HAving Read W. R's. Book, a like thing has appeared to me therein, to that, which at first arose a­mongst the Primitive Christians, called, Gnosticks, mentio­ned in some Epistles (though not un­der that Name) as of Peter and Jude. And among the first Protestants, in those called Libertines and Antinomi­ans, which signifies, such as were for [Page 2]Licentiousness, and against Law. For loose Liberty has been, is, and will be the Rise, Progress, and End of that Spirit, in its Work; and to gratify the Enemies of Truth, in giving them Advantages, and Arguments against it. To anticipate which, and the preju­dice that may arise from it in such as cannot distinguish of Popish Imposition, implicite Faith, &c. nor of the Lati­tude of our Charity, and straitness of our Adversaries especially, are these Words written.

Therefore, First, let it be considered, That in several Ages, God raised up ex­traordinary Men, as Enoch, Noah, A­braham, Moses, the Judges, David, the Prophets, Cyrus, the Maccabees. After, in the time of the Gospel, the Apostles and Disciples, whose Declaration of the Gospel it was a Sin not to Believe and Obey; God Commanding all to Repent, and come to the Truth, affor­ding Means. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, gave several Commands as from the Lord. And, What is Sin, if it be not to be unbelieving, and disobedient [Page 3]to God's Commandements? The same word in Greek, in which Tongue the Apostle Wrote, Apeitheia. signifies Vn­belief and Disobedience. And the Spirit that now Rules in the Children of Unbelief or Disobedience, cryes out, Imposition, Implicite Faith, to believe as the Church believes. Which because many in the Church of Rome streined too far, Hosius, Pighi­us, Staphylus, Stapleton, Bel­larmin. and o­thers. See Jewel against Harding, Art. last. for the Authority of their false Church, calling, Igno­rance the Mother of De­votion, and Applauding the Faith of the Catholick Collier. That becoming of ill Fame amongst Protestants, under pretence thereof, a looser sort took oc­casion to cast off all Submission, Obe­dience, and Government, not only in the Church, but Common-Wealth also. But the Sober of both sorts kept out of those extreams: Vid. D. Pot­ter. V.C. Oxon. Ans. to Char. Mist. §. 6. p. 61. part 1. And neither denied the great Use of that Distincti­on, as having ground in Reason and Nature, between that Be­lief [Page 4]and Obedience, which hath a more clear and full Knowledge and Perswa­sion; and that which hath a less: be­tween that Unity of Faith and Obedi­ence, which is in the more knowing, and that which is in the less knowing People. Except this be admitted, the Service of Government, Mutual So­ciety Help, and Edification would be much impaired at least. For if one Man receive not of, nor deliver to a­nother by Teaching and Believing, 'tis as if one Lived as an Eremite or An­chorite, alone in a Wilderness or Wall, under the Notion of excluding Tra­dition, and Implicite Faith, and O­bedience; and so all the Service in Ma­gistracy and Ministry. And I can ea­sily Assent to such as say, That the ablest, and Knowingest Men in the World, Receive something this way by other: And again, not the Igno­rantest, but that have an express par­ticular distinct Knowledge joyned to the Assent of Be­lief, Necessitate Medii. in some Points most ne­cessary. It is a Maxim, A Learner [Page 5]must Believe. But all may Learn. Who would take it for a good Reason in a Learner, for refusing to be Taught any thing, But not an ab­solute necessity of an outward Teacher. Ad esse, but ad be­ne esse, as is said. or to observe Order; be­cause he Knew it not, nor Understood it, as well as his Teacher? Or for his Teach­er, to refuse to receive My­steries Revealed, because he had not a Distinct Knowledge of them; by the Reason and Manner how they are True, by a curious Disquisition? Aug. contr. ep. Fund. cap. 4. Orig. Arch. l. 1. Cyril. Hier. cat. 11. Which Primitive Teach­ers disowned & reproved. And so both Extremes are to be avoided: One in the Defect, despising