by such sad divisions whereby their cheerfulness in his Love and service would be abated and forreign Enemies would be encouraged to attempts against our peace and safety and if ever they should invade us it maketh me tremble to think how our divisions would debilitate us and hazard all our common security and hopes Yea how uncomfortable a thing it must needs be to the King to rule such a divided people that live in a heart-war among themselves in comparison of ruling a loving and concordant sort of men In a word I knew that a house or Kingdom divided against it self would not stand And though I could not make the Bishops believe me I knew that divisions lamentable divisions were like to be the consequent of the things which then I so importunately petitioned and intreated them to forbear I knâ—w it for I could not choose but knâ—w it And for these reasons I wrote I pleaded I earnestly contended with them as I did while there appeared any hope as being loth to have seen the things which I have already seen and God knoweth to how much worse we are going if Grace and Wisdom yet prevent it not And though I exasperated the sore which I would have cured and have ever since my self lain under their displeasure yet I have peace in the testimony of my Conscience that I did my best to have prevented our miseries while I had time 2. And I would give notice to the other party that whilst I pleaded for their liberty and against the Imposing of unnecessary things I took not all the things in question for unlawful to be done which I thought unlawful to be made necessary to our Communion or Ministration All knew that my judgement ever was for the lawfulness of kneeling at the Sacrament especially since the Rubrick is inserted which disclaimeth both all Bread Worship and the Bodily real presence And we all as is said thought a Liturgie lawful and when we wrote our Reply to the Answer of our Exceptions we said these words which may tell you whether I change my mind and what was then our common sense pag. 3. While we took it to be a defective disorderly and inconvenient Mode of Worship it would be our sin to use it of choice while we may prefer a more convenient way whatever we ought to do in case of necessity when we must worship God inconveniently or not at all And pag. 12 13. What if it be only proved unlawful for you to impose it though not for others to joyn with you when you do impose it Is this no reason 〈◊〉 alter it Should you not have some care to avoid sin your selves as well as to preserve others from it An inconvenient Mode of Worship is a sin in the Impâ—ser and in the Chooser and Voluntary user that may offer God better and will not And yet it may not be only lawful but a duty to him that by violence is necessitated to offer up that or none By this you may see what we all thought then of not only hearing but reading a defective Liturgie in such a case If you say that this was but my own Opinion I answer Though as they wrote the particular Exceptions without me so I wrote this Defence of them by their appointment yet it was examined and consented to by the rest who were not men apt to take things on trust nor to be impâ—sed on by such a one as me When this Treaty was frustrate and the torrent of displeasure came upon us which reached me with the first I saw also that the storm of mens passions and discontents would quickly follow And therefore according to my own judgement and advice to others I endeavoured to practise my self that is neither to forsake my Calling or omit any service I could do for the Church nor yet to do it in a turbulent and unpeaceable or dividing way For the first I thought writing was my greatest work which made me not travail abroad to Preach which also weakness disabled me from doing But yet I never to my remembrance either forbad any from coming to my house nor ever invited any to hear me I had no Pastoral Charge in London nor could I live there with my health My judgement was that though so many hundred Ministers were silenced and too many Congregations had such as were to us matter of grief yet the Interest of the Christian Protestant Religion in England must be much kept up by keeping up as much of Truth Piety and Reputation as was possible in the Parish Churches Therefore I never laboured or disputed to make any Minister a Non-conformist unless he came to me and by desiring my judgement made it my duty Though I oft openly professed that if I conformed my self to what is required of a Minister I should take it to be no little or single sin I remembred the saying of Mr. Dod who thanked God for the Churches sake that some conformed and for the Truths sake that some conformed not I resolved that if I lived where was an intolerable Minister I would not hear him nor come near him so as to encourage him in his sinful undertaking of that Sacred Office But if I lived under an able worthy or tolerable man I would joyn with him in publick constantly if I had not caeteris paribus the liberty of better and sometimes if I had And I would help him by my private labours as well as I could and live with him in Unity and Peace Accordingly I constantly joyned in the publick Prayers and hearing at the Parish Church where I lived having no better that I could go to and never Preached to my family but between the times of publick Worship and the people that came in to me wenâ— with me to the publick Worship In all this time many persons importuned me to indeavour that all Non-conformists might agree in one by what measures to walk as to their Communion with the Parish Churches and such other things for many reasons And I ever shanned all such attempts 1. Because it is the way that we have blamed so much in others to make narrow measures for other mens practices and unnecessary terms of Brotherly Concord We must unite as Christians in necessary things and if one man can e. g. kneel at the Sacrament and another cannot if one can joyn in Common-prayer and another cannot yea if one can Conform to the Liturgie and Ceremonies and another cannot it must not break our unity or peace 2. Because that Non-conformists are not all of the same judgement in every particular among themselves And how can they then agree upon the same practice in every point If they should either the most scrupulous must come up to them that think that lawful which they scruple or else the later must come to the former If they yield that think the things unlawful and do as the others do they shall sin And then they might as well Conform And
