiums a few years since magnified as one of the worthies of the kingdome and predicated as one of the witnesses spake of in the book of the Revelation and whom they had received in his return from banishment with their acclamations of joy I mean that learned Gentleman Master William Prynne Esquire my brother in afffiction and fellow sufferer who is now the same that ever he was and one that for the testimony of Jesus I am most confident would dare to suffer more then many that now traduce him dare thinke And if any fiery tryall should indeed really come he would I doubt not undauntedly stand in the defence of truth when they would flye and take their heels as formerly they have done or squlke in holes or play lest in sight or temporize howsoever they now vapour when there is no danger yet of this very man whom they idolized before they now speak of as of one inspired with the devill and as of a man of no religion and professe that they are sorry they ever prayed for him and wish that when he had lost his eares he had lost his head and athousand such expressions they dayly utter and not only against all those I have above specified do they vent their passion by their railing lauguage but they abuse any man whatsoever that opposeth their Novelties although they had never so honourable thoughts of him before conceived never so well of him for his godly life by which they declare their unconstancy and the ficklenes of their unstable minds so that we have just cause to remember that of David Psal 146. Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help his breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish So unstable creatures are men won with an apple and lost with a nut imitating the Jews one day crying Hosanna and another day crucifie him one day with the foolish Galathians they would put out their eyes to do Paul good and another they counted him their enemy But what I pray is the cause of this their so great displeasure against our brethren in Scotland against the Parliament against our noble Generalls against all the godly learned and painfull Ministers of the Kingdome and against Master Prynne and indeed against all their faithfull brethren for they rail and murmur against all but those of their own faction as it is well known It is because forsooth they would set up a Presbytery and desire to establish that kinde of Government in the Church which is Gods Ordinance which they say to the precious Saints for so they terme themselves will be more unsupportable then the Prelaticall Government and because they would have the people enter into a publike Covenant for the bringing in and setting up a through reformation and because they have appointed a set day of fasting and humiliation through the Kingdome which they in no sort allow of because say they there may be an occasion of rejoycing that very day and so there might have been a cause also of mourning amongst the Jews at such very times as they had their appointed seasons of rejoycing and feasting but that is not all why they are offended with the Scots and with the Parliament and with the godly Ministers and with all their brethren but this displeaseth them exceedingly Because they have made a late Order that none shall Preach publikely but such as for their sufficiency and learning and soundnesse of Doctrine are able rightly to instruct and teach the people the right way both of serving God and obeying men and how they may live comfortably here and be usefull and profitable to others and be kept from heresies and schisms and ereonious doctrines which tend to nothing but faction and destroying of their own souls and the disturbing of the Church and State and for the bringing in of a confusion of all Religions and for the alienating of the affection of brethren one from another and for the overthrowing of all order in Families Villages Towns Cities Countries and Kingdomes and for the bringing men in time that they shall neither know what to beleeve nor what to practise as by sad experience we already finde to be frequent Now because our brethren of Scotland and the Parliament and the godly and faithfull Ministers and those that as truely fear God as any of them desire such a reformation and such a Government as by which Truth and Peace may be established amongst us and heresies and schisms and factions may be rootedout the disturbers of Peace that we may all live happily here and gloriously hereafter This kinde of government not suiting with their humour nor with their opinion therefore they abhor it and all such as indeavour to establish it and desire and wish rather that all the old trumpery were brought in again and professe it that they had rather have the Government of the Prelates then this kinde of Government yea some of them have not been ashamed to protest unto some Malignant and Prelaticall Priests with whom they can very well comply when occasion serves that before the Presbyters shall rule over them they will cut all their throats and joyn with them for there-establishing of the Hierarchy and this the Priests themselves with great joy have related And there must needs be some great Mistery of Iniquity that is not yet brought to light in these new factions for it is notoriously known to many thousands in the Kingdome that the Malignants at home and abroad as their words and Letters do declare confide as much in these Sects for the attaining unto their designes as they do in all the Cavaliers So that it is high time for the great Councell of the Kingdome and for all that love the true Religion and wish the peace and welfare of both Church and State to stand upon their guards at home as well as abroad and to shew their vigilency and care for the preventing of the intended evill against us all And truely it might awaken any man if he take but notice of the great distractions and of the sad effects these new opinions have produced not onely in London and in the Counties round about it but also in Yorke-shire Lincolnshire and in
must confesse was a question that did not beseem them of all other men for they think that any gifted man as they call them may dispute write and preach not onely privately but in a publike way and glory that the very boyes and women in the Congregations can confute the learnedest of the Presbyterians and many of them as it is well known that were none of their Pastors have set forth many scurrilous and blasphemous pamphlets in defence of their Independency which have been allowed of by them with great applause and that these men now should demand of me what calling I had to defend any truth in Religon against the errors of the times I say it may seem strange to any rationall man But for answer in brief though I am not solicitous to please them in all things let them take notice of this That if it be lawfull in any of their fraternities to maintain their erronious opinions it is likewise lawfull in any other Christians to oppose them and to defend their truth for they also must give an account how they have imployed all those severall talents of knowledge learning or any other thing God hath bestowed upon them and this they also in their Pamphlets frequently make mention of to warrant their scribling in divinity But Saint Paul in the fourth of the Colossians vers 6. Saith Let your speech be alwayes with grace scasoned with salt that you may know how to answer every man And Saint Peter in his first Epistle chap. 3. v. 15. Saith sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and be ready alwayes to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meeknesse and fear And Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Philip. chapt the 1. ver 27. Onely saith he let your conversation be as it becommeth the Gospell of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affaires that ye stand fast in on spirit with one minde striving together for the faith of the Gospell And Saint Iude in his Epistle Generall ver 3. Exhorteth all Christians That they should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints And many other places to this purpose might be produced which warrants Christians that they may strive for the faith and earnestly contend for it against what enemies of it so ever and in speciall we are command that we should be alwayes ready to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of our hope and that we should know how to answer every man Now then when many of the Independents came to me and asked a reason of my faith concerning the Presbytery I demande of any well-grounded Christian whether or no I have not a very good calling to answer them which when they are so much displeased at me and so highly magnifie it in their own party I have very good reason to believe that they contend not for truth but for victory and to make a faction and division in Church and State And Saint Paul in Phil. 3. vers 2. speaking of the false Teachers of his time that but urged the ceremoniall Law Cals them Dogs and bids them take heed of them Beware saith he of Dogs beware of evill workers beware of the concision all such were to be taken heed of as made divisions and cut the Church into little pieces and sucking congregations and therefore are called them of the concision for they indeed made separations and therefore Saint Paul bids them beware of them as of a company of doggs that are ever snarling or biting and as of evill workers that spoyled the work of the Gospell which was to unite men first to God and then one to another that they might be of one spirit and one minde and these evill workers divided them all one from another and made factions and therefore they and all such as they are are to be detested and abhorred that make strifes and divisions in all Churches and Countries where they are while they contend for their own novelties and new born truths and all those that oppose them have a call from God and his Word for their warrant in their so doing But others of them carried themselves as more craftily so more gentily and seemed to come to me in the way of love pretending they honoured me and they demanded of me Whether or no I intended to practice Physick again and told me that if I had such a purpose they would yeeld me their best furtherance for the procuring of me Patients for which their love I returned them many thanks telling them withall that for practising of Physick I had little hopes of doing any good that way in the City for some Independent Doctors of Physick and others had so villified me amongst all good people and had made such a peece of ignorance or nothing of me in that faculty as they had taken away my reputation in as much as in them lay so that were my skill or knowledge in that Art never so great yet I might not in this place ever expect to regain any esteem in it so powerfull all black-mouths are to darken any mans credit though I blesse God I had known as well what belonged unto that faculty as they that maligned me and had through his assistance done as great cures as ever they did any and added farther that I doubted not in time to make it appear that those that had so abused me had neither honesty nor learning in them whatsoever the world esteemed of them for their seeming Religion which they had ever made use of but for their base and covetous ends And they demanding the names of those men I told them ingenuously and that their calumnies were one of the chiefe causes of the ruin of me and my poor family as I could prove by a cloud of witnesses if that could do me any good to which they replyed they were very sorry and confest that those men were never heard speak well of any and that which makes me wonder I never came in the company nor never changed a word with them that thus traduced me But then they offered their service unto me and profest they should be very willing to do me any curtesie that lay in their power to get me some honourable imployment by which I might comfortably support my family for they thought that my means was not great and they thought truly in that and they knew that the charity of many was now waxed cold and that since my being at London there was a great change of mens mindes and those that were formerly my friends went now another way and they heard that I was for the Presbytery which they conceived would be worse then the Prelaticall government and if I should write any thing in the defence of that cause that then I would totally lose those that as yet were well affected to me
