and their great Patrons in their debates for liberty except errours against the light of nature albeit none which never so evidently crosse the holy Scriptures HHH but M. Williams an Anabaptist long before Blackwood makes it a bloudy Tenet III and others of them proclaim it an unjust persecution to deny a full liberty not only to Turks Jews and most of hereticks but to idolatrous Papists and any others that can be named KKK They will not only have all these free from any considerable punishments but also from the least discountenance LLL or resentment of their wickednesse and left the grossest blasphemies might have been conceived capable of any civill censure behold they name Atheism it self and exempt it expresly from the hazard of all pain or shame MMM They presse a liberty for preaching and propagating openly all errors imaginable This liberty they extend not only to errours lockt up in the breast but also when they are openly by word and writ professed yea solemnly preached for they tell us that the necessary and just liberty of conscience is violate and a persecution is brought in if a Jesuit or a Turk or a Jew or a blasphemous Atheist be hindred to go to the most solemne places where the greatest multitudes of weak and easily seduced spirits do converse and there to proclaim what ever in conscience they think convenient for the propagation of that errour which they conceive to be truth NNN Yet they grant that error is a soule murder and a greater crime then the destruction of a King of a Parliament of a whole Nation For all this the same men do fully and freely grant unto us that errour is a greater wickednesse then any man can easily conceive That a false Teacher by seducing of one soul doth more reall hurt then if he should murther a King blow up a Parliament destroy the lives of a whole Nation yea of the whole world OOO Yet do they plead for so great a liberty to all errours as possibly can be for they spoyl the Magistrate of all power in any thing which concerns Religion that he may not with a look of his eye discourage much lesse with his hand restrain the most horrible blasphemer the most ravenous wolf to destroy the souls of all his Subjects PPP This immoderate love of licentiousnesse They hate the Covenant of a liberty to destroy their own souls by what ever errour they please to imbrace puts them upon a high degree of hatred and indignation against the solemne league and Covenant against the Scotish Nation whence it came as two great impediments to their quiet enjoying of that self-destroying and God-provoking liberty which so passionately they lust after though for fear and other base respects many of them have swallowed down the Covenant in such equivocall senses as are evidently contrary both to the expresse words and known intentions of the States which enjoyn it yet since the time their strength and hopes are encreased these of them who pretend to ingenuity and courage do not only with bitternesse reject it but it is now become the object of their publick invectives as the most unhappy plague that did ever come into England which they presse the State to recall as an act much to be repented of PPP 2 The Scots they were wont to account as Demi-gods They are injurious to the Scots embracing them as their very Saviours upon earth so long as the Episcopall party kept them in any fear that terrour now being past and the Scots beginning to urge though with all meeknesse and curtesie some performance of Covenants and Treaties they cry out upon them with all bitternesse and spleen they censure the Parliament for ever calling them in they load them with injurious calumnies for their very first contests in Scotland with the malignant and Episcopall party there the defensive arms of their Parliament and Nation they defame as an insurrection against the King of a few malecontents for the obtaining of their private ambitious designes neither do they make any better construction of the present Armes of the English Parliament PPP 3 The great sufferings of the Scots at home from the Irish Rebels and their own apostate brethren they proclaim to be the just deservings of their labours in England PPP 4 which they are pleased to vilifie and disgrace with the basest and most false slanders which the father of lies and malice is able to invent PPP 5 wherein they rest not till they have made the Scots open enemies and Traytors to England proclaiming a great deal of desire to have the next expedition of their glorious and invincible Army to kill destroy and subjugate those base Traytors PPP 6 that so they may be altogether free for their other much higher designs were it as in Sober-Sadnesse it was professed in a very solemne audience to go to the wals of Constantinople for the pulling of the grand Seignior out of his Seraglio to this height of dangerous fancy has their lust of Liberty already arisen All punishing of errour with them is persecution It is not a toleration a forbearance a dispensation which is sought for all this imports some power in the Magistrate about the object in the which the forbearance and toleration is craved but a just liberty to think speak and do in all matters of Religion whatever conscience howsoever informed dictates to be expedient the least restraint of so plenary a liberty they count the sin and injury of persecution The reasons whereby the Independents themselves in their very last papers do plead for this liberty to my ear sounds but harshly they tell us that those things which are cried out upon for errors are in matters obscure and disputable instancing expresly in the Trinity the union of Christs two natures the fruits of Christs death the power of free-will the state of the soul after death QQQ and lest any error should stand without the compasse of their liberty they tell us farther that no error is in any justice punishable because now there is not on earth any Apostle or Prophet or infallible Judge who can determine any question without possibility of erring RRR It may be scrupled whether meer conscience does enforce the Anabaptists and others to scrue up the point of their conscience-liberty to so high a pin They presse liberty of conscience much out of policy whether in their inmost sense they can maintain so catholick a liberty to all persons in matters of Religion or if haply some piece of policy may not induce them to strike so much upon this string at the present when they have but small hopes of attaining a liberty for themselves without the assistance of many others from whom they differ in many particulars of Religion It may be justly doubted if once they were come to be possessed of their own desires whether then they would be so carefull as now they professe for the freedom of
