<!DOCTYPE ETS PUBLIC "-//UMDLPS//DTD EEBOPROOF 2.0//EN">
<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2013-01-05</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Louis Goldberg</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Checklist: xChange DATE, validate xAdd DIV TYPEs, validate xReview structure, use FRONT,BODY, BACK or rarely GROUP xCheck PB placement and completeness, ensure sequence of N= xProof title page(s) xAdd FIGDESC= to any and all likely illustrations. xCheck HEAD TRAILER ARGUMENT EPIGRAPH xCheck OPENER CLOSER SIGNED SALUTE BYLINE DATE xCheck ^, oe, abq, italic I / J, _Initals, tb, space between &amp;c. xCheck hashes at signs -- UNCLEAR LB FIGURE xCheck frac; eogon; deg; BLANK xCheck GAP MISSING DUPLICATE xCheck for &punc; xCheck ABBR, q-semi-colon, start-q end-q to remove them, look for Q that shouldn't be marked as such xCorrect errors from proof sample xCorrect illegibles from proof sample xCheck illegible page, para, line, span, word, dollar signs xSkint if need be xRun Check afterwards Look at html online view if need be Note that in Black Letter, every capital U must be changed to a V Look for lists, illustrations, tables, music, math, end-notes, quasi-tabular arrangments, and marginalia Look for unobtrusive numerations: Do they mark divs? milestones? Examine marginalia. Is it all best tagged as NOTE? If appropriate, check for yoghs If appropriate, check for Latin problems, e.g. oe and ae digraphs If appropriate, check for abbreviation and brevigraph problems (1500s) If appropriate, check for units of measure, symbols (alchemical, astronomical, etc.) and the like xFinal validate Corrected [ ] illegible groups out of [ ]. Converted [ 6 ] illegible groups to GAP DESC="illeg." DONE</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
</REVDESCR>
</TEMPHEAD>
<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="A76085">
<STC T="W">B1069</STC>
<STC T="T">E287_9</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99860895</BIBNO>
<VID>158558</VID>
</IDG>
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="frontispiece">
<PB REF="2">
<P><FIGURE>
<FIGDESC>bust of a man</FIGDESC>
<BYLINE><GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="1 word"> 4<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="1 letter"> <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="1 word"></BYLINE>
<HEAD><L>Mans dayes are vaine, and as a flower they fade,</L>
<L>Heere's one proclames, whereon man's life is stay'd;</L>
<L>His &s;ufferings, Changes, Comforts in strict thrall,</L>
<L>Shon's GOD alone, pre&s;erues, and Gouernes all.</L></HEAD>
</FIGURE></P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<GAP DESC="duplicate" EXTENT="1 page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<PB REF="2" MS="y">
<P>THE Second part of that Book call'd INDEPENDENCY NOT GODS ORDINANCE: OR The Po&s;t-&s;cript, di&s;covering the uncha|ritable dealing of the Independents towards their Chri&s;tian brethren, with the jugglings of many of their Pa|&s;tors and Mini&s;ters, to the mi&s;leading of the poor people to the detriment of their own &s;ouls, and the hurt both of Church and State, with the danger of Novelties in Re|ligion; proving that Independency, is one of the mo&s;t dangerous Sects, that ever appeared in the world, &s;ince Mortality inha|bited the Earth.</P>
<P>In the which al&s;o there is a &s;atisfactory An&s;wer gi|ven to the principall cavils of him that writ that railing Pam|phlet, &s;til'd <HI>The fal&s;hood of</HI> M^r Will. Prynnes <HI>Triumphing in the Antiquity of Popi&s;h Princes and Parliaments.</HI> With Doctor BASTVVICKS ju&s;t Defence again&s;t &s;ome calum|nies in way of <HI>Preface.</HI></P>
<P>BY JOHN BASTVVICK, D^r in Phy&s;ick.</P>
<Q><BIBL><HI>1 THESS. 5.21.</HI></BIBL>
<P>Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good.</P></Q>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed by <HI>John Macock,</HI> for <HI>Michael Spark</HI> junior, and are to be &s;old at the &s;ign of the blue Bible in <HI>Green-Arbour.</HI> 1645.</P>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="tract">
<PB REF="3">
<PB REF="3">
<HEAD>D^r <HI>Ba&s;twicks</HI> Defence again&s;t &s;ome ca|lumnies with an An&s;wer to certain cavills for a <HI>Tolleration</HI> of all Religions in way of <HI>Preface</HI> to the en&s;uing Di&s;cour&s;e.</HEAD>
<P>_WHen I was a pri&s;oner in the Northern parts, and fir&s;t heard of the mi&s;erable di&s;tractions and great divi&s;i|ons that were among&s;t Chri&s;tians in <HI>London,</HI> and in all the Ea&s;tern, We&s;tern, and Southern, parts of the Kingdome, about Religion, and the Govern|ment of the Church; and &s;aw the great rejoycing of the com|mon Enemies at it, as who hoped by this meanes to facilitate their way of attaining to their de&s;igne, which was to make them&s;elves our ma&s;ters, and all the people their &s;laves. I conceived that it was but a meer fiction, and that indeed there had been good agree|ment among&s;t the brethren, as having all joyned in a &s;olemne co|venant which ought never to be forgotten, again&s;t all Popery and the Prelaticall party, for the upholding of the true Prote&s;tant Re|ligion; and that they had been &s;o really united together in love and affection one towards another; and in &s;o &s;weet an harmony among&s;t them&s;elves, that all the enemies of the truth and of our Country, could never have rai&s;ed any di&s;cord, or made the lea&s;t jar or breach of friend&s;hip among&s;t them. But not many weeks after having received certain Intelligence from good hands, that there was indeed a reall rent and divi&s;ion among&s;t tho&s;e, that were and had formerly been be&s;t affected to Reformation, it did not a little perplex me, knowing very well the danger of divi&s;ions, and the evill con&s;equences that would en&s;ue, if they were not timely prevented. And after that I had informed my &s;elf what
<PB REF="4">the ground of the difference was, <HI>viz. About Independency,</HI> I de|clared my &s;elf unto &s;uch as were permitted to come to me, (as they can witne&s;&s;e) that as I conceived that opinion to be a meer novelty, &s;o it tended to nothing but to di&s;traction, and making of a breach in Church and State; and thought withall that it was brought about by the &s;ubtilty of the Prelaticall and Je&s;uiticall par|ty for this very purpo&s;e, how&s;oever the di&s;&s;enting parties di&s;cer|ned not the craft of the adver&s;aries. And I promi&s;ed then, if ever God gave me liberty, though for my own particular I wholly di&s;&s;ented from the Independent brethren in their A&s;&s;ertion, yet I would u&s;e my be&s;t diligence to moderate between them, that if it were po&s;&s;ible I might make up all breaches among&s;t brethren that they might the better unite all their Forces for the common defence. But the Independent brethren hearing that I was for the Presbytery again&s;t their tenents, after they had u&s;ed &s;ome argu|ments, w^c^h I have &s;et down in the in&s;uing di&s;cour&s;e, to di&s;wade me from writing about that &s;ubject, or at lea&s;t that I would &s;tand Neuter; and perceiving that I would not be &s;ilenced; of friends they all became my enemies, and fell into open ho&s;tility (at lea&s;t in words) again&s;t me; &s;o that I could not enjoy the very Laws of civility in many of their Companies, and abu&s;ed me with &s;uch reviling language, as would be above beleefe to recite them all; among&s;t other of their expre&s;&s;ions, they affirmed that I was the greate&s;t Incendiary in the Kingdome, and that they would prove it, and that I was an Apo&s;tate, and that now I had forgot my own &s;ufferings, and the kindne&s;&s;e that had been &s;hewed unto me by the godly party; and of a &s;ufferer was become a per&s;ecuter of the Saints, &amp; many words of contumely and di&s;grace they daily utterd again&s;t me, and for no other cau&s;e but that I di&s;&s;ented from them in opinion, and that I profe&s;t it was not for the &s;afety of the Church and Kingdome to tollerate all Religions: for I never wronged any of them in word or deed. So that they gave me ju&s;t occa&s;ion then to &s;u&s;pect, though I knew there were many truly fearing God in that number, yet that the Religion of many of their leaders was but a meer faction: and I had very good rea&s;on for this my conceipt, as the following di&s;cour&s;e will more fully de|clare: for I never yet thought that true Religion con&s;i&s;ted in word and tongue, or in opinion; but in rightly believing, and in con&s;cionably and duly practi&s;ing what God in his holy Word
<PB REF="4">hath taught unto his people, which is, to lead <HI>a godly, righteouus, and &s;ober life,</HI> and to live in charity and amity among&s;t the Bre|thren, and to &s;hew love unto all for the better winning of them; and to follow Chri&s;t in doing and &s;uffering, to who&s;e example all Chri&s;tians mu&s;t conforme them&s;elves if they will be his Di&s;ciples and partake with him in his glory; and as they mu&s;t &s;et Chri&s;t before them for imitation, &s;o they mu&s;t be obedient likewi&s;e to his commands who hath enjoyned all his followers to love one another, telling them that by this it will be knowne that they are his Di&s;ciples if they love one another. Now although I heard often of the Independents New-lights, I &s;aw none of their new lives: for I well perceived they had no great regard to this com|mand of Chri&s;t of mutuall loving their Brethren, which he had &s;o often inculcated upon all Chri&s;tians, and that upon the lea&s;t di&s;|&s;enting from them in their new and fond opinions of Independen|cy, they forthwith proclaimed us all enemies of Chri&s;t and his kingdome, and di&s;avowed all communion with the Brethren in holy things, and would neither admit our children to bapti&s;me, nor our &s;elves to the Sacraments with them, but &s;eparated them|&s;elves from us; and in mo&s;t odious Pamphlets laid all di&s;grace upon their Brethren, dehorting their followers from reading our books, or hearing of our godly Mini&s;ters, and declining all com|munion with us, and rather joyning with the common Enemy; all which their proceeding made me think that their religion was but faction, and that now there was no place left for a Moderator among&s;t them, and that All art of per&s;wa&s;ion would be thought but a flattery or cowardize; and hearing and &s;eeing al&s;o how &s;light opinions they had of indifferent men, and how they onely made u&s;e of a moderation for the &s;trengthning of their party, I then gave my &s;elf really to di&s;cover the frauds and juglings of ma|ny of their Mini&s;ters; and all to &s;ee that if by this means when their falcaies were once di&s;covered, the truth might more ori|ently appear, which would the better make way for a Modera|tor, if any thing may undeceive a poor deluded multitude. And &s;o well acquainted I was with the language of many of them, as I ea&s;ily di&s;cerned that if they could but once make a party &s;trong enough, they would then give lawes to all men: and for the &s;trengthning of their faction in the meane time, they pleade for a tolleration of all Religions; an opinion, though plea&s;ing to the
<PB REF="5">fle&s;h, yet &s;o diabolicall, as I wonder any Chri&s;tian truly fearing God &s;hould &s;o much as open his mouth in defence of it; or that any Chri&s;tian truly fearing God can with patience heare &s;uch Bea&s;ts plead for a tolleration, it being a thing &s;o abominated by God him&s;elf, and &s;o odious to all the holy Prophets and Apo|&s;tles. And yet notwith&s;tanding this is the doctrine of all the In|dependents for the &s;trengthning of their party; and they abu&s;e Scripture for this purpo&s;e, and u&s;e many impious and vaine ca|vils for this very end, to &s;ome of the which I have an&s;wered in my former Book: and the chiefe&s;t of tho&s;e that I ever yet &s;aw are in a railing Pamphlet &s;et forth again&s;t M. <HI>William Prynne</HI> E&s;q; called, <HI>The fal&s;ehood of M.</HI> William Prynnes <HI>truth triumphing in the antiquity of Popi&s;h Princes and Parliaments.</HI> In the which Treati&s;e, among&s;t many things again&s;t all authority and power of Parliaments, which I leave to the con&s;ideration of the great Coun|cell of the kingdome, whom it mo&s;t nighly concernes: he great|ly pleads for a toleration of all Religions, and to that end &s;ets downe &s;ix <HI>Impo&s;&s;ibilities</HI> (as he tearms them) <HI>which do nece&s;&s;ari|ly accompany per&s;ecution for cau&s;e of con&s;cience</HI> (for all oppo&s;ition of error is per&s;ecution with the&s;e men, though they oppo&s;e truth it &s;elfe for the maintenance of their novelties) the which his im|po&s;&s;ibilities I &s;hall &s;et down forthwith in order, and an&s;wer them &s;everally, after I have made my ju&s;t defence again&s;t &s;uch of their calumnies as are worthy the taking notice of: as for &s;ome of their &s;currilous reproaches, all men that are hone&s;t and know my con|ver&s;ation can te&s;tifie the contrary, and therefore I &s;light &s;uch things as &s;avouring of nothing but rancour and venome, which they accu&s;ed me of before they had &s;een my book. But whereas they calumniate me as the greate&s;t Incendiary of the Kingdome, they mo&s;t &s;hamefully abu&s;e me, and I have been freed from that reproach by both Hou&s;es of Parliament, who adjudged all my &s;ufferings unju&s;t, as again&s;t the law and liberty of the Subject. And if it were a thing that could be any way u&s;efull unto me. I could prove by the te&s;timony of many of the brave Gentlemen in the Kings Army, who in great a&s;&s;emblies did acknowledge, when I was a pri&s;oner among&s;t them, that I had great injury done me. Yea the Papi&s;ts them&s;elves have often averred it, that never any Subject &s;uffered more unju&s;tly then I did, in that I was ca&s;t in pri&s;on and fined, for maintaining the Prerogative Royall of the
<PB REF="5">King again&s;t the Pope; and for defending of that Religion which was e&s;tabli&s;hed by the Lawes of the Land: and further added, that had any Catholick writ as well in defence of their Religion, as I did for the maintenance of the Prote&s;tant Profe&s;&s;ion, he &s;hould have been &s;o farre from &s;uffering for it, as they would not only greatly have honoured him, but al&s;o highly have rewarded him for his endeavour; and this that I now write I am able to prove by a cloud of witne&s;&s;es: and my unju&s;t &s;uffering in their opinion, made me finde more favour among&s;t all the Governours that were Papi&s;ts (which I doe ever acknowledge for a &s;ingular curte&s;ie from them) then ever I found from Prote&s;tant Gaolers. And there|fore, whereas the Independents do accu&s;e me for the greate&s;t In|cendiary of the kingdome, all men may &s;ee, they &s;peak as untruly, &s;o mo&s;t malitiou&s;ly. For it is well known, till I declared my di&s;|&s;enting opinion from them, I was much magnified by mo&s;t of them, though now they have other thoughts of me; and accu&s;e me, not only to be an Incendiary, and that my Book de&s;erveth to be burnt by the hand of the common Hangman, but that I am a man cra&s;ed in my braine. But whereas they reproach me that I am an Apo&s;tate, this, all that know me will free me from: yea, the very Browni&s;ts and Anabapti&s;ts will be my witne&s;&s;es, be&s;ides my former writings, which have been &s;et forth to the view of the World: for all men know that an Apo&s;tate is one that either di|&s;erteth his Generall or Captaine, and fals to the Enemy; or re|nounceth his Religion, and oppo&s;eth that way he hath formerly made profe&s;&s;ion of; both which rather agreeth to many of the Independents then to my &s;elf, as the en&s;uing di&s;cour&s;e (I am con|fident will &s;ufficiently declare.) And now that I may &s;ay &s;ome|thing of my education, which many at this in&s;tant in the City, and them men of emunency, can witne&s;&s;e for me, that have known me from my childe-hood. At &s;ixteen years of age, after I had, following the cu&s;tomes of youth, &s;pent my tender dayes in the plea&s;ures of Hawking and Hunting, I was &s;ent by my Chri|&s;tian Kindred to a Village in E&s;&s;ex called <HI>Wethersfield,</HI> under the Mini&s;tery of that learned and reverend Preacher Mr. <HI>Richard Ro|gers,</HI> who writ that divine Book called, The &s;even Treati&s;es: by who&s;e means, under God, I came to the knowledge of the truth, and to that learning that God hath given me: for he out of his tender love unto me, took me into his Family, and in a &s;hort time
<PB REF="6">by the rare dexterity he had in educating of youth, being a brave Scholar, and one of the be&s;t Latini&s;ts of the Kingdome, (through the ble&s;&s;ing of God upon his endeavour) made me fit for the Univer&s;ity, in which &s;pace he had an e&s;peciall care to &s;ea|&s;on me well in all the principles of the true Prote&s;tant Religion. And as his whole life was a preaching, he &s;o in&s;tructed me, as before my departure from him, I was able to give an account and rea&s;on of my hope, to any that asked me of my Beliefe. And in all his Mini&s;tery, doctrine, and preaching, he &s;warved nothing from the doctrine received in all the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas, as tho&s;e in <HI>France, Germany,</HI> and the <HI>Low-countries,</HI> &s;a|ving in the point of the Sabbath, and &s;anctifying of the Lords day; of which (to his honour be it &s;poken) he was a diligent ob&s;erver; ever teaching and urging upon the people the holy and religious keeping of that day; which to &s;ay the truth, is one of the excellen|te&s;t means of upholding piety and godline&s;&s;e: &amp; as in his doctrine, &s;o in his example he went before all the people in a &s;trict ob&s;er|ving of that day, imploying it only in the duties of piety and cha|rity, alwayes either in praying, or preaching, or catichizing, or re|peating of his Sermons, or in meditation, or in vi&s;iting the &s;ick, or relieving the nece&s;&s;itated. And in this faith I was in&s;tructed, and in this, through the grace of God I now &s;tand firme; and in the which by Divine a&s;&s;i&s;tance I &s;hall ever per&s;evere to the la&s;t period of my life; never as yet having &s;warved from tho&s;e principles, notwith&s;tanding all oppo&s;ition. And from under this reverend mans mini&s;tery and preaching I went to <HI>Cambridge,</HI> where by his means Dr. <HI>Chudderton</HI> the Ma&s;ter of <HI>Emanuel</HI> Colledge (in which I was a Studient) a man of fame for piety, in his generati|on, took me into his own tutering, and plea&s;ed to make me his companion (an honour that many of my betters enjoyed not) and he al&s;o had as great a care to further me in tho&s;e principles of Religion I had formerly been indoctrinated in, as any man li|ving could have. And from him I went into the <HI>Low-countries,</HI> where I lived four years and a halfe in the Univer&s;ities of <HI>Leiden</HI> and <HI>Franeker;</HI> and halfe that time in the hou&s;e of reverend Do|ctor <HI>Ami&s;e;</HI> who plea&s;ed &s;o highly to honour me, as he likewi&s;e made me his companion, and was a mo&s;t painfull Tutor unto me, and added greatly by his learned Lectures, and private communi|cation, to the confirming and &s;trengthning of me, in all tho&s;e
<PB REF="6">orthodox truths I had formerly been in&s;tructed in. And from thence I went to <HI>Geneva,</HI> where there were as learned and or|thodox Mini&s;ters (&s;ave only in the point of the Sabbath, in which I &s;hall ever di&s;&s;ent from them) as any in the world. Now I ne|ver have de&s;erted my Generall, the King of Saints, and King of Kings, the Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t, and <HI>Julian</HI>-like apo&s;tated from my Captaine, or from my Chri&s;tian religion; nor never have &s;war|ved from any opinion in doctrine, that is imbraced or believed in the Reformed Churches, or taught by the orthodox and learned Mini&s;ters of the Church of England; or from any opinion that I made publick profe&s;&s;ion of, or ever pleaded for or per&s;waded o|thers to imbrace; the God of Heaven and my con&s;cience bearing me witne&s;&s;e, and as all that know me can te&s;tifie, as many that are now Independents have done. And therefore they deale mo&s;t injuriou&s;ly with me, and unchri&s;tianly, to call me an Apo&s;tate, and only becau&s;e I oppo&s;e their Independency. Now whereas they &s;ay, that I have forgot that I was a &s;ufferer, and remember not the former kindne&s;&s;es &s;hewed unto me by the godly of the Land, and that I am now turned a per&s;ecutor; they do me in this al&s;o a great deale of wrong: for I have never forgotten any kindne&s;&s;e &s;hewed me by any, as the following di&s;cour&s;e will &s;ufficiently &s;hew: Neither have I forgot that I was a &s;ufferer, or am now a per|&s;ecutor of the Saints (as they calumniate me) though I &s;hall ever oppo&s;e all Here&s;ies and novelties in Religion in the very Saints, as <HI>Paul</HI> oppo&s;ed <HI>Petes</HI> error, <HI>Gal.</HI> 2. when he temporized, and did not walk uprightly; and de&s;ire all Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates, and Mini|&s;ters, and Parents, and Ma&s;ters of families, and all good people to do the &s;ame, becau&s;e I have been a &s;ufferer for the Truth. But it &s;eemeth &s;trange to me, that the Independents &s;hould u&s;e &s;uch an Argument to me, That I &s;hould not oppo&s;e all Here&s;ies and no|velties in Religion, and exhort all other good Chri&s;tians to do the &s;ame, becau&s;e I have been a &s;ufferer for the Truth. One would think that this &s;hould rather be a motive and incitement to put me on to oppo&s;e all error, becau&s;e I have &s;uffered for the Truth be|fore: for if that be a good rea&s;on to deter men from defending of the Truth again&s;t Errors and Innovations in Religion, becau&s;e they them&s;elves have been &s;ufferers for Religion, then <HI>Elias, E&s;aiah, Jeremiah,</HI> and all the holy Prophets &s;hould have been de|terred to oppo&s;e all Errors, becau&s;e they had been per&s;ecuted for
<PB REF="7">the Truth, and &s;uffered at wicked and ungodly mens hands for it; and yet they notwith&s;tanding were the more encouraged to in|veigh again&s;t all the fal&s;e Prophets and Teachers of their times, as all the Scripture of the Old Te&s;tament witne&s;&s;eth: and Chri&s;t al|&s;o, and <HI>John Bapti&s;t,</HI> and all the ble&s;&s;ed Apo&s;tles who &s;uffered grievous per&s;ecutions; &s;ome of which were whipped in every good Towne they came in, and were &s;tigmatiz'd, and gloried that they carried the marks of the Lord Je&s;us about them. And all the&s;e therefore, by this Argument of the Brethren, &s;hould have been afraid and di&s;couraged to oppo&s;e the Errors, Here&s;ies, and novelties in Religion in their dayes: whereas on the contrary we finde that Chri&s;t and <HI>Iohn</HI> the <HI>Baptist,</HI> and all the Apo&s;tles, ever oppo&s;ed the Errors, Schi&s;mes, and Here&s;ies of their times, with all the fal&s;e Teachers; calling them <HI>A generation of Vipers Wolves in Sheeps clothing, ravinous Wolves, Children of the Devill, Ene|mies of the cro&s;&s;e of Chri&s;t, Dogs, evill workers, them of the Conci|&s;ion, Hereticks,</HI> and wi&s;ht that they were cut off; and give them &s;uch odious names, as there can be no more reproachfull utter'd: The &s;ame did all the holy Prophets; and yet all the&s;e were &s;uffe|rers: The &s;ame did <HI>Luther, Calvin, Zwinglius, Bullinger,</HI> again&s;t all the Sects of their times, and yet they were all per&s;ecuted by the Papi&s;ts. And therefore it is not a di&s;honour, but a prai&s;e to all tho&s;e that love the Truth and have &s;uffered for it, ever to oppo&s;e all Errors in Religion: yea, it would argue great cowardize and ba&s;ene&s;&s;e in any Chri&s;tian, or at lea&s;t, that he were now very cold in Religion, that would not &s;o much as open his mouth in defence of that Truth he had formerly &s;uffer'd for, for feare of offending men. And if this Argument be of any power to di&s;&s;wade any man from oppo&s;ing errors in Religion becau&s;e they have been &s;ufferers for it; then the Independents them&s;elves &s;hould not &s;o bitterly inveigh again&s;t tho&s;e Tenents they count Errors: for they brag much of their &s;ufferings al&s;o, &amp; cry out daily of Per&s;ecution, when notwith&s;tanding no man troubles them; how&s;oever they with all reviling &s;peeches daily per&s;ecute their brethren under the name of Presbyterians: But, I &s;ay, if this Argument will make any thing again&s;t me, to di&s;&s;wade me from defending of the truth, and ex|horting all good Chri&s;tians to oppo&s;e all Here&s;ies and Innovati|ons in Religion: why then do the Independents in all their Pul|pits, and in all their &s;currilous and bla&s;phemous writings oppo&s;e
<PB REF="7">the Truth it &s;elfe: and why doe they for the &s;etting up of their New-lights, and for the bringing in of their own Traditions and Novelties, per&s;ecute their brethren with all injurious languages, wor&s;e then ever <HI>I&s;hmael</HI> u&s;ed towards <HI>I&s;aac,</HI> or <HI>E&s;au</HI> towards <HI>Ia|cob;</HI> and proclaim them all enemies of Je&s;us Chri&s;t and his king|dome, and per&s;ecutors; for they al&s;o have been &s;ufferers, and that eminent ones, and have undergone great per&s;ecution for Religi|gion, as they publi&s;h to the world in their writings? If it be to|lerable therefore, and prai&s;e-worthy in the Independents to op|po&s;e the Truth, notwith&s;tanding they have been &s;ufferers? will any rationall man count it an intolerable thing in me, to oppo&s;e the errors and novelties of the Independents, which they would impo&s;e upon the people of God, as his lawes, (when they are but their own inventions) and as things nece&s;&s;ary to &s;alvation? And will any rea&s;onable creature call this a per&s;ecution in any, if in his own per&s;on, to the uttermo&s;t of his abilities he labours to defend the truth, and convince error, and exhort all tho&s;e that fear God to do the &s;ame becau&s;e he hath been a &s;ufferer? I conceive upon deliberation he will have a more charitable opinion of &s;uch an one. And if this be a crime in &s;uch as have &s;uffered for Religion, to re|&s;i&s;t Error? the Independents are guilty of the &s;ame as deeply as a|ny other; for they al&s;o &s;hould remember they have bin &s;ufferers; &amp; yet they maintain their Novelties for truths, and exhort all their followers to do the &s;ame, and to oppo&s;e all gain-&s;ayers, which they do to the uttermo&s;t of their power in words and deeds, and count this their honour and a great virtue, yea valour, and yet blame it in me and in all the Presbyterians; and I know no rea&s;on why I, or any Presbyterian &s;hould not be as valiant for truth, as others &s;hould be for the upholding of their errours and Innovati|ons, e&s;pecialiy when they fly &s;o high in their Expre&s;&s;ions, as to make them the onely way to heaven, and that who&s;oever is not in that their way, they are in the broad &s;treet to perdition; and exclaim again&s;t all &s;uch as oppo&s;e their opinions as per&s;ecutors of the wayes of God, for this is their u&s;uall dialect; yea, their or|dinary language and cu&s;tome, to call all writing and preaching a|gain&s;t the Errors and Here&s;ies of the time, Per&s;ecution, in all the faithfull Mini&s;ters and people; which duty notwith&s;tanding they are bound unto by Chri&s;t, and all the holy Prophets and Apo&s;tles, who are by them commanded to lift up their <HI>voyces like a Trum|pet,</HI>
<PB REF="8">to oppo&s;e and rebuke all gaine&s;ayers, <HI>and to contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints.</HI> And this is the language of that Author, that writ the <HI>Arainment of Per&s;ecution,</HI> and he that writ that malicious Pamphlet again&s;t M. <HI>Prynne;</HI> who calls him, and all the Presbyterians, Per&s;ecutors; who&s;e wicked and vaine Ca|vils, by which he laboureth to prove the nece&s;&s;ity of a tolleration of all Religions, are the&s;e following. His words are the&s;e. <HI>Six impo&s;sibilities which do nece&s;&s;arily accompany Per&s;ecution for cau&s;e of con&s;cience.</HI></P>
<LIST>
<ITEM>1. <HI>It is impo&s;sible that the Gospell &s;hould come to be preached un|to all Nations, if men may be que&s;tioned for matters of con|&s;cience.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>2. <HI>It is impo&s;sible that &s;uch as know but in part, &s;hould grow in knowledge, or from one mea&s;ure and degree of Faith unto a|nother.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>3. <HI>It is impo&s;sible that in a rationall way there &s;hould be a firme &s;ecure peace throughout the World, nay, not in a Province, Ci|ty, or Towne, &s;o long as men may make a point of con&s;cience to compell one another to their opinions.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>4. <HI>It is impo&s;sible to pre&s;cribe &s;uch a way for &s;uppre&s;sing new and different opinions what&s;oever, which to any State or Church may &s;eem Hereticall, but there will &s;till be left a gap, a po&s;si|bility of fighting again&s;t God, even when &s;uch State or Church think they fight for him mo&s;t of all.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>5. <HI>It is impo&s;sible that either the weak Believers, mi&s;-believers, or unbelievers, can be wonne by our godly conver&s;ation, as is re|quired,</HI> 1 Pet. 2.12. <HI>and</HI> 3.1, 2. <HI>and</HI> 1 Cor. 7.12.16. <HI>&s;o long as we will not &s;uffer them to live amongst us.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>6. <HI>It is impo&s;sble for a man to hold fa&s;t the truth, or be fully per|&s;waded in his owne heart of what he does, of what Religion he makes choi&s;e of; unle&s;&s;e after he hath &s;earched the Scriptures, and tryed the spirits whether they be of God or no, it be lawfull for him to reject that which &s;hall appear to him as evill, and ad|here to that which &s;eems good in his own judgement and appre|hen&s;ion.</HI></ITEM>
</LIST>
<P>The&s;e are the formall words of the Author that writ that Pam|phlet, by which he endeavours to maintaine that helli&s;h opinion, The tolleration of all Religions. To the which I &s;hall briefly an|&s;wer, after I have &s;et down &s;ome te&s;timonies out of holy Scrip|ture concerning Per&s;ecution.</P>
<PB REF="8">
<P>Yet before I go any further, I de&s;ire all men by the way to take notice, that whiles I labour to &s;hew the vanity and invalidity of this Cavillers a&s;&s;ertions, I animate no man to per&s;ecute the truth: For I know that per&s;ecution of the true Religion is the greate&s;t &s;in in the world (one only excepted:) and therefore that all men &s;hould ever be carefull to offend in this kinde, le&s;t they bring &s;pee|dy di&s;truction upon them&s;elves by it: but they mu&s;t al&s;o be as di|ligent to take heed, le&s;t whiles they would &s;hew a vice, they neg|lect not their duty and decline a vertue; which is to oppo&s;e all errors and fal&s;ehood in Religion: for that is as great a &s;in on the o|ther &s;ide. But now I will produce &s;ome te&s;timonies out of holy Scripture, and rea&s;ons from thence; to &s;hew, that to be que&s;tio|ned for matters of con&s;cience or per&s;ecution (as they call it) for cau&s;e of con&s;cience, impo&s;es not an impo&s;&s;ibility (as they would infer) that the Go&s;pel by this meanes &s;hould be preached unto all Nations, nor hinders not the growth of grace in Chri&s;tians, nor the mea&s;ure and degrees of faith in them, which is the fir&s;t and &s;e|cond of the&s;e Propo&s;itions; and the which, to &s;peak the truth, are the main and chiefe&s;t of all the Independents Arguments, by which they labour to evince the nece&s;&s;ity of a tolleration of all Re|ligions (that prodigious Tenent) le&s;t for&s;ooth, otherwi&s;e the cour&s;e of the Go&s;pel, and the increa&s;e of grace in the Saints &s;hould be hindred if men &s;hould (as they pretend) be per&s;ecuted for cau&s;e of con&s;cience, which is no better, then whiles they &s;eeme to di|&s;pute, to bla&s;pheme, and to give Chri&s;t and the Spirit of God the lye, who teach the contrary; and to fight again&s;t the holy Scrip|ture and truth it &s;elf, as will by and by appear. Fir&s;t therefore, I &s;hall de&s;ire, that Chri&s;ts own words may be heard; and then what the holy Apo&s;tles have &s;poken concerning the&s;e points. Chri&s;t in <HI>Matth.</HI> 10.17, 18, 19, &amp;c. &s;peaking to his Di&s;ciples, &s;aith, <HI>Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the Councels, and will &s;courge you in their Synagogues, and ye &s;hall be brought to the Governours and Kings for my &s;ake, for a te&s;timony again&s;t them and the Gentiles; but when ye are delivered, take no thought how and what ye &s;hall &s;peake, &amp;c. For the Brother &s;hall betray the Brother to death, and the Father the Sonne, and the Children &s;hall ri&s;e up again&s;t their Parents, and &s;hall cau&s;e them to dye: and yee &s;hall be hated of all men for my Name &s;ake, but he that endureth to the end, he &s;hall be &s;aved.</HI> And <HI>Luke</HI> 21.12, 13. our Saviour &s;aith
<PB REF="9">there to his Di&s;ciples, <HI>Before all the&s;e they &s;hall lay their hands on you, and per&s;ecute you, delivering you up to the A&s;&s;emblies, and in|to pri&s;ons; and bring you before Kings and Rulers for my Name &s;ake; and this &s;hall turn to you for a te&s;timoniall.</HI> And <HI>John</HI> 15.20. Chri&s;t &s;peaking to his Di&s;ciples, <HI>Remember</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>the word I speak, to you, the Servant is not greater then his Ma&s;ter; if they have per&s;ecuted me, they will per&s;ecute you al&s;o, &amp;c.</HI> And Chap|ter 16. ver&s;. 1, 2. <HI>The&s;e things have I &s;aid unto you, that ye &s;hould not be offended, they &s;hall excommunicate you: yea, the time &s;hall come, that who&s;oever killeth you, will think he doth God &s;ervice.</HI> So that the preachers of the Go&s;pel, mu&s;t expect all manner of in|juries, not only from open enemies, but from &s;uch as &s;eem to be of the &s;ame Family, and the very Pillars of the Church. And in <HI>John</HI> 20.18. he foretelleth <HI>Peter, That how&s;oever when he was young he went whether he would, yet when he was old he &s;hould be be led whether he would not.</HI> And &s;o in <HI>Mark</HI> 13. ver&s;. 9. The do|ctrine of Per&s;ecution for the cau&s;e of Chri&s;t is preached unto all the Apo&s;tles, where Chri&s;t &s;aith, <HI>They &s;hall deliver ye up to Coun|cels, and to the Synagogues; and ye &s;hall be beaten, and be brought before Kings and Rulers for my &s;ake for a te&s;timony unto them.</HI> And in <HI>Acts</HI> 9. ver&s;. 15.16. <HI>The Lord &s;aid unto Ananias, go thy way, for he is a cho&s;en ve&s;&s;ell unto me,</HI> (&s;peaking of <HI>Paul</HI>) <HI>to beare my Name before the Gentiles, and Kings, and the Children of I&s;ra|el; for I will &s;hew him how great things he mu&s;t &s;uffer for my Names &s;ake.</HI> And Saint <HI>Paul</HI> in his fir&s;t Epi&s;tle to the <HI>The&s;&s;aloni|ans</HI> Chap. 3. ver&s;. 2, 3. &s;ending <HI>Timothy</HI> to comfort them <HI>concer|ning the faith,</HI> that no man &s;hould be moved by their afflictions and per&s;ecutions, gives them his rea&s;on why they &s;hould be of good courage, and endure them patiently; <HI>For</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>for your &s;elves know that we are appointed thereunto; &s;o that every one that will be Christs Di&s;ciple, must denie him&s;elfe, and take up his cro&s;&s;e daily and follow him, Luke</HI> 9.23. he mu&s;t look for and expect per|&s;ecution for it. And in 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> 3.11, 12. <HI>Thou ha&s;t known</HI> (&s;aith Saint <HI>Paul</HI> to <HI>Timothy</HI>) <HI>my per&s;ecutions and afflictions which I &s;uf|fered, but from them all, the Lord delivered me: yea, all that will live godly in Christ Je&s;us</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>&s;hall &s;uffer per&s;ecution.</HI> In|numerable places to this purpo&s;e might be produced, out of all which, this truth may evidently be gathered, for the comfort of all Gods people, and &s;uch as &s;uffer per&s;ecution for his names &s;ake,