Authority, even the Highest, and that even in a Young State, seeking Liberty of Judgment, before the Use of Judgment, and ripe­ness of it; As is defended by Protestant Teachers, as Keckerman & others. (for there is an Age not only of Body, but Mind, and in order of Nature, Authority Good and True (that's of God) goes before Ripeness of Judgement.) [Page 6]The other in excess, namely Folly, by too much Credulity, to admit any Au­thority alwayes; and to prefer (or e­qual) outward Testimonies, before Rea­sons drawn from the very nature of the Things themselves. Both these are Censurable. Now to the Adversaries which are of another Profession, which may be apt to close with the Accusa­tion of Popery in this particular, taking Advantage against Us thereby, an Ar­gument to them. Ad Hominem. How can they without Condem­ning themselves, who proceed to make use of an Outward Compulsion, as do the Papists, joyn with the Accusation of Us for Popery, as Imposers, for claiming and exercising only the same which the first Protestants did, Sadeel, Calvin, D. Sparks, Bax­ter, & others. namely, Disowning Succession of Ministers from the Papists; and therefore, an extraordinary raising up of Ministers (or Apostles as they say) immediately from God, to raise up a Testimony, a Reformation out of the Apostacy, and Doctrin also immedi­ately [Page 7]from the Spirit in the Interpre­tation of Scripture, as well as in Practice; and in his Power and Wisdom in taking Expedients in Church-Government and Censure? And seeing We produce the same proof as They did (or do) that is, Sadeel de. leg. vocat. Ministr. the power and efficacy of Doctrin and Govern­ment; and the assent, and answer of the Receivers of them and it; (They claiming but a Succession of mediate Ministers from the first Prote­stant Reformers by Tradition (as in pretence, Papists do their's from the A­postles) with a Tradition of Doctrin in Scripture-interpretations, which they must needs do, if they deny an immediate Call and Teaching) How can they deny the Lord the same Li­berty in proceeding in a further Refor­mation; and even the like proceedings in Church-Affairs, in censuring the Li­bertine Principles that the subtil Ad­versary hath Sown, and Raised in Our Times, as in theirs, as also in the Times of the Apostles: Using no other Wea­pons than They, viz. Spiritual? And [Page 8]seeing 'tis Confess'd by all Parties, That God hath not used the same Form, Idem. advers. Turrian soph. loc. 10.12. D. Sutclif. false Sembl. c. 1. and State in all A­ges, but different, and ma­nifold, as in Outward Go­vernment in the World, so in his Church; How can they, & Liber­tines on the other hand, deny him his Li­berty (having not tyed himself by pro­mise) to prescribe through his Servants, what way he pleaseth in his Wisdom to appoint, for restraint of their Licen­tiousness in a natural and proper Gospel-Way, contrary to which it is against his Nature to proceed; but according to the Nature of that perverse and crooked Serpent, who goes contrary to the Wayes of God, putting Dark­ness for Light, and Light for Dark­ness; Flesh for Spirit, and Spirit for Flesh; Carnal Weapons for Spi­ritual, and Spiritual for Carnal; A­postate for Christian, and Christian for Apostate; Church Censure for Per­secution, and Persecution for Church Censure: Self Will for Tender Con­science, and Tender Conscience for [Page 9] Self Will. And knowing the Nature and Tendency of that Spirit to Persecu­tion, though complaining causelesly of Force, and pleading so much for Li­berty, comparing in W. Rs. Book, Part 4. Pag. 4. with Part 3. Pag. 64. I think there's Reason enough given to put the Question, viz. What he understands by Delivering to Satan? For Satan signifying an Adversary or Enemy, if as he gives to understand, Paul understood not thereby the Devil (according to common acceptation of ordinary Capacities) who, as they Write, did Beset, See Ps. 78.49. 