New Testament p. 34 They deny angels and devils and souls They deny heaven and hell and eternall life They cast away all the Ordinances of God p. 35 David George to them was spirituall Christ much more excellent then Christ crucified Many people were ready to seal with their bloud all these abominations The monster David George did live and die in plenty and peace The best of the Anabaptists have very grosse errors The Mennonists deny originall sinne p. 36 In the points of election redemption grace free-will perseverance justification perfection they are grosser then the Arminians or Iesuites They are yet more absurd They deny the omnipresence of God They deny the Trinity And the truth of Christs humanity p. 37 They refuse all consequences from Scripture They refuse reasoning from the Old Testament The covenant with Abraham they make carnall They exclude all infants from the covenant of grace CAP. III. The modern tenets of the Anabaptists in England THe spirit of Anabaptisme clearly devillish p. 47 The fair profession of many English Anabaptists not to bee trusted What errours may be charged upon all what onely upon some of them p. 48 The confession of the seven Churches is a very imperfect and ambiguous declaration of their judgement Let no errour be charged upon any man which he truly disclaims A brief sum of all the Anabaptists errors Every Anabaptist is at least a rigid Separatist p. 49 Though the Independents offer to collude with the Anabaptists yet they separate from the Independents no lesse then from the Brownists as antichristian p. 50 They avow all their members to be holy and elect and some of them are for their perfection p. 51 After they have separate from all other Churches they run next away from their own selves They charge one another with Antichristianisme They are Independents They put all Church power in the hand of the people They give the power of preaching and celebrating the Sacraments to any of their gifted members out of all office p. 52 Even unto women They must not preach in a Steeple-house p. 53 All Tithes and all set Stipends are unlawfull their Preachers must work with theit own hands and may not goe in blacke cloathes They celebrate the Lords Supper in any common Innes after another feast All the new light of the Independents and Brownists is borrowed from the Anabaptists The anointing of the sick with oyle the rejecting of the Lords Prayer of all set Psalms of Vniversities and humane learning are the Anabaptists inventions The Independent Apologists are for liberty to most of the Sects 54 And some of their prime friends are for a generall liberty to all 55 The Anabaptists deny all power to Magistrates in any thing which concerns Religion Turkisme Popery Atheisme the greatest blasphemies they would not have punished with so much as a discountenance They presse a liberty for preaching and propagating openly all errours imaginable Yet they grant that errour is a soul-murder and a greater crime then the destruction of a King of a Parliament of a whole Nation p. 56 They hate the Covenant They are injurious to the Scots p. 57 All punishing of errour with them is persecution They presse liberty of conscience much out of policy p. 58 The granting of all this liberty will not assure the Magistrates of the Sectaries civill obedience p. 59 The tenets and practise of the Sectaries destroy Magistracy They professe their design to overturn from the ground the government of our State as now it stands Kings and Lords are no more tolerable Neither is the House of Lords any longer to be endured p. 60 The poorest begger in the land has a share of the Soveraignty above the King and Parliament All former Laws and Acts of Parliament must be abolished p. 61 The will of the multitude must stand for the Soveraign Law hereafter p. 62 The three fundamentall Laws of our new Vtopian Republick p. 63 According to reason and experience the present distemper of the Sectaries is posting on fast to a Dictatorship and absolute Tyranny in the hand of one The State in danger by the Sectaries principles p. 64 The greatest purchase which the overturners of States usually make is a late repentance p. 65 CAP. IV. Their Antipaedobaptisme Arminianisme Arrianisme Familisme and other wicked errours ALL Anabaptists are for Antipaedobaptisme They avow the nullity of our Baptisme p. 89 They presse on us a re-baptization They exclude all infants from the covenant of grace and make Circumcision a seal onely of carnall promises Many of them deny originall sin and assert all the articles of Arminius p. 90 They separate from all who renounce not Paedobaptisme Yet they admit into their Churches many much worse then these from whom they separate p. 91 Sprinkling to them nullifies Baptisme M. Tombes new way He is a rigid Antipaedobaptist yet not against sprinkling He spoils all infants of all interest in the covenant of grace p. 92 He is a friend to the worst Anabaptists and injurious to all who oppose them He makes Baptisme a rite needlesse either to young or old He admits of a frequent re-baptization He admits unbaptized persons to the Lords Table He is a grosse Erastian The most of the Anabaptists are Arminians p. 93 The second Edition of their confession is not so free of Arminianism as the first The chief Churches of the Anabaptists are grosse Arminians p. 94 Many of them are Antinomians laying aside all care of morall duties Making all grief for sin unlawfull p. 95 Denying Christs satisfaction and reconciliation of God to men The best of them are inclineable to Libertinisme The Antinomian controversies are not as the prime Independents doe make them onely about words and methods of preaching p. 96 Many of the Anabaptists are become Seekers denying all Churches all Officers all Ordinances Many of the Anabaptists are become Antitrinitarians p. 97 Richardson one of their prime leaders a blasphemer of the Trinity p. 98 Divers of them are abominable bl sphemers of Christs Person Others of them are become perfect Atheists They evert and reject the whole Scripture p. 99 Many of them are turned Familists denying the immortality of the soul Denying Heaven and Hell Angels and Devils Some of them make the world eternall others all creatures to perish p. 100 Some deny all resurrection others make the beasts rise to glory They teach abominable obscenities They follow David George in his greatest absurdities The divine light of their new Prophet The fall of Adam and the clearest Scriptures are but allegories The whole Divinity suffered in the Person of Christs humanity p. 101 The great light which this Prophet brings from heaven is that all the Devils and all the Reprobates shall be saved by his Gospel Randall his grosse Familisme p. 102 No resurrection no heaven no hell after this life The Saints in this life become as perfect as God The clearest Scriptures are false in a literall sense That God is