<PB REF="9">That it is the will of God, that they &s;hould &s;uffer for the Go&s;pel; and that they are called upon this condition, to endure affliction and per&s;ecution, as being one of the meanes and wayes God u&s;eth to bring them to life eternall and endle&s;&s;e glory; the knowledge and hope of which, &s;upporteth them in all their tribulations and per&s;ecutions: As is evident in 1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 5.10. <HI>Heb.</HI> 10.34. &amp; <HI>Heb.</HI> 11.26. And therefore from this apparent truth, and from all the places above &s;pecified, I gather the&s;e two conclu&s;ions. The fir&s;t, <HI>That per&s;ecution or que&s;tioning any for con&s;cience &s;ake, impo&s;es not an impo&s;&s;ibility, that by this means the Gospel &s;hould be preaced to all Nations.</HI> The &s;econd, <HI>That the que&s;tioning of any for matters of con&s;cience, inferres not an impo&s;&s;ibility, that &s;uch as know but in part, &s;hould grow in knowledge, or from one mea&s;ure and degree of faith unto another,</HI> as that Author in his fir&s;t a&s;&s;ertions fal&s;ely affirmeth. And for proof of my fir&s;t conclu&s;ion, and the confuta|tion of his fir&s;t Po&s;ition, the foregoing places abundantly declare it; for the Apo&s;tles were to be haled before Kings and Rulers for this very end, That they might give witne&s;&s;e unto the Go&s;pel; and by that very meanes that the Go&s;pel might come to be preached and publi&s;hed to all Nations, for &s;o Chri&s;t a&s;&s;erteth: and when he told <HI>Ananias</HI> in the ninth of the <HI>Acts,</HI> that he had cho&s;en <HI>Paul</HI> to be a ve&s;&s;ell to carry his Name to the Gentiles, and before Kings; in the words following he &s;ignifieth by what meanes he &s;hould carry his Name before the <HI>Gentiles,</HI> and Kings, and that was by his &s;ufferings and per&s;ecutions; for &s;aith Chri&s;t, <HI>I will &s;hew him how great things he mu&s;t &s;uffer for my Names &s;ake:</HI> for he being in all places where&s;oever he came que&s;tioned for his con&s;cience, was committed to pri&s;on as an evill doer, and haled before the Tribunals of the Rulers and Kings of the Earth; by which meanes he had an opportunity to preach unto them the Go&s;pell of JESUS CHRIST, and the do|ctrine of faith and repentance, which he did before <HI>Foelix,</HI> and King <HI>Agrippa,</HI> and <HI>Fe&s;tus;</HI> and after, before <HI>Cae&s;ar,</HI> to whom for ju&s;tice he appealed as his &s;upreame Judge on earth; And to many mighty men, Princes, and Nobles be&s;ides, and to many other people out of all countries that frequent Kings Pala|ces and Courts of judicature, to learn knowledge and wi&s;dome, and to get experience; &s;o that his per&s;ecution and que&s;tioning for matters of Religion and con&s;cience, were &s;o farre from
<PB REF="10">hindring the cour&s;e of the Go&s;pell, as it greatly promoted it, as af|terwards it will appear: for had not <HI>Paul</HI> and the other Apo&s;tles been haled before Rulers and Governours for their con&s;cience, they &s;hould never have had an opportunity or any occa&s;ion to have come into their pre&s;ence: and therefore Chri&s;t that knew the be&s;t way of proclaiming the glad tydings of peace to all the Nati|ons of the Earth, made the cruell per&s;ecution of the Adver&s;aries, the very way of promulgating the Go&s;pel to the whole World; and &s;o by his infinite wi&s;dome brought good, the &s;alvation of his people out of their evill: And to &s;peak nothing but what all Hi|&s;tories, both ancient and moderne, relate; this hath ever beene Gods method, by the per&s;ecution and &s;cattering of his people in|to all Nations, to make his Name known through the whole Earth. And all men may know that have read the Hi&s;tories of tho&s;e times, that the haling and citing of <HI>Luther</HI> before the Emperour of <HI>Ger|many,</HI> for matters of con&s;cience and Religion, was one of the chiefe&s;t means of propogating the Prote&s;tant profe&s;&s;ion through all tho&s;e We&s;terne Countries: for his &s;tout defending of the truth there again&s;t <HI>Ecchius,</HI> and his undaunted behaviour in the main|taining of the Go&s;pel, made the World take notice of it; and by this his publick witne&s;&s;ing for the truth, it came to be divulged e|very where: whereas, if he had never been que&s;tioned and called before the Emperour, there is little probability that there would ever have been any notice taken of it by the great men of the World. But when they perceived that the mighty Princes of the Earth thought his Doctrine worthy the regarding, the Nobles and Peers of Kingdomes al&s;o, then began to li&s;ten after it. The &s;ame may be &s;aid of all the former Chri&s;tians and Martyrs in Ages pa&s;t; and of all our glorious Martyrs here in <HI>England;</HI> &s;ome of which were haled before King <HI>Henry</HI> the eighth, and others in Queen <HI>Maries</HI> dayes, before all the Tribunals, before the Judges and Rulers of the Land: by which means, as they gave evidence unto the truth, and &s;ealed it with their blood; &s;o it was one of the principall cau&s;es of fir&s;t propagating the Prote&s;tant Religion through the Kingdome, and of afterwards e&s;tabli&s;hing of it here: whereas, if they had never been que&s;tioned for their con&s;ciences, by all likelyhood, it would only have remained in &s;ome corners of the Kingdome, and in &s;ome private Families; and never have been publickly authorized. For the confirmation of all I have
<PB REF="10">now &s;aid, the places above cited, and Chri&s;ts own words, might &s;ufficiently evince. But it will not be ami&s;&s;e, to hear <HI>Pauls</HI> te&s;ti|mony concerning this point; who&s;e witne&s;&s;e I conceive is more to be credited, then all the Independents put together, much le&s;&s;e then this Bablers. He in 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> chap. 2. ver&s;. 9. &s;peaking by the Spirit of God concerning per&s;ecution, &s;aith, <HI>Wherein I &s;uffer trouble</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>as an evill doer unto bands, but the Word of God is not bound:</HI> and in 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> chap. 4. ver&s;. 7. <HI>The Lord &s;tood with mee and strengthned mee, that by mee the preaching might be fully known, that all the Gentiles might heare, &amp;c.</HI> Out of the which words we may ob&s;erve two things. Fir&s;t, that the Apo&s;tle &s;uffe|red for his con&s;cience, not for evill doing. Secondly, that his &s;uffering notwith&s;tanding, hindred not the preaching of the Go|&s;pell to all Nations: for he him&s;elf affirmeth the contrary, &s;aying, That by his bonds the Word of God was <HI>not bound;</HI> and by this his que&s;tioning and per&s;ecution, the preaching of the Go&s;pel was made fully knowne, that all the Gentiles might hear, &amp;c. I refer it therefore to the judgement of any learned and intelligible man, whether we ought rather to believe the Spirit of God &s;peaking in <HI>Paul,</HI> or this Chatter of uncircumci&s;ed ears and lips? And <HI>Paul</HI> in <HI>Acts</HI> 20.22, 23. &s;aith, <HI>And now behold I go bound in the Spi|rit unto Jeru&s;alem: not knwing the things that &s;hall befall me there, &s;ave that the Holy Gho&s;t witne&s;&s;eth in every City, &s;aying, that bonds and afflictions abide me.</HI> The &s;ame al&s;o was foretold unto him by <HI>Agabus</HI> in Chap. 21. ver&s;. 11. Yet <HI>Pauls</HI> bonds, neither in Je|ru&s;alem, nor in any other City, and his being que&s;tioned for matters of con&s;cience about the Re&s;urrection, before <HI>Foelix,</HI> King <HI>Agrippa,</HI> and <HI>Fe&s;tus,</HI> hindred not the propagation of the Go&s;pell to all Nations, as this Jangler would infer: for <HI>Paul</HI> him&s;elf te&s;ti|fying the contrary in his Epi&s;tle to the <HI>Philippians,</HI> chap. 1. ver&s;. 12, 13. <HI>But I would ye &s;hould under&s;tand Brethren</HI> (&s;aith the Apo|&s;tle) <HI>that the things that hapned unto me</HI> (&s;peaking there of per&s;e|cution) <HI>have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the Go&s;pell; &s;o that my bonds for Chri&s;t are manife&s;t in Cae&s;ars Court, and in all other places.</HI> By this te&s;timony al&s;o of <HI>Paul,</HI> it is evident that the per&s;ecution for cau&s;e of con&s;cience, rather furthereth the preach|ing of the Go&s;pell to all Nations, then hindreth it; as is yet more manife&s;t through the whole &s;tory of the <HI>Acts;</HI> as for one in&s;tance, chap. 8. ver&s;. 4. where it is &s;aid, <HI>That they that were &s;cattered
<PB REF="11">abroad, went every where preaching the Word.</HI> And all Eccle&s;ia&s;ti|call hi&s;tories te&s;tifie the &s;ame: &s;o that by this that I have now &s;aid, and many more evidences that might be produced, it is clear, that per&s;ecution for cau&s;e of con&s;cience impo&s;es not an impo&s;&s;ibility, that by it, the Go&s;pel &s;hould be preached to all Nations. For per|&s;ecution is the Bellowes of the Go&s;pell, driving every &s;park of truth into a flame. So that all judicious men may &s;ee the vanity and invalidity of this Cavillers fir&s;t a&s;&s;ertion. And this &s;hall &s;uffice to have been &s;poken of that.</P>
<P>Now I come to prove my &s;econd conclu&s;ion, <HI>viz.</HI> That per&s;e|cution for cau&s;e of con&s;cience, hindreth not the growth of grace and knowledge in the Saints: yea, it is &s;o far from hindring Chri|&s;tians from growing in knowledge, and from one mea&s;ure and degree of faith unto another, as this fond Babler in his &s;econd a&s;|&s;ertion would inferre, as it every way improves their graces and knowledge; as we may &s;ee in tho&s;e in <HI>Heb.</HI> 11. concerning &s;ome of which the Lord giveth this te&s;timony, ver&s;. 34, 35, &amp;c. <HI>Who through faith quenched the violence of the fire, e&s;caped the edge of the &s;word, out of weakne&s;&s;e were made &s;trong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the Aliens. And others were tortered, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtaine a bet|ter re&s;urrection. And others had triall of cruell mockings &amp; &s;cour|gings; yea, moreover of bonds and impri&s;onment. They were &s;toned, they were &s;awne a&s;under, were tempted, were &s;laine with the &s;word: they wandred about in Sheepskins and Goatskins; being de&s;titute, afflicted, tormented: of whom the world was not worthie: they wan|dred in De&s;erts, and in Mountains, and in Dens and Caves of the Earth; and all the&s;e having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promi&s;e, &amp;c.</HI> All the&s;e thrived rather by their af|flictions, and per&s;ecutions, and increa&s;ed in grace, and out of weakne&s;&s;e were made &s;trong, if we may believe the Scripture. The &s;ame is al&s;o affirmed concerning afflictions &amp; per&s;ecution for con&s;cience &s;ake, in <HI>Rom.</HI> 8. where <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aith, <HI>Who &s;hall &s;eparate us from the love of Chri&s;t? Shall tribulation, or di&s;tre&s;&s;e, or per&s;ecu|tion, or famine, or nakedne&s;&s;e, or perill, or &s;word (as it is written, for thy &s;ake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as &s;heep to the &s;laughter) nay, in all the&s;e things, we are more then conque|rours, through him that loved us.</HI> By this witne&s;&s;e of the Apo&s;tle, per&s;ecution which has been the lot of the Saints <HI>all the day long,</HI>
<PB REF="11">that is to &s;ay, in all ages, is &s;o far from hindring the increa&s;e of grace, and the degrees of faith, that it <HI>makes them more then con|querours, through him that loved us.</HI> And <HI>Peter</HI> writing to his counntrey men, that by per&s;ecution were &s;cattered and di&s;per&s;ed, through <HI>Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, A&s;ia, and Bithinia,</HI> affirm|eth the &s;ame; who in chap. 1. ver&s;. 5, 6, 7, &amp;c. &s;aith, <HI>That they were kept by the power of God, through faith unto &s;alvation, ready to be revealed in the la&s;t time; wherein</HI> (meaning per&s;ecution) <HI>ye greatly rejoyce,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>though for a &s;ea&s;on (if need be) ye are in heavine&s;&s;e, through many temptations; that the triall of your faith being much more precious then that of gold that peri&s;heth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto prai&s;e, and honour, and glo|rie, at the appearing of Je&s;us Chri&s;t, who having not &s;een, ye love; in whom, though now ye &s;ee him not; yet believing, ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glorie, receiving the end of your hope, even the &s;alvation of your &s;oules.</HI> And in chap. 3. ver&s;. 14, 15. <HI>But if ye &s;uffer for righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e &s;ake,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>happie are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled: but &s;anctifie the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready alwaies to give an an&s;wer to every man that asketh you a rea&s;on of the hope that is in you, with meek|ne&s;&s;e and reverence.</HI> And Saint <HI>Paul, Phil.</HI> 1. ver&s;. 27, 28, 29, 30. incouraging the <HI>Philippians</HI> in their per&s;ecution, &s;aith, <HI>Let your conver&s;ation be as becommeth the Gospel of Chri&s;t: that whether I come and &s;ee you, or el&s;e be ab&s;ent, I may heare of your affaires, that ye &s;tand fa&s;t in one spirit with one minde, &s;triving together for the faith of the Go&s;pel: and in nothing terrified by your adver&s;a|ries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of &s;alvation, and that of God: for unto you it is given in the behalfe of Chri&s;t, not only to believe on him, but al&s;o to &s;uffer for his &s;ake, having the &s;ame conflict which ye &s;aw in me, and now here to be in me.</HI> Here <HI>Paul</HI> animates the Chri&s;tians in tho&s;e times to &s;uffer cheerfully; telling them that it was a great honour to them, and the gift of God to &s;uffer for Chri&s;ts &s;ake. That therefore which is one of the eminente&s;t means of the increa&s;e of the graces of God, and the degrees of faith, and the gift of God, that cannot hinder the growth of them: but to &s;uffer per&s;ecution for Chri&s;ts &s;ake, is one of the eminente&s;t means of the increa&s;e of the graces of God, and of the degrees of faith, and is the &s;peciall gift of God. <HI>Erg&ograve;,</HI> per&s;ecution cannot hinder the growth of the graces of Gods Spi|rit in the Saints.</P>
<PB REF="12">
<P>And for proof of this the te&s;timony of S. <HI>Peter</HI> in chap. 5. ver&s;. 10. &s;ufficeth. <HI>The God of all grace,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>who hath called us in|to his eternall glory by Christ Je&s;us, after ye have &s;uffered a while, make you perfect, &s;tabli&s;h, strengthen, and &s;ettle you.</HI> So that by <HI>Pe|ters</HI> te&s;timony, per&s;ecution for con&s;cience &s;ake, and for Chri&s;ts cau&s;e, <HI>doth perfect, stabli&s;h, &s;trengthen, and &s;ettle men:</HI> it is a means to increa&s;e all the graces of Gods Spirit, and therefore hin|dreth not their growth. And in the Chapter going before, ver&s;. 12, 13, 14. <HI>Beloved</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>think it not &s;trange concerning the fiery triall, as though &s;ome &s;trange thing hapned unto you; but re|joyce, in as much as ye are partakers of Christs &s;ufferings: and if ye be reproached for the Name of Chri&s;t, happie are ye: for the Spirit of glorie and of God resteth upon you:</HI> Here is a mighty in|crea&s;e of graces by rea&s;on of per&s;ecutions: <HI>for the Spirit of glory and of God re&s;teth upon &s;ufferers by them.</HI> And therefore in the conclu&s;ion of his &s;econd Epi&s;t. &s;peaking to his countrey men &s;cat|tered here and there through per&s;ecution; <HI>Grow</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>in grace, and in the knowledge of our Saviour Je&s;us Chri&s;t, &amp;c.</HI> Now if this Gentlemans &s;econd a&s;&s;ertion be true, <HI>That it is impo&s;&s;ible that &s;uch as know but in part, &s;hould grow in knowledge, or from one mea&s;ure of degree of faith to another, if men &s;hould be que&s;tio|ned for matters of con&s;cience:</HI> which are his expre&s;&s;e tearms. Then the exhortation of <HI>Peter</HI> to tho&s;e that were under per&s;ecution, that they &s;hould be alwaies ready to give an an&s;wer of their hope; and that they &s;hould grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Saviour Je&s;us Chri&s;t, were to no purpo&s;e. And all that he affirm|eth in his Epi&s;tles, concerning their growth in all the graces of the holy Spirit: and all that <HI>Paul</HI> te&s;tifies in 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> chap. 1. touching the benefit of per&s;ecutions; and the good that redounds not only to tho&s;e by them that &s;uffer, but to all the Saints; who were en|couraged by their example, more willingly to endure affliction: and were thereby the more &s;trengthned, &amp; got the more increa&s;e of all graces by them: and what&s;oever S. <HI>Paul</HI> writ in his &s;econd Epi&s;tle to the <HI>The&s;&s;alonians,</HI> chap. 1. concerning the Chri&s;tians growth in patience and faith, through the per&s;ecutions and tribu|lations they then endured for con&s;cience &s;ake; and what&s;oever he hath te&s;tified to the contrary in his Epi&s;tle to the <HI>Philippians,</HI> and in all his other Epi&s;tles; and what&s;oever the whole Scripture hath evidenced in this behalfe, concerning the growth and increa&s;e
<PB REF="12">of all the graces of Gods Spirit, by rea&s;on of their per&s;ecution, for con&s;cience &s;ake, and for Chri&s;ts cau&s;e; all the&s;e witne&s;&s;es I &s;ay &s;hould be nothing; yea, untrue, and meer fal&s;ehood, if this Cavil|lers a&s;&s;ertion be true: yea, all the Independents them&s;elves &s;hould be notorious lyars if the&s;e Po&s;itions be veritable: for they brag ex|ceedingly what increa&s;e there is daily of the Independents, and of all their graces; and what abundance of New-lights do daily appear by rea&s;on of their per&s;ecution (for &s;o they plea&s;e to &s;tyle every oppo&s;ition of their errors) and glory in all companies where they come, what multitudes have lately joyned with the~ in their New wayes, by rea&s;on of the oppo&s;ition of it; and for that &s;ome of their Leaders have been que&s;tioned before the Committee a|bout matters of con&s;cience: and this that I now &s;ay, can be pro|ved by an <HI>Iliad</HI> of witne&s;&s;es. So that I refer it to all judicious men, whether we ought to believe Chri&s;t and the holy Gho&s;t &s;peaking in all the Penmen of the Scriptures, who a&s;&s;ert, that per&s;ecution for religion &amp; con&s;cience, increa&s;e the graces of God in Chri&s;tian &s;ufferers, or this wretched and temerarious Novice; who boldly and impudently dares give the Spirit of God the lye, and contra|dict the whole Scripture; and which is much, oppo&s;e all the Fra|ternity of the Independents: For this man affirmeth, that it is im|po&s;&s;ible that men &s;hould grow in knowledge, or from one mea|&s;ure and degree of faith to another, if they be per&s;ecuted or que&s;ti|oned for matters of con&s;cience. And yet the Spirit of God &s;aith the contrary, and the experience of all the Saints confutes this a&s;|&s;ertion. And if the Independents them&s;elves may be believed, they al&s;o refell this Po&s;ition, boa&s;ting daily, not only of the in|crea&s;e of their graces by oppo&s;ition and que&s;tioning, but of the in|crea&s;e of the mighty multitudes of them by rea&s;on of that. So that every one of but &s;hallow capacity may &s;ee the vanity of this Juglers two fir&s;t conclu&s;ions. For the four other following, they are an&s;wered in this that I have now &s;aid. Yet a word or two more, to &s;hew the nothingne&s;&s;e and wickedne&s;s of them, will not be ami&s;&s;e. For whereas he boldly affirmeth, <HI>That it is impo&s;|&s;ible that in a rationall way there &s;hould be a firme &s;ecure peace through the World, nay not in a Province, City, or Towne, &s;o long as men make a point of con&s;cience to compell one another to their o|pinions.</HI> This I a&s;&s;ert is, to confute Gods own Word in <HI>Deut.</HI> 13. who hath commanded there, that who&s;oever &s;hould teach a con|trary
<PB REF="13">Doctrine to that that was taught by <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> &s;hould be que|&s;tioned, and &s;uffer death for it; and that by this means a firme peace would be &s;etled among&s;t Gods people, &amp; through their bor|ders: for as idolatry and errours is a cau&s;e of Gods wrath, and by that a cau&s;e of all troubles; &s;o the removing of the cau&s;e is the way to &s;ettle the peace of Kingdomes. And if we reade the Hi&s;to|ry of the Judges, and indeed all the Prophets, and holy Scriptures, we &s;hall finde the not que&s;tioning and bringing of the Seducers and fal&s;e Prophets to condigne puni&s;hment, was the cau&s;e of all their captivities, and of all the warres and troubles the I&s;raelites were continually imbroyled with. And therefore they that are ac|quainted with the holy Scriptures, may ea&s;ily &s;ee the fal&s;ity and impiety of this a&s;&s;ertion: to &s;ay nothing what all Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Hi&s;tories, and the Stories of all Ages relate, of the continuation of peace in all tho&s;e Nations and Kingdomes, as long as men were both que&s;tioned and puni&s;ht for bringing in of Here&s;ies, and teaching of fal&s;e doctrines; and as long as they pre&s;erved the truth of Chri&s;tian doctrine among&s;t them, which no &s;ooner begun to be corrupted, and errors &s;et up, but immediately upon it, Gods wrath was kindled again&s;t tho&s;e Kingdomes and Countries: and if we will give credit unto the Word of God, and to the Annals of times, the &s;uffering and tollerating of errors in religion among&s;t them, was the cau&s;e that the Lord was angry with them, and re|moved at la&s;t their Candle&s;ticks from them, as we may &s;ee at this day in the &s;even Churches of <HI>A&s;ia,</HI> and all the Ea&s;terne and We&s;t|erne Churches: and if we will not &s;hut our eyes, we may &s;ee al&s;o, it has been the cau&s;e of all the&s;e mi&s;erable di&s;tractions and trou|bles that now the&s;e three Kingdomes are involved in; which if they had e&s;tabli&s;hed the Go&s;pell in its purity, and kept out Idola|try, and all Here&s;ies, wickedne&s;&s;e, and Schi&s;mes, we &s;hould not have thus been afflicted on every &s;ide at home and abroad: for the neglect of our duties in not keeping out of errors in religion, hath brought down all the&s;e judgements upon us: and therefore the tollerating of them all would much more increa&s;e our mi&s;ery, and di&s;turbe the peace both of the Cities and countrey; and there|fore all &s;uch as plead for a tolleration of all religions, ought to be &s;pued out of the Kingdome, as prophane and impious men. And this &s;hall &s;uffice to have been &s;poken of this third a&s;&s;ertion, which is indeed to make war again&s;t God him&s;elf, and not again&s;t us
<PB REF="13">only. For the fourth, where he &s;aith, <HI>That it is impo&s;&s;ible to pre|&s;cribe &s;uch a way for &s;uppre&s;&s;ing new or different opinions what&s;oe|ver, which to any State or Church may &s;eem hereticall, but there will still be left a gap, a po&s;&s;ibility of fighting again&s;t God, even when &s;uch State on Church think they fight for him mo&s;t of all.</HI> This Po|&s;ition al&s;o is not only contrary unto the Word of God, but indeed overthroweth all authority; and by this, no ju&s;tice &s;hould be done again&s;t any bla&s;phemous Seducers, or again&s;t any impious offen|dours in points of Religion, or again&s;t &s;uch as offend again&s;t the Lawes of Kingdomes and Nations; becau&s;e for footh by doing of their duty, which God requires at Magi&s;trates hands, <HI>there will &s;till be left a gap and a po&s;sibility of fighting again&s;t God:</HI> as if to do good, and that which God enjoynes them, would leave open a gap and a po&s;&s;ibility of fighting again&s;t God. I have read, That we may not do evill that good may come of it; I have al&s;o read, that God can create good out of evill, and bring light out of dark|ne&s;&s;e: but I have never read in the Word of God, That Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates and Rulers &s;hould be deterred from doing their duty, &amp; &s;uppre&s;&s;ing of Schi&s;mes, Errors, and Here&s;ies; becau&s;e through the wickedne&s;&s;e of men, and the craft and &s;ubtilty of Satan, there may &s;ometimes troubles immediately ari&s;e to any Nation by it: All good Magi&s;trates are to do their duty, and what God com|mands, and leave the &s;ucce&s;&s;e to God; and to commend them|&s;elves and their endeavours to the Lord, who hath a recompence of reward in &s;tore for them for their well doing; and ought not to be deterred from their duties by &s;uch poor cavils as the&s;e, which are both impious and ridiculous. And whereas in the fifth a&s;&s;erti|on he affirmeth, <HI>That it is impo&s;sible that either the weak believers, mi&s;believers or unbelievers, can be wonne by our godly conver&s;ati|on, as is required,</HI> 1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 2.12. and 3.1, 2. and 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 7.12, 16. <HI>So long as we will not &s;uffer them to live amongst us.</HI> What is this, but openly to fight again&s;t Gods Word, and God him&s;elfe. Who <HI>Deut.</HI> 13. and in many other places of Scripture, commandeth that Secucers &s;hould be put to death, and exterminated and ca&s;t out from among&s;t Gods people, who&s;e wicked conver&s;ation would corrupt others; and be &s;o far from winning weak Belie|vers, mi&s;-believers, or unbelievers, as it would make them all wor&s;e and wor&s;e, and utterly vitiate all the places they dwell in, as daily experience teacheth us, and as the Scripture affirmeth;
<PB REF="14">which a&s;&s;ert, that <HI>A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,</HI> 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> ver&s;. 6. As for the places of Scripture, he there citeth, as they make nothing for his purpo&s;e, &s;o they &s;ufficiently &s;hew that he is a meer &s;tranger in Divinity; and in the Word of God, as I could evidently make appear if I &s;tudied not brevity. And it might al&s;o be made evident, that the bani&s;hments and per&s;ecutions of many of Gods people, as well as their pre&s;ence and co-habitations a|mong&s;t the wicked, have been the cau&s;e of many thou&s;and mens conver&s;ions; who &s;eeing men willingly to relinqui&s;h all earthly things, and leaving their own countries and nighe&s;t relations for their religion, made others the more to look into that doctrine, and to enquire after that religion, that men for the love of, would lo&s;e all things; yea, liberty and life it &s;elfe; which, I &s;ay, hath been the cau&s;e of the conver&s;ion of many thou&s;ands: &s;o that not only the pre&s;ence but the ab&s;ence of men is the cau&s;e of many o|thers conver&s;ion, by which the vanity of this a&s;&s;ertion is al&s;o &s;uf|ficiently manife&s;t.</P>
<P>But it &s;eemes &s;trange to me that this wrangler &s;hould u&s;e this Argument to prove a Tolleration of all Religions, when the practi&s;e of the Independents is contrary, who ca&s;t all that are of a different opinion from them, out of their Congregations: and where they have power in their hands, bani&s;h them from among&s;t them; and yet here in <HI>England</HI> they would have all Religions tollerated to do mi&s;chiefe, when Saint <HI>John</HI> notwith&s;tanding in his 2 <HI>Epistle</HI> to the Elect Lady, forbids her, and in her all Chri&s;ti|ans, <HI>to receive fal&s;e teachers into their hou&s;es, or &s;o much as to bid them God &s;peed, le&s;t they that shall &s;o do, partake with them in their evills;</HI> by which doubtle&s;&s;e he never gave a tolleration of all Religions: but as I &s;aid before, it is well known that people are converted many times, as well by the ab&s;ence of men, as by their pre&s;ence, whether it be for errour or for the Truth: for by en|quiring after the cau&s;e of it, and why they were bani&s;hed, they come to the knowledge of the truth and errour, and &s;o to &s;hun the one and love the other.</P>
<P>And now I come to the &s;ixth and la&s;t. <HI>It is impo&s;sible for a man</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>to hold fast truth, or be fully per&s;waded in his own heart of what he does, or what Religion he makes choice of; unle&s;&s;e after he hath &s;earched the Scriptures, and tryed the Spirits, whether they be of God or no, it be lawfull for him to reject that which shall ap|pear
<PB REF="14">to him as evill, and adhear to that which &s;eemes good in his own judgement.</HI> In a word, by this mans Divinity, without there be a tolleration of all Religions, and that it be left arbitrary for every man to take and choo&s;e what Religion he plea&s;eth, it is im|po&s;&s;ible to hold fa&s;t the truth; for this is his meaning: now if this be good doctrine, then the devill is a good teacher, for this came from hell: but becau&s;e this his Po&s;ition hath the greate&s;t appearance of rea&s;on of all the re&s;t with the &s;imple people, who much con&s;ide in the &s;trength of it; it will not be ami&s;&s;e to &s;ay &s;omething to it, although with any rationall men, if it be well con&s;idered and weighed, it can never infer a nece&s;&s;ity of a tolle|ration of all Religions, an opinion &s;o hetrogeniall to the holy Scripture, and &s;o contrary to piety: for the Word of God which mu&s;t be the rule of our faith, in diver&s;e places declares Gods di&s;|like of all &s;trange opinions and doctrines, commanding all mi|ni&s;ters and people to cleave <HI>unto the Law and to the Te&s;timony,</HI> E&s;a. 8. <HI>And that they &s;hould teach no other doctrine,</HI> 1 Tim. 1.3. <HI>And that they should take heed of fables, &amp;c.</HI> ver&s;. 4. That is, of mens inventions: <HI>And that they &s;hould hold fa&s;t the form of &s;ound words,</HI> 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> 1.13. <HI>And if any man teach otherwi&s;e, and con&s;ent not to whol&s;ome words, even the Words of our Lord Je&s;us Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godline&s;&s;e, that they &s;hould withdraw them&s;elves from &s;uch,</HI> 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 6.3.5. <HI>And that they &s;hould hold fa&s;t the faithfull Word as they have been taught, Tit.</HI> 1.9. <HI>And that they should rebuke men sharply, that they may be &s;ound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewi&s;h fables, and the Com|mandements of men, that turn from the truth, ver.</HI> 13.14. <HI>And that they &s;hould not be wi&s;e above that which is written,</HI> 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 4.6. And that who&s;oever teacheth a contrary doctrine tending to &s;eduction, &s;hould be put to death, <HI>Deut.</HI> 13. All this the holy Scrip|ture teacheth in numberle&s;&s;e places. Now then when Chri&s;tians know the good will and plea&s;ure of God, and are likewi&s;e taught out of the Word of God, as <HI>Deut.</HI> 6. and <HI>Deut.</HI> 11. And in divers other places, that it is their duty that they &s;hould bring up their children and families in the nurture and fear of the Lord, and in&s;truct them in the knowledge of his Commandements, that is, that they &s;hould educate them according to the Will of God, and in the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, as <HI>Timothies</HI> grand-mo|ther and mother did him from his child-hood: I &s;ay, when all
<PB REF="15">Chri&s;tian Parents bring up their children, and indoctrinate their families after this rule and manner, they may hold fa&s;t the truth very well, and be fully per&s;waded of it in their own hearts, al|though they never &s;o much as hear of any Here&s;ie, or of any &s;trange opinion. For as our Saviour &s;aith, <HI>Matth.</HI> 22. <HI>Ye erre not know|ing the Scriptures,</HI> &amp;c. So that the knowledge of the Scripture it &s;elf, is able to keep all men from error, as teaching the <HI>way, the truth, and the life, &amp;c.</HI> And as all wilfull ignorance of the Scrip|ture is both &s;infull and blame-worthy among&s;t all good men, &s;o there is a learned ne&s;cience, which is as commendable, as the o|ther is vituperable: and that is, when men de&s;ire not to be wi&s;e above that which is written (for &s;o they are commanded) &s;o that the under&s;tanding of that which is written in the Book of God, and to <HI>know God to be the only true God, and him who he hath &s;ent, Je&s;us Chri&s;t, which is life eternall, Iohn</HI> 17. This is the only know|ledge nece&s;&s;ary to &s;alvation: and all this a man may learn and at|taine to, without a tolleration of all Religions, which they call liberty of con&s;cience, which is a mo&s;t irreligious opinion, and no way be&s;eeming a Chri&s;tian: for as Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aith, <HI>Let every one that nameth the Name of Chri&s;t depart from evill,</HI> 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> 2.19. Now tolleration of all Religions is &s;uch an evill, as there cannot be a greater, and more di&s;plea&s;ing to God; for it is a very fighting again&s;t God. And for that liberty of con&s;cience the Scripture &s;pea|keth of, it is no other, then that all Chri&s;tians are now freed from the yoak of all legall Ceremonies, and traditions, and inventions of men, and from the cur&s;e and rigour of the Law: but from that liberty to infer a tolleration of all Religions, is mo&s;t impious and ab&s;urd: and it is as wicked to conclude, that we are not tyed to the obedience of the Law, both Morall and Evangelicall; for this is again&s;t all the tenure of the holy Scriptures, and again&s;t all &s;ound rea&s;on, as will by &amp; by appear. And therefore all Chri&s;tian parents ought to in&s;truct their children and hou&s;holds in the Law and Go|&s;pell, as they will an&s;wer it before God at his dreadfull Tribunall. And if their children will not by kindne&s;s be induced and brought to that that is good, they are to be forced to it by the Rod and cor|rection: for <HI>Solomon</HI> &s;o in&s;tructeth all Parents in diver&s;e places of the <HI>Proverbs.</HI> And it was the &s;inne of old <HI>Ely,</HI> in 1 <HI>Sam.</HI> 2. that he did not cha&s;tize his children, and &s;everely puni&s;h them for their wickedne&s;&s;e, and force them to obey the commands of God, and
<PB REF="15">this was the cau&s;e of the Lords di&s;plea&s;ure again&s;t him, that he ca&s;t off his Family from being Prie&s;ts, and removed the place of his wor&s;hip from <HI>Shilo,</HI> to teach all Chri&s;tians to take heed by his example; &s;aying, <HI>I will honour them that honour me, and they that de&s;pi&s;e me &s;hall be lightly e&s;teemed of.</HI> So that to &s;ee &s;inne and er|rors in children, and to connive at them, and not to puni&s;h them for it, is <HI>to de&s;pi&s;e God.</HI> And therefore they ought to force them to obedience, unto that religion God hath appointed; and if they will yet per&s;evere, and continue to be rebellious again&s;t God and their Parents, they are to be cut off by the Law of God. Con&s;ci|ence here mu&s;t be forced, the Will of God mu&s;t be obeyed (there is no di&s;pen&s;ation given to tran&s;gre&s;&s;ion, or to commit evill, though good might come of it:) and that Will and good plea&s;ure of God, we have &s;et downe clearly and evidently in the holy Scriptures, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 19. The knowledge of which is enjoyned to all Chri&s;tians, as nece&s;&s;ary to &s;alvation. But for all vaine opinions and new Do|ctrines, and traditions, and inventions of men, under the name of New-lights, if a man never hears &s;o much as the mention of them, he may very well go to Heaven, <HI>and hold fa&s;t the truth, and be fully per&s;waded in is heart of the truth of his religion:</HI> and this truth the Word of God holdeth out, to all tho&s;e the god of this World hath not blinded their eyes, that they &s;hould not &s;ee the glorious Light of it: &s;o that there needs not a tolleration of all Religions for their illumination to finde out what Religion they will make choice of, as this pre&s;umptuous gain-&s;ayer infers, who peremptorily concludes, <HI>That it is impo&s;&s;ible for a man to hold fa&s;t the truth, or be fully per&s;waded in his own heart of what he does, or of what religion he makes choice of,</HI> unle&s;&s;e it be left arbitrary to him to reject or chu&s;e what &s;eems good to him in his own judge|ment: which if it be not a piece of bla&s;phemy, I never read any, or any thing more tending to the overthrow of the authority of ho|ly Scripture; and to &s;ubject the Will and plea&s;ure of God, to the will, plea&s;ure, and judgement of man, then the which there <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 word"> be nothing more intolerable: for God teacheth us one thing, and this Doctor teacheth the clean contrary: and by his doctrine, leaves not only a gap, a po&s;&s;ibility of &s;ighting again&s;t God, but it is a doctrine in it &s;elf, that fights again&s;t God, <HI>and gives the Spirit of God the lye,</HI> which confirmes the contrary. And if &s;uch doctrines as the&s;e may be tolerated, and &s;uch Teachers as the&s;e go unpuni|&s;hed,