1 Sam. 16.14. Judg. 9.43. Cave's prim. Christianity. Oecumenius, and others. Vex, and Trouble those that were under Church Censure, as such as were for that time Seized, and in Possession of him, or so. What other Adversary will he find, as a fit Expedient for the Destrustion of the Flesh? Will he have him then to intend the Heathen Magistrate to Destroy their Body (for no other Ma­gistrate than Heathen, then was) as the Papists do now by their Magistrates, [Page 10]and as the Tendency hereof is at this juncture, accusing Us of Popery, to ex­pose Us to the People, and Hypocrisy of masked Papists, Popishly affected Of­ficers, and Time-servers, and Self-ser­vers, to serve themselves of Us, under such pretence? But may not ordinary Capacities reasonably Answer, That seeing the Christians Weapons were not Carnal, but Spiritual; not Out­ward, but Inward; the Delivery was to a Spiritual Adversary, See Beza's large Notes on 1 Tim. 1.19.20. 1 Cor. 5.5. for the Destruction of the Flesh Spiritually, and Fi­guratively understood, for Carnal Mind, that the Spi­rit of the Mind might be Saved, &c. And if Consulting the Light (to use his words) do not tell him so; See Beza's lesser Notes, with whom a­grees Marlo­rat. Why can he not con­sult the Marginal Notes for this, as well as for the Wo­men in the Kings; and clear it to Us, That he intends no outward Force about Religion, to sa­tisfy Friends, having given them more cause hereby to Question it, than G. F. [Page 11]because he has not impertinently ex­pressed it to his Mind, in Part 4. Pag. 66. though in abundance of places in his Books? All his proof is all Negative, which proves nothing against Hundreds of Affirmities proving the contrary, But his Light denying the Apostles de­livering to Satan, to be to a Spiritual Adversary (the Devil) concludes it was to an Outward Carnal; for there's not a Third. So joyning to the Pa­pists, who have an Outward Devil, an Vgly Tormentor in their Inquisi­tion, in imitation (like other things in the Apostacy.) So in imitation of the Primitive Church, who had no Magi­strates, and so only Spiritual Censures, their Priests appropriating the Church to themselves, claim an exemption from Magistrates Power, even in Tem­porals; and yet, according to the con­fused Nature of that Spirit, Punish o­thers by them for Spirituals. In like man­ner, there remains in their Qunneries some imperfect Footsteps of Womens Services in the Primitive Times, Polydor. Virgil. as is confess'd [Page 12]by themselves: as in the Women that wove Hangings for the Grove in the Jews Apostacy to Idolatry, is shewn some Footsteps of Womens Services in the Temple formerly (as in false Prophetes­ses Sowing Pillows, &c. of the true Pro­phetesses) by which imperfect Foot­steps, things may sometimes be traced upwards: But that's not all to prove it. For both the Scriptures and Histo­ries, Declare that God had his Services for Women (which is so much struck at) both without the Law, under the Law, and under the Gospel, and is ge­nerally confess'd. Many Protestants (as well as Papists) acknow­ledge, B. R. Monta­gue appar. 3. J. Maxwel, and others. That those call'd Si­byis, that Prophesied of Christ, were endued with the Spirit of God. To pass by Deborah, Hulda, &c. and come to such as are specially opposed here, such as had a part in outward Services distinct.

Beza speaking of Anna, sayes, Such Honourable Widdows whereof mention seems to be made, Beza's larger Notes on luc. 2. 1 Sam. 2.22. Were employed [Page 13]in many dayly Ministeries of the Tem­ple, and of the Poor; which manner in some sort, the Apostles after retained.

Junius, that Translater of the Bible, speaking of that manner of Deaconesses in the primi­tive Times, desires, Jun. Eccles. lib. 2. cap. 4. The Re­stitution thereof, in his Time. Such a Restitution in our Times, makes this ado.

Josephus describes a Womans House in the Temple, Joseph. de. bel­lo. Jud. l. 6. c. 6. for themselves and strangers that were Women.

Cave, Bucan, Gualter, and others confirm the Ʋse of Deaco­nesses in the Gospel-Times, Sutclif. ibid. and Presbyterians desired them.

So that the thing is without all Que­stion, as may be fully cleared hereafter.