excellentest means of upholding piety and godlinesse as in his doctrine so in his example he went before all the people in a strict observing of that day imploying it only in the duties of piety and charity alwayes either in praying or preaching or catichizing or repeating of his Sermons or in meditation or in visiting the sick or relieving the necessitated And in this faith I was instructed and in this through the grace of God I now stand firme and in the which by Divine assistance I shall ever persevere to the last period of my life never as yet having swarved from those principles notwithstanding all opposition And from under this reverend mans ministery and preaching I went to Cambridge where by his means Dr. Chudderton the Master of Emanuel Colledge in which I was a Studient a man of fame for piety in his generation took me into his own tutering and pleased to make me his companion an honour that many of my betters enjoyed not and he also had as great a care to further me in those principles of Religion I had formerly been indoctrinated in as any man living could have And from him I went into the Low-countries where I lived four years and a halfe in the Universities of Leiden and Franeker and halfe that time in the house of reverend Doctor Amise who pleased so highly to honour me as he likewise made me his companion and was a most painfull Tutor unto me and added greatly by his learned Lectures and private communication to the confirming and strengthning of me in all those orthodox truths I had formerly been instructed in And from thence I went to Geneva where there were as learned and orthodox Ministers save only in the point of the Sabbath in which I shall ever dissent from them as any in the world Now I never have deserted my Generall the King of Saints and King of Kings the Lord Jesus Christ and Julian-like apostated from my Captaine or from my Christian religion nor never have swarved from any opinion in doctrine that is imbraced or believed in the Reformed Churches or taught by the orthodox and learned Ministers of the Church of England or from any opinion that I made publick profession of or ever pleaded for or perswaded others to imbrace the God of Heaven and my conscience bearing me witnesse and as all that know me can testifie as many that are now Independents have done And therefore they deale most injuriously with me and unchristianly to call me an Apostate and only because I oppose their Independency Now whereas they say that I have forgot that I was a sufferer and remember not the former kindnesses shewed unto me by the godly of the Land and that I am now turned a persecutor they do me in this also a great deale of wrong for I have never forgotten any kindnesse shewed me by any as the following discourse will sufficiently shew Neither have I forgot that I was a sufferer or am now a persecutor of the Saints as they calumniate me though I shall ever oppose all Heresies and novelties in Religion in the very Saints as Paul opposed Petes error Gal. 2. when he temporized and did not walk uprightly and desire all Christian Magistrates and Ministers and Parents and Masters of families and all good people to do the same because I have been a sufferer for the Truth But it seemeth strange to me that the Independents should use such an Argument to me That I should not oppose all Heresies and novelties in Religion and exhort all other good Christians to do the same because I have been a sufferer for the Truth One would think that this should rather be a motive and incitement to put me on to oppose all error because I have suffered for the Truth before for if that be a good reason to deter men from defending of the Truth against Errors and Innovations in Religion because they themselves have been sufferers for Religion then Elias Esaiah Jeremiah and all the holy Prophets should have been deterred to oppose all Errors because they had been persecuted for the Truth and suffered at wicked and ungodly mens hands for it and yet they notwithstanding were the more encouraged to inveigh against all the false Prophets and Teachers of their times as all the Scripture of the Old Testament witnesseth and Christ also and John Baptist and all the blessed Apostles who suffered grievous persecutions some of which were whipped in every good Towne they came in and were stigmatiz'd and gloried that they carried the marks of the Lord Jesus about them And all these therefore by this Argument of the Brethren should have been afraid and discouraged to oppose the Errors Heresies and novelties in Religion in their dayes whereas on the contrary we finde that Christ and Iohn the Baptist and all the Apostles ever opposed the Errors Schismes and Heresies of their times with all the false Teachers calling them A generation of Vipers Wolves in Sheeps clothing ravinous Wolves Children of the Devill Enemies of the crosse of Christ Dogs evill workers them of the Concision Hereticks and wisht that they were cut off and give them such odious names as there can be no more reproachfull utter'd The same did all the holy Prophets and yet all these were sufferers The same did Luther Calvin Zwinglius Bullinger against all the Sects of their times and yet they were all persecuted by the Papists And therefore it is not a dishonour but a praise to all those that love the Truth and have suffered for it ever to oppose all Errors in Religion yea it would argue great cowardize and basenesse in any Christian or at least that he were now very cold in Religion that would not so much as open his mouth in defence of that Truth he had formerly suffer'd for for feare of offending men And if this Argument be of any power to disswade any man from opposing errors in Religion because they have been sufferers for it then the Independents themselves should not so bitterly inveigh against those Tenents they count Errors for they brag much of their sufferings also cry out daily of Persecution when notwithstanding no man troubles them howsoever they with all reviling speeches daily persecute their brethren under the name of Presbyterians But I say if this Argument will make any thing against me to disswade me from defending of the truth and exhorting all good Christians to oppose all Heresies and Innovations in Religion why then do the Independents in all their Pulpits and in all their scurrilous and blasphemous writings oppose the Truth it selfe and why doe they for the setting up of their New-lights and for the bringing in of their own Traditions and Novelties persecute their brethren with all injurious languages worse then ever Ishmael used towards Isaac or Esau towards Iacob and proclaim them all enemies of Jesus Christ and his kingdome and persecutors for they also have been sufferers and that eminent ones
as idolatry and errours is a cause of Gods wrath and by that a cause of all troubles so the removing of the cause is the way to settle the peace of Kingdomes And if we reade the History of the Judges and indeed all the Prophets and holy Scriptures we shall finde the not questioning and bringing of the Seducers and false Prophets to condigne punishment was the cause of all their captivities and of all the warres and troubles the Israelites were continually imbroyled with And therefore they that are acquainted with the holy Scriptures may easily see the falsity and impiety of this assertion to say nothing what all Ecclesiasticall Histories and the Stories of all Ages relate of the continuation of peace in all those Nations and Kingdomes as long as men were both questioned and punisht for bringing in of Heresies and teaching of false doctrines and as long as they preserved the truth of Christian doctrine amongst them which no sooner begun to be corrupted and errors set up but immediately upon it Gods wrath was kindled against those Kingdomes and Countries and if we will give credit unto the Word of God and to the Annals of times the suffering and tollerating of errors in religion amongst them was the cause that the Lord was angry with them and removed at last their Candlesticks from them as we may see at this day in the seven Churches of Asia and all the Easterne and Westerne Churches and if we will not shut our eyes we may see also it has been the cause of all these miserable distractions and troubles that now these three Kingdomes are involved in which if they had established the Gospell in its purity and kept out Idolatry and all Heresies wickednesse and Schismes we should not have thus been afflicted on every side at home and abroad for the neglect of our duties in not keeping out of errors in religion hath brought down all these judgements upon us and therefore the tollerating of them all would much more increase our misery and disturbe the peace both of the Cities and countrey and therefore all such as plead for a tolleration of all religions ought to be spued out of the Kingdome as prophane and impious men And this shall suffice to have been spoken of this third assertion which is indeed to make war against God himself and not against us only For the fourth where he saith That it is impossible to prescribe such a way for suppressing new or different opinions whatsoever which to any State or Church may seem hereticall but there will still be left a gap a possibility of fighting against God even when such State on Church think they fight for him most of all This Position also is not only contrary unto the Word of God but indeed overthroweth all authority and by this no justice should be done against any blasphemous Seducers or against any impious offendours in points of Religion or against such as offend against the Lawes of Kingdomes and Nations because for footh by doing of their duty which God requires at Magistrates hands there will still be left a gap and a possibility of fighting against God as if to do good and that which God enjoynes them would leave open a gap and a possibility of fighting against God I have read That we may not do evill that good may come of it I have also read that God can create good out of evill and bring light out of darknesse but I have never read in the Word of God That Christian Magistrates and Rulers should be deterred from doing their duty suppressing of Schismes Errors and Heresies because through the wickednesse of men and the craft and subtilty of Satan there may sometimes troubles immediately arise to any Nation by it All good Magistrates are to do their duty and what God commands and leave the successe to God and to commend themselves and their endeavours to the Lord who hath a recompence of reward in store for them for their well doing and ought not to be deterred from their duties by such poor cavils as these which are both impious and ridiculous And whereas in the fifth assertion he affirmeth That it is impossible that either the weak believers misbelievers or unbelievers can be wonne by our godly conversation