been injurious to humanity it self if I had thought such men as incredible as some have now declared themselves in Print to be I scarcely now believe any meer humane History any farther than the agreement of men of contrary minds and interests in matters of common and easie notice giveth a kind of natural evidence to it beyond what it borroweth from the honesty of the Writer or at least farther than the footsteps of very great Candor Conscience and unbyassed impartiality shall speak more for my belief than the Authors most confident words or Oaths And herein modest men and disinterested Peace-makers are now believed by me before all the greatest the learned'st and the most zealous Contenders in the world Davids saying that All men are Lyars and Pauls Let God be true and every man a Lyar were too much overlooked by me till men themselves had told me what they are and warned me to cease from man as vanity Mr. Danvers his accusations were partly of such publick parties the ancient Churches the Novatians the Donatists the old Brittains the Waldenses the Wickliffians c. and partly of such publick Writings as Augustines and many others as one would think any Scholar that will read the cited Books might soon see whether he or I be the falsifyer especially about a practical matter in which their Judgments could not easily be hid from all the Adversaries about them no more than from those of their own mind and way His accusation of the Novatians he neither defendeth that I see nor confesseth to be a slander but silently passeth all the matter by His Accusation for such it is of the rest for the most part at least he still defendeth He cannot Repent of it and I can no more believe him when I have read the Books that are our Records than I can if he would as fiercely contend that the Bishops or Church of England are Anabaptists because of his accusation of the now Bishop of Lincoln But should I be so injurious to the Reader and my self as to cast away precious time in again and again answering his untrue Citations and expositions of words which are before our eyes and which neither his word or mine can satisfie any Reader of who must know the truth by the Books themselves when he tells men of my writing for Popery Conformity c. can his yea or my nay go for proof with any that is in doubt which of us saith true Must not the perusal of the full words decide the Case And so it must as to his Accusations of the several Churches and Parties in questions And if his Believers would be perswaded that the Welsh Tongue is the common Language of England if he do but vehemently affirm it and revile such as contradict him I could not help it nor must I write books about it as long as he hath leisure Ink and Paper to hold on His Exclamations of the unsatisfactories of these general answers or refusals shall not tempt me to cast away the little relicts of my time in numbring and disproving all the Vntruths that he hath written and will write By what Law am I condemned to such a Drudgery The very first Paragraph of this his third Reply hath more than one or two But the chief substance of his Book is his reiterated accusation of my words in my first Book that many then Baptized naked for which as a heynous Calumny I must Repent Readers my Conscience telleth me that Repentance is such an excellent healing Duty that I shall loath my self so far as I find my self unwilling of it But is it possible for a man to Repent of all that the several contradicting Sects Papists Quakers Anabaptists c. call him to Repent of when that is best with one side which is the worst to divers others We are openly agreed 1. That the Baptizing naked is not the usual way of the Anabaptists in England 2. That it was not the way of the most of them when I wrote that book 3. That we heard of none with us in England that for any considerable time continued it The Questions remaining are 1. Whether when I wrote those words the common Fame or Report of the Countrey where I lived took it not for as certain that divers then in some places did it as the most Scriptural way as that the Quakers Quaked and that the Ranters Swore 2. Whether ever any Anabaptist that then was acquainted with me yea or any one person denyed it to my hearing or knowledge 3. Whether Mr. Tombes denyed it when I wrote it All these I will no farther trouble the Reader about than to tell him that he neither doth or can disprove me and should I recant what I said of these three questions I must tell three downright Lyes And is that a safe way of Repenting 4. But let the question be whether I did well to believe it I answer I believed it not as a Divine Revelation but as a Humane Report which constrained a proportionable belief which it was not in my power to deny 5. But should I not yet disbelieve it Answer I am more willing to do it than not but I am not