c And yet after you have taken upon you such names to compasse your ends would you not throw off your names when your ends are accomplished and if you be called by them art you not ready to be offended till you have need of them for your selfe ends and will you not then take them upon you againe rather then take up the daily Crosse therein to follow Christ and both deny your Tithes preaching for hundreds a yeare c and also deny for to be any more selfended and as you are and have been and yet for your own ends and earthly gaines though you be offended at the name of Preists c you will rather stick to your names then forsake your selfends and earthly gaines Tithes Easter-reconings c. and seeks to take upon you a cover from the Levitical Preist-hood to hide you under saying The Preists lips should preserve knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts Mala. 2.7 8 9. But I say that such as are in miscarriages wronging Christ and men growing worse and yet run further from God they are not those whose lips preserves knowledge neither are they those that the people should seeke the law at nor they are not the messengers of him and growing worse in miscarriages and yet are as you say running further from him and they that run from God run not for God and such as are in the miscarriages and neither amend nor yet come out of them and so are unfit to be the Lords messengers but you are in miscarriages growing worse you say and so you make it manifest that you do not amend nor come out of them that râ—ns on in them and growing worse therefore are you unfit to be the Lords Messengers and such as are in miscarriages growing worle and run further from God they run from grace goodnesse and from the law and preservation of true wisdom and knowledge and such are not to be enquired at neither doth their lips preserve knowledge nor keepe the law of the Lord who is to be enquired at and obeyed but they living as you do in miscarriages growing worse and yet running further from God such are out of the way as you are and also corrupters of the covenant as well as transgressors of the law of God and therefore their lips doth not preserve true knowledge neither keepe they the law therefore unfit to teach others in it no more then you are that cast it behind your backs to run into miscarriages and grow worse and still run further from God such was those that the Lord sent his Prophets to cry out against And in the leviticall Preisthood God did ordaine Preists under the law by which they were then made and were set apart for the service of God under that dispensation and the Lord had a covenant of life and peace with them the law of truth was in his viz Priests Levi's mouth whilst he walked herein iniquity was not sound in his lips but he walked with the Lord in peace and equity and did turne many away from iniquity and then the Preists lips that with God did walke and abide in that covenant or life and peace in whose mouth the law of truth was did preserve knowledge and the people sought the law not the Gospel at his mouth under that legall dispensation abiding in Covenant according to ordination c. he was the messenger of the Lord of hosts Mal. 2.5.6.7 but you are not such Preists and yet pretends to preach the Gospel not the law but lives in your miscarriages and Legal transgressions growing worse and running yet further from God you do not go on in iniquity onely but leads others therein and teacheth them to plead for sin tearme of life then you do not turne others from iniquity but runs further into it that runs into your miscarriages and growes worse neither do you walke with God that runs as you say further from him therefore you are not his messengers neither are you those Preists whose lips preserves the true knowledge and at whose mouth the people sought the law in that Legall dispensation and administration for they walked with God in a Covenant of life and peace and the law of truth was in their mouths so was the feare of God in their hearts and turned many from their iniquities but such as transgressed the Covenant and went from the life thereof and from the law and the truth they went into miscarriages and grew worse and run further from God preached for hire bare rule by their meanes caused many to stumble and corrupted the covenant as you do and such the Lord was against and he is against you Jer 5.25.27 28 29 30 31. and their lips did not preserve true knowledge though they was Preists and Preached for hire Mica 3.11 and bare rule by their meanes and lived in miscarriages Jer. 5. as you do neither doth your lips preserve true knowledge though you be Preists and preach for hire and beare â—ule by your meanes and lives in miscarriages as you say and as they did that corrupted the covenant and so you may see where you are you would beare the name of Priests for your own ends and yet both be offended at them which call you so and tell you of your miscarriages which you now confesse but instead of forsaking run further in them in running from God therefore your mouthes instead of preserving true knowledge utters your confusion and your peoples ignorance and sleepie security that are as you say so carnall and ignorant that they can scarce speake a word of sense in matters of salvation and so it is manifest by their and your fruits cruelty end persecution that you are ignorant of the Gospel and knoweth not the way to salvation ANd unto you 42. Preists who are found in this state of separation from God and in those workes upon which his curse remaines from the Lord I-say unto you and to all your generation who are found in the same state and working the same workes with you Returne and repent and seeing you have confessed the same viz. your miscarriages and wrong done to God to Christ and to men it is your duty to amend and come out of the same make it manifest by your returne not in flatteries and faigned hypocrisie but by ceasing persecution and cruelty give over preaching for hire and beareing rule by your meanes forsake your covetousnesse Pride Pompe and vaine glory and cease seeking your own ends and make not a prey upon the innocent and harmelesse but give over your wronging Christ and men and learne to feare him do not go about to make pleas for sin and covers for your miscarriages but deale honestly and come out of them for it is hard for the Camel the rich mans figure to enter the eye of a needle except he be broken and bruised c so is it as hard