<PB REF="16">they will in time reject the whole Scripture, both Law and Go&s;pell; as many of the Sectaries have already attempted to do, to the un&s;ufferable di&s;honour of God, and to the provoking of his di&s;plea&s;ure again&s;t the whole Nation. And &s;uch doctrine as this is, is hereticall, and &s;o is a great deale more of the Independent doctrine: which is one of the rea&s;ons which makes me &s;o much oppo&s;e it. For as the fal&s;e Teacher <HI>Acts</HI> 15. ver&s;. 1. and <HI>Gal.</HI> 5. <HI>taught the Brethren be&s;ides the Go&s;pell, that except they were circumci&s;ed after the manner of Mo&s;es, they could not be &s;aved,</HI> which was a Here&s;ie: and that that Saint <HI>Paul,</HI> &s;peaking by the Spirit of God, told them, would exclude them out of Heaven, as is evident, <HI>Gal.</HI> 5. ver&s;. 2, 3, 4. So now the Independent Mini&s;ters impo&s;e their own inventions and traditions upon the people, as things nece&s;&s;ary to &s;alvation, which makes it a Here&s;ie. And there|fore when they preach up their own novelties as nece&s;&s;ary to life eternall, proclaiming unto the people that their way is the &s;traight way to Heaven, and that they that are out of it are in the broad path to de&s;truction (as can be proved by a cloud of witne&s;&s;es, and indeed their daily practi&s;e teacheth it) and when they urge this doctrine upon the people as nece&s;&s;ary to happine&s;&s;e; I affirme it is an hereticall doctrine, and ought of all Gods people as much to be dete&s;ted as any Popery: for it is Popery it &s;elf in new clothes, which all the faithfull in the Land have taken a covenant to expell: and &s;o much the more they ought to have a &s;ingular care that this doctrine &s;pread not too far, nor that this Faction get not a Head: For I heard it not long &s;ince from the mouth of a very godly Gentlewoman of a good Family, who affirmed it in the pre|&s;ence of an Independent Mini&s;ters Wife, That to her know|ledge there was an hundred pound at one time &s;ent up to <HI>Lon|don,</HI> or at lea&s;t procured to be paid by &s;ome from <HI>Oxford,</HI> for the gratifying of &s;ome here, that were very great Sticklers and Promooters of the Independent party, for their farther incouragement; and animated them by any wi&s;e to uphold that faction, for they conceived it would be one of the be&s;t means for the attaining of their own ends and the common de&s;ign, for the ruin of us all, and the en&s;laving of the whole City and King|dome. Now I &s;ay if this Independent Doctrine be &s;o prejudici|all to us all for &s;oul and body, and &s;o dangerous in every re&s;pect, it concernes not onely the Parliament and great Councell, but the
<PB REF="16">whole City and Kingdome to looke about them, and take heed how they have their hands in &s;upporting of it, or any way how they &s;oment it, as they tender either the glory of God, or the pre|&s;ent or future good of &s;oul or body, of this Nation, and the good of the Church and State. And truely if there were nothing to bring a man into a dete&s;tation of their wayes, but their unchari|tablene&s;&s;e unto their brethren, it were enough to make any good chri&s;tian di&s;like them, for they never &s;peak of them but with contumelious names, and with vilifying and bla&s;ting language, &s;uch as is too low for any people of virtue, reputation, and ho|nour; u&s;ing to call them all at every word, the enemies of Je&s;us Chri&s;t, Presbyterian Per&s;ecutors, dehorting people from hearing our Godly Mini&s;ters, or for reading any thing written by them or any other, again&s;t their opinions, (after the manner of the Je&s;uits) &s;lighting the mo&s;t learned Preachers, and their Orthodox writings as things of nothing, &s;aying that every boy and &s;illy woman in their Congregations, can an&s;wer any thing any Presbyterian can write; and then &s;et one or other of their confounded widdows, or &s;ome &s;uch creature, upon that imployment, who &s;crible non|&s;en&s;e as familiarly as a Jackanapes cracks nuts; and this is admi|red among&s;t all the Independents, as an incomporable peece; and their authorities are often cited in the Pamphlets of their learned Mini&s;ters. Neither is it among them&s;elves onely that they count all the Presbyterians the children of the Devill, but publikely al&s;o and that in pre&s;ence of Noblemen and Peers of the Kingdome, and in the hearing of many Gentlemen of the Parliament and o|thers, and in their very Companies they can &s;light all the faith|full of the Land be&s;ides them&s;elves: for I being not many dayes &s;ince at <HI>We&s;tmin&s;ter,</HI> where there was a Sagomore of the Indepen|dents among&s;t &s;ome honourable company, I formerly mentioned; and I taking an occa&s;ion to &s;peak to him about Independency, and the Noble man al&s;o &s;peaking to him about it, and others, in the pre&s;ence of them all he uttered the&s;e words, <HI>That all the god|ly in the Kingdome, and all &s;uch as were well affected to Religion, were of that way;</HI> and this I &s;ay he &s;peaks in the hearing of them all, to which the Nobleman and one of the Parliament men re|plyed; Then it &s;eems, &s;ay they, that all that are not Independents, in your opinion, are neither godly nor well affected to Religion: and &s;o the Noble man departed the roome, and left the great In|dependent
<PB REF="17">there. Now if this their opinion of them&s;elves be not a mo&s;t Phari&s;aicall proud, and uncharitable one I leave it to the judgement of any advi&s;ed Chri&s;tian, &s;o that they cannot look up|on their brethren with any love, who they think ungodly and men not well-affected to Religion, and in their writings call the profe&s;t enemies of Je&s;us Chri&s;t, and enemies of his kingdome; and therefore if they do not change their opinions and alter their judgements, all the poor Presbyterians may expect le&s;&s;e friend|&s;hip from them then from the common enemie. And if due no|tice be taken of all their con&s;ultations and of their buzings toge|ther and their juglings, they tend to no other end, but to make their partee and Faction &s;tronger, as within the&s;e few dayes, they in the contriving of a Petition to the Parliament, would have made it one of their reque&s;ts to the Honourable Hou&s;e, <HI>That the A&s;&s;embly of Divines might have been di&s;mi&s;t, and &s;ent every one of them to their particular charges;</HI> but that &s;ome of more wi&s;e|dome thought it un&s;ea&s;onable, and therefore put it out, and other things of high nature are &s;pake of, that they would have in&s;erted into their &s;upplication, all making for the corrobarating of their partee: for if the A&s;&s;embly were but once di&s;&s;olved before there be any Government &s;etled, and if the lights were taken away, then what would not the&s;e men do in the dark, among&s;t the &s;imple people, who by their craft they make beleeve any thing? and who labour by all their power and wit, out of the hatred they have to all the Presbyterians, to make them odious, and their Government dete&s;table to the people, and per&s;wade them that the Presbyteri|ans way is wor&s;e then that of the Pope, and the mo&s;t tyrannicall that ever was, and profe&s;&s;e they will fight to the la&s;t drop of their blood, before they will be &s;ubject to them.</P>
<P>And this that I now &s;ay, I &s;peak upon very good ground, for I know their indignation and cau&s;e-le&s;&s;e malice again&s;t all the Presbyterians, and I have heard great words from them, when they took me for one of their number, what they would do if they were forced to it: and the truth is, among tho&s;e they think they may confide in, they affirm they will not be beholding to the Parliament nor any body el&s;e for their liberty, for they will have it and aske them no leave; they have the &s;word now in their hand and they thinke their partee &s;trong enough to encounter any ad|ver&s;e and oppo&s;ing partee, and they profe&s;&s;e they care not how
<PB REF="17">&s;oon they come to cutting of throats, and &s;peak of nothing but the &s;laughtering and butchering of the Presbyterians: and there|fore there is ju&s;t cau&s;e given us to think we may expect better quarter from the very enemies, then from the Independents, who call us in their Pulpits Brethren, but in their hearts hate us and our government, and alwayes magnifie their own, and endeavour to e&s;tabli&s;h it and their own Religion; which if it were once tollerated, what &s;afety would there then be for the Presbyterians; yea, what comfort can any take in this world to live among&s;t &s;uch, who think little better of their Bre|thren then of Infidels, and &s;eparate them&s;elves from us and our A&s;&s;emblies, as from a company of Dogs and Swine, and &s;o call us: and profe&s;&s;e that they are re&s;olved all to dye for their Religi|on, meaning Independency, before they will &s;ubmit them&s;elves to the Presbyterian government: but they &s;hould call to minde it is not the puni&s;hment but the cau&s;e that makes the Martyr; it mu&s;t be &s;uch a death as &s;eals Gods truth, and not mans inventions and traditions that will be accepted; le&s;t it be asked another day, who required the&s;e things at your hands: let them therefore try fir&s;t how their religion is bottomed, for &s;uch as ru&s;h them&s;elves upon needle&s;&s;e danger, under pretence of Religion, are common|ly called the Devils Martyrs: but &s;ure I am they are none of Gods Martyrs that &s;uffer for a Religion of their own making: and &s;uch are all the Independent novelties: and among&s;t other of their te|nents, this of a toleration of all religions. But they &s;hould al&s;o con&s;ider, that if they were in a good cau&s;e, as they are not, and &s;hould offer to be burnt for the true Religion, yet if they have not love and charity towards their Brethren, this &s;acrifice would do them no good; nor be no more accepted of God, then that of <HI>Cain,</HI> if Saint <HI>Paul</HI> may be believed, 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 13. ver&s;. 1.2. And therefore before they go to that Altar or any other, I would wi&s;h the Independents to lay down their gift, and fir&s;t to renounce their here&s;ies, novelties, and their bla&s;phemous tenents, and all their uncharitablene&s;&s;e, and come and be reconciled to their Brethren, and to the Church of England their Mother, from which they have made &s;o &s;hamefull a defection; and in w^c^h they have by their wantonne&s;&s;e in opinions, cau&s;ed &s;o fearfull a rent, that they have cau&s;e to repent and mourne for it all the dayes of their lives; and then they may have comfort if they be forced to &s;acrifice them|&s;elves
<PB REF="18">for religion, or otherwi&s;e they will have no comfort. And if no Art of per&s;wa&s;ion can prevaile with them to bring them to unity; I &s;hall de&s;ire then, if there be any bowels of affection to their Wives, Children, and Families, or if there by any love to their Country, or any de&s;ire to live in love and unity, with tho&s;e that are as dearly beloved and as truly the people of God as them|&s;elves: that now all by-re&s;pects being laid a&s;ide, and all prejudi|cate opinion ca&s;t away, they would againe return into the bo&s;ome of the Church and make up all breaches, and joyn both their pray|ers and their &s;trength with us, again&s;t the common enemies both of our religion and countrey. But if our Brethren &s;hall forget all the Lawes of nature and humanity, and the law of God, and will unrea&s;onably per&s;evere to trouble the Church and State. I know not but the Magi&s;trate may not only lay commands upon &s;uch to be &s;ilent, but al&s;o &s;everely puni&s;h them for their contumacy, if they refu&s;e to obey. All which I &s;peak not to tolerate per&s;ecution as I &s;aid before; which I know is &s;o heinous a &s;in, as there is but one greater: but only to &s;hew the vanity of the&s;e mens proceed|ings, who endeavour indeed to overthrow the authority of the Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates under pretence of liberty of con&s;cience; as if it were not lawfull in them to <HI>puni&s;h bu&s;ibodies and evill doers;</HI> when as the Apo&s;tle <HI>Peter</HI> in his 1 Epi&s;t. chap. 4. ver&s;. 15. bids all Chri&s;tians take heed they &s;uffer not under that notion. And it is a vaine thing in any men to pretend con&s;cience for religion, when under that colour they have ba&s;e and wicked de&s;ignes, as to make a faction, and to bring in a tumultuation both in Church and State. And therefore as we are taught by the good will and plea&s;ure of God, <HI>Ier.</HI> 2. how greatly it di&s;plea&s;ed him, <HI>That his people left the fountaines of living waters, and digged them&s;elves Sisternes that could hold no water.</HI> So out of the &s;ame Word of God we are taught, that all Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates who are <HI>the Mini&s;ters of God for the good of his people, and who are no terrour to good workes, but to the evill;</HI> have the &s;word committed unto them, as is evident through the whole Go&s;pell: and in the thirteenth of the <HI>Romans,</HI> and in both the Epi&s;tles of Saint <HI>Peter,</HI> and that of Saint <HI>Jude,</HI> in all which &s;uch as &s;peak <HI>evill of dignities, and de&s;pi&s;e their authority,</HI> are reckoned among&s;t the wor&s;t of men: and out of that Word of God we are al&s;o taught that Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates are <HI>Custodes utriu&s;que tabulae:</HI> for God
<PB REF="18">that gave the Law to Fathers &amp; Mothers, Ma&s;ters of Families, and Magi&s;trates, commands them all, that they &s;hould take a care and &s;ee that all tho&s;e under their &s;everall charges &s;hould keep the com|mandements of the Lord, as is manife&s;t <HI>Exod.</HI> 20. and <HI>Deut.</HI> 6. and <HI>Deut.</HI> 11. and many other places of holy Scripture, might he produce to that purpo&s;e, and that they &s;hould all &s;ee to bring up <HI>their Children in the nurture and fear of the Lord,</HI> which they cannot do if they or any of them give a tolleration of all Religions. And Chri&s;t him&s;elf the Lawgiver &s;aith, <HI>Mat.</HI> 5.17, 18, 19. <HI>Thinke not, that I am come to de&s;troy the Law or the Prophets: I am not come to de&s;troy, but to fulfill: for verily I &s;ay unto you, till heaven and earth pa&s;&s;e, one jot or one tittle &s;hall in no wi&s;e pa&s;&s;e from the Law, till all be fulfilled. Who&s;oever therefore &s;hall break one of the lea&s;t of the&s;e Commandements, and &s;hall teach men &s;o, he &s;hall be called the lea&s;t in the Kingdome of heaven; but who&s;oever &s;hall do and teach them, &s;hall be called the greate&s;t in the Kingdome of heaven.</HI> Now it is mo&s;t evident by all that Sermon, that Chri&s;t &s;peaks of the Morrall Law, and ratifies it with all its &s;anctions and puni&s;hments annexed to it again&s;t the violators of that his Royall Will; and by the Law and Prophets and by the Go&s;pell, he hath confirmed all Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates in their Authority, and by all them hath taught all his people that the power of the Magi|&s;trates in all re&s;pects under the Go&s;pell, is as great and as ample if not more exten&s;ive then it was under the Law. So that what&s;o|ever by the Law of God or Nature, de&s;erved death or was wor|thy of puni&s;hment under the Law; the &s;ame de&s;erveth death and puni&s;hment under the Go&s;pell. And therefore as Athei&s;me, Idola|try, Bla&s;phemy, profanation of the Sabboth, and all manner of impiety and tolleration of all Religions, and all manner of wic|kedne&s;&s;e was by the Law of God to be puni&s;hed by the Magi|&s;trates under the Law; the &s;ame ought by the Chri&s;tian Magi|&s;trate to be puni&s;hed under the Go&s;pell: and therefore all good and godly Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates, Parents, Mini&s;ters, Ma&s;ters of Families, and indeed all &s;uch as fear God, ought to joyne toge|ther, for the exterminating and rooting out all fal&s;e wor&s;hip out of Gods &s;ervice, and all manner of here&s;ies and will-wor&s;hip, with all manner of humane inventions, and what&s;oever <HI>con&s;ent not to the whol&s;ome words of the Lord Je&s;us Christ, and to the do|ctrine which is according to Godline&s;&s;e,</HI> 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 6.3. And this is the
<PB REF="19">duty of all Chri&s;tians in any authority. And truly, if ever there were a time, that call'd for an e&s;tabli&s;hment of one religion and a &s;etled government, with uniformity in a Church and State, and a &s;uppre&s;&s;ion of all Here&s;ies, Sects, and Factions, now it is: when by the &s;ad effects already of divi&s;ions and variety of opinions, we may well perceive what ruine will come upon the three King|domes, if there be a toleration of all religions granted. For divi|&s;ions and factions, e&s;pecially in religion, have been fatall to King|domes and Common-wealths in all Ages, as mo&s;t Hi&s;tories re|late. And if men will not learn their duties from Gods command, nor from the example of all the holy Patriarks, Prophets, and A|po&s;tles, that would have but one religion, then let them learn it from the Independents; who whiles they pleade for a toleration of all religions in every Nation and Countrey, will not give a to|leration of them in their own Families &amp; Churches, nor in <HI>New-England,</HI> nor of any other but their own: &s;o that any man that is not &s;tupidity it &s;elf, may well perceive, they &s;ay one thing and mean another; and what toleration of religion they would afford us if they were in authority. But this we learn, that it is the Magi|&s;trates place to execute the will of God again&s;t offenders, and a|gain&s;t &s;uch as would bring in a toleration of all religions. And it is the duty of all Mini&s;ters and people fearing God, and &s;uch as de&s;ire the peace of Church and State, to a&s;&s;i&s;t the Magi&s;trates, and to oppo&s;e all Here&s;ies and Innovations in Religion; and to &s;tudy every way to maintaine love and amity among&s;t Brethren, which a confu&s;ion of all religions can never do: and this I thought fit in way of Preface to premi&s;e in my own ju&s;t defence; and for conviction of the bla&s;pemous Tenents of that Scribler, that writ again&s;t learned Mr. <HI>Prynne.</HI></P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="postscript">
<PB N="1" REF="19">
<HEAD>The Po&s;t&s;cript.</HEAD>
<P>SAint <HI>Paul</HI> in 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 10. &s;etting before the Chri&s;tians of his time the &s;ins of the Jewes, and their often rebellion again&s;t God, and how frequently they had provoked him; &s;pecifies al&s;o, the judgements that came upon them for their di&s;obedience and ingratitude; and tels the <HI>Corinthians</HI> (and in them all Chri&s;tians) that what&s;oever hapned unto the Jewes, it was for <HI>our learning, upon whom the ends of the world are come:</HI> &s;o that if we take not heed by their example, and &s;hun not tho&s;e &s;innes that they provoked God by, we &s;hall likewi&s;e make our &s;elves liable to the &s;ame puni&s;hments. And as no Nation had God &s;o nigh unto them as the Jewes, nor no people upon the face of the Earth that God had &s;o freely loved and miraculou&s;ly delive|red out of the hands of their enemies, when at any time under their great oppre&s;&s;ions they cried unto him; and continued &s;till to be their Saviour and Redeemer out of all their captivities, and &s;la|veries (with the ruine and overthrow many times of their ene|mies) and &s;ent his Prophets and Wi&s;e men early and late to in|&s;truct and teach them his Statutes and Ordinances, commanding them to &s;eek the old way and the good way, that they might finde re&s;t unto their &s;oules, <HI>Ier.</HI> 6. and had in all re&s;pects been &s;o abun|dantly gracious, that he him&s;elf &s;aith <HI>I&s;aiah</HI> 5. <HI>What could I have done more to my Vineyard then that I have done?</HI> Yet notwith|&s;tanding they <HI>left him, the fountaine of living waters, and digged unto them&s;elves broken &s;i&s;ternes that could hold no water. Ier.</HI> 2. So that in Chap. 5. ver&s;. 30, 31. the Lord &s;aith, <HI>A wonderfull and a horrible thing is committed in the land. The Prophets prophe&s;ie fal&s;ely, and the Priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it &s;o: and what will ye do in the end thereof?</HI> In the which words the great &s;inne of rebellion and ungratitude in that people is &s;ufficiently &s;et down, they li&s;tned unto the fal&s;e Prophets, and yeilded obedience unto what they preached unto them (the &s;ame complaint Saint <HI>Paul</HI> makes in 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> and in his other Epi&s;tles
<PB N="2" REF="20">concerning the fal&s;e Apo&s;tles of his time) and ca&s;t off the Lord, and &s;lighted his true and faithfull Mini&s;ters, and &s;et up their own inventions for Gods wor&s;hip, and &s;ervice, and his wayes; by which they &s;o provoked God again&s;t them&s;elves; that how|&s;oever they had been the glory of all Nations, and the admiration of the world, through their often rebellions and unthankfulne&s;&s;e, they became the &s;corn of the Earth, and the hi&s;&s;ing of all King|domes round about them, and a by-word among the Heathen: &s;o that the Prophet <HI>Ieremy</HI> in his Lamentations complaining of the mi&s;erable condition in their captivity, &s;aith, That never any people groaned under greater mi&s;ery, and that mo&s;t de&s;ervedly: for as our ble&s;&s;ed Saviour &s;aith, <HI>He that knows his Ma&s;ters will and doth it not, &s;hall be beaten with many stripes.</HI> The people of I&s;rael of all the families of the Earth, were mo&s;t honoured by God; to|ward the which he had extended and &s;hewed his free and unde|&s;erved favour, and betru&s;ted them with the lively Oracles of his will: but they rebelling again&s;t him, and not li&s;tning unto his voice, nor yeilding obedience to his commands, but giving eare to fal&s;e Prophets and vaine delu&s;ions, and ungratefully and undu|tifully behaving them&s;elves towards him, and alwayes re&s;i&s;ting his Spirit; the Lord did often more &s;everely afflict them then any other Nation, and at the la&s;t ca&s;t them off, as the dung and off|&s;couring of the world, &s;o that they are at this day the mo&s;t mi&s;e|rable people on the Earth, and an object of pity and of the pray|ers of all &s;uch as truly wi&s;h their conver&s;ion. And all this evill is come upon them for their rebellion and ingratitude, as the whole Scripture relateth; and to teach us, on whom the ends of the world are come, to take heed by their example; le&s;t provoking God as they have done, we partake not of the &s;ame plagues. And truly, if we do compare Nation with Nation, and take notice of Gods gracious dealing toward the Jewes, and of his fatherly and favourable dealing towards us, there is not a people under Hea|ven, the Jewes only excepted, that God has done more for, then this our Nation. So that the Lord may &s;ay unto us, as he &s;aid un|to his people the Jewes, <HI>What could I have done more to my Vine|yard then that I have done?</HI> And yet there is not a people under the Heavens more like the Jewes in their rebellions and ingrati|tude to a heavenly Father, then this Nation hath been and now is: &s;o that we may cry out with the Prophet <HI>Jeremy</HI> with admi|ration,
<PB N="3" REF="20"><HI>It is thy mercy we are not con&s;umed, but that thy compa&s;&s;i|ons are renewed every day!</HI> For what hitherto hath God done for us that can plea&s;e us? But we are ever rebelling and repining as the I&s;raelites were, both in Egypt, and in the Wilderne&s;&s;e, and in the very land of Canaan that flowed with Milk and Honey, no|thing could plea&s;e them. In the very &s;ame manner it is with us, in what condition and &s;tate &s;oever we are in, we are never con|tent, but alwayes repining. And even as they rebelled again&s;t <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and <HI>Aaron</HI> their deliverers, and told them to their face, they took too much upon them, and that they were all a holy peo|ple, and murmured again&s;t <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> and were &s;oon weary of him; and de&s;ired rather to be at their Onions and Fle&s;hpots againe in Egypt, then to be fellow-commoners with Angels; and wi&s;hed rather to be under the tyrannicall government of <HI>Pharaoh</HI> and his cruell Taskma&s;ters, then under the &s;weet yoak of God and the government of his &s;ervants <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and <HI>Aaron,</HI> who they mo&s;t reproachfully abu&s;ed and rebelled again&s;t; and were ever mur|muring upon all occa&s;ions again&s;t their deliverers, and only, be|cau&s;e accidentally they met with &s;ome difficulties, and groned under &s;ome pre&s;&s;ures, notwith&s;tanding they were but temporary and for a time, as it happens in all alteration of governments and reformations. After the &s;ame manner is our dealing at this day generally towards God, and towards our <HI>Mo&s;e&s;es</HI> and Delive|rers, who ri&s;e early and &s;it up late, &amp; go through the heat of Sum|mer and the cold of Winter, and eat the bread of carefulne&s;&s;e, and watch for our good that we may &s;leep in quiet: and yet the wic|ked and ungodly out of covetou&s;ne&s;&s;e and prophanene&s;&s;e, and o|thers out of faction and &s;tudy of novelties, mo&s;t ungratefully re|proach and abu&s;e them both in word and deed, as all their carriage doth daily manife&s;t, and their &s;currelous and railing Pamphlets declare; by which they &s;hew their unthankfulne&s;&s;e to their deli|verours, and their ungratitude to God him&s;elf, to the provoking of his wrath and jealou&s;ie again&s;t a Nation unworthy to be belo|ved. Not &s;even years &s;ince, the whole Kingdome lay under &s;uch intolerable pre&s;&s;ures both for &s;oule and body, and had to do with &s;uch unrea&s;onable Judges in all Courts, as no man could either &s;erve God or the Devill for them, but he was puni&s;hed for it: &s;o that there was not any through the whole Dominion that could promi&s;e him&s;elfe &s;afety from oppre&s;&s;ion a moment, or &s;ay any
<PB N="4" REF="21">thing was his: <HI>For they made a man an offender for a word, and laid a &s;nare for him that reproved in the gate, and turned a&s;ide the ju&s;t for a thing of naught, I&s;ay</HI> 29.21. <HI>And truth failed, and he that departed from evill made him&s;elf a prey, I&s;ay</HI> 59.15. So that this Nation was every way in as mi&s;erable a condition as the I&s;ra|elites were, under their tyrannicall Judges: &s;o that the mo&s;t faith|full &s;ubjects were the chiefe&s;t objects of their greate&s;t cruelty, though none were free from it if they had any e&s;tates, that their oppre&s;&s;ors might inrich them&s;elves by them: they were all tyran|nized over both for &s;oule and body, as the whole Kingdome can witne&s;&s;e. And then we cryed unto God and he rai&s;ed us up delive|rers from abroad and at home; and freed us by their meanes from the un&s;upportable cruelty of our Taskma&s;ters, both in Church and State; and from the &s;lavery and unju&s;tice of all their tyrannicall Courts, and from the whole yoke of the Hierarchy; and &s;et up the Ordinances of God in &s;uch purity, and made &s;uch a ble&s;&s;ed Reformation, as our forefathers would have rejoyced to have &s;een but the half of it, and enjoyned al&s;o the &s;anctifying of the Lords day: neither did our Deliverers re&s;t here and were now &s;atisfied with what they had done, but they endeavoured al&s;o to &s;et up &s;uch a Church-government as Chri&s;t the King of his Church hath appointed: &s;o that if we had but thankfull hearts to God and our deliverances, and could di&s;cern what God had done for us by them, we might be the happie&s;t Nation under Heaven. But on the contrary, and contrary to our Covenant and Prote&s;tation (I mean not the Prote&s;tation prote&s;ted) tho&s;e that have de&s;erved be&s;t from us, we think wor&s;t of; and tho&s;e that a few years &s;ince there was nothing thought too good for, nor no entertainment too little for, nor no prai&s;es &s;ufficient to extoll them with; as our Brethren in Scotland, the Parliament it &s;elfe, our brave Generals and Commanders, all the diligent and painfull Mini&s;ters of the kingdome (as they all de&s;erved) they are all now murmured a|gain&s;t as <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and <HI>Aaron</HI> were by tho&s;e Bricklayers, as &s;oon as they were delivered from their fiery furnaces; and with them we de&s;ire to returne into Egypt, and wi&s;h our old Ma&s;ters againe, and think their tyranny a good government: and all this is done not by the Malignants and the ordinary Prote&s;tants only, but by tho&s;e that &s;eem the greate&s;t promoters of reformation, &amp; &s;uch as would be thought the only Chri&s;tians &amp; Saints, as they term them&s;elves,
<PB N="5" REF="21">bidding all others depart from them, as being more holy than they: and flye in the very face of one of tho&s;e men, who they had with &s;ingular encomiums a few years &s;ince magnified as one of the worthies of the kingdome, and predicated as one of the witne&s;&s;es &s;pake of in the book of the <HI>Revelation,</HI> and whom they had received in his return from bani&s;hment with their acclamations of joy; I mean that learned Gentleman Ma&s;ter <HI>William Prynne</HI> E&s;quire, my brother in afffiction and fellow &s;ufferer, who is now the &s;ame that ever he was, and one that for the te&s;timony of Je&s;us, I am mo&s;t confident, would dare to &s;uffer more then many that now traduce him; dare thinke. And if any fiery tryall &s;hould indeed really come, he would, (I doubt not) undauntedly &s;tand in the defence of truth, when they would flye and take their heels as formerly they have done; or &s;qulke in holes, or play le&s;t in &s;ight, or temporize, how&s;oever they now vapour when there is no danger: yet of this very man whom they idolized before, they now &s;peak of, as of one in&s;pired with the devill, and as of a man of no religion, and profe&s;&s;e that they are &s;orry they ever prayed for him; and wi&s;h that when he had lo&s;t his eares, he had lo&s;t his head; and athou&s;and &s;uch expre&s;&s;ions they dayly utter, and not only again&s;t all tho&s;e I have above &s;pecified do they vent their pa&s;&s;ion by their railing lauguage, but they abu&s;e any man what&s;oever, that oppo&s;eth their Novelties, although they had never &s;o honourable thoughts of him before, &amp; conceived never &s;o well of him for his godly life, by w^c^h they de|clare their uncon&s;tancy, and the ficklenes of their un&s;table minds; &s;o that we have ju&s;t cau&s;e to remember that of <HI>David, P&s;al.</HI> 146. <HI>Put not your tru&s;t in Princes, nor in the &s;on of man, in whom there is no help: his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts peri&s;h:</HI> So un&s;table creatures are men, won with an apple and lo&s;t with a nut, imitating the Jews, one day crying <HI>Ho&s;anna,</HI> and another day crucifie him; one day with the fooli&s;h <HI>Galathians,</HI> they would put out their eyes to do <HI>Paul</HI> good, and another they counted him their enemy. But what I pray is the cau&s;e of this their &s;o great di&s;plea&s;ure, again&s;t our bre|thren in <HI>Scotland,</HI> again&s;t the Parliament, again&s;t our noble Gene|ralls, again&s;t all the godly, learned, and painfull Mini&s;ters of the Kingdome, and again&s;t Ma&s;ter <HI>Prynne,</HI> and indeed again&s;t all their faithfull brethren, for they rail and murmur again&s;t all, but
<PB N="6" REF="22">tho&s;e of their own faction, as it is well known. It is becau&s;e for&s;ooth they would &s;et up a Presbytery and de&s;ire to e&s;tabli&s;h that kinde of Government in the Church, which is Gods Ordi|nance (which they &s;ay to the precious Saints, for &s;o they terme them&s;elves, will be more un&s;upportable then the Prelaticall Go|vernment) and becau&s;e they would have the people enter into a publike Covenant for the bringing in and &s;etting up a through reformation; and becau&s;e they have appointed a &s;et day of fa&s;ting and humiliation through the Kingdome (which they in no &s;ort allow of, becau&s;e, &s;ay they, there may be an occa&s;ion of rejoycing that very day: and &s;o there might have been a cau&s;e al&s;o of mour|ning among&s;t the Jews, at &s;uch very times as they had their ap|pointed &s;ea&s;ons of rejoycing and fea&s;ting) but that is not all, why they are offended with the <HI>Scots</HI> and with the Parliament, and with the godly Mini&s;ters, and with all their brethren; but this di&s;plea&s;eth them exceedingly, Becau&s;e they have made a late Order, that none &s;hall Preach publikely but &s;uch as for their &s;uf|ficiency and learning, and &s;oundne&s;&s;e of Doctrine, are able right|ly to in&s;truct and teach the people the right way both of &s;erving God and obeying men, and how they may live comfortably here and be u&s;efull and profitable to others, and be kept from here&s;ies and &s;chi&s;ms, and ereonious doctrines, which tend to nothing but faction and de&s;troying of their own &s;ouls, and the di&s;turbing of the Church and State, and for the bringing in of a confu&s;ion of all Religions, and for the alienating of the affection of brethren one from another, and for the overthrowing of all order in Fa|milies, Villages, Towns, Cities, Countries, and Kingdomes: and for the bringing men in time, that they &s;hall neither know what to beleeve nor what to practi&s;e, as by &s;ad experience we already finde to be frequent. Now becau&s;e our brethren of <HI>Scotland,</HI> and the Parliament, and the godly and faithfull Mini&s;ters, and tho&s;e that as truely fear God as any of them, de&s;ire &s;uch a reformation and &s;uch a Government, as by which Truth and Peace may be e&s;tabli&s;hed among&s;t us; and here&s;ies, and &s;chi&s;ms, and factions may be rootedout, the di&s;turbers of Peace; that we may all live happily here and gloriou&s;ly hereafter: This kinde of government not &s;uiting with their humour, nor with their opinion, therefore they abhor it, and all &s;uch as indeavour to e&s;tabli&s;h it, and de&s;ire and wi&s;h rather that all the old trumpery were brought in again,
<PB N="7" REF="22">and profe&s;&s;e it, that they had rather have the Government of the Prelates, then this kinde of Government; yea, &s;ome of them have not been a&s;hamed to prote&s;t unto &s;ome Malignant and Pre|laticall Prie&s;ts (with whom they can very well comply when occa&s;ion &s;erves) that before the Presbyters &s;hall rule over them, they will cut all their throats, and joyn with them for there-e&s;ta|bli&s;hing of the Hierarchy: and this the Prie&s;ts them&s;elves with great joy have related: And there mu&s;t needs be &s;ome great Mi&s;te|ry of Iniquity, that is not yet brought to light in the&s;e new facti|ons, for it is notoriou&s;ly known to many thou&s;ands in the King|dome, that the Malignants at home and abroad, as their words and Letters do declare, confide as much in the&s;e Sects, for the at|taining unto their de&s;ignes, as they do in all the Cavaliers. So that it is high time for the great Councell of the Kingdome, and for all that love the true Religion, and wi&s;h the peace and welfare of both Church and State to &s;tand upon their guards at home as well as a|broad; and to &s;hew their vigilency and care for the preventing of the intended evill again&s;t us all. And truely it might awaken any man, if he take but notice, of the great di&s;tractions and of the &s;ad effects the&s;e new opinions have produced, not onely in <HI>London</HI> and in the Counties round about it, but al&s;o in <HI>Yorke-&s;hire, Lincoln|&s;hire,</HI> and in all other places where they are imbraced; and how in a &s;hort time Chri&s;tians minds are alienated one from the other, and from the Parliament, by rea&s;on of the difference of their opi|nion, to the great rejoycing of the common enemy, who&s;e e&s;pe|ciall hatred is again&s;t all tho&s;e they call round heads, that is, the old Puritans of <HI>England,</HI> and all the towns wherein they dwell, who are and ever were &s;ince the dayes of reformation, the onely upholders of the true reformed Religion, and are at this day the onely bulworks of it under God; and among&s;t tho&s;e Towns that have kept out the&s;e new Factions by their care and providence <HI>Leice&s;ter, Darby,</HI> and <HI>Che&s;terfield,</HI> de&s;erve high commendations, who through the prudence of their Mini&s;ters and Magi&s;trates, and through their own knowledge and the well-groundedne&s;&s;e of all the good Chri&s;tians there in their Religion, have hitherto kept out all manner of Schi&s;ms and Factions, where the poor people (to their immortall honour be it &s;poken) under all their &s;ufferings by rea&s;on of the common calamity, &s;erve their God night and day with the twelve Tribes of <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> and live in love and amity
