Writings were applied according to their present fancy and handled in a very careless and Superficial manner A bold Face and a ready Tongue were fain to supply the place of good Reason and well digested Thoughts Fire of the Sanctuary uncovered p. 310. Loudness as Dr. Corn. Burges once told you was made to serve instead of matter For they found if they were but earnest the people accounted them very zealous preachers and imputed their want of matter to their wisdom and desire of edifying Not to their want of study or ability And it was their custome to say He preaches to the Conscience He stands not upon deep learning He reproves sin boldly and if it was other mens not theirs so much the better For the very truth is the people do not love to hear nothing but their duty or to hear it frequently repeated And some taught them in time to call this Legal-preaching Gospel Sermons were then to be contrived nothing but Christ and free Grace to be preached And because they grew weary even of hearing these so often over there was a necessity to device Novelties or else not preach so many Sermons The last would by no means be admitted and so the Scriptures were to be squeazed new notions invented delicate new phrases coyn'd and indeed a new Religion made to please the people Could it for instance have entred into the head of any man from those words of Isaiah before mentioned to talk of Believers being big with sin and to make such observations as these that it is our Glory to be Christ's Ewes and that when a man is big with young and cryes O my belly my belly here is a point of comfort that Christ is sweet to such persons could a man I say have ever thought of such things as these but that he was to strain the words as far as ever fancy could stretch them because he must have soon done with the Text had he given only the proper sense of it and the people have soon done with him had he not sought out some new Inventions They were at least to be courted with some sweet and indearing phrases and called O Blessed Ewes O Believing Ewes and O Believing Bees that suck the honey of sin hatred out of the Wormwood of sin acted And told that Christ accounts their stammerings sweet Meih Meih saith the little one and the mother counts it Musick And so no doubt do the people count this puleing sort of preaching O he is a sweet man sayes one an affectionate man saith a second a melting preacher saith a third because he layes them to the Dugs of Christs Love and bids them suck or but open their mouths and cry Meih of if they cannot assures them Christ will do it for them Not considering all this while that he entertains their fancy with the fulness and freeness of those Breasts and leaves their thoughts hanging and admiring there meerly because he is dry and empty himself and hath nothing else to say N. C. O Sir we find that they are never drawn dry C. You must say so who can fancy you drink up rivers when they give you but a sip and see with much satisfaction some Sips of Christ streaming through a poor creature Epist to the Reader And truly as long as there are Streams and Beams your Poets will never want rhymes nor these Preachers stand in need of Reason For Beaming and Streaming will do the business at any time and make them pass for extraordinary men Especially if they have the confidence to say as this man doth that Chrtsts spirit brought that Text Isaiah 40.11 to his hand and that his soul hath tasted some sweetness by what Christ gave in upon that subject For so you must believe if you will be kind and sweet as he is that the Holy Ghost hath made him overseet of the flock of God and bid him feed his Lambs and that Christ gave in to him this sense of the prophets words that he will be sweet to his believing Ewes when they are big with Sin And indeed it is craftily done to intitle Christ to their Dotages for were it not for that there are scarce any so stupid that would not despise them But consider then how modest these men are who had rather Christ and his blessed Spirit should bear the reproach of being Authors of such absurd Glosses and ignorant Comments than honestly acknowledg that they are the fruit of their own Fancies which would soon be drain'd if they did not supply them with such Inventions N. C. There 's no danger of that for they are very full men as you have often heard me say C. So they are very full of impertinent allegations of the holy Scripture of tautologies absurd resemblances childish fancies and false reasonings and yet withall very full of Confidence and self-Conceit which to say the truth you are all full of a very few excepted N. C. You are full of wrath C. That 's a part of your pride and self-conceit to call truth by the name of wrath passion and bitterness And to pretend withall that whosoever speaks any thing against you is an enemy of God unacquainted with Religion a formal superstitious or moral man But take it as you will and think of me as you please I say that in my observation there is scarce a dram of that virtue called Modesty to be found I will not say in one but in a whole Country of you You are generally full of your selves highly conceited of your own understanding impatient of contradiction in so much that my Lord Bacon tells us he knew some of your way who thought it a tempting of God to hear or read what might be said against them By which you may see this is no new humour but runs in the very spirit of the party who cannot think that any understand so much as themselves of the things of God and imagine the Spirit guides them which must not submit to reason and that no man hath any true Goodness in him that is not one of them Upon which account they ever supposed all men of whom they had any good thoughts to be of their way in their hearts nay all other of any parts to be against them meerly for the love of the World This I will evidently prove to have been a long time the humour even of your eminent Professors if it shall be contradicted And it is the cause I believe that they complain so heavily if any man reprove any of them as if there could never be found even in good men something worthy of Reproof or as if that which we reprove in them were an undoubted part of their goodness But they will take the liberty not only to reprove but to rail upon us as much as they please say when they have done as Mr. Saltmarsh did to the Assembly I bope you will pardon me Epistle Dedicat before his Book against Mr.
