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<DATE>2008-07-31</DATE>
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<NAME>Olivia Bottum</NAME>
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<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>A SHORT ANSWER To A. S.</P>
<P><HI>ALIAS</HI> ADAM STEWART'S Second part of his <HI>overgrown</HI> Duply to the two <HI>Brethren.</HI></P>
<P>Together with Certaine <HI>difficult</HI> que&s;tions <HI>ea&s;ily</HI> an|&s;wered; All which <HI>A. Stewart</HI> is de&s;ired to con&s;ider of, without replying, unle&s;&s;e it be to purpo&s;e.</P>
<P><HI>A. Steuart</HI> in his &s;econd part of his Duply to the two Brethren. page. 166.</P>
<P>The Civill Magi&s;trate cannot bee Orthodox, and tollerate a new Sect, [hee meanes Independencie, and may as well &s;ay Presbytery] unles hee tollerate us to beleeve that hee is either corrupted by moneys, or &s;ome other waye, &s;o to doe.</P>
<BIBL>Proverb. 12. 13.</BIBL>
<Q>The wicked is &s;nared by the tra&s;gre&s;&s;ion of his lips: but the iu&s;t shall come out of trouble.</Q>
<P>Printed in the Yeare 1644.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="conclusions and parallels">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>THREE OF A STEVART'S <HI>CONCLVSIONS,</HI> with their <HI>PARALELLS,</HI> which are added for better ex|planation of them; their contradicting of them&s;elves and their rebellious Doctrine.</HEAD>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="conclusion">
<HEAD>CONCLUSION. 1.</HEAD>
<P><HI>Pag.</HI> 105. The Supreame Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Judicature it&s;elfe may fear that if they judge any thing ami&s;&s;e, their judgements will not bee ap|proved, and put in execution in perticular Churches; and in all pro|bability they are like to bee cro&s;&s;ed [<HI>iu&s;t as much as Independents aske for, by this en&s;uing Paralell.</HI>]</P>
<DIV3 TYPE="parallel">
<HEAD>PARALELL.</HEAD>
<P>Particular Churches or Congregations may examin the iudgements of the &s;u|preme Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Iudicature, and if they find them to bee ami&s;&s;e&punc; they may refu&s;e to put them in execution, they may cro&s;&s;e them.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="conclusion">
<HEAD>CONCLVSION. 2.</HEAD>
<P><HI>Pag.</HI> 30. The Civil Magi&s;trate is &s;ubject in a &s;pirituall way unto the Church; Hee <HI>mu&s;t</HI> learne Gods will by the Mini&s;ters of the Church who are Gods Amba&s;&s;adours &s;ent to him: Hee <HI>mu&s;t</HI> bee &s;ubject unto Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Cen&s;ures.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="conclusion">
<HEAD>CONCLVSION. 3.</HEAD>
<P><HI>Pag.</HI> 166. What&s;oever the Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Senate or Presbiterie is bound not to tolerate, but mu&s;t &s;uppre&s;&s;e in the Church; That, the Civil Magi&s;trate is bound not to tolerate, but mu&s;t &s;uppre&s;&s;e in the State: Neither is the Civil Magi&s;trate le&s;&s;e bound to put it out of the State; than the Presbyterie is to put it out of the Church&punc; [<HI>Exqui&s;ite Poperie; Pe&s;tilent Doctrine as appeares yet more clearely by this following Paralell.</HI>]</P>
<DIV3 TYPE="parallel">
<HEAD>PARALELL.</HEAD>
<P>If the Presbytery &s;hall think good to excommunicate King or Parliament; the Civil Magi&s;trate, the people in whom the Soveraign power re&s;id<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">s original|ly, <HI>pag. 167.</HI> is ab&s;olved from all obedience, and bound to put them out of the Civil State.</P>
</DIV3>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="quotations">
<PB REF="3">
<HEAD>A TAST OF <HI>A. STEVART'S</HI> EXTRAVAGANCIES and contradictions in the &s;econd part of his Duply to the two Brethren.</HEAD>
<P><HI>Page</HI> 13. The Civill Magi&s;trate [even] as Chri&s;tian, has power not to admit the true Religion, to reject it, yea when it is receaved or approved, and confirmed by his &s;ecular and Civill authority, to re|ject it and exile it. If the Church bee corrupt&punc; and Church Officers negligent in their charge, and will not reforme it [as the Magi&s;trate thinks good;] hee may command, yea compell them to do it. When the Church is reformed, hee may command them, when they are negligent to bee diligent in their charge. If [hee conceave] they op|pres any man in their Eccle&s;ia&s;tical judgements and cen&s;ures&punc; again&s;t the lawes of the Kingdome, hee may de&s;ire them, yea command them to re|ver&s;e their judgements; and in ca&s;e they reforme them not, [againe] command them, yea compel them by his Civill power, to give him &s;a|tisfaction, according to the lawes of the Kingdome&punc; if [hee conceave] they derogate not from the lawes of God, [which neither <HI>Popish</HI> nor <HI>Turkish</HI> Magi&s;trates will acknowledge, though their lawes bee never &s;o contrary to the word of God.]</P>
<P><HI>Page.</HI> 166. The Civill Magi&s;trate if hee follow Gods word cannot grant a tolleration [of Independent Churches] without con&s;ent of the Church, if hee judge it is not corrupted: [as if the Church being cor|rupted; the Magi&s;trate may bee corrupt too, and tolerate what hee will.]</P>
<P><HI>Page.</HI> 47. How be it, The Church compel not to &s;ub&s;cribe; yet the Civill Magi&s;trate after &s;ufficient conviction may compell to &s;ub&s;cribe or to begon. <HI>Pag.</HI> 179. What power hath the King or Parliament to intrude and force upon the Kingdome new religions or a tolleration of all Sects? the Parliament a&s;&s;ume no &s;uch power unto it &s;elfe.</P>
</DIV1>
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<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB N="1" REF="3">
<HEAD>A <HI>&s;hort</HI> An&s;wer to <HI>A. S.</HI> alias <HI>Adam Stewarts</HI> &s;econd part of his <HI>overgrown</HI> Duply to the two <HI>Brethren.</HI></HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIr;</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>Had you concealed your &s;elfe under the two fir&s;t letters of your name, all the <HI>A. S'es</HI> in Towne and Country would never have beene able to cleare them&s;elves; for what you make but words of; how|ever, I may not adde a tittle in commendation of you for Preamble to this Pamphlet, as you tell us (and is no more then requi&s;ite to ju&s;tifie your own Epi&s;tle) is ordinary with writers in dedication of their bookes, lea&s;t I bee put to a more &s;hamefull recantation then <HI>A. S.</HI> was, and that for nothing but what charitie, as him&s;elfe confe&s;&s;es, induced him to acknowledge in behalfe of the <HI>Apologi&s;ts.</HI> Give mee leave then to ob&s;erve fir&s;t, that pag. 21. 23. you &s;ay <HI>Idolatry is a &s;in again&s;t the &s;econd Commandment. Juris naturalis &amp; perpetui;</HI> in&s;inuating that <HI>the power and duty of puni&s;hing both Idolatrie and Here&s;ie is &s;uch al&s;o:</HI> If &s;o; then it obliges all Nations of the world, and con&s;equently &s;uppo&s;es them capable to judge of all manner of Idolatrie and Here&s;ie, which we &s;ee to bee notoriou&s;ly fal&s;e, and that, be&s;ides the confounding <HI>Eccle&s;i|a&s;ticall</HI> with <HI>Civil</HI> power, while&s;t one State puni&s;hes this or that for Here&s;ie, it cannot po&s;&s;ibly bee otherwi&s;e, (&s;ince they are not onely different but diametrically oppo&s;ite in profe&s;sion) but that another mu&s;t canonize it for a &s;acred truth: &s;econdly if States and Powers mu&s;t puni&s;h Hereticks, they are bound to puni&s;h tho&s;e for &s;uch onely, who in their <HI>owne</HI> judgements are &s;uch: and if you will engage States in puni&s;hing of Hereticks, and they puni&s;h onely &s;uch as they find them&s;elves obliged to puni&s;h in their <HI>own</HI> con&s;ciences and under&s;tand|ings, How can you according to your doctrine, blame them for pu|ni&s;hing Gods deare&s;t children in&s;tead of Hereticks, &s;ince they tooke
<PB N="2" REF="4">
them to bee Hereticks, and thought they had done God and you good &s;ervice to puni&s;h them?</P>
<P>If wee may not &s;uffer Hereticks to live among&s;t us; then is the Parliament to blame for &s;uffering <HI>German, French, Spani&s;h,</HI> and <HI>Portugal</HI> Papi&s;ts or <HI>Dutch</HI> Browni&s;ts and Anabapti&s;ts to live here amon&s;t us, though as Marchants, onely for a time; &s;ince their marchandizing gives them greater advantage of working people to their opinions by the re&s;pective civil conveniences and benefits, which they bring both to the whole Nation in generall, and to &s;ome in particular; nay, the very Amba&s;&s;adours of what States or Potentates &s;oever of different reli|gions, ought not to bee permitted to re&s;ide Ledgers among&s;t us under any pretence, if this doctrine bee Evangelicall: So likewi&s;e may not wee under pretext of marchandize, live in <HI>Turki&s;h Popi&s;h Lutheran</HI> or other Countreys differing from us in religion, travel into &s;uch parts for fa&s;hion &s;ake as is u&s;uall, nor keepe Amba&s;&s;adours there, nor bee by forrain States permitted to remain among&s;t them, if we would, or on any termes joine with &s;uch in wedlock; Man may by no meanes di&s;pence herewith, if the command for puni&s;hing herecie and &s;chi&s;me bee natu|rall and perpetuall as is pretended &amp;c.</P>
<P>Pag. 29. You quote out of <HI>Deut. 17. 12. The man that doth pre&s;um|ptuou&s;ly and will not hearken unto the Prie&s;t, or unto the Iudge, even that man &s;hall dye;</HI> aleadging, that <HI>there is the &s;a<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">e rea&s;on for the Mini&s;ters of the New Te&s;tament &amp;c.</HI> But that wee may clearely &s;ee what dangerous con&s;equences would follow hereupon, it may bee be&s;t to returne back unto the place in <HI>Deut.</HI> 17. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. The text &s;ayes; <HI>If there ari&s;e a matter too hard for thee in iudgement between bloud and bloud, be|tween plea and plea, and between &s;troake and &s;troake, being matters of contro|ver&s;y within thy gates: then &s;halt thou ari&s;e and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God &s;hall chu&s;e: And thou &s;halt come unto the Prie&s;ts and Levites, and unto the Iudge which &s;hall be in tho&s;e dayes and enquire, and they &s;hall &s;how the &s;entence of iudgement: And thou &s;halt doe according to the &s;entence which they of that place (which the Lord &s;hall chu&s;e) &s;hall &s;hew thee, and thou &s;halt ob&s;erve to doe according to all that they enforme thee: According to the &s;entence of the law which they &s;hall teach thee, and according to the iudg|ments which they &s;hall tell thee, thou &s;halt doe: thou &s;halt not decline from the &s;entence which they &s;hall &s;h<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">w thee to the right hand nor to the left:</HI> then fol|lows
<PB N="3" REF="4">
how <HI>the man that will do pre&s;umptuou&s;ly and will not hearken unto the Prie&s;t (that &s;tandeth to mini&s;ter there before <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters">y Lord thy God) or unto the iudg, even that man &s;hall dye and then &s;halt put away the evil from I&s;rael: And all the people &s;hall <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">eare, and feare, and doe no more pre&s;umptuou&s;ly:</HI> To let pa&s;&s;e all other exceptions to <HI>AS.</HI> his mi&s;application of this text which was directed peculiarly to the Iewes, and cannot concern any other people except Papi&s;ts who interpret <HI>Rome</HI> to bee the place &s;poken of, ver&s;e 18. <HI>which God did chu&s;e,</HI> and the Pope to bee &s;ole &s;upreme infallible Judge, Prie&s;t and Levite of the&s;e dayes to bee enquired after in matter of &s;uch difficulty and moment:</P>
<P>If this law bee of naturall and perpetual obligation, as is in&s;inuated by &s;aying; <HI>there is the &s;ame rea&s;ons for the Mini&s;ters of the Go&s;pel,</HI> it will follow, that upon all matter of difference whether for blood, plea, or controver&s;ie ver&s;e 8. <HI>though any people, even Gods owne, bee never &s;o uniu&s;t|ly &s;entenced, ty<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">a<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters">i<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">ally en&s;laved, and mo&s;t Antichri&s;tianly per&s;ecuted; they mu&s;t by no meanes decline &s;uch &s;entence all the dayes of their life, lea&s;t they bee thought to do pre&s;umptuou&s;ly and &s;o be put to death:</HI></P>
<P>What if a good number of the <HI>Great Turkes</HI> &s;ubjects &s;hould have their under&s;tandings enlightned to &s;ee the captivity and bondage they are brought into? What if God &s;hould open the eyes of Papi&s;ts in <HI>Spaine, Italy,</HI> and <HI>France&punc;</HI> to &s;ee the &s;pirituall fornication they are ravi&s;hed into, and each of the&s;e Nations in a &s;ubmi&s;&s;ive Godly manner humbly im|plore their Princes both for all common priviledges of Nature, and Chri&s;tian Liberties of the Go&s;pel; If the re&s;pective Prie&s;ts and Iudges in&s;tead of redre&s;&s;ing their ju&s;t grievances &s;hall &s;ay as Pharaoh did, Exod. 5. 8. 9. 17. T&punc; is idlene&s;&s;e which makes them &s;eeke for lawfull priviled|ges and Chri&s;tian liberties, commanding their <HI>Egyption</HI> task-ma&s;ters to encrea&s;e both their Civil and &s;piritual &s;lavery; mu&s;t they not according to <HI>AS.</HI> his divinity and pollicy &s;till &s;uffer them&s;elves and their po&s;te|rity to continue <HI>Turki&s;h</HI> bond-&s;laves and <HI>Antichri&s;tian</HI> Idolaters, le&s;t they be judged to do pre&s;umptuou&s;ly and &s;o be put to death? Can <HI>AS.</HI> avoyd this con&s;equence? Will the Prie&s;ts Levites and Judges appoin|ted in the&s;e times and Countries unto which <HI>AS.</HI> binds them over re|medile&s;&s;e, give other &s;entence? Deut. 17. 9. Surely if the ca&s;e bee &s;o, wee might well de&s;ire that God would make us <HI>Jewes</HI> to whom as I &s;aid tho&s;e laws were given; or &s;end us <HI>Chri&s;tian</HI> laws to govern us withall.</P>