a word which never was 15. It will have a confounding influence into all the affairs and business of our lives 16. Lastly It will affright poor people from Scripture and Religion and make us our Doctrine and Worship ridiculous in the â—ight of all the world The Doctrine which we hear maintained which hath no better fruits than these must be avoided as well as the contrary extream which would indeed charge the Law of God with imperfection and cause man to usurp the part of Christ. And we must first know How far God made the Scripture for our Rule and then we must maintain its sufficiency and perfection II. Also on that extream we must do nothing to countenance those Practices which tend to alienate Christians hearts from one another and to keep up Church-Wars or to feed bitter censures scorns and reproaches And we that must not scandalize the Religious sort must avoid all that thus tempteth them which is the real scandal But of this I have said enough in the Book which I am now defending Part II. An ANSWER to the Untrue and unjust Exceptions OF THE ANTIDOTE Against my TREATISE for LOVE and UNITY DEar Brother for so I will call you whether you will or not the chief trouble that I am put to in answering your Exceptions next to that of my grief for the Churches and your self by reason of such Diagnosticks of your Malady is the naming of your manifold Untruths in matter of fact It is it seems no fault in your eyes to commit them but I fear you will account it unpardonable bitterness in me to tell you that you have committed them If I call them Mistakes the Reader will not know by that name whether it be mistakes in point of Fact or of Reason And Lies I will not call them because it is a provoking word Therefore Untruths must be the middle title EXCEPT I. Page 1. Tâ—e whole dâ—sâ—â—n of this Book being â—â— make such as at this day are carefull to kâ—â—â— themselves Pure from alâ— defilements in False worship Odiâ—us it may well be affirmed iâ— was neither seasonable nâ—r hâ—nest Answ. THat 's the fundamental Untruth which animateth all the râ—â—â— when 〈◊〉 had got a false apprehension of the design of the Book you seem to expound the particular passages by that Key That which you call The whole design is not any part of the design but is expresly and vehemently oft disclaimed and protested against in the Book And whoever readeth it without a Partial mind will presently sâ—â— that the whole design of the Book is to deliver weak Christians from such mistakes and sins as destroy their Love to other Christians and cause the divisions among the Churches 2. False worship is a word of various sensâ—â— Either it signifieth 1. Idolatry in worshipping a false God 2. Or the Idolatrous worshipping of Images as representations of the true God 3. Or worshipping God by Doctrines and Prayers that consist oâ— falshoods 4. Or devising Worship-Ordinances and falsly saying they are the Ordinances of God 5. Or making God a Worship which he forbiddeth in the subâ—â—anâ—e and will not accept 6. Or worshipping God in an inward sinful manner through false principles and ends as hypocrites do 7. Or in a sinful outward manner through disorder defectiveness and unhandsome or unfit expreâ—â—ions Oâ— these I suppose you will not charge the Churches you separate from as guilty of the first second fourth or sixth which is out of the reach of humane judgment For I suppose you to be sober As for the third through Gods great mercie the Doctrine of England is so â—ound that the Independants and Presbyterians have still offered to subscribe to it in the 39 Articles according to which if there were any doubtfulness in the phrases of their Prayers they are to be interpreted For the fifth if you accuse them of it you must prove it which is not yet done supposing that you take not Government for Worshipâ— nor can you do it So that it must lie only on the seventh And for that if you will take the word false-false-worship in that sense do not you also worship God falsly when you worship him sinfully And are not your disorders and unmeet expressions sins as well as theirs Alas how oft have I joyned in Prayer with honest men that have spoken confusedly unhandsomly and many waies more unaptly and disorderly than the Common Prayer is How oft have I heard good old Mr. Simeon Ash say that he hath heard many Ministers pray so unfitly that he could heartily have wished that they had rather used the Common Prayer When did any one of us pray without sin How ordinarily do Anabaptists Antinomians Arminians Separatists c. put their Opinions into their Prayers and so make them false Prayers and so false Worship Nay could you lay by partiality and knâ—w your self a very hard thing you would presently see that you who wrote these Exceptions are liker to Worship God falsly than they that do it by the Liturgie that is in the third sense Because the Doctrine of the Prayers in the Liturgie is sound but if you account this Script of yours to be Worship and why not writing as well as preaching or if you put the same things into your Worship which you put into your writings as is very usual with others then it is false Worship indeed as consisting of too many falshoods If you pray to God to encline men against all that Communion which you write against or lament such Communion as a sin this is falser worship than any is in the Liturgick Prayers And if you will call all those modes of worship false which God in Scripture hath not commanded what a false worshipper are you that use a translation of Scripture a Version and tunes of Psalms a dividing the Scripture into Chapters and Verses yea the Method and words of every Sermon and Prayer or most and abundance such like which God commanded not God never bid you use the words of Prayer in the Liturgie Nor did he ever bid you use those which you used last without it O Brother if you knew your self and judged impartially you would see that whatever you say against mens communicating with other mens tolerable failings as false worship may be as stronglie urged for avoiding communion in disordered prayers that are without book and much more in the prayers of honest erroneous Separatists Anabaptists Antinomians c. which yet for my part I will not so easily avoid I confess if my judgment were not more than yours against dividing from each other in the general I should be one that should be as forward to disclaim Communion with many zealous Parties now received by you and that as false worshippers as you are to disclaim Communion with others I am sure you worship God falsly that is sinfully every time that you worship him 3. But seeing my Book disswadeth you equally from unjust avoiding Communion
