Church of Ephesus is commended because she cannot suffer those that do evil Melancthon's milde nature when spiritualized and quickned by grace drew forth the commendation of an Enemy but being left unto it self gave occasion to his friend to complain And here saith Mr. Brightman Quinetiam tuam fidem diligentiam sancte Philippe desidero Brightman in Apoc. cap. 3. relating to the springing and spreading gangrene of Consubstantiation I find thee wanting O holy Philip Luther at times is too angry Melancthon sometimes is too remiss The anger of the Old-man is a sin the anger of the New-man is a duty Jacob curseth the anger of the Patriarchs God blesseth the zeal of Phineas The Sanctuary cannot want the fire which is from heaven neither may it be touched with the fire which is from hell Gentleness of disposition when actuated by Christ makes us so much the more acceptable and profitable unto man But if the Spirit withdraweth his assistance we fall short of reaching Gods ends and the seasonable suppression of exorbitancie In which respect if this good man had always had that voice sounding in his heart which one wished that mild Lantgrave of Hessen might have heard from the Smiths forge Duresce duresce utinam Lantgravius durescat haply there are that think some disorders disturbances and irregularities might have been prevented by Gods blessing But ordinarily and in matters of greatest weight the Lord was with him Though his forbearance was both observable and very imitable in the things that concerned himself yet he could not forbear them whom he knew to be evil An experience whereof we saw concerning some Heterodox spirits who by their specious discourses of Free-grace and subdolous concealings of their principles so far deceived him into a better opinion of them then there was cause as that notwithstanding they fathered their Errors upon him in general and abused his Doctrine to the countenancing of their denial of Inherent grace in particular yet he was slow to believe these things of them and slower to bear witness against them But so soon as the truth herein appeared to him hear his own words taken out of his Letter written to Mr. Davenport The truth is saith he the body of the Island is bent to backsliding into error and delusions The Lord pity and pardon them and me also who have been so slow to see their windings and subtile contrivances and insinuations in all their transactions whilst they propagated their Opinions under my Expressions diverted to their constructions Yea such was his ingenuity and piety as that his soul was not satisfied without often breaking forth into affectionate bewailing of his infirmity herein in the publick Assembly sometimes in his Prayer sometimes in his Sermon and that with tears He was a man of an ingenuous and pious candor rejoicing His Candor as opportunity served to take notice of and testifie unto the gifts of God in his brethen thereby drawing the hearts of them to him and of others to them both to their encouragement and the edification of many He did not think himself a loser by putting honor upon his Fellow-Elders but was willing they should communicate with him in the esteem and love of the people He was not only a son of peace enjoying the continual feast of a good conscience with serenity and tranquillity of affections at home but also a Peace-maker qualified by the graces forementioned to be a choice Instrument in the hand of the Prince of Peace amongst the Churches Where if any differences arose he was ready being called thereunto to afford his help for the composing of them and had a singular faculty and ability therein by that excellent wisdom and moderation of spirit which God in Christ had given him whose blessing also did ordinarily crown his endeavours with good success He was one the reality of whose profession gave cause His Hospitality unto many to blesse the Author of Christian Religion for the kindness of the Lord shewed unto all sorts by him His Portion in the things of this Life exempted him from being an object of Envy in that behalf But yet behold quantum ex quantillo so much communicated out of so little we may not here be altogether silent concerning the Grace of God bestowed upon him whereby to his power yea above his power he was beneficient unto others but especially to those of the houshold of Faith The Gospel opened his heart his lips and the doors of his House A Bishop then must be given to Hospitality apt to teach as we have seen him Didactical so you shall find him Hospital He well remembred that there is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that withholdeth more then is meet but it tendeth to poverty The liberal Soul shall be made fat Among others his Fellow-laborers in the Ministry were entertained with peculiar contentment To reminde all instances would take up time by some of many take his spirit in the rest So it was A Minister to spare his name which had gotten into the fellowship of that eminent man Mr. Arthur Hildersham and many other godly Preachers being acquainted with their secrets betrayed