should have their hearts over-ruled by God and their Spirits ordered to plunder and terrify those scandalous Baal-Priests As for the People that followed the King he calls them Marble-hearted Malignants implacable and inveterate haters of Holyness that were for meer formal Protest antism at large which is in effect down right Atheism This excellent Treatise was licensed by Mr. John White who was himself such another Reviler and called our Ministers by the same names nay far worse not only Priests of Baal but of Bacchus and Priapus And though you may imagine he speaks only of those particular men whom he put into his Centuries He will inform you otherwise if you look into his Epistle before the first of them Which he put forth as he tells us for this end that the World might see what manner of persons our Clergy be As if there was no difference but the People were to judge of all the rest by those stories which were told of some And truly so they did and so they do to this day N. C. I never observed these things But you must consider that this Vicars was old and so might be testy For no man well advised sure would approve of that disorderly action of the Souldiers much less make God the Author of it C. I remember indeed Mr. Burroughs * Vindic. against Mr. Edw. Gang. wonders that so old a Professor of Religion as he should be found jeering and scorning at it for he cast some reproaches on his way and can find no excuse for it but the infirmities that sometime attend an old Age. But as for that action of the rude Souldiers I remember very well it is applauded by M. Case in a Book licensed by the same Mr. White June 27. 1642. call'd Gods waiting to be gracious c. Where he makes this one of their Incouragements to expect the fall of Babylon because God had so wonderfully wrought upon the Spirits of men particularly on those souldiers who went he saith to fight the Bishops battles in Scotland that they pull'd down the Railes Threatned the Priests and kept such a Visitation in their progress as the Bishops hardly ever had done since Queen Elizabeths dayes This he saith p. 119. was the Finger of God the work of him that created the Spirit of man N. C. You tell me News C. It 's very stale But no news at all to us who are well acquainted with their pitiful way of arguing And I heartily wish your Ministers would seriously consider upon this occasion these two things First how wretchedly they were wont to reason and how they abused the poor people by incouraging them to draw the greatest hopes from the slightest grounds For what Connexion is there between these two things The disorderly Souldiers were uncivil to our Ministers and prophaned our Churches as they went into the North therefore the fall of Babylon is near at hand It is just like the reasoning of Mr. Henderson who told the Parliament that the Fast which they kept on St Johns day * Sermon on 27. Decem 1643. was a presage that by the blessing of God on theirs and the Assemblies proceedings the Superstition of observing Christmas should shortly expire and that it was at its last gasp As if one should say there was a solemn Fast indicted as they speak in the Church of Scotland on the second Lords day in Sep. 1642. for the promoting Unity in Religion and Uniformity in Government * Direct anent Malignants by the Commis of Gen. Ass and the Officers of the Army at Wallingford house turned that Festival again into a day of Humiliation therefore that solemn remembrance of Christs Resurrection shall shortly cease and Christianity fall to the ground N. C. I am asham'd of the incoherence of such Discourses C. So should they be too and do publick pennance for it As also for their gross hypocrisy and partiality in assuming a power to themselves less than which they condemn in other men For they may turn it seems a Festival of our Lords appointing into a Fast but we may not make a Festival in honour of him I would desire them also to consider in the second place whether their Connivance at nay their Approbation of such things as were done without any Authority I may add their praising the blind zeal of private men who took upon them to be Reformers and more than that their imputing it to the work of the Spirit and the mighty power of God did not help to embolden the Army afterward to do those things which they themselves abhorr'd with a perswasion that they were moved by the Spirit and had a call from the Lord though no Authority from men It is a thing much to be laid to heart and then honestly to be consessed and publickly bewailed And when we see them so humble and sincere as to take shame to themselves for what they have done we shall all have the better opinion of them N. C. I hope these speeches may be imputed to the rashness of a few men at least they were not approved by any Authority C. Think you so How came Mr. Wilsons Sermon then before the Parliament to be printed by their Order 28. Sept. 1642. In which he calls the Clergy about the King Croaking Frogs that crept into Kings Chambers Who are known by the gutter there he thought lay a jest whence they come out of the mouth of the Dragon out of the mouth of the Beast and the false Prophet They are the spirits of Devils which go forth unto the Kings of the Earth to gather them to battle c. The Frogs head is like their Caps Quadrata ranarum Capita Here is work for the Parliament that the king may have no more Croakers in his Chambers And here I may add is a tast of your sanctified wit or rather devout Railing though borrowed alas in great part from Paraus on the Revelation N. C. You take things in the worse part when you hear or read our Sermons C. You would have said perhaps if you had read Mr. Vicars that to the hearing of the Word there came as well ears of Scorn as ears of Corn. For sure you could not but have remembred such an admirable piece of wit as this which you may find in his Epistle to the Reader N. C. We do not regard Wit nor pretend to it C. It is not because you do not love it For according to the Proverb John would wipe his Nose if he had it N. C. There is wit in picking a lock but it is better to let it alone And therefore I will not vie Proverbs with you C. You are just like the Gentlemen we are speaking of who do things and know it not nay then do them when they say they will not Mr. W. Bridges for instance reproves the Loyal Convert for ill language and tells him be seems in vain to be Religious if he refrain not his tongue when as
the bondage of the Church the straightning of the Spirit the limiting of Christ Edw. Gangr 1 part p. 212. and the ecclipsing of the glory of the Father Nay it is pretty to observe how the very Mystery of Iniquity you had so long complain'd on was now found working among you Vniformity Mr. Saltmarsh said was a piece of it And Mr. Dell in his Epistle before his Sermon of Right Reformation preached before the Parliament calls Presbytery a new form of that mystery of iniquity which had been so long a working The Beast they held had only chang'd its shape and taken another name and so they baited it most fiercely as you had taught them And told you in effect what the Proverb says that Goose and Gander and Gosling are three sounds but one thing But they would not part with you thus for after they had done with this then they fell upon your darling the Solemn League and Covenant This became a brand of infamy a Cains mark almost as Mr. Case tells us * Thanksg Serm. for taking of Chester p. 26. so that if they would stigmatize a man to purpose they would say He He is a Covenanter As you had told us that we made an Idol of the Common-Prayer so Mr. Peters told you publickly in a Sermon at the three Cranes that you kept such a stir about the Covenant as if you would have the people make an Idol of it Mr. Feak also called it the great Idol of the two Kingdoms And so fit had this word been found to do service that at last one told us that you had got two Idols for on one For the Parliament and the Pulpit said an * Letter to Card. Barber Outlandish Gentleman imitating the language