been to this houre so silent as to give no glory to God nor any assistance at all to the setling of the State and Church though it be clear as the noon-day that the ways of their party did really tend to the corrupting and enslaving both of State and Church that the Parliaments of both Kingdomes were put to an absolute necessity of defence against their force to preserve their own and the posterities necks from an iron yoak both of Ecclesiastick and Civill bondage that the continuance of this war has brought the Kingdomes oft to the border and the King this day to the very doors of ruine that the Church is overflowed with a floud of evils all which by their timous and cordiall conjunction with their brethren might â—â—ppily in some good measure have been prevented Shall Episcopacy and a read Service be so necessary in a Church that rather then England should joyn with all the rest of the reformed to lay them aside the King the Parliament the State of the Kingdomes and Churches of the whole Isle must perish for any help that any of them will make with the least of their fingers Posterity cannot take well at their hands so pervicacious an obstinacy Suppose so many provocations and scandals cast in their way by the hand of others as may be yet for men of parts and fame to be touched with no compassion towards the Churches of God and their deare Countrey but to adhere so stifly to these things w th the best of their friends in all other Protestant Churches did esteem ever to be but needlesse and changeable and which now the better part of the whole Isle doth beleeve to be dangerous corruptions and necessary to be removed for them to be so wedded to those toys that rather then they will advise to lay them aside they can be content to behold the whole royall Family both the Houses of Parliament the City the Countrey and all to be destroyed such prodigious pertinacy cannot want great guiltinesse It s great folly to misprize the danger from France However that our dangers from the Malignant party doth yet continue will not be doubted when thâ—ir number and quality and great obstinacy yet over all England is considered In Scotland their case is not much unlike Ireland is well-near wholly their own their correspondence with the neighbour States is great their hopes from France seem to be but too well grounded If the peace of Munster come quickly to an end as the appearances are great enough France Sueden and Bavaria being sure of all their desires at the charge of the Austrians and our best friends the reformed Electors Palatine and Brandeburg what else has the French adoe with their great Armies and Navies Their peace with Spain is not so impossible as some would mâ—â—e it they will be glad to give over their interest in Catalonia and Portugall for the fair and nearly adjoining Territories of West-Flanders In such a bargain they would make the dishonesty to be but small for the Catalans shall not be deserted when reconciled to their own King in such tearms as themselves shall like for the performance whereof France will oblige their alliance with Portugall is not so strict but a lesse bud then the half of West-Flanders will easily break it in pieces and that without much hazard to Portugall for it is easie to France to send them under-hand as many men and money and to see to their subsistence as well as when the confederacy was open and avowed It is the ridiculous blindnesse of some to contemn the posture of all the world abroad as if England were situated so far above the moon and stars that the most malign aspects of all neighbour Nations could have no influence upon it Be it so that vigoroâ—s and healthfull bodies are little sensible of planetary operations yet very small changes of the heavens and air are able to vex much a crazy and valetudinary person For many ages Britain has not been in so great a distemper as this day it is Antichrist may be near to swallow down the whole reformed Churches the people so broken and exhausted by a heavy war the land full of open divisions and heart-burnings the best and greatest part groaning under heavy grievances both of Church and State whereof there is little appearance of any possibility of redresse in haste the Sectaries growing in numbers and insolencies of all kinds and openly inclining to join with the Malignants rather then to misse of their hopes and very unreasonable desires Fools are blind and unable to comprehend the grounds of just fear and so they go on in their rashnesse till they be plunged in the ditch of remedilesse calamity and then onely doe they begin to complain of their former inconsideration What long has been the opinion and fear of some not unconsiderable Divines that Antichrist before his abolition shall once again overflow the whole face of the West and suppresse the whole Protestant Churches I pray God to avert If froÌ„ the Malignant hand there appear not mischief enough to hang this day over the head of the Churches of Britain The flood of Errours and Heresies like to overflow the Church let us divert a little our eye to the other side the nâ—w generation of Sectaries from this quarter so much smoak doth arise as alone is abundantly able to darken our skie It is long since all at least the principall Articles of Christian Religion without exception of any that I remember have been oppugned The holy Scriptures both the Godhead and Manhood of Jesus Christ the holy Ghost the Divinity it self is now exploded with high and basphemous scorn all Churches all Sacraments all publick Worship and Ordinances are made unnecessary A liberty for all Errours the great aim yea unlawfull And if any point of Religion hath had the fortune to escape the blasphemous tongues and pens of these erroneous men lest it should still go free from opposition the most of that party have nâ—w set up their rest upon a principle which makes them sure to gather up their gleanings when ever their leisure may serve them to make a review of their omissions A liberty to beleeve to professe to propagate in matter of Religion whatever any the most desperately erroneous soul may conceive to be truth All these are but things of the mind and matters of opinion a toleration in them is miserable and despicable but a free and absolute liberty in every such thing is the due and naturall right of every humane creature in all places of the whole earth This monstrous imagination of liberty is not only generally put in practise without any considerable control now for some years in the midst and all the corners of England but men of prime place have courage to write the justice of it under their hand to the High Court of Parliament yet without any repentance we hear of The Parliament