as is required 1 Pet. 2.12 and 3.1 2. and 1 Cor. 7.12 16. So long as we will not suffer them to live amongst us What is this but openly to fight against Gods Word and God himselfe Who Deut. 13. and in many other places of Scripture commandeth that Secucers should be put to death and exterminated and cast out from amongst Gods people whose wicked conversation would corrupt others and be so far from winning weak Believers mis-believers or unbelievers as it would make them all worse and worse and utterly vitiate all the places they dwell in as daily experience teacheth us and as the Scripture affirmeth which assert that A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump 1 Cor. vers 6. As for the places of Scripture he there citeth as they make nothing for his purpose so they sufficiently shew that he is a meer stranger in Divinity and in the Word of God as I could evidently make appear if I studied not brevity And it might also be made evident that the banishments and persecutions of many of Gods people as well as their presence and co-habitations amongst the wicked have been the cause of many thousand mens conversions who seeing men willingly to relinquish all earthly things and leaving their own countries and nighest relations for their religion made others the more to look into that doctrine and to enquire after that religion that men for the love of would lose all things yea liberty and life it selfe which I say hath been the cause of the conversion of many thousands so that not only the presence but the absence of men is the cause of many others conversion by which the vanity of this assertion is also sufficiently manifest But it seemes strange to me that this wrangler should use this Argument to prove a Tolleration of all Religions when the practise of the Independents is contrary who cast all that are of a different opinion from them out of their Congregations and where they have power in their hands banish them from amongst them and yet here in England they would have all Religions tollerated to do mischiefe when Saint John notwithstanding in his 2 Epistle to the Elect Lady forbids her and in her all Christians to receive false teachers into their houses or so much as to bid them God speed lest they that shall so do partake with them in their evills by which doubtlesse he never gave a tolleration of all Religions but as I said before it is well known that people are converted many times as well by the absence of men as by their presence whether it be for errour or for the Truth for by enquiring after the cause of it and why they were
to contaminate the reputation of those that have deserved so well from us and therefore all such as have neither a bridle for their tongues nor their unruly passions ought to have a bit put in their mouthes to teach them better manners more humanity and gratitude But this has ever bin the practice of all the enemies of God his government in all ages to make all his Servants the holy Prophets yea Christ himself and his blessed Apostles hatefull to the people under that notion of disturbers of all Kingdomes enemies of Caesars and of all government And this made the Popish faction in Qu. Maries dayes when they heard that those Ministers that fled out of England to Frankford in Germany and into other places intended to set up the Presbyterian government in England if the Lady Elizabeth ever came to the Crown so to bestir themselves and set their wits on work to hinder and frustrate that their intention for they said among themselves if that government were once established in the Kingdome their Catholick Religion could never get place or take rooting here any more and therefore seeing they could not take away the life of that most excellent Lady nor any way keep her from the Crown after her Sisters decease now all the policy would be to hinder that work Whereupon they suborn'd many of the most famous wits out of both Universities that under pretence of religion and zeale to the Protestant profession should flye over to Frankfort and to the other places where those Ministers were as if they had done it out of conscience and pure love to the Protestant religion and seemed in all points of doctrine to be as zealous as any of those that were there and the only desirers and advancers of the true Protestant Religion but they professed unto them that for the manner of government the Hierarchicall way of ruling the Church in their opinion the purity of religion being once established would most tend to the preservation of it as being most powerfull for the suppressing of Sects and Schismes and for the upholding also of the Kingdome and that the Presbytery would tend to nothing but the bringing in of Anarchy and what with their craft subtilty and wranglings as the Independents now do in the Assembly they so interrupted their proceedings as they could not then bring their good designe to perfection and so hindered that glorious work of Reformation for that time and all under the pretext of piety and good to the peace of the Church and Kingdome And as soon as Queen Mary was dead and that the Lady Elizabeth was preclaimed Queen of England then they all repaired home and having a strong party in the Court all seeming zealous Protestants though Papists in their hearts they commended these men as wise and moderate men and such as were lovers of Monarchies and regall government to the Queen and disgraced all those that stood for a Presbytery as such as were factious and affectors of innovation and such as were no way to be preferred to eminent places in the Church but because as they said they had suffered for their conscience they were willing they should have good Parsonages and Benefices through the Towns and Villages where they might preach to the people but they were all set in the Black Bill as men not fit to preach in Courts and as men uncapable of great places and high promotion in the Church were ever kept under as those that were seditious and not fit for Ecclesiasticall honours And all the other that were either Papists in their hearts or ill affected to the Protestant Religion though seeming Protestants were advanced to all Church-dignities and made Archbishops Bishops and Suffragates Deans Archdeacons and the Queens and Noblemens Chaplains And in a very short time they established their High Commission Court under pretence of suppressing Popery whereas they intended nothing but the rooting out in time of all true Religion and the re-establishing again of their old worm-eaten and rotten profession And they had in a good measure accomplished this their diabolicall plot and had really effected it had it not pleased our God to call this Parliament and Assembly who by their vigilancy and care frustrated this their designe And all this they then brought about by bringing the Presbytery into hatred and disgrace as the Papists themselves have often gloried and bragged among their Companions when they would shew how they had ever out-witted the Puritans And at this instant of time they have their complices that foment all these factions by whose means they labour to hinder the Presbyterian government knowing very well that if it ever be establied the Kingdome of Antichrist will never get head againe amongst us nor none of their abominable Sects have rooting in these Kingdomes but that the truth by that means will flourish maugre all the maligners of it and be propagated through the world which is the only cause that not only the Devill but all ungodly men and straglers are so inraged against the Presbyterian-government which they know is so prevalent for the suppressing of all Heresies and eronious opinions and for the curbing of all vice wickednesse and all prophanenesse as that they will never be permitted to roost in these dominations And whereas they look upon all the Presbyterians as they tell us in their writings as the enemies of JESUS CHRIST and his Kingdome I look upon all the Sticklers against the Parliament and Presbytery by what names and titles soever distinguished what seeming piety soever they make shew of as on a company of Juglers And truly as the Juglers in Saint Pauls time bewitched the foolish Galathians so these by their cunning craftinesse have infatuated too many well meaning and godly people who howsoever they have learned to forget the very lawes of civility and common charity and to condemne all those of a different opinion from themselves as enemies of Christ yet I shall ever learne to distinguish between the people that are mislead and they that seduce them for I conceive of many of them as such as desire to serve God with all sincerity and in the purest way of worshipping him and because their Teachers perswade them that these their new wayes are the wayes of God and they not being able to discern truth from error and to discover their hypocrisie are all deceived by them as the poor Widows were by the Scribes and Pharisees in Christs time who our Saviour said devoured their houses under pretence of long prayers and as they brought in the leven of their own doctrine and inventions into Gods worship and service so do the false teachers of these our times bring in their own grolleries and Baggatellies prefer their own traditions before the Commandements of God and violate all the lawes of love and charity for the establishing of the same And as ignorance in all people is the cause of error for so our blessed Saviour
any Sectaries in former ages for they have got into their hands the prime Lectures of the Kingdome and run through all the Towns and Cities through the Realm and through all the Armies to make Proselites and have so scattered their Independent phantasies that now there is scarce a Town or City where their leavon hath not sowred the whole lump of true and sound doctrine and they have got the start of all the Puritans in all the foregoing Generations for they were of such austere lives and men so alineated from the world that you might know them by the hair of the heads and faces and by their habits from all other men wheresoever you meet them for commonly they were ever out of fashion when others were in it and they had all their haires clipt as close to their heads as a company of fighting cocks have their feathers and they usually went in a great Patriarchicall beards and for silks and velvets and plush and sattin and brave aparrell they thought they were for Kings houses and contented themselves with their rurall weeds which austerity of theirs made them lesse esteemed by the great men of the world and their doctrine lesse regarded and as it was in our Saviours time That the poor received the Gospell so in our fore-fathers dayes the Puritans commonly were by the worldlings and prophane counted but a company of obscure and beggerly fellows but our Independent Ministers as they say they have learned the lesson of their Christian liberty and tell their Disciples that the Saints are the right owners of all things beneath and that it is for the honour of Religion to go brave and gallant and that this is a great grace to the Gospell and for themselves whereas the ancient Puritan Ministers went with their hair as close clipt as cocks of the game and their wives went in plain and modest attire and both they their wives very humble and never came in a rich coach the Independent Ministers are very finicall and go in their hair and in their habits out of town like Cavaliers so that none that meets them would take them for ministers but rather thinke them a company of ruffians and for their wives they ordinarily go as brave as the daintiest dames in the Kingdome and both they and their consorts are commonly as proud and supercilious