of the times are the two great Idols of the people the greatest that ever were For it 's held a kind of blasphemy to speak against the one and the whole Body of Religion is nail'd to the other It comes to my mind also how you who joyn'd in the outcryes against Malignants were numbred in conclusion among them and said to be grown indeed to a more refined Malignancy but that there was no greater difference between a Presbyter and a Prelate than between a half Crown piece and two shillings and six pence And as your good friend Mr. Vicars had told us that God had made us to be the very drudges and Scul-boyes of his Church and children So Mr. Peters in good time told you in a Pamphlet of his that the Presbyterians were no better than Gibeonites who might help to hew stone and square Timber for a more glorious building N. C. Will you never have done C. You must let me remember you what a mighty clamor you raised against the Bishops as if they had been so many Ishmaels that persecuted Gods Isaacs and you have not forgot sure how oft you were called your selves the Carnal seed the fleshly children the persecuters of the children of the free woman For your Ministers that accused the Bishops and made it a main part of their Remonstrance to the house of Commons in the beginning of the Wars that they had put some who were but Serving-men into Orders and made them Ministers saw in a little time a whole swarm of vile creatures nothing so good as Serving-men making themselves Ministers and setting up for the most Gospel-preachers And there was no remedy but all their preaching and printing and petitioning against it was despised These taught the people to call them blind Guides as they had taught them to call our Priests Nay their Masters at last incouraged and rewarded the scoffs of those that said These blind Guides travailing as they thought to Sion are faln into the ditch in the Isle of Wight Insatiable hirelings Gehazi's cheaters pulpited Divines and a great lurry of such like names were liberally dealt to them as you may see if you will not believe me in their own complaint called A Seasonable Exhortation p. 11. Nay the Army it self which had been so instrumental in all this wickedness and magnified by these revilers as the Army of the Lamb at last heard themselvs called the Abomination of Desolation All which I mention only for this end to shew what your Ministers got by instructing the people in this easie Art of disgracing all they dislik'd with the names of Antichristian Babylonish and such like As they had done so they were requited And while the Episcopal Clergy silently bore the punishment of their sins they that had cast out their names as abominable were whipt with their own rods When they thought to reign as kings without us immediately they were assaulted as Egyptian Tyrants when they expected all should bow to the Scepter of Christ in their hand they saw men rising up against them as Antichristian Those that had heard their Invectives against us imploy'd them against themselves And all the Dung they had laid at our doors was flung by those that had been their followers in their own faces If I were indued with the Spirit of Mr. Vicars or Mr. Case I should have said upon this occasion Behold the finger of God! the Work of him that created the Spirit of man See how the Lord over-ruled mens hearts and ordered their Spirits to terrifie these Presbyters Or Mr. Brightman would have taught me to say The Lord hath made your Priests contemptible to the whole people because they have broken their Covenant But I dare not imitate their boldness nor talk as if I was infallible I will let them enjoy this particular gift to themselves of knowing what God doth upon the spirits of men For my part I think they might be able to say all this even without any extraordinary help of the Devil There was no need that Beelzebub should come to inspire them with this fury For they were already possessed with a mighty Rage That Spirit which spoke out of the Press and Pulpit had abundantly furnish't them with this powerful and taking Rhetorick And if Mr. Brightman had lived to that day he would have wondred to see how near of kin his Heat was to this Fire Nay he would have been ashamed of his rare way of reasoning against our Church when he had heard some retort his words against us upon the Philadelphians I mean Disciplinarians saying Truly the Lord hath powred contempt upon Princes Those that honour him doth he honour and those that despise him shall be despised And thus I have at last opened this rotten Vlcer I hope you will not be angry if I use his words * In 3. Rev. 17. latter end If my labour shall be acceptable and the sore being purged be healed again how great thanks shall I return to God But if the evil shall be only stirred up and the handling of it shall offend the sick and sore parties I will yet comfort my self with the conscience of the good discharge of my Duty and with the ordinary
an enemy As for Mr. W. B. I confess ingenuously I said a little the more of him because you have been too long gull'd by such pretenders to Mysteries and Spirituality Yet I do not think I said enough but ought to have told you plainly that he is one of the principal Impostors that have perverted the Truth as it is in Jesus and adulterated the Christian Religion in this Nation He spoiles almost all the Holy Scripture he meddles withal and turns it into an idle tale of these times and makes it say whatsoever it pleases him and his Proselytes to hear Which when I seriously consider I cannot but say with a little alteration as one doth on another occasion to his Countreymen That it is a shame there are laws against those who counterfeit Coynes and falsify Merchandizes yet such are permitted who Sophisticate our Divinity and corrupt the Holy Scriptures and turn our Religion into a new fancy and device of their own The late great Plague is but of small consideration in compare with this mischief and if speedy order be not taken the multiplying of such Authors will make a Library as big as London wherein there shall scarcely be found one wise Sentence or reasonable Conceit N.C. It 's thought Sir by some that you are much mistaken in making him the Author of that Book which you reprove since it bears only the two first Letters of Mr. Bridge his name And I have heard you blam'd for charging him with those things which he hath not own'd C. I think rather those Apologists are mistaken For why doth he not disown it if it be not his Book since it contains such dangerous things Or why did not the Preface to another Book since stoln into the world and carrying his name in the front of it inform us that this was genuine and the other Spurious But if he had there are very few that would have believ'd him For they are as like each other as two pieces of Cloth that are of the same Wool the same thred the same colour working and bredth There is the very same Canting in both the same abuse of Holy Scripture the same Spiritual pride and contempt of others the same evil speaking and seditious Doctrines and in one word the way and Spirit of Mr. Bridge N.C. Why do you jeer I know you allude to the Title of one of those Ten Sermons which he calls The Way and Spirit of the New Testament C. I do so And am better able to describe his Way and Spirit than he to set out that N.C. I think you had better forbear such Comparisons C. Pray let me try a little It will both divert us a while and not prove unprofitable Turn I pray you to the fifth Sermon at your leisure and tell me when you have compar'd our Conceits P. 371. c. whether of us do better First I say the way and Spirit of Mr. Bridge is not as he would have it a Childlike but a Childish Spirit A way and Spirit that hath nothing manly nothing of the ancient Christian sense and Spirit in it but abounds with Phrases trifling observations and perpetual Tautologies And yet thinks it self most gorgeously bedeck't with Gospel Truths Dispensations Manifestations Discoveries and I know not how many other glorious things