<P><PB N="4" REF="5">Tell me a little; when <HI>Jereboam</HI> &s;et up two calves of gold in <HI>Dan</HI> and <HI>Bethel,</HI> crying out behould your Gods O I&s;rael, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt: 1. King. 12. 28. 29. 30. &amp;c. doe you not think hee did conjure the people not to go up &s;o farre unto <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> to &s;acrifice, alleadging from your text in Deut. 17. 8. 9. 12. that it was the &s;entence of the Prie&s;t and Judges it &s;hould bee &s;o, from which they might no whitt decline, le&s;t they were found to do pre&s;umptuou&s;ly? Doubtle&s;&s;e his plea was this; from hence hee enforced his command|ment for the peoples joyning with him in wor&s;hipping his Gods, his Calves; and had as good a warrant for it then, as <HI>AS.</HI> has now to &s;ay, there is the &s;ame rea&s;on for the Pre&s;byterian Mini&s;ters of the Go&s;pel to legitimate their own inventions, their Idolatry, The 12. and 13. Chapters of the fir&s;t of the Kings are worth reading, that beholding their own, in <HI>Iereboams</HI> &s;innes, and calling to minde Gods judgments on him, they may in time repent, le&s;t a wor&s;e thing befall them.</P>
<P>But wheras you would oblidge us unrepealably to &s;tand to what&s;oe|ver your Presbyterie degree concerning us, by &s;acriledgiou&s;ly produ|cing and bla&s;phemou&s;ly applying tho&s;e rea&s;ons and effects which were only appliable at &s;uch a time, and to &s;uch a people as God was plea&s;ed to di&s;cover doubtfull ca&s;es to, as by Oracle in the mouth of the High Prie&s;t, chiefe Judge, or Levites; I may not forbeare to tell you that your Presbiterians are now noe better South&s;ayers then their neigh|bours, they mu&s;t either confe&s;&s;e to be of the &s;ame <HI>Royall Prie&s;thood</HI> with their brethren in the ma&s;&s;e 1. Pet. 2. 9. and &s;o pretend no more than o|thers, or el&s;e be out of it, and &s;o be <HI>Baals</HI> Prie&s;ts, if any.</P>
<P>But that wee may clearely under&s;tand the full ground, whereupon God required obedience from the people unto the &s;entence of the Prie&s;ts Judges and Levites, as al&s;o a commen&s;urate rea&s;on, why the people might not onely without &s;cruple, but with full and entire &s;atisfaction yeeld &s;uch obedience, as was expected from them, it may bee exceed|ing requi&s;ite to make &s;earch into Gods originall proceedings, as well be|fore, as after, that hee impo&s;ed his commands upon the <HI>Jewes</HI> in this be|halfe.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, God calls upon <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> &s;aying, that hee would &s;end him unto <HI>Pharaoh</HI> to bring his <HI>I&s;rael</HI> out of <HI>Egypt.</HI> Exod. 3. 10. <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> excu&s;eth him&s;elfe unto the Lord, &s;aying, <HI>they would not beleave him nor hearken <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 word"></HI>
<PB N="5" REF="5">
<HI>him,</HI> alledging, <HI>that the Lord had not appeared unto him.</HI> chap. 4, 1. Here|upon the Lord furni&s;hed him with miracles from ver&s;e. 3. to 9. and 17. 21. ordering him to take <HI>Aaron</HI> unto his a&s;&s;i&s;tance, &s;aying, that <HI>he would bee with both their mouthes and teach them what they &s;hould &s;ay.</HI> ver&s;e, 12. 15. that <HI>Aaron</HI> &s;hould put upon his heart the brea&s;t-plate of Judge|ment wherin was <HI>Vrim</HI> and <HI>Thuminim,</HI> that he &s;hould beare the judge|ment of the children of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> upon his heart before the Lord continually <HI>Exod. 28. 30. Lev.</HI> 8. 8. according whereunto <HI>Iethro</HI> (prophetically no doubt) coun&s;elled <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> his Sonne in Law not to ware out him&s;elfe with continuall attendance of the people from morning untill evening to enquire for them of God, but that hee would provide able men out of all the people, who might judge of all &s;maller matters them&s;elves, and bring the greater unto <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> who was to bee for the people to God|ward, and bring the cau&s;es unto God. Exod. 18. from ver&s;e, 8. 13. to 22. And when <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> was to bee gathered to his people, the Lord requi|red him to lay his hands on <HI>Joshua,</HI> in whom was the &s;pirit, that hee might bee enabled to goe in and out before the people, and &s;tand before the Prie&s;t who &s;hould aske coun&s;ell for them in all doubtfull matters. Numb. 27. 13. 17. 18. 21.</P>
<P>The <HI>Prie&s;ts</HI> and <HI>Iudges</HI> being thus miraculou&s;ly qualified, God com|manded the people in all &s;treights and controver&s;ies of difficulty to have recour&s;e unto them for &s;entence or direction; according whereunto they were required to yeeld ab&s;olute obedience without gain-&s;aying or murmuring, le&s;t they were put to death as tho&s;e that did pre&s;umptu|ou&s;ly, Deut. 17. 8. to 13. and 19. 7. 2. ch. 19. 11. 1. Sam. 9. 9. 2. Sam&punc; 24. 11. 1, King. 14. 3. 2. King. 8. 8. with diver&s;e others: and well they did de&s;erve it doubtle&s;&s;e, when they might &s;ee &s;uch infallible evidence in the&s;e Mini&s;teres of the Lord, that it was his divine plea&s;ure it &s;hould be &s;o, and that for their advantage too&punc; The children of <HI>I&s;rael</HI> there|fore had recour&s;e unto them upon all occa&s;ion, and the Lord kept good corre&s;pondence with them, not an&s;wering them by amphibologies, doubtfull and delu&s;ive Oracles, but by di&s;covering to them, his will his purpo&s;es and intentions about what&s;oever they enquired of him 1. Sam 22. 13. 14. 15. Jer. 23. 37. Amos 3. 7. Judg. 1. 1. and 20. 18 So on the contrary, when they tooke in hand an enterpri&s;e without ask+ing his coun&s;ell and advice, we may ob&s;erve it did not thrive with them,
<PB N="6" REF="6">
it proved otherwi&s;e than they de&s;ired, as when Jo&s;hua made league with the Gibeonites Jo&s;hua 9. 14.</P>
<P>And now not to &s;end you againe to the Jewes, though you will have much a doe to finde an other Nation to which you may apply your text of Deut. 17. 8. 9. in which the &s;entence &s;poken of, mu&s;t either bee fal|lible, or infallible; if fallible, then it followes that God required the people to hearken, and bee Subject unto &s;uch &s;entences as might bee &s;infull; &s;uch as they apprehended to be unju&s;t and &s;infull; &s;uch as were in them&s;elves ab&s;olutely &s;infull, (for all the&s;e ca&s;es might po&s;&s;ibly have hapned upon &s;uch a &s;uppo&s;ition) which were bla&s;phemy to imagine: If the &s;entence bee to bee pre&s;umed infallible, then que&s;tionle&s;&s;e God might very ju&s;tly require the people to bee &s;ubject to it and impo&s;e a law unalterable after the manner of the <HI>Meades</HI> and <HI>Per&s;ians,</HI> that &s;uch as would not harken to it, might bee condemned to dye, as one that did pre&s;umptuou&s;ly:</P>
<P>Doe but prevaile then with your Presbyters, in corte&s;ie, to di&s;co|ver to us &s;ome gleanings of their Prophetick &s;pirit; or let us &s;ee what &s;ignes and wonders God is plea&s;ed to do by their mediation, more then by other mens; and then who&s;oever will not yeeld a proportionable honour and obedience to them, for my part, let <HI>Artaxarxes</HI> his decree be put in execution again&s;t him, whether it be to <HI>impri&s;onment&punc; confi&s;cation of goods, banishment, or death: Ezra.</HI> 7. 26. In the mean time if there bee any thing of Godline&s;&s;e, or under&s;tanding of a man in you, di&s;pence with &s;uch as cannot make Idolls, fall downe and wor&s;hip them.</P>
<P>Pag. 30&punc; &s;ayes <HI>the Civil Magi&s;trate is Subiect in a Spirituall way unto the Church, and that the Church is &s;ubiect to the Civill Magi&s;trate in a Ci|vill way:</HI> But what if the&s;e different Judicatiories will not bee &s;ubject to each other in their re&s;pective &s;pher's? What if the Civill Magi&s;trate will not learne Gods will by the Mini&s;ters of the Church? as <HI>AS.</HI> &s;ayes hee <HI>mu&s;t.</HI></P>
<P>Pag. 30. What if hee become Heretical, Schi&s;maticall <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> mu&s;t he<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> not bee proceeded again&s;t by the utmo&s;t of Church cen&s;ures, to wit, excommunication? And if hee bee not worthy to remaine in the Church; mu&s;t hee not by <HI>AS.</HI> his doctrine bee turned out, or cut off from the Civill State? But &s;ome perhaps will be &s;o Court affected as to &s;ay, If the Magi&s;trate will be &s;o, who can help it&punc; w<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters"> mu&s;t &s;uffer
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what we cannot remedie: 'Tis true we mu&s;t; but pag, 166. you &s;ay <HI>that what&s;oever the Eccle&s;iasticall Senate or Presbyterie is bound not to tole|rate but mu&s;t &s;uppre&s;&s;e in the Church; that, the Civill Magi&s;trate or Senate it bound not to tolerate, but mu&s;t &s;uppre&s;&s;e in the State, &s;ince he is a nur&s;e of the State, and keeper of the two Tables:</HI> and &s;ince what&s;oever power the Ci|vill Magi&s;trates have, is derived from the people; Who &s;ayes there is no remedie again&s;t a Magi&s;trate thus offending? Are not both Hou|&s;es of Parliament, are not millions of the people enough to do ju&s;tice in &s;uch a ca&s;e?</P>
<P>But what if the Civill Magi&s;trate be without, not of the Church? can you not with <HI>Paul</HI> be contented that God &s;hould judge him? 1 Cor. 5 13. If you &s;ay 'tis now too late to make &s;uch a querie, and that he was admitted into the Church by bapti&s;me &s;o long &s;ince, will he not, think you, repent his Bapti&s;me, and co<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters"> &s;uch little thanks as promi&s;ed &s;ub|mi&s;&s;ion for him unto the Church without his order and con&s;ent? Nay, will he not plead non-age? you know there are many good lawes pro|vided for relieving of the Pupillage in money matters; Having then thus m<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters">acled the Civil Magi&s;trate whil&s;t he was in &s;wadling cloutes, you &s;ay he mu&s;t now be &s;ubject to the Church; and that <HI>if he be once turn'd out of the Church, he mu&s;t likewi&s;e be turn'd out of the Civil State&punc;</HI> Is not this the Popi&s;h doctrin of l<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="3 letters">ing Subjects from their obedience to Prince or Parliament? Are we thus leap't out of the Popi&s;h frying-pan into the mid&s;t of Presbyterian firebrands? But, I dare &s;ay, you<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="3 letters"> &s;tagger, &amp; deny the words, beeing laid unto your charge; the truth is, I find by this di&s;|cour&s;e, that you haue a trecherous memory, which hath led you into &s;uch a company of unreconcileable contradictions, far wor&s;e than many theeves and harlots, but if your heart or under&s;tanding had been better than your memory, this doctrin had never i&s;&s;ued: Turn then to p<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">. 166&punc; where you &s;ay that <HI>what&s;oever the Presbytery may not tolerate in the Church, the Civil Magi&s;trate mu&s;t not tolerate in the State;</HI> then turn to p. 179 where you &s;ay that <HI>al power is Originally in the people,</HI> which makes them the &s;u|preme&s;t Magi&s;trate of al, above both King &amp; Parliament; as King &amp; Par|liament are above other inferiour and &s;ubordinate Magi&s;trates&punc; Now if you know how to &s;pel &amp; put the&s;e together, this Popi&s;h doctrin be&s;ides others will clearly ari&s;e from thence, to wit; that <HI>if Primes and Ma|gi&s;trates become Hereticks, they may be excommunicated; if excommunicated,</HI>
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<HI>the &s;ubjects are freed from their obedience to them; and the people which ha|ving al power in them&s;elves originally, become the &s;upreme&s;t Magi&s;trate of al,</HI> are bound to cut them off from the Civill State, whether they be Kings or Parliaments. But let us beware of &s;uch Infernal tenets, according unto which there would be found no &s;afety, neither for Prince nor Par|liament; but each of them, and everie body el&s;e, all alike, be forced to be of what&s;oever religion &s;hall by mo&s;t voyces in a Con&s;i&s;torie or Sy|nod, be thought to be the true one (which is too great a hazard) or el&s;e be deemed to doe pre&s;umptuou&s;ly, and &s;o loo&s;e their lives: But ch. 3. you &s;ay, <HI>if the Church be corrupt, and the Church Officers negligent in their charge, and will not reforme it, the Civill Magi&s;trate may command, yea, com|pell them to do it; or if they will not, he may extraordinarily do it him&s;elfe&punc;</HI> Good now; who &s;hall here reach the Civil Magi&s;trate whether the Church be corruptor no? At what time the Church Officers be neg|ligent in their charge, not willing to reforme; and when they oppre&s;&s;e any man with Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall cen&s;ures? If you &s;ay the Civil Magi&s;trate him&s;elfe may &s;ee it by bringing them to the rule of Gods word; do you not contradict your &s;elfe in page 30. and el&s;ewhere &s;aying, the Civil Magi&s;trate <HI>mu&s;t</HI> learn Gods will by the Mini&s;ters who are Gods Amba&s;|&s;adours &s;ent unto him? is it po&s;&s;ible to reconcile the Civil Magi&s;trate unto the &s;pirituall office-bearers in &s;uch a ca&s;e as this? nay, is it ever po&s;&s;ible for <HI>AS.</HI> to make his atonement with this pre&s;ent A&s;&s;embly for fru&s;trating &s;o many yeares endeavours as they are like to make of it, in &s;aying <HI>the Civil Magi&s;trate hath power not to admit the true Church, to re|ject it, yea, when it is received or approved, and confirmed by his &s;ecular and Civil authority, to reject it and exile it</HI> Ibid? which yet is true enough; but do you think the Synod would have taken &s;oe great paines, and our Scotch brethren have &s;acrificed &s;o much of their own blood, if even at be&s;t it &s;hould have been &s;o hazardous whether ever their Presbyterian di&s;cipline &s;hould be received or no; or when received&punc; re&s;t in <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">uch day|ly danger to bee turned out againe with &s;hame? Is it not an ea<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters">y mat|ter for the Civil Magi&s;trate to &s;ay, the&s;e Presbyterian Churches are growne corrupt, their way of government was never Apo&s;tolical and good, they&punc; Tyrannize over their brethren in&s;ted of feeding them&punc; aim|ing at no Reformation &s;oe much as to get them&s;elves into the fatte&s;t, Benifices, and &s;o bani&s;h them into <HI>America</HI> or &s;ome wor&s;e place? Woe
