ANSWER.

The Protestant Churches (as they are called in way of distinction from the Church of Rome) the blessed Martyrs, who suffered for the Testimony of a pure Conscience towards God, and all the Worthies of the Lord in their several Generations, who fought against that Scar­let Whore, were accepted of God in their Testimony against Her, and are not disowned by us, but dearly owned and honoured therein: And for agreeing with them in their testimony in several things, as against deriving of a Ministry from Rome (which Luther wrote against, and Iohn Hus prophesied of another Ministry to arise) and against main­taining the Gospel Ministry by Tythes, or any other way of forced Maintenance, which (till Popery grew very strong and powerful) was known to have been free, and against swearing, &c. (Walter Brute said, the perfection of Christian men is not to swear at all, because they are so commanded of Christ, whose commandment must in no case be broken, although that the City of Rome is contrary to this Doctrine of Christ, Fox his Acts and Monuments, Page 460, 461. And see also [Page 2] Page 495. Thorp's testimony both about Tythes and Swearing.) For these very things and such like (as for following of Christ, in not re­ceiving or giving that honour which is out of the faith, and for testi­fying against the hypocrisies and corruptions of our age) do we suffer in this our day, even as they did in their day, from the same Spirit that persecuted them; which though it hath much changed its form and way of appearance, yet still retaineth the same nature.

But all things were not discovered at once. The times were then dark, and the light small: yet they being faithfull according to what was discovered, were pretious in the Lords eyes: and what through ignorance they erred in, the Lord winked at and overlooked, being pleased with that sincerity and simplicity of heart, which he had stirred up in them towards himself. But if they were now alive in these our daies, and should depart from the sincerity which was then in them, and oppose the Light of this age; they would not then be accepted of the Lord, but their former sincerity would be forgotten. For the Light shineth more and more towards the perfect day: and it is not the owning of the Light as it shone in the foregoing ages, which will now commend any man to God, but the knowing and subjecting to the Light of the present age. Even as in these our dayes, there was (some years ago) an honest zeal and true simplicity stirring in the Puritans (especially among the Non-conformists of them) which was of the Lord, and was very dear to him: And had the generations of this age abode there, they would have been able to have followed the Lord in every further step and leading of his Spirit. But departing from that into some form or other, the true simplicity withered, and another thing began to live in them; and so they setled upon their lees, mag­nifying the form they had chose to themselves, till at length their hearts became hardned from the pure fear, even to the contracting of a spirit of prophaneness, insomuch as they could mock at the next remove and discovery of the Spirit as some new Light: & so by degrees have grown persecutors of that Spirit in its out-goings in the people of the Lord, which they themselves had once some tast of, while they were reproach­ed for Puritans. And the God of this world, who at first tempted them aside into the form, hath at length prevailed so far to blind them therewith, that they can neither see what spirit they themselves are of, nor what spirit it is they persecute.

Let therefore people consider the truth of the thing, as it is before the Lord: We do not cast dirt upon any, in whom the truth of God hath stirred and appeared in any measure in former ages, or in this our [Page 3] age: but this we testifie against, to wit, the setting up of any form without the life and power: for it is the erring spirit which still cryeth up the form, to keep down the power by the form, and so by the help of it to bewitch from the Spirit, wherein is the life, and not in the form. This was the painted Jezabel of the Apostles age, false teachers finely dressed up themselves with the form of godliness, and then under this cover they could deny the power, and make head against it, 2 Tim. 3. 5. how easie is it for them who appear in the form of the doctrines of the Gospel, in the form of zeal, in the form of holiness, to pass in a Nation for the true Church, and then to asperse them for Heretickes, who (appearing in the power) cannot but deny that form which is without the power. This is the great Witch of this age (even that spi­rit of zeal and devotion, which is best clothed and decked with the form without the power) which though men (who judge of the things of God after the flesh) justifie, admire, and much contend for in her several shapes and dresses (some being for one, some for another) yet the Lord is searching after her, and will find her out with his eternal flames, which will make her manifest, and all her lovers shall dread her burning and bed of torment. Now as all along the Apostacy, this bewitching spirit (this spirit which bewitcheth from the power) hath crept up under a form of Church worship and holiness: so the other Spirit (the pure Spirit of life, the Spirit of true zeal, and fear of the Lord) hath still appeared more and more out of the forms. Who were the best Preachers, and most eminent Christians in the Puritan daies? Were they not those who least minded the form then, nay indeed, who were most against the form, and persecuted for their conscientious stumbling at it? & who were the greatest persecutors then, but they who were most zealous for the form, both of the government and worship of the Church of England? And where is the persecuting spirit next to be looked for, but in the forms which should next appear? And where likewise is the appearance of the true spirit next to be looked for, but in those whom the Lord should raise up to testifie against those forms, and to be the succeeding sufferers for their testimony, as the Pu­ritans had been foregoing sufferers for their testimony?