confess to you brother that though I once hoped that we should have been great gainers by our sufferings the fruit of them now appeareth to me to be such in many as maketh me more afraid of imprisonment for the sake of my soul than of my body lest it should stir up that passion which should bear down my judgement into some errors and extreams and corrupt and destroy my Love to them by whom I suffer And truly Brother I am fully convinced that many that think their sufferings are their glory and prove them better men than others are lamentably lost and overcome by their sufferings I think your companion and you are no gainers by it who presently by preaching and writing thus bring water to the extinguishing of Christian Love I think those two Gentlemen before mentioned that turned Quakers in prison and left their Religion as many more have done were losers by it And I think many thousands in these times that are driven into various errors and extreams and have lost their charity to adversaries and dissenters have lost a thousand times more than their liberties and money comes to Woe be to the World because of offences And woe be to them by whom offence cometh Experience of too many maketh me less in love with sufferings than I have been And to think that the quiet and peaceable preaching of the Gospel though under many other disadvantages if God would grant it us would be better for our own souls EXCEPT XIX Answered You proceed But Mr. B. being once got into the chair of the scornful will not easily out and therefore goes on It is an odious sound to hear an ignorant rash self-conceited person especially a Preacher to cry out Idolatry Idolatry against his brethrens prayers to God because they have something in them to be amended Whereas we do not therefore think any thing to be guilty of Idolatry because it hath something in it to be amended but because it is used in the worship of God without any command of God to make it lawful And this we must tell our Dictator is a species of Idolatry and forbid in the second Commandement And if he will not receive it so it is to use his own arrogant and imperious words because he understands not Christian sense and reason Answ. 1. The charge of Idolatry against the Liturgie and Conformable Ministers I found in Iohn Goodwins book and Mr. Brownes and others But this Brother carrieth it much further 2. He contradicteth himself in his Negation and Affirmation For whatsoever is to be amended which is used in Gods worship hath no command of God to make it lawful For it is sin But whatsoever is used in Gods worship without any command of God to make it lawful he affirmeth to be Idolatry Ergo whatsoever is used in Gods worship which is to be amended he maketh to be Idolatry 3. Reader if this one Section do not make thy heart grieve for the sake of the Church of Christ that our poor people should be thus taught and our Congregations thus distracted and unholyness that is uncharitableness fathered upon the God of Love and our sufferings and non-conformity thus turned to our reproach and wrath and reviling pretended to be Religion thou hast not a true sense of the concernments of Christianity and the souls of men I shall propose here these few things to thy consideration Quest. 1. Whether an Idolater be not an odious person and unfit for Christian Communion That these men think so their practise sheweth Q. 2. Whether he that writeth and preacheth to prove others Idolaters do not write and preach to make them so far seem odious and to perswade men from loving them and having communion with them as Christians Q. 3. Whether he that preacheth up hatred causelesly and preacheth down Christian love do not preach down the sum of true Religion and preach against God who is Love Q. 4. Whether preaching against God and Religion be not worse than talking against it in an Ale-house or in prophane discourse And fathering all this on God and Religion be not a sad aggravation of it Q. 5. Whether this brother that affirmeth this to be Idolatry that he speaketh against should not have given us some word of proof especially where he calleth me that deny it a Dictator And whether both as Affirmer among Logicians and as Accuser among men of justice the proof be not incumbent on him Q. 6. Whether here be a syllable of proof but his angry affirmation Q. 7. Whether thou canst receive this saying of his if thou have Christian sense and reason so far as to believe that all the Churches of Christ fore-named the Greek the Abissine the Armenian the Coptics the Lutherans and all the Reformed Churches that fall under his Charge are Idolaters And couldst bring thy heart accordingly to condemn them and separate from them And whether thou canst take all the holy Conformists of England such as Bolton Preston Sibbes Stocke Dike Elton Crooke Whateley Fenner c. for Idolaters yea and all the non-Conformists that used and joyned in the Liturgie Q. 8. Whether thou canst believe that this same brother himself that writeth at this rate do use nothing in Gods worship which hath no command of God to make it lawful Is all this reviling all this false doctrine all his untruths commanded of God Or doth he not make himself an Idolater Q. 9. Whether if he teach true doctrine there by any Church or person in the World that worshippeth not God with Idolatry I give my reasons 1. There is no one but sinneth or useth sin in the worship of God But no sin is commanded or lawful Ergo there is no one according to his doctrine but useth Idolatry in the worship of God 2. There is no one that useth not some things not commanded to make them lawful in the worship of God Therefore if he teach true doctrine there is no one but useth Idolatry The antecedent I have oft proved by many instances The method of every Sermon and Prayer the words the time and length the translation of the Scripture whether it shall be this or that the dividing of the Scripture into Chapters and Verses the Meeter of Psalms the Tunes Church utensils Sermon notes which some use Catechisms in forms c. the Printing of the Bible or any other books c. none of these are commanded And all these are used in the worship of God And must all Christians in the World be taught to fly from one another as Idolaters Is this the way of Love and Unity Q. 10. Why should this brother be so extream impatient with me for calling Dividers weak and pievish and censorious Christians If in his own judgement all men be Idolaters that use any thing in Gods worship not commanded Is not this to censure all men as Idolaters And yet is a censure of previshness on these Censurers a justifying of persecution Q.