able I do believe according to the measure of the aforesaid evidence that it is a Truth I cannot believe the contrary I hear not a word to warrant me to disbelieve it it is not in my power and I must not lie to say that I believe it not 6. But the next Question is Did I not say more or mean more at least than that it was but at that time the practise of many but not of most or their ordinary way and that I knew it no otherwise than by uncontradicted Fame Answer Either I did say or mean more or I aid not If I did I hereby renounce it and declare that I wronged them If I did not as I know I did not to say I did were to lie and is it worthy his writing a Book to tempt a man to lie If he will prove that I said more the words must decide it if that I meant more he is not to be believed of my heart as if he knew it better than I. But he proveth it that I intended them all contrary to my most express words 1. He saith it is my scope and design 2. From my Arguments which take in the whole Party 3. From the Instance c. Reader If I were to teach a man to understand my book before he wrote against it I should have some little hope of true dealing in his Report how weak soever his Arguing were But when I must deal with a man that understandeth not plain English because partiality will not suffer him and will not learn to understand what he doth not and yet cannot forbear a publick contradicting it till he understand it would it not be a slavery to be tyed to write against such a man as long as he would write should I live
on supposition of the Parents fidelity it had done though still at age they may be accepted upon Repentance and personal Belief Of which Mr. Whiston hath written more judiciously than any on that point that I remember Also I have been hereby made thankful that God kept me from the snare of Anabaptistry for though I lay not so much as some do on the meer outward act or water of Baptism believing that our heart consent and dedication qualifieth Infants for a Covenant Right before actual Baptism which yet is Christs regular solemnization and investiture yet I make a great matter of the main Controversie notwithstanding that I hereticate not the Anabaptists for the bare opinion sake nor would have them persecuted for now I better see than ever what God hath thus preserved me from 1. How much else might I have been led to that tendeth towards the denying the Kingdom of Christ and denying him to be the Saviour of the world yea how neer might I have been led towards the making him to be the Destroyer or Abaddon as comeing into the World to condemn the world and to take from them the Promises and Hopes of Salvation For 1. I find that all are lost in Adam and that God made an Vniversal Covenant of Grace with fallen mankind in Adam after his fall and renewed it with Noah I find that it is but a small part of the world that had the Law of Moses the Jews being to the earth but as one Village to England and to be King but of a Village is not to be King of England I find that the making of Abraham's or Moses his Covenant was no repeal of the Vniversal Law of Grace nor put them into a worse condition than he found them in And I find that past all doubt Infants were Church-members and in the Covenant before Christs Incarnation not only the Circumcised but the Uncircumcised Females and all the Uncircumcised Males in the Wilderness yea and out of the Jewish Nation as well as in it though the Covenant of Peculiarity was proper to them And yet notwithstanding all this I find 1. that many now do exclude all the world out of Christs Kingdom before his Incarnation except the Jews or at least a few rare individuals more when Abraham hoped there had been fifty Righteous in Sodome 2. That the same men suppose that since Christs Incarnation the old Law of Grace made to mankind in Adam and Noah is repealed and they that cannot have the Gospel are left under the meer Law of Innocency or none 3. And that all mankind in their Infant state is put or left out of the Church of Christ and the Covenant of Life And had I been seduced into all this 1. To hold that for 4000 years Christ had a Kingdom no bigger than England 2. That he came to deprive all the world that have not his Gospel of the former Law of Grace that was made to them 3. And that he came to cast out of their Church-state or Covenant-mercies all mankind while they are Infants and to leave us no hope that is grounded on his Covenant or Promise of any Infants Salvation or any description or condition whatsoever Alas what should I have been led to and what guilt against Christ and of furthering Infidelity should I have incurred under the pretense of promoting the purity of his Kingdom II. And if God had thus left me I had been likely as I see by others to have gone yet farther and narrowed the Gospel Church it self so much as