as any of the secular race and for their company for the most part they are very great and honourable personages or at least very rich and they are all their familiars for poor folke they may in private accost them and perhaps they will grace them with a little communication but this must be accounted of as a high favour And if at any time these Independent Ministers meet but with a poor aged Presbyter riding to the Assembly but on a Horse worth six shillings they will salute him with Good morrow my Lord Bishop whereas they can ride thither mounted upon stately Geldings and ye shall frequently see them amongst Lords and Ladies both they and their brave wives carried about in Coaches with four Horses in great state whereas a Wheele-barrow such as they trundle White-wine-vinegar on were a great deale fitter for them except they deserved better from Church and State But it is a wonderfull thing to see the vanity and levity of the people how they run after these men and neglect their most faithfullest laborious and orthodox Ministers and by whose diligent paines they have been begotten to the faith and how now in comparison of the Independent Ministers they are slighted whereas there is not one of a hundred of them but has more reall and true learning in them then all the Independents put together for excepting Mr. Grinehill and Mr. Carter who I have ever honoured as grave godly learned Ministers and which is their honour humble Gentlemen I never so much as heard of any fame of the other either at home or abroad for any learning of eminency or any thing but pride that makes men famous and if they had not been accidentally Members of the Assembly and Fautors of this new Faction they would all of them have gone out of the World in obscurity and yet such is the vanity and levity of the people that they in mighty crowds runne after them and flight their owne pious and painfull Preachers from whom they might ever be sure to heare nothing but orthodox and true doctrine that that tended to peace not to faction And I can truly say though many of them now are cast behinde the doore as broken Vessels yet in all the time of the Prelates domination they continued constantly in their ministery and many of them suffered imprisonment and bonds and most of them persecution when these ran all away And I can say more that if we examine their Sermons either as they preach them or as they are in print since the Apostles times there was nothing more divinely preached or penn'd whether for information of judgement or reformation in mens lives and manners and for the convincing of all Heresies Errors or Schismes and that more tended to sanctification then that they both preach and print and for instance to omit many of their learned works let any man but with judgement reade that Treatise of M. George Walker Minister in Watlin street intituled The Doctrine of the Sabbath and shew me such a piece of Divine Learning writ by any Independent Minister nay I dare boldly say if they were all put together they cannot make such a piece for excellent learning the same we may say of his orthodox preaching in his ordinary Ministery and the same may be said of Learned Mr. Jackson and Mr. Fisher both Ministers in Woodstreet and of many hundred more through the City and Country who for their most godly learned profitable and painefull ministery equalize any almost since the Apostles time yet all these men under the name of Presbyterians are slighted neglected and now made nothing of in comparison of our Independent Novelists who have got an art not only to disgrace all other Ministers under the name of Presbyterians Baals Priests Persecutors c. but also to strengthen their faction as if authority be not speedily carefull to suppresse their Independency and novelties they wil make the whole Kingdome depend upon them and be their servants ere long They have of all Ministers before them got the way of pleasing great personages and especially the silly Women for they preach unto them liberty of conscience and liberty of the creature in a most ample and large manner so that all bravely which amongst the Puritans in times past was thought a scandall to religion is now thought a grace and honour of the Gospel insomuch that all the gallant Ladies are all or most of them Independents never were there any Ministers that pleased Ladies better so that whereas in Christs time the poor received the Gospell and the Pharisees were wont to say that none
〈◊〉 4◠〈◊〉 Mans dayes are vaine and as a flower they fade Heere 's one proclames whereon man's life is stay'd His sufferings Changes Comforts in strict thrall Shon's GOD alone preserues and Gouernes all THE Second part of that Book call'd INDEPENDENCY NOT GODS ORDINANCE OR The Post-script discovering the uncharitable dealing of the Independents towards their Christian brethren with the jugglings of many of their Pastors and Ministers to the misleading of the poor people to the detriment of their own souls and the hurt both of Church and State with the danger of Novelties in Religion proving that Independency is one of the most dangerous Sects that ever appeared in the world since Mortality inhabited the Earth In the which also there is a satisfactory Answer given to the principall cavils of him that writ that railing Pamphlet stil'd The falshood of Mr Will. Prynnes Triumphing in the Antiquity of Popish Princes and Parliaments With Doctor BASTVVICKS just Defence against some calumnies in way of Preface BY JOHN BASTVVICK Dr in Physick 1 THESS 5.21 Prove all things and hold fast that which is good LONDON Printed by John Macock for Michael Spark junior and are to be sold at the sign of the blue Bible in Green-Arbour 1645. Dr Bastwicks Defence against some calumnies with an Answer to certain cavills for a Tolleration of all Religions in way of Preface to the ensuing Discourse WHen I was a prisoner in the Northern parts and first heard of the miserable distractions and great divisions that were amongst Christians in London and in all the Eastern Western and Southern parts of the Kingdome about Religion and the Government of the Church and saw the great rejoycing of the common Enemies at it as who hoped by this meanes to facilitate their way of attaining to their designe which was to make themselves our masters and all the people their slaves I conceived that it was but a meer fiction and that indeed there had been good agreement amongst the brethren as having all joyned in a solemne covenant which ought never to be forgotten against all Popery and the Prelaticall party for the upholding of the true Protestant Religion and that they had been so really united together in love and affection one towards another and in so sweet an harmony amongst themselves that all the enemies of the truth and of our Country could never have raised any discord or made the least jar or breach of friendship amongst them But not many weeks after having received certain Intelligence from good hands that there was indeed a reall rent and division amongst those that were and had formerly been best affected to Reformation it did not a little perplex me knowing very well the danger of divisions and the evill consequences that would ensue if they were not timely prevented And after that I had informed my self what the ground of the difference was viz. About Independency I declared my self unto such as were permitted to come to me as they can witnesse that as I conceived that opinion to be a meer novelty so it tended to nothing but to distraction and making of a breach in Church and State and thought withall that it was brought about by the subtilty of the Prelaticall and Jesuiticall party for this very purpose howsoever the dissenting parties discerned not the craft of the adversaries And I promised then if ever God gave me liberty though for my own particular I wholly dissented from the Independent brethren in their Assertion yet I would use my best diligence to moderate between them that if it were possible I might make up all breaches amongst brethren that they might the better unite all their Forces for the common defence But the Independent brethren hearing that I was for the Presbytery against their tenents after they had used some arguments which I have set down in the insuing discourse to diswade me from writing about that subject or at least that I would stand Neuter and perceiving that I would not be silenced of friends they all became my enemies and fell into open hostility at least in words against me so that I could not enjoy the very Laws of civility in many of their Companies and abused me with such reviling language as would be above beleefe to recite them all amongst other of their expressions they affirmed that I was the greatest Incendiary in the Kingdome and that they would prove it and that I was an Apostate and that now I had forgot my own sufferings and the kindnesse that had been shewed unto me by the godly party and of a sufferer was become a persecuter of the Saints many words of contumely and disgrace they daily utterd against me and for no other cause but that I dissented from them in opinion and that I profest it was not for the safety of the Church and Kingdome to tollerate all Religions for I never wronged any of them in word or deed So that they gave me just occasion then to suspect though I knew there were many truly fearing God in that number yet that the Religion of many of their leaders was but a meer faction and I had very good reason for this my conceipt as the following discourse will more fully declare for I never yet thought that true Religion consisted in word and tongue or in opinion but in rightly believing and in conscionably and duly practising what God in his holy Word hath taught unto his people which is to lead a godly righteouus and sober life and to live in charity and amity amongst the Brethren and to shew love unto all for the better winning of them and to follow Christ in doing and suffering to whose example all Christians must conforme themselves if they will be his Disciples and partake with him in his glory and as they must set Christ before them for imitation so they must be obedient likewise to his commands who hath enjoyned all his followers to love one another telling them that by this it will be knowne that they are his Disciples if they love one another Now although I heard often of the Independents New-lights I saw none of their new lives for I well perceived they had no great regard to this command of Christ of mutuall loving their Brethren which he had so often inculcated upon all Christians and that upon the least dissenting from them in their new and fond opinions of Independency they forthwith proclaimed us all enemies of Christ and his kingdome and disavowed all communion with the Brethren in holy things and would neither admit our children to baptisme nor our selves to the Sacraments with them but separated themselves from us and in most odious Pamphlets laid all disgrace upon their Brethren dehorting their followers from reading our books or hearing of our godly Ministers and declining all communion with us and rather joyning with the common Enemy all which their proceeding made me think that their religion was but faction and that now there