spoiled of all power to reform Religion It was a matter of our grief to know men of parts assert that the Reformation or defence of Religion notwithstanding all the Declarations Protestations and Covenants of the Parliament might not be any part of our apology for our defensive arms It has lien heavy upon our spirits that men of most corrupt minds should be permitted to hinder year after year the setling of the Church of England in any passable condition when there appeared little difficulty of a quick plenary and satisfactory settlement except what such evill men did create who make the retardment and frustration of every thing which may advance the truth of God a matter of their most serious practises in private and in publick of their daily sport and drollery But this was to us a cause of wonder that the very other day the principall Chaplain of the Army should be brought to proclaim with all confidence in a most solemn audience of the Hoâ—se of Commons it self that all the Reformation of the Parliament was but Antichristianisme that the Reformation of the Church by any Christian Magistrate before them was no better that God requireth all Magistrates to lay aside all intentions of reforming the Church a And therefore Honourable beloved I say to you touching this work of Reformation of the spirituall Temple of the Nâ—w TestameÌ„t as God once said to David touching the building of the materiall temple you did well in that it was in your heart to reform the Kingdome of God neverthelesse you shal not reform it for you have been men of war and have shed much bloud therefore you shall not doe this work for this is not a work of men of war but of the Prince of peace Dels Sermon to the House of Commons p. 13 14. Ibid. Object May not the spiritual Church of Christ be reformed with worldly and secular power I ans by no means Ib. p. 26. All these things shew that worldly power hath no place at all in the Reformation of the Gospel Ibid p. 26. They that would govern the faithfull the members of Christs own body make themselves the head of these members and so Antichrist may as well be found in a combination of men as in one single perfom that the onely right Reformation was that of the heart which was to be left to Christ alone as he was pleased to work in the breast of every man that the new Sectarian Preachers which are run out without any call either from God or man into every Shire of the Kingdome are sent out by Christ to be instruments of this Reformation that their Ministry is that of the Spirit b Ibid. p. 29. Gods anointed ones are the faithfull that are anointed with the Spirit and these anointed ones are the Lords Prophets and the Lord hath no Prophets but such as are anointed with the Spirit all his brethren are made Prophets being fellows with him in his unction Ib. When I see the generality of the people of all sorts rise up against the ministration of the Spirit which God hath now an these dayes of ours set up even in every County for salvation to his people but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to the rest it does grieve me to see how the City Countrey Countrey Towns Villages doe all rise up for the most part against the ministration of the Spirit for this is a certain sign of the undoing of them all that their followers are the Saints which shall prevail maugre all opposition c When you read what you have heard you must needs acknowledge it to be the mind of God if you received the anointing of the spirit In the Epistle ib. this truth shall carry all opposition and opposers before it and none shall be able to stand against it and of this both your selves and this generation shall bee witnesses that all the other Ministers of England who dance not after their pipe especially such as M â— Love who opposed this man immediately to his face are but lims of Antichrist whom the Parliament is obliged to suppresse without any toleration d Ib. p. 41. Truly sir when God shall make you a new creature you will be glad of new light the old light will serve the old man well enough your Sermon savours as ill to the faithfull as mine to the world In the Epistle If the Assembly which I hope they will not should condemn that doctrine of the Gospel for the substance of it delivered then by M. Dell it will be no blasphemy to say they are the enemies of the truth of Christ and I hope the last prop of Antichrist in the Kingdome Ib. The Prelates successors in the Kingdome of Antichrist still cry No Minister no Magistrate Ib. To the Reader This light was since obscured by the new darknesse of Antichrist which these men love better then that old light and will by no means exchange the one for the other and these as well as their Fathers of the same race and lineage in whose stead they are new risen up shall in due time become a reproach and a shame and their name shall be for a curse to all Gods chosen In the Epistle I shall desire this in the behalf of the faithfull Gods peculiar portion in the land that you would not suffer us to be oppressed by our adversaries neither would suffer them thus publickly and shamelesly to call as Sectaries and Hereticks P. 38. The Magistrate may deterre you and the rest of the Kingdome that are of the like minde from resisting and hindering this work which hath its authority from heaven that so the Saints my pray for the Magistrate Who now are the persecuters Hitherto are these men come already notwithstanding all their declamations against persecution though no man has molested them now for some years nor laid in their way the least impediment to think speak write act whatever they thought expedient for the propagation of any blasphemy they have been pleased to entertain nor called them to any account when by the force of arms they have beaten out of their Pulpits and Houses the faithfull Ministers of God themselves usurping their places in very many parts where the Army has gone and setting out to the people by all the skill they had whatever heresie the times hath produced Yet now their fears to be persecuted are come to this that they dare preach the House of Commons to their face Antichristian oppressors for assaying to reform the evident corruptions of the Church within their own jurisdiction And exhort them to lay aside that sinfull and impertinent work permitting every man to follow in Religion whatever his own heart dictates to be best Yet by no means to tolerate any Preacher who shall oppose that their liberty To this height of presumptuous malice are those declamers against persecution publickly proceeded and in all this are countenanced