to have confined it to the Anabaptists or to have thought all the rest of the Christian world uncapable of Church Communion I might have come to revile the Doctrine of Gods gracious Promise or Covenant to our Children as Absurd and Heretical and when Gratitude is the complexion of Gospel obedience this Ingratitude might have been mine III. And then I should likely have been left to a proud over-valuing of my own Opinion and the singularity of my Wisdom and Integrity as quite beyond all the Christian worlds that differ from me And out of a selfish unobserved adherence to my own conceits to have magnified the Sect that was of my own mind above all others IV. And then I might have been seduced to have had a hand in all the Turnings and Overturnings setting up and pulling down Praying and Unpraying Owning and Disowning Bloody dayes and Thanksgivings for them that were since Triplo Heaths-Parliament till 1660. and more than so to have justified them in others yea and that after Gods most remarkable disowning them yea and to have abhorred and derided the very name and motion of Repentance for them and to have despised the Religious Retreat of Nath. Ward a wise though jocular Interpendent though Repentance be the only Plank after Shipwrack and the great and merciful concession of the Gospel V. I might have been drawn hereby to divide Christs Kingdom and to set up Antichurches whose employment should be to cry down others and draw men into odious thoughts of one another and to destroy Christian Love and Concord in the world VI. And hereby I might have been one that prepared Professors to turn Quakers Seekers or Ranters to have finished the work that I began VII I might have been tempted to do all this as in the Name of Christ and for his Truth Word and Church and so to have entitled God to all and put his holy Name to these works of Darkness and pretended his own Commission for my opposing him VIII I might have been tempted hereby to write Letters as long and vehement as yours in as orâ—â—â—cal and pious a strain which should have been bâ—â—… birth of my ignorance and self-conceit and made â—… of Hypocrisie all along pretending that I am offended with my Adversary for want of an Answer or proof when indeed it were the success of his Answers Cogent Proofs prevailing with multitudes against my Opinion that was the true cause of my anger and when partiality had filled my heart with bitterness against my Brother for such success I might have been drawn to cover all from my self and others by accusing him of fieryness or folly in generals and by summoning him to Repentance and Recantation as the Quakers do by the dreadful Tribunal of God when I cannot resist the Scripture evidence which he bringeth IX And I might have been tempted when once Prepossession Prejudice Interest of Reputation had engaged me to so bad a cause to have studyed all that I can rake together to maintain it and to have stretch'd all my wits to have opposed all that is brought against it and to have made it the chief work and Religion of my life in which my thoughts affections time and industry should be laid out to carry on this mistaken and destructive cause and to keep the Churches of Christ from Loving-Unity Communion and Peace till they will all unite against Infants Church-membership and Baptism
1660. the Ministers of London consented so to do to would I do again on the same terms And that if my Nonconformity did consist only in the contrary I should have little reason to blame the Conformists for the sharp Censures which they write against me He keepeth constantly in his way and addeth It is confidently affirmed by some that Mr B. hath lately in Hartfordshire or Buckinghamshire in order to obtain the Pulpit where he several times Preached in publick read the Common prayer or at least some part of it out of the Service book Answ 1. Who is it that this man converseth with whose confident reports he published Are his Reporters infected with his Disease 2. Why doth he Print this confident Report if not to be believed And if so alas will he put no bounds to this sin while he thinks that he cryeth down our sin I thank God for my time strength and liberty I did preach fourteen times in several Parish Churches of those Counties after thirteen years exclusion from the Pulpits of such Churches and it is not in the power of this mans pen to make me repent of it But in all those times I never read either one word of Common-prayer nor one Chapter or Psalm save once when I Preached where there was no one to Read I read the Scripture as I would have done at home Will not the presence of thousands of witnesses secure a man from the forgery of any unnamed Slanderer No it will not As after our Savoy Conference untruths were Printed against me contrary to the most notorious evidence of Writings and Witnesses so sometimes