11. Whether this kind of talk be not sport to the Papists to hear us call one another Idolaters as well as them and do not make them deride us and harden them in their bread-worship and image-worship as being called Idolatry on no better grounds than we so call one another Q. 12. Whether it be not a great dishonour to any man to suffer silencing because he cannot add to Gods worship the Ceremonies and Liturgie and at the same time to add to Gods word new and false doctrines of our own by saying that It is a species of Idolatry forbidden in the second Command because it is used in the worship of God without any command to make it lawful And if we should suffer such false doctrine and additions and Love-killing dividing principlesas this to go uncontradicted whether we do not betray the truth and our flocks and shew that we were too worthy of our sufferings But that this assertion or definition of Idolatry is false I need to prove no otherwise than 1. That it is unproved by him that is to prove it and 2. That it denieth Christ to have a Church on earth or to have any but Churches of Idolaters 3. That it turneth all sin in Gods worship into one species even Idolatry And so every false doctrine used in Gods worship is Idolatry Every Antimonian Anabaptist Separatist or of any other error be it never so small must be presently an Idolater if in prayer or preaching he speak his error And what man is infallible When your Companion promised in the Pulpit that there should be no more Tythes no more Taxes nor no more King in Worcestershire after Worcester-Fight this must be Idolatry For certainly no error is commanded of God 4. That it maketh the description of a thing indifferent to be the description of Idolatry For as a thing forbidden is the description of sin so to be not commanded speaketh no more but Indifferency Though the prohibition to do any thing not commanded speaketh more if it could be proved 5. It is contrary to the Scripture which never useth the word IDOLATRY in that sense Peruse the several texts and try 6. It equalleth almost all Churches with the Infidel and Pagan World 7. It heinously injureth God who is a hater of Idolaters and will visit their sins as God-haters on the third and fourth Generations to feign him to be thus a hater of his Churches and of them that use any thing in his worship not commanded 8. It tendeth to drive all Christians to despair as being Idolaters and so abhorred of God because they have all some uncommanded yea forbidden thing in worship For by this mans doctrine a sinful wandring thought a sinful disorder or tautologie or bad expression is Idolatry as being not commanded 9. It tendeth to drive men to give ever worshipping God because while they are certain to sin they are certain to be Idolaters when they have done their best 10. It hardeneth the Mahometans in their enmity to Christianity who being the great exclaimers against Idolatry do already falsely brand us with that crime But what ever else it do I am sure it is so pernicious an engine of Satan to kill Love and divide the Church to feign every Conformist how holy soever and every one that useth in worship any thing not commanded to be an Idolater that I may well advise all Christians as they love Christ and his Church and their own souls to keep themselves from such mistakes Were it not that it is unmeet to do great works â—â—rily on such slight occasions in such a discourse as this is I would here stay to open the meaning of the second Commandement and shew 1. That there are abundance of lawful things in Gods worship as circumstances and outward modes that are not commanded in specie or individuo 2. That somethings forbidden in that Commandement indirectly are not Idolatry 3. Much less are they a sufficient cause of separation But this is fitter for another place And I again refer you to Mr. Lawson in his Theopolitica EXCEPT XX. Answered This Exception is but a bundle of mistakes and the fruit of your false interpretation of my design 1. That I prove not what I say is not true when the many instances fully prove it and you your self deny them not 2. When I explain my self frequently and fully who I do not mean by Dividers and what separation I allow you feign me to open my mind very unwillingly and to defend those whom I traduce that you may make men believe that I mean those whom I still profess that I mean not and that you know my mind better than I my self This is not true and righteous dealing EXCEPT XXI p. 12. Answered When I say Our presence at the prayers of the Church is no profession of Consent to all that is faulty in those prayers he saith The Apostle thought otherwise in a like â—ase of sitting at meat in an Idols Temple Answ. Brother of all the men that ever I had to do with scarce any hath dealt so superficially without saying any thing against the proofs which I lay down noâ— seeming to take any notice of them How can you choose but see your self that by denying my proposition 1. You make it unlawful to joyne with any Church or person in the World and so would dissolve all Church-Communion and Family-worship For do not all men sin in prayer And must any man consent to sin 2. How do you reflect on God that forbiddeth us to forsake the assembling of our selves together If consenting to sin be unavoidable 3. I told you we Consent not to the faults of our own prayers much less to anothers that are less in our power What work would this one opinion of yours make in the World If we are guilty of all that is faulty in all the prayers of the Church or Family we joyn with yea more do by our presence profess Consent to them and withal if all not commanded in worship be Idolatry what a World are we then in It 's time then to turn seekers and say that Church and Ministry are lost It is these principles brother that I purposely wrote my book against But you speak much besides the truth when you say The Apostle thought otherwise in a like Case For you never prove that he thought otherwise Dare you say I beseech you think on it that Paul and all the Apostles and all the Churches professed consent to all the faults in worship which they were present at How know you that they were never present at any such as Paul reproveth in the Corinthians Yea was Christ a professed Consenter to all that he was present at Or all that he commanded men to be present at when he went to the Synagogues and bade the cleansed go shew themselves to the Priests and offer c. And bade his Disciples hear the Scribes and Pharisees c. I do not charge the
the Cause But that our hearts may yet more relent in this sad condition of the seduced let us hear the following words Besides saith he we cannot understand the meaning of such phrases as dull Christians Ignorant and injudicious Christians For whoever are Christians indeed have received an anointing by which they know all things 1 Joh. 2. 20. 