<PB N="8" REF="23">among&s;t them&s;elves without any variance, and in the mid&s;t of war; and in the&s;e di&s;tracted times enjoy peace one with another, and &s;ubmit them&s;elves with cheerfulnes &amp; without repining at all Ordinances of Parliament, for the Common good and &s;afety of the Kingdome; and are mo&s;t active &amp; con&s;tant friends to the uttermo&s;t of their power, yea above their abilities, unto the Parliament. And becau&s;e they are &s;o unmoveable in their Religion, and conti|nue in their ancient integrity, after the manner of the old Puri|tans of <HI>England,</HI> they are more hated by the Cavaliers then any other towns, and by all the Noveli&s;ts: for all the old Puritans and them they call Presbyterians, are equally hated by both: yea this is generally ob&s;erved; That all Papi&s;ts and prophane per&s;ons in generall, and all Sects what&s;oever, although they di&s;agree among&s;t them&s;elves, and differ in their manners, opinions, and affections too, one from another as <HI>Herod</HI> and <HI>Pilate</HI> did, yet to per&s;ecute Chri&s;t, as they did then agree; &s;o all the&s;e Sects can accord and joyne together in a common amity, and with the Pontificians and Malignants, per&s;ecute the Presbytery which is next unto the Word of God, an Argument to move me, to beleeve that it is Gods Ordinance, becau&s;e it is &s;o hatefull to all men; for as our Saviour &s;aid of his Di&s;ciples, <HI>That they &s;hould be hated of all men for his names &s;ake,</HI> &s;o generally all Gods con&s;titutions finde little favour among&s;t all &s;uch as leave the high way of Gods Com|mandements, and follow the by-way of errours and Novelties, and continue in the pathes of irregeneration or new-fanglene&s;&s;e, the &s;in of the&s;e times: when Here&s;ie is Religion and Schi&s;m the be&s;t trade in the Kingdome, and the onely way of preferment. And truely the contemplation of the change of all mens minds and manners, within the&s;e few years, and tho&s;e rents and divi&s;i|ons in the Church, makes me call to minde the old plot that the Je&s;uits and their complices, and all the Popi&s;h crew have been long a laying, and contriving for the undermining of the State and overthrowing of the true Prote&s;tant Religion which was <HI>di|vidie &amp; impera.</HI></P>
<P>The Je&s;uites had nothing more common by heart and by book, then that, the way for the alienating of the&s;e three flouri&s;hing Kingdomes to a forain juri&s;diction, and for the extirpating of the true Religion in them, and reducing again of popery, and for the advancing of the Papal u&s;urpation, was fir&s;t to make &s;ects and di|vi&s;ions
<PB N="9" REF="23">among our &s;elves, and then to foment them by &s;ome of their crafty companions, who want neither wit, learning, nor indu&s;try; and know very well how to per&s;onate every man in &s;aying, doing, coun&s;elling, and complying with all &s;orts of Sects, as if they them&s;elves were the mo&s;t zealous defenders of tho&s;e conceived truths, and the greate&s;t abettors of them, when under that vaile they hide them&s;elves; and do not only maintain tho&s;e that are on foot, and &s;uch as they have already hatcht, but daily bring forth new ones, and every one more mon&s;trous then other; and all this for the &s;ubver&s;ion of the three Kingdomes, and the true Prote&s;tant Religion e&s;tabli&s;hed in them, and which is the cau&s;e of all the calamities that are now among&s;t us. But for the effecting of all this they &s;eem to pretend a &s;ingular holine&s;&s;e and more then ordinary piety, and put them&s;elves therefore in &s;heeps-clothing in all their actions, and plead for a chri&s;tian liberty: and therefore they e&s;pecially labour to hinder any &s;etled government in the Church; but &s;uch an one as they well know will bring confu&s;ion upon us all, and which no wi&s;e &s;tate can tolerate, and yet none but this will plea&s;e their humour: and therefore they la|bour principally to make odious the Presbyterian government, which the Ponteficians and all prophane men, and all Sectaries and Hereticks have ever hated; and therefore have alwayes in|deavoured to make it odious to all people, as a government ten|ding to in&s;lave Kings and Princes and di&s;tructive to all well or|dered Common-weals and to the liberty of the &s;ubjects, and to the de&s;troying of the Nobility and Gentry in kingdomes, and for the making of a parity among&s;t all men, and a community of all things; and by this means in a &s;hort time to bring in a confu&s;ion in Church and State. And by &s;uch &s;ugge&s;tions as the&s;e, they have for many generations, as in the&s;e our times made the Presbyteri|ans hatefull to all men. And it is the &s;tudy at this day of all the Malignants, and of all Libertines, &amp; Male-contents and Sectaries, and of all the Independents, to make divi&s;ions betweene people and people, and between Nation and Nation; and to render tho&s;e men de&s;picable that they &s;eemed but a few years before highly to honour, love, and magnifie, as now they do our Brethren of Scot|land, whom they &s;eemed not long &s;ince greatly to e&s;teeme; and who yet ought, and that de&s;ervedly, to be exceedingly honoured for their love to us; who expo&s;ed their own lives and welfare,
<PB N="10" REF="24">yea, their whole country to danger, for our aide, a&s;&s;i&s;tance, and defence; and yet the&s;e men now, with our Noveli&s;ts and all un|&s;table creatures, tho&s;e Reeds &s;haken and turned with every winde of doctrine, and every &s;treame of new opinions (as much as in them lies) are made as hatefull as any common enemies, to the di&s;|honour of God and our Nation, and &s;hews great unthankfulne&s;&s;e in us all, to the deterring of any Nation to come to our &s;uccour or relief; and all this their malice and hatred is, becau&s;e they have &s;et up the Presbyterian government among&s;t them&s;elves; and de|&s;ire for the more uniting of the three Kingdomes to gather in a more nigh affection, to e&s;tabli&s;h it here; wherein they have done God and the Kingdome good &s;ervice, and will finde a reward in Heaven for it, if they fail of it here: and it will not be for the ho|nour of our Nation to &s;uffer any black mouthes to contaminate the reputation of tho&s;e that have de&s;erved &s;o well from us; and therefore all &s;uch as have neither a bridle for their tongues nor their unruly pa&s;&s;ions, ought to have a bit put in their mouthes to teach them better manners, more humanity and gratitude. But this has ever bin the practice of all the enemies of God, &amp; his govern|ment in all ages, to make all his Servants, the holy Prophets, yea Chri&s;t him&s;elf and his ble&s;&s;ed Apo&s;tles, hatefull to the people, un|der that notion of di&s;turbers of all Kingdomes, enemies of <HI>Cae&s;ars</HI> and of all government. And this made the Popi&s;h faction in Qu. <HI>Maries</HI> dayes, when they heard that tho&s;e Mini&s;ters that fled out of <HI>England</HI> to <HI>Frankford</HI> in <HI>Germany,</HI> and into other places, inten|ded to &s;et up the Presbyterian government in <HI>England</HI> if the Lady <HI>Elizabeth</HI> ever came to the Crown, &s;o to be&s;tir them&s;elves and &s;et their wits on work, to hinder and fru&s;trate that their intention: for they &s;aid among them&s;elves, if that government were once e|&s;tabli&s;hed in the Kingdome, their Catholick Religion could ne|ver get place or take rooting here any more: and therefore &s;eeing they could not take away the life of that mo&s;t excellent Lady, nor any way keep her from the Crown after her Si&s;ters decea&s;e; now all the policy would be to hinder that work. Whereupon they &s;uborn'd many of the mo&s;t famous wits out of both Univer&s;ities, that under pretence of religion and zeale to the Prote&s;tant profe&s;|&s;ion &s;hould flye over to <HI>Frankfort,</HI> and to the other places where tho&s;e Mini&s;ters were, as if they had done it out of con&s;cience and pure love to the Prote&s;tant religion; and &s;eemed in all points of
<PB N="11" REF="24">doctrine to be as zealous as any of tho&s;e that were there, and the only de&s;irers and advancers of the true Prote&s;tant Religion: but they profe&s;&s;ed unto them, that for the manner of government the Hierarchicall way of ruling the Church, in their opinion (the pu|rity of religion being once e&s;tabli&s;hed) would mo&s;t tend to the pre&s;ervation of it, as being mo&s;t powerfull for the &s;uppre&s;&s;ing of Sects and Schi&s;mes, and for the upholding al&s;o of the Kingdome; and that the Presbytery would tend to nothing but the bringing in of Anarchy: and what with their craft, &s;ubtilty, and wranglings (as the Independents now do in the A&s;&s;embly) they &s;o interrup|ted their proceedings, as they could not then bring their good de&s;igne to perfection, and &s;o hindered that glorious work of Re|formation for that time, and all under the pretext of piety and good, to the peace of the Church and Kingdome. And as &s;oon as Queen <HI>Mary</HI> was dead, and that the Lady <HI>Elizabeth</HI> was preclai|med Queen of <HI>England,</HI> then they all repaired home; and having a &s;trong party in the Court, all &s;eeming zealous Prote&s;tants (though Papi&s;ts in their hearts) they commended the&s;e men as wi&s;e and moderate men, and &s;uch as were lovers of Monarchies, and regall government to the Queen, and di&s;graced all tho&s;e that &s;tood for a Presbytery, as &s;uch as were factious and affectors of innovation, and &s;uch as were no way to be preferred to eminent places in the Church; but becau&s;e as they &s;aid, they had &s;uffered for their con&s;cience, they were willing they &s;hould have good Par&s;onages and Benefices through the Towns and Villages where they might preach to the people, but they were all &s;et in the Black Bill, as men not fit to preach in Courts, and as men uncapable of great places and high promotion in the Church, &amp; were ever kept under as tho&s;e that were &s;editious and not fit for Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall honours. And all the other that were either Papi&s;ts in their hearts, or ill affected to the Prote&s;tant Religion, though &s;eeming Prote|&s;tants, were advanced to all Church-dignities, and made Arch|bi&s;hops, Bi&s;hops, and Suffragates, Deans, Archdeacons, and the Queens and Noblemens Chaplains. And in a very &s;hort time they e&s;tabli&s;hed their High Commi&s;&s;ion Court, under pretence of &s;up|pre&s;&s;ing Popery; whereas they intended nothing, but the root|ing out in time of all true Religion; and the re-e&s;tabli&s;hing again of their old worm-eaten and rotten profe&s;&s;ion. And they had in a good mea&s;ure accompli&s;hed this their diabolicall plot, and had
<PB N="12" REF="25">really effected it, had it not plea&s;ed our God to call this Parlia|ment and A&s;&s;embly, who by their vigilancy and care fru&s;trated this their de&s;igne. And all this they then brought about by bring|ing the Presbytery into hatred and di&s;grace, as the Papi&s;ts them|&s;elves have often gloried and bragged among their Compani|ons, when they would &s;hew how they had ever out-witted the Puritans. And at this in&s;tant of time, they have their com|plices that foment all the&s;e factions, by who&s;e means they labour to hinder the Presbyterian government, knowing very well, that if it ever be e&s;tablied, the Kingdome of Antichri&s;t will ne|ver get head againe among&s;t us, nor none of their abominable Sects have rooting in the&s;e Kingdomes, but that the truth by that means will flouri&s;h (maugre all the maligners of it) and be propa|gated through the world; which is the only cau&s;e, that not only the Devill but all ungodly men and &s;traglers, are &s;o inraged a|gain&s;t the Presbyterian-government, which they know is &s;o prevalent for the &s;uppre&s;&s;ing of all Here&s;ies and eronious opini|ons; and for the curbing of all vice, wickedne&s;&s;e, and all pro|phanene&s;&s;e, as that they will never be permitted to roo&s;t in the&s;e dominations. And whereas they look upon all the Presbyteri|ans, as they tell us in their writings, as the enemies of JESUS CHRIST and his Kingdome; I look upon all the Sticklers again&s;t the Parliament and Presbytery (by what names and ti|tles &s;oever di&s;tingui&s;hed, &amp; what &s;eeming piety &s;oever they make &s;hew of) as on a company of Juglers. And truly as the Juglers in Saint <HI>Pauls</HI> time bewitched the fooli&s;h <HI>Galathians,</HI> &s;o the&s;e by their cunning craftine&s;&s;e have infatuated too many well meaning and godly people; who, how&s;oever they have learned to for|get the very lawes of civility and common charity, and to con|demne all tho&s;e of a different opinion from them&s;elves, as ene|mies of Chri&s;t: yet I &s;hall ever learne to di&s;tingui&s;h between the people that are mi&s;lead, and they that &s;educe them: for I con|ceive of many of them, as &s;uch as de&s;ire to &s;erve God with all &s;in|cerity, and in the pure&s;t way of wor&s;hipping him: and becau&s;e their Teachers per&s;wade them that the&s;e their new wayes, are the wayes of God, and they not being able to di&s;cern truth from error, and to di&s;cover their hypocri&s;ie are all deceived by them, as the poor Widows were by the Scribes and Phari&s;ees in Chri&s;ts time, who our Saviour &s;aid devoured their hou&s;es under pretence of
<PB N="13" REF="25">long prayers: and as they brought in the leven of their own do|ctrine and inventions into Gods wor&s;hip and &s;ervice, &s;o do the fal&s;e teachers of the&s;e our times bring in their own grolleries and Baggatellies, &amp; prefer their own traditions before the Comman|dements of God, and violate all the lawes of love and charity for the e&s;tabli&s;hing of the &s;ame. And as ignorance in all people is the cau&s;e of error, for &s;o our ble&s;&s;ed Saviour &s;aith, <HI>Matth.</HI> 22. <HI>Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures;</HI> &s;o in the&s;e perilous and dangerous times, the&s;e deceivers creepe into hou&s;es and leade captive &s;illy Women and ignorant Men, to the danger of their own &s;oules and the hurt of others. And lamentable it is, that &s;uch multitudes of Men and Women &s;hould none of them take notice, how they are deluded: for whiles their Pa&s;tors (as they call them) &s;eem to give the congregation and the Church &s;uch power and autho|thority, as if they could do nothing without their con&s;ent and good liking; yet all this is to make them&s;elves Lords over them, and as very <HI>Popes</HI> in their Conclaves, who if they be crafty and cunning, make their Conclaves &s;ay <HI>Amen</HI> to their own wills; and doe what&s;oever they have a liking to, and a purpo&s;e to bring to pa&s;&s;e.</P>
<P>For what man is there, that hath any di&s;cerning &s;pirit, or is but of any ordinary capacity, that doth not by dayly experience finde, that the Pa&s;tors of their new gathered Churches, do what&s;oever plea&s;eth them in their &s;everall Congregations; &s;o that how&s;oever to humor the people, they &s;ay, they can do nothing without the con&s;ent of the whole A&s;&s;embly, it is a meer jugling to my own knowledge; for the poor people count all that their Mini&s;ters &s;peak as an Oracle, and take for truth whatever they &s;ay; and if they do at any time di&s;&s;ent from them in their thoughts, they dare not declare it openly, e&s;pecially the poor members, for in|curring their Mini&s;ters di&s;plea&s;ure: for they ordinarily have the chiefe&s;t hand in the di&s;tribution of all the collections that are made for the releeving of the indigent, and can at any time either plea&s;ure or di&s;plea&s;ure them: and therefore they endeavour to keep in favour with them, to avoid their frowns, which they know may be very prejudiciall unto them: &s;o that their teachers upon all occa&s;ions, do what they them&s;elves think fit, e&s;pecially when it makes for their owne advantage and gain, which the mo&s;t of them have alwayes an eye unto (or el&s;e they are extrame|ly
<PB N="14" REF="26">abu&s;ed by &s;ome of their own fraternity.) And if at any time any in their Churches &s;eem unwilling to comply with them in their proceedings, yet commonly they have &s;uch a party in their Congregations, as they carry all before them; and if for &s;ome &s;hort &s;ea&s;on the greater part oppo&s;e them, if their pa&s;tors be learned and cunning, what with their Policy, Rhetoricke and fine Art of per&s;wa&s;ion and &s;eeming rea&s;ons, they will &s;oon turn the whole Congregation which way they plea&s;e: So that how&s;oever they amu&s;e the people and tell them of the great pri|viledge the Church hath, both in choo&s;ing of Officers, and ad|mitting of members, and in tran&s;acting all things; in fine, all is as they will have it, and all the ignorant people follow their &s;eve|rall Pa&s;tors, as a company of &s;illy Go&s;lings do the old Goo&s;e. And the truth is, they make their Congregation but a company of ninnies (as the fal&s;e Apo&s;tles u&s;ed to do, as <HI>Paul</HI> affirmes in 2 <HI>Cor.</HI> 11.) and all for their own ba&s;e ends (as will ere long be &s;ufficiently proved) and exerci&s;e as great a domination, lord|&s;hip, and power, over them, in re&s;pect of ording things in their &s;everall Churches, as <HI>Popes</HI> in their Conclave, and Kings and Princes in their &s;everall Councells; who if they be wi&s;e and Po|liticke and be Ma&s;ters indeed in their Art, and King-craft, as they call it, they will turn their Councells which way they plea&s;e; and make u&s;e of them no farther then &s;tands with their own de&s;igns, and u&s;e them onely as a &s;creen between them and the people, ever for their own defence and &s;afeguard, &s;o that if at any time upon extraordinary pre&s;&s;ures and grievances their &s;ubjects grow into a heat or di&s;content, and begin to murmur; then one or two of the Councellors, mu&s;t for fa&s;hion-&s;ake be in di&s;grace and frown'd on for &s;ome &s;pace, as if they had given bad councell, to &s;atisfie the people: when in the mean time, there is nothing but collu&s;ion, the King and they remaining very good friends, as who did nothing nor councelled nothing, but what they knew the King him&s;elfe would have done, and u&s;ed them onely as his in&s;truments for the effecting of it; and all this to delude the people, and to regain their good opinion: for all wi&s;e Princes ever &s;hew them&s;elves favourably to the people upon any com|plaints, &s;eeming to greeve at nothing more that their &s;ubjects (who they look on as children) &s;hould in the le&s;t thing &s;uffer un|der their Government, and e&s;pecially by their own &s;ervants, and
<PB N="15" REF="26">this method of dealing gives great content to &s;ubjects in all king|domes, and that Princes know well. After the very &s;ame manner do the crafty Independent Pa&s;tors deal with their Churches upon all occa&s;ions; and when they de&s;ire to bring any plot of theirs to pa&s;&s;e that may be advantageous and profitable unto them, then they put the people upon it; &s;o that if any di&s;grace be like to come by it, then the congregations mu&s;t have that lye upon them, as who have the chiefe ordering of things in their &s;everall a&s;&s;emblies, for they profe&s;&s;e them&s;elves all &s;ervants of the Church, and to be at their di&s;po&s;ing, and to go and come at their appointment, and to do nothing but by their good liking, and <HI>Pope-like,</HI> they &s;ay they are <HI>Servi Servorum.</HI> And then for the colouring of all their juglings, they tell them of the Church in Jeru&s;alem and that of Corinth, who had the power of Choo&s;ing their Officers, and ca&s;t|ing out of offenders, and doing what&s;oever they plea&s;ed within them&s;elves; and they &s;tand, they &s;ay, as &s;ingle per&s;ons, and may not in the lea&s;t infringe or impeach the rights and priviledges of the Church; when notwith&s;tanding nothing is done, but accor|ding to their own direction, and by their &s;peciall in&s;tigation, and &s;o they ever pre&s;erve their own reputation, and &s;eem to be friends to &s;uch as they mortally hate, and lay all upon the Church of <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> who&s;e example they affirm all Churches are to fol|low, and who&s;e pattern they mu&s;t imitate: now that being but one Congregation and A&s;&s;embly (for &s;o they per&s;wade the igno|rant people) ever having had plenary power within it &s;elf, as all the other Churches; the &s;everall congregations through the world (as they a&s;&s;ert) have within them&s;elves the &s;ame power and au|thority, of ordering and tran&s;acting all things that concerne the Church, as the Church of Jeru&s;alem, and tho&s;e other &s;everall Churches had, and from the which there is no appeal; and all this is but mi&s;erably to abu&s;e the people, and cunningly to make them&s;elves Lords over them, whiles they &s;eem highly to honour the profe&s;&s;ing to be their &s;ervants: &amp; for my part I &s;hal ever pray, that all the Independent Mini&s;ters through the world may be in|deed the &s;ervants of the Churches and States wherein they live, and never become their Ma&s;ters; for all men may &s;ee by the very beginning of their domination, how they would Lord it over all congregations, if they were once e&s;tabli&s;hed by authority, when they &s;peak &s;o big in their childhood and infancy, and doe tho&s;e
<PB N="16" REF="27">daring actions again&s;t the great Councell of the Kingdome they dayly exerci&s;e: abu&s;ing all authority that is not of their own mod|dell, in word and deed, in writing and preaching, to the very &s;candall of Religion: all which they could not be &s;uffered to do, if there were once a learned Presby try &s;et up as they well know and &s;uch a Church government as was in <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> and in all tho&s;e Primative Churches, the which were &s;o many &s;everall corporations, every one of them con&s;i&s;ting of &s;everall Congre|gations, and all governed by the joynt con&s;ent and common councell of their &s;everall Colledges of Presbyters, to the which every particular member, and every &s;everall Congregation and A&s;&s;embly in their particular Precincts and Juri&s;dictions, had their appeals upon all occa&s;ions, and that by divine in&s;titution, and &s;tood to the arbitration of every &s;everall Presby try, or el&s;e appea|led upon non &s;atisfaction or conceived wrong, to their &s;everall and more generall Cla&s;&s;es, higher Presbyters or Synods, as we &s;ee in <HI>Mat.</HI> 18. and <HI>Acts</HI> 6. &amp; 15. where we have both precept and pre&s;idents of &s;o ordering and ruling the Church to the end of the world; for Chri&s;t who is the Law-giver of his Church hath &s;o appointed it: and what&s;oever the Apo&s;tles did in the ordinary way of governing the Church, they did it for example to future ages as they in their writing declare and invite all Mini&s;ters and people to their imitation. And if Chri&s;tians under the New Te|&s;tament had not &s;everall places to appeal to, and higher Courts of judicature then their particular Congregations and Churches, they &s;hould be inferiour to the Synagogues of the Jews, and to that Nation in many re&s;pects: for it is well known to tho&s;e that have ever read the holy Scripture, that they had &s;everall Courts to ap|peal to, upon conceived wrong and in all difficult bu&s;ine&s;&s;es, and this was no ceremoniall way of Government, but a morall and permanent way of ordering things to the end of the world: and our ble&s;&s;ed Saviour con&s;tituted the &s;ame manner of Government Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall (the Leviticall Prie&s;t-hood and that Order being aboli&s;hed with all their Ceremonious &s;ervices) that was in all the Cities of <HI>Judaea</HI> and <HI>I&s;arel,</HI> and through all their Synagogues who were all Ari&s;tocratically and Presbyterianly governed, who were moderated and Ordered by &s;everall Colledges of Judges in their &s;everall Precincts cal'd Rulers, of which there were &s;ome inferiour and &s;ome chiefe Rulers or Judges, as it is in all Courts
<PB N="17" REF="27">of judicature through the world: and this manner of government is that that was e&s;tabli&s;hed by Chri&s;t and his ble&s;&s;ed Apo&s;tles, and was continued in the Primitive Churches, till <HI>Antichri&s;t</HI> that Man of Sinne began to put up his hornes; and who advancing him&s;elfe above all that is called God, not only pu&s;ht down that Presbyterian government and manner of ruling, and trampled it under his poluted feet; but mo&s;t tyrannically in&s;laved all King|domes and Nations, and brought them under his un&s;upportable yoke. And now through the goodne&s;&s;e of God, his power is abro|gated and aboli&s;hed, the Independent Mini&s;ters with <HI>Diotrephes</HI> would u&s;urpe the &s;ame over every congregation; which ought to be managed by the joynt con&s;ent and common-coun&s;ell of every Presbytery, to which every Member in every Church, and every particular congregation under their &s;everall Presbyteries, ought to make their addre&s;&s;es, and to which they ought to have their re|cour&s;e upon all occa&s;ions. And if the Gentlemen the Independent Mini&s;ters, had that knowledge in Divinity, Hi&s;tory, or very po|liticks, that they would per&s;wade the world they were &s;o great Ma&s;ters in, they would never have &s;pake, preached, and writ that they have done again&s;t common rea&s;on, all antiquity, and the ex|pre&s;&s;e Word of God it &s;elf in defence of their fond opinion. For what man of ordinary judgement ever read, what the word or a name of a <HI>City</HI> meant, and what is under&s;tood by it, was &s;o &s;tu|pid, as to conceive where <HI>Paul</HI> appointed <HI>Titus,</HI> cap. 1. <HI>That he &s;hould ordaine Presbyters in every City,</HI> that the Apo&s;tle there meant by <HI>City,</HI> one congregation or particular a&s;&s;embly in every City; when if we take notice of that word, we &s;hall finde in all Hi&s;tories both Divine and Humane, that by <HI>City</HI> is meant not on|ly the compa&s;&s;e of ground and hou&s;es and &s;treets inclo&s;ed within the wals of any place, and the inhabitants dwelling in it: but by <HI>City</HI> the whole country is to be under&s;tood and comprehended, who&s;e inhabitants are governed by the &s;ame law that tho&s;e within the City are. And this manner of &s;peaking is &s;o frequent in all Hi|&s;tories both &s;acred and prophane, as nothing is more common, as all learned men know, and therefore I cite not authorities to prove it, with which I might fill a Volume. So that when the Apo&s;tle <HI>Paul</HI> commanded <HI>Titus</HI> to ordaine Presbyters and Bi&s;hops in e|very City, he then e&s;tabli&s;hed a Presbytery or Colledge of Mini|&s;ters, that might with wi&s;dome and in knowledge governe all
<PB N="18" REF="28">tho&s;e &s;everall congregations and particular a&s;&s;emblies of Believers that then were in the&s;e &s;everall Cities, and as many as in future time &s;hould be converted to the faith by the preaching of the Go|&s;pell within the&s;e Cities, and Villages about the City, as far as the juri&s;diction and limits of the &s;ecular government did &s;tretch and extend it &s;elf: for the Secular government and the Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall went alwayes together, as it doth at this day through the world in all well ordered Principalities and Common-weals: and there|fore as far as the Teritories of every City in tho&s;e dayes extended it &s;elfe, &s;o far did the Presbyters authority &s;pread and extend it &s;elf: and therefore when the Apo&s;tle enjoyned <HI>Titus</HI> to <HI>ordaine Pre&s;byters in every City,</HI> he e&s;tabli&s;hed there a Councell, Senate, Court, or Colledge of Presbyters, and an Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Magi&s;tra|cy, to the which he gave power to exerci&s;e their authority over all the particular congregations and &s;everall a&s;&s;emblies that were then already converted, and that &s;hould be converted afterward, both within the wals of the City, and within the circumference and bounds of the whole juri&s;diction to the end of the world; and or|dered that that Presbytery and Colledge by joynt con&s;ent and common coun&s;ell &s;hould governe all tho&s;e &s;everall congregations. And this is Gods Ordinance. And as all the Cities in Judea and I&s;rael under their &s;everall Kings were notwith&s;tanding governed by a &s;ecular Presbytery, as all Corporations are here in England, &s;o they were al&s;o by an Eccle&s;ia&s;ticlal, and had their Rulers of their Synagogues and appeals from inferiour Courts to &s;uperiour upon all ju&s;t occa&s;ions, and that by Gods appointment, and by Chri&s;ts own ratification, as the Scripture doth frequently &s;pecifie in many places. And indeed if any man of mature judgement, and with deliberation would but con&s;ider what all Hi&s;tories relate concer|ning the originall of Cities, and the cau&s;e of their building, and how farre their Territories and their Lines (if I may &s;o &s;ay) of communication extended, with their inhabitants which were al|wayes counted Citizens, they could never be induced to believe that grolli&s;h opinion of Independency. For when the Lord divi|ded the whole Earth to the &s;everall families of the &s;ame, he alwaies re&s;erved a portion for his own children, for he is the pre&s;erver of all, e&s;pecially of the Believers, as it is related <HI>Deut.</HI> 32. and <HI>Acts</HI> 17. and 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 4. Now as the Families of the Earth multi|plied and increa&s;ed, they extended their habitations further and
<PB N="19" REF="28">further, from countrey to countrey, till they had repleni&s;hed all places according to Gods command and ble&s;&s;ing, <HI>Increa&s;e and multiply:</HI> and as they &s;eated them&s;elves in any new Plantation, for their &s;afety and more &s;ecure habitation, and to free them&s;elves from incur&s;ions of any enemies, they built them&s;elves Cities and great walled Townes (having learned that le&s;&s;on of <HI>Cain,</HI> the fruits of &s;in, that made man both naked and afraid of every thing) and that they might be furni&s;hed with all provi&s;ions and nece&s;&s;a|ries, they allotted unto every City &s;uch a circuit and compa&s;&s;e of ground as out of the which they might have all their nece&s;&s;aries &s;upplied, and be accommodated with all things needfull for food and raiment and their bodily pre&s;ervation, which required a large extent of ground, and of which they might take at plea&s;ure, there being enough, and for this very end they &s;tocked the grounds about their &s;everall Cities with cattell, and &s;ent out as their fami|lies increa&s;ed, their Colonies and Semenaries, as Bees u&s;e yearly to do their Swarmes; and tho&s;e they &s;eated in the mo&s;t conveni|ent and fertile&s;t places, and fitte&s;t for habitation through the coun|tries, who manured and tilled the ground, and planted Vineyards, and built Villages and Towns; all the which &s;till were accounted Citizens: &amp; as Merchants here in <HI>London</HI> that are Citizens &amp; that have hou&s;es and habitations in the countrey, lo&s;e not their former denomination by their countrey habitation; no more did the peo|ple in tho&s;e dayes, but were alwayes with all the inhabitants with|in the limits of that countrey, reputed Citizens, and call'd by the name of &s;uch a City, becau&s;e they were governed by the &s;ame lawes the City was, and were derived from it, and were under the command of the chiefe of tho&s;e families, who all lived as Kings at fir&s;t. And therefore into who&s;e hands &s;oever tho&s;e Ci|ties fell, either by &s;ucce&s;&s;ion, donation, compact, mariage or victo|ry, tho&s;e that were the owners or conquerours of them, &s;till for the mo&s;t part continued and pre&s;erved the divi&s;ions formerly made, and kept all tho&s;e Villages and Townes as far as the juri&s;|diction of tho&s;e Cities extended under their command, and all by the name of &s;uch Cities as at fir&s;t, and all the dwellers and in|habitants within that circumference or circuit were &s;till accoun|ted as part of the City as all Hi&s;tories do relate both &s;acred and humane. So that they that were Ma&s;ters of tho&s;e &s;everall Cities, were al&s;o Lords of all tho&s;e Villages, which were under the juri&s;|diction
<PB N="20" REF="29">diction of tho&s;e Cities, and as far as the &s;ecular power of tho&s;e &s;eve|rall Cities did extend, &s;o far did their Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall. And as tho&s;e &s;e|verall cities we read of in the holy Scripture under the Kings of <HI>Ju|da</HI> and <HI>I&s;rael,</HI> had all their &s;everall civill Presbyters and Elders, or a Councell and Senate of Presbyters in them to govern them under their &s;everall Kings; &s;o they had their Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall or Synago|gicall Presbyters, or a Colledge of Elders al&s;o, who&s;e authority extended over all their &s;everall congregations, Synagogues, or a&s;&s;emblies, as well within the Cities as without, through all the Villages and Townes that were within the compa&s;&s;e and circum|ference of their &s;everall juri&s;dictions, as all imperiall Cities through the chri&s;tian world were in the Primitive times gover|ned, and are at this day in many places. And therefore we can|not conceive any other of the &s;everall Presbyters placed in every City by Apo&s;tolicall in&s;titution, as of tho&s;e of <HI>Jeru&s;alem, Ephe&s;us, Corinth, Galatia, &amp;c.</HI> but as of &s;o many corporations: for we reade that both in <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> and <HI>Ephe&s;us,</HI> they had both many Presbyters and many congregations under every &s;everall Presby|tery, and as men in tho&s;e &s;everall Cities, Pari&s;hes, Townes, and Villages were daily converted to the faith, &s;o tho&s;e &s;everall Col|ledges of Presbyters ordained them more Presbyters by common con&s;ent, and took them continually under their government; which congregations, though many, as far as their juri&s;diction extended, were all joyned together under one Presbyterie, and made &s;till in every &s;everall Precinct but one church, as that of <HI>Je|ru&s;alem</HI> and <HI>Ephe&s;us,</HI> and were all governed and ordered by the joynt con&s;ent and common-coun&s;ell of their &s;everall Colled|ges of Presbyters; the mi&s;taking of the which kinde of govern|ment, and the mi&s;-under&s;tanding of the Scriptures, was the cau&s;e of all the confu&s;ions in the Chri&s;tian world, and of tho&s;e &s;ad dif|ferences here in <HI>England</HI> at this day, and the only occa&s;ion of that vaine opinion of Independency, for &s;o I may call it for divers rea|&s;ons. For the tenent of the Independents is this, That in the Church of <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> and in that of <HI>Ephe&s;us,</HI> and in all the other Churches &s;poken of in the New Te&s;tament, there were no more Believers in each of them, then could all meet in one place, and in one congregation to partake in all acts of wor&s;hip, and that they were ab&s;olute within them&s;elves, and from the which there was no appeals: which I affirme is a vaine and fond opinion, contrary
<PB N="21" REF="29">to both Scripture and rea&s;on, and all antiquity; and that it is both again&s;t Scripture and rea&s;on, I have &s;ufficiently as I conceive pro|ved it in the foregoing di&s;cour&s;e. But for a further confirmation of it I &s;hall here adde &s;ome other arguments, that may if it be po&s;&s;ible undeceive tho&s;e that have by the falacies and craft of their Teachers been mi&s;led and &s;educed. I mu&s;t confe&s;&s;e, it has been a wonder often to me, to &s;ee that &s;uch multitudes of godly people, and tho&s;e that I had thought had been &s;o well grounded in Reli|gion, &s;hould be &s;o carried about with every winde of new do|ctrine, under pretence of New-lights, when they have &s;o often been forewarn'd to take heed of deceivers, by Chri&s;t and his Apo|&s;tles; and that in &s;uch a violent manner, and with &s;uch exa&s;pirated &s;pirits again&s;t their Brethren, that cannot a&s;&s;ent unto tho&s;e novel|ties. For if they had ever read the holy Scriptures with under|&s;tanding, or been but a little acquainted with the Eccle&s;ia&s;ti|call Hi&s;tories, they could never have been &s;o &s;uddenly deluded. For if we but reade the <HI>Acts</HI> of the Apo&s;tles with attention, or the Epi&s;tles of <HI>Paul,</HI> and all the writings of the New Te&s;tament; we &s;hall finde in them all, that by the powerfull preaching of the Go&s;pel and by the wonderfull working of miracles of the Apo|&s;tles, whole cities and countries were converted unto the faith; and that the Go&s;pel was generally imbraced, and whole Nations converted and brought to the obedience of the faith by it, in a very &s;hort time: and Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;peaking of the <HI>Romans,</HI> chap. 1 ver. 8. &s;aith, that their faith <HI>was spoken of through the whole world:</HI> and in chap. 10. ver&s;. 18. he &s;aith, <HI>That the &s;ound of the Go&s;pell went into all the earth, and their words</HI> (meaning of the Apo&s;tles) <HI>un|to the end of the world.</HI> And in the 15. chapter and ver&s;. 18, 19. he affirmeth, <HI>That Chri&s;t &s;o wrought by him, as he made the Gentiles obedient by word &amp; deed, through mighty &s;ignes &amp; wonders by the prower of the Spirit of God, &s;o that from Jeru&s;alem and round about all Illericum, he had fully Preached the Go&s;pell, and that he had &s;o &s;trived to Preach the Gospel, not where Chri&s;t was named, lea&s;t he &s;hould build upon another mans foundation.</HI> And in his 1. <HI>Epi&s;tle</HI> to the <HI>The&s;&s;alonians</HI> ver&s;. 8. He teacheth <HI>That from them the Word of the Lord &s;ounded, not onely in Macedonia and Achaia, but al&s;o in every place, &s;aith he, your faith to God-ward is &s;pread abroad, &s;o that we need not to &s;peak any thing.</HI> Here we &s;ee whol Cities and Countries were converted and became Chri&s;tians.