and gain-sayes the Counsel of God in refusing to deny their miscarriages but only tell of them and the wrong they do to Christ and men refusing to deny the same and to amend and make restitution to whom they have wronged and cease wronging any and refusing to forsake the evil and cease persecution to turn unto God they refuse to deny their wills that they might obey the will of God and therefore such are resisters of the will of God as your untaught teachers are and the Jews in nature like them was whom Christ would often have gathered and they would not Matth. 23.27 therefore saith he ye that depart not from Iniquity Pride Coveteousnesse Vain-talking foolish Jesting will-Worships the love and honour of the world persecution and miscarriages ye will not come to me that ye might have life Joh. 5.40.44 and saith he Why call ye me Lord and do not the things that I say Luke 6.46 And whereas you say Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts or trespasses as we forgive our debtors or them that trespasse against us c. I say that they that Christ teacheth to pray and them that he taught that prayer and did him obey exhorted others to do so but when your wills are crost are you not ready to destroy and devour such as crosses your wills and yet you pray sort your forgivnesse upon that account and so if you do not forgive others you pray for no forgivnesse according to that account and if you would have God to forgive you as you forgive others see that you do forgive them that trespasse against you or else if you seek revenge persecute c. and do not forgive them if they do trespasse against you do you not pray that God may take vengeance of you and not forgive you when you trespasse against him because you do not forgive them that trespasse against you and prayes for your forgivnesse of God as you forgive men and so when you do not forgive them you pray that God may not forgive you but do to you as you would do to them that offend and trespasse against you and you that do not cease your persecution and also forgive them that trespasse against you you do not act according to the will of God nor regard your own words and vowes made to God in Prayer and if instead of forgiving those that trespasse against you you rather seeke their destruction and ruine do you not pray that God may destroy and ruine you and to do by you as you think to do to them and is not all this according to your Prayer Consider well of it and If you do not forgive them that trespasse against you doth it not appeare that you are not of Gods elect that you have not yet learned the doctrine of the Apostles and of Christ for saith Christ to such as he taught if you forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will forgive you your trespasses Math. 6.15 And if you would follow that you might cease persecution quarrelling and jangling and put on as the elect did do bowels of mercy humblenesse of minde long suffering forbeareance forgiving one another and if any have a quarell against any even as Christ forgiveth learne of him and do ye so for the elect and such as are taught of him and abideth in his doctrine doth so Col. 3.12 13 and exhorts others to do the same but it appeares that you or such as do not so viz. forgive them that trespasse against you in obedience to the will of God and doctrine of Christ and his Apostles you show thereby that you resist the will of God and are not of the elect but out of both the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and doth it not plainly appeare that you and persecuters that wrongs God and Christ and are not yet forgiven and therefore you do not forgive nor regard what you pray for as to performe your vowes c. Therefore doth your hypocrisie more appeare and so you make use of the Scriptures only to talke of and garnish your selves withall as the Scribes and Pharises did that you may oppose the truth and paint your selves with the words as they did but comes not to the life of truth to walk in but are shut out as they was and now it is manifest for the light is risen and sprung up in the hearts of many praised be the Lord and your deceits and deeds of darknesse must be found out and laid open the Lord hath his fanners and he will fift the Nations and the day declareth every mans work of what sort it is and now the Lord looks for fruits for that tree is cursed that makes a great show in leaves and brings forth no fruit unto Christ as the figg-tree was read and understand if you can I desire of the Lord for you that you may and to your soul's profit but let the Serpent be famished dust is his meate but the Father Almighty feedeth his Children and their soules doth taste of his Manna and knowes the daily bread and the sacrifice which is offered up and is the living sanctified soul's nourishment and daily food for which he is not only prayed unto but also praised for glory and honour be to him for evermore And when you say Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from evill for thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory for ever Amen Concerning Temptation c. I say God doth not lead into Temptation neither doth he tempt any with evill Jam. 1.13 but he suffereth Temptations to come that he may try his Joh. 1.12 and blessed is he that endureth Temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him but you are hardly sensible of a Temptation who are asleepe in security and ignorance that can scarce speak a word of sense in matters of salvation as your teachers say and in carnality deepe in the iniquity or in sin unturned to God c. but such as are convinced with the light of Christ in their consciences and are awakened out of security having their minds turned with the light from darknesse and sin towards God to wait upon him who are taught by Christ the true Teacher of his they are by him supported and taught from a true sense how to pray and they know that he whose the Kingdoms true power and glory is Math. 11.27 28. who giveth them rest doth teach them to watch and to pray that they by his power may be kept for entering into Temptation as they take his Counsel and abide therein Heb. 2.18 who himselfe was Tempted Luke 22.28 but did overcome and did not enter into the same Math. 4. who is the way to lead out such as him follow Joh. 14.6 Joh. 8.12 and obey Heb. 5.8.9 and it is no sin to be Tempted but to enter into the Temptation which