besides Secondly it is not a fearing but a fearless Spirit dareing to talk of God our Saviour in the boldestand rudest terms taking a kind of Pride in inventing new and monstrous Expressions and spiritualizing Religion into airy fancies Thirdly The way and Spirit of Mr. B. is not an understanding but a Non-sensical Spirit An instance of which is this that it hath no certain rule whereby to measure the love of God But sometimes it made successes a great argument of Gods regard to them and now it tells us that the Crosses are a mark of it and that the Children of God must be persecuted by the World Fourthly The way and Spirit of Mr. B. is to trade much or most or altogether with fancies and Dreams N.C. Pray do not say so C. You may put it in other words if you please and say it trades with absolute Promises But that 's the same for they are no better than dreams and fancies Fifthly In the old time men examined and considered what they believed and came to Faith by rational discourse But now in the dayes of Mr. B. Men are taught to believe they know not why and Reason is decryed as an enmity to the things of God Sixthly In the old times Christians were of a modest and humble Spirit but the way of Mr. B. is to teach them to be high and confident and to imagine great Discoveries and Revelations to be made to them And therefore they wrong'd Mr. Edwards very much when they said his Gangraena was full of lies because he told strange stories of men that pretended to have had Revelations and seen Visions for we find Mr. B. is one of them Seventhly In the old time Humility Purity Righteousness and Charity were held to be things most dear to God but now in the way and Spirit of Mr. B. we can hear no tidings of them For he can tell us but of three things that are dear to him His People his Truth and his Worship These are his Plate his fewels his Treasure as I told you the last time out of one of his Ten Serm. But you must know it is not a new discovery but an old and darling Notion of his which I find in his Sermon before the Parliament 29. Nov. 1643. There he tells us Three things God loves more specially His People his Truth and his worship And it is a beloved conceit I perceive among the party for one of his Brethren delivered it to the Parliament before him told them in a peremptory manner excluding all other things Mr. Tho. Goodwins serm of Apr. 27. 1642. p. 31. God hath but three things dear to him in the World the Saints his Worship and his Truth But which of these he loves best he could not tell for God therefore ordained Saints to be in the World that he might be Worship't and appointed Ordinances of Worship as means to build up his Saints Some honest old Christian would have told this great Divine if he had heard him you trouble your self Sir about needless Questions There is something God loves better than all these viz. Holines all Moral vertue For in truth there are no Saints or people of God but only in name without these Take away these and the most Orthodox Notions that can be in your head will make you no better than a Devil Nor will the exactest worship according to the purest Ordinances fail to be an Abomination to the Lord if these be absent But I forget my self The way and Spirit of Mr. B. is not to talk of any thing else but pure Worship pure Ordinances Gospel Administrations and such like matters upon
only wait till Christ assures him that he had made all the promises to him For thus he explains the business Jacob would not believe that Joseph was alive till he saw the Chariots that were come for him These sent from Joseph to Jacob brought Jacob to Joseph So every believing Soul is poor and feeble disabled to go to God and to believe in the Lord Jesus Doubting-Christian drawn to Christ p. 148.150 Therefore be must look to the Chariots of Israel first it should be of Joseph according to the resemblance and that will convey him to the promise and when the chariots are come get up into them The Lord Jesus is gone to heaven and hath sent these chariots for thee therefore get thee up and say Lord take me up with thee And so they did They got up into I know not what fiery Chariots and mounted into the Air and there fancied they saw the Lord Jesus immediately revealing himself to them and so carrying them to the promise the absolute promise And I verily believe these Doctrines were they from whence the American Jezabel as they call'd her extracted her Poisons and by which the people were prepared to drink of the cup of her Fornication perswading themselves that a man is united to Christ and justified without Faith that Faith is not a receiving him but discerning be hath received him already that a man is united to Christ only by the work of the Spirit upon him without any act of his that there is a testimony of the Spirit and a voice unto the Soul meerly immediate without any respect unto or concurrence with the word And that there are distinct seasons of the workings of the several Persons so that a Soul may be said to be so long under the work of the Father and not the Sons and so long under the work of the Son and not under the Spirit And in conclusion that a man is not effectually converted till he hath full assurance and that this is given immediately all the activity of a Believer being only to act to sin All these I say are the plain sense if there be any at all in this Book of what he delivered in more obscure words N. C. Pray go not about to prove this For my head begins to turn round already meerly with the scent of these intoxicating ingredients C. If these Doctrines had been broacht by any of us you would have found out our picture long ago in the Revelation and said that the Church of New England was Thyatira and this the Jezabel which called her self a Prophetess and that such Divines as these were the Prophets of Baal the Priests of Jezabel and these Doctrines the Doctrines of Devils All which you might have done with a greater colour and shew of reason than apply these names to our Priests But you are favourable to one another and wink at such Books as these provided the Authors be Nonconfurmists and cannot as you ignorantly speak bow to Baal N. C. I am glad there are none of these Doctrines here in this England C. Those Books are here and highly admired by such sound Believers as take all for Gospel that some men say but can find nothing of Christ among those that speak sense and make the Doctrine of Christ intelligible Nay I can find you Disciples of such Authors as these among your Preachers who will sometimes tell you that Christ will do all for you Sips of sweetness or Cons for weak Believers by John Durant 1662. and then tell you presently that something must be done by you Thus one of them introduces the Soul complaining That the Duggs of Divine love are full but I cannot suck Answer Be of good comfort Christ will not only open his Bosom but thy Mouth But I cannot fetch out the Milk that lies in his Breast I am but weak Answer Christ is sweet and with his finger be will force out the Milk of Mercy into thy Mouth if thou canst but open thy Mouth What need he have made an if of it if Christ would open its mouth and if he will do that and every thing else why did he not make an end of the business in one word and say All the Activity of Believers is to act to sin And so comfort the believing Ewes who are big with young in a sinful sense and say N. C. We talkt a little while ago of some mens bellowing and braying and now you are going to fall a bleating C. You are very pleasant I hope then it will not offend you to let you know that I was giving you the explication which this man makes of those words in Isaiah 40.11 I will gently lead those that are with young that is saith he according to the admirable way Pag. 102 103. now in fashion of expounding the holy Writ Christ will be very kind to those Saints that step aside which is called whoring in Scripture and deal gently with those who are big with young in a sinful sense whom I was going to tell you he comforts thus O ye sinning Ewes