Yet if there be any persons left, among any of the forms which have appeared (whether former or later) that have not lost their sin­cerity and true zeal towards God, them we own and have unity with, so far as they keep, or rather are kept thereto. If there be any among the Episcopal sort, that in truth of heart desire to fear the Lord, and look upon the Common-Prayer-Book as an acceptable [Page 4] way of worshipping him; we pitty their blindness, yet are tender to­wards them, and would not have the simplicity persecuted in them because of this, but rather cherished. If there be any among the Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, Seekers, or any other sort, that in truth of heart wait upon the Lord in those wayes, and do not find a deadness overgrown them, but a pure, fresh, lively zeal towards God, with an unfeigned love to his people, our hearts are one with this; and we cannot fight against this good thing in any of them, though in love to them we testifie, that their form and way of worship is their present loss and hinderance yet we doubt not, but that the Lord (in his time) will make manifest to such the Light of this age, which is the very thing the People of God in many fore-going ages have been praying for. But this is our lamentation, that forms and wayes of worship abound, but the Puritan-Principle, the Puritan­spirit is lost and drowned in them all; and that men are hardened against our testimony, not from the remainders of the simplicity in them, but because they are erred from the simplicity, and fallen in league with another spirit, which hath lain lurking in forms of know­ledge and worship (to tempt aside from the simplicity, and to hide the sight of the life and power from the panting soul) all this night of the Apostacy.

Now mark how easie and natural it is to that spirit to enter into a form, to cry up a form, to set up a form in a Nation, City, or Country, (doubtless it had been done in this Nation long ago, had not the mighty hand of the Lord withstood it.) When the evil and un­clean spirit is detected and driven out of one form, if it doth not get another suddenly to appear in and tempt with, it must needs lose many of its Subjects. The strumpet or false Church is forced (as God discovers her nakedness and lewdness) to change her dresses and appearances, to new-trick and adorn her bed: and then, as if she also were changed, and were now no longer the same, she comes forth again with boldness, and tempteth the young man again to come in unto her, Prov. 7. 16. And thus she casteth down many wounded, yea many strong men have been slain by her, vers. 26. who otherwise would have pondered the path of life, chap. 5. 6. had they not been ensnared by her flatteries, who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forget­teth the Covenant of her God, Chap. 2. 17. There is no more certain and ready way to suppress truth, and to betray the honesty which is singly searching after it, than to present a form of godliness or wor­ship, as the proper way of meeting with it: for hereby the soul is [Page 5] lulled asleep with a false hope, until the freshness of its desire begins to die, and its life to wither; & then the fleshly part easily grows into unity with, and zeal for that form w ^ch indeed is of the flesh, though it appeared and tempted as if it had been otherwise. And how many have gone a great way towards Hell, & have bin deeply intangled and distressed in the Chambers of death, by entring into this strumpets Church or house which they then (through the subtilty of her deceit) took for the house or Church of God? Pro. 7. 27. Consider the thing a little seriously: When the evil spirit is driven out of his strong hold of grosse Popery, whither should he run but into Episcopacy? When he is driven out of Episcopacy, whither should he run but into Pres­bytery? When he is driven out of Presbytery, whither should he run but into Independency? When he is driven but of Independency, whither should he run but into Anabaptism? When he is driven out of Anabaptism, whither should he run but into a way of Seeking? And what is his end of running into Episcopacy, but to save alive that spirit which was hunted out of Popery (and could abide no longer there) and so the better (and the safer from being discerned) to reproach and persecute the other spirit (where ever it appeared) under nick-names of Puritans, Separatists, Brownists, Round-heads, &c. And what is his end afterwards of running into Presbytery, but to save that alive which was hunted out of Episcopacy, and to perse­cute the former truly zealous Spirit (where it should further appear afterwards) by means of that form? Thus the forms and appearances of things change, but the fight is still the same, the evil spirit still getting uppermost under a form of godliness, and from thence shoot­ing forth its arrowes at those that seek after purity of heart, and can­not but testifie against those forms where the impure one lodgeth.

This then is the sum of our answer in this respect: we are not a­gainst the true life and power of godliness; wherever it hath appeared, or yet appears under the vail of any form whatsoever. Nay all persons who singly wait upon the Lord, in the simplicity and sincerity of their hearts, whether under any form, or out of forms (that matters little to us) are very dear unto us in the Lord. But we are against all forms, Images, imitations, and appearances, which betray the sim­plicity and sincerity of the heart, keep the life in bondage, and en­danger the loss of the soul. And too many such now there are, which hold the immortal seed of life in captivity under death, over which we cannot but mourn, and wait for its breaking off the chains, and its rising out of all its graves into its own pure life, power, and fulness of liberty in the Lord.