27. And should not have such vile Epithets affixed to them which only â—â—nd to expose even Christianity it self as if it did not cure those that sincerely imbraced it of their Ignorance and Injudiciousness Answ. It is no disgrace to Christianity that it is set off by the presence of Ignorance and Injudiciousness As sickness maketh us know the worth of health Nor is it long of life or health that doleful diseases remain yet uncured For were it not for them instead of diseases there would be death It is Godliness and Christianity which bringeth that Light and Health into the World that is in it And men are not ignorant and bad because they are Christians and Religious but because they are not better Christians and more Religious Perfect Christianity would make men perfectly judicious The weakest true Christian exceedeth the Learnedst Ungodly Doctor even in judgement and knowledge Because he practically and powerfully knoweth that God is God and to be preferred in honour obedience and love before all the World and that Christ is Christ and to be believed in for Justification and Salvation And that the Holy Spirit is his Advocate and our Quickener Illuminater and Sanctifier to be believed and obeyed and that there is a Life of Happiness to be hoped for which is better than all the pleasures of sin and the felicity of worldlings In a word they have a real though imperfect understanding of the Baptismal Covenant and of the Creed or Symbole of Christian Faith And this is a great and noble knowledge and Cure of them that were lately ignorant of all these things and were led Captive â—y the Prince of darkness at his will If the Reader that would see the difference will peruse my small Tractate of Catholick Unity he may be informed of it But yet is there no such thing as Ignorant dull injudicious Christians because they know all things Must we not use such phrases and Epithetes because Christianity cureth them Dear brother I have no mind to make you odious nor to open your sin to others But you have opened it to the World and I must open it to you if possibly you may repent But especially I am bound to try to save mens souls from this perilous deceit And therefâ—â—â— I shall prove to you that there are such 〈…〉 and ignorant and injudicious Christians And 2. I shall tell you the greatness of your error and sin That there are such is proved 1. By the words of Scripture Heb. 5. 11 12 13 14. Seeing yee are dull of hearing For when for the time yee ought to be teachers yee have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat For every one that useth milk is unskilfull or unperienced in the word of Righteousness for he is a babe But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil 1 Tim. 3. 6. Not a novice lest being lifted up with Pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil The verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is otherwise by our Translators in the margin turned besotted And Strigelius saith that it signifieth not only puffed up but one crack'd brain'd and phanatick And Lyserus saith of the same word 2 Tim. 3. 4. translated High minded that it answereth an Hebrew word which signifyeth to be dark and not to shine clearly which Leigh reciteth See Martinius de Typho 1. Cor. 3. 1 2 3 4. And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto Spiritual but as unto Carnal as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk and not with meat For hitherto yee w 〈…〉 t able to bear it neither yet now are yee able For yee are yet Carnal For whereas there is among you envying the word is Zeal that is emulation and strife or contention and divisions or factions are yee not Carnal and walk as men or according to man For when one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are yee not Carnal Eph. 4. 14. That we henceforth be no more children tost to and fro and carried about with every wind by the sleight or cousenage of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in Love may grow up c. Luke 24. 25. O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Mark 6. 52. They considered not the miracle of the Loaves for their heart was hardened Mark 8. 17. Why reason yee because yee have no bread Perceive yee not yet neither understand Have yee your hearts yet hardened Having eyes see yee not And having ears hear yee not And do you not remember Luke 12. 16. These things understood not his Disciples at the first Luke 18. 32 33 34. They shall scourge him and put him to death and the third day he shall rise again And they understood none of these things and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things which were spoken 1 Cor. 8. 2. 7. 10. If any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge but some with Conscience of the Idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered to an Idol and their Conscience being weak is defiled Shall not the Conscience of him that is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to Idols See Rom. 14 and 15. Gal. 6. 1. 1 Cor. 9. 22. Gal. 3 and 4. throughout Col. 2. 21 22 c. Heb. 13. 9. 1 Tim. 1. 3. Should I recite all such Epithetes convictions and reproofs in Scripture it would be tedious 2. The thing is further proved by the common experience of mankind which it amazeth me to think a man that liveth among men in the world awake and in his senses can be ignorant of Enemies know it Friends know it not only that there are Ignorant and Injudicious Christians but that the far greatest part are such though not in a damning yet in a sad and troublesome degree And that the far greatest part of those that we hope are truly godly remain so lamentably ignorant of abundance of things that should be known and continue in such an infancy of understanding as is a great advantage to the Tempter and many waies calamitous to themselves and to the Church It is the lamentation of all experienced Ministers Alas how ignorant even honest people remain And how
men perfectly whom you count natural and so perfectly evil 2. Do you not tell the World that your purpose is to speak as bad of all us and others whom you account natural as your tongue can possibly speak and to take this for no slander but your duty seeing you think you cannot speak bad enough of corrupted nature as the nature of every man now is Do you not here tell us that how bad soever you shall say of us you never do or can say bad enough But why are you so angry with me for being and doing so bad when I have no freedom to be or to do better any more than the fire not to burn Yea when you inferr all mens natures to be incurably evil and therefore desperate seeing it was a capacity of holyness which I asserted when with such abhorrence you contend against my words EXCEPT XXXIII p. 19. Answered 1. To be a surly proud professor is a milder accusation far than your last 2. But why should a Preacher think that a man must speak against no sin which he is guilty of himself EXCEPT XXXIV Answered 1. I understand not what you mean by saying If they persecute any they contract a guilt upon all If you mean on all the people then you think you are guilty of persecution If you mean on all the Magistrates then the Innocent even Obadiah that â—id the Prophets are guilty of persecuting them What guilt a publick persons sin bringeth on a body politick as such is a case that I mean not to dispute with you 2. You adde We think they do a very ill office to Magistrates that insinuate it is possible for them to persecute some and yet be innocent Answ. If you intimate as you seem plainly to do that I have so done this is your 26th Untruth and worse than a meer untruth EXCEPT XXXV Answered 1. Doth it follow that because lawful separation is not from the same uncharitable spirit that persecution is therefore unlawful separation is not 2. You force me to confute you by Instances which yet you abhor to hear You say Persecution in no case can consist with love Do you think your self that all the Common-wealths-men the Anabaptists the Separatists the Independents or whoever that had a hand in the order for sequestring all Ministers that kept not their daies of humiliation and thanksgiving for the blood of Scotland had no love at all remaining Or that none of this was persecution Nor yet the ejecting of them that refused the engagement Nor yet the imprisonment and banishment of the London Ministers and the death of Mr. Love and Gibbons To pass by the Scotch war it self and all the rest Do not the Sectaries think that the Presbyterians did or would have persecuted them And did not the Presbyterians think that the Sectaries persecuted them Do you think that in the Contentions with the Donatists the Novatians and many other professors of strictness the parties that persecuted had no Love and so no true grace remaining Truly brother I like persecution