the rule of creating of Priests Ministers Pastors Teachers and Rectors or ordering amongst them c. untill the raigne of Henry the 8th in this realme and then did not he cut the Pope out off that which he had brought forth into Parochiall rights so called as Tithes Obventions c. And did not he set up Arch-bishops and Bishops and they created or called your fore-Fathers the Priests Pastors and Rectors and Teachers c And were not the Arch-Bishops their and your Creators or Callers cut off by the late Parlirment and rendered uselesse and do not you now call and create one another and if so are not you selfe-callers to selfish Ministry and how can you cleare your selves from being instead of young Popes or like the young Bishops that were before you creating or making and calling Priests Pastors Teachers and Rectors and so self-callers of self-seekers putting out and in at your pleasure displeasure so are creating begetting or calling one another for your own ends now are found as you say wrongers of Christ and men and therefore may well fear that God will require their blood at your hands and so you are on uncertain grounds men also as you say of miscarriages growing worse and are yet without pardon for the same The papists sets up a worship in their wills and in that nature which teacheth them to neglect the great work of God according to his word and do not they excommunicate such as will not walk with them in their inventions and worship their Imaginary worship set up in that nature out of which ariseth all Miscarriages c. and do not you promise the same And then wherein do you and the Papists differ but onely in the maner if you do so agree in the matter and be all one in the main c. It is not your calling others Papists that are not that can cleare you from that root neither doth your saying that you are the Ministers of Christ prove you to be so who are found out of his doctrin and not knowing his commandes or call his ministry and worship that refuse his way and walk in the practice of his ministers who your selves are Lords and Masters and called by man approved sett up and are receiving your wages of the world and persecuting Christs messengers that are sent to witnesse against deceits and deceivers and would think to make people believe you to be that which you are not by casting that upon others which is yours received from your fore-fathers and returns upon you and Papists again to remain from whence it came and the burthen you are like to bear and judgment from God expect for the wrong against him and men which you do and have done And now that your deceits is made manifest and testified against you are seeking to revive your former work to deceive people by your flatteries and false confessions and Colourable glosses for you set up your will-worships in the nature which is contrary to God and hath taught you to neglect his work as you say according to his word in that nature by which you have been led into your miscarriages and promiseth salvation upon the performance and damnation you threaten upon the refusall and say you shall proceed with those that refuse and deal with them as the obstinate despisers of Instruction ought to be dealt withall but are not you the obstinate despisers of the Instructions of the Lord who have neglected his work c. and lives in the miscarriages wronging Christ and men c then expect to be so dealt withall in the first place your selves for all this you say you will do to others c. whilst you are bewailing your own negligence in the work of God and confessing your Miscarrigaes and wrong by you done to God and men and telling of the little effect which your ministry hath wrought and of your peoples sleep in security and being in sin unturned to God and you had then to go a begging for your pardon May 4. 1655. And yet you being in the old birth and the fall in the evil nature bringing forth such evill fruits and whilst unpardoned you frame your Image resolves to go on and states your time layes your penalty and promise how you will deal with those that refuse to worship your Image set up in your wills the old nature and will not submit you threaten to deal with them as obstinate refusers of Instructions but is but such instructions as proceeds from your obstinate spirits which hath kept you in the Miscarriages and neglect of the work of God Luke 16.11 15. Luke 12.45 46 27. Math. 25.41 42. Matth. 7.21 22 23. c. wronging both Men and his Son and wants your pardon then as you say for the same and I say you cannot tell whether the Lord in the first place will deal with you as obstinate refusers of his Instructions and cast you out as unjust stewards for both your obstinacy neglâ—gence and wrong done to men and to Christ his Son he hath good grounds to proceed against you on and needs little evidence from others for your own mouths and tongues hath confessed the same and it had been wisdom to had waited till the triall had been over and to know whether you should have a pardon or be cast out for what you in the rebellion of your hearts against the Light and Living truth of God c. have already done And to see how you should have been dealt withall your selves for the same before you should have threatened what you would do to others Rom. 2.5 6 8 9. Rev. 14.9 10 11 Rev. 20.10 13 14 15. that refuseth your Instruction Remember That when you so said you was not then in the counsel of the Living God and therefore you spake it without the fear of God rashly out of a reprobate sence presumtuously saying so before your pardon for your high contempt that wronged Men and Christ c. and knew not but that you might be condemned at the judgment seat and cast out as reprobates and neglecters of the work of God and for your Miscarrariages c. into perdition and receive according to your deserts and into the pit which for others you have digged you your selves to be cast and be tormented for Joh. 16.13 Heb. 5.8 9. at the last In page the 4. you set up your will-worships which you call Catechisme end personal familiar instruction not being then pardoned nor knowing the Spirit of Christ to guide you out of your Error Heresie Miscarriages and Wrong by you done to men and to Christ page 19. to guide out of deceits flatteries into the truth which spirit is for instruction to guide all that obey it you say that Catechisme personal Instruction is for the killing of Ignorance and quickning the understanding and so puts that instead of the Spirit Eph. 2.1 Col. 3. Rom. 8.13