For the endeavouring of the promo­ting of which Restitution, how the Enemy busles to hinder it. In this Book, carping at the Allusions from Scriptures in Favour of it, as not Ma­terial. Whereas we find in Scripture, many more used by the Apostles a­gainst the Jews, and may well suppose many more, while they Reasoned with [Page 14]them from the Scriptures. One speaks of Fifty, Turrianus Ch. 2.23. out of the Book of Isaiah onely. As Matthew alludes for the name Na­zarene, signifying A Branch, to the Prophets, speaking of the Branch. Paul alludes to Sarah, and Hagar, Je­rusalem, and Sinai, as types. Psal. 110. is alledged to prove Christ's Ever­lasting Priesthood, &c. How would those Proofs take with these Men in these Times, who so deride Examples of Vertuous Women to be mentio­ned for Encouragement, as those that Lamented Jephtah's Daughter? The Question is, Whether that Humilia­tion was not a Religious Act. And, Was not Rahab a Vertuous Wo­man? Heb. 11. ver. 31. And, Why not then Micah's Mother (which he calls That Abominable Quotation;) nay, more Religious also, seeing She Dedicated the Silver to the Lord; and What she did, she did it to the Lord, Sebomenai. Ch. 16.13. & 13.50. though Ignorantly? The Woman in the Acts were Devout or Religi­ous, [Page 15]though they had zeal with­out Knowledge. And nothing is proved against her being Ʋertuous. And it seems there was a Religi­ous House; for Micah had got a Le­vite, and an Ephod, &c. And the Images were Teraphim, which Jerom, Jerom. on 1 King 22. & 6.16. and Aqui­la say, were Cherubim, and Seraphim, which were the Ornaments of the Temple; and that they were Furni­ture, So Hamahal­zen the Persi­an. J. Gafferel. cur. sect. 5. and Ornaments for Priests, as the Ephod, &c. See Hos. 3.4. But I shall not stand to Excuse, nor Dispute that. Though it may seem, the Lord winked at that time of Ig­norance, when the Word of the Lord was precious, till Samuel. And what Wonder the Hirelings did not through Covetousness, and By-respects, instruct them perfectly in the Law of Moses, when as some Write, that in former times, D. Favour An­tiq. tri. c. 13. some Thousands of Parishes never heard the Scriptures Read to their Understanding, [Page 16]and scarce one Priests Study in a Hun­dred had them; and had Images. Will you that are for Liberty, impose so upon them what they knew not, nor proba­bly could, in some times, & cast all out? It's said of the People of Samaria, 2 King. 17.31, 41. They Feared the Lord, and Served their Graven Images. And many Ages af­ter they were not com'd up to Moses Law strictly; yet Christ prefers the Mercy of the Samaritan, Luc. 10.33. & 17.16, 18. and Leper's Thankfulness not comed to the Form, before the Levit and Priest, the highest in it without them; yea, the Woman of Canaan's Faith before the Israelite's. Blindness and Pride, makes Hipocrisy not discern the differences of Times and States, Mat. 19.18. con­sidering that Much was win­ked at, and suffered to the Iews, be­cause of the Hardness of their Hearts. Chrysostom, Jerom. Euthymius. Theophi­lact. Rabanus, Lyra. A­quinas & others, on Jer. 7. Isa. 66. Mat. 5. and others. And those called Fathers and School-Men, note, That God indulged Sacrifi­ces, [Page 17]&c. to them, which were among the Heathen. And the Heathen Wri­ters say, That several Customs were amongst them, that were amongst the Jews, as Herodotus the Antient Greek Historian, who himself Travelled a­mongst the Egyptians, tells of them, and the Persians; without probability of the contrary passage, according to some. Heb. 9.10. Baptisms. Yea, to come nea­rer to that which is con­tinued, even to our Times, and has been winked at in (many, que­stionless) Men fearing God, and work­ing Righteousness; and doubtless ac­cepted of him, viz. Baptism: Tacitus. Arrianus. Polyaenus. Hesychius. Apulcius. R. Elias de Wides. Herbanus Ju­daeus. Petr. Blesensis. Tertullian Nonnus on Nazianzen Joseph. Vice-comes. Anti. Marsil. See J. Sel­den de Successione ad leg. Jud. c. 26. Both Hea­then, primitive Christi­an, and other Writers agree, that it was a­mong the Heathen pra­ctised in their Imita­tions, or entrances in­to their Mysteries of