him into the Prelates hands who coming to Boston and meeting with Mr. Cotton this Gaius had not the heart to speak to him nor to invite him unto his house which he said he never did to his knowledg unto any stranger before much less to any of his own order It was the modesty of others not from any deficiencie in him why the Proverb occasioned by that Corinthian was not applicable also unto his dwelling There is always some body at Cydon's heuse Vir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Semper aliquis in Cydonis dome Some years since there was brought unto Boston a report of the Necessity of the poor Saints at Sigataea a little Church whereof the Reverend Mr. White then was and yet is their faithful Pastor which suffered much extremity by reason of the persecution of their then-prevailing adversaries forcing them from Barmudas into the Desart-continent The sound of whose distress was no sooner heard of but you might have heard the sounding of his bowels with many others applying themselves unto a speedy Collection and transporting it to them on purpose for their seasonable relief when after the example of the Churches in Galatia Macedonia Corinth and Rome sending their liberalities unto Jerusalem in the days of the famine foretold by Agabus the same grace abounding in the Churches of these parts they supplied them to the value of about Seven hundred pounds Two hundred pounds whereof were gathered in the Church of Boston no man in the Contribution exceeding and but one equalling the bounty of their then-Teacher It is here remarkable that this Collection arrived there the very day or thereabouts after those poor people were brought to a personal division of that little meal then remaining in the barrel and not seeing according to man but that after the
wherein God purposed to uperadd unto what had formerly been a practical and more notable Testimony against the intermixing of humane inventions with Institutions Divine and to the Gospel Church-worship and Politie in their purity he in his All-wise providence transplants many of his Faithfull servants into this vast Wilderness as a place in respect of it's remoteness so much the fitter for the fuller inquiry after and free exercise of all his holy ordinances and together therewith for the holding forth a pregnant demonstration of the consistency of Civil-Government with a Congregational-way God giveth Moses the pattern of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness Ezekiel seeth the formes of the House in exile John receiveth his Revelation in Patmos Jotham upon mount Gerizim is bold to utter his Apologie And David can more safely expostulate with Saul when he is gotten to the top of Terga conversimetuenda Parthi Seneca the Hill a far off a great space between them The Parthians having learned the Art of shooting backwards made their retreat more terrible then their onset to their Adversaries The event soon shewed the wisdom of God herein the people in a short time clearly understanding that truth in the practice which by dispute they could not in a long time attain unto In order hereunto the God of the Spirits of all flesh stirreth up many of his Faithful ones to leave that pleasant Land their Estates their Kindred their Fathers houses and sail over the Atlantick-Ocean unto this vast Jeshimon Amongst whom this choice-Servant of God with many others graciously fitted for such a Work are sent over to set up the worship of Christ in this desart A service of which the Apologetical brethren may we be permitted to transcribe their apprehension thereof speak thus Last of all we had the recent and later Example of the ways and practices and those improved to a better Edition and greater refinement by all the fore-mentioned helpes of those multitudes of Godly men of our own Nation almost to the number of another Nation and among them some as holy and judicious Divines as this Kingdom hath bred whose sincerity in their way hath been testified before all the world and will be to all generations to come by the greatest undertaking but that of our Father Abraham out of his own country and his seed after him A transplanting themselves many thousand miles distance and that by Sea into a wilderness meerly to worship God more purely whither to allure them there could be no other invitement Exilium causa ipsa jubet mihi dulce videri Beza Eleg. 2. Et desiderium dulce levat patriae Bereaved Exiles ought not to repine When as the cause presents an Anodine The persons spoken of in this Transcript in the recital thereof distinguish between the Act and the Agents This testimony whilst they crave leave to present unto the Reader in way of defence for their undertaking so far as to be of God they are ashamed of themselves the Agents as most unworthy They here read their duty what they ought to be and are not insensible of the goads of the wise provoking them to be according to their duty in the mean while confessing and lamenting their too manifest unanswerable walking unto their Profession and their Brethrens expectation The cause of his