to joyne in Testimony that what was recorded was true And is this Printed Epistle and Testimony no Publication Sect. 84. Mr. Bowne The second untruth is that I am uncontrolledly affirmed so to be when I believe he had never a second in the world that either will or can affirm it R. B. Here are two more falshoods 1. That it is an Vntruth that I said of him 2. That I said it was uncontrolledly affirmed that he was the Author But that he was a Publisher you have now his own Confession of his Epistle which I had read and Mr. Joseph Baker gave me the Book and told me it was published by Mr. Jordain and Mr. Browne and this report I oft after heard and it never was controlled to me which is all that I can reasonably mean my uncontrolled For how is it possible for me to know what is said of him to all others in every distant place and corner Sect. 85. Mr. Browne As for the Book it self and the matter of fact contained in it I never yet met with any judicious sober Christian that had seriously perused it who durst adventure to pronounce either of the whole or any considerable part of it that it was an effect of Melancholy R. B. Who talkt of the whole But what part you will call considerable who knows Is not this a concession that some part is so judged of And must your Ignorance of such matters as Melancholly have so great influence into your Divinity But you may say true For most now adayes converse with few but those of their own mind And the Book is not to be got in any shop that I can hear of Sect. 86. Mr. Browne Whether this decrying of experiences this slighting the work of Gods spirit in the soul the crying out that these things are but the effects of Melancholy be not the ready way to make all supernatural Conversion derided and the whole mysterie of Godliness contemned consider R. B. 1. Here is implyed a fourth Untruth that I decry experiences and the rest here mentioned 2. Alas must the poor Church of Christ have such miserable Guides that build hay and stubble and think if it be burnt the Church must fall I tell you sir such rash and Ignorant Teachers as your Writings shew you to be are the men that do so much towards the very same effects which you seem to fear even to tempt men to deride all supernatural conversion as that I scarce know a more powerful way If you heard one man say Satan as an Angel of Light stirred up the Quakers to pretend Miracles Prophesies and spiritual raptures purposely to tempt the World to Infidelity by perswading them that the Spirit in the Prophets and Apostles was but the like And if you heard James Naylor say Your calling the Spirit in us a vain Imagination or deceit is the way to perswade men that the spirit in the Prophets and Apostles was but imagination and deceit Which of these two sayings would you believe I take the case which I spake of to be the like I tell you still that all the Truth and Goodness that your Book mentioneth truly was wrought by the spirit of God But if men will make the world believe that any false doctrine or any sin or any false exposition of Scripture is of the spirit or that their unproved Impulses which are not agreeable to the word but are against it or besides it must be believed to be of God and will describe these as Experiences and Gods way of Converting souls their Ignorance will as effectually serve the Devil to bring true Conversion and the spirit into scorn as the derisions of a Drunkard will do if not more It is no new thing for Satan to deceive as an Angel of light and his Ministers as Ministers of Righteousness And if you know not his wiles expect not that we should all concur with you in exposing spirituality and holiness to the scorn of such as now abhorr it or as of late have taken such advantages against those that are better than themselves Sect. 87. R. B. Whether you instructed her in those principles you know best If you deny it I retract it That you were very zealous in them is past doubt but just the day when you began whether before that Book was begun or before it was finished or when I leave to your own report Sect. 88. Mr. Browne Indeed it is now my Opinion that there is a glorious state of the Church yet to come before the last end of all things when all Oppression and Oppressours shall cease and every thing of man shall be laid down in subserviency to the Interest of Christ and the Kingdom of the World shall become his R. B. Amen! It is my earnest Desire as well as yours But Desire and Belief are not all one The Prophesies that you suppose foretell all this I thought I almost understood thirty two years agoe but since I perceive I did not But I contradict not that which I do not understand nor never did Who will plead for Oppression And what Christian desireth not the greatest Holiness and Righteousness in the World I freely confess my Ignorance in the point whether on this side the general Resurrection there shall be so perfect and universal Righteousness as you describe as that All Oppression shall cease My greatest Hope is in the three Petitions of the Lords Prayer Thy Name be Hallowed Thy Kingdom Come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven And I am sure this will warrant my desires And I the better like those Opinions of a perfect age because Hope will set men upon praying for it But as I detest all Rebellions against just Authority on pretence that they are not truly Godly and all setting up mens selves on pretence of setting up Christ and using unlawful means on pretence of good ends so I am afraid of being tempted down from the Heavenly Hopes and Comforts by looking for more on earth than is indeed to be expected Sect. 89. Mr. Browne p. 29. He tells us first that she was suddenly moved to come to hear him Preach R. B. A meer untruth as I have before shewed I said not so Sect. 90. Mr. Browne That she had such convictions from his Sermon for so he seems to intimate c. R. B. Untrue again as is before shewed Nor will your seeming salve it Sect. 91. Mr. Browne That she desired to speak with him is another untruth R. B. Of that I shall speak anon Sect. 92. Mr. Browne That she did impose on her self abstinence from meat R. R. Here he contradicts himself as she did and saith she durst not eat and yet falsly chargeth me with untruth for saying the same sence Sect. 93. Mr. Browne Lastly She never fell in so among the Quakers as to be one of them though it is true that through the power of Temptations she was somewhat