oftentimes a part of her publick exercises LL the other feminine Preachers in Kent Norfolk and the rest of the Shires had their breeding as I take it in the same or the like school The most of all the particulars which in our first Part we ascribed either to the Independents or Brownists They must not preach in a Steeple-house the Anabaptists do practise they are so averse from all that the Church in the time of Popery did use that they can keep very little of it all Churches must be demolished they are glad of so large and publick a preaching place as they can purchace but of a Steeple house they must not hear MM All tythes and all set stipends are unlawfull their preachers must work with their owne hands and may not go in black clothes All tythes to them are an abomination NN they will allow to their Pastors no set stipend at all OO they admit of an cleemosynary contribution but it must be a small one for they will have their Preachers to provide for the most of their own necessities by their handy labour PP They are so averse from all that has been that their Preachers for their satisfaction must change the very colour of their habit a blackcoat to them is no small reproach They celebrate the Lords Supper in any common Innes after another feast All the new light of the Independents and Brownists is borrowed from the Anabaptists The Lords Supper is brought by them almost to a civill Table in any Innes when they have made a publick feast in the end of their banquet they fall in a very homely way to the Lords Supper QQ In their ordinary practises we behold the fountain almost of all the singularities of the Independents and Brownists these men are no wise so good at invention as the vulgar esteems them the most of all the light which they hold out as new did shine long ago in the lamps of their fathers and brethren our Anabaptists in hand The anoynting of the sick with oyl the rejecting of the Lords Prayer of all set Psalms of Universities and humane learning are the Anabaptists inventions The half miraculous cure of their sick members by the prayer of the Elders and their anoynting with oyl is the Anabaptists practise RR the casting away of the Lords Prayer SS and of all set Psalms TT the exibilating of all songs out of the congregation VV is their invention the bitter invectives against humane learning Arts Sciences Universities are all from them XX but leaving these we will touch only one point more of their Brownism to wit their Tenets about the Magistrate and so proceed M. Brown did take from the Magistrate all power about matters of Religion these he did remit absolutely to the conscience of every particular person declaring himself while he stood in his infamous way for a full liberty of conscience uncontrollable by the Laws of any mortall man YY but in this all the disciples till of late did leave the Master The elder Brownists and Independents of New England do make it a chief duty of the Christian Magistrate to restrain and punish false Teachers and enemies to the truth of God ZZ in so much that Antipaedobaptists have no toleration among them ZZ 2 The Independent Apologists are for liberty to most of the Sects The Authors of the Apologetick narration do boast of giving to the Magistrate more then any other Protestants by their principles can do AAA yet now it seems they have changed this note and are returning to M. Browns first profession of liberty from the Magistrates sword in all matters of conscience for they tell us that no Magistrate may punish for what the Church may not censure BBB and they assume that the Church may not censure for any error which is not fundamentall and wherein the erroneous person is not obstinate and self-condemned CCC Such at least must be all Brownists all Antipaedobaptists most Antinomians and Arminians many Papists who imbrace not all the errours of the Church of Rome and in these errours which they do maintain have never had the means of self-conviction against none of all these or any the like may the Parliament make any Law but to all such they are obliged if they will not transgresse the limits of power which God and right reason have set unto them to proclaim a full liberty without the least restraint And some of their prime friends for a generall liberty to all This will conclude the power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion in a prety narrow compasse yet it leaves him some power to punish for fundamentall errours and grosse blasphemies Therefore the Independents at least some of their prime Teachers without any publick reproof from their fellows so farre as we know are gone a step further to cut off here all idle and curious debates concerning fundamentals the disputes about praeter super and contra fundamentalia are exceeding subtill and intricate yea unextricable they are more wise then to involve themselves and others therein so once for all they jump over that ditch and avow that for Magistrates to controll any man in his grossest errors for them to make or execute any Law to restrain any mans conscience and practise according to conscience is but to sight against God and to commit the monstrous practise of the old Gyants against the heavens which they call a Theomachy DDD All this Independent Doctrine is brought from the Anabaptists schools The Anabaptists deny all power to Magistrates in any thing that concerns Religion it is one of the articles of their faith offered to the present Parliament that no Laws ought to be made by any men upon earth about any things which concern the worship of God That who ever makes any rules for the service of God does charge Christ with want of wisdom or faithfulnesse or both in not making Laws anew for his own house EEE That the great Law for matters of Religion is this Let every man be fully perswaded in his own minde of the truth of what he beleeves without any controll from any upon earth FFF That it is the Magistrates duty to protect every man in his just liberty of conscience Turcisme Popery Atheisms the greatest blasphemies they would not have punished with so much as a discountenance without which all other liberties are unworthy the naming GGG Now to put us out of all doubt what kinde of consciences they desire to be protected by the Magistrate in their liberty they are content to come down to specifications At the beginning they had not the courage to require a generall liberty for all erroneous consciences as divers of the Independents to this day professe their aversenesse fom an unlimited toleration of all errours so M. Blackwood who first came out to storm the Antichristian baptizers of children does stick a little at Papists and more at blasphemers and Atheists