as little as most men living do and have written more against it than you have done forgive this pride But I cannot be so uncharitable as to condemn all the sects and parties and persons as utterly graceless that have been drawn to persecute one another When I consider how few sects in the World have escaped the guilt and how far pievishness and seeming interest hath carried them You know I suppose that the Munster Anabaptists themselves did not forbear it The Lutherans have oft persecuted the Calvinists And the Arminians in Holland thought that the Calvinists persecuted them and denied them liberty of Conscience Even the New England godly Magistrates and Ministers are accused of it by the Quakers and the followers of Mrs. Hutchinson and Gortin And I would you knew what spirit you are of whether you have none of the same spirit your self Would you not have hindered the Printing of this Book of mine if you could have done it And then would you not have hindered me from Preaching the same thing if you could have done it And is not this to silence that Teaching which is against your judgement Is not that spirit which hath all the vehement slanders and revilings which your book aboundeth with and which earnestly prayeth God to rebuke me of the same kind think you as to uncharitableness with the persecuting spirit And is this in you inconsistent with all Love 3. It is your 27th Untruth that after many virulent expressions I am forced to confess c. My constant expression of my judgement and true stating of my sense is no forced Confession of any thing Much less did I ever confess that no persecution can consist with Love but have even there said much to evince the contrary EXCEPT XXXVI Answered I put ten Questions to convince men of the sin of that separation which I speak against And all his answer to them is but this He asks many questions about Church-Communion But he knows the Proverb and let that answer him Answ. But is this impartial enquiring into the truth Or is this kind of writing fit to satisfie sober men EXCEPT XXXVII Answered Your 28th Untruth is next He taketh it ill that we should think the Church of Christ to consist but of a few When I have no such word or sense but my self profess there to believe it and only contradict them that would rob Christ of almost all those few and make them incomparably fewer than they be You adde But when he saies the belief of this is the next way to infidelity Answ. That 's your 29th Untruth I said no such thing I only admonish you to observe that your abusive lessening the number is your way to Infidelity And I proved it which you pass by He that can believe to day that Christ came to dye for no more in all the World than the Separatists are is like very shortly to believe that he is not the Christ the Saviour of the World and the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World When you adde that I cast reproach on the word of God that affirmeth this expresly it is but another of your untruths and an abuse of the word of God EXCEPT XXXVIII Answered When I tell you of some that have run through all sects and turned Infidels you adde another Untruth that I thus reproach a whole party with the miscarriages of some few unless you mean by a whole party all that are of that opinion which I confure For all the Separatists are not for it And so what ever opinion in the World I shall gain-say you may say that I contradict a whole Party that is the Party that holdeth that opinion But brother doth every one reproach you that telleth you of your danger and would save you from infidelity and hell If the common people should tell you that you reproach their whole
this is no excuse to them that Tolerate not men to obey the Laws of Christ. To these I may adde that though many Prelatists utterly mistake and think that it is the Ministers every where that are the chief Leaders of the people to Separation yet both in New-England and in Old the people are so much proner to it than the Ministers except a very few that if it were not for the wisdom gravity stability and authority of the Ministers restreining them the matter would be otherwise than it is As this Synod of New-England sheweth you their stability and moderation so do the choicest of their Pastors still stand firm against all extreams and hold the people in that Concord which they have The excellent service of Mr. Mitchell in this kind before he died is predicated by all I will not recite all the complaints I heard from Mr. Nortons mouth against the separating humour of many people and their danger thereupon nor the many Letters to the same purpose which many worthy men thence have sent over to their friends and their particular lamentations of the case of Hartford Boston c. which I have had the sight of which fully testifie that they are no promoters of those waies The sad case of the Bermuda's I before mentioned Sad indeed when in so disciplin'd a Plantation one Minister shall turn away the greater part from Church-Communion till they become aliens And the rest whom he gathered as the only worthy persons shall so many turn Quakers and such like till Religion between both is alas how low as their late worthy Minister fore-named testifyeth The dissolution of the separated Churches of the English in the Low Countreys by their own divisions is a thing too well known to be concealed From all which I gather that it is the Interest of the Congregational Churches themselves as much as of any others to joyn with us for the Principles of Christian Love forbearance and Unity and against the Principles of alienation and division which is all that I am driving at Obj. But the Churches of New-England would not joyn with a Church that should use the Common-prayer in that worship nor in the Sacrament Answ. Nor I neither ordinarily if I were with them and in their case who have liberty to worship God in the most edifying and serious and orderly manner that they can And yet were I in Armenia Abassia or among the Greeks I would joyn in a much more defective form than our Liturgie rather than in none And that this is the judgement of many New-England Ministers to joyn with the English Liturgie rather than have no Church-worship I have reason to conjecture because in their foresaid Defence of the Synod Pref. pag. 4 5. They profess themselves to receive their principles not from the Separatists but from the good old non-Conformists to whom they adhere naming Cartwright Ames Paraeus Parker Baines Fox Dearing Greenham c. And I need not tell those that have read their writings that the old non-Conformists did some of them read the Common-prayer and the most of them judge iâ— lawful to jo 〈…〉 Or else Mr. Hildersham Mr. Rich. Rogers c. would not write so earnestly to men to come to the beginning and prefer it before all private duties And Perkins was for kneeling at the Sacrament And Mr. Baines his successor in his Letters writes for Communicating kneeling at the Sacrament and answereth the objections But though I write this to give them the due honour of their moderation and sober judgement yet not as making them or any men our Rule in faith or worship Obj. Therefore the Churches of New-England reprove not separation from a Common-prayer Church though they would have none separate among themselves because there is no just Cause Ans. 1. The former answer may serve to make it probable that they would joyn with them as Churches in case they had not better to joyn with on lawful tearms 2. And their own expressions signifie that they take the English Parishes that have godly Ministers for true Churches though faulty 3. And those that I now write for cannot forget that they gathered their Churches by separation out of our Parish-Churches when there was no Common-prayer nor Ceremonies used nor any difference in worship found among us that I know