rightly what I have written than the Books themselves I leave them to judge and do as they are and as such men lead them And how far Tradition or History or Humane aide and Testimony is necessary to our Reception of the Scripture I have long agoe opened at large in the Preface to the second Part of my Saints Rest and shewed you that Dr. Whitaker Chemnitius Davenant Rob. Baronius and other Protestants usually say the same that I do and that otherwise by casting away such subordinate means Proud-ignorance and pievish wrangling will cut the throat of faith it self and undermine the Church of God Reader I will conclude also with an Admonition as my Accuser doth As thou lovest Christianity Scripture and thy soul take heed of those Ignorant destroying-defenders of the Scripture who would tell the Infidel world that they may continue Infidels till we can prove that the Scripture alone by its own light without humane Testimony History or Tradition will bring it self to all mens hands without mans bringing it and will translate it self without mans translating it or in the original tongues will make all English men and all that cannot read at all to understand it or being translated will tell you sufficiently which is the true translation and where the Translater failed or will tell you among many hundred divers Readings which is the right and which Copy is the truest and which particular text is uncorrupted or rightly translated For instance whether it should be in Luke 17. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Matth. 24. 18. and Beza saith In uno exemplari apud Theophilactum Scriptum est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Cadaver sicut etiam in nonnullis codicibus testatur selegisse Erasmus Videturque haec lectio magis accomodata c. Hundreds of such may be named And believe not these men till they can name you one man that ever knew before some man told him by the Book alone whether Esther and the Canticles were Canonical and the Book of Wisdom and Pauls Epistle to the Laodioaeans Apocryphal and knew what was the sense of the Original Text and what Copies and Readings and Translations were true and what false Yea or that knew these particular Books were the same that the Apostles wrote without alteration till some one told it them Would not that man reduce the Church into less than one single person who would have no man believe the Scripture nor take it for Gods word till he can do it without any help of man or humane History or Testimony or Tradition But of this I put him twenty Questions before It shall now suffice to tell you this much of the plain truth that such furious false Teachers as shall take the foresaid course may not utterly subvert your faith The Scripture and Christian Religion taken together as one frame or Body hath that in it self which may prove that frame and all the essential parts of our Religion to be of God And the true proof of the Divine Authority of the Scripture is by the evidence of the spirit not a new Revelation of the spirit But by a double Impression of Gods own Image made by the Holy Ghost one upon the Scripture it self The other by the Scripture in its continued efficacy on Belivers souls And both these Images are the Impresses of the Trinity of Divine Principles even of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God which are unimitably done in both This is the true proof that Scripture is the word of God But this proof excludeth not but supposeth the Ministry and Testimony of man as a subservient help and means even to bring it to us to translate it to teach us how to know both the sense and verity of it and to testifie which is the true Canon Copies Reading Translation c. And they are ignorant subverting deceivers and destroyers of your souls who would separate the Word the Spirit and the Ministry which Christ hath conjoyned as necessary together for your faith and that would cast out subservient helps as unnecessary under pretence of the sufficiency of the Scripture As if Printing it were needless because Scripture is sufficient of it self And the fore-said self-evidencing Light is not sufficient without humane help and Testimony to make you know every Canonical Book from the Apocryphal nor to know the truest Copies in the Original nor the rightest readings nor this or that particular verse to be uncorrupted nor the translation to be true nor this or that to be the true meaning of the Greek or Hebrew word nor that the Minister readeth truly to the unlearned that cannot try it by his own skill nor read himself And he that would make the contrary supposition to be the foundation of your faith would destroy your faith the Church and you Postscript REader since the Writing of this two things have faln out which make it a more displeasing work to me than it was before And I am sorry that Mr. Bagshaw made it necessary The one is that as the current report saith he is again in Prison for Refusing the Oath of Allegiance And I naturally abhorre to trample upon a suffering person which hath caused me to say so little against the Armies and Sectarian miscarriages since their dissolution and dejection in comparison of what I did before in the time of their prosperity The other is The Printing of the Life of Mr. Vavasor Powel which hath so many good things in it that I fear lest the mention of his false Prophecies extorted by Mr. Bagshaw who first published also his name as the Author of them should abate their exemplary use But yet I must give this notice to forreigners and posterity that they must not judge either of the JUDGEMENT or the SUFFERINGS of the Non-conformists by these mens It is not for refusing the Oath of Allegiance that they are silenced and suffer as they do nor do they consent to the words which conclude the life of Mr. Powel That since such a time he hath learnt that we must pray for our present Rulers as sinners but not as Magistrates No man can truly say that such Doctrines as these have been proved against any considerable part of the Ministers that are now cast out or that they were deposed and silenced for such things seeing they commonly take the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy And how far the ejected Ministers of Scotland are from the Principles of Separation Mr. Browne a Learned Scottish Divine hath shewed in the Preface of a Learned Treatise Newly Published in Latine against Wolzogius and Velthusius even while he saith most against receding from a Reformation overthrowing the Tenents maintained by our two or three English Brownes which formerly were called Brownisme Though the same mans numerous reasonings against the derivation of the Magistrates Office from the Power of the Mediator I waite