<PB N="22" REF="30">And in the <HI>Acts</HI> of the Apo&s;tles there is frequent mention of whole Cities and Countries converted by the miracles and Preaching of the Apo&s;tles: who the people thought of and looked upon, as gods come down from heaven; &s;o that all <HI>A&s;ia</HI> in a &s;hort time was converted by the Apo&s;tles Mini&s;tery, for the people &s;ee|ing the Apo&s;tles rai&s;e the dead and cure all di&s;ea&s;es, and that by their very &s;haddows, and by touching but the garments and handcarchiefs, or any thing that came from the &s;ick; and ob&s;er|ving that they were by and by re&s;tored unto their former health, and beholding their godly life and holy conver&s;ation, and hearing them preach nothing but tho&s;e things that tended to make them eternally happy: they came in, in mighty multitudes, through Cities and whole Countries, to beleeve the Go&s;pell, and were made Chri&s;tians dayly; &s;o that by &s;ome one of their miracles they converted more then could meet well in any one Congrega|tion to partake in all acts of wor&s;hip and to edification; and there was &s;till dayly increa&s;e upon increa&s;e of Chri&s;tians through both Cities and Countries, as both the Scriptures and all the Eccle&s;ia|&s;ticall hi&s;tories relate: &s;o that all rea&s;on dictates unto any in|telligible man, that in a &s;hort time there mu&s;t of nece&s;&s;ity in every City, and through the &s;everall Countries be many Congre|gations and A&s;&s;emblies, and many Presbytors, ordained over them for the ruling and governing and dayly in&s;tructing of them and for the building of them all up in the holy faith: for all the&s;e the Scripture &s;peakes of, were &s;uch as were really con|verted, or at lea&s;t made profe&s;&s;ion of the &s;aith as <HI>Simon Magus,</HI> and were therefore admitted into the bo&s;ome of the Church, and into the fellow&s;hip of the Saints. And all good rea&s;on will teach men, that the Apo&s;tles and tho&s;e Primative Mini&s;ters, had a more excellent faculty of converting men, then our Independent Pa|&s;tors &amp; teachers, by who&s;e Mini&s;try yet, I never heard of any that were converted; for their Congregations al of them con&s;i&s;t of &s;uch as were converted to their hands: but if a few of them without miracles, have been &s;o powerfull through City and Country to gather &s;o many congregations and &s;everall Churches here in <HI>Lon|don,</HI> and through all the Cities and Towns where they have been preaching their Novelties, &s;hall we be &s;o blocki&s;h and &s;tupid to think that all the Apo&s;tles together, and &s;o many other famous Mini&s;ters as were for many years, alwayes re&s;ident in <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI>
<PB N="23" REF="30">they could all convert no more Chri&s;tians then could meet in one place or congregation? and that at <HI>Ephe&s;us</HI> and in the other Ci|ties and Countries where the Scripture relateth that there was &s;uch infinite multitudes dayly converted, and additions of new beleevers upon new beleevers added to the Church, that they might ever meet in one Congregation and in one A&s;&s;embly to communicate in all the Ordinances? no rea&s;on will per&s;wade this to any man, that hath not promi&s;ed to him&s;elf to beleeve no|thing but what he &s;eeth with his own eyes. But that I may again return to the Church in <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> the pattern of all Churches for government; I affirm that in that great and mighty city, there were more beleevers than could meet in any one or a few places, to communicate in all acts of wor&s;hip, and that there were many Congregations of Chri&s;tians there in the Apo&s;tles times, and many years after. And be&s;ides the many rea&s;ons I have in the fore|going Treati&s;e &s;pecified, for a further demon&s;tration of the truth of that A&s;&s;ertion, I &s;hall here adde a few more. And among&s;t other that out of <HI>Paul</HI> in the fir&s;t of the <HI>Galathians,</HI> which I one|ly touched in the foregoing Tractate; where he &s;ignifieth to the <HI>Galathians,</HI> that he received not the Go&s;pell from the Apo&s;tles, but from Je&s;us Chri&s;t him&s;elf, that they might the more cheer|fully imbrace it, and give credit unto it: <HI>For,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>I preached the Go&s;pell in Arabia, to the heathens before I &s;aw the Apo&s;tles, and had continued my Mini&s;tery three years before I went up to Ie|ru&s;alem to them.</HI> Indeed after <HI>three years, &s;aith he, I went up to Ieru&s;alem, to &s;ee Peter, and aboade with him fifteen dayes, but other of the Apostles &s;aw I none &s;ave Iames the Lords brother,</HI> (not that they were ab&s;ent) <HI>and therefore I received not the Go&s;pell from them, but from Chri&s;t him&s;elf.</HI> In the which words we have not onely a &s;ingular Argument to confirm the Preaching and writing of the Apo&s;tle <HI>Paul</HI> to be the Word of God again&s;t the Papi&s;ts, but we have al&s;o an excellent rea&s;on again&s;t the new opinion of the Independents, to prove many congregations in the Church of <HI>Ieru&s;alem</HI> for <HI>Paul</HI> was a diligent frequenter of the Synagogues and A&s;&s;emblies of the Jews and Chri&s;tians where|&s;oever he came (as it is often &s;pecified in the Scripture) where he Preached the Word and Go&s;pell unto the people: and it is al&s;o cleer and evident by the &s;ame Scripture, as in the <HI>Acts</HI> of the Apo&s;tles, and in the Epi&s;tle of Saint <HI>Iames,</HI> and many other places,
<PB N="24" REF="31">that Synagogue and Church were Sunonymaes, and are often ta|ken one for another, as Bi&s;hops and Presbyter are for the ordinary Mini&s;ters and Preachers of the Word. Now by the very light of rea&s;on, all men that have not re&s;ined their under&s;tanding, will gather, That if there had been but one meeting place or one con|gregation of Believers in the Church of Jeru&s;alem, that <HI>Paul</HI> re|maining there fifteen dayes, in all that times he would have fre|quented the A&s;&s;embly of Believers, at le&s;t if he had not preached unto them, who was &s;o diligent both in hearing and in preaching in al other places were he came: and if there had then been but one meeting-place in Jeru&s;alem, and but one congregation, without doubt the Apo&s;tles would daily have been at their imployments, which were, to pray with the people, and preach unto them, for they never were idle nor de&s;erted not their charge. Now when they were alwayes imployed in their &s;everall mini&s;teries, it is ma|nife&s;t that there were &s;everall a&s;&s;emblies or congregations of Be|lievers in Jeru&s;alem, that hindred the Apo&s;tles from vi&s;iting one another; for if there had been but one congregation, then of ne|ce&s;&s;ity <HI>Paul</HI> and the other Apo&s;tles &s;hould have met there in &s;o long a &s;pace: and therefore it &s;tands with all rea&s;on that there were many congregations of Believers in Jeru&s;alem, if we had no te&s;timonies of holy Scripture for to prove it.</P>
<P>For if any credit may be given to the Hi&s;torians that write of the&s;e times, there were above three of four hundred Synagogues in Je|ru&s;alem (I &s;peak within compa&s;&s;e) and common under&s;tanding dictates that there were &s;ome hundreds of a&s;&s;embling places, where there was &s;o many hundred thou&s;and people, and &s;uch multitudes of Teachers. And in tho&s;e Synagogues the people met together, to hear the Law and Prophets both read and interpreted unto them: and the Synagogues both in Jeru&s;alem, and through all Judea and Pale&s;tine, were the places of the morall wor&s;hip, as the Temple was the principall place of the cerimoniall &s;ervice. And as here in London, <HI>Pauls</HI> was the place, where after the Jewi&s;h, or rather Heatheni&s;h fa&s;hion and manner, they had their ceremoniall imployments, which con&s;i&s;ted in outward perfor|mances, as crouchings and cringings, capings and kneeings, pipe|ing and tooting, in Popes, Surplices, and their four &s;quare Cow|turds and crotchets, windings and turnings, Altars, Cro&s;&s;es and Crucifixes, and a thou&s;and other &s;uch trumperies; the acting of
<PB N="25" REF="31">all which made the judicious Chri&s;tian-beholders think them|&s;elves rather in the &s;chool of <HI>Numa Pompilius,</HI> or in the Col|ledge of the old Roman Prie&s;ts then conver&s;ant in the Church of God: &s;o the other Churches through the City, were the places where the Morrall wor&s;hip was chiefely exerci&s;ed; as the reading, preaching, and hearing of the Word, chatechi&s;ing, exhortation, admonition, prayers, thank&s;giving, &amp;c. So after the &s;ame man|ner it was in Jeru&s;alem. The Temple was the principle place of the Ceremoniall Wor&s;hip, and the Synagogues were the places of the Morrall Service; where <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and the Prophets were read and interpreted unto them, every Sabbath day. And it followeth of nece&s;&s;ity, that there mu&s;t needs be a very great num|ber of Synagogues in <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> where there were many hun|dred thou&s;and people, and &s;uch multitudes of Rabbies and Do|ctors and &s;uch a number of Prie&s;ts, Levites, Scribes, Phari&s;ees, and Lawyers, all Interpreters of the Law, and &s;uch as &s;at in <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> his chair, who our Saviour commanded the people to hear.</P>
<P>Now, as in the dayes of King <HI>Edward</HI> and Queen <HI>Elizabeth,</HI> after their Latine Service, and their Idolatrous Ma&s;&s;es were ca&s;t out of all the Churches; and the reformed Religion was &s;et up in the &s;everall Congregation in place of that fal&s; Wor&s;hip, and all the people repaired &s;till, and more willingly and more abundantly unto their &s;everall Pari&s;h Churches, and Chappels, to hear the Word Preached; and as the meetings and meeting-places were &s;till continued, whereas they onely heard Ma&s;&s;es before, which they under&s;tood not, now they heard the Go&s;pell purely preached unto them in lieu of that; and the people came more abundantly unto tho&s;e a&s;&s;emblies. Even &s;o whereas before the comming of <HI>John</HI> the Bapti&s;t, and of our ble&s;&s;ed Saviour, they had the Law, P&s;alms, and Prophets, read and Interpreted unto them in all their Synagogues, after the Go&s;pell began to be publi&s;hed; to the Law and the Prophets, the glad tidings of Peace was Preached by Chri&s;t and his Apo&s;tles, and the other Primative Chri&s;tian Mini|ni&s;ters, and by many of the Prie&s;ts that imbraced the faith; and that in all their Synagogues every Sabboth day, e&s;pecially where the people upon all occa&s;ions in great multitudes met together: for it is &s;aid, <HI>That the Kingdome of heaven &s;uffered violence, and the violent tooke it by force.</HI> Now to any man that will not re&s;olve to &s;hut his eyes, and refu&s;e to &s;ee the Sun-&s;hine of the truth, it
<PB N="26" REF="32">may appear that all the Synagogues in <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> as in all other Cities, after the Chri&s;tian Religion was &s;o generally imbraced, and the Jews were turned Chri&s;tians; were the places where they &s;till continued to meet in, to hear the Go&s;pell as formerly they had done to hear the Law, and there is many te&s;timonies out of holy Scripture, to prove this A&s;&s;ertion: neither can we in charity think that they being made Chri&s;tians, were le&s;&s;e zealous to hear the Go&s;pell, then they were to hear the Law; yea, their diligence in that good work, is often mentioned in the holy Scripture to their prai&s;e and honour; as that they met dayly in the Temple and in every hou&s;e, to hear the Word and to partake in all the Ordinan|ces. And it is well known, that <HI>Paul</HI> into what City &s;oever he came, was as diligent in preaching as the people in hearing. Now when he remained in <HI>Jeru&s;alem</HI> fifteen dayes, he would not be idle: and it is to be beleeved that the other Apo&s;tles were as diligent in their &s;everall Mini&s;tries as <HI>Paul</HI> was, as I &s;aid before; &s;o that their much imployment without doubt, was the onely cau&s;e that hindred the Apo&s;tles from comming unto him, and re|tarded <HI>Paul</HI> from &s;aluting of them: for we may not conceive, that &s;o famous an Apo&s;tle as <HI>Paul</HI> was, could lye hid in <HI>Jeru&s;a|lem</HI> or be unknown &s;o long from the other Apo&s;tles; neither in charity may we think, that there was any love wanting either in <HI>Paul</HI> towards them, or in the Apo&s;tles towards <HI>Paul;</HI> but we mo&s;t impute their not vi&s;iting of each other, to the multiplicity of their imployments, that &s;o hindered them, that they could not finde convenient time, each to &s;ee other. So that by this I have now &s;aid, it is evident to any rationall man, that there were more Chri&s;tians and beleevers in the Church of <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> then either could or did meet together in one place for all Acts of wor&s;hip: for they met every Sabbath day together in their Syna|gogues to hear <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and the Prophets read and Interpreted, as the Scripture affirmeth, yea from hou&s;e to hou&s;e dayly: and there|fore we may ea&s;ily gather, that as many Synagogues and meeting places as there were in <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> to &s;ay nothing of the Temple, &s;o many Churches and Congregations of beleevers there were in <HI>Jeru&s;alem;</HI> for Synagogue and Church are all one in Gods dialect, and they that were <HI>Jews</HI> before the preaching of the Go&s;pell, were now made Chri&s;tians and beleevers. Neither had the Chri|&s;tians and beleeving <HI>Iews</HI> any cau&s;e to &s;eparate them&s;elves from
<PB N="27" REF="32">the congregations, for there was nothing in their Synagogues to &s;cruple them, without the law of <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> &s;hould offend them, and that the Scripture te&s;tifies they were very zealous of; and many of them that were converted, per&s;waded the Gentiles after their conver&s;ion and illumination, to joyn the Ceremoniall Law to the Go&s;pell, which although it was not permitted unto them, yet for a time it was connived at and tollerated in the weak Jews; yea, in the tenth of the Hebrews the Chri&s;tians are blamed for for&s;a|king of the a&s;&s;embling of them&s;elves together, and it was counted a fault in them: and therefore it may without any error be con|cluded, that there were as many, if not more A&s;&s;emblies and Sy|nagogues of beleevers in Jeru&s;alem after the preaching of the Go&s;pell and in the Apo&s;tles times, as were before of the Jews: for they after they were Chri&s;tians continued &s;till to a&s;&s;emble them&s;elves, if not dayly, every Sabbath day at lea&s;t in their Syna|gogues, as they were wont to do, where the Apo&s;tles were all &s;o taken up in preaching, as they had no lei&s;ure for reciprocall &s;alu|tations: and therefore of nece&s;&s;ity there were more congregations in the Church of Jeru&s;alem, and a greater multitude of Chri&s;tians them could all meet in any one or a few places: even as it was here in <HI>England</HI> in King <HI>Edwards</HI> and Queen <HI>Elizabeths</HI> dayes, as I &s;pecified before: there was no fewer congregations and a&s;|&s;emblies of Prote&s;tants in <HI>London,</HI> then was before of Papi&s;ts: for as many Pari&s;h Churches as there were in the city of <HI>London</HI> &s;o many &s;everall congregation of Prote&s;tants there were then through the city; and they that profe&s;t Popery before, did now imbrace the Prote&s;tant Religion, and made &s;o many congregations and &s;everall Churches of Prote&s;tants, as there were congregations of Papi&s;ts before: and as it would be accounted great ab&s;urdity, yea a ridiculous thing in any man to affirm that there was but as many Prote&s;tants in <HI>London,</HI> in King <HI>Edward</HI> his time, or in <HI>Queen Elizabeths</HI> dayes, as could all meet in one place or in one con|gregation; &s;o to any under&s;tanding and intelligible man, it is as ab&s;urd to conclude that there were no more chri&s;tians and belee|vers in Jeru&s;alem then could all meet in one place and congrega|tion, when the Scripture it &s;elf affirmeth that all Jeru&s;alem was turned Chri&s;tians, and had their meetings and a&s;&s;emblies in the Temple, and in every hou&s;e; and that there was many a&s;&s;emblies there, and it &s;tands with all rea&s;on, that if there had been but one
<PB N="28" REF="33">Congregation of beleevers in <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> when <HI>Paul</HI> went to vi|&s;it <HI>Peter,</HI> that then he of nece&s;&s;ity &s;hould have &s;een &s;ome, at lea&s;t of the other Apo&s;tles be&s;ides <HI>Peter</HI> and <HI>Iames;</HI> for without doubt <HI>Paul</HI> was dayly among the Chri&s;tians a preaching to them in their Synagogues or meeting places; and the other Apo&s;tles al&s;o who&s;e duty it was to be continually taken up in praying and prea|ching among&s;t them, would not &s;o long a time have layen idle and private: but in that neither <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aw them, not the Apo&s;tles <HI>Paul,</HI> it is a &s;ufficient Argument to prove there were many con|gregations and a&s;&s;emblies of beleevers in <HI>Ieru&s;alem,</HI> which &s;o im|ployed them all in their &s;everall Mini&s;teries as they had no time for mutuall vi&s;its; and that was the onely cau&s;e that hindred them from &s;aluting one another: &s;o that I conceive by that which I have now &s;aid, all under&s;tanding men will gather that there were more congregations of beleevers in the Church of Jeru&s;alem then one; and that all the&s;e &s;everall a&s;&s;emblies made but one Church, and were all governed by the joynt con&s;ent and com|mon councell of one Presbytery; what&s;oever the Independent Mini&s;ters per&s;wade the poor deluded people to the contrary, for the upholding of their imaginary Presbyterian Government, which is again&s;t all Scripture, Antiquity, Rea&s;on, and Ordinary &s;en&s;e.</P>
<P>And therefore I may boldly a&s;&s;ert in their dealing with their &s;everall Congregations, when they &s;et before them their Churches of <HI>Ieru&s;alem, Ephe&s;us, &amp;c.</HI> as con&s;i&s;ting of but one Congregation and A&s;&s;embly a peece, they juggle with them for no other end, but to make them&s;elves Lords and ma&s;ters of them, and to get the Soveraignty in time over the people into their own hands, while they would &s;eem to be their &s;er|vants.</P>
<P>And therefore it highly concerns all men that de&s;ire the peace and welfare of Church and &s;tate, duly to weigh and &s;eriou&s;ly to con&s;ider the danger of Schi&s;ms and rents in either, which ought to move them to &s;tudy by all means how rather they make up the breaches already made, and how now to unite them|&s;elves together in love and unity, again&s;t the common enemies of them both; then to follow &s;uch blind leaders and guides as by their factions and fractions will bring us all into the pit of de|&s;truction, and expo&s;e us and our po&s;terities to as great mi&s;ery
<PB N="29" REF="33">and &s;lavery, both for &s;ouls and bodies, as ever Nation groaned under.</P>
<P>And as it is the duty of every private Chri&s;tian in his particular family; to teach and in&s;truct his children and &s;ervants in the nurture and fear of the Lord, and with all &s;ingular care to purge his hou&s;e of all &s;uch as may mi&s;leade them, and &s;educe and cor|rupt them that are in their tender years, and not well grounded in the principalls of Religion, &amp; to give them &s;peciall charge to haunt no &s;uch places and company, as by which they may be viciated in their manners, or poy&s;oned with fal&s; and erronious doctrines and opinions, as the Word of God commands both in the Old and New Te&s;tament. So it is the duty of all Magi&s;trates and Mini|&s;ters in their &s;everall places, who are the Pa&s;tors of the people, the one for their bodily pre&s;ervation and the common peace, and the other for their &s;pirituall good to joyn together for the &s;etting up of Gods true Wor&s;hip, Government, and Service; in all Cities, Towns, and Pari&s;hes through the Kingdome; the one by their power and authority, and the other by lifting up their voyce like a Trumpet (as all the holy Prophets and Apo&s;tles did in all their generations again&s;t all fal&s;e teachers) and to warn the people under their &s;everall charges, to take heed of them and &s;hun them as they either de&s;ire Gods glory, their own eternall Salvation, or the publike pre&s;ent good and the pro&s;perity and tranquility of their off-&s;pring in &s;ucceeding ages; and to be as &s;edulous and dili|gent in &s;uppre&s;&s;ing errours and &s;chi&s;ms, as all the godly Magi|&s;trates and faithfull Mini&s;ters have been in their &s;everall times, who&s;e prai&s;es for this their good work is frequently recorded in holy writ, and in all the Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Records to their eternall honour and renoune, and for our in&s;truction. And truely if the examples of the holy Prophets, ble&s;&s;ed Apo&s;tles, and godly Ma|gi&s;trates, and of all the deer &s;ervants of God who&s;e names and fames are glorious to all po&s;terity in the holy Word of God; will not move us; then at lea&s;t let us learn of the very enemies, of the Papi&s;ts, Sectaries, and Hereticks in all precedent and fore-going Generations; for they, as all hi&s;tories and dayly experience tea|cheth us, not onely labour to remove all &s;uch out of their fami|lies and Churches, as be of a contrary opinion to them but &s;tudy al&s;o to exterminate them out of their very territories, if they have &s;trength or policy &s;o to do.</P>
<PB N="30" REF="34">
<P>And if none of their examples may yet per&s;wade us to our duty, then let the example of all tho&s;e that now differ from us in opini|on, but in the matter of government teach us what to do in this point: for they will not willingly entertain any into their fami|lies that is not of their own minde and opinion, nor &s;uffer their children to be in&s;tructed in any other way then their own; and &s;hun, in as much as in them lyes, the very company of &s;uch as they count Presbyterians; and rarely, if ever, come at our a&s;&s;emblies. And in <HI>New-England</HI> it &s;elf it is well knowne, that they doe not only ca&s;t tho&s;e out of their Churches that differ from them in o|pinion, but al&s;o expo&s;e them to bani&s;hment and to greate&s;t mi&s;e|ry, and think all they do, to be their duty; and publi&s;h it to the world for the imitation of all other their Churches and Congrega|tions: and I am mo&s;t a&s;&s;ured, had they the authority in their own hands here in England, they would be as &s;evere towards the Presbyterians, as ever the Prelates were again&s;t the Puritans. And I am induced &s;o to believe, both from their words and writings: for what can be more bitterly uttered again&s;t them, then that they daily &s;peak upon the lea&s;t occa&s;ion, if any but preach or write the lea&s;t thing in oppo&s;ition to their opinions; profe&s;&s;ing that all &s;uch Preachers ought to be hanged: and had they the power in their hands, they would tru&s;&s;e them up, as many can te&s;tifie and witne&s;&s;e: and in their writings, how prodigiou&s;ly daily they a|bu&s;e with all manner of calumnies and reproaches, and with all re|viling &s;peeches, the Presbyterians, all that have patience to reade their bla&s;phemous Pamphlets can tell: &s;o that whiles in them they pleade for a tolleration of all Religions, they will not tolle|rate the Presbyterians to defend their own; by which they &s;uffi|ciently declare what favour they would &s;hew them if they were in their hands, on whom they look as the profe&s;t enemies of Chri&s;ts kingdome. Now I &s;ay, if neither the example of Gods dear Saints and Servants, nor the Word of God can move us to our duty, nor the example of the Papi&s;ts and Hereticks of all a|ges: then at lea&s;t let us follow the example of our Brethren both in <HI>New-England</HI> and <HI>Old-England;</HI> for they as all men know re|move all from them that differ from them in their Church-way; and &s;eperate them&s;elves from us, and gather congregations by by them&s;elves, Independent, refu&s;ing to communicate with us as an unholy people, and not &s;uffering or permitting us to
<PB N="31" REF="34">communicate among&s;t them in the Ordinances either of bap|ti&s;me or the Lords Supper, but upon their own tearmes; and account us all as unclean things, and to be &s;eparated from, which I affirme &s;hould move all &s;olid Chri&s;tians, and &s;uch as truly and unfeinedly de&s;ire that God may be glorified, and his truth every where &s;et up, to oppo&s;e all their errors and novelties in religion, under what preten&s;es &s;oever they be brought in, and under what|&s;oever &s;eeming holine&s;&s;e they be &s;et forth: and &s;o much the more care is to be had, and diligence u&s;ed, both by the Magi&s;trates, Mi|ni&s;ters, and all the reall godly of the land; by how much they know the craft and &s;ubtilty of tho&s;e that &s;educe them: for there was never yet any Sect what&s;oever, that came to any ri&s;e, perfe|ction, or name in the Church, of which the fir&s;t venters and con|trivers had not &s;ome &s;eeming &s;hew of godline&s;&s;e and holine&s;&s;e of life, and that more then ordinary, to which they u&s;ually added the bravery of language, and fine alluring &s;peeches, and cunning craf|tine&s;&s;e; as they were many of them men of &s;ingular elocution, and deep &s;ubtilty: as the Prophets and Apo&s;tles through the whole Scripture &s;ignifie. And <HI>Paul</HI> in the 16 chap. of his Epi&s;tle to the Romans, &s;peaking of tho&s;e that made divi&s;ions contrary to the doctrine that he had taught them, hath this expre&s;&s;ion, Ver&s;e 18. <HI>For they that are &s;uch</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>&s;erve not our Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t, but their own belly, and by good words and faire &s;peeches deceive the hearts of the &s;imple.</HI> Here we &s;ee the fal&s;e Teachers of his time, made <HI>u&s;e of good words, faire speeches, to deceive the hearts of the &s;imple.</HI> And in <HI>Gal.</HI> 4.14. the Apo&s;tle there exhort|ing them, &s;aith. <HI>Henceforth be no more children, to&s;&s;ed to and fro, and carried about with every winde of doctrine, by the &s;light of men, and cunning craftine&s;&s;e, whereby they lye in wait to deceive.</HI> In this place the Apo&s;tle gives all Chri&s;tians a charge to take heed of all erroneous doctrines; and withall &s;ets down the manners and or|dinary carriage of all &s;educers, that they might be the more carefull to &s;hunne them: for &s;uch, &s;aith he, u&s;e in the deceiving of you, <HI>the flight of men, and cunning craftine&s;&s;e.</HI> This has ever been the method of all fal&s;e teachers, as Saint <HI>Peter</HI> al&s;o in his 2 Epi&s;tle, chap. 2. ver&s;. 1, 2, 3. &amp;c. witne&s;&s;eth: for &s;peaking of the fal&s;e teachers of tho&s;e times he lived in, and of tho&s;e in future ages, that <HI>&s;hould bring in damnable doctrines, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bringing upon them&s;elves &s;wift distruction:</HI> he
<PB N="32" REF="35">foretels al&s;o, that <HI>many &s;hould follow their pernicious wayes, by rea|&s;on of whom the way of truth &s;hould be evilly &s;poken of.</HI> And then al&s;o he &s;ets down the manner and cu&s;tomes of tho&s;e &s;educers; and among&s;t other things he &s;aith of them, that <HI>through covetou&s;|ne&s;&s;e, and with their faire words they &s;hould make merchandize of the people.</HI> So that we may &s;ee, all fal&s;e teachers clothe their craft with their rhetorick <HI>and fained words,</HI> for otherwi&s;e they would prevaile but little. Now by how much more the Chri&s;tians in this our age have to deale with a generation of cunning and crafty Juglers, who &s;eeme to equallize, if not to tran&s;cend all others in holine&s;&s;e and godline&s;&s;e, in their outward cariage at lea&s;t; it con|cerneth every one I &s;ay more diligently to take heed of them, and of all their new-wayes, their new born truths, and their New-lights: for God him&s;elfe by his holy Prophets and ble&s;&s;ed Apo|&s;tles has commanded us, not to decline from tho&s;e wayes we have learned of him, and tho&s;e truths that he hath taught us in his holy Word, <HI>Neither to the right hand nor to the left, Dut.</HI> 4.5. <HI>Io&s;h.</HI> 1. <HI>Prov.</HI> 4. Nay, if an Angell from Heaven &s;hould teach otherwi&s;e then God hath taught us by Chri&s;t and his Apo&s;tles, we <HI>are to ac|count him accur&s;ed, Gal.</HI> 1. And in the expre&s;&s;e words above &s;pe|cified, we are prohibited to <HI>be carried about with every wind of do|ctrine.</HI> So that all tho&s;e that vent tho&s;e new-truths and &s;et up tho&s;e new-lights, which are all indeed new-lights of doctrins, be they ne|ver &s;o &s;eemingly holy, are all cunning deceivers &amp; fighters again&s;t God. And all tho&s;e Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates (for ought I know) that tollerate &s;uch; and all tho&s;e orthodox Mini&s;ters that connive at them, and are &s;o meal-mouthed, as they dare not preach again&s;t them, and forwarne the people of them, neglect their duty; and are not faithfull Watchmen over their flocks committed to their charge, and are blameworthy for it. And all tho&s;e people that be|ing &s;o often taught by God him&s;elf in the holy Scriptures, to take heed of all &s;uch as come to them in &s;heeps clothing, and with their fained holine&s;&s;e, &amp; with their fair &s;peeches to deceive them, and make merchandize of them, and yet will not take heed of the&s;e novelties; doe as much as in them lyes re&s;i&s;t the Spirit of God: for the Lord has againe and againe commanded all his peo|ple to &s;hun &s;uch men, as in <HI>Tim.</HI> 1. chap. 6. ver&s;. 5. <HI>From &s;uch</HI> (&s;aith Saint <HI>Paul</HI> to <HI>Timothy,</HI> and in him to all Mini&s;ters and peo|ple in all ages to the end of the world) <HI>withdraw thy &s;elfe.</HI> Now
<PB N="33" REF="35">if an Evangeli&s;t, &s;o learned a man, &s;o well grounded a preacher as <HI>Timothy</HI> was, to withdraw him&s;elfo from all &s;uch as taught other|wi&s;e than <HI>Paul,</HI> &amp; Chri&s;t him&s;elf &amp; the other Apo&s;tles had taught: how much more now ought all Chri&s;tians that come &s;o far &s;hort and are &s;o inferiour to <HI>Timothy,</HI> for all indowments and graces of knowledge, to beware and take heed of all &s;uch as bring in their new-born truths, their new-Lights, and all their new wayes; when e&s;pecially we are commanded to enquire for the old and good way, which will indeed <HI>bring re&s;t unto our &s;ouls? Jer.</HI> 6. And to omit innumerable places to this purpo&s;e; that of Saint <HI>Iohn</HI> in his &s;econd Epi&s;tle to the Elect Lady, &s;hould ever be in our memory, where Saint <HI>Iohn</HI> in expre&s;&s;e words forbids that Lady and her family, and in them all other Chri&s;tians, <HI>To receive any that bring not the doctrine of Ie&s;us Chri&s;t into their hou&s;es, or bid them God-&s;peed,</HI> and gives a rea&s;on of this his prohibition; <HI>For,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>he that bids him God-&s;peed, is partaker of his evill deeds.</HI> Now all the&s;e new doctrines are not the doctrines of Je&s;us Chri&s;t; and therefore who&s;oever bringeth them, ought not to be received into our families, nor their doctrines into our hearts, no more then &s;tolen goods into our hou&s;es and clo&s;ets: for God hath both forbid it, and &s;et down the danger that will en&s;ue up|on it: for by that means we make our &s;elves equally guilty, and partakers with them in their evill: and therefore all &s;uch as &s;hall &s;till notwith&s;tanding what&s;oever God hath &s;pake unto us by his holy Prophets and Apo&s;tles, follow tho&s;e new teachers and tho&s;e new truths, by their &s;o doing, in conclu&s;ion they will be found fighters again&s;t God; and partake with them in all tho&s;e puni&s;hments the Lord hath threatned again&s;t all &s;uch as will be led about with every wind of Doctrine, which will be the ruin of them&s;elves and others: and if people will be di&s;obedient and ob&s;tinately go on to make Schi&s;ms and rents, &s;lighting Gods threats and menaces, and ca&s;t his word behind their backs, then it belongeth unto all Magi&s;trates, Mini&s;ters, Fathers, and Ma&s;ters of Families, that are Chri&s;tians (for I &s;peake not of &s;uch as are without the pale of the Church) &s;eeing what already the&s;e new Sects have with all their Art and cunning, invented, contrived, and with unwearied paines and ungodly policy brought forth into the world, that the Magi&s;trates are counted intollerable to the people; wives are taken from the bo&s;omes of
<PB N="34" REF="36">their husbands, or &s;o alienated from them as they repute the<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> a burthen unto them: the Husbands from the Wife, Children from their Parents, and Patents from their children; and the Ser|vants from their Ma&s;ters and Mi&s;tre&s;&s;es, &amp; Friends from Friends; the Mini&s;ters from the people, and the flocks from their Pa&s;tors; and that all the lawes of God and Nature by the&s;e means are vio|lated; I &s;ay in all the&s;e regards it is high time, if they will pre|vent tho&s;e evils that are comming upon the Land by the&s;e fracti|ons and divi&s;ions, now to quit them&s;elves like men, not caring for all the reviling languages of Seducers who yet never &s;pake well of any but of their own party: for it is again&s;t the nature of Se|ctaries to give any a good word but their own complices; and therefore it concernes them all to goe about the work as men of courage and in the fear of God. And truly if men think it (as it is indeed) an un&s;ufferable thing to tolerate tho&s;e Men-&s;tealers, who they call Spirits, or a new generation of Fayries, to &s;educe and carry away their children and &s;ervants: then much more it is an un&s;ufferable thing to tolerate tho&s;e that &s;teale away not only the bodies of men and children, from Magi&s;trates, Mini&s;ters, Parents, Ma&s;ters and Mi&s;tre&s;&s;es, Friends, &amp;c. but their very hearts and af|fections; and are no better in &s;o doing then a company of &s;piri|tuall Plunderers, and are to be looked on as &s;o many enemies of the Church and kingdome. Neither is there any breach of charity in &s;peaking truth with love and an unfained de&s;ire of their refor|mation: for if they be not reformed, nor their New-lights extin|gui&s;hed and put out, they will in &s;hort time dim and darken the truth it &s;elfe, and provoke the Lord to give us all over to error, becau&s;e we <HI>imbraced not the truth in the love of it,</HI> 2 <HI>The&s;&s;.</HI> 2. But I mu&s;t confe&s;&s;e I look upon many of the Independent Mini&s;ters, as the mo&s;t dangerous Sect that ever yet the world produced, in re&s;pect of the con&s;equences of their doctrines, and the &s;ad effects they have brought forth already, where&s;oever they have &s;pread it. For they carry them&s;elves more cunningly then any other Schi&s;|maticks or Hereticks that ever yet appeared &s;ince mortality inha|bited the World. For all other Sectaries tenents are recorded in all the &s;everall Councels, and in the Monuments of the ancient Writers, &s;o that every man knowes their opinions and doctrines; but what the&s;e men hold be&s;ides their whim&s;ey of Independen|cy, and the manner of their gathering of Churches (wherein