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would it have beene for any Independent to have beene knowne to publi&s;h &s;uch Theologie &s;uch Here&s;ie:</P>
<P>Page 47. You &s;ay <HI>How be it the Church compell men not by externall vi<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">|l<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters">ce to &s;ub&s;cribe contrary to their judgements, yet the Civil Magi&s;trate after &s;ufficient conviction may compell you to &s;ub&s;cribe or to be gon &amp;c. The Church</HI> you &s;ay <HI>compels not externally, but the Civil Magi&s;trate may:</HI> But whence hath the Civil Magi&s;trate this power in Church affaires? or why may not the Church u&s;e the Civil externall armes in Church matters, rather then the Civil Magi&s;trate &s;hould e<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">terpo&s;e with his owne weapons in Church affaires? Is it not all one, think wee, in the &s;ight of God, for Church-men, Church Officers them&s;elves to hang &s;uch a one whom they deeme a Heretick, as to &s;et a cro&s;&s;e a gallowes, a marke upon him, out of a tacit compact with the Civil Magi&s;trate to hang him when&s;oe|ver, or where&s;oever He &s;hould meet with him? If a combination of a|ny people &s;hould thus compa&s;&s;e the death of any man, would they not all equally bee found guiltie? &s;hall a politick re&s;ervation of Po|pi&s;h Canon or Civil law to keepe the Clergie from the peoples <HI>odium,</HI> thus delud all Chri&s;tians to the end of the world? may Church-men connive&punc; approve, teach, and applaud the Civil Magi&s;trate in puni&s;hing who&s;oever they &s;uppo&s;e to be Hereticks by impri&s;onment or death; and not as innocently as Chri&s;tianly bee executioners them&s;elves? Perhaps they will &s;ay they have no authority nor call to become executioners, to bani&s;h&punc; impri&s;on or put to death (and yet they have as good a call as to approve it in the Civil Magi&s;trate;) but this is not the poynt wee &s;tand upon: What if a Towne or Principality were giuen unto a com|pany of Presbyterian Clergie-men? (I cannot think they will refu&s;e it) would they in &s;uch a ca&s;e impri&s;on bani&s;h or cau&s;e Hereticks to die in this their Principality? If they &s;ay (as the Pope in the &s;ame ca&s;e&punc; as Pi|late when he crucifide Ie&s;us&punc; and Bi&s;hop <HI>B<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">nner</HI> whil&s;t he made &s;o ma|ny Prote&s;tane Martyrs) they may not wa&s;h their hands in the blood of Hereticks; I reply neither in the blood of Civil delinquents by the &s;elfe &s;ame principle of theirs&punc; If they referre &s;uch judicature and executing of Spirituall or Civil Offenders unto Laymen to be their deputies within this Principality of theirs; I an&s;were that this is but a Popi&s;h eua<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">ion; and &s;uch blood being &s;hed by their authority or approbation; mu&s;t be accounted for by them&punc; as if they them&s;elves had
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&s;at upon the Bench, pa&s;&s;ed &s;entence, and beene executioners: If He|reticks were puni&s;hable by death as murderers and Traitors, I know no cau&s;e but that Clergie-men&punc; if neede were, might as actually a&s;&s;i&s;t at execution of the one, as of the other: But if any man &s;hould expect my opinion of what the&s;e Presbyterian Clergie-men may doe upon the proffer of &s;uch a Principality; I confe&s;&s;e the refu&s;all thereof might &s;eem a verie great degree of Evangelicall perfection, and the exce&s;sive care and travel which is required to govern it, though by a &s;ub&s;titute, are al|together incon&s;i&s;tent with the mini&s;terie of the Go&s;pel; but to inter|pret the pa&s;sing &s;entence and execution of death by &s;uch Deputies or their Officers, to be &s;o intirely the peculiar acts of &s;uch Deputies only, as that the &s;aid Presbyterian Clergie-men from whom the juri&s;diction is derived, had not even as great a &s;hare therein&punc; as if they had beene pre&s;ent upon the bench, is a meere Popi&s;h invention and delu&s;ion.</P>
<P>Our Saviour and his Apo&s;tles did neither tell the Magi&s;trates that then were, that it concerned them &s;o much more to become Chri&s;tians that they might compel their Subjects to be &s;o too; nor yet gave the Chri&s;tians in&s;tructions, or left upon record any &s;uch order or warrant&punc; that when ever the Magi&s;trate did become Chri&s;tian they might con|&s;traine the people to Chri&s;tianity &amp;c.</P>
<P>But in the &s;ame Pag. 74. you graunt the&s;e <HI>Spiritual Delinquents mu&s;t be fir&s;t &s;ufficiently convinced,</HI> alleadging that <HI>after a &s;ufficient conviction, it is, morally, and &s;hould be &s;uppo&s;ed that they know the truth; or &s;hould know it; or if they know it not, that nothing can have bl<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">dered them, but their owne pertinaciou&s;nes, which cannot excu&s;e, but rather aggravates their <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">in:</HI> But what, I pray, or how much do you call &s;ufficiently convinced? How can any one do otherwi&s;e, than yeeld unto what&s;oever you have con|vinced him of&punc; How can you bee infallibly a&s;&s;ured that a man <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">s &s;uffi|ciently convinced, if he him&s;elfe denyes it? How know you which is Gods <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters">oure for convincing of a man? May not you likewi&s;e po&s;&s;ibly in|terpret a dulne&s;&s;e of apprehen&s;ion in him, or your owne want of truly and well informing him, to bee his ob&s;tinate wilfull rejecting of the truth&punc; Are there not above 24 degrees of capacity and under&s;tanding between &s;ome men, and &s;hall &s;uch whom God and Nature have made more dull or le&s;&s;e ingenious in judging of Presbyterian Di&s;cipline or Doctrin be condemned to bani&s;hment or death for the&s;e defects of Na|ture,
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beleeving, or di&s;cour&s;ing about matters of beleefe, or but opinion only? Such you &s;ay the Civil Magi&s;trate may compel to &s;ub&s;cribe, [again&s;t their con&s;cience] or to bee gon: But who gives the Civil Magi&s;trate this authoritie&punc; Or how comes hee to know or under&s;tand them to bee Hereticks? The Presbyterian Clergie-men, I hope, will be no more <HI>informers</HI> than <HI>executioners;</HI> I am &s;ure in mo&s;t (of &s;uch as are aleadged to bee) Chri&s;tian Countryes, the <HI>Informer is counted more in|famous than the Executioner,</HI> becau&s;e the one does all the bu&s;ines for the mo&s;t part in darkne&s;&s;e and under board; whereas the other expo&s;es his actions to the publick view&punc;</P>
<P>But why may not Church Officers them&s;elves as well hang or cut the throat of &s;uch a Heretick, whom they have prepared and de&s;igned for the &s;hambles of the Civil Magi&s;trats execution, by their excommu|nicating of him? If the putting him to death were ju&s;t, they need not u&s;e any Machivillian Stratagem to prevent the peoples cen&s;uring them of cruelty, or make &s;o nice to <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">owle their fingers with the blood of &s;uch as they put to death de&s;ervedly: The Levites when <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> required them everie man to kill his Son, his brother, companion, and his neigh|bour, were not &s;o &s;crupulous <HI>Exod.</HI> 32 27. 28. 29. And why may not the Civil Magi&s;trate as well excommunicate, as bani&s;h or otherwi&s;e puni&s;h any Hereticks? Doe not all puni&s;hments inflicted for &s;piritual offences, equally become &s;piritual? Or is it not nece&s;&s;ary they &s;hould be &s;piritual to work a Spiritual effect? doubtle&s;&s;e they bee, or ought to be &s;o; and if hanging of a &s;piritual offender bee as lawfull as excom|municating of him, &s;urely, both the Civil Magi&s;trate, and the Pre&s;|byterian Church Officers may execute him, both alike.</P>
<P>Plea&s;e then to &s;ati&s;fie me concerning the&s;e three Queries:</P>
<LIST>
<ITEM>1. By what authoritie does the Civil Magi&s;trate puni&s;h a Heretick?</ITEM>
<ITEM>2. What is it he puni&s;hes him for?</ITEM>
<ITEM>3. And Thirdly, Vpon what <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="3 letters">all and inditement?</ITEM>
</LIST>
<P>If the few perticular warrants upon &s;pecial occa&s;ion for puni&s;hing &s;ome certain Idolaters expre&s;&s;y poynted it in the old Te&s;tament, obli|ged all Magi&s;trates then&punc; and ever &s;ince to do the like; you mu&s;t con|demne the greate&s;t part of Godly&punc; Magi&s;trates for omitting it&punc; and if you wil ha<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters"> extraordinary <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 word"> to <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters">gage th<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters"> there unto upon all ordinary <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 word"> you mu&s;t in<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">er that <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 word"> the People of the land
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who have entered into the la<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">e &s;olemne League and Covenant are bound with one accord to a&s;&s;ault &amp; cut the throats of al the Papi&s;ts they &s;hould meet withall, without any farther proces or impeachment, ju&s;t as the I&s;|raelites &s;erved <HI>Mattan, B<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">als</HI> prie&s;t after that <HI>jehoida</HI> had made a covenant between the Lord, the King, and the people 2. <HI>King</HI> 11. 17. 18. Secondly, For what cau&s;e does the Civil Magi&s;trate puni&s;h this Church Offender? were it for Civil delinquency, then is he no longer a meer heretick a bare Church offender; the Church would have no juri&s;diction to puni&s;h him for &s;uch Civil delinquency: But that you may &s;ee it was for &s;piritual, for Church offences for which he is unju&s;tly bani&s;hed, impri&s;oned or put to dea<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">h; it wil appear upon the third Query or Inquiry, that the Civil Ma|gi&s;t<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">ate proceeds again&s;t him after an implicit manner, by pa&s;sing &s;en|tence by putting him to death upon the Church triall and inditement only; or el&s;e arraignes him the &s;econd time for the &s;elfe &s;ame offence, (a double injurie and inju&s;tice) which, be&s;ides, being &s;piritual, the Ci|vil Magi&s;trate has no cognizance, is no competent Judge thereof, nor can take upon him&s;elfe any &s;uch authority without confounding the Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Judicature with the Civil.</P>
<P>But I mu&s;t trouble your patience a little longer with an other touch upon this &s;tring, this whipcord which you graunt the Magi&s;trate to &s;courge your Brethren withal, in confidence your &s;elves for this bene|volence &s;hall &s;cape &s;cotfree, and pa&s;&s;e for white boyes, whatever offen|ces you commit; this no doubt wil expiate them all, and make attone|ment for them though they be never &s;o many:</P>
<P>You &s;ay the Civil Magi&s;trate may compel [men of different opinions] to &s;ub&s;cribe or to be gon; nay, you &s;ay the Civil Magi&s;trate may command and compel a corrupted Church and negligent Church Officers into a Reformation; and that even when they are Reformed, hee may com|mand and compel them by his Civil power, to give &s;ati&s;faction, and rever&s;e &s;uch Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall cen&s;ures and judgements, as the Civil Ma|gi&s;trate &s;hall apprehend to bee oppre&s;sing unto any man, or contrary to the Civil lawes: Tell me, is this power which you pre&s;ent the Ci|vil Magi&s;trate withall in &s;pirituall matters, a le&s;&s;er, le&s;&s;e &s;piritual or efficacious power, than what you re&s;erve as peculiar to the Church? If it bee le&s;&s;e, the Civil Magi&s;trate &s;urely is much beholding to you that you are &s;o bountifull to him of &s;uch &s;crapps; that you will &s;et him <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">
<PB N="13" REF="9">
work (as the Egyptian Task-ma&s;ter did the I&s;raelites Exo. 5. 18.) with &s;uch leavings and &s;hredds of di&s;cipline, and yet expect hee &s;hould doe that for you, which all your broad &s;ides and batteries of Decrees, Ordnance, and Canons of Excommunication &amp;c. could not effect; And why I pray may not the Church her &s;elfe make u&s;e of &s;mall &s;hot as well as greater? But if you meane really <HI>&s;ide publica,</HI> and this po|wer which you attribute to the Civil Magi&s;trate concerning Spiritual Offenders and offences, be greater, more Spiritual and efficacious to win and gain men unto true piety and Godline&s;&s;e by fining, bani&s;hing, impri&s;onment or death; Can you not give him in the vantage? Can you not let him have the le&s;&s;er of Excommunication and other Cere|monious (in compari&s;on of Civil Coercive) Cen&s;ures?</P>