of And that in New-England it self the Principles which I deny do too of procure separation from those Churches that have nothing which moderation and peaceableness will think a sufficient cause of such disjunction 4. And it is well known that the name of a Separatist and Brownist was first taken up here in England with relation to these Parish-Churches where they had the Liturgie and Ceremonies as now Therefore they would speak equivocally in disclaiming Separatists and Brownists if they meant not such as the word is first and commonly used to signifie 5. And if that were not the sense a Separatist might be said to be against Separation as well as they in New-England For Canne or Iohnson would be against separating from their own Churches or from any which they judged as faultless 6. It was the Parish-Churches that had the Liturgie and were accused to have 91 Antichristian Errors in them and the Church of England which they belonged to which Mr. H. Iacob the Father of the Congregational Party wrote for Communion with against Francis Iohnson and in respect to which he called those Separatists against whom he wrote The same I may say of Mr. Bradshaw Dr. Ames and other non-Conformists whom the Congregational brethren think were favourable to their way And if the old Independents as well as the rest of the non-Conformists accounted them Culpable Separatists that then wrote for separation from the Parish-Churches for Diocesane Churches I Iâ— meddle not with then we have small reason to think that those New-England Brethren that disclaim the Separatists were of the mind of these Separatists themselves or that they differed from the old Independents herein when they seem rather to be of such healing principles and temper towards the Presbyterians as in my opinion they have in their Synodical Conclusions made â—p almost all the breach And therefore are not to be accounted more for separation than the old Congregational Divines And that you may see that the Magistrates of New-England are of the mind of their Pastors in the Synod and take the youth to be under the Ministers Charge or at least that I may hereby express my gladness for this work of their great prudence and Christian zeal and call those my brethren of the Ministry to Repentance who did neglect this work of personal Instruction while we had liberty to exercise the Pastoral office and also that I may yet remember them that are silenced what abundance of good the Law yet alloweth them to do by this course of going from house to house and of Catechizing the youth seeing we are restrained to no members under 16 years of age
with scorn Are not we Commanded not to reveal the secret of another which pious and prudent Mr. Baxter hath not scrupled to sin against c. Prov. 25. 9. As you abuse the text which speaketh of an individual person who is supposed to be hereby injured because known so you speak untruly in saying I revealed anothers secrets For to pass by that I reveal not the persons who are still unknown it is not true that they were secrets When I disputed almost all day with such both Souldiers and others in the publick Church at Amersham above 20 years ago was that a secret which they so fiercely proclaimed When I disputed daily almost with such in Cromwell's Army was that a secret When I disputed with Mr. Brown an Army Chaplain and his adherents for the Godhead of Christ in a publick Church at Worcester was that a secret When I disputed in the publick Church at Kiderminster with the Quakers was that a secret When the said Quakers and many other Sects have come to my house and have oft assaulted me in many other places openly and vented their ignorance with fierce revilings and raging confidence was that a secret When I have openly Catechized men was that a secret Do not all sound Protestants believe that they are fundamentals which our Quakers commonly contradict and are ignorant of especially Foxes party whom Smith and Major Cobbet accuse to deny Christ and the Resurrection c. And are there not Assemblies of such in London And do not many turn to them of late And is that a secret which their books and their assemblies tell the World Who is it now that is put to shame EXCEPT IX Answered I must now answer for what I say against the Papists too I Confess they are separatists or recusants too But le ts hear the Charge You say They are very unweighed and rash words when he saies Shew me in Scripture or in Church history that either there ever was de facto or ought to be de jure such a thing in the World as the Papists call the Church and I profess I will immediately turn Papist We think none can write thus but declares a great unsteadiness in his Religion for none that knoweth Church history but can prove that such a Church as the Romane hath been neer 1300 years actually in being Answ. 1. My foregoing words are these The Pope hath feigned another thing and called it the Church that is The Universality of Christians headed by himself Whereas 1. God never instituted or allowed such a Church 2. Nor did ever the Universality of Christians acknowledge this usurping head Now when you say there hath been such a Church as the Romane either you mean what I denied such a Church as they claim and feign and I described Or only such a Church as they are which is another thing If the later why will you grosly abuse your Reader by such a deceit which tendeth to tempt him unto Poperie What 's that to my words which you seem to contradict But if you mean the former and indeed contradict me then 1. You prevaricate in befriending Popery 2. You here set down three more Untruths in matter of fact 1 That there hath been neer 1300 years or ever was such a Church that is that the Universality of Christians did acknowledge the Pope for the Universal Constitutive and Governing Head 2. That there is none that knoweth Church history but can prove this 3. That they are very unweighed words in which I assert what I did And all this I have given the World full proof of in my Dispute against Mr. Iohnson the Papist of the Visibility of the Church Had I not weighed the words I had not so many years ago so largely proved and maintained them And I have there fully proved that the Romane Church was only Imperial or of the Empire and the Countreys that after fell from the Empire such as we call national because under one Prince That de facto the Persians the Abassines Indians part of Armenia and many other Churches or Christians never acknowledged him their Constitutive or Governing Head that the Emperors who called the General Councils had nothing to do with the subjects of other Princes nor used to call them That the General Councils consisted only of the subjects of the Empire and those that had been of the Empire except one Iohannes Persidis and one or two more inconsiderable persons that no account can be given of who they were or how they came thither Godignus himself will tell you enough of the Abissines All the Papists in the World are never able to answer this publick Evidence of fact with any sense Mr. Iohnson's Reply I take not to be worthy of an Answer with any man that can make use of an answer when his shift is so gross as to instance in the Bishops of Thracia as out of the Empire and such as they which every novice in history and Geographie can Confute Unless I was Confuted in London at a publick Play where that you may see who influenceth them a Tutor in Geographie was as I am credibly informed brought in telling his Pupill that Prester Iohn's Countrey of Abassia was of the same Latitude with a place in Worcester-shire called Kederminster Now seeing reason forbiddeth me to interpret you as speaking of the Church of Rome as a Sect or Party when I spake of it as the Universality of Christians headed by the Pope your Context shewing that it is my words that you gainsay therefore I