words are your contradictions and selfe confutations and if ignorance be the cause that thousands perish if your people perish are not you the cause of it that hath your people in such ignorance that though they can talk understandingly about the matters of the world yet they can scarce speake a word of sence about the matters of salvation as you say page 19. and upon the experience of their ignorance you have been bâ—ought to consider of your negligence and to know how you have wronged Christ and them in feare least God should require their blood at your hands though you would put off with flatteries and excuses be sure the Lord will call you to a swer before his judgment seate for it your triall is not yet past and your pardon you have not and where you say he hath wonderfully dispelled or expelled the mists of Popery I answer yea that he hath and therefore those that dwell in his light sees you in those mists undispelled that are such deceivers and wrongers of men and of Christ page 18.19 and you say many of Gods servants have laid down their lives in flames in witnesse against it I answer so they have but what is that to you that are in the miscarriages and wronging Christ and men growing worse and running as you say yet further from God c. who are casting or causing to be cast into Prison and persecuting the Lords faithfull witnesses that are sent to witnesse against your deceipts and gaainst all the Popish mists of darknesse in which mists and darknesse are such as are wrongers of God and men in the heresis and miscarriages as you are who being in that mist of darknesse and the miscarrying nature which hath taught you to lie against God and his work page 18. saying he writes his law in the hearts of his living witnesses imperfectly I say you are ignorant of the living witnesses being your selves dead branches and persecuters of his living witnesses as the filling of your Prisons cruell usage at worcester Evesham Banbury Oxford Northampton and other places may witnesse which persecution and cruelty proceeds from that Popish mist or the miscarring nature being works of darkness and are reproved by us Ephesians 5.11 and as you have showed your ignorance of the living witnesses in whose hearts the law of God is written so have you showed that you are ignorant of the writeing of the law in the heart and ignorant of the law written therein that accounteth the work of God an imperfect worke and accounteth God to be an imperfect writer of the law in the heart If he have written his law in the heart of his living witnesses imperfectly as you say who must perfect it would not you be the perfecters of it or make people beleive in you to do it who are the transgressers of it being in the miscarriages growing worse c. And as you say you are wrongers of men and of Christ so are you wrongers of God himselfe that calls his work an imperfect work and accounts God himselfe to be an imperfect worker and to do his work imperfectly when he is a perfect worker and his works are perfect and so doth he write his law perfectly in the hearts of his faithfull living witnesses as both they and the Scripture beare a true testimony though yours be false and not true therein And here I charge you 42 Priests Teachers Pastours Ministers Rectors in the presence of the Lord to be false witnesses and lyers against God and his work and his law which he writes perfectly in the hearts of his living witnesses as the Scripture witnesseth Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.10.11 The Lord is a perfect worker and his law is perfect so doth he write it perfectly to do its work Give eare ô ye Heavens and I will speak saith the Lord God whose words witnesseth against you and all false witnesses that are knowne by your false testimony therefore saith he heare ô earth the words of my mouth Deut. 32.1.2 my doctrine shall drop as the raine my speech shall distill as the dew as the smal raine upon the tender hearbs and as the showers upon the grasse because I will publish the name of the Lord ascribe ye greatnesse unto our God He is the Rock his work is perfect Deut. 32.34 As for God his way and work is perfect the word of the Lord is tried he is a buckler to all those that trust in him for who is God save the Lord or who is the Rock save our God It is God that girdeth me with strength faith David and maketh my way perfect Psa 18.30 31 32. And this the living witnesses in whose hearts the law of God were perfectly written witnesseth against you 42 false witnesses that saith It is imperfect but your folly is made manifest as well as your false testimony in your Agreement But this is but like thy former writing Richard Baxter in that deceitfull booke of thine which James Nayler answered in print as I did in writing and sent to have come to thee before I knew of the printing of thine or James his answer to that called the Quakers Catechisme wherein thy deceipt was to some purpose made manifest in which thou poured forth the venome and filth out of thy old bottle And did'st thou not say that when such as you the Ministers were overtaken with a lazie fit they could preach without study as well as a woman fit for the gumble stoole and hath not the lazie fit overtaken thee and you 42 Ministers that you have declared your lazinesse or negligence and preached in your Agreement or therein declared your ignorance of God and the truth and of the law in the heart perfectly written in the heart by the true and perfect writer of the same in his faithfull witnesses who beares testimony against your deceipts and filthinesse which you daylie make manifest who as you say grow worse and are running yet further from God You say in your Agreement page 26. that repentance is a through turning from the flesh and the world to God c. then they that throughly turne from the flesh and the world to God they turne out of imperfection unto perfection and art not thou here in words become a Preacher of that which thou Richard Baxter in thy book called the Quakers Catechisme there called the doctrine of the Devil for thou called the doctrine of perfection in that booke the doctrine of the Devil and here in thy agreement thou Acknowledged covertly that which thou therein denied openly and saith in that called your Warrant that you are to present every man perfect c And if it was the Devils doctrine to preach perfection and the Papists dung to feed on as therein to wit the booke called the Quakers Catechisme thou said it was Then art not thou either denying in your agreement what in the other thou asserted and so art thy own confuter and selfe contradicter or else if