<P>Briefly then; if this power which you give the Civil Magi&s;trate a|bout the Church, bee a toy or trifle, bate it him, and let not &s;o ma|ny thou&s;and Ind<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">pendents your Brethren be longer &s;candalized there|at; But if you in&s;i&s;t &s;till to make it of &s;o great concernment and nece&s;|&s;ity, teaching the people that the Civil Magi&s;trate mu&s;t likewi&s;e bee a terrour to &s;piritual offenders; a&s;&s;ure your &s;elfe that both Magi&s;trate and People, will likely ere long &s;ee the inju&s;tice and ab&s;urdity, of ha|ving two Magi&s;trates to puni&s;h one offender for one fault, which al&s;o may di&s;agree, may po&s;&s;ibly contradict each other in their &s;entences, re|&s;olving through the corrupted principles which you in&s;til, that the Civil Magi&s;trate has power and under&s;tanding &s;ufficient to di&s;cipline and govern both Church and State.</P>
<P>But perhaps you'l &s;ay there is an Act of Parliament, a Civil law de|claring here&s;ie, or any different, from the State opinions, &s;uch as for the pre&s;ent are in fa&s;hion to be cen&s;urable by the Civil power: I an&s;wer not without all due re&s;pect unto the lawes and &s;uch as made them, that if there be any di&s;tinction betwixt a Church State and a Civil State, which all Chri&s;tians <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">itherto acknowledged, the enacting Civil lawes to puni&s;h &s;piritual offences, is not only a Soloeci&s;me an im|proprietie in State, but an incroaching on the Churches power, a pro|phaning of the Keyes, and injurious to the offender, who by this meanes is puni&s;hed both beyond the degree and nature of his offence.</P>
<P>But if you remember, as I put you in mind of before; <HI>pag.</HI> 1<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters">, you &s;ay, <HI>What&s;oever the Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Senate or Presbyterie is bound not to tole|rate,</HI>
<PB N="14" REF="10">
<HI>but mu&s;t &s;uppre&s;&s;e in the Church; that the Civil Magi&s;trate is bound not to tolerate but mu&s;t &s;uppre&s;&s;e in the State:</HI> But if this bee true, mu&s;t not the Civil Magi&s;trate joyne with the Eccle&s;ia&s;tial in judging of He|re&s;ie, Schi&s;me and all Church offences? Or if, for&s;ooth, your mean|ing be the Presbyterial Officials &s;hall have the preheminence and pa&s;&s;e their verdict fir&s;t; Are not the Civil Powers obliged to pa&s;&s;e the like implicitly, to do the &s;ame good ju&s;tice whether it bee right or wrong, or el&s;e &s;et at large, to give a different judgment, and &s;o, <HI>ip&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> fact<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">,</HI> condemne your doctrin as arrogant and Heretical? Oh that you would but ba<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">e us the&s;e impertinencies, the&s;e incon&s;i&s;tencies&punc; how many fair &s;heetes of paper would it have &s;aved from fowling? But whereas you enthraule the Magi&s;trate hereunto as Nur&s;ing-Fathers and Mo|thers; you may as well engage your Nur&s;e to knock all children on the head, becau&s;e they &s;peake not &s;o readily or plainly as your owne, though &s;ublimated, extracted from <HI>Mercuries</HI> braine: And yet this rule of yours needs not bee &s;o &s;tout to admit of no exceptions no qualificati|ons; &s;ince the off-&s;pring of Fornication or adultrie are forward Imps, and forwardnes a character of &s;uch Imps, though otherwi&s;e undi&s;co|vered to the world:</P>
<P>But for the text in <HI>E&s;a.</HI> 4<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">. 23. which prophe&s;ide that the King<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> of the <HI>Gentiles</HI> &s;hould become Nur&s;ing Fathers and their Queens Nur&s;ing Mothers unto the Church: mean you by their fighting for it? By their cruel per&s;ecuting or tormenting Chri&s;tians? 'Tis clearly by &s;ubmitting them&s;elves unto the Churches &s;piritual yoake, by who&s;e example their &s;ubjects might bee encouraged to do the like, <HI>of their owne free accord and Godly di&s;po&s;ition,</HI> without the lea&s;t cullour of compul&s;ion, in that the Ble&s;&s;ed &s;pirit in the end of the &s;ame ver&s;e, brings for a rea&s;on of the&s;e Kings and Queens admini&s;tring to the Church, <HI>That they &s;hall not be a&s;hamed that waite for him?</HI> Now there would want a ju&s;t capacity in them of being a&s;hamed, for waiting on the Church, or on Chri&s;t the Head thereof, if they were con&s;trayned to wait.</P>
<P>Pag. 60. You &s;ay <HI>an Eccle&s;ia&s;tical judicatore is nothing el&s;e but a cer|tain n<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">mber of men endowed with an authoritive power according to Gods word to judge of Church <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">u&s;ine&s;&s;es according to Gods glorie, and the weak of the Church; or in a word, the repre&s;entative Church of one Pari&s;h, <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">l<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;&s;e Province, Nation or of all the world:</HI> But where meet you with any &s;uch
<PB N="15" REF="10">
Chimera of an Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Indicatorie in all the word of God? Where find you &s;uch an authoritive power as is by you in&s;inuated? Where find you that it would be either for Gods glorie, or the Churches weale it &s;hould be &s;o? and la&s;t of all, Where find you that a certain nomber of Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall men, may be the Repre&s;entative Church of the whole world? Though you rack and torture the 15^t^h. and all other Acts of the Apo&s;tles by all the Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall judicatories and Authoritative Powers which you can mu&s;ter up, you will never bee able to get &s;o much as a di&s;tingui&s;hable Eccho from them to this purpo&s;e: However, plea&s;e your owne imagination; erect as many Con&s;i&s;torial <HI>Babels</HI> as you will; hammer out what Decrees your &s;elves think good; and if you can, with a good con&s;cience, tell us, <HI>wee may do well if wee ob&s;erve them:</HI> But goe no farther; &s;ince the Church of <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> (which you will, I beleeve, acknowledge your only Pre&s;ident for A&s;&s;emblies) did noe more; and yet there were pre&s;ent there, Apo&s;tles in&s;pired men; whereas if there be any thing el&s;e in the very be&s;t of your Eccle|&s;ia&s;ticall Judicatories, as you call them, be&s;ides &s;uch infirmities a<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> are common to you, with any other nomber of your brethren, 'tis more than all the world beleeves; and therefore blame them not if they cannot run <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">udwink'd with you into Limbo, Purgatorie or Hell, &s;ince the way to heaven is too &s;traight for men of implicit faith, blind zeale, orignorant devotion (which are the be&s;t fruites your Presbyte|rian Di&s;ciplin can produce) to light upon: And be&s;ides the manifold weighty exceptions which have been made already, and may yet bee farther multiplide, to prove that to bee no Synod or Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Ju|dicatorie in Act. 15. Tell mee, good Sir, whether if they will make that a Pre&s;ident; the A&s;&s;embly which &s;its now at <HI>We&s;tmin&s;ter</HI> may not according to the &s;ame grounds &s;end their Synodal Decrees into <HI>Germa|ny, France, Spaine, Italie</HI> and other pretended Chri&s;tian Countries, as well as they of <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> did into <HI>Syrio, Cilicia,</HI> who had noe R<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">pre|&s;entatives in <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> that we heare of, at the making of tho&s;e De|crees? and by con&s;equence, any certain nomber of men who have but confidence <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">nough, and the Civil &s;word to fight for them, (el&s;e they will bee thought to &s;ay and do a<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> little to the purpo&s;e as their neigh|bours) may take upon them to be an Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Judicature, the Re|pre&s;entative Church, and &s;o condemne the whole world into &s;piritu|all
<PB N="16" REF="11">
captivity, becau&s;e their phan&s;ies tell them it is for Gods glory and the Churches weale it &s;hould bee &s;o? But &s;uppo&s;e that <HI>Antioch, Syria</HI> and <HI>Cilicia</HI> were willing to receive and yeeld obedience unto the De|crees which were made by the Church of <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> where there were pre&s;ent in&s;pired Apo&s;tles; mu&s;t this needs oblige all other Churches now to do the &s;ame towards &s;uch as have no more infallibility than their brethren? e&s;pecially whether they will or no? were not this to hang rhe Chri&s;tian libertie of the whole Church Militant upon the ar|bitrary proceedings of &s;ome few perticular congregations only? Good Sir con&s;ider of it.</P>
<P>To the exceptions which are ju&s;tly alledged again&s;t the perempto|rine&s;&s;e of &s;ome Eccle&s;ia&s;tical Synods and A&s;&s;emblies which think they may Parallel their own deci&s;ious with tho&s;e of the Apo&s;tolical Church of <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> Act. 15. which were infallibly certaine of the Holy Gho&s;ts A&s;&s;i&s;tance, or el&s;e might po&s;sibly have erred, and con&s;equently &s;educed all Chri&s;tians unto the end of the world, which would bee bla&s;phemy of the greate&s;t magnitude to imagine; You aske wherefore may not every perticular Mini&s;ter &s;ay it &s;eemeth good to the Holy Gho&s;t and me? To which I an&s;wer, that your Mini&s;ters and you too, may bee ra&s;h in &s;aying &s;o, as you are in other matters: Who can hin|der you? But mu&s;t all the world bee mad or &s;otti&s;h to beleeve you? becau&s;e you are ra&s;h to &s;ay you know not what? You &s;ay, that what &s;eemeth good to the Holy Gho&s;t, &s;hould likewi&s;e &s;eeme good to all Mini&s;ters; I &s;ay &s;o too; but not contrariwi&s;e? which re&s;ts on you to prove, or not require obedience as though the Holy Gho&s;t were in your bo&s;om, were at your beck: It is true, that what&s;oever the Church does rightly bind or loo&s;e on earth, is infallibly confirmed in heaven; but that upon this pre&s;umption, every <HI>A S.</HI> a Synod or A&s;&s;embly may take upon them to bind and loo&s;e, &s;uch as are not of their Congre|gation pre&s;cribing both Di&s;ciplin and Doctrin unto their brethren, ac|cording to their owne imaginations; much le&s;&s;e expect that others &s;hould take their Deci&s;ions to be Oracles, and them&s;elves little God Almighties; Is a character of &s;uch high floane conceitednes and pre|&s;umption, as &s;ince the creation was never equalized by any, except the &s;on of the morning, <HI>Lucifer</HI> him&s;elf E&s;. 14. 12. 13. Surely if God &s;hould &s;ay of the&s;e m<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">n (as he did ironically of <HI>Adam) behold they are becom</HI>
<PB N="17" REF="11">
<HI>like us;</HI> they can make new Scriptures, new religions; they are like enough to take him at his word, &s;till &s;oothing them&s;elves in their fond attempts, until with <HI>Adam</HI> they were excluded Paradi&s;e:</P>
<P>You think you may &s;ay <HI>it &s;eemeth good to the Holy Gho&s;t and you;</HI> and what if I &s;hould graunt you may po&s;&s;ibly in &s;ome &s;ence&punc; &s;ay &s;o unto your own heart with a good con&s;cience? Mu&s;t your con&s;cience there|fore become a rule, a yoake to other mens? And if the Ble&s;&s;ed &s;pirit &s;hould at any time be are witnes unto your &s;pirit, or unto the &s;pirit of a whole Parliament and Synod, what were this to the &s;pirits of other men? Mu&s;t not they waite with patience untill the Ble&s;&s;ed Spirit bee plea&s;ed to vi&s;it their Spirits likewi&s;e, before they can joyne with yours or the A&s;&s;emblies Spirit? But if the Synods Determination of this or that controver&s;ie &s;hould &s;eeme good unto the Holy Gho&s;t, as the Churches Decrees of <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> did; Mu&s;t they therefore bee impo&s;ed upon the Country, the whole world? Is not this to equalize your Sy|nodal Canons with tho&s;e Decrees of the Apo&s;tolical Church of <HI>Ieru&s;a|lem,</HI> and &s;o make Scripture of <HI>yours</HI> as well as <HI>theirs?</HI> Is not this to adde to Scripture? Nay, to alter it? For adding to it is <HI>ip&s;o facto</HI> al|tering, and it is &s;aid <HI>thou &s;halt not adde thereto?</HI> Deut. 4. 6. Revel. 22. 18.</P>
<P>Can you or any Synod &s;ay they are, or will be at any time, at their plea&s;ure infallibly a&s;&s;i&s;ted by the Holy Gho&s;t? If not; Why doe you take &s;o much upon you? But you will &s;ay, you fa&s;t and pray; you mean and hope well; May not a companie of Tinckers and Coblers &s;ay the like? But you are more wi&s;e, learned, noble, and therefore think it fitting that others &s;hould yeeld to your determinations; rather than you to &s;uch as are ru&s;tick, illiterate, and ob&s;cure; This in curte&s;ie, may bee granted you, in part, that is, the not &s;ubmitting your con&s;ci|ences to Independents; they &s;eeke nothing le&s;&s;e, beeing &s;till willing to expect and pray for you with all long &s;uffering and patience: What po&s;tumate di&s;pen&s;ation then &s;ince&punc; the Apo&s;tles leaving us, have you, not to doe the like? They are the Presbyterian Doctors who&s;e <HI>A&s;ses</HI> mu&s;t pa&s;&s;e for <HI>Trumpeters,</HI> and who&s;e <HI>Gee&s;e</HI> are <HI>Swans;</HI> who&s;e war a<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> mu&s;t be thought better, and payde for deerer than any of their neigh|bours; whatever they &s;ay mu&s;t be accounted Seraphical; and Mecha|nicks, all Lay-men wave their owne rea&s;on and religion whil&s;t they wor&s;hip their's:</P>