who have been big with young hath not be gone after you and furned you and laid you upon his shoulders rejoycing * Pag. 114. The very Phrase of Mr. Hooker Though thou canst not find the way to heaven yet he will find thee c. and lay thy Soul upon his shoulders i. e. upon the Riches of the freeness of his Grace p. 149 150. It may be thou hast been wandring like Dinah from thy fathers house art big with young and afraid to go home But fear not go and try be will not cast you out of doors Though you come with big bellies to keep to the Metaphor he will deal gently with thee though with young p. 119. N. C. We have followed these Ewes or Goats or what you do please to call them too far C. It 's true But at first I intended only to tell you how he describes weak believers Who have as Divines say the Faith of Adberence they will stick to Christ as theirs but they want a faith of Evidence they cannot see themselvs to be his p. 18. N. C. These Divines speak Nonsense C. Judg then in what uncertainty the Disciples of these Divines live who never tell them plainly what Faith is And what a strange blindness they labour with who cannot see as they speak that they are Christ's though they perswade themselves that he is theirs Nor do I see what satisfaction they are like to receive in particular cases any more than in this the greatest of all Your Doctrine seems to me to be so obscure that it 's hard to come to any solid setlement or peace of mind One of your Rules for instance is that we must have a warrant from the word of God for every thing we do If there be neither Precept nor Practise that we can find there to justifie an action we intend it must not be done
Fuller if zeal for the truth make me see another's faults sooner than my own Nay the ordinary people among you have not the least respect to any of our Minister's understanding and skill not to say his Office and Calling but as I told you before will talk and dispute with him and after that reprove and censure him as if they were not only his fellows but his judges Whereas the very same men would take it extreamly ill should any Minister take upon him to controll or but direct them in matters of their Trade to which they have served an Apprenticeship though far more easie to understand in a short time than the Holy Scriptures in many years Proud saucy Spirits who undertake to teach those of whom they should learn and slight nay sit in judgment on those to whom they ought to give great honour and to whose judgment in many cases they should quietly submit It was long since the zealous complaint of a holy man saith C. Burges that men could no sooner get up their names in the world Fire of the Sanct uncovered p. 68. and be able readily and confidently to muster up a few places of holy Scripture nothing to the purpose but they thought themselves sufficient to encounter Moses himself setting upon him as furiously as Dathan and Abiram ever did Happy were this Age had it none of them To whom it is in vain to say any thing but to them whom moderation hath yet some hand over I say this of the same ancient Father Their contumacy I beseech you let us flie their madness let us abhorr lest we perish with them in the same vengeance N. C. I confess I know some of this spirit but you grant there are others of more Moderation that are eminent for their Piety and all other things who do not forget that they are men C. Our eares are almost deafned sometimes as Mr. Rathband one whom you valued saith in another case with the praise of some of these mens eminent Learning Piety Sincerity Zeal c. And truly I believe several of them are learned men and such as are modest meek humble peaceable and I judg them sincere But there are great numbers joyn'd with them who would be thought the most eminent because most active in that way who under colour of zeal of Gods glory hatred of sin desire of serving God in sincerity are thrust by an evil Spirit that hath deceived them into pride self love rashness unnatural affection uncharitable surmises and most unchristian judgment of their Brethren N. C. Methinks you judg and that very hardly of others C. See your partiality and that fond Affection you have to your selves and one to another Those are none of my words but were long ago spoken by several Ministers of yours who had some scruples indeed about Ceremonies yet never left our Church against those that separated from it then as you do now Is not this to reject that very thing when it comes out of our mouths which you readily receive when you hear it from one of your own But as to the business of Judging others since you mention it and it is so much talkt of I openly declare that I judg no man in things indifferent as you are wont to do and as the Jews judged the Gentiles and St. Paul himself But it is not indifferent whether a man be humble modest and peaceable or not Such I may censure who for instance are disobedient to Authority and despise their Betters and Governors And it is your great fault to censure even those that are obedient and in things which they profess to believe to be indifferent Is it like good Christians think you to call those Superstitious Will-worshippers Complices of the Beast who declare they do not believe any Ceremony they use to be any part of Divine Worship nor necessary circumstances of it but that they may be altered by Authority to which they are bound to yield Obedience And in the mean time to cry out on those who reprove you for down-right Opposition to Authority for clamour evil-speaking apparent pride and such like things which the Laws of Christ judg and condemn and tell us are manifest fruits of the flesh You cannot think so sure unless your understandings be so strangely blinded by the love of your selves that the clearest Truth cannot enter if it shew you your errors Indeed if a man merely omits to do those things that are commanded but is not unruly cross clamorous an opposer of Laws a maker of Parties and separate Congregations nor in any other behaviour unchristian I think I ought to leave him to be judged by Christ who searches the secrets of mens hearts and who only can tell whether it be Weakness of understanding Interest Humour Love of reputation and such like Reasons that keep him from obeying Laws or pure Conscience and invincible Ignorance But if he be turbulent a railer or reviler a slighter of human Laws and a Blasphemer of Dignities if he be one that makes Divisions and Offences i. e. Sehisms in the Church not I but the Apostle judges such a man not to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ but of his own belly Which that he may provide for he gives good words flatters the rich and the great and is very compliant with all that he hopes to win to be his followers and friends And he uses also fair speeches or as Mr. Tyndals translation hath it sweet preaching he praises and commends those that follow him he supposes them to be the people of God and pretious ones he extenuates their faults and magnifies their good deeds and so deceives the heart of the Innocents as Mr. Tyndal reads it or of the simple people Read the place in Rom. 16.16 17. where the Apostle not merely bids but beseeches them to mark or observe such men as these and tells you for what end that they might avoid them But how is that possible unless we judg that they are unfit persons for our company and that walk not according to the rule of the Gospel N. C. But you should judg then only for your self and labour to hide and conceal the faults or errors of your Brethren For Love covers a multitude of Sins C. Love is to cover what sins may be covered but some cannot be hid they are so publickly committed and Others may not be hid though they could because the concealment of them will do hurt to themselves and others to the publick and the private Wealth In which case it were both against Piety Charity and Prudence to conceal them And to that pass are things now come among us that in both respects I think your courses are not to be covered First they cannot at least in great part being long since made publick to the world and daily are more and more by your own printing preaching and private instilling them into others Secondly they may not if they could seeing