<PB N="35" REF="36">they doe not all agree neither) no man knoweth nor never &s;hall know, for they intend to &s;et up many other New-lights, but yet with a re&s;erve, never to be con&s;tant to any thing what they either &s;ay or write: for this I have received from the mouthes of their Di&s;ciples and followers, That if that which &s;eemeth a truth to them to day, do to morrow appear otherwi&s;e by &s;ome new light, (were it any Article of the faith) and they be convinced by that light, that they were in an error before, they are to relinqui&s;h their former tenent, what&s;oever it were, and to follow that new light that God hath appeared to them in. And this doctrine is taught by all the Independents I ever &s;aw or heard of. Yea they count it a great honour unto them to be thus uncertaine in their o|pinions; as we may &s;ee in a rayling and rediculous Pamphlet, not only again&s;t Mr. <HI>Prynne,</HI> but again&s;t the Parliament, lately &s;et out by an Independent, call'd, <HI>The fal&s;hood of</HI> M. William Prynnes <HI>Truth Triumphing;</HI> where <HI>pag.</HI> 16. <HI>Sect.</HI> 2. in the&s;e words, <HI>You accu&s;e the Independents,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>as believing mo&s;t things with a re&s;erve, according to their pre&s;ent light; with a liberty of changing, as new-lights &s;hall be di&s;covered unto them; but did ever man &s;o over&s;hoot him&s;elfe</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>certainly this is &s;o high a character of the Independents compleate&s;t posture en&s;uing or growing &s;tature in the Schoole of Chri&s;t, as could be applyed unto them; wherein they glory not a little, and place it as the only ground work and founda|tion, without which they cannot grow in grace, from one degree of faith to another, untill they become perfect men, and perfect Saints, unto the mea&s;ure of the &s;tature of the fulne&s;&s;e of Chri&s;t, Ephe&s;.</HI> 4.12, 13. The&s;e are his formall words, &s;o that the Independents do|ctrine is this: That there is no growth in grace from one degree of &s;aith to another, untill we become perfect men, and perfect Saints, unle&s;&s;e they believe mo&s;t things with a re&s;erve; which te|nent of theirs, whether or no it be not to bring a &s;cepti&s;me into Religion, according as M. <HI>Prynne</HI> doth from them conclude, I refer it to the judgement of tho&s;e that are more judicious Di|vines then the Author of that Pamphlet. And this, as men may ob&s;erve, is the profe&s;t doctrine of all the Independents; and they account it their glory to be ever in uncertainties; which is the on|ly rea&s;on, as I conceive, that they could never yet be induced to &s;et downe what forme of government they would have, and to what doctrine and di&s;cipline they would &s;ub&s;cribe and &s;tand to,
<PB N="36" REF="37">with their followers; by which all men may ea&s;ily di&s;cerne the dangerou&s;ne&s;&s;e of the&s;e men; and well perceive, that they that have to deale with them, will never finde an end: for they will ever be &s;tarting of &s;ome new doctrines. And to &s;peak the verity, all the Shi&s;maticks that have troubled the Church in this la&s;t age of the World, and hindred all reformation, are yet more can did then many of the Independent Mini&s;ters through the Kingdome. For the Browni&s;ts, as M. <HI>Ain&s;worth</HI> and M. <HI>Robin&s;on,</HI> both lear|ned men, and more orthodox in their Tenents then many of them, yet they with all their &s;everal congregations agreed in their prin|ciples; and have ingenuou&s;ly in their Apologies and writings with mode&s;ty (for <HI>in hoste virtus laudanda</HI>) declared unto the World, both what they held, and what they de&s;ired, and where|in they would re&s;t contented; if the Magi&s;trates would but gra|tifie them in it. The Anabapti&s;ts in like manner, though farre more erronious in their opinions then the Browni&s;ts, yet they al|&s;o, many times in word and print, have &s;et downe their Tenents, to which they both &s;tand; and in the which, if the Magi&s;trates will but conde&s;cend unto them, they will &s;it downe and yeild all cheerfull obedience to their ju&s;t commands. The &s;ame may be &s;aid of all other Sects. But, as for our Brethren the In|dependent Mini&s;ters, they are like a company of Rats among Joyne-&s;tooles, every one can &s;ee and heare them, but none can catch them. No man can tell where to catch or lay hold certain|ly of any point or tenent they preach, or what they either are in their opinion, or will be: for what they conceived to be a truth to day, may be an error with them to morrow: for certainty in any opinion, is as great a Here&s;ie to them, as eating of fle&s;h on a Good-Friday, is to a Papi&s;t: Neither will they binde them|&s;elves or their followers to any Doctrine they hold to day; for it may be they will both preach and practi&s;e the contrary to morrow, if it make for their gaine and emolument. So that all men may boldly conclude of them, that they are as the mo&s;t uncertaine; &s;o in that, the mo&s;t dangerous Sect that ever came into the World, &s;ince the Sunne and Moone ruled over the Earth. And this will the better appeare, if we con&s;ider the multitudes and variety of Sectaries that have &s;prung from them in a &s;hort &s;pace, &s;ince their comming over among&s;t us, with their under|hand dealings, how ever they them&s;elves play lea&s;t in &s;ight, and
<PB N="37" REF="37">act privately their juglings, and make u&s;e of others, in venting their &s;everall poy&s;enous opinions, and can &s;ay and on-&s;ay, and affirme and deny any thing at plea&s;ure, as can be proved. Before their apparition on our hori&s;on, there were but three or four Sects known among us, and they were few in number, and well con|ditioned, and &s;uch as were full of charity and love one towards a|nother, and carried them&s;elves humbly towards all men; as the Browni&s;ts, Anabapti&s;ts, Antinomians, and Famili&s;ts. But out of the Independents lungs are &s;prung above forty &s;everall &s;orts of &s;traglers, which before their comming over were never heard of among&s;t us. And for proof of what I now &s;ay, I had it from a Brother of mine in tribulation, and a fellow-&s;ufferer; who though he differ from me in opinion, yet I truly love him, and &s;hall never decline any chri&s;tian office to do him good for &s;oule and body; I meane M. <HI>John Lilburne,</HI> Lieutenant Colonel; who him&s;elf rela|thed it unto me, and that in the pre&s;ence of others; that returning from the warres to <HI>London,</HI> he met forty new Sects, and many of them dangerous ones; and &s;ome &s;o pernicious, that how&s;oever, as he &s;aid, he was in his judgement for tolleration of all Religi|ons; yet he profe&s;t, he could &s;carce keepe his hands off them, and had no patience to heare them, &s;o bla&s;phemous they were in their opinions. So that he gathered, that the&s;e were now the la&s;t dayes, wherein &s;o many Here&s;ies abounded. And a|mong&s;t other of the Tenants, one of tho&s;e wicked Sects held, They denied the Scriptures both of the Old and New Te&s;ta|ment, and accounted them things of nought; whereas by Gods command, They that de&s;pi&s;ed <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> his Law, by the mouth of two or three witne&s;&s;es were to be put to death: and the&s;e wicked and ungodly creatures de&s;pi&s;e both the Law and Go|&s;pell, and that in the pre&s;ence of a Cloud of witne&s;&s;es. And innu|merable other diabolicall Sects there are, and &s;o prodigiou&s;ly impious, that it is not for a Chri&s;tian to name their opinions. And mo&s;t of them, if not all, were fir&s;t Independents, and &s;uch as &s;eparated from our Congregations, as from a people unho|ly, and were of their new gather'd Churches and followers of their Mini&s;tery. And many of them have jangled &s;o long about the Church, that at la&s;t they quite have lo&s;t it, and goe now under the name of <HI>Expectants and Seekers, and doe deny
<PB N="38" REF="38">that there is any true Church,</HI> or any true Mini&s;ters, or any Ordi|nances: and &s;ome of them affirme, that the Church is yet in the Wilderne&s;&s;e, and they are &s;eeking for it there: others &s;ay, that the &s;moke is yet in the Temple, and they are groping for it there, where I leave them: praying God to open their eyes and give them repentance; that they may con&s;ider from whence they are fallen, and returne againe into the bo&s;ome of that Church, from which they have, to the great di&s;honour of God, and the &s;canda|lizing of the Go&s;pel, made &s;o fearfull a de&s;ection. But I can truly &s;ay, without wronging the Independent Mini&s;ters, that they have been one of the principall cau&s;es of all tho&s;e new, hidious, and mon&s;trous opinions, and of all the &s;ad differences among&s;t Bre|thren: for their doctrines give way to all &s;uch errors, and ever will, as long as they give liberty for the finding out of new truths, and the changing of their opinions according to their New-lights. But among&s;t all their errors this is none of the lea&s;t, that all Magi|&s;tracy is by them de&s;pi&s;ed, and made nothing of, no further then it agreeth with their tenents and humours. And how&s;oever pub|lickly they &s;eem to &s;ay &s;omething in defence of it, yet privately, and upon all occa&s;ions they &s;light it; yea, and bid defiance to it, as all their rayling Pamphlets, and words, &amp; deeds proclaim; and make the power and authority of the Magi&s;trates when they ex|erci&s;e it for the &s;uppre&s;&s;ing of novelties, a meer tyranny and per|&s;ecution, as many could witne&s;&s;e, if they would take the office of Informers upon them; for they are not the men they were in the beginning of the Parliament: for then they &s;eemed highly to mag|nifie the authority and power of the Parliament, and appealed un|to it, and did very good &s;ervice in promoting the publick good: but now they &s;ay they are afraid it will prove but an Arbitrary go|vernment, and be more tyrannicall then that of the Prelates, and all the other unju&s;t Courts; profe&s;&s;ing that they had thought they &s;hould by their meanes have enjoyed the liberty of their con|&s;ciences (this it &s;eems they fought for, their own ends, which they &s;o much condemne in others) but now they well per|ceive, that they go about to e&s;tabli&s;h a Presbytery, which to the poor Saints (they are afraid) will prove more tyrannicall then the government of the Bi&s;hops: and therefore now many of the In|dependents that were very zealous at the fir&s;t in the quarrell of the Parliament (as it was their duty to be) are very cold, and have
<PB N="39" REF="38">not only ca&s;t away their armes, and detract their obedience, but can at plea&s;ure &s;peak again&s;t the pre&s;&s;ing of men for that &s;ervice; and profe&s;&s;e, that is not lawfull to force men to fight, and that it is unlawfull to fight for Religion (I conceive they mean any Re|ligion but their own: for they have been heard &s;ay; yea they have frequently bragg'd of their party, and prote&s;ted that they would make hot work before the Presbyterians &s;hould have the day) and &s;uch like &s;tuffe they vent in every corner, to the deterring of ma|ny from their duty, which they are bound unto by the Law of God, Nature, and all Nations; and for which there be many pre|&s;idents in holy Scripture, and many fearfull threats and judge|ments denounced again&s;t &s;uch as de&s;erted their Brethren in affli|ction: and great and fearfull puni&s;hments have been impo&s;ed upon tho&s;e that came not out to aide their Brethren when they went a|gain&s;t the enemies of their countrey, whether they were forein or inte&s;tine: and all to teach us not to decline from our duty upon the like occa&s;ions. But that any man that hath but any ordinary under&s;tanding &s;hould &s;peak again&s;t the pre&s;&s;ing of men, it is a wonder to me to hear it: for if they ever had read the Scriptures with judgement and knowledge, or were but acquainted with the Hi&s;tories of all Ages, they may finde it ever hath been the practice of the people of God, as well as of the Heathen, to force men out of all their Tribes and Families to go to war again&s;t any enemy; and that they that neglected their duty being &s;ummoned to it, were counted enemies, and were &s;everely puni&s;ht for it, and made examples to others for their di&s;obedience; and there were none exempted from the war by Gods own appointment, that had &s;trength and abilities to fight, but new married people and ba&s;e Cowards: and indeed to all &s;uch, God gave a di&s;pen&s;ation for a time, as till the one for a year had rejoyced with his Wife, and till the other had got the &s;pirit of courage, and a more brave and valiant re&s;olution: but all others if they would not voluntarily come out, were forced to it or puni&s;hed for their neglect: and for ought I know, all Chri&s;tian Magi&s;trates have the &s;ame authority &s;till under the Go&s;pell that they had under the Law. And truly to my poor under&s;tanding, there is none that can go more comforta|bly to fight for their countrey, then they that are pre&s;t; &amp; if I were to go upon any &s;uch imployment, I &s;hould with ten times more alacrity goe into the war, being pre&s;t or call'd to it by the State,
<PB N="40" REF="39">then if I were a meer Volunteere: though I have ever though, Volunteeres brave and gallant men, and worthy of great honour for their good &s;ervice, and have counted &s;uch as would neither by force nor freely, put them&s;elves upon publike imployment on the one &s;ide or on the other; e&s;pecially if they had able bodies, the mo&s;t ba&s;e&s;t cowardly fellows in the world, and men unworthy the Protection of either King or Parliament; or to enjoy the ve|ry benefit of the ayre they breath in. And without doubt they are the verie&s;t cowards upon the earth, how&s;oever they may vapour in a drinking-&s;chool. Yet I &s;ay tho&s;e that go out as pre&s;t men, have in all re&s;pects a more warrentable calling, and wherein if they keep them&s;elves from the &s;ins and pollutions that are too frequent in Armies, they may both fight and dye with all cheer|fulne&s;&s;e: for in &s;o doing they are in their calling, and may chal|lenge pitty and compa&s;&s;ion from all; and maintenance al&s;o and &s;upport if they be wounded, and by it made unable to get their livings for them&s;elves and for their families, as long as they live; for they have been the &s;ervants of the State, and imployed by their &s;peciall command; and if they be taken pri&s;oners, the &s;tate ought to exchange or ran&s;ome them, or el&s;e it will be their di&s;|honour. Whereas, if they be meerly Volunteers, though they do their duty in &s;o doing, and &s;hall have the honour of it, if they be hurt, wounded, or captivated; yet the world is wont to &s;ay, Who required the&s;e things at your hands, what call had you to this imployment? And all men generally will condemn &s;uch: and it was not long &s;ince objected to a gentlewoman, who&s;e hus|band was taken pri&s;oner in the war, and that in a very Lordly and imperious manner, by an Independent Mini&s;ter; What call, &s;aid he, had your husband to take Armes? could not he have followed his own imployment? Thus did this domineering Independent vapour over men in di&s;tre&s;&s;e; who him&s;elf was never guilty of either learning or humanity, or fit for any thing but to make a fa|ction, being a meer cow-baby coward, and one that ran away, as being more afraid of the bi&s;hops (when they were in power) then he was of God or the devill; and yet this moun&s;ier could &s;uper|ciliou&s;ly demand of this Gentlewoman, what call her husband had to take Armes? And as this Independent, &s;o commonly all men for the mo&s;t part, &s;light Volunteers in their di&s;tre&s;&s;es, e&s;pe|cially if they de&s;ire their ayde; which they do not only ordinarily
<PB N="41" REF="39">refu&s;e, but deterre others from doing them any good, &s;aying, that &s;uch men put them&s;elves out of Gods protection, in as much as in them is, when they leave their callings; and thus tho&s;e grolls babble, as if a man had not a &s;ufficient call, if he &s;ees his neigh|bours hou&s;e on fire, to leave his &s;hop to go out to help quench it I Such kinds of Puffoy&s;ts as the&s;e, that abu&s;e Volunteers, I leave them as a generation of men, not worthy to give guts unto a Bear. But, I &s;ay, when men are called to the warre by the State, and pre&s;t to that &s;ervice, they can then appear with joy before all men, and look death it &s;elf in the face with courage; whether in the field, or in cold blood, in the hands of their enemies, when they &s;uffer as evill doers: for they can then comfort them&s;elves with their calling, knowing that they were imployed by the State, and it is their duty to obey; and that as they were borne under obedi|ence, with cheerfulne&s;&s;e and alacrity they can dye. And therefore all &s;uch as the Independents, that go about to di&s;parage the Par|liament, and the great Councell of the Kingdome, for pre&s;&s;ing of men for the publick &s;ervice, do things derogatory to their autho|rity: and all &s;uch as are pre&s;t and able to fight, and do either run away from their Colours, or wilfully or rebelliou&s;ly detract their obedience, ought to be hanged. And as it is lawfull in the Magi|&s;trate to pre&s;&s;e men to fight for their countrey, &s;o it is law full like|wi&s;e for them to fight for their religion; and to pre&s;&s;e men for that purpo&s;e: and he that will not fight for his religion, if he be a Ma|gi&s;trate, certainly he has little religion in him: and he that is a private man, that will not &s;uffer for his religion, if he be called to it; nor fight for it both voluntarily and when by authority he is put upon it, but flye from either of the imployments of doing or &s;uffering, and will not come out to helpe the Lord again&s;t the mighty, he de&s;erveth not only the bitter cur&s;e again&s;t <HI>Mero&s;h, Judg.</HI> 5. but to be hanged. What, doe the Brethren the Indepen|dents now hold it a thing unlawfull to fight for religion (for &s;o they profe&s;&s;e to their friends) when not long &s;ince they &s;o anima|ted others to it? It &s;eems they are very changeable in all their o|opinions: I believe they have found out &s;ome new-light of direction how to runne away againe, as they did before, if the times change. But yet &s;uch as have learned how to performe their duty, and have read the holy Scriptures; and among&s;t many other places the two and twentieth of <HI>Io&s;hua</HI> for one,
<PB N="42" REF="40">have been taught, that when the I&s;raelites on the other &s;ide of Jordan had &s;et up an Altar, though it was not with a minde and intent to alter religion, yet if they had not given a &s;atisfactory an&s;wer for their &s;o doing to <HI>Io&s;hua</HI> and the Elders of I&s;rael their Brethren, they would &s;peedily have made warre upon them for it; as any State for ought I know, or any chri&s;tian Nation by their example may doe, again&s;t what enemy &s;oever they be, whether forein or dome&s;ticall; that &s;hall attempt to alter the true religion, and Chri&s;ts government e&s;tabli&s;hed in his Church (which is his kingdome) and bring in an Idolatricall one, or an Independent one, or any other that tendeth to the de&s;truction of that, that God him&s;elf hath appointed his people to &s;erve him with: and all &s;uch as &s;hall refu&s;e to fight for their religion (if they have no bo|dily hindrances or &s;ome ju&s;t impediment) when the magi&s;trate calleth or pre&s;&s;eth them to it, ought to be accounted as the ene|mies of religion, and rebels again&s;t both God and their countrey. And all &s;uch as &s;hall endeavour, either clande&s;tinly or openly, to &s;peak words tending to deterre men from going out to helpe the Lord again&s;t the Mighty; or refu&s;e, being Chri&s;tians, to fight for the Go&s;pel (except by their bodily infirmities they be hindred from the duty) I know no rea&s;on but they ought to be hanged as a com|pany of Rebels again&s;t both God and men, and as &s;uch as are un|worthy the name of Chri&s;tians, that will not fight for the honour of the King of Saints and King of Kings, and for his royalty and dignity that has redeemed them from the &s;lavery, not only of Sa|tan, but of Antichri&s;t. For we have read that <HI>Michael</HI> the Cap|taine, and Commander of his Church and kingdome, and his An|gels, makes warre again&s;t the Dragon and his Angels; which is not to be under&s;tood only in a &s;pirituall &s;en&s;e, but in an ordinary way, and litterally al&s;o; for Chri&s;t has his &s;ouldiers, that be&s;ides their weapons of the right hand, <HI>their prayers, tears, and humi|liations,</HI> have al&s;o their weapons and armes of the left hand, as their &s;words and all warlike in&s;truments, to fight for the honour, dignity, and &s;overaignty of their King and anointed Chri&s;t; who at his departure from his Di&s;ciples, bad them &s;ell their coats, and buy each of them a &s;word; by which he inve&s;ted them with au|thority as well to fight, if occa&s;ion required, for the honour of their King and Ma&s;ter, and for their own &s;afety; and although he con|demned in <HI>Peter</HI> the temerarious and ra&s;h u&s;e of his &s;word, and
<PB N="43" REF="40">bad him put it up for that time, yet the left the u&s;e of it to him and to the other Apo&s;tles, upon their ju&s;t occa&s;ions. And who knowes not that there is a time for warre and a time for peace, and God him&s;elf profe&s;&s;eth, that he is the Generall of the Armies of his people, and the Lord of their Ho&s;ts; and he taught his &s;er|vants hands, in times pa&s;t, to war and their fingers to fight, as they with thanks acknowledged. And he is the &s;ame God now to his people that ever he was, and will be nigh unto them, and a pre|&s;ent help to all tho&s;e that fight his battels. And what, I pray, are &s;o properly his batrels, as tho&s;e that are made again&s;t Antichri&s;t and his complices (by what names or titles &s;o ever they be called) whether they be the Kings or Emperours of the Earth, or any o|ther Malignants that have given their power to the Bea&s;t and make warre again&s;t the Lambe? Neither &s;hall I ever be of an o|ther minde, but that it is the greate&s;t honour any Chri&s;tian can be called unto, to fight for his countrey and for the Go&s;pel again&s;t what enemy of either &s;oever he be. And as I &s;hall live and dye by Gods a&s;&s;i&s;tance in this opinion, &s;o I &s;hall likewi&s;e ever believe, that all &s;uch as will neither fight for their countrey, nor religion, but deter and di&s;&s;wade others from it, are enemies of both, and &s;o ought to be e&s;teemed, what&s;oever pretences of &s;eeming love they make to their countrey and religion: and that &s;uch as will not fight for the prote&s;tant religion, de&s;erve not the favour of pro|tection from tho&s;e States and countries they live in, who&s;e pre|&s;ervation or ruine is all to them, &s;o they may enjoy their owne ends and become ma&s;ters of tho&s;e they cau&s;ele&s;ly hate, and un|chri&s;tianly and uncharitably think evill of; and who&s;e di&s;truction they not only daily wi&s;h and pray for, but as much as in them lyes, bid defiance to, and proclaime open warre again&s;t them; and u&s;e or rather abu&s;e the holy Scriptures for the maintenance of their authority, in their contending and fighting again&s;t their chri&s;tian Brethren, the Presbyterians, for their independency; and to that end in the Fronti&s;pieces of their books &s;et downe Chri&s;ts words, <HI>Matth.</HI> 10 34.35, 36. where our Saviour &s;aith, <HI>Think not that I came to &s;end peace on earth, I came not to &s;end peace but a &s;word. For I am come to &s;et a man at variance again&s;t his Father, and the Daughter again&s;t her Mother, and the Daughter in law again&s;t her Mother in law, and a mans foes &s;hall be tho&s;e of his own hou&s;e|hold.</HI> Out of the which words mi&s;under&s;tood, they would per|&s;wade
<PB N="44" REF="41">the people and make them believe, that they have good warrant and ground to fight again&s;t their Chri&s;tian Brethren for the maintenance of their own whim&s;ies; whereas, although they had been Wolves in times pa&s;t, yet being now Chri&s;tians indeed, and really converted, and in whom there is a through change wrought in their hearts, they would have laid a&s;ide their wolvi&s;h nature; &s;o that the Wolfe and the Lambe would have peaceably dwelt together (according to the prediction of the Prophet) they then would be loving and kinde Brethren, and would not come out to fight again&s;t them: for that Scripture &s;peaketh only of &s;uch, as who living and continuing in their naturall &s;tate, and in an irregenerate and unconverted condition, and in who&s;e &s;ouls the work of grace was not yet wrought, &s;hold hate their very Parents, Brethren, and Si&s;ters, and neare&s;t allies; that were truly converted to the faith and believed the Go&s;pell: as the &s;eed of the Serpent will alwayes hate the &s;eed of the Woman, as <HI>Cain</HI> did <HI>Abel;</HI> and that in regard of that enmity God hath put between them; &s;o that the righteous is an abomination to the wicked, and the wicked to the righteous; be their relations never &s;o nigh together, in re&s;pect either of con&s;anguinity or affinity: and this all Gods people by their daily experience finde, according to Chri&s;ts prediction, <HI>That their foes and enemies are they of their own hou&s;hold.</HI> But doe the&s;e words of Chri&s;t give liberty to tho&s;e that are Believers, and chil|dren of the mo&s;t High, the very &s;onnes and daughters of God, to come out and make warre again&s;t their Brethren; and to fight again&s;t them, and that for their own inventions and traditions? I think not. And yet the Independents from this place of holy Scripture, not the Novices, Yonkers, and fre&s;h-water &s;ouldiers only, but grave men in their great white basket-hilted beards, with their &s;words in their hands; come out to fight again&s;t their Brethren, for their <HI>Independency;</HI> and ju&s;tifie this their grollery from Chri&s;ts words: which if it be not to abu&s;e the holy Word of God, then nothing ever was an abu&s;e of divine au|thority.</P>
<P>But they have a &s;ingular faculty in making every por|tion of Scripture &s;erve their purpo&s;e: as where Chri&s;t &s;aith, in <HI>Luke</HI> chap. 13. ver&s;. 24. <HI>Strive to enter in at the straight gate,</HI> from thence they conclude, That the Independent-way is that &s;traight way, and that all Presbyterians being out of it, are in
<PB N="45" REF="41">the broad way that tends to perdition. But I will not abu&s;e the patience of the Reader with relating their dotage, as they abu&s;e the Scripture, to maintain their faction, and to &s;peak the truth it is no better: for they boa&s;t of &s;uch a party in the kingdome (if their own words may be credited) as they now think by the &s;word to be able to make their own Laws; and have been frequently heard &s;ay, That they had many abettors in the A&s;&s;embly, and in both Hou&s;es of Parliament, and in many parts through the Kingdome, be&s;ides in all the Armies; and they were all re&s;olved to have the Liberty of their Con&s;ciences, or el&s;e they would make u&s;e of their &s;words, which they have already in their hands. So that mo&s;t certain it is, that the Religion of too to many of them, is a meer faction.</P>
<P>And now I will take a little liberty to &s;peak &s;omething upon my own experience about this bu&s;ine&s;&s;e: for at my return from my la&s;t Impri&s;onment, I having declared my different opinion from them in the point of Independency to many of that fra|ternity; and profe&s;&s;ing that I looked upon many that went that way, as upon people truely fearing God, and &s;uch as were his deer &s;ervants, (who I pittied to &s;ee &s;o mi&s;led) and yet for the way in which they went, I ingeniou&s;ly told them, that I &s;aw no ground for it in Gods Word; and that I purpo&s;ed (God willing) to write &s;omething concerning that &s;ubject, and that I doubted not to prove the Presbyterian way of Government to be Gods Ordi|nance, and not Independency: notwith&s;tanding &s;ome of the Independents reported about the City, that I was of their judge|ment, and agreed with them in their opinion (which was not fairely done of them) but all this was acted to &s;trengthen their own party.</P>
<P>But for &s;uch of them as really beleeved that I intended to write &s;omething, &s;lighted it and made a meer pu&s;h at it, exceedingly vilifying, and under valuing, what I could either &s;ay or doe again&s;t their Tenent; depending it &s;eemes on their Champions &s;trength in the A&s;&s;embly, who they mag|nified for &s;uch great Schollers, as if nothing could bee &s;et forth or written by mee, that they would not &s;peedily confute, and gloried as if the field were already wonne, and all the Pre&s;|byterians vanqui&s;hed: and by &s;uch expre&s;&s;ions as the&s;e the party grew dayly more powerfull, and into that numero&s;ity it
<PB N="46" REF="42">now is. But in fine, &s;ome of their worthies who had a more ho|nourable opinion of me, profe&s;t unto &s;uch as were ordinarily ac|cu&s;tomed to &s;light me (for I had very good information of their underhand dealings) that if I did write again&s;t them, they were fully per&s;waded that it would be more prejudiciall to their cau&s;e, than any thing writ before: and they plea&s;ed to &s;peak &s;omething in the prai&s;e of my &s;choller&s;hip, that how&s;oever two or three Do|ctors in the town made nothing of me, yet they knew very well that if I undertook and bu&s;ine&s;&s;e, I would mannage it with more learning than they that traduced me were able to judge of (and for their prai&s;es I was beholding to them) but they &s;ayd, the onely cour&s;e would be for them, to take me off from that imployment and put me upon &s;ome other &s;ubject, or at lea&s;t to per&s;wade me to &s;tand Neuter. All which was neither Chri&s;tianly nor candidly done of them. For if they had indeed had a de&s;ire that the truth &s;hould come to light: and if they had any reall opinion (as they pretended) either of my integrity in my religion, or of that lear|ning God had given me, they would have came to me rather, and have importuned me to write &s;omething of that Subject, that they might &s;ee what rea&s;ons I had to convince them, or to per&s;wade them, to have better thoughts of the Presbytry; for hitherto they had not received &s;atisfaction from any that had formerly writ about it. But none of all this, but on the contrary, &s;ome of them very churli&s;hly and loftily demanded of me, what calling I had to meddle in Divinity, and to put my &s;elf upon that imployment? Which I mu&s;t confe&s;&s;e, was a que&s;tion that did not be&s;eem them of all other men: for they think that any gifted man, as they call them, may di&s;pute, write, and preach, not onely privately, but in a publike way; and glory that the very boyes and women in the Congregations can confute the learnede&s;t of the Presbyterians; and many of them, as it is well known, that were none of their Pa&s;tors, have &s;et forth many &s;currilous and bla&s;phemous pamph|lets in defence of their Independency, which have been allowed of by them with great applau&s;e; and that the&s;e men now &s;hould demand of me, what calling I had to defend any truth in Re|ligon again&s;t the errors of the times, I &s;ay it may &s;eem &s;trange to any rationall man. But for an&s;wer in brief, though I am not &s;oli|citous to plea&s;e them in all things; let them take notice of this: That if it be lawfull in any of their fraternities to maintain their
<PB N="47" REF="42">erronious opinions, it is likewi&s;e lawfull in any other Chri&s;tians to oppo&s;e them and to defend their truth: for they al&s;o mu&s;t give an account, how they have imployed all tho&s;e &s;everall talents of knowledge, learning, or any other thing God hath be&s;towed up|on them: and this they al&s;o in their Pamphlets frequently make mention of, to warrant their &s;cribling in divinity. But Saint <HI>Paul</HI> in the fourth of the <HI>Colo&s;&s;ians</HI> ver&s;. 6. Saith, <HI>Let your &s;peech be alwayes with grace, &s;ca&s;oned with &s;alt, that you may know how to an&s;wer every man.</HI> And Saint <HI>Peter</HI> in his fir&s;t Epi&s;tle <HI>chap.</HI> 3. <HI>v.</HI> 15. Saith, <HI>&s;anctifie the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready alwayes to give an an&s;wer to every man that asketh you a rea&s;on of the hope that is in you with meekne&s;&s;e and fear.</HI> And Saint <HI>Paul</HI> in his Epi&s;tle to the <HI>Philip. chapt.</HI> the 1. <HI>ver.</HI> 27. <HI>Onely</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>let your con|ver&s;ation be as it becommeth the Go&s;pell of Chri&s;t: that whether I come and &s;ee you, or el&s;e be ab&s;ent, I may hear of your affaires; that ye &s;tand fast in on &s;pirit, with one minde, &s;triving together for the faith of the Go&s;pell.</HI> And Saint <HI>Iude</HI> in his Epi&s;tle Generall <HI>ver.</HI> 3. Exhorteth all Chri&s;tians, <HI>That they &s;hould earne&s;tly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints.</HI> And many o|ther places to this purpo&s;e might be produced which warrants Chri&s;tians, that they may &s;trive for the faith, and earne&s;tly contend for it again&s;t what enemies of it &s;o ever; and in &s;peciall we are command, that we &s;hould be alwayes ready to give an an&s;wer to every man that asketh us a rea&s;on of our hope, and that we &s;hould know how to an&s;wer every man. Now then when many of the Independents came to me, and asked a rea&s;on of my faith concer|ning the Presbytery, I demande of any well-grounded Chri&s;tian, whether or no I have not a very good calling to an&s;wer them; which when they are &s;o much di&s;plea&s;ed at me, and &s;o highly magnifie it in their own party; I have very good rea&s;on to be|lieve that they contend not for truth, but for victory, and to make a faction and divi&s;ion in Church and State. And Saint <HI>Paul</HI> in <HI>Phil.</HI> 3. ver&s;. 2. &s;peaking of the fal&s;e Teachers of his time, that but urged the ceremoniall Law, <HI>Cals them Dogs,</HI> and bids them take heed of them, <HI>Beware,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>of Dogs, beware of evill workers, beware of the conci&s;ion;</HI> all &s;uch were to be taken heed of, as made divi&s;ions, and cut the Church into little pieces, and &s;ucking con|gregations, and therefore are called, <HI>them of the conci&s;ion:</HI> for they indeed made &s;eparations; and therefore Saint <HI>Paul</HI> bids them be|ware
<PB N="48" REF="43">of them, as of a company of doggs that are ever &s;narling or biting; and as of evill workers, that &s;poyled the work of the Go&s;pell; which was to unite men fir&s;t to God, and then one to another; that they might be of one &s;pirit and one minde; and the&s;e evill workers divided them all one from another and made fa|ctions: and therefore they and all &s;uch as they are, are to be de|te&s;ted and abhorred, that make &s;trifes and divi&s;ions in all Chur|ches and Countries where they are, while they contend for their own novelties and new born truths: and all tho&s;e that oppo&s;e them have a call from God and his Word for their warrant, in their &s;o doing. But others of them carried them&s;elves as more craftily, &s;o more gentily, and &s;eemed to come to me in the way of love, pretending they honoured me; and they demanded of me, Whether or no I intended to practice Phy&s;ick again? and told me, that if I had &s;uch a purpo&s;e, they would yeeld me their be&s;t fur|therance for the procuring of me Patients; for which their love, I returned them many thanks, telling them withall; that for pra|cti&s;ing of Phy&s;ick, I had little hopes of doing any good that way in the City; for &s;ome Independent Doctors of Phy&s;ick and o|thers, had &s;o villified me among&s;t all good people, and had made &s;uch a peece of ignorance or nothing of me, in that faculty, as they had taken away my reputation, in as much as in them lay: &s;o that were my skill or knowledge in that Art, never &s;o great, yet I might not in this place ever expect to regain any e&s;teem in it: (&s;o powerfull all black-mouths are to darken any mans credit) though I ble&s;&s;e God, I had known, as well what belonged unto that faculty, as they that maligned me; and had through his a&s;&s;i|&s;tance, done as great cures as ever they did any; and added far|ther, that I doubted not in time to make it appear, that tho&s;e that had &s;o abu&s;ed me, had neither hone&s;ty nor learning in them: what|&s;oever the world e&s;teemed of them for their &s;eeming Religion, which they had ever made u&s;e of, but for their ba&s;e and covetous ends. And they demanding the names of tho&s;e men; I told them ingenuou&s;ly, and that their calumnies were one of the chiefe cau&s;es of the ruin of me and my poor family; as I could prove by a cloud of witne&s;&s;es, if that could do me any good: to which they replyed, they were very &s;orry, and confe&s;t that tho&s;e men were never heard &s;peak well of any, and that which makes me wonder, I never came in the company, nor never changed a word