<P><PB N="18" REF="12">'Tis true, that Je&s;us does tacitly commend <HI>Nathaniel</HI> for beleeving in him, becau&s;e he heard him only &s;ay, that Hee &s;aw him under the Fig|tree; yet withall he tels him that hee &s;hould &s;ee greater things than tho&s;e <HI>Ioh.</HI> 1. 50. that is, hee &s;hould &s;ee that, which would be a full and ju&s;t ground of a higher degree and mea&s;ure of faith in Chri&s;t: in like manner, <HI>Paul</HI> when he falls upon intergatories with the <HI>Iewes</HI> his bre|thren after the fle&s;h &s;aying, <HI>How &s;hall we e&s;cape if we neglect &s;o great &s;alva|tion?</HI> He tells them withall that it was &s;uch a &s;alvation <HI>as fir&s;t began to be preached by the Lord him&s;elfe, and afterwards was confirmed unto us by them that heard the Lord, God bearing witnes thereunto both with &s;ignes and wonders and with diver&s;e miracles and gifts of the Holy Gho&s;t</HI> Hebr. 2. 2. 3. 4. From whence it followes, that wee may now much le&s;&s;e beleeve new Go&s;pels, new doctrins which are not evident in Scripture within the reach of our own capacities, and apprehen&s;ions; or upon &s;lender grounds, &s;uch as may po&s;&s;ibly deceave us; or upon any other le&s;&s;e grounds than what are aboundantly able to &s;ati&s;fie both the &s;tronge&s;t and weake&s;t rea&s;ons and under&s;tandings of tho&s;e from whom faith is re|quired.</P>
<P>It is &s;aid in <HI>Pauls</HI> Epi&s;tles to the <HI>Ephe&s;ians</HI> that Chri&s;t gave &s;ome to be Apo&s;tles, &s;ome Prophets, Evangeli&s;ts, Pa&s;tours and Teachers for the perfecting the Saints, for the worke of the Mini&s;terie, for the edifynig of the body of Chri&s;t, till we all come in the unity of the faith; &s;ome whereof we find to have been more immediatly and largely gifted than the re&s;t, as Apo&s;tles Prophets and Evangeli&s;ts, to whom in their rare indowm<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">nts and power of miracles, wee do not know any to have &s;uc|ceeded &s;ince the Apo&s;tles dayes: But whether may wee not take the want of them as a grievous cur&s;e upon all Chri&s;tians with the re&s;t of the world ever &s;ince? Whether can the Go&s;pel bee truly and throughly propagated without &s;uch infallible officers? How can wee be a&s;&s;ured that the Go&s;pel has beene inviolably con&s;erved and preached unto <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters"> without &s;uch glorious witne&s;&s;es to bare te&s;timony thereto by &s;ignes and wonders! How can the <HI>Jewes</HI> bee certaine that they have the law and Proph<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">ts conveyde unto them without beeing adulterated con&s;idering their &s;everall captivities and per&s;ecutions? Who knowes whether <HI>Ezra</HI> his memory might not faile him, in re&s;toring unto them the Scriptures, as is reported of him, after they were &s;aid to be almo&s;t all con&s;umed by
<PB N="19" REF="12">
fire, when the <HI>Chaldea<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">s</HI> tooke <HI>Ieru&s;alem? Sixtus Senen&s;is Bibl: Sanct. l. 1. Ezra.</HI> pray, mu&s;t their own or other mens rea&s;on be the handmaid to lead them through the&s;e Laberinthes.</P>
<P>Wee &s;ee in Gene&s;is 27. that when <HI>I&s;aack</HI> had an inten&s;ion to ble&s;&s;e <HI>E&s;auh; Jacob</HI> by his mother <HI>Reb<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">ckah's</HI> coun&s;ell, having covered his hands and neck with kidskins, &s;ubtilly counterfetted him&s;elfe to bee <HI>E&s;auh,</HI> and &s;o beguiled him of his ble&s;&s;ing&punc; in the carriage whereof we &s;ee that <HI>I&s;aack</HI> conceived it was <HI>Iacob's</HI> voice, but that the hands were the hands of <HI>E&s;auh;</HI> whereof though he doubted, yet he &s;uffered him|&s;elfe to be&s;waid that way, in regard that <HI>Iacob</HI> affirmed him&s;elfe to bee <HI>E&s;auh;</HI> ver&s;e 24. even &s;o is it with multitudes of Chri&s;tians in many poynts of controver&s;ie, whil&s;t the Scriptures furni&s;h us with te&s;timo|nies which in &s;ome re&s;pect &s;eeme to make for both &s;ides; however, in regard we cannot beleeve them both, I conceave a man may &s;afely be|take him&s;elf to that wherein he apprehends more evidence of the two; and though it prove the wrong, yet God may accept of his indeavours and good inten&s;ion, who did not blame <HI>I&s;aack</HI> for thus ble&s;sing <HI>Jacob</HI> through an errour, who yet &s;ince he had &s;u&s;pition of him by his voice, might have &s;ati&s;fyde him&s;elfe concerning him, had he but felt the o|ther parts of his body which were not counterfetted.</P>
<P><HI>Paul</HI> likewi&s;e although he was a great bla&s;phemer and Per&s;ecuter 1. Tim. 1. 13. Act. 26. 9. 10. 11. Yet he &s;aid of him&s;elfe that <HI>hee had lived in all good con&s;cience before God untill that day</HI> Act. 23. 1. <HI>It is a ve|ry &s;male thing that</HI> I <HI>&s;hould bee judged of mans judgement;</HI> I <HI>judge not my &s;elfe, for</HI> I <HI>know nothing by my &s;elfe</HI> 1. Cor. 4. 3. 4. and Rom. 14. 6. It is &s;aid <HI>Hee that regardeth a day regardeth it to the Lord, and hee that regardeth not the day unto the Lord, he doth not regard it: Hee that eateth, eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks, and hee that eateth not, to the Lord he eat|eth not and giveth God thanks:</HI> From all which way he gathered, that a good meaning and intention is greatly excu&s;able before God, though it were in an erroneous way of fearing him: For all which re&s;pects the Presbyterians do not only &s;how them&s;elves injurious in di&s;tip <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters">|ing, and ruling over their brethren, over whom they have no power, being Freemen, Free-Chri&s;tians equall to them&s;elves; but &s;acriled|gious to Gods bountifulne&s;&s;e and long &s;uffering, who like the Scribes Phari&s;es Hypocrites lay heavie burthens upon others, but they them|&s;elves
<PB N="20" REF="13">
will not put a finger to: Luk. 11. 46. who &s;treighten, if not quite dam up the way to heaven, not &s;uffering others to enter, nor yet goe in them&s;elves. <HI>Math.</HI> 23. 13. Good now let us fa&s;t or fea&s;t; let us ob&s;erve Holy-dayes or not; and &s;o for other matters, according as Gods &s;pirit &s;hall guide us thereunto, and not the Spirit of a Presby|terie, unle&s;&s;e wee could &s;ee more in it than in our own.</P>
<P>Pag. 105. You &s;ay <HI>The &s;upreame [Church] Iudicatorie may feare that if they judge any thing ami&s;&s;e, their judgments will not be approved, and put in Execution with perticular Churches; and in all human probability they are like to be cro&s;&s;ed:</HI> Pray demur a little, and con&s;ider whether in the&s;e few lines you have not utterly demoli&s;hed that mighty (but imaginary) <HI>Ba|bel</HI> of unlimmited authoritative Juri&s;diction which you had rai&s;ed unto your Cla&s;sical Presbyteries or Superlative Eccle&s;ia&s;tical A&s;&s;emblies? Doe you not here of your own accord acknowledge that in &s;ome ca&s;es, i. e. <HI>If they judge any thing ami&s;&s;e, the Supreme Church Judioature it &s;elfe may feare <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">er judgements will not be approved and put in execution</HI> (&s;o much as) <HI>in perticular congregations?</HI> yea, <HI>and that in all humane probabi|lity they are like to be cro&s;&s;ed?</HI> Since then you graunt your Synods and highe&s;t Church A&s;&s;emblies may judge ami&s;&s;e; and that in &s;uch ca&s;es perticular Churches may refu&s;e to yeeld obedience; will it not follow by undenyable con&s;equence that &s;uch perticular Churches mu&s;t have Power to examin and even judge the judgements of &s;uch A&s;&s;emblies according to their owne rea&s;ons and under&s;tandings? And that what|&s;oever &s;hall appeare to bee decreed or ordered ami&s;&s;e by &s;uch Eccle&s;ia|&s;tical A&s;&s;emblies, according to the light of their own rea&s;on and under|&s;tanding which God has given them, and not to be &s;ubmitted unto with a good con&s;cience, ought and mu&s;t not be put in execution by perticu|lar congregations? This is your owne doctrin &s;ometimes though una|wares; For even on the top of the next page, 109. where you bring <HI>M. S.</HI> enquiring what &s;hould be done in ca&s;e an Oecumenical or Gene|ral Coun&s;el erre; you &s;ay you wil returne him an&s;wer, when hee tells you what mu&s;t bee done in ca&s;e the Parliament &s;hould erre, or if the great Sanedrin of the Old Te&s;tament or the Councel of <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> had erred; and yet you might remember to have objected thrice in this fri|volous di&s;cour&s;e of yours upon the like occa&s;ion, that <HI>Quae&s;tio non &s;ol|vit qu<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">stionem:</HI> But do you not perceive a little &s;pirit of perver&s;enes
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in your &s;elfe, that you can thus prevaricate? thus play at fa&s;t and loo&s;e? Did you not ju&s;t now confe&s;&s;e (oh the power of truth! That <HI>if the very &s;upreme Church Judicature &s;hould judge ami&s;&s;e &s;hee may feare her judgement will not be approved and put in execution by perticular congregati|ons?</HI> And doe you &s;o &s;oone boggle at the &s;ame Querie afterwards? Will not this &s;mal pittance of ingenuity reconcile you (how fierce &s;o|ever) unto the Independents? Either then recant this and &s;uch other pa&s;&s;ages; or &s;tand to them, and burn that confu&s;ed volumne of So|phi&s;tical di&s;tinctions and meere contradictions.</P>
<P>Pag. 170. 171. You &s;ay <HI>the example of the Prote&s;tants in France &s;uing for a toleration of their Religion &s;erves nothing towards the obtaining the like for Independents in England:</HI> But why pray &s;o Magi&s;teriall and per|emptory? Have not the Independents fought for the Parliament a|gain&s;t the Cavaleers? Did they not refu&s;e to joyn with the Cavaliers in fighting again&s;t the Scots? Your Presbyterian Di&s;ciplin had &s;carce been &s;etled in <HI>Scotland</HI> by Civil and Eccle&s;ia&s;tical authority, which you &s;o much boa&s;t of in page 160. if Independents had not done that for you which you were not able to do for your &s;elves? And doe you thus re|quire them? Was there not the &s;ame rea&s;on for the <HI>Scots</HI> &s;ome few yeares &s;ince to have &s;ubmitted them&s;elves unto the <HI>Engli&s;h &s;ervice-booke,</HI> then adored by &s;uch an Engli&s;h uniformity, and &s;ent, yea attempted to bee impo&s;ed upon them by the Eccle&s;ia&s;tical authority of England; as that the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> and <HI>Iri&s;h,</HI> two numerous and renowned Nations, mu&s;t now be &s;ubjugated by fire and &s;word unto a <HI>Scotch Directory?</HI> Surely if there be a God in Heaven, or any con&s;cientiou&s;ne&s;&s;e on earth, it will never bee, or never long endure; <HI>ne&s;cis quid &s;erus ve&s;per trabat:</HI> you &s;ay <HI>the Prote&s;tants of France were compelled to idolatry and to bee actors in the damnation of their owne &s;oules again&s;t the light of their con&s;ciences:</HI> And what if it be &s;aid the Presbyterians profe&s;&s;e and practi&s;e the &s;ame again&s;t the Independents, again&s;t all that differ from them barely in opinion? All the principles which concerne coercive Di&s;cipline <HI>in, about,</HI> or <HI>for</HI> the Church are common both to Papi&s;ts and Presbyterians? In&s;ted of arguments and rea&s;on, Will you not &s;ay 'tis <HI>fal&s;e, fooli&s;h, fond, idle, ig|norant, childi&s;h, curri&s;h, contradictorie, impertinent, non &s;ence, nothing but wind and words of Goodwin?</HI> page 169. &amp;c. How long will this Great <HI>Goliah</HI> of the Presbyterians thus boa&s;t him&s;elfe? How long will the
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braying of this fowle mouth'd <HI>AS.</HI> di&s;quiet the people of God? Pack up your pedl<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">rs budget of &s;uch ab&s;urd di&s;tinctions abominable contra|dictions, un&s;ufferable tautalogies, (to &s;ay no wor&s;e) and be gon, even any where, that we may be quit of you; &s;peake or write to in&s;truction or edifying hereafter, or el&s;e hold your peace for &s;hame of God and men: But do you not know that <HI>it &s;hall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for many people among&s;t whom Chri&s;t wrought mo&s;t of his miracles?</HI> Know you not that many who live and dye Papi&s;ts becau&s;e through ignorance, (as <HI>Paul</HI> whil&s;t he per&s;ecuted the Saints 1. Tim. 1. 13. Whom God therefore had mercie on) &s;hall ri&s;e up in judgement again&s;t all Prote&s;tants which know Gods will and do it not? Doe you not take it to be mad doctrin of <HI>Pauls</HI> when he pre&s;uppo&s;es there may bee a ca&s;e when the be&s;t Chri&s;tians (I &s;ay not Presbyterians) may, nay, <HI>ought never more eat fle&s;h drinke wine, nor anything where at a brother &s;tum|bleth, is offended or made weake?</HI> And yet if you beleeve Rom. 14. 21. 1. Cor, 8. 13. you may finde it Evangelical, a little othergates, than &s;uch &s;tuffe as you baptize with Orthodox, and then think it plea&s;eth the Holy Gho&s;t, (becau&s;e &s;uch men, &s;uch du&s;t and a&s;hes as your &s;elfe know no better,) that all the world, will they, nill they, mu&s;t fall down and wor&s;hip it:</P>
<P>If Independents &s;ay, they have no faith in communicating with your mixt multitude, and joyning in an <HI>Engli&s;h Directory,</HI> alias a <HI>Scotch Common-prayer-booke;</HI> and you notwith&s;tanding by impri&s;oning or di&s;|countenancing compel them to it; doe you not make them commit I|dolatrie? Are they not damned becau&s;e they doubt thereof? Rom. 14. 23. Can the Prie&s;ts in <HI>Frame,</HI> the Divels in Hell, or Presbyterians any where, do wor&s;e by Prote&s;tants? But you promi&s;e largely; you &s;ay the Presbyterians will not compel the Independents to act again&s;t their con&s;ciences: only you will not &s;uffer them to &s;educe other mens con&s;ciences: What an <HI>Agrippa</HI>-like halfe Chri&s;tian paradox is this? Doth the truth con&s;traine you to acknowledge that compelling Inde|pendents to joyn with you in your mixt communions and &s;tinted wor|&s;hip again&s;t their con&s;ciences, would amount unto Idolatrie? and may they not in&s;truct their Famelies, friends, brethren, and all &s;uch, who ga&s;pe after a word of knowledge, or but de&s;ire to be in&s;tructed by them how to decline Idolatrie, and wor&s;hip God in &s;incerity and truth?