these promises cleanse your selves from all filthinesse of flesh and of Spirit perfecting holinesse in the fear of the Lord. And Christ prayed to his Father for those that were given to him that they might be made perfect in one Joh. 17.23 And all these had grace and Christian experience that both received the doctrin of perfection and walked in it and some preaching it and some pressing after it and some attaining it their words and fruits and the Spirit by which they were guided who had grace and Christian experience with such as received the doctrin of the Father and the Son having grace and abiding therein doth witnesse against thee Richard Baxter and thy false doctrin who garnisheth thy self with their words and calls them thy Warrant from God when thou and you 42. Priests are without their life and not in their practice but are in your miscarriages wronging others and growing worse c. Therefore are you without your warrant from God and are none of Christs ministers but enemies of the truth and are against the doctrin of the Lord Jesus but you are made manifest and your deceit and false doctrin is denyed by the Children of Light and in and with it you are reproved and against testified You say you receive the publike maintenance to this end that you may be enabled to lay out your endeavours for the good of the whole parishes from which you do receive it c. page 13. of your Agreement But have you not made it manifest to have received the publick maintenance of your parishes whom you receive it for your evil endeavours that are men of miscarriages unpardoned growing worse and runing further from God whose work is by you neglected according to your own sayings and your people understanding little you have said or many yeares preached to them who can scarse as you say speak a word of sence concerning the matters of their salvation and here you are witnesses against them for their Ignorance c. as well as you are witnesses against your selves for your miscarriages and wrong done to Christ them and is not your negligence one chief cause of their Ignorance and Ignorance the cause of destruction and for runner of eternall perdition who say you have wronged Christ and them page 19. Therefore may it not be concluded from your own confession that you are a chiefe cause of souls destruction and by your confusion have you not run into self-contradictions and makes it manifest that you take the publike maintenance of your parishes not for good endeavours but for your miscarriages and so for evil endeavors who hath not profited the people that are so Ignorant of the work of God and their soules good that they can scarce speak a word of sence in matters of salvation as you say and you are the wrongers of them and of God according to your own sayings and so deceives souls for your own ends but the Lord hath shaken his hand against your dishonest gain and such as through covetousnesse maketh merchandize of people Ezek. 22.12 23. your Judgment of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not that with you are such as you may read 2 Pet. 2.3 13 14 15. But let me aske you From whence you and those that pretend themselves ministers of the Gospel who receives Tythes or Hundreds a yeare c. tooke their first example and by whom to receive Tythes by compulsion and that which they and you call their publick maintenance c. had you your example so to do from the practice of the Apostles of Christ Observe Though Priests was very scant after the rot or pestilence spoken of in the time of Edw. 3. yet then the parish Priests was not by any manner of colour to receive above 6. marks wages by the yeare without the Bishops dispesnation and suspension the pain of people of holy Church so called giving above 5. or 6. Marks wages a year to a Parish Priest they was to pay the doubble of that which they gave more to any parish priest then 5. or 6. Marks wages in the yeare and it was to be converted to the use of Almes at the arbitrement of the Diocesan c Anno. 36. Ed. 3. Chap. 8. or from the constitution and decretall epistle of the Pope c. For the ministers of Christ had no command to take Tythes nor hundreds a yeare for preaching the Gospel but freely they received and freely they gave according to Christs command And I read in the law of England that Tythes after the Apostles time were free for the people was not bound to pay them so farr as I see till the Councell of Lateran in Pope Innocents time and then by his constitution and decretall epistle c. the Tythes it seems became bound c. and were to be paid by the subjects of the Realm and so came Parochiall rights as they call them c. to the Priests or Patrons of the Churches so called Then it is cleare to me that you have your ground to take Tythes and maintenance of the World for preaching c. not from the Apostles practice and order but from the Popes c. And that mist of Popish darknesse is not so farr dispelled or expelled from you as to cause you to forsake the Popes Constitutions or your Tythes and maisteries and follow the example of the Apostles and Ministers of Christ and to leave your Miscarriages great parsonages and give over wronging God and men for your own ends and to deny your selves and your preaching for filthy lucre and cease bearing rule by your meanes And if any of you receive the word and command from God become servant to all and minister freely as the ministers of the Gospel who dwelt dwell in the Light do afore-time did but before you do so you must turn from the broad way where the Lust Pride Pompe Covetousnesse earthly-mindednesse and vain glory of the world hath so much liberty in you and cease persecution take up the crosse to your wills Learn to know the bridle for your tongues And let the Issue of lyes and slanders be stopped c. that the stone may be set upon the neck and head of deceit Cook in his second part Institutes saith Before the Councell of Hateran Tythes were free or then any man might have given his Tythes to what spirituall person he would and it was provided at the Councell of Laterean c. that Tythes c. should be given to the Rector or Parson of the parish c. under pretence that he that gave spiritual food should reap temporal so farr as I gather see Cookes second part Institute about fol. 641. Here the Popes and their Priests Rectors c. it seemes like you they could call themselves spirituall men and Ministers Rectors c. as you do and they claimed or took Tythes and publick maintenance under pretence of Ministring spirituall things as