<PB N="49" REF="43">with them that thus traduced me. But then they offered their &s;er|vice unto me, and profe&s;t they &s;hould be very willing to do me any curte&s;ie that lay in their power, to get me &s;ome honourable imployment by which I might comfortably &s;upport my family, for they thought that my means was not great (and they thought truly in that) and they knew that the charity of many was now waxed cold, and that &s;ince my being at <HI>London</HI> there was a great change of mens mindes, and tho&s;e that were formerly my friends went now another way; and they heard that I was for the Pre&s;|bytery, which they conceived would be wor&s;e then the Prelati|call government; and if I &s;hould write any thing in the defence of that cau&s;e, that then I would totally lo&s;e tho&s;e that as yet were well affected to me (as afterwards they reported I was utterly lo&s;t) and they would per&s;wade me to imploy my &s;elfe any other way, then in writing about that &s;ubject, for it would give great di&s;content unto Gods people. And if I intended any publick imployment, &s;uch men, they told me, with one word of their mouthes could gratifie me, and get me into &s;ome honourable way of advancement, that I might comfortably &s;upport my family: withall they told me, that they were mo&s;t a&s;&s;ured, that I &s;hould obtaine any rea&s;onable reque&s;t of them, for they had heard them &s;peak exceeding well of me, and were &s;orry to &s;ee that as yet there had been no recompence or &s;atisfaction made me, for all my lo&s;&s;es and &s;ufferings; for which their good re&s;pects towards me, I told them I was exceedingly beholding unto them: Now all the&s;e they would have had me applyed my &s;elf unto, were Inde|dendents. And for that time I told them, that I never as yet had hunted after promotion, and if any could do me any good, I con|ceived that the Parliament it &s;elf was as likely to doe it as any o|ther; and although I had not hitherto &s;olicited the honourable Hou&s;e, neither of the Peers or Commons, yet I would rather pe|tition the hou&s;e, then go by private wayes, and told them that as I &s;aw opportunity, I &s;hould more willingly make my addre&s;&s;es to the Parliament then to any particular per&s;ons, though I &s;hould count it a great favour to injoy any mans good opinion and fur|therance, and for the which I &s;hould ever be thankfull. Notwith|&s;tanding they exceedingly urged me to make u&s;e of tho&s;e men they had nomitated to me, as men mo&s;t powerfull with the Par|liament. Now I perceived very well their drift in it: for if I had
<PB N="50" REF="44">applyed my &s;elfe to them (which I never did) and if they had done me any favour, and if I had afterwards writ again&s;t their fond opinion, then I &s;hould have been counted the mo&s;t ungrate|full fellow in the world; and then al&s;o they would not only have defamed me, but as they had the power to advance me, they would have u&s;ed the &s;ame to have ca&s;t me down againe, which I very well fore&s;aw. Againe, if I had intreated their a&s;&s;i&s;tance; and if they upon any fal&s;e information had refu&s;ed it; if then I had writ again&s;t Independency, they would have accu&s;ed me, that it had been out of di&s;content, becau&s;e I could not attaine to my own ends by them, and becau&s;e they would not &s;atisfie my humour; and that I did all I did, out of ill will and malice, and then they would have laid a load of calumnies upon me; in re|gard of all which rea&s;ons, I would no way be induced to make any Independents a meanes and way of my preferment. But &s;tood unmoveably to my re&s;olution, to write in defence of the truth, a|gain&s;t the novelties of the Independents, and told them &s;o. Then they &s;et upon me with fre&s;h incounters as often as they came to me, and where&s;oever they met me, and importuned me againe and againe, that I would not meddle, but that I would &s;tand a neuter: and that I &s;hould con&s;ider withall, that all tho&s;e that went that way had been my very good friends and contributed to my nece&s;&s;ities, and &s;tuck clo&s;e to me in all my di&s;tre&s;&s;es, and that they were the deer &s;ervants of God; and that if I &s;hould now write in the defence of the Presbytery, which they &s;o much hated, that I would &s;ad the hearts of the Saints; and therefore they did earne&s;tly de&s;ire me that I would not be &s;een in that cau&s;e. My an&s;wer to them in this regard was this, that I would not with <HI>E&s;au</HI> &s;ell my birth-right for a me&s;&s;e of Porrage: if any of them had done me any curte&s;ie, they had my thanks for it, and my pray|ers, and my readine&s;&s;e to gratifie any of them againe in what I could: and if I could never requite them here, they were to have their reward in Heaven for it, which would recompence all; but I further added, that when they &s;hewed me all tho&s;e favours, they were of my minde, and were in the very way that now I am in, and relieved me under that notion. So that I &s;aw no rea&s;on why they &s;hould be &s;o much di&s;plea&s;ed with me for my con&s;tan|cy, as I might ju&s;tly be offended with them for their in&s;tability and levity, notwith&s;tanding their curte&s;ies: and withall I related
<PB N="51" REF="44">unto them, that it was an unrea&s;onable thing in any man, and an unju&s;t thing to goe about to &s;top the mouth of truth with a bribe; or to retard any man from doing his duty, with the memory of former curte&s;ies: for no ingenuous man will ever do any a cur|te&s;ie, to captivate him or make him a &s;lave to him for ever for it: and if any &s;hould be &s;o ba&s;e, as by any favour to go about to &s;ilence truth, yet it was the honour of any man ever to pre&s;erve his chri|&s;tian liberty, which is more to be prized then all worldly things: and therefore I de&s;ired them, that if they tendred their own repu|tations, and the honour of their cau&s;e, that they would never any more make mention of what favours I had received, as if that &s;hould hinder me from my dutie, or deprive me of my libertie, which I preferred before my life: and I further related unto them, that many of the Independents already had often ca&s;t in my teeth their former curte&s;ies, and again&s;t all the lawes of civility had abu|&s;ed me and Mr. <HI>Prynne;</HI> telling me to my face, that neither he nor I &s;uffered for the cau&s;e of God, but for our own ends; and that we had forgot all that the people of God had done for us; and were now turned per&s;ecutors of the wayes of God, and &s;hew|ed our &s;elves very ungratefull to our Benefactors; and a thou&s;and &s;uch uncivill and injurious things they have told me to my face in a violent and unchri&s;tian manner: &s;o that the very upbraiding of us with their former favours is a &s;ufficient payment for them (though by the way I will take liberty to &s;peak it, and that in the pre&s;ence of God) that their favours, though more then ever I ex|pected, were not a quarter of that they were reported, nor never equalized my very lo&s;&s;es: &s;o that at this day (as &s;ome of that &s;o|ciety can tell, that knowes my e&s;tate to five &s;hillings) I have not in the world by &s;ome hundreds of pounds, &s;o much as my father left me, for the &s;upport of me and mine, what&s;oever men may &s;peak: but this is one of the greate&s;t &s;laveries upon the earth, that the&s;e men would bring upon people, that by their curte&s;ies they think for ever to make them their Va&s;&s;els, and that they mu&s;t nei|ther &s;peak nor write any thing in defence of any knowne truth, that is di&s;plea&s;ing unto them; and &s;uch a &s;ervitude as I will never be brought unto, for the enjoying of what&s;oever the world can afford me. I know many that has for&s;aken the truth, and changed their religion for bread, and de&s;erted their friens for a thing of naught. But whereas they told me withall, that I would &s;ad the
<PB N="52" REF="45">hearts of the Saints, if I write in defence of the Presbytery: I re|plyed, that I had thought that all the Independents had hated Im|propriations, and how now they were come to impropriate and to attribute unto them&s;elves only, the name of Saints, I &s;aw no good ground or rea&s;on for it: yea, I told them it was both un|chri&s;tian and Phari&s;aicall; unchri&s;tian, in regard that the Presby|terians were their Brethren, and redeemed with the &s;ame price, and were believers as well as any Independents; and &s;erved their Lord and Ma&s;ter with as much &s;incerity as any of them; &amp; &s;hould be as willing to &s;uffer for the Go&s;pell, or any truth of it, as any In|dependents, and &s;tand to it when they would run away; and therefore they did very unchri&s;tianly to un-Saint their Brethren, and Phari&s;aically boa&s;t of their own Sanctity, magnifying them|&s;elves, while&s;t they vilified others: but they might remember what our Saviour told them, that what was prized among&s;t men, was not e&s;teemed of by God, and that &s;uch as advanced them|&s;elves &s;hould be brought downe, and tho&s;e that ju&s;tified them|&s;elves before men, were not ju&s;tified before God: and therefore I coun&s;elled them to lay a&s;ide all high thoughts of them&s;elvs, and to think a little better of their Brethren the Presbyterians, and to con|&s;ider that they were Saints al&s;o; and wi&s;ht them to take heed that they did not by their &s;currilous and bla&s;phemous writings in de|fence of their novelties and Independency, &s;ad the hearts of tho&s;e that were Saints indeed: but for a &s;atisfactory an&s;wer I told them plainly, that if the defence of the Go&s;pell or any truth of it would &s;ad the hearts of either Saints or Angels, I would not de|&s;ert it, for I was to plea&s;e God and not men; for as Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aith of him&s;elf <HI>Gal.</HI> 1. <HI>ver&s;.</HI> 1. So I may &s;ay in this cau&s;e, <HI>If I yet plea&s;ed men I &s;hold not be the &s;ervant of Chri&s;t,</HI> &amp; therfore in main|taining of truth, I told them I would only aime at the glorify|ing of God, and how it might plea&s;e him. And notwith&s;tanding my re&s;olution, upon all occa&s;ions they &s;olicited me that I would &s;tand a Neuter, and u&s;ed &s;ome more rea&s;ons to move me to it; telling me, that Mr. <HI>Prynne</HI> by medling in that bu&s;ine&s;&s;e, had lo&s;t the love of all Gods people, and was now grown odious among&s;t them; in&s;omuch that they called all his former &s;ufferings in que|&s;tion, and doubted of the reality of his religion; and therefore they feared if I &s;hould intermeddle in that quarrell, it would be very prejudiciall unto me; and therefore they de&s;ired me as I tendred mine
<PB N="53" REF="45">own good, and the good of mine, I would not appear in that cau&s;e but &s;tand a Neuter. To all which <HI>I</HI> thus an&s;wered: that to &s;tand as Neuter in this bu&s;ine&s;&s;e <HI>I</HI> &s;hould make my &s;elfe hatefull to God and man: for God him&s;elf &s;aith, he will &s;pew out of his mouth all tho&s;e that are Luke-warme, that are neither hot nor cold, in the number of which are all Neuters; and by this <HI>I</HI> &s;hould make my &s;elf liable to Gods wrath, whiles <HI>I</HI> &s;hould gratifie them: with|all <HI>I</HI> told them, that <HI>I</HI> had learned &s;omething of the brave Gentle|men in the Kings Armie (while&s;t <HI>I</HI> was a pri&s;oner among&s;t them) who were wont ordinarily to &s;ay, that of all men in the world they hated tho&s;e that plaid the knaves on both &s;ides, as <HI>Chomley, Grinvile,</HI> and the <HI>Hothams</HI> did, who for their own private ends would betray their countries and the tru&s;t committed to them, and of all men they would have &s;uch hanged: and next unto them they would have all tho&s;e that now are or have beene Neuters through the Kingdome, who&s;oever came to get the day, proclai|med the verie&s;t Rogues and ba&s;e Villaines in the world; and all &s;uch men, as when they were among&s;t the Cavaliers, would be for the King, and when they were among&s;t the Parliamenteers, would be for the Parliament: all &s;uch men, <HI>I</HI> told them, among&s;t the mo&s;t brave Gentlemen in the Kings Army, and &s;uch as were worthy of honour, were proclaimed the very Vermine of the world, and &s;uch as in their opinion they thought unworthy of any conquerours favour, or to be e&s;teemed any otherwi&s;e of, then of a company of knaves and cowards to all po&s;terity. And <HI>I</HI> told them, that <HI>I</HI> thought tho&s;e Gentlemen in their opinion err'd not: for <HI>I</HI> &s;hall ever believe, that all tho&s;e that are Neuters through the kingdome even in the&s;e civill broyles, and that are of no &s;ide, are the wor&s;t of men; and that by their neutrality of all &s;ides, they are the mundungos and garbige of man-kinde: and much more are they dete&s;table before God &amp; the world, that are Neuters in Reli|gion, or for ba&s;e ends either hold their peace, or make profe&s;&s;ion of any religion: &amp; therefore <HI>I</HI> was re&s;olved &s;incerely to go to work, and to declare my minde in that way <HI>I</HI> conceived to be the truth, and to live and dye in it, though <HI>I</HI> were expo&s;ed by it to the grea|te&s;t my&s;erie that ever man underwent. And whereas they told me that M. <HI>Prynne</HI> had &s;o lo&s;t the favour of the people for declaring of his opinion again&s;t Independency, that they called in que&s;tion all his &s;ufferings, and could not give him &s;o much as a good word:
<PB N="54" REF="46">I &s;aid in that they &s;hewed their levity and vanity, not knowing either wherefore they loved, or wherefore they hated him; for he was &s;till the &s;ame, that ever he was, and notwith&s;tanding all their malice and reproaches, for the good &s;ervice he had done to his God, and to his country, he hath de&s;erved an immortall name to all future ages; and is as truely at this day beloved and honou|red by all &s;uch as know what to honour and love men for, as e|ver he was; and in &s;pight of all the calumnies of the Indepen|dents, he will walk like a noble Lyon, when they &s;hall go like a company of Moon-Calves, bleating out their own folly and va|nity and changing their opinions and affections every moneth. It is ob&s;erved, and that ordinarily that the generality of all the Inde|pendents, never love without doting; nor never prai&s;e without admiring, but as they are won with an apple &s;o they are lo&s;t with a nut; no man knows were to finde them in one minde for a moneths &s;pace, for as the hornes of any new light appears, either to the prai&s;e or di&s;-prai&s;e of any, they mu&s;t follow that light; &s;uch a generation of Moon-Calves, and &s;uch an un&s;table Sect never ap|peared in the world before; and therefore I told them I &s;hould never be terrified with what they had either &s;pake or writ again&s;t Ma&s;ter <HI>Prynne,</HI> from my duty in defence of the truth, which I re|&s;olved never to bauk, neither for hope of the favour nor fear of the anger of all the Independents in the world: for what&s;oever could be prejudiciall to me for doing any duty in regard of them, it mu&s;t be either in re&s;pect of name or means: and I told them that what&s;oever &s;hould be prejudiciall unto me unde&s;ervedly, it &s;hould never trouble me, whether it were in regard of my reputation or of my e&s;tate: as for infamy and reproach I &s;aid there was no fence again&s;t them in the &s;chool of wit or Art, and that I had already had my &s;hare in all manner of calumnies, and had been &s;o often wounded with them by all &s;orts of people, as I beleeved there was &s;car&s;e a narrow left in the quiver of malice, that they could now &s;hoot at me, or &s;car&s;e any reproach or contumely that ever was coyned in the mint of mens hatred, that had not pa&s;t as currant through the world again&s;t me, &s;o that now I was &s;o u&s;ed unto it that there was no le&s;&s;on more perfect unto me, and I had learned quietly to go through good report and bad report: and I knew it had been the lot of all the Prophets, &s;ome of the which confe&s;t that their hearts were broke with reproaches: yea, the Lord of
<PB N="55" REF="46">life him&s;elf e&s;caped not free from prodigious and bla&s;phemous reproaches, who was counted a wine-bibber and a friend of &s;in|ners, and one that had a devill, and all the Apo&s;tles had ta&s;ted and drunk of that cup; and all the Primitive Chri&s;tians had been abu|&s;ed after the &s;ame manner, and that <HI>Luther</HI> and his followers in that age of the world, had his <HI>Cocleus</HI> to rail of him; and <HI>Calvin</HI> had a <HI>Bol&s;ecus</HI> to abu&s;e him: and all our holy Martyrs here in <HI>England,</HI> had tho&s;e that mo&s;t impiou&s;ly traduced them; and &s;o had the poor Puritans and all that &s;tood up for Reforma|tion in their &s;everall generations, tho&s;e that both maligned and reviled them, as all the precious and godly people at this day, by the Independents and all Sectaries, and all manner of Malignants are cau&s;ele&s;ly traduced; and therefore I mu&s;t never look for bet|ter mea&s;ure at their hands, then all the godly that ever lived; who all went to heaven through many afflictions: <HI>And all they</HI> (&s;aith <HI>Paul</HI>) <HI>that will live godly in Christ Ie&s;us, mu&s;t go through many afflictions;</HI> and it is not the le&s;t, but indeed one of the grea|te&s;t to be reproached and railed on; yea, it is wor&s;e then death it &s;elf: for he that takes away a mans good name, is wor&s;e then <HI>Cain,</HI> for he in killing his brother, made him live for ever and eternalized his name; but they that take away mens reputations kill them alive; and ruin them and their po&s;terity; which as it is a fearfull &s;in, &s;o the frequente&s;t in the world, every man making it his occupation to reproach and vilifie tho&s;e they bear a malice to, as all the Independents and Sectaries dayly to the Presbyte|rians, and again&s;t any that &s;tand forth to oppo&s;e their Novelties, and I being in the number of tho&s;e that re&s;olve to the la&s;t period of my life to maintain truth again&s;t fal&s;hood, expect and look for no le&s;&s;e favour at all Malignants hands and tongues then all the generations of the ju&s;t have found before me: and therefore I ble&s;&s;e God, I have before-hand, &s;ate down and counted with my &s;elf, what my love to the truth will co&s;t me, from all the enemies of it, in re&s;pect of my reputation and name; and have learned of my King and Ma&s;ter, the Lord Je&s;us Chri&s;t to rejoyce and be ex|ceeding glad; yea, to leap for joy, when I am reviled and &s;uffer re|proach for his names &s;ake, for &s;o he hath commanded me, <HI>Mat.</HI> 5. <HI>Luke</HI> 6. And if I &s;uffer in regard of my e&s;tate by this my dili|gence, I know in whom I have ever tru&s;ted, and in whom now I beleeve, and <HI>that I came naked into the world, and that naked I
<PB N="56" REF="47">&s;hall go out:</HI> and if my God gives me food and raiment, <HI>I have learned to be content:</HI> for the riches of this world are but like the Mannathat fell about the Tents of the I&s;raelites, tho&s;e that gathered more of it had but enough to &s;erve their turn, or if they gathered more it was but a trouble and annoyance to them, and they that gathered le&s;&s;e had no want. And truely he that would but look upon the world at this time, and behold with attention the in&s;tability of all the&s;e things under the &s;un, he would have little cau&s;e to confide in uncertain riches; for they may dayly &s;ee many men rich in the morning, and all beggers at night, and they that were beggers in the forenoon made rich in the evening, and within two dayes after, they &s;hall &s;ee the &s;ame men lye naked and dead upon the ground, and deprived of all and life it &s;elf; &s;o that there is no man can promi&s;e unto him&s;elfe pro&s;perity or the &s;tability or po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion of any thing a day, neither by &s;ea nor land, and therefore he that is inamored with the world cannot be a friend to God, <HI>For the friend&s;hip of the world is enmity with God,</HI> as Saint <HI>James</HI> &s;aith, and therefore through Gods goodne&s;&s;e I have learned Saint <HI>Pauls</HI> Le&s;&s;on, <HI>To be contented in every conditi|on,</HI> for, <HI>I am crucified unto the world, and the world to me:</HI> and will not for the love of that, de&s;ert my love to the truth or fear to defend it, for fear of lo&s;ing any thing in my e&s;tate, but will roul my &s;elf upon Gods Providence, and commit my &s;oul and my wayes unto him who is the <HI>Pre&s;erver of all, e&s;pecially of tho&s;e that beleeve in him,</HI> 1 <HI>Tim.</HI> 4. The&s;e and many &s;uch pa&s;&s;ages did I relate unto many of tho&s;e that would have deterred me from writing in defence of the Presbytry again&s;t Independency, and yet they &s;till continued dayly to &s;ollicet me not to &s;et forth my book again&s;t that way: and although I told them again and again that I was re&s;olved to publi&s;h my opinion, they intreated me then that <HI>I</HI> would tarry but till the Rea&s;ons and Grounds of their way were publi&s;hed, which they &s;ay would be in a &s;hort time: and all this was contrived to &s;trengthen their faction, and to anticipate the people, and &s;ettle them in their Novelties again&s;t what&s;oever &s;hould be publi&s;hed again&s;t their doctrine of Independency. And when they heard that my book was gone to the Pre&s;&s;e, it would exceed beleef, if <HI>I</HI> &s;hould recite all the pa&s;&s;ages of their under-hand dealings in that bu&s;ine&s;&s;e, and how diligent &s;ome of them were about the Pre&s;&s;e, and how they went about reproaching
<PB N="57" REF="47">me and it, and all to make it hatefull and odious to all, and to de|terre the people from reading of it, or regarding of it: and where|&s;oever any of them met me they told me it &s;hould be an&s;wered; yea, &s;ome of them reported that there was already an an&s;wer pre|pared to come forth as &s;oon as mine. It &s;eemes the&s;e men are re|&s;olved with them&s;elves be it right or wrong to maintain their Faction, and uphold their party: yet I am confident through the &s;trength and power of my God, that I &s;hall ever be able to reply to what&s;oever they can &s;ay: but this I will &s;ay for them, as the Je|&s;uits in &s;ubtilty and cunning cra&s;tines, exceeded all the other Monks and Fryers that went before them; &s;o the Independents in their generations, are more cunning then ever any Sectaries in former ages, for they have got into their hands the prime Lectures of the Kingdome, and run through all the Towns and Cities through the Realm, and through all the Armies, to make Pro&s;elites, and have &s;o &s;cattered their Independent phanta&s;ies, that now there is &s;carce a Town or City, where their leavon hath not &s;owred the whole lump of true and &s;ound doctrine: and they have got the &s;tart of all the Puritans in all the foregoing Generations; for they were of &s;uch au&s;tere lives and men &s;o alineated from the world that you might know them by the hair of the heads and faces, and by their habits from all other men, where&s;oever you meet them, for commonly they were ever out of fa&s;hion when others were in it, and they had all their haires clipt as clo&s;e to their heads as a company of fighting cocks have their feathers, and they u&s;ually went in a great Patriarchicall beards, and for &s;ilks, and velvets, and plu&s;h, and &s;attin, and brave aparrell, they thought they were for Kings hou&s;es; and contented them&s;elves with their rurall weeds: which au&s;terity of theirs made them le&s;&s;e e&s;teemed by the great men of the world, and their doctrine le&s;&s;e regarded, and as it was in our Saviours time, <HI>That the poor received the Go&s;pell;</HI> &s;o in our fore-fathers dayes, the Puritans commonly were by the worldlings and prophane, counted but a company of ob&s;cure and beggerly fellows: but our Independent Mini&s;ters, as they &s;ay, they have learned the le&s;&s;on of their Chri&s;tian liberty, and tell their Di&s;ciples that the Saints are the right owners of all things beneath, and that it is for the honour of Religion to go brave and gallant, and that this is a great grace to the Go&s;pell and for them&s;elves, whereas the ancient Puritan Mini&s;ters went with their hair as clo&s;e
<PB N="58" REF="48">clipt as cocks of the game, and their wives went in plain and mode&s;t attire and both they &amp; their wives very humble, and never came in a rich coach: the Independent Mini&s;ters are very finicall and go in their hair and in their habits, out of town like Cavaliers, &s;o that none that meets them would take them for mini&s;ters, but rather thinke them a company of ruffians: and for their wives they ordinarily go as brave as the daintie&s;t dames in the King|dome, and both they and their con&s;orts are commonly as proud and &s;upercilious as any of the &s;ecular race: and for their com|pany for the mo&s;t part, they are very great and honourable per&s;o|nages or at lea&s;t very rich, and they are all their familiars, for poor folke, they may in private acco&s;t them, and perhaps they will grace them with a little communication, but this mu&s;t be accoun|ted of, as a high favour. And if at any time the&s;e Independent Mi|ni&s;ters meet but with a poor aged Presbyter, riding to the A&s;&s;em|bly but on a Hor&s;e worth &s;ix &s;hillings, they will &s;alute him with, <HI>Good morrow my Lord Bi&s;hop;</HI> whereas they can ride thither mounted upon &s;tately Geldings; and ye &s;hall frequently &s;ee them among&s;t Lords and Ladies both they and their brave wives carried about in Coaches with four Hor&s;es, in great &s;tate; whereas a Wheele-barrow, &s;uch as they trundle White-wine-vinegar on, were a great deale fitter for them, except they de&s;erved better from Church and State. But it is a wonderfull thing to &s;ee the vanity and levity of the people how they run after the&s;e men, and neglect their mo&s;t faithfulle&s;t, laborious, and orthodox Mini&s;ters, and by who&s;e diligent paines they have been begotten to the faith, and how now in compari&s;on of the Independent Mini&s;ters they are &s;lighted: whereas there is not one of a hundred of them, but has more reall and true learning in them, then all the Indepen|dents put together; for, excepting Mr. <HI>Grinehill</HI> and Mr. <HI>Carter,</HI> who I have ever honoured, as grave, godly, learned Mini&s;ters, and which is their honour, humble Gentlemen, I never &s;o much as heard of any fame of the other either at home or abroad for a|ny learning of eminency, or any thing but pride, that makes men famous; and if they had not been accidentally Members of the A&s;&s;embly, and Fautors of this new Faction, they would all of them have gone out of the World in ob&s;curity: and yet &s;uch is the vanity and levity of the people, that they in mighty crowds runne after them, and flight their owne pious and painfull Preachers,
<PB N="59" REF="48">from whom they might ever: be &s;ure to heare nothing but ortho|dox and true doctrine, &amp; that that tended to peace, not to faction. And I can truly &s;ay, though many of them now are ca&s;t behinde the doore as broken Ve&s;&s;els, yet in all the time of the Prelates do|mination, they continued con&s;tantly in their mini&s;tery, and many of them &s;uffered impri&s;onment and bonds, and mo&s;t of them per|&s;ecution, when the&s;e ran all away. And I can &s;ay more; that if we examine their Sermons either as they preach them or as they are in print, &s;ince the Apo&s;tles times there was nothing more di|vinely preached or penn'd, whether for information of judge|ment or reformation in mens lives and manners; and for the convincing of all Here&s;ies, Errors, or Schi&s;mes, and that more tended to &s;anctification then that they both preach and print: and for in&s;tance, to omit many of their learned works, let any man but with judgement reade that Treati&s;e of M. <HI>George Walker</HI> Mini&s;ter in <HI>Watlin street,</HI> intituled, <HI>The Doctrine of the Sabbath;</HI> and &s;hew me &s;uch a piece of Divine Learning writ by any Inde|pendent Mini&s;ter; nay, I dare boldly &s;ay, if they were all put to|gether they cannot make &s;uch a piece for excellent learning; the &s;ame we may &s;ay of his orthodox preaching in his ordinary Mini|&s;tery: and the &s;ame may be &s;aid of Learned Mr. <HI>Jack&s;on</HI> and Mr. <HI>Fi&s;her,</HI> both Mini&s;ters in <HI>Wood&s;treet,</HI> and of many hundred more through the City and Country; who for their mo&s;t godly, learned, profitable, and painefull mini&s;tery, equalize any almo&s;t &s;ince the Apo&s;tles time; yet all the&s;e men under the name of Presbyteri|ans, are &s;lighted, neglected, and now made nothing of in compa|ri&s;on of our Independent Noveli&s;ts; who have got an art, not only to di&s;grace all other Mini&s;ters under the name of Presbyterians, &amp; <HI>Baals Prie&s;ts,</HI> Per&s;ecutors, &amp;c. but al&s;o to &s;trengthen their faction, as if authority be not &s;peedily carefull to &s;uppre&s;&s;e their Indepen|dency and novelties, they wil make the whole Kingdome depend upon them, and be their &s;ervants ere long. They have of all Mi|ni&s;ters before them, got the way of plea&s;ing great per&s;onages, and e&s;pecially the &s;illy Women; for they preach unto them liberty of con&s;cience and liberty of the creature, in a mo&s;t ample and large manner; &s;o that all bravely which among&s;t the Puritans in times pa&s;t was thought a &s;candall to religion, is now thought a grace and honour of the Go&s;pel; in&s;omuch that all the gallant Ladies are all, or mo&s;t of them Independents; never were there any Mi|ni&s;ters
<PB N="60" REF="49">that plea&s;ed Ladies better: &s;o that whereas in Chri&s;ts time the poor received the Go&s;pell, and the Phari&s;ees were wont to &s;ay, that none but the cur&s;ed people followed Chri&s;t, meaning the poor; and Saint <HI>Paul</HI> &s;aith, not many mighty, but the poore and mean things hath God cho&s;en; and the Prote&s;tants of <HI>France</HI> were u&s;ually called the poor men of <HI>Lyons,</HI> and the Puritans were all counted a company of poor fellows; now the Indepen|dent Mini&s;ters they have got all the rich &s;heep from out of their fellow Pa&s;tors folds, it &s;eems they are the be&s;t Purvey ours for the kingdome of Heaven; they have already got abundance of rich Saints in the&s;e latter dayes; &s;o that when the World groweth poore&s;t, the Independent-churches and congregations and their Pa&s;tors, grow all riche&s;t; and I am afraid they will make mer|chandize of a great many more &s;imple Ewes, if their Watchmen and Pa&s;tors be not the more carefull and vigilant to look to their flocks; for they have a &s;ingular faculty of plundering, and have their Emi&s;&s;aries for that purpo&s;e in all the parts of the Kingdome, and yet the World is &s;o blinde they cannot di&s;cerne into the jug|lings of the&s;e men. They blame in the Papi&s;ts, as it is blame-wor|thy indeed, that they not only Lord it over Gods heritage by their own tyrannicall traditions, but for that they mo&s;t &s;acrilegiou&s;ly mutilate the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, and take away the Cup from the people, and they notwith&s;tanding are guilty of both the&s;e crimes in a more deep manner then the Papi&s;ts: for they impo&s;e in a mo&s;t Lordly manner their traditions and novel|ties, as Gods own lawes upon the people, and not as traditions; and they take not away the cup only from the people, but take a|way both the bread and wine from them al&s;o, and that from the deer &s;ervants of God, and from &s;uch as again&s;t whom either for their knowledge or conver&s;ation they have no ju&s;t exception: and debar both men and women through beleevers and &s;uch as are baptized from the Sacrament, and deny bapti&s;me the feal of the Covenant to their Children; then the which, &s;hew me in the world either a greater and more Lordly tyranny, or a more hor|rid &s;acriledge! And this and many more &s;uch in&s;olencies of their Lording it over Gods heritage, might be in&s;tanced to the di&s;ho|nour of God and the Go&s;pell, and yet the people have not eyes to &s;ee it, nor hearts to con&s;ider, what a yoak of &s;lavery they have voluntarily now put them&s;elves under, when by the exceeding
<PB N="61" REF="49">kindne&s;&s;e of God towards us, and through the wi&s;dome and help of this Parliament, we were freed from the un&s;upportable yoak and tyranny of the Prelates. Truely when I read their rai|ling and bla&s;phemous Pamphlets, and when I hear their bitter expre&s;&s;ions, both again&s;t the Parliament and Presbytery, and all their Chri&s;tian brethren whom they &s;tile Presbyterians and per&s;e|cutors of the wayes of God: and when I con&s;ider their Lording of it over their brethren, and their under-hand practi&s;es, for the upholding of their Faction, and their unchri&s;tian dealing in all re|&s;pects; I have admired the patience of the great God, and the humanity of the people: I &s;ay I have admired the patience of the great God, that hath no more &s;everely puni&s;hed this Nation, for their &s;o great ungratitude towards him for his longanimity and &s;o many deliverances of us, both from our Enemies and from our feares, and for tho&s;e unheard of bla&s;phemies both again&s;t his Divine Maje&s;ty and all authority, they dayly utter; be&s;ides their de&s;pi&s;ing of his Mini&s;ters and Ordinances: and I have al&s;o won|dred to &s;ee the lenity and curte&s;ie of the people towards the&s;e men, that although both in their preachings and in their writings they proclaim them all enemies of Je&s;us Chri&s;t and his Kingdome, and thru&s;t them all from the holy things, and count of them all as a company of Infidels; they yet endure all their abu&s;es with moderation, neither do I think that the humanity of this Nation towards them, can be parallell'd by any other country under hea|ven; who, I am mo&s;t a&s;&s;ured, would never have &s;uffered half tho&s;e in&s;olencies they dayly exerci&s;e towards them. And yet I dare &s;ay, for all the godly Presbyterians in <HI>England</HI> whom they count &s;uch per&s;ecutors, there is not one of them that de&s;ires a hair of any of their heads &s;hould fall to their detriment, or that would not be as &s;orry that any evill &s;hould betide any of them as they would be glad and rejoyce to &s;ee them return again into the bo&s;ome of the Church, that they might live in love &amp; unity as they ought, and formerly they have done, and joyn all their prayers and forces unanimou&s;ly again&s;t the common enemies of Chri&s;t and his Go&s;pell, and &s;o take away the &s;candall they have already given, and heale up all tho&s;e breaches, that by their wantonne&s;&s;e in opi|nions have been made to the great di&s;honour of God.</P>