was no place left for a Moderator amongst them and that All art of perswasion would be thought but a flattery or cowardize and hearing and seeing also how slight opinions they had of indifferent men and how they onely made use of a moderation for the strengthning of their party I then gave my self really to discover the frauds and juglings of many of their Ministers and all to see that if by this means when their falcaies were once discovered the truth might more oriently appear which would the better make way for a Moderator if any thing may undeceive a poor deluded multitude And so well acquainted I was with the language of many of them as I easily discerned that if they could but once make a party strong enough they would then give lawes to all men and for the strengthning of their faction in the meane time they pleade for a tolleration of all Religions an opinion though pleasing to the flesh yet so diabolicall as I wonder any Christian truly fearing God should so much as open his mouth in defence of it or that any Christian truly fearing God can with patience heare such Beasts plead for a tolleration it being a thing so abominated by God himself and so odious to all the holy Prophets and Apostles And yet notwithstanding this is the doctrine of all the Independents for the strengthning of their party and they abuse Scripture for this purpose and use many impious and vaine cavils for this very end to some of the which I have answered in my former Book and the chiefest of those that I ever yet saw are in a railing Pamphlet set forth against M. William Prynne Esq called The falsehood of M. William Prynnes truth triumphing in the antiquity of Popish Princes and Parliaments In the which Treatise amongst many things against all authority and power of Parliaments which I leave to the consideration of the great Councell of the kingdome whom it most nighly concernes he greatly pleads for a toleration of all Religions and to that end sets downe six Impossibilities as he tearms them which do necessarily accompany persecution for cause of conscience for all opposition of error is persecution with these men though they oppose truth it selfe for the maintenance of their novelties the which his impossibilities I shall set down forthwith in order and answer them severally after I have made my just defence against such of their calumnies as are worthy the taking notice of as for some of their scurrilous reproaches all men that are honest and know my conversation can testifie the contrary and therefore I slight such things as savouring of nothing but rancour and venome which they accused me of before they had seen my book But whereas they calumniate me as the greatest Incendiary of the Kingdome they most shamefully abuse me and I have been freed from that reproach by both Houses of Parliament who adjudged all my sufferings unjust as against the law and liberty of the Subject And if it were a thing that could be any way usefull unto me I could prove by the testimony of many of the brave Gentlemen in the Kings Army who in great assemblies did acknowledge when I was a prisoner amongst them that I had great injury done me Yea the Papists themselves have often averred it that never any Subject suffered more unjustly then I did in that I was cast in prison and fined for maintaining the Prerogative Royall of the King against the Pope and for defending of that Religion which was established by the Lawes of the Land and further added that had any Catholick writ as well in defence of their Religion as I did for the maintenance of the Protestant Profession he should have been so farre from suffering for it as they would not only greatly have honoured him but also highly have rewarded him for his endeavour and this that I now write I am able to prove by a cloud of witnesses and my unjust suffering in their opinion made me finde more favour amongst all the Governours that were Papists which I doe ever acknowledge for a singular curtesie from them then ever I found from Protestant Gaolers And therefore whereas the Independents do accuse me for the greatest Incendiary of the kingdome all men may see they speak as untruly so most malitiously For it is well known till I declared my dissenting opinion from them I was much magnified by most of them though now they have other thoughts of me and accuse me not only to be an Incendiary and that my Book deserveth to be burnt by the hand of the common Hangman but that I am a man crased in my braine But whereas they reproach me that I am an Apostate this all that know me will free me from yea the very Brownists and Anabaptists will be my witnesses besides my former writings which have been set forth to the view of the World for all men know that an Apostate is one that either diserteth his Generall or Captaine and fals to the Enemy or renounceth his Religion and opposeth that way he hath formerly made profession of both which rather agreeth to many of the Independents then to my self as the ensuing discourse I am confident will sufficiently declare And now that I may say something of my education which many at this instant in the City and them men of emunency can witnesse for me that have known me from my childe-hood At sixteen years of age after I had following the customes of youth spent my tender dayes in the pleasures of Hawking and Hunting I was sent by my Christian Kindred to a Village in Essex called Wethersfield under the Ministery of that learned and reverend Preacher Mr. Richard Rogers who writ that divine Book called The seven Treatises by whose means under God I came to the knowledge of the truth and to that learning that God hath given me for he out of his tender love unto me took me into his Family and in a short time by the rare dexterity he had in educating of youth being a brave Scholar and one of the best Latinists of the Kingdome through the blessing of God upon his endeavour made me fit for the University in which space he had an especiall care to season me well in all the principles of the true Protestant Religion And as his whole life was a preaching he so instructed me as before my departure from him I was able to give an account and reason of my hope to any that asked me of my Beliefe And in all his Ministery doctrine and preaching he swarved nothing from the doctrine received in all the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas as those in France Germany and the Low-countries saving in the point of the Sabbath and sanctifying of the Lords day of which to his honour be it spoken he was a diligent observer ever teaching and urging upon the people the holy and religious keeping of that day which to say the truth is one of the
man never hears so much as the mention of them he may very well go to Heaven and hold fast the truth and be fully perswaded in is heart of the truth of his religion and this truth the Word of God holdeth out to all those the god of this World hath not blinded their eyes that they should not see the glorious Light of it so that there needs not a tolleration of all Religions for their illumination to finde out what Religion they will make choice of as this presumptuous gain-sayer infers who peremptorily concludes That it is impossible for a man to hold fast the truth or be fully perswaded in his own heart of what he does or of what religion he makes choice of unlesse it be left arbitrary to him to reject or chuse what seems good to him in his own judgement which if it be not a piece of blasphemy I never read any or any thing more tending to the overthrow of the authority of holy Scripture and to subject the Will and pleasure of God to the will pleasure and judgement of man then the which there 〈◊〉 be nothing more intolerable for God teacheth us one thing and this Doctor teacheth the clean contrary and by his doctrine leaves not only a gap a possibility of sighting against God but it is a doctrine in it self that fights against God and gives the Spirit of God the lye which confirmes the contrary And if such doctrines as these may be tolerated and such Teachers as these go unpunished they will in time reject the whole Scripture both Law and Gospell as many of the Sectaries have already attempted to do to the unsufferable dishonour of God and to the provoking of his displeasure against the whole Nation And such doctrine as this is is hereticall and so is a great deale more of the Independent doctrine which is one of the reasons which makes me so much oppose it For as the false Teacher Acts 15. vers 1. and Gal. 5. taught the Brethren besides the Gospell that except they were circumcised after the manner of Moses they could not be saved which was a Heresie and that that Saint Paul speaking by the Spirit of God told them would exclude them out of Heaven as is evident Gal. 5. vers 2 3 4. So now the Independent Ministers impose their own inventions and traditions upon the people as things necessary to salvation which makes it a Heresie And therefore when they preach up their own novelties as necessary to life eternall proclaiming unto the people that their way is the straight way to Heaven and that they that are out of it are in the broad path to destruction as can be proved by a cloud of witnesses and indeed their daily practise teacheth it and when they urge this doctrine upon the people as necessary to happinesse I affirme it is an hereticall doctrine and ought of all Gods people as much to be detested as any Popery for it is Popery it self in new clothes which all the faithfull in the Land have taken a covenant to expell and so much the more they ought to have a singular care that this doctrine spread not too far nor that this Faction get not a Head For I heard it not long since from the mouth of a very godly Gentlewoman of a good Family who affirmed it in the presence of an Independent Ministers Wife That to her knowledge there was an hundred pound at one time sent up to London or at least procured to be paid by some from Oxford for the gratifying of some here that were very great Sticklers and Promooters of the Independent party for their farther incouragement and animated them by any wise to uphold that faction for they conceived it would be one of the best means for the attaining of their own ends and the common design for the ruin of us all and the enslaving of the whole City and Kingdome Now I say if this Independent Doctrine be so prejudiciall to us all for soul and body and so dangerous in every respect it concernes not onely the Parliament and great Councell but the whole City and Kingdome to looke about them and take heed how they have their hands in supporting of it or any way how they soment it as they tender either the glory of God or the present or future good of soul or body of this Nation and the good of the Church and State And truely if there were nothing to bring a man into a detestation of their wayes but their uncharitablenesse unto their brethren it were enough to make any good christian dislike them for they never speak of them but with contumelious names and with vilifying and blasting language such as is too low for any people of virtue reputation and honour using to call them all at every word the enemies of Jesus Christ Presbyterian Persecutors dehorting people from hearing our Godly Ministers or for reading any thing written by them or any other against their opinions after the manner of the Jesuits slighting the most learned Preachers and their Orthodox writings as things of nothing saying that every boy and silly woman in their Congregations can answer any thing any Presbyterian can write and then set one or other of their confounded widdows or some such creature upon that imployment who scrible non-sense as familiarly as a Jackanapes cracks nuts and this is admired amongst all the Independents as an incomporable peece and their authorities are often cited in the Pamphlets of their learned Ministers Neither is it among themselves onely that they count all the Presbyterians the children of the Devill but publikely also and that in presence of Noblemen and Peers of the Kingdome and in the hearing of many Gentlemen of the Parliament and others and in their very Companies they can slight all the faithfull of the Land besides themselves for I being not many dayes since at Westminster where there was a Sagomore of the Independents amongst some honourable company I formerly mentioned and I taking an occasion to speak to him about Independency and the Noble man also speaking to him about it and others in the presence of them all he uttered these words That all the godly in the Kingdome and all such as were well affected to Religion were of that way and this I say he speaks in the hearing of them all to which the Nobleman and one of the Parliament men replyed Then it seems say they that all that are not Independents in your opinion are neither godly nor well affected to Religion and so the Noble man departed the roome and left the great Independent there Now if this their opinion of themselves be not a most Pharisaicall proud and uncharitable one I leave it to the judgement of any advised Christian so that they cannot look upon their brethren with any love who they think ungodly and men not well-affected to Religion and in their writings call the profest enemies of Jesus Christ and enemies of