Christ that now are or ever were N. C. Pray do not say so C. They have granted me that for 1400. years there never was any Church with which we might hold Communion if not with ours And I will prove that there hath been none for these 1668. years N. C. You are strangely bold C. No bolder than Mr. Calvin who will give you good satisfaction if you read the Chapter to which I referred you that the Church of the Jewes in our Saviour's time and the Apostolical Churches afterward tolerated greater Vices in manners and fouler Errors in Doctrine than were in any Church from which in his days a separation was made And I will shew you distinctly either now or when you will require it that those Churches planted and watered by the Apostles had those Corruptions in Doctrine Worship Manners Discipline and Government which cannot be pretended to be in ours And yet there was no separation of some Members from the rest Nay the Apostles notwithstanding all these speak very well in general of some They call them all Believers and Saints And none knew then any other Men of the World and Vnbelievers but Pagans such as did not acknowledg Jesus to be the Lord. N. C. I am loth to give you so great a trouble But I pray answer me one Scripture which seems to be against this when it saith The Apostles separated the Disciples Act. 19.9 C. Admirably argued The Apostles separated the Disciples from those that were not Disciples and therefore we may separate Disciples from Disciples N. C. How say you C. The Apostles I say were sent to preach the Gospel and make Disciples to Christ baptizing them into his Name who believed on him Those who would make profession of Christ they gathered into a new Church from among the Jewes and Pagans who disown'd him And accordingly here in this City having won some to believe and made them Christs Disciples they separated them from the rest of the Jewish Synagogue who blasphemed Christ and would acknowledg no other Religion but that of Moses to be a distinct Society by themselves and no longer Members of the unbelieving Synagogue From whence you would inferr that one Christian is to be separated from another Christian and believers gathered from believers if one part appear to us Pious and the other Vicious Which is just as if the Apostles out of those few Disciples separated from the Jews had made another lesser Church separated from the rest of the Disciples N. C. I see my Error plainly And shall remember hereafter if I can not merely to nibble at the Scripture as you called it but take it altogether But Mr. Bridge affrights us horribly with one place which prophesies he sayes of the greatest separation in the latter dayes that ever was It is in the Revelation where the Spirit cryes Come out of her my people that you be not partaker of her sins There shall be the greatest separation and that provokes the Antichristian party as his words are p. 179. of the Book before mention'd C. I remember them very well Rev. 18.4 But do you still take Mr. Bridge for a Prophet Have I not shown you what a rare Seer he is in the Revelation N. C. I have heard others beside him mention this place Mr. Case I remember gave us this reason to hope that God would be gracious to England Englands Incouragement to wait on God p. 69. and that Babylon should shortly fall because he had begun with such a distinct and audible voice from Heaven to call his people out of Babylon saying Come out of her my people c. Rev. 18.4 her Idolatrous bowings cringings Altars Crosses and cursed Ceremonies false Worship false Doctrine C. You need say no more I have it perfectly in mind as well as you And you were wont I know in those days to believe that they knew the designs of Heaven as well as if they had been Counsellors of State in that kingdom And conceived the News they told you of what was coming as sure and certain as if they had layn in the Bosom of St. John as he did in our Saviour's But I hope by this time you are convinced they were only drowsy dreamers that knew nothing of his Mind And see that they are but like a poor Mouse which having but one hole is easily caught Babylon Babylon was all they had to say then and thither they run now These are the Magical sounds whereby they would astonish you The Mystical words whereby they practise all their Sorceries upon you Stop but your ears against these and you are free from their Enchantments for they can never prove that the Church of England is this Babylon from whence his people are call'd or that she hath taken so much as one sip or kiss'd the Cup of her Fornications N. C. I never askt them indeed to prove this C. No You took it very lovingly upon their word And ran after those whom you fancied and were inamoured of with an implicit Faith as if you had tasted too deep of the Cup your selves If you did but hear them say Mystery Mystery the very word you know in the forehead of the whore presently you bowed to them and thought you were under the teachings of an infallible Spirit And you remember I suppose very well that those two and all the rest of the Ministers that were wont to preach before the Parliament and in the greatest Congregations generally chose their texts out of the Old-Testament seldom out of the New unless it were the Revelation N. C. What of that C. By which means they furnished themselves in an abundant measure with such Comparisons as did them admirable service They could easily contrive it so that they might seem such a select number as the Jewes the peculiar people of God and we like the Aegyptians and Babylonians or what other accursed Nation they pleased And so applying all those places which spoke of them to us and our times they excited in you the same hatred against us that was in the Jews against those Nations and made you think it as necessary to separate from us as for the Jews to come out of Babylon Nay by a wonderful Art or prodigious Inchantment rather which argues your great dulness they first raised your fancies put words into your mouths and taught you to expect all that they had a mind should shortly come to pass and then they made the expectation they had wrought in you an argument that it should come to pass Thus I remember one of your Divines incouraged the Parliament to expect the overthrow of Babylon because said he the General talk throughout the Houshold among the Domesticks is Mr. H. Wilkinson Sermon upon Zach. 18.19 pag. 21. that Christ their King is coming to take possession of his Throne This they not only whisper but speak publickly Now you know before Kings go to a place their purpose is first known among
perpetual in the Church as we read in Mr. Cottons Catechism Now having devised these things to name no more I observe that the Covenant in the same Church is in one and the same Form of words as well as matter and therefore put into writing and must be read by the party to be admitted or he must hear it read by some other and give his Assent to it Here is not only a Form of Holy Covenant a principal point of worship as W. R. notes invented by one or more men but imposed upon others even as many as enter into the Church and more than that to be read upon a Book What is this better or how is it more lawful than a set form of prayer especially since this Covenant is imposed as an Ordinance of God and absolutely necessary so as no Book-Prayer I think is I find also that by this Covenant the Members in some places †Church of Salem in New-Engl were restrained and tyed up from shewing their gifts in speaking or scrupling till they were called thereto that is they being allowed to prophesie publickly and so to propound questions and make objections which they call Scrupling they bound them up in this Covenant which had the force of Law from doing it uncall'd I would fain know whether this be not to limit the Spirit as you speak and to stint it to times as you say we do it to words For if a man be never so full he must have no vent without a call from the Church And how I pray you doth this differ from an Ecclesiastical Canon as to it's force and obligation but only that it hath another name and all old Canons must be lay'd aside to make way for this new Covenant They tell us also expresly that the Magistrate may compel men to keep their Covenant though not to enter into it †Ib. Narration of Church Courses cap. 15. And for spreading of infectious Doctrines Mr. Wheelwright a Minister and Mrs. Hutchinson a pretended Prophetess were banished the Countrey Several of their followers also were some imprisoned some fined some disfranchised some banished and all disarmed for petitioning the Court in behalf of Mr. Wheelwright and remonstrating with due submission so their words were that they conceived he deserved no such censure a Proceedings of the General Court holden at New-Town Oct. 2. 