must number these three also with the rest of your untruths You adde We wonder that any Protestant should be found though but by the equalling of Church history to Scripture as if the uncertain tradition of the one were to be as much accounted of and followed as the Divine and infallible Revelation of the other Answ. 1. Because this wonder plainly containeth an affirmation that I do so I must say that it is your tenth untruth Prove such a word if you are able 2. It is not true that this Historie is uncertain though not to be equalled with Scripture Is the Case of a vast Empire of Aethiopia as big yet after the decay saith Brierwood as Germany Italy France and Spain uncertain when the World knoweth that they have not had so much as Converse with the Pope and at Oviedos attempt did not know who he was And so of Persia India c. If you will needs be so much wiser than your neighbours as to prove all historie uncertain even that there was a Caesar or a William the Conqueror 1. While you befriend the Papists in this one point you will incommodate them in others 2. And you will promote Infidelitie by making that historie uncertain by which we know the Canonical books of Scripture and that they are delivered down to us the same and uncorrupt When I had given in few words a full
and plain answer to the Papists about our separation from their Church and remembred how many Volumes they have troubled the World with by obscuring our plain and ordinarie answer I told them that must have Volumes to hide the sense that if this answer seem not plain and full to them it is because they understand not Christian sense and reason and not for want of plainess in the matter or through defectiveness as to satisfie a reasonable impartial man This brother chargeth this saying to be insolent and from intolerable Pride because I dare so Charge another with want of Christian sense and reason c. Answ. 1. This is his eleventh untruth I only named sense and reason objectively not subjectively It is not because the Answer which I give the Papists and which Protestants commonly give is not full and plain or wanteth sense or reason but because the Papists understand it not He that hath sense and reason may be hindred from using it aright by interest partialitie and wilful negligences which it is no new thing for Protestants to think that Papists are too oft guilty of But how proud am I then intolerably proud that in several books have maintained that all Papists that hold Transubstantiation do make it an Article of Faith and necessarie to Salvation flatly to contradict all the senses of all the sound men in the World that shall judge whether bread be bread and wine be wine How much more insolent a Charge is this But brother Popish absurdities have need of a better defence than to call the adversarie insolent and proud 2. And is the thing I say true or false I prove it true The Answer of the Protestants about Luther's Reformation which I give is Christian◠Sense and Reason But the Papists or any that deny it seriously and take it not to be plain and full understand it not Ergo they understand not Christian sense and reason That is In this For I never said that they understand not Christian Sense and Reason in any other thing nor is there the least appearance of such a sense Now if this brother will deny either of the premises he may expect an answer Till then I adde 3. Are not you brother by your own censure notoriously insolent and intolerably proud if this hold good as well as I Do you not take all that you say against me or some part at least to be plain and full and to be Christian sense and reason And do you not suppose me to think otherwise of it And do you not think that this is because I understand it not Thus some mens hands do beat themselves 4. And do you not implicitly charge all or most Protestant Writers with insolence and intolerable pride as well as me Do they not all think their reasons against the Papists plain and full at least some of them And do they not think that the Papists denie them because they understand not the Christian Sense and Reason which is in them 5. And have not all mankind a deficiencie of understanding And is it pride and insolence to say so 6. But judge of your own spirit by your own rule Do not you think those that you before charged with persecution and making our dividing engines and whose Communion you think it a duty to avoid to be such as understand not Christian sense and reason in the arguings which I and others have used against them And is it not as lawful to think so of the Papists EXCEPT X. Answered I used the phrase of Local presential Communion in Contradistinction 1. To the Catholick Communion of persons absent which is by Faith and Love 2. And the Communion by Delegates and Representatives And our brother here 1. Calleth this phrase insignificant Iargon which was not said through any redundancy of Sense and Reason above othets Nor do I acknowledge his authoritie in the sentence without his reason 2. He saith Unlawful terms are imposed on us Answ. Brother Do you think men must trust their souls on your naked word Where in all this book have you done any thing that with an impartial understanding can go for proof that in all the Parish Churches of England that use the Liturgie that is imposed as a Condition of our Communion in hearing or praying which it is not lawful sometimes to do Answer this as to Mr. Nie about hearing and to me about Praying if you can and do not nakedly affirm 3. You say you do not so much separate as forbear Communion and your reason is for we were never of them Answ. I take you for a Christian and a Protestant Are you not so far of us Is not a member of the same Universal Church of Christ obliged to hold Communion as he hath a special Call or occasion with more Churches than that particular one which he ordinarily joyneth with If you purposely avoided and denied Communion with all the Independent Churches in England save one and wrote to prove it unlawful I think this were a separating from them as they are parts of the Church Universal that are neer you EXCEPT XI Answered 1. The word Sect though oft taken but for one party in a division was not by me applied to all the names before going but to the last named only and such other 2. I spake nothing at all of the truth or falshood of the Censurers words but of the requitals that Censurers have by other mens Censures which may be sharp and passionate and a rebuke to the Censured and modally Culpable when the words are true Yet I am content to undergo the Censure you here cast out of me rather than to censure that a Papist cannot go beyond a reprobate unless you do as Mr. Perkins doth to make it good be so charitable to all the millions else among them as not to call them Papists except they practically hold the most pernicious opinions of their Councils and Divines I confess I affect none of the honour of that Orthodoxness which consisteth in sentencing millions and Kingdoms to Hell whom I am unacquainted with EXCEPT XII Answered Here we have first a meer magisterial dictate without proof that I speak triflingly about Scandal and shew how little I understand it But where 's his reason or Confutation 2. Why all is but this Paul would not eate flesh rather than he would offend his weak brother c. Judge Reader whether the bare citing of these words be any proof that in Scripture Scandal is not taken more for tempting ensnaring and laying before men an occasion of stumbling or sinning than for meer displeasing men which is the thing that I affirmed But sure Brother if you soberly review it you will find that you deal very hardly with the Scripture and the souls of men First the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators turn make to offend you read offend instead of scandalize And 2. You bring a text against