all other places where they are imbraced and how in a short time Christians minds are alienated one from the other and from the Parliament by reason of the difference of their opinion to the great rejoycing of the common enemy whose especiall hatred is against all those they call round heads that is the old Puritans of England and all the towns wherein they dwell who are and ever were since the dayes of reformation the onely upholders of the true reformed Religion and are at this day the onely bulworks of it under God and amongst those Towns that have kept out these new Factions by their care and providence Leicester Darby and Chesterfield deserve high commendations who through the prudence of their Ministers and Magistrates and through their own knowledge and the well-groundednesse of all the good Christians there in their Religion have hitherto kept out all manner of Schisms and Factions where the poor people to their immortall honour be it spoken under all their sufferings by reason of the common calamity serve their God night and day with the twelve Tribes of Israel and live in love and amity amongst themselves without any variance and in the midst of war and in these distracted times enjoy peace one with another and submit themselves with cheerfulnes without repining at all Ordinances of Parliament for the Common good and safety of the Kingdome and are most active constant friends to the uttermost of their power yea above their abilities unto the Parliament And because they are so unmoveable in their Religion and continue in their ancient integrity after the manner of the old Puritans of England they are more hated by the Cavaliers then any other towns and by all the Novelists for all the old Puritans and them they call Presbyterians are equally hated by both yea this is generally observed That all Papists and prophane persons in generall and all Sects whatsoever although they disagree amongst themselves and differ in their manners opinions and affections too one from another as Herod and Pilate did yet to persecute Christ as they did then agree so all these Sects can accord and joyne together in a common amity and with the Pontificians and Malignants persecute the Presbytery which is next unto the Word of God an Argument to move me to beleeve that it is Gods Ordinance because it is so hatefull to all men for as our Saviour said of his Disciples That they should be hated of all men for his names sake so generally all Gods constitutions finde little favour amongst all such as leave the high way of Gods Commandements and follow the by-way of errours and Novelties and continue in the pathes of irregeneration or new-fanglenesse the sin of these times when Heresie is Religion and Schism the best trade in the Kingdome and the onely way of preferment And truely the contemplation of the change of all mens minds and manners within these few years and those rents and divisions in the Church makes me call to minde the old plot that the Jesuits and their complices and all the Popish crew have been long a laying and contriving for the undermining of the State and overthrowing of the true Protestant Religion which was dividie impera The Jesuites had nothing more common by heart and by book then that the way for the alienating of these three flourishing Kingdomes to a forain jurisdiction and for the extirpating of the true Religion in them and reducing again of popery and for the advancing of the Papal usurpation was first to make sects and divisions among our selves and then to foment them by some of their crafty companions who want neither wit learning nor industry and know very well how to personate every man in saying doing counselling and complying with all sorts of Sects as if they themselves were the most zealous defenders of those conceived truths and the greatest abettors of them when under that vaile they hide themselves and do not only maintain those that are on foot and such as they have already hatcht but daily bring forth new ones and every one more monstrous then other and all this for the subversion of the three Kingdomes and the true Protestant Religion established in them and which is the cause of all the calamities that are now amongst us But for the effecting of all this they seem to pretend a singular holinesse and more then ordinary piety and put themselves therefore in sheeps-clothing in all their actions and plead for a christian liberty and therefore they especially labour to hinder any setled government in the Church but such an one as they well know will bring confusion upon us all and which no wise state can tolerate and yet none but this will please their humour and therefore they labour principally to make odious the Presbyterian government which the Ponteficians and all prophane men and all Sectaries and Hereticks have ever hated and therefore have alwayes indeavoured to make it odious to all people as a government tending to inslave Kings and Princes and distructive to all well ordered Common-weals and to the liberty of the subjects and to the destroying of the Nobility and Gentry in kingdomes and for the making of a parity amongst all men and a community of all things and by this means in a short time to bring in a confusion in Church and State And by such suggestions as these they have for many generations as in these our times made the Presbyterians hatefull to all men And it is the study at this day of all the Malignants and of all Libertines Male-contents and Sectaries and of all the Independents to make divisions betweene people and people and between Nation and Nation and to render those men despicable that they seemed but a few years before highly to honour love and magnifie as now they do our Brethren of Scotland whom they seemed not long since greatly to esteeme and who yet ought and that deservedly to be exceedingly honoured for their love to us who exposed their own lives and welfare yea their whole country to danger for our aide assistance and defence and yet these men now with our Novelists and all unstable creatures those Reeds shaken and turned with every winde of doctrine and every streame of new opinions as much as in them lies are made as hatefull as any common enemies to the dishonour of God and our Nation and shews great unthankfulnesse in us all to the deterring of any Nation to come to our succour or relief and all this their malice and hatred is because they have set up the Presbyterian government amongst themselves and desire for the more uniting of the three Kingdomes to gather in a more nigh affection to establish it here wherein they have done God and the Kingdome good service and will finde a reward in Heaven for it if they fail of it here and it will not be for the honour of our Nation to suffer any black mouthes
in their childhood and infancy and doe those daring actions against the great Councell of the Kingdome they dayly exercise abusing all authority that is not of their own moddell in word and deed in writing and preaching to the very scandall of Religion all which they could not be suffered to do if there were once a learned Presby try set up as they well know and such a Church government as was in Ierusalem and in all those Primative Churches the which were so many severall corporations every one of them consisting of severall Congregations and all governed by the joynt consent and common councell of their severall Colledges of Presbyters to the which every particular member and every severall Congregation and Assembly in their particular Precincts and Jurisdictions had their appeals upon all occasions and that by divine institution and stood to the arbitration of every severall Presby try or else appealed upon non satisfaction or conceived wrong to their severall and more generall Classes higher Presbyters or Synods as we see in Mat. 18. and Acts 6. 15. where we have both precept and presidents of so ordering and ruling the Church to the end of the world for Christ who is the Law-giver of his Church hath so appointed it and whatsoever the Apostles did in the ordinary way of governing the Church they did it for example to future ages as they in their writing declare and invite all Ministers and people to their imitation And if Christians under the New Testament had not severall places to appeal to and higher Courts of judicature then their particular Congregations and Churches they should be inferiour to the Synagogues of the Jews and to that Nation in many respects for it is well known to those that have ever read the holy Scripture that they had severall Courts to appeal to upon conceived wrong and in all difficult businesses and this was no ceremoniall way of Government but a morall and permanent way of ordering things to the end of the world and our blessed Saviour constituted the same manner of Government Ecclesiasticall the Leviticall Priest-hood and that Order being abolished with all their Ceremonious services that was in all the Cities of Judaea and Isarel and through all their Synagogues who were all Aristocratically and Presbyterianly governed who were moderated and Ordered by severall Colledges of Judges in their severall Precincts cal'd Rulers of which there were some inferiour and some chiefe Rulers or Judges as it is in all Courts of judicature through the world and this manner of government is that that was established by Christ and his blessed Apostles and was continued in the Primitive Churches till Antichrist that Man of Sinne began to put up his hornes and who advancing himselfe above all that is called God not only pusht down that Presbyterian government and manner of ruling and trampled it under his poluted feet but most tyrannically inslaved all Kingdomes and Nations and brought them under his unsupportable yoke And now through the goodnesse of God his power is abrogated and abolished the Independent Ministers with Diotrephes would usurpe the same over every congregation which ought to be managed by the joynt consent and common-counsell of every Presbytery to which every Member in every Church and every particular congregation under their severall Presbyteries ought to make their addresses and to which they ought to have their recourse upon all occasions And if the Gentlemen the Independent Ministers had that knowledge in Divinity History or very politicks that they would perswade the world they were so great Masters in they would never have spake preached and writ that they have done against common reason all antiquity