1637. and the Apology in defence of the proceedings holden at Boston 1636. And great many more remarkable things there are in that story which I cannot stand to recite But must proceed to tell you that as for others who are not of their way there is just no liberty at all For as they will not grant communion to members of other Churches not constituted as they are so if a company of approved godly people should sit down near them where their power reaches differing from them only in some points of Church Government some of them tell us not only that they shall not be owned as a sister Church but also be in danger of severe punishment by the Civil Magistrate b Narration c. cap. 10. N. C. What is all this to our Independents C. They extol both the Men and the wayes of New-England to the Skyes and therefore approve of them I suppose not only as good but as excelling all other The Men they say have testified their sincerity to all generations future by the greatest undertaking except that of our Father Abraham viz. leaving this Countrey to go thither meerly to worship God more purely c Apologetical Narration 1643. pag. 5. And as for their wayes and practices they are improved to a better Edition and greater refinement than those of other Reformed Churches d Ib. which makes it reasonable to believe that when they Covenanted to reform according to the example of the best Reformed Churches they had New-England in their eyes as their pattern For those General words as Mr. Feak e Beam of Light p. 25. rightly observes left it under suspence and undetermined which of the Reformed Churches had obtained the highest degree of Reformation The Scots and their Friends judged the Kirk of Scotland the best Reformed the Dissenting Brethren approved the Reformation of New-England to be most excellent But be this as it will we have learn't thus much from what hath been related that the Churches of a better Edition and greater refinement do not think it unlawful to use forms in Gods holy Ordinances unto which they bind those who come under their Power restraining them also from opening their mouths when perhaps they think themselves full of the Spirit and denying leave to others to set up a different way from theirs in their Neighbourhood As for our Independents I can shew from their Books that they think it necessary to be as severe in a great many Cases 〈◊〉 and I remember as heavy complaints of them as ever they made of the Presbyterians and have been told that they daily spet their renom privately and publickly against those that separated from them a Vanity of the present Churches p. 3. and 11. c. N. C. It will be too long to relate all those things But I would fain know how this will stand with Christian Liberty C. Do you think that it consists in being tyed to no Law at all N. C. None but Gods C. Take heed what you say N. C. In matters of worship I mean C. That 's absurd as I have shewn you Gods Law hath only given us the general rules whereby things to be ordered in the Church according to which our Governors are to make particular Laws and we are to obey them or else there will be nothing but confusion Yet still our Christian Liberty remains because First we are not tyed to this or that pattern or Model but our Governors have liberty to establish whatsoever being in it self indifferent shall seem to them most expedient for maintaining comliness and Order And secondly when any orders are established this is our Liberty as our Divines teach you that we do not use them as any part of Divine Worship as some of you do nor as meritorious and satisfactory nor as necessary to justification or salvation but only for discipline and good Orders sake And lastly by consequence the same Authority may alter them and hath not so tyed up it self to them but that it is at liberty to abolish those in case of inconvenience arising and establish others in the room But such a Liberty as leaves men loose from all Laws and Orders save those that they shall chuse themselves is a wild fancy which your Ministers condemn as well as ours Mr. Dury for instance a very moderate Presbyterian tells the Independent Brethren We must expect no such Liberty as shall break the Bond of Spiritual Unity which by the allowance of a publick tolleration of a different Church Government may be occasioned To keep therefore Unity intire a few must
things were observable C. True but you see the men of that Spirit will not regard excellent things if they be said by those whom they do not love Mr. Bernard in his reply I think hath given a true description of them Schismaticks are headstrong they will not see evident conviction Preface to plain Evidences and Answer to the Fore-speech as Mr. Ainsworth terms it Published by Authority 1610. Self-love makes them judge the best of themselves but their want of Charity very badly of others They beguile themselves with shews of Piety heat of affection and with a strong apprehension of things greatly amiss in others These they can see with both eyes themselves with neither Our arguments against them are Paper shot but their weakest reasons against us if themselves may judg are shot of Cannon They despise every mans endeavour against them and are in admiration of their own works Let any man confer with them and he shall hear it I my self have sufficient experience of it All opposing their way are men in their judgment that have no grace rebellious against the Light They are presumptuous in censuring and may give sentence against all men and all Churches in the World but none may give judgment of them I heartily wish you all less pride and more humility less dislike of others and more charity with greater dislike of your selves the want whereof is the present enemy to lovely Unity that ever accompanies true Piety which many pretend but few truly enjoy And so farewel N. C. Do you hear pray come back C. Will you never have done what 's the matter now N. C. I have but one word more You must not pass too hard a censure upon some Ministers who come not to Church You know they cannot appear openly because of the Act which forbids them to be in Cities Market-Towns c. C. And yet they are there notwithstanding that Act and kept meetings against another Act which was lately in force Why may they not appear any where in those places as well as in one In God's house as well as their own or yours In the face of all the people as well as before a party separated from the rest You are a fine Advocate indeed who now have confessed they are more afraid of the punishment whatsoever they say than of the Sin of disobedience For they break the Law wheresoever they are in those prohibited Cities or Towns and they would but break it if they were at Church only it would be less N. C. I will stay you no longer I did not think of this when the other came into my mind C. I believe it You are not wont to lay thing together and then search them to the bottom But you think as you talk suddenly in a rambling manner without any coherence which would never trouble me at all you may think and speak as you please if you were not