to a member of the Church to be subject to the Pope Reader Is not this man uncharitable that will neither give us his leave to use our old words nor teach us better but intimate that we speak nonsense and he can speak better if he would We have hitherto been used to call a Governed Church a Political Society as distinct from a meer concourse or community of Christians And why not if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if God hath prepared for them a City whose God he is not ashamed to be called Heb. 11. 16. And if it be well said Phil. 1. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if our Political conversations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be in Heaven why may not a Church at least such a one as the Pope doth claim be called a Political body or society Or at least why may not the Pope be said to lay such a claim We have been used to call that Government Spiritual which is done by the Word and Church Keyes and consequently the Governours Spiritual And why must this be non-sense now We have been used to call that Governour a Constitutive Head without whom the society is not essentiated in specie as a King in a Kingdom O unkind Teacher that will leave us all in this ignorance and not vouchsafe one word to help us out Sect. 72. E. B. And do not think to excuse your self from writing Non-sense by saying you meant a thing objectively and not subjectively R. B. Nay then I despair of scaping non-sense If the Object and the Subject must needs be all one and if sense in the Book or argument and sense or reason in the Reader be all one I am not the first that was deceived No nor if it be all one to say You understand not the sense or reason of my argument and you have no sense or reason But new Lords new Laws Sect. 73. E. B. And do not make Philosophy ridiculous as you do when you tell us That our acts of knowing exterior things are as Philosophers affirm objectively organicall though not efficiently and formally Sir I am sure no wise man talks thus and if Philosophers do its time we left them c. R. B. When you once begin to say you are sure and no wise man is against you I begin to think you talk more ignorantly than when you seem to doubt I will not prophane a point so little understood by you and so much scorned as to dispute it with you Enjoy your ignorance and scorn Sect. 74. E. B. Lastly When truth is to be examined and the nature of a thing strictly to be considered do not argue against it from some ill consequence as what you desperately urge against the Scriptures being a perfect Rule which foundation of faith and practice you labour to overthrow by tragically infisting on the consequences that will follow Sir this in the end will be found perfect folly and madness therefore leave it in time lest the Lord reprove you and you be found a lyar R. B. 1. Alas That your Pen could write the last word without the more prevalent rebuke of your Conscience After so many Untruths yea and when in the same paragraph you are renewing the same sin in saying I deny the Scripture to be a perfect Rule when I still say It is a perfect Rule so far as it is a Rule 2. If you intend sense and truth your argument must run thus He that saith the Scripture is not a particular Rule commanding the thing in particular but only a General Rule for the Metre and Tunes of Psalms for the dividing of it self into Chapters and Verses for the hour and place of meetings for the choice of a Text to preach on and words and method of Sermon and Prayer for the naming or determining the Person that shall be a Pastor for the form of Pulpits Tables Cups c. yea for the making of a Clock or Watch or Hour-glass to measure the time by or for building the House to preach in c. He that saith these are not determined of particularly in Scripture but only under the General Rule of doing all things to Gods Glory to Edification decently and in order c. this man doth deny Scripture to be a perfect Rule and laboureth to overthrow the foundation of faith and practice and proveing what he saith by the ill consequences that else will follow will in the end be found in perfect folly and madness reproved by God and found a lyar But such a one is R. B. Therefore c. Reader if this be sound doctrine if after all Gods warnings of the danger of Levity and Ignorant pride thou canst yet receive such errors and revilings as a defence of the foundation thy case also is to be lamented 3. When Def. par 1. pag. 98 c. I had fully described the opinion which I rejected and had given in fifteen reasons against it what doth this easie confident Disputer but instead of offering an answer to any one of them calls it perfect folly and madness so to confute it by ill consequences Doth this disputing satisfie any sober enquirer after truth Doth he not reproach his followers in the eye of the world about him while he thus openly seemeth to expect that they will rest in such reasonings or replyes as these And really if we prove against the Papists that though they directly deny not Christ and his Office yet that such Consequents will follow upon divers of their errors will this man that talketh so much of Antichristianism say that it is perfect folly and madness to charge such consequents upon them If I prove that any opinion doth consequentially deny God or the souls immortality or subvert all our faith do I deserve no better an answer than that this is my perfect folly and madness and I shall be proved a lyar What need is there of learning reason sobriety or modesty to enable any man to dispute and seem Orthodox at this rate Sect. 75. E. B. You may see by this brief taste how easie it is for me to defend my self R. B. O wonderful blinding power of self-conceit Sect. 76. E. B. p. 21. It is not a lessening of your Reputation that I mainly aim at much less at the advancing of my own upon the ruine of yours But I thought the truth of Christ worth my vindicating And when I saw that your name did stand in the way of it The whole design of this Letter is as to others to perswade all to look upon you not only as a fallible but a mistaken man R. B. I have long ago done wondering that such men as you can deliberately choose and use such means when once they have dared to intitle God and his Glory to their false doctrines For what is it that they will not think lawful to do for God and Truth If some serve him by killing his servants no