and the expresse Word of God it self in defence of their fond opinion For what man of ordinary judgement ever read what the word or a name of a City meant and what is understood by it was so stupid as to conceive where Paul appointed Titus cap. 1. That he should ordaine Presbyters in every City that the Apostle there meant by City one congregation or particular assembly in every City when if we take notice of that word we shall finde in all Histories both Divine and Humane that by City is meant not only the compasse of ground and houses and streets inclosed within the wals of any place and the inhabitants dwelling in it but by City the whole country is to be understood and comprehended whose inhabitants are governed by the same law that those within the City are And this manner of speaking is so frequent in all Histories both sacred and prophane as nothing is more common as all learned men know and therefore I cite not authorities to prove it with which I might fill a Volume So that when the Apostle Paul commanded Titus to ordaine Presbyters and Bishops in every City he then established a Presbytery or Colledge of Ministers that might with wisdome and in knowledge governe all those severall congregations and particular assemblies of Believers that then were in these severall Cities and as many as in future time should be converted to the faith by the preaching of the Gospell within these Cities and Villages about the City as far as the jurisdiction and limits of the secular government did stretch and extend it self for the Secular government and the Ecclesiasticall went alwayes together as it doth at this day through the world in all well ordered Principalities and Common-weals and therefore as far as the Teritories of every City in those dayes extended it selfe so far did the Presbyters authority spread and extend it self and therefore when the Apostle enjoyned Titus to ordaine Presbyters in every City he established there a Councell Senate Court or Colledge of Presbyters and an Ecclesiasticall Magistracy to the which he gave power to exercise their authority over all the particular congregations and severall assemblies that were then already converted and that should be converted afterward both within the wals of the City and within the circumference and bounds of the whole jurisdiction to the end of the world and ordered that that Presbytery and Colledge by joynt consent and common counsell should governe all those severall congregations And this is Gods Ordinance And as all the Cities in Judea and Israel under their severall Kings were notwithstanding governed by a secular Presbytery as all Corporations are here in England so they were also by an Ecclesiasticlal and had their Rulers of their Synagogues and appeals from inferiour Courts to superiour upon all just occasions and that by Gods appointment and by Christs own ratification as the Scripture doth frequently specifie in many places And indeed if any man of mature judgement and with deliberation would but consider what all Histories relate concerning the originall of Cities and the cause of their building and how farre their Territories and their Lines if I may so say of communication extended with their inhabitants which were alwayes counted Citizens they could never be induced to
in Jerusalem after the preaching of the Gospell and in the Apostles times as were before of the Jews for they after they were Christians continued still to assemble themselves if not dayly every Sabbath day at least in their Synagogues as they were wont to do where the Apostles were all so taken up in preaching as they had no leisure for reciprocall salutations and therefore of necessity there were more congregations in the Church of Jerusalem and a greater multitude of Christians them could all meet in any one or a few places even as it was here in England in King Edwards and Queen Elizabeths dayes as I specified before there was no fewer congregations and assemblies of Protestants in London then was before of Papists for as many Parish Churches as there were in the city of London so many severall congregation of Protestants there were then through the city and they that profest Popery before did now imbrace the Protestant Religion and made so many congregations and severall Churches of Protestants as there were congregations of Papists before and as it would be accounted great absurdity yea a ridiculous thing in any man to affirm that there was but as many Protestants in London in King Edward his time or in Queen Elizabeths dayes as could all meet in one place or in one congregation so to any understanding and intelligible man it is as absurd to conclude that there were no more christians and beleevers in Jerusalem then could all meet in one place and congregation when the Scripture it self affirmeth that all Jerusalem was turned Christians and had their meetings and assemblies in the Temple and in every house and that there was many assemblies there and it stands with all reason that if there had been but one Congregation of beleevers in Jerusalem when Paul went to visit Peter that then he of necessity should have seen some at least of the other Apostles besides Peter and Iames for without doubt Paul was dayly among the Christians a preaching to them in their Synagogues or meeting places and the other Apostles also whose duty it was to be continually taken up in praying and preaching amongst them would not so long a time have layen idle and private but in that neither Paul saw them not the Apostles Paul it is a sufficient Argument to prove there were many congregations and assemblies of beleevers in Ierusalem which so imployed them all in their severall Ministeries as they had no time for mutuall visits and that was the onely cause that hindred them from saluting one another so that I conceive by that which I have now said all understanding men will gather that there were more congregations of beleevers in the Church of Jerusalem then one and that all these severall assemblies made but one Church and were all governed by the joynt consent and common councell of one Presbytery whatsoever the Independent Ministers perswade the poor deluded people to the contrary for the upholding of their imaginary Presbyterian Government which is against all Scripture Antiquity Reason and Ordinary sense And therefore I may boldly assert in their dealing with their severall Congregations when they set before them their Churches of Ierusalem Ephesus c. as consisting of but one Congregation and Assembly a peece they juggle with them for no other end but to make themselves Lords and masters of them and to get the Soveraignty in time over the people into their own hands while they would seem to be their servants And therefore it highly concerns all men that desire the peace and welfare of Church and state duly to weigh and seriously to consider the danger of Schisms and rents in either which ought to move them to study by all means how rather they make up the breaches already made and how now to unite themselves together in love and unity against the common enemies of them both then to follow such blind leaders and guides as by their factions and fractions will bring us all into the pit of destruction and expose us and our posterities to as great misery and slavery both for souls and bodies as ever Nation groaned under And as it is the duty of every private Christian in his particular family to teach and instruct his children and servants in the nurture and fear of the Lord and with all singular care to purge his house of all such as may misleade them and seduce and corrupt them that are in their tender years and not well grounded in the principalls of Religion to give them speciall charge to haunt no such places and company as by which they may be viciated in their manners or poysoned with fals and erronious doctrines and opinions as the Word of God commands both in the Old and New Testament So it is the duty of all Magistrates and Ministers in their severall places who are the Pastors of the people the one for their bodily preservation and the common peace and the other for their spirituall good to joyn together for the setting up of Gods true Worship Government and Service in all Cities Towns and Parishes through the Kingdome the one by their power and authority and the other by lifting up their voyce like a Trumpet as all the holy Prophets and Apostles did in all their generations against all false teachers and to warn the people under their severall charges to take heed of them and shun them as they either desire Gods glory their own eternall Salvation or the publike present good and the prosperity and tranquility of their off-spring in succeeding ages and to be as sedulous and diligent in suppressing errours and schisms as all the godly Magistrates and faithfull Ministers have been in their severall times whose praises for this their good work is frequently recorded in holy writ and in all the Ecclesiasticall Records to their eternall honour and renoune and for our instruction And truely if the examples of the holy Prophets blessed Apostles and godly Magistrates and of all the deer servants of God whose names and fames are glorious to all posterity in the holy Word of God will not move us then at least let us learn of the very enemies of the Papists Sectaries and Hereticks in all precedent and fore-going Generations for they as all histories and dayly experience teacheth us not onely labour to remove all such out of their families and Churches as be of a contrary opinion to them but study also to exterminate them out of their very territories if they have strength or policy so to do And if none of their examples may yet perswade us to our duty then let the example of all those that now differ from us in opinion but in the matter of government teach us what to do in this point for they will not willingly entertain any into their families that is not of their own minde and opinion nor suffer their children to be instructed in any other way then their own and shun in as