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Did not Nature engrave it in the hearts of al men, that it is better to o|bey God than man? Did not the Apo&s;tles for our clearer under&s;tand|ing re&s;olve it when 'twas made a que&s;tion? Act 4. 19. Are not all &s;uch condemned for unproffitable &s;ervants who put a candle under a bu&s;hel? For lapping up their tallent in a napkin? For not &s;trengthning others after they them&s;elves are converted? And though you &s;o often upbraid this as a licentious cour&s;e and way, to let in all Here&s;ie and impiety; have patience if I tell you the Papi&s;ts &s;ay the verie &s;ame for excluding Prote&s;tanti&s;me out of their Dominions; and neither you as profownd an <HI>AS.</HI> as you take your &s;elfe to be, nor all the Presbyterians in the world, can &s;ay one tittle more than Papi&s;ts doe in this behalfe: now, wherein your <HI>Divinity,</HI> your <HI>Di&s;ciplin,</HI> your <HI>Righteou&s;nes</HI> exceeds not that of Papi&s;ts; take it not &s;o hainou&s;ly, that Independents who have not &s;o learned Chri&s;t, may not, dare not joyne with you: yet if upon a &s;econd con&s;ideration hereof you &s;hall &s;till remain head-&s;trong, bani|&s;hing all farther truth, left &s;ome Here&s;ies &s;hould creepe in therewith; good now, do but di&s;cover to us a po&s;&s;ibility how after the Presbyte|rian rule, (which, according to <HI>AS.</HI> &s;ayes <HI>the Civil Magi&s;trate has power not to admit the true Church, or to turne it out, though it had beene admitted and e&s;tabli&s;hed by low.</HI>) The <HI>Roman</HI> Church can ever be reformed, or the <HI>Iewes</HI> converted to the Go&s;pel:</P>
<P>Concerning the Churches of <HI>New-England,</HI> you &s;ay their Indepen|dency is wor&s;e than Here&s;ie; you &s;trengthen your &s;elfe in denying them a toleration in <HI>Old-England,</HI> becau&s;e they will not graunt you one in <HI>New-England,</HI> and yet you bid them begon thither and live in peace: but tell me a little; how can they be &s;ecure in <HI>New-England</HI> from the omnipotency of the Presbyterian Di&s;ciplin which is as covetuous and ambitious as <HI>Rome</HI> it &s;elfe which claim's no le&s;&s;e than all the World? ought you not to endeavour their conver&s;ion equal to your brethrens of <HI>Old-England,</HI> and that as well unto your Di&s;ciplin as to your doctrin? Are their &s;oules not worth &s;aving? Or their Country not worth living in? the &s;oile is thought no whit inferiour, if not better then the be&s;t in <HI>Old-England;</HI> though there be not &s;o good plundering for money and rich moveables: But why &s;hould not the &s;oules of your <HI>New-Engli&s;h</HI> Brethren bee as deare unto you, as tho&s;e of <HI>Old-England?</HI> Or though your Brethren of <HI>New-England</HI> &s;hould know the way to heaven of
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them&s;elves; How can you with a quiet mind endure they &s;hould get thither without your <HI>Pa&s;&s;e,</HI> your <HI>Mittimus,</HI> your <HI>Peter-pence?</HI> Or why may not the <HI>Old-Engli&s;h</HI> be thought as charitably on, or find the like favour from your over dilligent Presbyerie? But put the ca&s;e you did really de&s;ire the <HI>New-Engli&s;h</HI> their conver&s;ion? you approve of them in &s;uffering no opinions to be publi&s;hed but their owne? If this Di&s;ci|plin be &s;trictly ob&s;erved; How can they po&s;&s;ibly attaine to better light and knowledge? What cour&s;e will you take for their informing, for convincing them of this wor&s;e than Heretical tenet as you call it, if to their's, and your Church pollicy, they &s;hould lykewi&s;e attaine as &s;harp a Civil &s;word as yours? Or put ca&s;e that even your own mo&s;t excel|lent Doctor&s;hip were not &s;o &s;ound or orthodox as &s;elf conceited, which many have &s;trong pre&s;umptions for, who are thought better able to judge thereof than <HI>AS.</HI> him&s;elfe, will you put your &s;elfe in an impo&s;&s;i|bilitie of ever being reformed except tumultuou&s;ly or illegally, both waies compul&s;ively? Was ever any <HI>AS.</HI> &s;o dull, &s;o &s;tupid, &s;o voide both of Civil and Chri&s;tian policie? But what &s;hall I &s;ay unto you, &s;ince according to your <HI>Theologie,</HI> nothing is &s;o likely to prevaile with you as cudgelling?</P>
<P>Page 172. You &s;ay that <HI>refu&s;ing to tolerate the Independents will helpe to confirme the Churches and people in the truth of Presbyterian Diciplin and Doctrin; that many men are led by authority, and take many things upon the tru&s;t of great men &amp;c.</HI> Phy <HI>AS!</HI> Are you not a&s;ham'd thus to un|cover the nakedne&s;&s;e of your Churches? To tell us and them that the Presbyterian world takes up a religion and government upon tru&s;t? And if the Venerable and learned A&s;&s;emblie, as you &s;tile them, &s;hould not graunt a toleration of any thing but Poprie or Turci&s;me, would not your good people whom you &s;peake of, be as ea&s;ily confirmed of the truth thereof? Surely they will, unle&s;&s;e they bee wi&s;er than their An|che&s;ters, which will not be beleeved.</P>
<P>Page 179. You ask <HI>What power hath either King or Parliament to in|trude and force upon the Kingdome new religions or a toleration of all Sects?</HI> And &s;ay <HI>the Parliament a&s;&s;umes no &s;uch power to it &s;elfe:</HI> If this bee true; How can it &s;ettle (not to &s;ay intrude as <HI>AS.</HI> does improperly and un|mannerly) the Scotch Presbyterian di&s;ciplin in <HI>England,</HI> more than the Independency of <HI>New-Engli&s;h</HI> Churches? For &s;ince the Churches of
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<HI>Scotland</HI> and <HI>New England</HI> for Doctrin agree in fundamentals, differ onely in Di&s;ciplin, and as <HI>AS.</HI> aleadges, doe per&s;ecute all opinions but their own; How come the <HI>New-Engli&s;h</HI> and <HI>Scots</HI> not to be both Sects alike, &s;ince <HI>AS.</HI> calls the Apologi&s;ts a Sect? But hee &s;aies the Presby|terian Government is already e&s;tabli&s;hed in <HI>England</HI> in the <HI>Dutch, French, Italian</HI> and <HI>Spani&s;h</HI> Churches page 160. And I an&s;wer that hee may as well &s;ay the Popi&s;h government was &s;etled in <HI>England,</HI> becau&s;e permitted to be made u&s;e of in in the Queens Chappells and &s;o many Amba&s;&s;adours hou&s;es, little otherwi&s;e than was the Presbyterian: But if the Presbyterian government bee already e&s;tabli&s;hed, what needs all this imprecating, this conjuring of <HI>AS.</HI> yet for a farther &s;etling of it? But if the Parliament may not, as <HI>AS.</HI> &s;aies, intrude and force upon the Kingdome new religions; and &s;ince the Civil Magi&s;trate as you likewi&s;e &s;ay page 166. if he follow Gods word <HI>cannot graunt a to|leration without con&s;ent of the Church if he judge it bee not corrupted:</HI> Why doe you not then betake your &s;elfe to the Synod, forbearing to be far|ther trouble&s;ome unto the Civil Magi&s;trate, untill it bee at lei&s;ure to talke with you for &s;tigmatizing of it <HI>wor&s;e than mad, corrupted by bribery, or &s;ome other way,</HI> page 166. unle&s;&s;e it de&s;cend unto &s;uch notions only as <HI>AS.</HI> arrives to:</P>
<P>And why, I pray, mu&s;t the Parliament needs tolerate all <HI>AS.' &s;es</HI> to think they are wor&s;e than madde, corrupted with money or &s;ome other way, if they &s;hould tolerate a new Sect, you mean Independents, i. e. any that but differ from one another in opinion, and &s;uch are all, as will not upon any occa&s;ion &s;ay, black is white, and white is black, or &s;eeme to beleeve any thing el&s;e implicitely? I know your meaning, your grand and common (more than under&s;tood) objection; that there is but one true religion, but one faith, one way to Heaven; and why &s;hould wee then &s;uffer men and women to bee of &s;o many different waies faith's and religions? For an&s;wer hereunto I can bee conten|ted to graunt that there is but one true religion, one true faith and way to Heaven; But who can tell mee the preci&s;e and ju&s;t precincts there|of? What mean they by one true religion, one way, one faith? The <HI>Papi&s;ts, Luthrans, Calvini&s;ts,</HI> all Epi&s;copal and Presbyterian di&s;ciplind men generally are of this opinion; each of them, whole Nations and People, damn for the mo&s;t part hand over head, all other profe&s;&s;ions
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but his own; and even among&s;t the&s;e who by compul&s;ion they will bee &s;ure to make as good Chri&s;tians as them&s;elves, to any mans thinking but their own, how few of them notwith&s;tanding will they allow to get in|to Heaven with them? Would it not be wonder if this Circumfe|rence, this little continent of earth, &s;hould &s;atisfie the va&s;t de&s;ires of &s;uch, who &s;eeme to think, that the Heavens &s;o infinitely more capaci|ous, were only made for them and &s;ome few of their familiars? O the malecontedne&s;&s;e of &s;uch Spirits! To &s;ay nothing of <HI>Mahumetans</HI> nor any &s;ort of <HI>Pagans,</HI> no nor <HI>Jewes</HI> who yet were the beloved Nation of the Lord, who promi&s;ed to make all their enemies his owne; To &s;ay nothing neither of <HI>Papi&s;ts,</HI> nor millions of <HI>Chri&s;tians,</HI> e&s;pecially in the Ea&s;t which never heard more of Poprie, than <HI>England</HI> had of Pre&s;|byterie five yeares agoe; (which you may &s;ay was but a little, though &s;ince too much) would it not be a har&s;h &s;entence for men of the Cla&s;si|call Presbyterian-way to pa&s;&s;e, which mu&s;t &s;end hedlong to Hell all <HI>Lutherans, Calvani&s;ts, Independents</HI> with &s;undry other differing Prote|&s;tants? Perhaps you will &s;ay though they live <HI>Lutherans</HI> or <HI>Indepen|dents,</HI> they may die Converts, or well-willers to the Presbyterian Di&s;|ciplin and Doctrin: I an&s;wer, that this is &s;uch a May-bee, that if it come not whil&s;t they live, I'le pa&s;&s;e my word 'twill never happen af|terward: You may as well &s;ay or think they may die <HI>Jewes</HI> or <HI>Papi&s;ts,</HI> were you not apt to flatter your &s;elfe, or glad to &s;ay any thing, rather than by plaine argument be made appeare as if you thought, God had fir&s;t made the joyes of Heaven, and in the fulne&s;&s;e of time &s;ent his Son to repurcha&s;e them, for your fond opinions onely to vapour in; But in ca&s;e you doe not thus reprobate all <HI>Lutherans, Independents</HI> and &s;uch as differ from you in opinion, allowing them a po&s;sibilitie, even whil&s;t they live and die <HI>Lutherans</HI> or <HI>Independents,</HI> to find the way to Heaven; why will you then not let them goe their own way? What if it &s;hould &s;eeme to you the farthe&s;t way about? May it not prove the neere&s;t home, according to the proverb? I am certain it mu&s;t be the &s;ure&s;t way to them that know and apprehend no other: If then you cannot po&s;si|bly decipher or chaulke out unto me exactly this only true religion and way to Heaven, without imminent danger of &s;treightning or enlarging it, do not take upon you to make enclo&s;ure of it, or compell others to leaue their owne way, unle&s;&s;e you could bee infallibly a&s;&s;ured, that
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were a better which you put them in, or were able to make them rera|ration, if it prove a wor&s;e.</P>
<P>There are two great controver&s;ies which have &s;et both State and Church on fire, about which &s;o many Pamphlets have beene &s;cribled, and not a few continued mu&s;ing untill their heads grew addle, which yet, in my &s;lender judgement, may be fully Stated in a verie few lines only: That in the Civil State, is betwixt Magi&s;trate and Subject; On the one &s;ide it is alledged, that if everie &s;oule, the whole bodie of a people or Nation mu&s;t be &s;ubject unto the Higher Powers in all ca|&s;es, whether they govern ju&s;tly or tyrannically, then would it re&s;t in the Magi&s;trates brea&s;t and power to ruin and de&s;troy the whole Nation at his plea&s;ure: On the other&s;ide, if the people may in &s;ome ca&s;e deny &s;ubjection, it mu&s;t bee in &s;uch as they apprehend them&s;elves in immi|nent danger of de&s;truction; and then it will follow, that &s;o often as they apprehend this imminent de&s;truction, this nece&s;&s;itie; &s;oe often they may deny &s;ubjection, which would render the Higher Powers obnoxious unto the bare pretentions of the people, if they did but withall alledge their feares were reall:</P>