where I Preach in London it is not the multitude of Witnesses that secureth me from the gross false reports of this kind of Auditors who have not so much kindness for their own souls as either to stay away or forbear their untruths No wonder then if witnesses at 26 years or 26 miles distance or neer be no security against such a one as Mr. Danvers or his confident Reporters He adds Though it is also said that he hath obtained that publick liberty by vertue of a License he hath from the Arch Bishop of Canterbury But whether it be one formerly granted by him when the Bishop of London before the Act of Conformity when by the Bishop of Worcester he was Silenced in those parts or since is worthy inquiry Answ It 's like you have enquired and found that it was the former if not I tell you now But to some it is almost as hard to believe a Truth that is against their Spleen as to speak it He next saith as the Exposition of my Sufferings viz. To fly from his place and Charge if not to avoid the Cross of Christ and to shun a suffering Witness when so loudly call'd thereto Answ 1. Did you hear his case or do you judge before you hear it 2. These Passages are too conformable to the rest How prove you that it was a flight How prove you that it was from my Charge Reader it is fifteen years since I had any Charge of any one Congregation more than over the rest of the Land unless my dwelling made my Neighbours become my Charge I had no Charge of any but my Family there unless my great Charge in Preaching to them for nothing and paying assistant c. and building a place in hope of more such Labour made them my Charge And if I give an hundred pounds to one man when I owed him no more than others doth that make him for the future become my Charge And how proveth he that I was lowdly called to suffer Or that it was the Cross of Christ that I avoided This man is against dictating I would he were more against untruths My Sufferings have been enough to shew what men are that procured them but to me so small that except my restraint from Preaching I account them not worthy of the name of the Cross But yet I will hope that he will so far suspend his Custome as not to say that any Sectarian Preacher in England Anabaptist or Separatist to go no farther that lost not his Life hath lost more of the World by his meer Non-conformity than I have done He sends my Conscience here to divers Scriptures 2 Cor. 6. 4 5 6. Acts 20. 11 12 13. Mat. 10. 38 39. John 10. 12 13. Mat. 23. 2 3 4. I am willinger to hear these Texts than him I suppose he meaneth not those that I before minded Mr. Hutchinson of of Christs early flight into Aegypt or his oft avoiding the Jews in Nazareth and other parts of Galile the Wilderness c. nor his bidding us when Persecuted in one City flee to another nor Pauls being let down the Wall by a Basket nor the scattering of the Disciples by the Persecution at Jerusalem nor Pauls Circumcising Timothy non his shaving his Head for his Vow nor his Appeal from the Jews to Caesar nor his crying out that he was a Pharisee nor his denying that he had done any thing against the Temple or the Law nor any such like And if he condemn Christ and Paul it will be no suffering to them The first Text tells us that Paul in much Patience bare Afflictions Necessities Distresses Stripes Imprisonments c. Answ What thence Is it Ergo R. B. did ill to come out of the Goal when he was put in Or that he did ill not to put himself in again Did Paul sin for not scourging and imprisoning himself The next Text speaketh of Pauls Preaching till midnight Ergo R. B. should not Preach in the Summer in the Country I deny the Consequence It may be he meant Acts 21. 13. Paul was ready to be bound or die at Jerusalem What thence Ergo he sinned in avoiding suffering oft before Or Ergo R. B. should not have gone into the Countrey either for Health or Preaching yea if it had been in case of danger to have Preached to many instead of fewer that had often heard him I deny the Consequence The next Text tells us that we must take up our Cross and follow Christ c. And what thence Ergo we must make our own Cross and take up that instead of Christs Or Ergo Christ sinned in avoiding the Cross so oft before Or Ergo R. B. must go into a Prison that he may give over Preaching the Gospel I deny all these What kin are they to the Text Have all the Anabaptists and Separatists lived all this while in sin that lived out of Prison or that have had maintenance and quietness while R. B. hath been laid in the common Goal and hunted by one sort and reviled by the other Why will not the persecution of your Pen or Tongue prove a comfortable suffering for the Truth as well as if I pleased your Spleen in preferring a chosen Prison before a Pulpit The next Text tells us that the Hireling deserts the Sheep by fleeing Thus the Quakers also talk