you and their off spring from that succession now do when they was carnally minded c. as you are And Tythes by a decretall epistle of Pope Innocent the 3. dated at Lateran directed to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury c. in or about the yeare 1200. It is said by Cook that then Tythes became lex terrae and the subject became bound to pay them c. Cook saiths that of Antient time before a new Constitution made by the Pope the patron of one Church might grant his Tythes to another parish and saith Cook second part Institutes thus began portion of Tythes that the parson of one parish hath in another vide Concilium Leteran Anno Domini 12 15.17 of Jo. regis So that Tythes it seems were free for any man to give c. till the time of Pope Innocent and were they not then divided into portions to the Priests and Rectors c. from Pope Innocent the 3 For since saith Cook that which is called parochiall right of Tythes were established c. And Pope Innocent by his Bull discharged those of the order of Praemonstratenses of the payment of Tythes of such lands as were of their own manurance or other Improvement and Pope Adrian the 4. said all Orders should pay tythes c. And so it appeares Tythes sprang up the second time by one Pope and so from one to another and did not they spring from the Popes to the Bishops Rectors and those parish Priests Consider well of it and see if you know your succession And had not the Popes the ordering and rule amongst Tythes and other things till the time of King Henry 2 Hen. 4.28 Hen. 8. Chap. 16 for saith Cook by the statute of Henry 4. not only Cisterciences but all other religious and seculars which put any of the Popes bulls in execution for discharge of Tythes of their lands in the hands of their farmers should be in danger of a praemunire as saith Cook second part Institures And by the statute of the 28. of Henry the 8. Chap. 16. saith Cook there it is Enacted that all Bulls Brieffes Faculties Dispensations of what names natures or qualities whatsoever they be of had or obtained from the Pope or Bishop of Rome or any of his predecessors or by authority of the See of Rome c. should from thence forth by that Act be clearly void and never after that to be used admitted or pleaded in any places or Courts of this Realm as they had been c. or any other the Kings Dominions upon pain contained in the statute of praemunire c. See Cookes second part Institute Fol. 641. and 652. c. And doth it not appeare hereby that the Pope c. that had begot Tythes by his constitution to be distributed into parishes by his decretall epistle and councell c. were himself thrust out of those Parochiall rights of tythes as he called them which he had begot and by his constitution and councell brought forth c. And as the Pope was thrust out of Tythes c. in England did not the Bishops Priests Pastors Teachers Rectors c. their off-spring from that root enter in their stead and was not they let into the same And being grafted or let in did not they take the Popes places and rewards at the hands of him that disinherited them viz the Popes c. Consider and see where you are And was not the Bishops Priest Pastors Teachers and Rectors c. adorned or endowed by Hen. the 8 c. with honours and possessions or with the Popes ornaments viz. Tythes oblations obventions c. And was they not said to be given to God and holy Church c. and to keep them from corruption and sinister affection c. 24. of Henry the 8.12 Cap. And seeing that Tythes c. by the lawes and statutes of this Nation were said to be given to God and holy Church c. And being that both by God the holy Church Tythes are denied as the Scripture under the Gospel dispensation doth witnesse And seeing that the called Church of England the body spirituall as they call it and by them called the spirituality who receive Tythes are now found to be unholy and not being free from corruption but pleads for sin and so for corrption for tearm of life c. and sinister affection and stands in need of the worlds honours and possessions to keep them which rather corupts them the more and cannot nor doth not keep them from corruption and sinister affection for which end they viz. Tythes c. are said to be given as by the statute of Henry the 8. it appeareth therefore by the lawes and statutes of England it is cleare to me that the called Priests Ministers Preachers Rectors c. which names you bear who are unholy and corrupt c. have no right to Tythes c. for by the lawes of the Nation they are said to be given to holy Church c. and you are unholy that are in miscarriages and neglecters of the great work of God as you say and are mongers both of men and of Christ growing worse and running yet further from God therefore you are unholy and corrupt and are not running for God that runnes further from him as you say and so are cut out of Tythes his ministry by your own rule and confessions c. And now stop your mouthes and do not cry up your selves to be ministers of Christ and neither pleade for old Levi his right that neglects his work Nor for any of the Saints priviledges Nor for Tythes from the law of the land till you come out of Miscarriages and give over wronging Christ and men and become holy free from corruption and sinister affection 2 Tim. 3.11 12. Heb. 11.36 37 38. c. And as you come off from the old rotten root and out of the old nature and be born again c. when you are made Christs Ministers you will deny your Tythes and maisteries and be content with what he sees meet for you and instead of persecuting be persecuted and suffer of the world and that generation which you are yet in union with as the Ministers of Christ do now and aforetime did Whose approbation c. was not of the men of the world but of God 2 Cor. 6.1 2 3 4 5 6. 2. Cor. 11.23 24 25. c. And as you are neglecters of the work of God page 3. and your selves in the Miscarriages unpardoned page 4. your hearers can scarce speake a word of sence about the matters of salvation 1. Thes 1.1 1 Thes 1.1 and you are wrongers both of them and of Christ page 19. So you say there are many untaught Children and families page 29. Therefore you make it manifest that you are unholy and corrupt and that you are not the holy Church who are unholy and profain teachers and people and therefore have no right to that which is