<P>Both the&s;e I confe&s;&s;e are great &s;tumbling blocks, yet the latter, as I conceive, is to be adhered unto; becau&s;e it is a greater evil, to expo&s;e a whole Nation to de&s;truction, than a Magi&s;trate only: And le&s;t it &s;hould be thought this tenet does expo&s;e the Magi&s;trate unto the incon&s;tancie and violence of the People; Let &s;uch remember that Magi&s;trates are Gods Vice-gerents and as many times it happens that &s;ome &s;cape bet|ter, for the pre&s;ent, For offending God than man but pay for it with a witnes afterwards; &s;oe if a People &s;hall injuriou&s;ly imploy that natu|rall power and might, which God has given them only for their de|fence, again&s;t the Magi&s;trates ju&s;t commands and priviledges; God becomes &s;o much more engag'd to vindicate them, by how much being few in nomber, in compari&s;on of the People, they want an arme of fle&s;h to helpe them&s;elves.</P>
<P>As for the Church controve&s;ie, it may bee &s;aid in behalfe of Inde|pendents, that unle&s;&s;e differing and erroneous opinions bee tolerated; the mo&s;t orthodox and rectified are equally Subject to bee per&s;ecuted: On the other &s;ide, Presbyterians &s;ay, that the permitting differing o|pinions in a State, is to open a flood-gate to all manner of Here&s;ies and
<PB N="28" REF="17">
Schy&s;mes: What if wee did &s;uppo&s;e the&s;e to bee the two Great Rocks of offence, which in &s;ome &s;en&s;e were no otherwi&s;e than <HI>Scylla</HI> and <HI>Charibdis;</HI> one of which you could not avoide without adhering un|to the other? Does it not remaine then, that wee &s;hould con&s;ider which of them is accompained with the greate&s;t inconveniences? The latter pre&s;uppo&s;es a po&s;&s;ibilitie of entrance unto all Here&s;ies; the for|mer concludes a certainty of with-holding a great mea&s;ure of Truth, and even a po&s;sibility of keeping out the whole Truth: Now, this truth is like God him&s;elf; even verie God him&s;elfe, invallewable; we may not hazard the lea&s;t attom, the &s;male&s;t proportion thereof, for al other po&s;&s;i|bilities or impo&s;&s;ibilities what&s;oever: What? Shall we put our &s;elves into &s;uch a condition, that if we be in an errour it &s;hall be impo&s;&s;ible for us to get out of it againe, unle&s;&s;e the whole Civil State, the men of war, the world doe &s;ee it as clearely as our &s;elves? That if as yet wee have but &s;ome degrees of truth and knowledge, it &s;hall be impo&s;sible for us to attain to greater? That though we were in po&s;&s;e&s;sion of the true Religion, wee &s;hould bee liable to have it taken from us by everie &s;harper Civil &s;word than our owne? This is your Doctrin page 13. where you &s;ay the Civil Mgi&s;trate though Chri&s;tian has power to ad|mit Chri&s;tian Religion; or when admitted to exile it afterwards; but God keepe &s;uch Presbyterian Principles from farther taking root in <HI>England.</HI></P>
<P>But if King and Parliament may not force a new religion or Sect, &s;uppo&s;e Presbyterian, upon the Kingdome; much le&s;&s;e can the Synod which neither has, nor yet pretends, as is alleadged, to u&s;e the mate|riall &s;word? And if for matters of religion, all power originally is in Chri&s;t, as you &s;ometimes acknowledge page 179. How can King, Parliament, or Synod wre&s;t it from him? Nay, what thinke you? Is it not &s;econdarily in the people, as well as Civil power which you af|firme in the &s;ame page? And &s;o doubtle&s;&s;e is &s;piritual power; unle&s;&s;e you will make God to have provided mankind better of a &s;afegard, or libertie to defend their bodies, than their &s;oules: If then the &s;pirituall power be &s;o inherently in the people next under Chri&s;t, as that they cannot &s;o well renounce and part from it in many re&s;pects, by what they may of Civil; how can it be thought by any one that the King Par|liament or Synod though never &s;o much importun'd by a thou&s;and &s;uch
<PB N="29" REF="17">
<HI>AS. &s;es,</HI> &s;hould goe about to &s;ettle a <HI>N<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">w Presbyterian Scotch Govern|ment,</HI> with an intention to force a conformity of the whole Kingdome, three quarters whereof cannot, as yet be thought to &s;ubmit unto it wil|lingly, or for con&s;cience &s;ake?</P>
<P><HI>Page</HI> 180. and el&s;ewhere, you advi&s;e the <HI>Independents</HI> to quit their fat Benefices; but <HI>Presbyterian</HI> know how to quit the leane Benefices without your coun&s;el: And where doe you find the Independents in &s;uch fat Benefices? What if you cannot find one of them in a fat Be|nefice? Will you not &s;ay good cau&s;e why, becau&s;e the Presbyterians would quickly heave them out, and get them&s;elves <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">n? If they find a|ny fatter than an other, and bee &s;o liquori&s;h; If they regard neither flock nor the Great &s;hepheard of the flock Chri&s;t Je&s;us, but with <HI>E&s;a<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">h</HI> or <HI>Judas</HI> prefer 30. pence or a fat Benefice before them both; let them at lea&s;t carry it more cau<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">elo<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;ly, and not <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="3 letters"> skipping &s;o, from one fat Benefice or Lecture unto a fatter, that all the world cry &s;hame of them; I need not name them, they are knowne to everie bodie but them&s;elves.</P>
<P>But prithee <HI>A. S,</HI> tell mee, do'&s;t thou not intend this as a pious plot and Ma&s;ter-peece of thine to accu&s;e the <HI>Independents</HI> of fat Benefices, that they may bee provok'd to vindicate them&s;elves by di&s;covering who they were among&s;t the <HI>Presbyterian</HI> Rabbies that &s;olicited &s;o actively and dextrou&s;ly, obtaining &s;uch an Ordnance for Tithes as all the &s;ub|tle invention<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> of Antichri&s;tian Bi&s;hops could never get the like? Who they were that had more than a finger in helping &s;undrie Mini&s;ters out of their Livings partly for not paying the twentyeth part and other taxes; and &s;o &s;oone as Presbyterians had filld all Benefices and Lec|tures, to move, that Mini&s;ters might then bee totally freed from all manner of <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">e&s;&s;ment<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">; and is it not fitting it &s;hould bee &s;o, think you? That they &s;hould &s;et and keepe the Kingdome on <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> fire, in <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> de&s;parate bloody Civil warre, and yet bee totally exempted from contributing towards quenching, towards obtaining of a ble&s;&s;ed peace? I know the&s;e <HI>Heatheni&s;h, Jewi&s;h, Popi&s;h</HI> notions of <HI>Tythes, Offerings,</HI> and <HI><GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 span">|ons,</HI> were long &s;ince abominated&punc; and aboli&s;hed among&s;t our <HI>Scotti&s;h</HI> Brethren; And <HI>A. S.</HI> does well in not flattering the <HI>Engli&s;h Presbyteri|ans</HI> therein, le&s;t <HI>Independents</HI> &s;hould be farther &s;candaliz'd at him, who, it is well knowne, are not guilty of &s;uch <HI>Si<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">oni<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">;</HI> they <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 span">
<PB N="30" REF="18">
bargaine of the Mini&s;terie of the Go&s;pel, as if it were an unholy thing; or them&s;elves like &s;o many Coblers or Shoe-makers to pro&s;titute their labours, to them that proffer mo&s;t; they compel noe man to buy of them whether they will or no, much le&s;&s;e at what price they them|&s;elves will, what God requires to be given for nothing, E&s;a. 55. 1. 2; They force no man to pay for that he never had, as Presbyterians doe &s;uch as cannot with a good con&s;cience communicate with them in their ordinances; as if a Tayl<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">r or Hatter &s;hould wrench your money from you though you lik'd not, would not have his wares, his &s;ervice: who will, may &s;ee the Bloody Tenet, and Iohn Bapti&s;t concerning tythes more largely.</P>
<P>Pag. 181. You &s;ay <HI>the power of the Mini&s;terie, or Eccle&s;ia&s;tical power is able and &s;ufficient to beat down all fin &s;piritually:</HI> But pray tell me; can fin be &s;in politically, and not be fin &s;piritually? Now if Eccle&s;ia&s;ti|call power can beat down &s;in &s;piritually as you acknowledge; Will it not follow, that fin &s;o beaten down &s;piritually, cea&s;es to bee &s;in at all either &s;piritually or politically, and con&s;equently no neede of Civil power to puni&s;h it?</P>
<P>But to be briefe, as the Title promi&s;ed for me; Our Saviour bids us do as we would be done to; that is, Love our Neighbours as our &s;elves, on which commandment hangs the Law and Prophets, Math. 7. 12. and 22. 39. 40. and Paul tels us that Love is the fulfilling of the whole Law; Rom. 13 10. Nay our Saviour would not have us dare to aske forgivene&s;&s;e of our heavenly Father, otherwi&s;e, than as we forgive our Brethren. Math. 6. 12. 14. 15. Now, among&s;t all &s;orts of tran&s;gre&s;|&s;ours, there is no one offendeth &s;o highly, &s;o undoubtedly again&s;t this law of loving his neighbour as him&s;elfe; or doing as hee would bee done to; as he that per&s;ecutes, that but di&s;turbs his Neighbours wel|fare, becau&s;e he differs from him in opinion, for cau&s;e of con&s;cience though erroneous; which I prove thus:</P>
<P>Every man hath &s;o much of an Athi&s;t in him, by how much he e|&s;teemes not the enjoyment of his con&s;cience, above all enjoyments un|der heaven; And though we have known many turne, &s;ome with more facility, others perhaps not without &s;ome difficulty, from <HI>Popi&s;h</HI> opi|nions unto <HI>Epi&s;copal,</HI> and then from <HI>Epi&s;copal</HI> to <HI>Presbyterial,</HI> according as either of them became more commodious, gain&s;ome or fa&s;hionable;
<PB N="31" REF="18">
yet, if Athi&s;me not having totally taken po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of their hearts, they began at any time to demur or &s;cruple, according to the remnant of con&s;cience which might be remaining in them; it was never knowne that &s;uch were contented to have even the&s;e reliques of con&s;cience per&s;ecuted or di&s;quieted, how&s;oever ab&s;urd and Heretical they might &s;eeme to other men; and therefore &s;uch as rai&s;e any manner of per&s;e|cution again&s;t their Brethren for con&s;cience &s;ake, which they could not be contented to have done unto them&s;elves, unle&s;&s;e they were very Athi&s;ts, mu&s;t nece&s;&s;arily be the greate&s;t offenders again&s;t this Law of loving our Neighbours as our &s;elves, of any in the world: And al|though I am enforced at pre&s;ent to apprehend you in this gall of bitter|ne&s;&s;e, yet my prayers and hopes &s;hall be, that with the Apo&s;tle 1 Cor. 6. 10. 11. it may be only &s;aid hereafter, that <HI>&s;uch were you once; but you are now enlightned; you are wa&s;hed; you are &s;anctify'de;</HI> which God graunt in his good time and plea&s;ure.</P>
<P><FIGURE>
</FIGURE></P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="questions">
<PB N="32" REF="19">
<HEAD>TWENTY SIX <HI>Difficult</HI> QVESTIONS <HI>Ea&s;ily</HI> AN|&s;wered concerning a toleration of differing opinions.</HEAD>
<P><HI>Que&s;t.</HI> 1. IS it not the greate&s;t <HI>pre&s;umption</HI> for a man to bee over|&s;wayde with his owne opinion, when others for the mo&s;t part &s;ubmit them&s;elves to be governed by mo&s;t voyces?</P>
<P><HI>An&s;</HI> No: but far more pre&s;umptuous are they, who not content to injoy quietly their own opinions, proceed in compelling others to joyn with them therein, which yet may po&s;&s;ibly bee as erroneous as other mens.</P>