<P>And if there were any &s;park of godly love, or any bowels of compa&s;&s;ion in our brethren towards their Chri&s;tian brethren
<PB N="62" REF="50">and towards their countrey, they would ea&s;ily be induced now to make up all breaches, and lay a&s;ide all tho&s;e novelties that have proved &s;o pernitious already to us all. For what is it that any thankfull Chri&s;tian can de&s;ire that God hath not done for us? He hath delivered his people in this famous City, and in many other parts of the Kingdome from the Antichri&s;tian yoake, and from all the ceremonies and what &s;oever was really offen&s;ive to tender con|&s;ciences, and by his Divine providence has put it into the hearts of the great Coun&s;ell to make &s;uch Ordinances as by which the Mi|ni&s;ters are inabled through the Kingdome to admit of none to the Sacrament, but &s;uch as for their knowledge and godly life, &s;hall be thought &s;it communicants; &s;o that now there is no ju&s;t cau&s;e of &s;eparation from our A&s;&s;emblies, &s;eeing all &s;candals are taken a|way, and the Go&s;pell is preached in &s;uch purity as it never was &s;ince the Apo&s;tles times; and that by as godly, orthodox, painfull, and able Mini&s;ters as any are in the World. Why therefore &s;hould our Brethren &s;o &s;light what God hath done for us, and count all that nothing without they may e&s;tabli&s;h a bondage unto them|&s;elves more heavie, then ever yet lay upon any mans &s;houlders as &s;urely their Independency will prove? For the people, of them|&s;elves I have that confidence in them, &s;uch is my opinion of their moderation, that when they &s;hall duly and upon deliberation con|&s;ider the &s;ad effects the&s;e Noveli&s;ts have already brought forth, they will relingui&s;h them and give God thanks that the danger of them was &s;o timely di&s;covered, and they will againe returne into the bo&s;ome of the Church and follow their own Mini&s;ters, and by whom they &s;hall be built up in their holy faith, and con|tinually fed with the &s;incere milke of the Word, and with &s;uch whol&s;ome doctrine as tends both to the peace of their own &s;ouls, and the quiet of Church and &s;tate. But that they may at la&s;t get their feet out of the &s;nare, and free them&s;elves from their &s;lavery and bondage; I &s;hall de&s;ire them but to con&s;ider a little the pra|cti&s;es of the Independent Mini&s;ters both in former times and in the&s;e our dayes, and how faire we offer them, and then I am mo&s;t a&s;&s;ured they will &s;ee ju&s;t cau&s;e of changing their opinions, and re|turning againe with love and amity into the fellow&s;hip and com|munion of that people who are as truly fearers of God, and tho&s;e that de&s;ire Chri&s;t may be &s;et up as King upon his Throne, and may for ever rule and raigne in all mens hearts, as any of tho&s;e that
<PB N="63" REF="50">make the greate&s;t noi&s;e of it, as if they were the only men that advanced Chri&s;ts kingdome; whereas on the contrary in as much as in them lyes, they have rent the &s;eamle&s;&s;e garment of the Church in pieces, and rejoyce at nothing more then to hear and &s;ee divi|&s;ions among&s;t Brethren. For if we con&s;ider their former practi&s;es, and the mutability of many of the Independent Mini&s;ters (a very few of them excepted) they either ranne away when they &s;hould have &s;tood to the cau&s;e, or el&s;e temporized, and that deeply; a crime they lay upon their Brethren the Presbyterians: and &s;o changeable they were in their opinions, as they manife&s;ted unto the world, that they were un&s;table in all their wayes, and this many of their followers have them&s;elves confe&s;t, although they now palliate it over, that what&s;oever they have formerly done, was in regard that the truth was ob&s;cured and darkned, through the cunning of the Popi&s;h and Prelaticall faction, and that all men were kept hood winckt and could not rightly di&s;cerne it in its full glory and lu&s;tre, till this &s;un&s;hine of liberty had now againe re|turned and &s;ent its raies among&s;t us, by means of which they &s;ay they are &s;o illuminated, as now they have got the &s;pirit of di&s;cern|ing; and by vertue of their New-lights they well perceive their former errors and mi&s;takes; and have found that the way of In|dependency is that way of Church-government that God has ap|pointed in his holy Word. This many of their Di&s;ciples plead in defence of their Mini&s;ters, which to &s;ay the truth is nothing: for the &s;ame may be alleaged and pretended by all Hereticks and Se|ctaries what&s;oever, who will never want the &s;ame or the like an|&s;wer, and &s;o there will ever be a way for the broaching of all new doctrines, be they never &s;o pernicious to the truth, and never &s;o di&s;tructive to all governement. But notwith&s;tanding, what ei|ther they or their Di&s;ciples now can &s;peak in their behalfe, it is very fit that their former practi&s;es in their &s;everall places in re&s;pect of their religion &s;hould be con&s;idered by all judicious and godly men, who know that con&s;tancy and per&s;everance in the faith is that that crowneth all; for he that <HI>per&s;evereth unto the end, he &s;hall be &s;aved,</HI> &s;aith Chri&s;t; not &s;uch as &s;tart back like a broken Bow and are never &s;table: and as for &s;ome of them, it is well known they have been in one &s;it great conforming Prote&s;tants, and in a|nother mood great favourers of the <HI>Socinian</HI> tenents; and for their factious &s;pirits and oppo&s;ition to the Puritanicall way, were high|ly
<PB N="64" REF="51">favoured and countenanced by the Prelates; and then at another time they were Puritans, and that trade growing out of date, and Independency beginning to be in vogue, they are now of that oc|cupation, and are as great &s;ticklers in defence of it, as the &s;ilver-Smiths of the gode&s;&s;e <HI>Diana</HI> in <HI>Ephe&s;us,</HI> were for the upholding of their craft, and what next they will be, the God of heaven onely knoweth, for they will ever be following their new lights. Others of them were very Prelaticall, and as much a&s;pired to Church-preferment, if the greate&s;t men in the Kingdome be not deceived, and &s;ome of their own party mi&s;taken, as any other; but failing of their expectation, and falling into di&s;content, turned Puritans; and that weather-beaten Religion, being now with too too many grown &s;tale, they are at this in&s;tant great Independents, and a|mong&s;t the &s;upream Champions for that Faction: and there is &s;carce a man of them, but has been on all &s;ides (what&s;oever they make the world now beleeve) according as their occa&s;ions &s;erved, and have ever been attempting to bring in one Novelty or other, or have laboured to revive &s;ome here&s;ie, or &s;ome miraculous cere|mony, and all to the di&s;turbance of the Church, and for the hinde|rance of Reformation. And therefore all judicious and godly Chri&s;tians, ought duly to weigh and con&s;ider with them&s;elves, that &s;uch un&s;table men as the&s;e are, and have been, are no guides to be followed: for as our Saviour &s;aith, <HI>If the blinde lead the blinde, they will both fall into the ditch.</HI> They &s;hould therefore remember what Chri&s;t &s;aid to the people concerning <HI>John</HI> the <HI>Baptist: what (&s;aith he) went ye out into the wilderne&s;&s;e to &s;ee? a reed &s;haken with the wind? Luke</HI> 7.24. intimating unto the people, that &s;ollid, &s;table, and Orthodox Mini&s;ters in their judge|ments, &s;hould be &s;uch as the people ought to follow, and li&s;ten un|to, and not tho&s;e reeds and un&s;table men, that are turned about with every new winde of Doctrine, and moved with every &s;tream of opinion, and &s;uch as follow every new light, and that many times for ba&s;e and wordly ends. So that when mo&s;t of the Inde|pendent Mini&s;ters are, and have been &s;uch, they ought not any longer by the people to be followed. They &s;hould al&s;o con&s;ider their in&s;tability not onely in Religion, but in the publike affaires; they may remember how zealous the&s;e men were for the <HI>Parlia|ment</HI> not long &s;ince, and how forward they were to promote the publike good, and to advance the honour, dignity, and priviledges
<PB N="65" REF="51">of the great Councell, and what admirers and lovers not many years &s;ince, they were of our brethren the <HI>Scots,</HI> and of our noble and brave Generalls: and yet now all that reade the &s;currilous Pamphlets, or are but a little familiar with them, &s;hall hear no|thing but revilings again&s;t the whole Nation of the <HI>Scots,</HI> and traducing of all our gallant Commanders, to whom next under God, we owe mo&s;t of that good we now enjoy, and hope here|after to enjoy. I lay nothing to their charge, but that every man that is acquainted with them can witne&s;&s;e. I know not any one Ordinance the Parliament maketh that plea&s;eth them; but for that pious Ordinance they lately &s;et forth, concerning the &s;ilencing of all &s;uch Preachers and teachers as were not for knowledge and &s;oundne&s;&s;e of doctrine thought fit to in&s;truct the people: where|in the prudent Councell &s;hewed the religious care they had of the peoples good, and for which they ought ever to be had in ve|neration: this Ordinance I &s;ay &s;o di&s;plea&s;ed the generality of the Independents, as they brake out into contumelious &s;peeches, &s;ome of them affirming, that the High Court of Parliament was wor&s;e then that of the High Commi&s;&s;ion, and tho&s;e of the Bi|&s;hops: others of them in di&s;content &s;aid, that the recruting of the Army had &s;tood the &s;tate in an hundred thou&s;and pounds; and by this new Ordinance, the whole Army would &s;peedily be di&s;&s;ol|ved, for now all the brave Commanders of the Independents would lay a&s;ide their Armes, and leave the wars. It &s;eemes that all the Independent Officers, went rather to preach than to &s;ight, and to &s;et up their new Lights and vent their new doctrines, then to exerci&s;e their valour; by which it may evidently appear that all the projects of the Independents, in getting prime places by Sea and Land, and in the Armies and in the Towns, Cities, Forts, and Ca&s;tles, and all other places and in all Committees; is onely for the advancement and fomenting of their faction, and this I conceive to be the onely cau&s;e of all the liney-woley Committees through the Kingdome, by rea&s;on of which no here&s;ie nor novel|ty in opinion or religion can be &s;uppre&s;t, where they are joyned in Commi&s;&s;ion; nor no true heroicall vertue be rewarded in any by their good wills, but in tho&s;e of their faction, who are gene|rally well paid and grow brave and rich &s;uddenly, and are high|ly e&s;teemed, when other noble Spirits and brave men, are ca&s;hered and outed that have done excellent &s;ervice. But the Independents
<PB N="66" REF="52">perceiving that that Ordinance of the Parliament would be &s;ome hinderance to their de&s;igne, they mo&s;t temerariou&s;ly and unduti|fully traduced the great Councell for it, as they alwayes have done what&s;oever hath been performed by our gallant Generalls, either by Sea or Land that were not of their faction, which was ever accounted as a thing of nothing among&s;t them: and what&s;oever the <HI>Scots</HI> have done, it is made but little and not worth the &s;pea|king of; and they affirm that all the <HI>Scots</HI> have done, was for their own ends: as if the Independents ever did any thing but for their own ends, or as if ever any man did any thing of labour or danger, that among other brave intentions that he might have, he aymed not al&s;o at his own ends; or as if the Labourer tooke not paines for his hire, which was his own ends; or as if any went to war, but for both honour &amp; pay, as well as for the defence of him&s;elf and Country; and as if the Saints them&s;elves &s;uch as <HI>Mo|&s;es</HI> was, had not the eye of their faith, next unto Gods glory, to the recompence of reward; or as if any brave men might not fight for their own ends, with the pre&s;ervation of their Country: and yet there is nothing more common in the Independents mouths again&s;t the <HI>Scots,</HI> and again&s;t all our Heroicall men, then that they have all their own ends, and &s;o have all the Independents, who under|value all other mens both abilities and actions, to advance their own ends &amp; to &s;trengthen their party, as all men may ea&s;ily gather by all their proceedings; for if at any time God gives any victory, where in compari&s;on of the re&s;t there is but a very handfull of them in the Army, then they a&s;&s;ume all the glory of this action to them&s;elves, that their Faction may be magnified among&s;t the peo|ple. And if there happen any ill &s;ucce&s;&s;e unto any Army in which there is any companies of the Independents, then all the fault mu&s;t be laid upon all the other gallant Generals and Commanders, to the very ob&s;curing and darkning of their reputation, and taking away of all the honour their former actions had ju&s;tly merited. And I have ever ob&s;erved, that in all &s;ucce&s;&s;efull imployments where any of their Commanders have been, all the glory is a&s;cri|bed to the Independents, and is ever &s;et forth with all manner of expre&s;&s;ions of Rhetorick, and that in every Pamphlet (for fear it &s;hould be forgot) as if the &s;afety of all the kingdome depended upon them, and as if they had done all; and that all the other Commanders had done nothing, or not any thing worth the
<PB N="67" REF="52">thinking of or &s;peaking of; and all this to bring their own faction into a high e&s;teeme, and make all the other Officers and Com|manders to be &s;lighted, or not valued in compari&s;on of them&s;elves. For my &s;elf, I &s;hall ever give any Commander of that faction his due prai&s;es, for any good he &s;hall doe unto his countrey by his va|lour and skill; yet he mu&s;t give me leave ever to render the prime glory of any victory or deliverance to God, and to look upon the means in the &s;econd place, who&s;oever they be that God makes the in&s;truments of it. And yet I mu&s;t tell the Independents, it con|cernes them much to re-gaine their reputation, and to doe good &s;ervice by their valour for their countrey; for the gallant men in the Kings Army, before the battell in York&s;hire, had never any e|&s;teem of the valour of the Independents, and would often &s;ay, that they were beholding to them for <HI>Bri&s;toll, Oxford,</HI> and <HI>Ban|bury,</HI> and many other places that followed by rea&s;on of the lo&s;ing of them: and it is thought by the judiciou&s;e&s;t men in both the Armies, that if tho&s;e Townes had not been lo&s;t, the warres would have been at an end before this time. Now whether all the&s;e pla|ces were lo&s;t by the valour of the Independent party, or by their cowardize rather, I leave that to the con&s;ideration of the Inde|pendents them&s;elves, who may alwayes &s;et tho&s;e Townes before their eyes, to put them upon brave atchievements, for the recove|ring and redeeming of their reputation; and if it &s;hall plea&s;e God to make them in&s;truments of re-gaining all tho&s;e fortified Cities and places into the Parliaments hands, though it will never re|compence the lo&s;&s;e that is come upon the whole Kingdome by it, yet all that wi&s;h well unto their countrey will give them that ho|nour and applau&s;e that &s;uch a noble action can challenge at any gratefull peoples hands and mouthes: but I &s;hall ever de&s;ire the Independents not to &s;acrifice unto their own nets, and to a&s;cribe the glory unto them&s;elves, as they have too often done to my knowledge: and therefore I wi&s;h them rather frequently to reade the 9. of <HI>Deuteronomy,</HI> where the Lord giveth a &s;peciall charge unto his people, that they &s;hould not &s;ay it was for their own righ|teou&s;ne&s;&s;e that God had given them the victory over their enemies at any time, and this caution was thrice reiterated in the &s;ame Chapter, to teach them and in them all people to give God the glory of all victories, who goes before his people as he is the Ge|nerall of their Armies as a <HI>con&s;uming fire;</HI> and that it is not their
<PB N="68" REF="53">Bow, nor the Sword, that procures victory without God go out before their Hoa&s;ts to conquer and de&s;troy; let them not there|fore conceive that any victory was given to them for their owne righteou&s;ne&s;&s;e, much le&s;&s;e for their Independency, and that there|fore they &s;hould &s;o puffe up them&s;elves and &s;o clamour among&s;t the people, what &s;ervice they had done to the State, becau&s;e &s;ome of the Independents &s;tood to it in the battell of <HI>York,</HI> when other of them ran away: for they ran as well as others, and if they be not lyars, all the other Independents had ran away too and left the field if they had knowne what had hapned in the other parts of the Army; but they being ignorant of what was done, and pre|&s;uming of a mighty party, came on with the more animo&s;ity, and God gave them the victory, and to God in the fir&s;t place belongs the glory of that action: and our brethren the Independents might have had a great deale more honour then they had, had they not &s;o vilified all the other Armies, and applauded them&s;elves, to &s;trengthen their faction and make their party more great and powerfull; that then they may in time be ma&s;ters of the Presbyte|rians and give lawes to them all, who we know they bear as mor|tall a hatred to, as the very Papi&s;ts and Cavaliers; as all their words, preachings, and Pamphlets witne&s;&s;e; for their malice it is notoriou&s;ly known, and it is &s;o exceeding great, as it is expre&s;|&s;ed every day again&s;t any that but di&s;&s;ent from them in opinion; and their very looks &s;hew it, for mo&s;t of them carry envie and ma|lice in their faces towards the Presbyterians, &s;o that I can &s;peak by my own experience, I know not any Independent in England (a Kin&s;man of mine and his Wife excepted that was alwayes a true <HI>Nathaniel,</HI> and through their hypocri&s;ie mi&s;lead) that do not as maliciou&s;ly and implacably hate the Presbyterians as the mor|talle&s;t enemies they have in the world: and as for my own par|ticular, I could not hitherto, being in any of their companies (&s;ince they perfectly knew my re&s;olution) enjoy the very lawes of civi|lity among&s;t them; &s;o that I have been both privately &amp; publickly reproached by them, without offending of them in thought, word, and deed: by which I may boldly conclude it is a meer faction, and the mo&s;t Phari&s;aicall, proud, envious, and malitious Sect that ever &s;prung up: for they hate all the Presbyterians for no other cau&s;e but that they differ from them in opinion; which neither the old Browni&s;ts nor the ancient Anabapti&s;ts either did or do: for
<PB N="69" REF="53">they are the &s;ame to me that ever they were when we were fel|low pri&s;oners, many of which were by the Prelates ca&s;t into the Gatehou&s;e where I lay, and they neither then nor now thought the wor&s;e of me for my differing opinion from them, but at this day &s;hew me the &s;ame curte&s;ie when I either go to them or they come to me, that ever they did; and have defended me often a|gain&s;t the Independents, when they rayled of me that I was a Presbyterian: and affirmed to their knowledge that I had ever been of that minde &s;ince they knew me, and that was as they &s;aid twenty years; and they told them they &s;aw no rea&s;on, I &s;hould not be left to the liberty of my con&s;cience as well as they were to theirs, neither did they &s;ee any cau&s;e why the Independens &s;hould be offended with any that differ'd from them; and all this the A|nabapti&s;ts and the Browni&s;ts have &s;poken in my behalfe: &s;o that a man may well perceive tho&s;e poore people do what they do out of a con&s;cientious ignorance; and that the Independents doe all out of an arrogant faction, who are as cunning as Gyp&s;ies, and all to make a party, by which they may attaine to their own ends, which I am afraid will tend to the ruine of us all if the Lord pre|vent it not. And I am the more induced to believe it, becau&s;e I &s;ee all their preaching tends to faction: for at &s;ome times (&s;o un|&s;table they are) they would &s;eem in their Sermons to be as meek as Lambes, and they tell the people how glad they &s;hould be of a good agreement and accommodation between us, and then they relate unto them al&s;o that the difference is very little, and &s;o &s;mall, that one would wonder that there &s;hould be &s;uch a contention, and &s;o great a feud about it, &amp; this they &s;peak in great A&s;&s;emblies. Now let all men con&s;ider the genious of the&s;e Independents. They make the difference very little. What contentious &s;pirited men then are the&s;e that go about to make a faction through three King|doms, yea through the world, for that which they proclaim them|&s;elves a thing of nothing? And notwith&s;tanding what they have preacht but a Sermon before in a moderate way, in another Sermo~ they are all fire and toe, &s;peaking nothing but Daggers and daring; and all their di&s;cour&s;e tends to no other end but to &s;trengthen their faction &amp; to &s;et up Independency, and to exa&s;perate the people a|gain&s;t the Presbyterians as &s;o many <HI>E&s;aus</HI> &amp; Per&s;ecutors. And for ought I can under&s;tand, their private meetings tend to nothing el&s;e but to &s;trengthen their party, where they ordinarily pray for the
<PB N="70" REF="54">of the Presbyterians, of whom they u&s;ually &s;ay, if there be any children of the Devill in the Kingdome, they are the Presby|terians; and one of their fat Pa&s;tors not long &s;ince, in one of their Conventicles among&s;t his joyned Members, being in his prayer, brake out into this expre&s;&s;ion; <HI>We ble&s;&s;e thy name, holy Father,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>that thou hast kept us hither to out of the hands of our Bre|thren,</HI> meaning the Presbyterians, who they look on like &s;o many Per&s;ecutors and <HI>E&s;au's,</HI> out of who&s;e hands <HI>Jacob</HI> prayed God to deliver him: &s;o that their uncharitablene&s;&s;e is &s;een in their very prayers. And nothing, as I &s;aid before, plea&s;eth the&s;e men more then to hear of any breaches among&s;t the Presbyterians, and of differences betwixt Nation and Nation, and of the multiplication of their faction: for not long &s;ince in one of their private meet|ings where they pray for the &s;ubver&s;ion of the Presbyterians, one of their &s;ociety &s;aid unto an Independent Mini&s;ter, that was come to officiate among&s;t them, <HI>Sir,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>I will tell you &s;ome newes;</HI> What is that, replyed he? <HI>There were Letters intercepted going in|to Scotland from &s;ome of the Committee of that Nation, wherein they made a great complaint, that Independency daily increa&s;ed in England, and that there was mighty multitudes of them in Lon|don, and through the kingdome. Oh brave</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>oh brave. Nay,</HI> &s;aith the other, <HI>I will tell you more. What is that?</HI> replyed the Gentleman, <HI>The Scots and the Engli&s;h</HI> (&s;aith he) <HI>are like to go together by the eares, about the &s;hipping and coales of Newca&s;tle. Better and better,</HI> &s;aith he, <HI>now it begins to work.</HI> So that whereas <HI>David</HI> &s;aid, What a joyfull thing it is to &s;ee Brethren live toge|ther in unity, the&s;e Independents rejoyce and glory to &s;ee and hear when Brethren are like to fall together by the eares. And therefore if &s;uch as the&s;e be men of God, or Angels &s;ent from Hea|ven, they are much unlike and different from that Ho<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;t that ap|peared unto the Pa&s;tors in the &s;econd of <HI>Luke,</HI> who after they had preached unto them the good tydings of great joy, in their Doxa|logy and prai&s;ing of God, they &s;aid, <HI>Glory vnto God in the highe&s;t, and on earth peace, and good will towards men.</HI> But the Indepen|dents rejoyce at ill-will among&s;t men, and at divi&s;ions and wars and that among chri&s;tian-brethren.</P>
<P>And a great man of that fraternity, not many moneths &s;ince, in a Knights Chamber, gloried to me, as of a matter of triumph, to think they had hindred the work of Reformation thus long; <HI>Ye &s;ee</HI>
<PB N="71" REF="54">(&s;aith he) <HI>that a little handfull of Independent Mini&s;ters in the Synod, have given three Kingdomes imployment the&s;e two yeares, &s;o that they can do nothing:</HI> and boa&s;ted of this wicked act as a matter of vantation and triumph. So that if men well con&s;ider the whole negotiation of the Independents in the Reverend A&s;&s;embly, it is to hinder the work of reformation; then the which there cannot be a more diabolicall de&s;igne. And then they &s;pread it abroad a|mong the people, that they have not liberty to &s;peak, when it is mo&s;t notorious, that one of them &s;peaks more than half a dozen of the other Mini&s;ters. And they have publi&s;hed it al&s;o all over the Town, that the Presbyterians dur&s;t not let their rea&s;ons be &s;et out in Print, to the view of the world, for they knew very well, that as they were unan&s;werable, &s;o that all the people would forthwith have been of their judgement; and by this their babble it is incredible how they have &s;trengthned their Faction, and gai|ned di&s;ciples, for their followers beleeve all they &s;ay as Go&s;pell. And truely, if there were nothing but the&s;e their under-hand dea|lings and malicious practi&s;es, and rejoycing at evill, it were enough to make all men abhor their wayes; but the truth is, they have no certainty in any thing they beleeve to day, and by their practi&s;es they contradict all their doctrine and tenents. And that all men may be yet a little better acquainted with the Independent Mini|&s;ters juglings, I thought good to in&s;ert here the&s;e &s;ixteen Ob&s;erva|tions, &s;ent me by a learned and godly Gentleman, who is very well ver&s;t in all their doctrines and manners: They are the&s;e.</P>
<LIST>
<ITEM>1. <HI>THey hold them&s;elves the principall Labourers and Pillers of faith, when as they profe&s;&s;e that their pre&s;ent judgements &s;hall not binde them&s;elves for the future, but that they beleeve all things with a re&s;erve, to alter their thoughts, faith, and judgements, upon new or better Light.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>2. <HI>They pleade for liberty of con&s;cience, yet will impo&s;e a Cove|nant upon every mans con&s;cience they admit into their congregati|ons, el&s;e exclude him.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>3. <HI>They plead against toleration of any corrupt members, &amp;c. in a Church, and yet plead for a toleration of all Religions in a State, under the notion of liberty of Con&s;cience.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>4. <HI>They plead against the Magi&s;trates Coar&s;ive power in matters of Religion, and yet bani&s;h men in New England, and expell all
<PB N="72" REF="55">out of their Congregations that are not of their way.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>5. <HI>They pleade again&s;t Synods, and yet they profe&s;&s;e them&s;elves members of the pre&s;ent Synod.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>6. <HI>They &s;peak again&s;t Parochiall Congregations as again&s;t the Kingdome and Law of Chri&s;t, and yet &s;ome of them accept of &s;uch, and yet will neither Baptize nor admini&s;ter the Lords Supper to their Pari&s;honers, though they take their tithes.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>7. <HI>They write again&s;t Tithes, as Jewi&s;h, Popi&s;h, &amp;c. yet &s;ome of them take them and &s;ue for them as greedily as any others.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>8. <HI>They condemne all &s;et formes of Prayer or Preaching, and yet them&s;elves plead for a &s;et forme of Church-Government</HI> Jure Divi|no, <HI>in all particular circum&s;tances what&s;oever.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>9. <HI>They condemn non-re&s;idency and pluralities, yet many of them have divers Livings and Lectures of good value, and yet are re&s;i|dent and keep hospitality at none of them.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>10. <HI>They call &s;ome Presbyterians Lord Bi&s;hops, becau&s;e they ride now &amp; then on hor&s;e-back by rea&s;on of age or infirmity to the A&s;&s;em|bly, yet many of them ride thither in Coaches; and &s;ome of them can ride</HI> 6. <HI>or</HI> 7. <HI>miles, on the Lords day in a Coach and</HI> 4. <HI>hor&s;es to Preach an afternoon Sermon, which Chri&s;t and his Apo&s;tles never did, and no Presbyterian practi&s;eth.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>11. <HI>They condemn Presbyterians of har&s;h language, and bitter|ne&s;&s;e in their writings again&s;t them; yet none are &s;o desperately Li|bellous, Satyricall, and &s;candalous in their writings, as many of them again&s;t Presbyterians.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>12. <HI>They profe&s;&s;e nothing but truth, and yet many of their wri|tings &s;avour with malicious mi&s;-informations, &s;candals, forgeries, untruths, invented by them&s;elves, to defame their innocent Chri&s;ti|an brethren.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>13. <HI>They pretend them&s;elves the onely propugners of the Parlia|ment Priviledges and Juri&s;diction; yet none more oppugned them in the hight of oppo&s;ition as they.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>14. <HI>They profe&s;&s;e them&s;elves more e&s;tranged from, and mortified to the world, yet none more covetous, oppre&s;&s;ive, ambitious of ho|nours, preferments, and hunting after all manner of gainfull Offices and imployments as they, nor none more unfaithfull, uncon&s;cionable, in them then &s;ome of them.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>15. <HI>They pretend the Scripture to be the onely rule of their way and Di&s;cipline, and yet can produce no one Text or Example of
<PB N="73" REF="55">Scripture for any thing their Church warrants, or they hold, where|in they differ from the Pre&s;byterians.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>16. <HI>They dare not undertake to binde them&s;elves for the future by any thing they held or concluded touching Church government, much lo&s;&s;e any of their party; therefore it is vaine to di&s;pute with, or receive any thing from them in matter of government or di&s;ci|pline, who will neither be bound by their own mother-judgements or practice, but hold and practi&s;e all things only</HI> duranti bene placito.</ITEM>
</LIST>
<P>Out of all the which, as out of my former di&s;cour&s;e, it is ea&s;ie for any man to gather, that of all the Seducers that have yet ap|peared in the world, the&s;e are mo&s;t to be taken heed of, what&s;oe|ver &s;eeming holine&s;&s;e they may make &s;hew of to the people. But that I may now draw to a conclu&s;ion of this my Po&s;t&s;cript, lea|ving the narration of many other pa&s;&s;ages of theirs till their An|&s;wer comes out (which their followers &s;ay is ready for the Pre&s;&s;e) let me &s;ay this to all &s;uch as de&s;ire the knowledge of the truth in &s;incerity, and that love peace, that all men may &s;ee how fair we offer the Independents, and all &s;uch as are affected to their novel|ties: whereas the Independent Mini&s;ters have per&s;waded the people, that their Arguments by which they have laboured to prove, That in the Church of Jeru&s;alem there were no more Be|lievers then could all meet in one congregation, to partake in all acts of wor&s;hip, were unan&s;werable; and have affirmed withall, that if it could be made evident or proved unto them, That there were more Chri&s;tians in the Church of Jeru&s;alem then could all meet in one Congregation, that then they would relinqui&s;h their opinion of Independency. I, and Mr. <HI>William Prynne</HI> E&s;quire, my Brother in affliction, who the Independents have cau&s;ele&s;ly maligned and reproached (not to take the work out of any learn|ed and godly Mini&s;ters hands, who we honour for their &s;ingular erudition and worth, and far prefer before our &s;elves, for all &s;uffi|ciency and accompli&s;hed learning) &s;hall with all humility under|take to maintaine and make good the&s;e en&s;uing Propo&s;itions.</P>
<LIST>
<ITEM>The fir&s;t. <HI>That there were more particular A&s;&s;emblies and Congregations of Believers in the Church of Jeru&s;alem then one.</HI></ITEM>
<PB N="74" REF="56">
<ITEM>The &s;econd. <HI>That all tho&s;e &s;everall Congregations made but one Church.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>The third. <HI>That tho&s;e &s;everall congregations were all under one Pre&s;byterie.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>The fourth. <HI>That the government of the Church of Jeru&s;alem is to be a patterne of government to all &s;ucceeding ages.</HI></ITEM>
<ITEM>The fifth. <HI>That the gathering of Churches after the Independent way, together with their Church-covenant, and all other their proceedings, wherein they differ from the Pre&s;byterians, hath neither precept nor pre&s;ident in the whole Word of God.</HI></ITEM>
</LIST>
<P>All the&s;e po&s;itions we undertake to make good again&s;t all the Independents in the Kingdome, not out of any contention for victory, but truth, and that in the &s;pirit of love, and not in our own &s;trength? but and in the Name and in the Power of the King eternall, immortall, the mighty Potentate the Lord of Ho&s;ts. And if we &s;hall not by the grace of God and his ble&s;&s;ed a&s;&s;i&s;tance be a|ble to make good what we undertake; we &s;hall not refu&s;e to un|dergoe the greate&s;t cen&s;ure for this our temerity. But if we make good our tenents, and evince and prove their Independency, and the manner of the gathering of their Churches to be but their own inventions, and meer novelties; all the per&s;ecution that we &s;hall then wi&s;h may be exerci&s;ed again&s;t our Brethren; for the great di|&s;tractions and breaches they have made among us, is this, that we &s;hall de&s;ire all the godly people of the City to be humble petitio|ners with us, unto the great Councell of the Kingdome; that as they lately made a pious and a godly Ordinance for the &s;ilencing of all &s;uch as undertook the mini&s;tery without &s;ufficiency of abili|ties and a lawfull call: &s;o they would now &s;ilence all the&s;e no|velties, and command the Independent Mini&s;ters hereafter to preach the Go&s;pell purely and &s;incerely to the people without tho&s;e mixtures of their own traditions annexed to it: by which they &s;hall bring a great deale of glory to God, honour to them|&s;elves, and procure, if not peace to the whole Kingdome, yet love, amity, and unanimity, among&s;t the people; which ought to be the prayer of all tho&s;e that wi&s;h the peace of <HI>Zion,</HI> and the &s;alvation of their Brethren, and the welfare of the Nation.</P>
<DIV2 TYPE="conclusion">
<PB N="75" REF="56">
<HEAD>My reque&s;t to the Independents in behalfe of the Expectants and Seekers.</HEAD>
<P>LIghts, Lights, Gentlemen-INDEPENDENTS, hang out your Lights, your New-lights there; hang out your New|born-lights there, That the poore Seekers may finde a Church among&s;t you.</P>
</DIV2>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
<BACK>
<DIV1 TYPE="colophon">
<P>Imprimatur, <HI>Ja. Cranford.</HI></P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
</BACK>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