of a Congregation so the whole House of Commons and every Member thereof are punishable in their life limbs and estate by the whole people and every free-born man in England RRRR even the poorest begger for as I take it there is not nor has not for many ages any person been born a slave in any part of Christendome I will not here interrogate where or how these Soveraign Lords the people can meet to hear an account All former Laws and Acts of Parliament must be abolished and to give out judgement upon their faulty servants the new Parliament of Commons only I would be resolved by what Law this very grand Jury of the whole people are like to proceed Shall the King and Lords and the ancient way of Parliaments take away with themselves all former Laws which have been their creatures we thought it might have been losse enough to have destroyed with the King and Lords such Laws as did concern their two abolished States in particular but we are taught a more deep lesson all the Laws which these six hundred years have produced must be cast into the bottom of the Sea for ever for since the Norman Conquest the great work of all Parliaments hath been how to contrive evill Laws for the oppression of the people SSSS Now I doubt if there be any authentick registers of English Laws before the Conquest this day extant or if any such be whether it shall be found expedient to keep them on foot when all the other are cassed and annulled The will of the multitude must stand for the Soveraign Law hereafter It seems our new Soveraigns the people the sole creators of all Kings and Parliaments when once they are established in their Supremacy will be loth to have their hands bound by the fetters of any humane Laws much lesse of those old forgotten worm-eaten Statutes which the Danish Saxon or British Tyrants in the time of their domination did obtrude as in Religion there must be no Law but what every man in his conscience thinks to be the sense of the word of God that is the supream rule to him so it must be in the State TTTT We know who has printed the unlawfulnesse to make any Laws for the State Scripture being alike well furnished in Laws for the State as for the Church VVVV But I conceive it will be a great deal more easie for a few persons in the generall Court of New England to agree in their applications of the word of God to every civill emergent then for that many headed Soveraign the whole people of old England the one may much more safely be troubled to rule according to their gift of Government without any written institute and humane Law XXXX then the other for I believe if the whole free-born people of England were set on the Bench to judge of all causes according as every one did conceive without any written Law all by-past constitutions being cancelled the government of our State would quickly become more arbitrary and confused then long could be endured and those inconveniences which they professe to be the only cause why as yet they do not totally abolish both the name and thing of a very House of Commons YYYY by a little experience should be found to be more and greater then now are imaginable But that we may proceed I do propone one only scruple more about the point in hand By what means so great changes in Church and State are like to be compassed for not only King Charles and all our living Lords but also Royalty and Lordship it self must be cast down The present House of Commons for their manifold misdemeanors must be dissolved and so the whole fabrick of our old corrupted State totally abolished and a frame wholly new put in its place wherein no footstep either of Monarchy or of Aristocracy may appear ZZZZ but the Soveraignty must rest in each individuall of the people as they speak AAAAA the most poor base weak foolish creatures possessing a like share of the Supremacy both civill and Ecclesiastick the Kinghood and the Priesthood as they call it BBBBB with the most noble wise able wealthy of the land CCCCC having it at their option to execute the Soveraign power by themselves or when they find it for their ease to nominate so many Deputies DDDDD every November EEEEE to be a Parliament of Commons to cognosce upon extraordinary incidents as their Soveraign the people shall prescribe them rules though in ordinary cases they declare their purpose to set up twelve men with a President in every Hundred who upon their oath of fidelity shall be intrusted to determine absolutely all causes belonging to that Hundred without appeale to any Judge except the Aniversary meeting of the whole peoples deputies FFFFF This new Ochlocratorick republick where every individuall participates of the Soveraignty The three fundamental Laws of our new Utopian Republick not as in Democracies where the better sort only of the people have voyce in Government whether they will be pleased to make to themselves a body of new Laws they have not so far as I observe as yet declared only they seem to set up three fundamentall rules First that in matter of Religion every man must be absolutely at his own disposition to believe speak write do what ever he thinks sit GGGGG Secondly that men in publick place either of Church or State must serve freely if they have any means of their own or otherwise if they be poor their greatest gages in the most eminent places shall not exceed the summe of 50 or at most 60 pounds a year HHHHH Thirdly that all men â—n all places shall be accountable and punishable in their life and estate by their Soveraign Lords the individuals of the people without all controll or appeal IIIII According to reason and experience the present distemper of the Sectaries is posting on fast to a Dictatorship absolute Tyranny in the hand of one Since all these things must be as our new Statists give the world assurance of their resolution to have them is it not like that before so great changes can be brought about much resistance will be made a strange confusion and bloodshed multitudes of difficulties cannot but fall in the way shall it not therefore be absolutely necessary that some men of known valour and courage whose wisdome faithfulnesse and successe long experience makes unquestionable be set up to command in name of the people for some time till these high and mighty designs may be gotten accomplished and the people once be set down in peace upon the high places whence the King Lords and Commons wont to pronounce these unjust Laws which now with their authours must be laid aside In such cases of extraordinary difficulty the wise people of Rome did oftentimes name a Dictator in whose hand for a certain time they placed all their power the Senate the Armies the Magistrates both