for dead minds to feed on which will neither kill sin nor quicken the soul and so your dead Catechismes will work as little effect as your dead Sermons have done and that is so little and as you say that people are so ignorant that they can scarse speak a word of sence abort matters of salvation and how should untaught teachers teach to perfect who manifest you are not sent of God that are as you say in the third Answer of your Catechisme you say you are by nature dead in sin and therefore not quickened by grace for they that are quickened are not dead but you are not quickened and so dead but those the Lord sends he quickens before he send them but you are not quickened and therefore not sent who are Children of wrath and naturally are as you say in the present time dead in sin so servants to divers lusts and pleasures and from thence proceeds miscarriages and persecution wrong to Christ and men which are the fruits of wrath and disobedience and how should it be otherwise whil'st you continue therein seeing you are naturally dead in sin and so the naturall men who knowes not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14.15 neither do you receive them because they are spiritually discerned and that is known after quickening for they that are quickened by grace discernes in the gift Eph 1.4 5 6. 1 Joh. 5.20 whereby they understand salvation and happinesse therefore saith the Apostle to such as were quickened and knew the salvation By grace you hath he quickened who were dead in sin and are raised up together and made to sit with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places who gave them an understanding to know the same that wore so quickened and knew the matters of salvation which you and your hearers are ignorant of which things are known after quickening but you are not quickened and therefore to you they are not known but as you say in your third answer you are not only dead in sin but you are prone to do more evill continually and so are Children of wrath and servants of divers lusts as is afore said and so growing worse then where is your amendment ye flatterers and hypocrits that do not grow only worse and worse but you say you depart further from God also And I say â—hat needs not to be for you are far enough from him allready that are dead in sin wronging Christ and men living in Miscarriages promising amendment and yet sayes you grow worse and so are of those that oppose themselves saying and unsaying confuting and contradicting your own sayings in your Agreement and growing worse and running further from God Jer. 5.27 28 29 30 31. Jer. 6.13 14 15. you must needs be of those that turns the grace of God into lasciviousnesse Jude 4. and of them that runs further from Goodnesse into Miscarriages and wickednesse Jer. 5.25 And so dead men cannot quicken and how should they that run from God lead unto God but you run further from God as you say then how can you lead unto God And how should they that live in Miscarriages grow worse lead others out of them into the truth to grow in grace so become better but you live in miscarriages and grow worse as your selves confesse in your Agreement and your fruits make manifest who are naturally dead in sin c. And how should the blind and dead lead others into the way of truth and into the life thereof that are out of it themselves as you are and how should you lead others from under the curse whil'st you are in the fall under the wrath c. and how should you turn people from darknesse and from the power of Satan that are yet in and under the same according to your third Answer And how should you be examples and leaders of others to come out of the Miscarriages and evill who your selves are in the miscarriages and prone you say to do more evil continually and to grow worse and depart yet further from God and then whilst you are doing that and departing from him you are not amending not yet leading to him and therefore you are very unfit to disciple the undiscipled and to be leaders of others from evill unto good that are your selves dead in sin and not alive in grace being in the self-separation and in Miscarriages continually prone to do mere evill and grow worse and depart further from God therefore you are very unfit to lead out of the evil unto God and that is the cause your people are so Ignorant as you say and in sin unturned to God because their teachers are so and the Scripture fulfilled which saith like Priest like people Hos 4.9 Whose teachers instead of turning to God run further from him and therefore you being untaught to come out of Miscarriages c. and abide not in the Doctrin of Christ are very unfit to teach others the way of God or lead into the covenant of lite and as you say you grow worse continually it appeares so by your fruits daily your actions doth declare it as well as your words but how should it be otherwise whilst you continue therein and run on in the same seeing as you say you yet depart further from God and so from grace and goodness into persecution and your Miscarriages c. And are you not under that saying of the Prophet like such that are greivous revolters Jer. 6.28 30 walking with slanders where lie saith Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them who trusted in lying words and were given to wickednesse and though they said The temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord they did not amend their wayes and their doings but lived in oppression Wrath Envy and the Miscarriages growing worse and worse and ran further from God tor they neither obeyed the voice of the Lord nor received correction truth was perished and cut off from their mouthes as appeares by the saying of the prophet Jer. 7. Chap. Jer. 7. Chap. For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousnesse and from the Prophet unto the Priest every one doth falsely Jer. 6.13 Like such as you who live in miscarriages growing worse and prone to do more evil continually and running further from God as your Agreement doth witnesse against you therefore thus saith the Lord I will lay stumbling blocks before this people and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them and the neighbour and his friend shall perish Jer. 6.20 And in your fourth Answer you tell of Gods love and giving his onely son to be a redeemer c. I answer yea so he did though you be Ignorant of it that are dead in sins and not quickened then not redeemed yet such as are quickned and taught by him to come out of Miscarriages and out of the