so conceited of your selves as if you were the most knowing people that must give Law and Religion to all others N. C. There are those can talk as well as you C. No doubt of it Let them therefore endeavour to mend the rest And remember them of such passages as these in your Books which once they allowed of No man endowed with right Reason An Alarm by way of Answer to the last warning piece p. 15. Licensed by Mr. John Downam with this sentence praefixed Ye shall have one Ordinance both for the stranger and for him that is born in the Land but will say there is a necessity of a Government if of a Government then of an Uniformity else it will be confused Therefore there is a neoessity to suppress all CONVENTICLES and that all men should observe such Order Time Place and publick Gesture as the Parliament by the Advice of the Assembly shall appoint And no man that hath any use of Conscience in any thing but will acknowledge he is bound in Conscience to obey the Laws of the Land in which he lives in all indifferent things Or he is turbulent and deserves censure even for matters concerning Worship He that hath the use of Conscience will make Conscience of the duties of both Tables as well as one There is doubtless a Conscience towards God and a Conscience towards man This was the Apostles practice and must be our Rule Act. 24.16 I exercise my self to have alwayes a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward men Once more Farewel N. C. I thank you THE END
are from it N. C. What shall a man do then C. He must observe these Rules of that Good man 1. Keep all main Truths which are most plainly set down in the Word or by the Law of Nature ingraven on every mans heart 2. Believe every thing truly and necessarily gathered by an immediate consequence from the Text. 3. Follow evident examples fit for him either as a Christian or his special calling requires 4. Avoid that which is plainly forbidden or follows necessarily by an immediate consequence 5. Follow true Antiquity and the General practice of the Church of God in all ages where they have not erred from the evident Truth of God 6. If thou sufferest saith he let it be for known Truth and against known wickedness for which thou hast example in Gods word or of the holy Martyrs in Church story But beware of far fetcht consequences or of suffering for new devices and for things formerly unto all Ages unknown seem they never so holy and just unto man N. C. But what if the thing commanded seem to me a sin C. He answers some things sinfully commanded may be obeyed without sin as Joab obeyed David in numbring the People Secondly Consider how dost thou conceive it to be sin Is it simply so Shew me the prohibition else where no Law is there is no Transgression Or is it so accidentally that is in the abuse which may be removed or in respect of the Ignorance of the Lawfulness making thee to doubt and fear to offend Use all diligence for resolution And if it be not a known sin to thee certainly but only by probability consider whether probability of sinning may give thee a sufficient discharge for not obeying a plain Precept and to neglect necessary Duties otherwise both to God and man N. C. Would you have me do things while I am full of scruples whether I may or no Doth not the Scripture say whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Rom. 14.23 C. He takes no notice of that place But since you mention it I 'le give you an Answer not from my self Mr. John Geree Resolution of 10. Cases Licensed by Mr. Cranford 1644. whose judgment you value not much but from a Divine who we are told suffered much under the Bishops Things wherein doubts arise saith he are of a double Nature First Such as are meerly arbritary and at mine own dispose These may be left undone without scruple but not done with it because the inconvenience of Omission is but a little self-suffering Such are the things the Apostle speaks off forbearing the use of our Liberty in eating flesh or the like case If a man doubt whether he may do that or whether he may play at Tables or Cards the omission here being no more but only denying our selves a little content the doubt should make a man forbear But then there are other things that are not arbitrary but under a command as coming to the Sacrament obedience to the higher powers in things lawful Now if scruples arise about these and a man doubts he sins if he act and he also doubts he sins if he forbear it is neither clear that the thing to be done is sinful and so to be forborn nor perfectly clear that it is a duty and so to be done In this case he must weigh the Scales and where the Soul apprehends most weight of reason that way he must incline though the other scale be not altogether empty And this done after humble and diligent search with bewailing our infirmity that we are no more discerning will be accepted of God God puts not his people on necessity of sinning nor can our scruples dispense with his commands N. C. Sometime I think this is clear and solid Reason but many Friends think otherwise and I am loth to offend them by doing these things which our Governors require C. But consider First they may take offence when none is given Bern. Counsels of Peace and then the fault is their own and you not chargeable therewith Secondly the Question is whether they be offended in respect of what themselves know or but led by affection disliking of other mens dislike Intreat the former to let thee abound for such things in thy own sense and shew them that herein you may Brotherly disagree for the latter inform their judgment if they will yield to reason If not then consider Thirdly whether thou art bound to nourish up such men in their folly and to respect their partial affection being more carried away with an overweening of some mens persons than any thing at all with the right understanding of the cause And then Fourthly consider the power of the Magistrate and whether his Authority commanding do not take away the offence which might otherwise be given by a voluntary Act. And Lastly that a man should not stand more upon avoiding dislike in private persons than offence to publick Authority as I said before But alas as he saith at the end of his Book †Separatis Schism adjoyn'd to the other p. 161. Charity and such like graces are far to seek now adaies Men on all hands judge of things perversly This they will allow and that again humourously they will not like That which maybe justly done well without offence thereat will others be unjustly offended Things doubtful men take sinisterly yea they dare censure what they never saw condemn as ill what they knew not suspect where they have no cause gain-say where there ought to be no contradiction partial to themselves and rigorous towards others Authority will rule thus and so Subjects will obey with Exceptions Judgment from the word is not so much a Guide as will and affection in too many are made Masters These be ill dayes and contentious unhappy times in which men either will do that they will do of themselves or else fall to humour parties not simply receiving a love of the truth for the truths sake and so come to pertakings which doth but increase contention till all come to confusion except the Lord in his great mercy prevent the same N. C. And turn us all to a more moderate course and there keep us C. You have read the Book for those are the words that follow N.C. No. But I think there is much of truth in what he sayes and it had been well if his Counsels had been then followed C. Alas they who were chiefly concern'd in them were so far from following them that they took no farther notice of them than only to revile him that wrote them N. C. Methinks none should be so brutish C. It is as I tell you Mr. Ainsworth making an answer to this Book wholly omitted these Counsels of Peace save only that he once mention'd them with this haughty censure that perhaps the Author knew no more than Caiphas what he said Such men will not grant us able to say any good thing N. C. But his was an acknowledgment the