that our heart can think of yet were we slaves by this alone the burden of which singly will pierce gall our shoulders make us bow stoop to the ground ready to be made a prey not only by great men but even by every cunning sharking knave Remonst p. 4. The History of our fore-fathers since they were conquered by the Normans doth manifest that this Nation hath been held in bondage all along ever since by the policies and force of the Officers of trust in the Common-wealth p. 15. Ye know the Laws of this Nation are unworthy a free people deserve from first to last to be considered and seriously debated reduced to an agreement with common equity and right reason which ought to be the form life of every government Magna Carta it self being but a beggerly thing containing many marks of intolerable bondage the Laws that have been made since by Parliaments have in very many particulars made our government much more oppressive intolerable Ib. He erected a trade of Judges and Lawyers to sell justice and injustice at his own unconscionable rate in what time he pleased the corruption wherof is yet remaining upon us to our continuall empoverishing and molestation from which we thought you should have delivered us ye know also imprisonment for debt is not from the beginning TTTT Modest Queries p. 10. at least in sensu composito to believe the deepest or highest mystery in Religion any further or any otherwise then as and as far as he hath reason to judge it to be a truth VVVV Vide Disswasive first Part p. 127. 152. also p. 31. 49. IIIII KKKKK XXXX I am credibly informed that this is the great and troublesome controversie for the time among the Governors of New England whether it be their duty to rule according to their gifts of Government according to some written Laws or without all humane Statutes Vid. Gang. 3 Part. YYYY Remonst p. 3. The free born people to their own House of Commons the cause of our choosing you to be Parliament men was to deliver us from all kinde of bondage we possessed you with the same power that was in our selves to have done the same for we might justly have done it our selves without you if we had thought it convenient choosing you as persons whom we thought fitly qualified and faithfull for avoiding some inconveniencies but ye are to remember this was only of us but a power of trust which is ever revocable and cannot be otherwise and to be imployed to no other end then our own well-being AAAAA Vide supra also Warning p 2. You hate and abhor those that would purge this corrupt humor out of you shew you a more just rationall way of Government then that of Kings Also Remonst p. 16. If ye would follow the good exâ—mple of the Hollanders make this Nation a State free from the oppression of Kings Also p. 12. As if ye had discovered and digested that without a powerfull compulsive Presbytery in the Church a compulsive Mastership or Aristocraticall government over the people in the State could never long be maintained BBBBB Conscience cautioned p. 9. Know ye not the State of the State is it not the whole Kingdom each individuall I can prove it is O heavens will you Lord it over your Lords I professe if you make head against your heads any longer I know what it is and your self shall know for I say you deserve beheading CCCCC Conscience cautioned p. 6. Keep we humbly beseech you our right of Kinghood and Priesthood Just mans justification p. 14. The splendor and glory of that undivided Majesty and Kingship that inherently resides in the people or in the State universall DDDDD Remonst p. 7. Let the Lords stand to be chosen for Knights Burgesses by the people as other the freemen Gentry of this nation do EEEEE Vide supra YYYY FFFFF Remonst p. 20. That a Parl. chosen in Novemb. succeeding year by year may come in stead of the preceding Parliament GGGGG Just mans justifie p. 15. Reduce us back to that part of the ancient frame of government in this Kingdom before the Conquerors days that we may have all causes differences decided in the County or Hundred where they are committed or do arise without any appeal but to a Parl. that they may mâ—nthly be judged by 12. men of free and honest condition câ— sen by themselves with their Grave or chief Officer amongst them and that they may swear to judge every mans cause aright without fear favor or affection then farewell jangling Lawyers the wildfire destroyers baâ—e of all just rationall and right governed Common-wealths HHHHH Remonst p. 12. Ye vex and molest honest men for matters of Religion and difference with you and your Synod take upon you to determine of doctrine discipline approving this reproaching that just like unto former ignorant politick and superstitious Parliaments and Convocations therby have divided honest people among themselves by countenancing only those of the Presbytery discountenancing all the separation Anabaptists Independents Ib. We are well assured that neither you nor none else can have any power at all to conclude the people in matters that concern the worship of God for therein every one of us ought to be fully assured in our minds to be sure to worship him according to our consciences IIIII The Birthright p. 48 49. in the Postscript It would be excellent and needfull if the Parl. would ordain that every free man of Eng. who is able would bestow his service one year at least freely for the good of the civill State in any place or office of trust whereof his skill breeding aâ— fit him tâ— be most capable according as they shall be chosen those that are not able to serve freely for a year to have competent maintenance allowed to them to the value of 50 or 60 l. a year according to their charge If such be chosen for their skill and diligence though they want outward means for which allowance those that are conscientious wil do as good service at least as some others who have 1000 or 2000 a year The like rule is no lesse but far more excellent needful to be observed and established iâ— matters concerning the Church state wherin her servants are to perform their duties freely they being able to maintain themselves those with them whether by means obtained formerly or industry used daily otherwise to have the like allowance of 50 or 60 l. a year acording to their charge KKKKK Vide supra CHAP. IV. Their Antipaedobaptisme Arminianisme Arianisme Familisme and other wicked Errours THIS much for the first head of the Anabaptists All Anabaptists are for Antipaedobaptisme Brownistick Tenets so to call them being such as the Brownists of old did learn from the Anabaptists and which this day the Anabaptists take back again from