as a generation of men not worthy to give guts unto a Bear But I say when men are called to the warre by the State and prest to that service they can then appear with joy before all men and look death it self in the face with courage whether in the field or in cold blood in the hands of their enemies when they suffer as evill doers for they can then comfort themselves with their calling knowing that they were imployed by the State and it is their duty to obey and that as they were borne under obedience with cheerfulnesse and alacrity they can dye And therefore all such as the Independents that go about to disparage the Parliament and the great Councell of the Kingdome for pressing of men for the publick service do things derogatory to their authority and all such as are prest and able to fight and do either run away from their Colours or wilfully or rebelliously detract their obedience ought to be hanged And as it is lawfull in the Magistrate to presse men to fight for their countrey so it is law full likewise for them to fight for their religion and to presse men for that purpose and he that will not fight for his religion if he be a Magistrate certainly he has little religion in him and he that is a private man that will not suffer for his religion if he be called to it nor fight for it both voluntarily and when by authority he is put upon it but flye from either of the imployments of doing or suffering and will not come out to helpe the Lord against the mighty he deserveth not only the bitter curse against Merosh Judg. 5. but to be hanged What doe the Brethren the Independents now hold it a thing unlawfull to fight for religion for so they professe to their friends when not long since they so animated others to it It seems they are very changeable in all their oopinions I believe they have found out some new-light of direction how to runne away againe as they did before if the times change But yet such as have learned how to performe their duty and have read the holy Scriptures and amongst many other places the two and twentieth of Ioshua for one have been taught that when the Israelites on the other side of Jordan had set up an Altar though it was not with a minde and intent to alter religion yet if they had not given a satisfactory answer for their so doing to Ioshua and the Elders of Israel their Brethren they would speedily have made warre upon them for it as any State for ought I know or any christian Nation by their example may doe against what enemy soever they be whether forein or domesticall that shall attempt to alter the true religion and Christs government established in his Church which is his kingdome and bring in an Idolatricall one or an Independent one or any other that tendeth to the destruction of that that God himself hath appointed his people to serve him with and all such as shall refuse to fight for their religion if they have no bodily hindrances or some just impediment when the magistrate calleth or presseth them to it ought to be accounted as the enemies of religion and rebels against both God and their countrey And all such as shall endeavour either clandestinly or openly to speak words tending to deterre men from going out to helpe the Lord against the Mighty or refuse being Christians to fight for the Gospel except by their bodily infirmities they be hindred from the duty I know no reason but they ought to be hanged as a company of Rebels against both God and men and as such as are unworthy the name of Christians that will not fight for the honour of the King of Saints and King of Kings and for his royalty and dignity that has redeemed them from the slavery not only of Satan but of Antichrist For we have read that Michael the Captaine and Commander of his Church and kingdome and his Angels makes warre against the Dragon and his Angels which is not to be understood only in a spirituall sense but in an ordinary way and litterally also for Christ has his souldiers that besides their weapons of the right hand their prayers tears and humiliations have also their weapons and armes of the left hand as their swords and all warlike instruments to fight for the honour dignity and soveraignty of their King and anointed Christ who at his departure from his Disciples bad them sell their coats and buy each of them a sword by which he invested them with authority as well to fight if occasion required for the honour of their King and Master and for their own safety and although he condemned in Peter the temerarious and rash use of his sword and bad him put it up for that time yet the left the use of it to him and to the other Apostles upon their just occasions And who knowes not that there is a time for warre and a time for peace and God himself professeth that he is the Generall of the Armies of his people and the Lord of their Hosts and he taught his servants hands in times past to war and their fingers to fight as they with thanks acknowledged And he is the same God now to his people that ever he was and will be nigh unto them and a present help to all those that fight his battels And what I pray are so properly his batrels as those that are made against Antichrist and his complices by what names or titles so ever they be called whether they be the Kings or Emperours of the Earth or any other Malignants that have given their power to the Beast and make warre against the Lambe Neither shall I ever be of an other minde but that it is the greatest honour any Christian can be called unto to fight for his countrey and for the Gospel against what enemy of either soever he be And as I shall live and dye by Gods assistance in this opinion so I shall likewise ever believe that all such as will neither fight for their countrey nor religion but deter and disswade others from it are enemies of both and so ought to be esteemed whatsoever pretences of seeming love they make to their countrey and religion and that such as will not fight for the protestant religion deserve not the favour of protection from those States and countries they live in whose preservation or ruine is all to them so they may enjoy their owne ends and become masters of those they causelesly hate and unchristianly and uncharitably think evill of and whose distruction they not only daily wish and pray for but as much as in them lyes bid defiance to and proclaime open warre against them and use or rather abuse the holy Scriptures for the maintenance of their authority in their contending and fighting against their christian Brethren the Presbyterians for their independency and
of the Independent Ministers both in former times and in these our dayes and how faire we offer them and then I am most assured they will see just cause of changing their opinions and returning againe with love and amity into the fellowship and communion of that people who are as truly fearers of God and those that desire Christ may be set up as King upon his Throne and may for ever rule and raigne in all mens hearts as any of those that make the greatest noise of it as if they were the only men that advanced Christs kingdome whereas on the contrary in as much as in them lyes they have rent the seamlesse garment of the Church in pieces and rejoyce at nothing more then to hear and see divisions amongst Brethren For if we consider their former practises and the mutability of many of the Independent Ministers a very few of them excepted they either ranne away when they should have stood to the cause or else temporized and that deeply a crime they lay upon their Brethren the Presbyterians and so changeable they were in their opinions as they manifested unto the world that they were unstable in all their wayes and this many of their followers have themselves confest although they now palliate it over that whatsoever they have formerly done was in regard that the truth was obscured and darkned through the cunning of the Popish and Prelaticall faction and that all men were kept hood winckt and could not rightly discerne it in its full glory and lustre till this sunshine of liberty had now againe returned and sent its raies amongst us by means of which they say they are so illuminated as now they have got the spirit of discerning and by vertue of their New-lights they well perceive their former errors and mistakes and have found that the way of Independency is that way of Church-government that God has appointed in his holy Word This many of their Disciples plead in defence of their Ministers which to say the truth is nothing for the same may be alleaged and pretended by all Hereticks and Sectaries whatsoever who will never want the same or the like answer and so there will ever be a way for the broaching of all new doctrines be they never so pernicious to the truth and never so distructive to all governement But notwithstanding what either they or their Disciples now can speak in their behalfe it is very fit that their former practises in their severall places in respect of their religion should be considered by all judicious and godly men who know that constancy and perseverance in the faith is that that crowneth all for he that persevereth unto the end he shall be saved saith Christ not such as start back like a broken Bow and are never stable and as for some of them it is well known they have been in one sit great conforming Protestants and in another mood great favourers of the Socinian tenents and for their factious spirits and opposition to the Puritanicall way were highly favoured and countenanced by the Prelates and then at another time they were Puritans and that trade growing out of date and Independency beginning to be in vogue they are now of that occupation and are as great sticklers in defence of it as the silver-Smiths of the godesse Diana in Ephesus were for the upholding of their craft and what next they will be the God of heaven onely knoweth for they will ever be following their new lights Others of them were very Prelaticall and as much aspired to Church-preferment if the greatest men in the Kingdome be not deceived and some of their own party mistaken as any other but failing of their expectation and falling into discontent turned Puritans and that weather-beaten Religion being now with too too many grown stale they are at this instant great Independents and amongst the supream Champions for that Faction and there is scarce a man of them but has been on all sides whatsoever they make the world now beleeve according as their occasions served and have ever been attempting to bring in one Novelty or other or have laboured to revive some heresie or some miraculous ceremony and all to the disturbance of the Church and for the hinderance of Reformation And therefore all judicious and godly Christians ought duly to weigh and consider with themselves that such unstable men as these are and have been are no guides to be followed for as our Saviour saith If the blinde lead the blinde they will both fall into the ditch They should therefore remember what Christ said to the people concerning John the Baptist what saith he went ye out into the wildernesse to see a reed shaken with the wind Luke 7.24 intimating unto the people that sollid stable and Orthodox Ministers in their judgements should be such as the people ought to follow and listen unto and not those reeds and unstable men that are turned about with every new winde of Doctrine and moved with every stream of opinion and such as follow every new light and that many times for base and wordly ends So that when most of the Independent Ministers are and have been such they ought not any longer by the people to be followed They should also consider their instability not onely in Religion but in the publike affaires they may remember how zealous these men were for the Parliament not long since and how forward they were to promote the publike good and to advance the honour dignity and priviledges of the great Councell and what admirers and lovers not many years since they were of our brethren the Scots and of our noble and brave Generalls and yet now all that reade the scurrilous Pamphlets or are but a little familiar with them shall hear nothing but revilings against the whole Nation of the Scots and traducing of all our gallant Commanders to whom next under God we owe most of that good we now enjoy and hope hereafter to enjoy I lay nothing to their charge but that every man that is acquainted with them can witnesse I know not any one Ordinance the Parliament maketh that pleaseth them but for that pious Ordinance they lately set forth concerning the silencing of all such Preachers and teachers as were not for knowledge and soundnesse of doctrine thought fit to instruct the people wherein the prudent Councell shewed the religious care they had of the peoples good and for which they ought ever to be had in veneration this Ordinance I say so displeased the generality of the Independents as they brake out into contumelious speeches some of them affirming that the High Court of Parliament was worse then that of the High Commission and those of the Bishops others of them in discontent said that the recruting of the Army had stood the state in an hundred thousand pounds and by this new Ordinance the whole Army would speedily be dissolved for now all the brave Commanders of the