departure was this The corruption of The cause of his removal to New-England the Times being such as would not endure his officiating any longer in his station without sin and the envy of his maligners having procured Letters missive to convent him before the High Commission which a debauched Inhabitant of that Town who not long after died of the Plague undertook to deliver to him according as he had already done to some others Mr Cotton having intelligence thereof and well knowing that nothing but scorns and imprisonment were to be expected conformably to the advice of many able heads and upright hearts amongst whom that holy man Mr. Dod of blessed memory had a singular influence he kept himself close for a time in and about London as Luther sometimes at Wittenberg and Paraeus afterwards at Anvilla Neither was that season of his recess unprofitable but as Jerom retired to his den at Bethlehem was an Oracle unto many in his time so Addresses during that interim were made unto him privately by divers persons of worth and piety who received from him satisfaction unto their Consciences in cases of greatest concernment His fliglit was not like that of Pliny's Mice that forsake a house foreseeing the ruine of it or of Mercenaries who flie from duty in time of danger but Providence Divine shutting up the door of service in England and on the other hand opening it in New-England he was guided both by the word and eye of the Lord. And as David yielded upon the perswasion of his men to absent himself from danger so he suffered himself to be perswaded by his friends to withdraw from the lust of his Persecutors for the preservation of so precious a light in Israel after the example of Jacob Moses the Prophets which Obadiah hid in the caves Polycarp Athanasius yea and Christ himself When they persecute you in one City flie unto another Cyprian implieth that a tempestive Flight is a kinde of Confession of our faith it being an open profession that our faith is dearer to us then all that we flie from for the defence thereof It was not a flight from duty but from evident and regularly evitable danger not from the evil of persecution but from the evil of obstruction unto serviceableness It was not a flight from duty but unto duty not from the profession of the Truth but unto a more opportune place for the profession of it Thus this Infant and small Commonwealth being now capacitated both in respect of Civil and Church-estate to walk with God according to the prescript of his Word it was the good hand of the Lord unto his servants who had afflicted their souls to seek of him a right way for themselves their little ones and their substance to send unto them amongst many others this man of understanding that might be unto them as eyes in this wilderness His manner of entrance unto them was with much blessing For at his first coming he found them not without some troubles about setling the matters of the Church and Commonwealth When Mr. Cotton being requested preaching before the General Court out of Haggai 2. 4. Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel saith the Lord be strong O Joshua son of Josedek the High-Priest and be strong all ye people of the land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of Hosts As Menenius Agrippa sometimes by his Oration healed that Liv. histor lib 2. cap. 32. then-threatning breach between the Fathers and the People of Rome so through the Lords working mightily by this Sermon all obstructions were presently removed and the spirits of all sorts as
eating thereof they must die a lingring death for want of food And the same day that their Pastor preached to them it being the Lords-day out of Psal 23. 1. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want At such a time the good hand of the Lord brought this succor to them from afar To give quickly doubleth but to give to the Saints in a time of need trebleth the gift Whilst he was in England his eminent piety success of his His sufferings from men labors interest in the hearts of both superiors inferiors and equals drew much envy upon him and his Non-conformity added thereunto delivered him in a great degree unto the will of his Adversaries whose hour and the power of darkness being come spared not to shoot at him and grieve him not giving over until they had bereaved him of much of his livelihood his liberty Country and therewith of the sweet society of lovers friends and many ways endeared Acquaintance much more precious to him then life it self Yet the measure of the afflictions of Christ in this kind appointed to be suffered by him in the flesh was not fulfilled But lo in the time of his Exile some Brethren we do not say they were not of us being willing to hope better things provoked by the Censure of Authority though justly and not without tears inflicted upon them single out him as a chief object of their displeasure who though above other men declining irregular and unnecessary interesting of himself in the actions of the Magistrate and while opportunity lasted endeavouring their healing yet must now