<P><HI>Q.</HI> 2. Is it not the greate&s;t <HI>hazard</HI> for men to build their faith upon their own private interpetations contrary to the Decrees of Synods and e&s;tabli&s;hed lawes of Kingdomes?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: becau&s;e broad is the gate which leadeth to de&s;truction, and narrow is the path which leadeth to &s;alvation; though many bee called, few are cho&s;en; and every man mu&s;t be &s;aved by his own faith, not by the faith of Parliaments or Synods.</P>
<P><HI>Q.</HI> 3. Is it not great <HI>indi&s;cretion</HI> to bee led away by a mans private rea&s;on and under&s;tanding contrary to the judgement and &s;en&s;e of ma|ny, and tho&s;e perhaps the wi&s;e and learned?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: becau&s;e a man is to bee guided by his owne rea&s;on in all things and at all times; <HI>and it would be a double errour, a Sin again&s;t the Holy Gho&s;t, not only to erre, but al&s;o to erre again&s;t his own rea&s;on and under|&s;tanding.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Q.</HI> 4. May it not &s;eeme <HI>&s;ingularity</HI> for &s;ome one, or a few inferiour people, to be totally governed by their own judgements and opinions, when the whole Nation is uniforme?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: becau&s;e <HI>there is no mean betwixt beeing governed by a mans own rea&s;on, or that which is his implicitly, his ignorance.</HI></P>
<P><HI>Q.</HI> 5. Is it not an <HI>ungodly</HI> thing to &s;uffer men to be of any religion?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: for both our Saviour, his Apo&s;tles and the Primitive Chri&s;tians did the &s;ame, neither is it in the power of fle&s;h and blood to hinder it.</P>
<P><HI>Q.</HI> 6. Is it not the mo&s;t <HI>un&s;eemly</HI> &s;ight to &s;ee the people of one Cit|ty run &s;cambling from their Pari&s;hes to 20. Conventicles where &s;o many &s;everal doctrins are taught?</P>
<P><PB N="33" REF="19">
<HI>An.</HI> No: but far more mon&s;trous and abominable in the eyes of God, for people of 20. &s;everall opinions for feare or favour to a&s;&s;em|ble and joyn together hypocritically in one way of wor&s;hip or Church di&s;cipline.</P>
<P>Q. 7. But may wee not yeeld <HI>conformity</HI> of the outward man as a matter of great decencie and order in &s;uch ca&s;es which wee doe but doubt of, not certainly know to be forbidden?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: Becau&s;e it makes us hypocrites, twofold more the children of the Divel than we were before, and wor&s;e than they, who, yet unju&s;t|ly, did overpre&s;&s;e us ro conformity.</P>
<P>Q. 8. Ought we not then at lea&s;t to <HI>keepe our different opinions and religion unto our &s;elves</HI> in obedience to the Civil Magi&s;trate that co<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">|maunds it?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: becau&s;e it is better to obey God than man; and Chri&s;t &s;ayes we mu&s;t not feare them who can kill the body only; bidding his di&s;ciples &s;peake that in the light which he had told them in darkne&s;&s;e, and on the hou&s;e tops what he had told them in the eare, affirming that he would deny who&s;oever &s;hould bee a&s;hamed or deny him; Act. 4. 19. Mat. 10. 27. 28. Marke 8. 38. 2. Tim. 2. 12.</P>
<P>Q. 9. If Je&s;uited Papi&s;ts and other &s;ubtle Hereticks be &s;uffered, will they not likely <HI>&s;educe</HI> many unto their erroneous by-pathes?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> Though a toleration of erroneous opinions may gaine &s;ome to Sathan, yet Truth being therewith permitted to be publi&s;hed and im|proved, will in all probability, not only gain &s;o many more to God; but any one thus won to God, unto his Truth, is worth thou&s;ands of tho&s;e that fall from it, or rather from the &s;eeming profe&s;&s;ion which they made thereof. 1 Ioh. 2. 19.</P>
<P>Q. 10. But may not the <HI>multiplying of Here&s;ies &s;tifle or expel the Truth,</HI> like as the abounding of tares and weeds often choake the Wheat, and for this cau&s;e not be permitted?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> Though it &s;eeme &s;o to many at the fir&s;t, yet our Saviour in the Parable of the Tares Math. 13. teaches us a quite contrary doctrin, and forbids [Here&s;ies] the Tares to bee pull'd up before [the day of judgment] the the Harve&s;t ver&s;e 30. 39. lea&s;t the Wheat [the Chil|dren of the Kingdome True Profe&s;&s;ours] ver&s;e 30. 39. bee therewith rooted up.</P>
<P><PB N="34" REF="20">
Q. 11. Is it not wonderful <HI>extravagant</HI> that men &amp; women &s;hould have a latitude to yeeld obedience to no manner of di&s;ciplin or doctrin than what they them&s;elves li&s;t?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: unle&s;&s;e you will have them obliged to yeeld unto what|&s;oever di&s;ciplin and Doctrin others li&s;t, though they neither under&s;tand nor know it.</P>
<P>Q. 12. But may it not likely prove a <HI>&s;ubvertion of the Civil State</HI> whil&s;t &s;uch &s;crupulous people may upon all occa&s;ion pretend out of con&s;cience to deny obedience to the Civil Powers?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: For &s;uch as are truly con&s;cionable in Gods, though but &s;up|po&s;ed work, and &s;eruice, are al&s;o more exact and con&s;cientious in ren|dring all due obedience unto man, unto the lawes and Magi&s;trate, not only for feare, but more for co&s;cience &s;ake.</P>
<P>Q. 13. May not diver&s;ity of opinions cau&s;e <HI>di&s;sentions</HI> or breach of love in a Country or Cyttie?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: but rather the contrary, whil&s;t the Civil Magi&s;trate countenanceth all alike and each man finds his neighbour not only per|mitting, but in &s;ome manner a&s;&s;i&s;ting him out of love, in &s;uch a way to heaven as he apprehends to be the only true way.</P>
<P>Q. 14. Is it not equally impo&s;&s;ible for a Church-Society as for a Cytie to continue long <HI>without a Government?</HI></P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> Yes: if you meane &s;pirituall Government with its &s;pirituall Relations; for as a Church Society is &s;piritual; &s;o mu&s;t bee the Govern|ment in all Relations and re&s;pects.</P>
<P>Q. 15. But do we not by dayly experience in all places and hou&s;es find the Independents <HI>wrangling</HI> with the Presbyterians about Church controver&s;ies?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: but rather the contrary; for if you marke it well, you may &s;ee they are &s;till the Presbyterians who generally begin fir&s;t to find fault, and pick quarrells with the Independents opinions, not the In|dependents with the Presbyterians.</P>
<P>Q. 16. May not the permitting men to teach and imbrace new o|pinions be occa&s;ion that we quite <HI>loo&s;e old truthes?</HI></P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No: for if all opinions be permitted, the true ones mu&s;t nece&s;|&s;arily be included.</P>
<P>Q. 17. But is it fitting then for everie man to be of what religion he will?</P>
<P><PB N="35" REF="20">
<HI>An.</HI> Yes &s;urely; and far better &s;o, than to bee of what&s;oever reli|gion an other will have him to be of, &s;ince one of them mu&s;t nece&s;&s;ari|ly fall out.</P>
<P>Q. 18. Mu&s;t we then &s;uffer men to run headlong in the way to Hell, if they have neither will nor under&s;tanding to prevent it of them|&s;elve<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> Surely yes: wee mu&s;t &s;uffer what we cannot hinder.</P>
<P>Q 19&punc; But may it not be hindered by hindering &s;o many erroneous doctrins to be publi&s;hed, which <HI>if they never heare of they cannot long af|ter,</HI> nor beleeve in to damn them&s;elves?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> N: becau&s;e a mans own phan&s;ie, Imagination and Di&s;courcive facul<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">y of them&s;elves &s;ugge&s;t and pre&s;ent unto his Memory variety of Opinions, though not &s;o clearly perhaps at fir&s;t; which if it bee not graunted him freely to debate, aske coun&s;el, judge and make choice of, his condition were wor&s;e than bea&s;ts, incapable of doing either good o evil; and &s;uch as are carried away with every wind of novelty and fal&s;e doctrin, were never &s;ound in the true doctrin, though they might &s;eeme &s;o before, for want of oppertunity to &s;how the contrary.</P>
<P>Qu. 20. If there be <HI>but one true religion,</HI> why &s;hould we &s;uffer a|bove one religion in a Country?</P>
<P><HI>A.</HI> If there be but one true Religion we ought to be the more care|full how to get and keep it in the Country; not bani&s;hing any religi|on which in opinion of different Judges may <HI>po&s;&s;ibly</HI> be the true one, and by &s;uch as make profe&s;sion of it, (both, as wi&s;e learned and con&s;cienti|ous as our &s;elves) is proemptorily affirmed to be the <HI>only</HI> true one.</P>
<P>Q. 21. Is it not a pious act to <HI>compel</HI> a companie of carele&s;&s;e idle <HI>people to hear a good &s;ermon,</HI> to do a good work whether they will or no?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> No more pious an act, then for Papi&s;ts to u&s;e the like compul&s;i|on towards Jewes and Prote&s;tants in forcing them to heare their &s;er|mons, ma&s;&s;e, or Ve&s;pers.</P>
<P>Q. 22. Yea: but though they bee thus compelled to heare good &s;ermons at fi<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;t again&s;t their wills, the power and efficacy of truth is &s;uch, as that in likelihood it will win upon their affections, and work in them afterwards a de&s;ire to heare and practi&s;e them of their owne accord.</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> This is not likely; becau&s;e we do not find in all the Go&s;pel,
<PB N="36" REF="21">
that &s;uch unwarrantable means were ever &s;anctifide to produce &s;o good effect.</P>
<P>Q. 23. But have we not &s;een it by experience, that whil&s;t the Pa|pi&s;ts in England were made go to Church, many of them were con|verted, and dyed Prote&s;tants.</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> The conver&s;ion of &s;uch Papi&s;ts was rather to be &s;u&s;pected coun|terfeit to &s;ave their pur&s;e; and if it had been real at any time, we mu&s;t at|tribute it to &s;ome private illumination, or other handy-work of God, and not to &s;uch means as are &s;o contrary, both to the doctrin and prac|ti&s;e of our Saviour and his Apo&s;tles.</P>
<P>Q. 24. May not the Civil Goverment interpo&s;e to puni&s;h &s;uch Church-members with whom the &s;piritual, by rea&s;on of their refracto|rines cannot prevaile?</P>
<P><HI>A.</HI> Nothing le&s;&s;e; &s;ince the Civil State or Government has no more power nor virtue to make a Papi&s;t turn prote&s;tant in England, than it can prevaile to make a Prote&s;tant become a Papi&s;t in Spaine.</P>
<P>Q. 25. Becau&s;e Papi&s;ts do ill in compelling Prote&s;tants to heare an Idolatrons Ma&s;&s;e; may not Prote&s;tants do well to <HI>force Papi&s;ts to heare Godly &s;ermons?</HI></P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> A Prote&s;tant &s;ermon is as Idolatrous to a Papi&s;t, as a Popi&s;h Ma&s;&s;e is to a Prote&s;tant; and neither of them can more judge with the under&s;tanding, than &s;ee with the eyes of the other, be&s;ides that God re|gards only &s;uch as &s;erve him willingly.</P>
<P>Q. 26. But can there be any hurt in forcing refractory people to be <HI>pre&s;ent <GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="2 letters"> religions Orthodox A&s;&s;emblies,</HI> where, if they will, they may be informed of the truth?</P>
<P><HI>An.</HI> Yes: 1. Becau&s;e there can come no good thereof through want of willingnes, which God only regards, in him&punc; which i<GAP DESC="illegible" REASON="indecipherable" EXTENT="1 letter"> thus compel|led; and 2. Becau&s;e this [forcing] is a doing evil that good may come thereof, which is prohibited, Rom, 3. 8.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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