writers asserting the ancient custome of dipping in baptisme A generall answer to the testimonies for dipping To which I answer first what ever authority testimonies may have with us yet with him that brings them and with his whole party they are of no value at all Will they mislike or so much as suspect any of their absurdest novelties when it is demonstrate to them that the whole current of all Christian writers ancient and modern is against them is it not then their custome with a great deal of scorn to declaim against the vanity and frivolousnesse of an argument from humane assertions Secondly the Treatiser himselfe cannot but know that every one of the Authours he brings does positively impugne his assertion the necessity of dipping and unlawfulnesse of sprinkling in Baptisme Thirdly his witnesses though they assert indefinitely the antiquity of dipping yet none of them does deny the like ancient use of sprinkling both those may well stand together and so it is the judgement of many that sometimes dipping and sometimes sprinkling as the occasion required were practised in the Primitive times Fourthly of those that speak of ancient dipping how many doe understand it of the totall immersion of a naked body over head and ears and yet this alone is our question Fifthly though even for this testimonies were brought yet they come not home unlesse such a dipping be attested to be a rite unchangeable and so necessary that the omission of it at any occasion were a sin and breach of the Lords institution When any writer either ancient or modern except some few of the latest Anabaptists is brought to bear witnesse to any such assertion I shall acknowledge my information of that whereof hitherto I have been altogether ignorant THE CONTENTS OF the Treatise The PREFACE SLothfulnesse is fatall when unseasonable Men are most carelesse when their dangers be greatest The present danger of the Protestant Churches of France Holland of Germany of Zuitserland of Britain by the Malignants by the Sectaries Our dangers from the Malignants are not yet past The unexcusable obstinacy of the Episcopall Divines It s blindnesse and dementation to misprize the danger from France Antichrist is possibly neare to swallow down the whole Reformed Churches A floud of Errors and Heresies is like to overwhelm the Church of England A liberty for all Errors is the great aim of some They spoil the Parliament of all power to reform or meddle with Religion Who now are the persecutors How great is the monster of Libertinism The Sectaries having done with the Church proceed to the overthrow of the State The Parliament must be abolished The best remedy of our dangers from the Malignants is the return of the King to his Parliament in just tearms The zealous diligence of Ministers might do much to cure the evill of our errors The sedulous activity of the Sectaries doth shame our slothfulnesse The caveats of zeal Presbyterians are far from opposing the least degree of true piety Charity and compassion are to be extended to our enemies Presbyterians were never persecutors The dignity and power of the Magistrate must be carefully preserved The scope of the Treatise CAP. I. The Originall and Progresse of the Anabaptists BErengarius no Anabaptist The Albigenses knew not Anabaptisme p. 1. Neither MelancthoÌ„ nor Carolostadius did favour Antipaedobaptism p. 2 The true originall of the Anabaptists The malignity of their spirit Their singular hypocrisie p. 3 The preposterous pity and charity of good men towards them was the cause of their strength Their wicked doctrines and practises Luther did justly stir up the Magistrate against them p. 5 Great numbers of them were slain The unhappy end of their Author Muncer ib. Zuinglius did oppose their gathering of Churches in Zuitserland The reason of their banishment thence p. 6 Their intolerable practises The tragedy of Munster p. 7 The ordinary custome of Hereticks is not to labour but to spoil the labours of others King Becold enters Munster Some of the prime Ministers are gained to Anabaptisme The slacknesse of the Magistrate though orthodoxe did ruine the City The Sectaries though fewer and weaker yet by wit and industry did master their opposites By the stirrup of Toleration the Sectaries ascended to the saddle of Soveraignty p. 8 Being once masters of the City they presently changed the government They seized on the goods of all and killed whom they would The peoples mindes being ensnared by their errors their tyranny became irremediable They proclaimed Polygamy p. 9 A faint and unsuccessefull resistance did hasten and confirm Becolds Kingdome The splendour of Becolds Court His barbarous cruelty and hypocrisie His unhappy end p. 10 Amsterdam in hazard to be a second Munster A woman Messias Division and Schismes were the Anabaptists ruine p. 11 The difference betwixt the Monasterians and the Battenburgicks The Sect of the Hophmanists p. 12 Who were the Mennonists A Synod for union did divide them amongst themselves more then ever David Georgius labours for union p. 13 Divers Sects of Anabaptists evanished David George had a great shew of zeal and piety p. 14 Yet his absurdities were horrible The extraordinary zeal of his followers His strange end p. 15 The increase of the Mennonists The errors of the Mennonists Their Schismes p. 16 For a light cause four late separations among them The state of the Anabaptists in England p. 17 Independency the cause of their increase and boldnesse p. 18 Their late Confession is neither a full nor a clear declaration of their tenets CAP. II. The tenets of the old Anabaptists THe most applauded tenets of our modern Anabaptists are the self-same with what the old Anabaptists did invent p. 29 Their first prime tenet was a necessity of gathering Churches out of Churches and of separation from the best reformed in their time because of mixt communion ib. Antipaedobaptisme became at last their greatest dâ—rling They were the authors of the prophecying and questioning of private men in the face of the Church Women preachers are from them p. 30 Their Pastors must renounce all former Ordination and their full call of new must come from the hands of their people They required no letters in their Preachers The crying down of Tithes and all set Stipends is from them Independency of Congregations and the peoples power in Church censures is their invention The Seekers who deny all Churches are their Disciples After the overthrow of the Church they fell next upon the State p. 31 First they cryed down the Magistrates power in matters of Religion Next in all matters even Civill Yet they took to themselves an absolute Civill power first over all them in their own Churches Next over all Princes and people in the whole world They were strong Millenaries p. 32 They made adulteries and murders lawfull Robberies also 33 Their hypocrisie ended in the open practise of crimes extreamely contrary to their first professions Their abominable uncleannesse They deny both Old and