be requited evil for good and that by some of them who were formerly companions with him in the tribulations of this Patmos Respecters of him had taken sweet counsel together and walked in the house of God as friends Hence is he with pen and tongue blasphemed by them for whom he formerly intreated and for whom he both then and afterwards wept and put on sackcloth Such buffetings of Satan though sharp are medicinal at times to the excellent upon earth who by reason of the body of death indwelling must be kept weak that they may be made strong Since this time also some reverend learned and godly men haply in zeal against the Congregational-way sharpened their style against him Which if it be the truth as we believe it is their speaking so much ad hominem especially to such a man whose love to any good man much exceeded their displeasure to him argueth too much of man Howsoever he was then a sufferer for the Truth In which respect the pious and ingenuous spirit of learned Mr. Rutherford though in pursuance of the Truth he disputes ad idem and with strength which is his praise and acceptable yet he professedly carrieth it as to a Brother not to an Adversary There is an excess in too much salt and not a little to be complained of in personal and causeless aspersions from good men That smarts these defile That makes less comfortable these tend us to make us unprofitable Roses are not without their pricks The Archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and were displeased with him but his Bowe abode in strength the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob From thence is the Shepherd and the Stone of Israel An honest-minded man Plutarch de capienda ex hostibus utilitate libellus saith Xenophon gets by enmity And Plutarch writes a Treatise concerning benefiting by our Enemies adorning his discourse with that of Jason of Thessaly whose Enemy stabbing him and intending his death only opened an ulcer otherwise incurable and so saved his life If men without God in the world having only star-light and scarce so much as seeing men walk like trees only feeling after the Lord have thus spoken we see the greater encouragement why Christians who are made light by the Father of Light and know Him that is Love may through grace not only speak better but also practise accordingly Job can turn the book written against him by his adversaries into a crown Joseph feeling the benefit of the Patriarchs unkindness is the more readily disposed to forgive that wrong whereby he finds himself made a great gainer He was a good Accomptant who esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Paul takes pleasure in reproaches for Christs sake The best and most peaceable spirits cannot hope to fulfill their course in a Pacifique sea The way of the most excellent lieth through evil report and good report through honor and dishonor To avoid the fouler part of the passage is not in the power of man To walk clean through it To do well and approve himself as a Minister of Christ in suffering ill is all that can be expected from a man of God Erasmus acknowledging some men to do well in In hoc uno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut aiunt conjunctum fuit eximium fuit quicquid in aliis per partes miramur Erasm epistnuncupat praefixa tom 3. epist. Hieron some things will have Hierom to excell in all It was a great Encomium which the German Phenix sometimes gave to Luther I saith he speaking of himself am a Logician Pomeranus is a Grammarian Justus Jonas is an Orator but Luther is all Let it suffice to be said of Mr. Cotton that he was a famous Light in his generation a glory to both Englands and such an one in whom was so much of what is desireable in Man as is rarely to be seem in one Person As concerning any Tenet wherein he may seem singular Remember he was a man and therefore to be heard and read with judgment and haply sometimes with favour Scio me aliter habere apostolos aliter reliquos tractatores c. Hier. ep to 2. ep tua Hierom makes a difference between reading the writings of the Apostles and the Tractates of other Authors They saith he always spake the truth These as men in some things erre Let him but receive with some proportion to the measure that he gave and he will be found no debtor upon that account No man did more placidly bear a Dissentient The Jews unto their own question Why Asa and Iehoshaphat removing the Idols in high places took not also away the Brazen-serpent give this answer The father 's left a place for Hezekiah to exercise his zeal That great Conqueror vainly feared that his Father Philip's victories would deprive the Son of an opportunity to improve his magnanimity Much of the wisdom of God both in the Scripture and Creature is still unseen and it hath been judged but meet that each Age should contribute somewhat toward the fuller discovery of Truth But this cannot be except men of a larger Acumen and greater industry may be permitted to communicate their notions especially whilst as Austin in Non tanquam affirmator sed tanquam scratator Aug. Psal 85.