to God who scarse can speak a word of sence as in your accusation against them you say about the matters of Salvation and you are the wrongers of Christ and them page the 19. who ate dead in sin and prone to do more evil continually promising amendment but instead of amending are accusing your selves and sayes you grow worse and depart yet further from God Answer the third of your Catechisme therefore you do not truly repent that doth not heartily return out of your Miscarriages and from the flesh and the world unto God then you do not believe nor receive Christ by an effectuall faith who are turned wrongers of him and therefore in not loving the good and forsaking the evil to turn out of your Miscarriages and from the world unto God you that are wrongers of men and him and lives in such disobedience you are not doing all that which your selves say is to be done the which being neglected and undone is cause of damnation then are not you in that condition consider of it that neglects the work of God and leaves it undone and instead of doing it continues in your miscarriages the works of the Devill growing worse as you say and are running further from God therefore you are not running for him nor doing his work take notice of that And if your people get the words which you set them to get will those sayings bring them into the effectuall faith and out of their Miscarriages unto repentance and throughly to forsake the Devill the World the Flesh and heartily turn them therefrom unto God c Or may not an Hypocrite and a dissembler get the words to say over and for all that remain an Hypocrite and a dissembler still and so be a child of the Devill and if you and they get the words to repeate or say over and tell of forsaking the Devill the World and the Flesh and of turning from them unto God and do not turne from them unto him nor come out of Miscarriages but grow worse doing wrong to men and Christ as you do who are also running further from God c. saying in words and faigned flatteries they will turn from the evil to the good c. and do not forsake the Devill the World the Flesh Joh. 8.34 Math. 23.14 16 but refuses to turn from them unto God are not such Hypocrits and Dissemblers who are sayers and not doers And are not such three-fold more the servants of sin and children of the Devill consider of it and deceive not your selves with shewes and pretences flatteries colourable glosses And do not you both tell the tale and give the answer and must not the people be bound by you to say as you say and speak your condition whether they be so or no for you speaking your own conditions saying you are dead in sin continually prone to evil growing worse yet runing further from God you would have all others to be or say so if they be not so but if they through the experience of grace and goodnesse received from God make reply and say we are quickened by grace and are growing in the same having received Christ by an effectual faith which purifieth our hearts and therefore we have forsaken the Devill the World and the Flesh and are unfainedly turned from them unto God and being born of God 1 Pet. 1.22.23 and guided by his Spirit we are made the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 and so are heirs of Salvation Rom. 8.14 and are made pertakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in light for which we give thanks unto the Father who made us meet to be pertakers thereof Col. 1.14 and are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect and as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord so we walk in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as we have been taught Heb. 12.22 23. Col. 2.6 7. Col. 1.3 9 10. verses a-abounding therein with thanksgiving in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge for in him dwelleth all the fullnesse of the God-head bodily and the Saints are compleat in him who is the head of all principality and powers as the Scripture witnesseth and if they say so and say they witnesse with them would you not call such hereticks and say it were delusion or blasphemy and the like c And do not you in your Catechisme preach up the same in words as the condition of the obedient c. and if any witness the same condition which you tell them of and say I am a Son of God and heir of Salvation grow in perfection say you are out of the life of what you exhort to but are as you confesse wrongers of Christ neglecters of his work and therefore have not received him by the effectual faith neither have you forsaken the Devill that lives in perfection nor the flesh that are in Miscarriages nor the world that are prone to do evil and growing worse continually neither are you heartily nor in the least me a sure turned from them unto God who are as you say running yet further from him and therefore running from him are not sent of him and so cannot profit the people at all and in disobeying his law and wronging of him in wronging his Son and being still in the Miscarriages and growing worse c. you are not doing what you say is to be done upon pain of damnation and therefore not doing it but neglecting and leaving the same undone may it not be concluded from your own words being found in the neglect that you are for the damnation you speak of in your Agreement but would you not persecure them which witnesse the same in life and power which you speak of as the condition of the obedient who are Sons of God c. and tell you that you are out of the life of the same and are neither Sons nor Servants of God but wrongers of him and his who are in your Miscarriages and growing worse c. To speak Truth against deceit is no rayling And this is but according to what your selves say who are witnesses against your selves both accusing your selves your people in that called your Agreement who have fully laid open your deceit if you did but see it but is not the Serpent now as blind as ever he was Ignorant in the things of the Spirit of God Joh. 8.44 doth not well know his Fathers work and what he bringeth forth who assumed to call Abraham his Father when Christ sharply reproved him for it and said to the Serpents seed You are of your Father the Devill and his works you will do yet though he so said he did neither rail not revile neither were his sayings un Gospel like being thereunto guided by a Gospel-Spirit yet you will be ready to call that railing which is in reproofe to your deceit which