Religions, even amongst the Ancientest Egyptians, Persians, and Graecians: amongst the Jews in recei­ving [Page 18]in their Proselytes (after continued among them, when turned Christians, consisting of them mostly at first) as may be Read in these Writers. Que­stionless, Charity has cause to Con­clude, that if a Prophet of the Lord, had come to Micah's Family, that pro­ceeded in the Work of Reformation in that dark Time, he would have been Received as Elias was, and his Mes­sage. And will you that pretend, not only to More Liber­ty, Argumenta ad hominem. but also to More Cha­rity, and own an Ʋniver­sality of Light and Grace, and More Reformation, In Charity. come short of all sorts of Protestants? For several of them, of most Eminen­cy in each, Bishop J. Ʋsher Ser­mon of the Unity of Faith. Ri. Baxter in Church Hist. Justin Martyr. Clem. A­lex. Chrysostom. Lud. Vives. Andradius. T. Aquinas. Lyranus. Collius. Sotus. Canus. and many others. Zuinglius. D. Potter. ibid. Author of no Preexistence, cites Luther, and other Protestants. have de­clared, That They cannot believe, but that many Papists, tho Living in dark Times and Places, and ser­ving God (which was [Page 19]with Images, &c.) were yet Good Men, and accepted in the measure of Sincerity in them, such as Taulerus, Thomas a Kempis, Gerson, Francis Sales, and others. Yea, short of Papists too in Charity: For many of them, as well as Protestants, and Antient Pri­mitive Christians, their Charity exten­ded thus far, viz. That not only In­fants, Naturals, Deaf-born, Di­stracted, &c. but also Pagans before and since Christ, if their Life be Ver­tuous, morally Honest; by God's Mer­cy, and Christ's Merit, they may be Sa­ved; because God is not tyed to Means.

As for the Woman of Tekoah, he is the first I have met with, that has discom­mended her as a Lyer, for using a form of wise Speech, See the Parable of the Prophet to Ahab, in 1 Kings 20.39.40. &c. Bible Contents, Bible Marg. Notes a­gainst 2 Sam. 14. v. 6. & v. 20. called a Parable (which he over and over calls a Lying Story) as Na­than did, yea Christ; What Blasphemy were it to say, He spake Lyes, when He spake Parables? Let W. R. look into his Notes he speaks of [Page 20]concerning the Women in 2 Kings 23.7. (which none commends, but argues from) of those worthy Men exiled in Queen Maries time, and he will find they call that form of Speech a Pa­rable, Assembly An­notations on the same. Villal­pand, and o­thers. as do also the As­sembly of Divines, Villalp. And I question not any Ju­dicious Man, if it deserved enquiry, being such a ri­diculous Scruple. And as ridiculous it is to Scruple, Whether there was a Church in Jacob's House, when he told his Wives his Vision, and they be­lieved, and obeyed in following, and exhorted him to return to the promi­sed Land, as Abraham did, a Figure of the True, was there no Religion in all this? As much Ground to say, That there was none in Isaac and Jacob's Bles­sing their Sons. For here was a Vi­sion, and Command of God, and Be­lief, and Obedience yielded to it. And do Types contain No Religion? Yes, and also fore-shew what shall succeed, as Degeneracy in some sort shews what has proceeded, as aforesaid. The like [Page 21]is the slighting, and accusing our Churches or Meetings, with a mixt unqualified number of Younger with the Elder, not exclusive, as they would have them, and of a nominated Select Number of Men, contrary to the Ge­neral Rule, Judicia dehent esse publica. See Fox. Mart. That Judg­ments should be publick, as J. Philpot pleaded to Bon­ner, as I remember. And the choosing at times supposes not the Excluding, Act. 6.5. & 15.12, 22. but Excusing of the presence of the rest for other Services and Businesses, fitter and incumbent: Magna Char­ta. our Laws require themselves to be Read publickly several times a Year, and Judgements con­cerning them are publick. Indeed, if the General Meeting were frequented by the Bad, and they over-ruled the Good (which is not, nor cannot be proved) then it were to be denied, and separated from. In Thesi. But that will not overthrow the General Meetings of the Churches and the Examples thereof in Scriptures. [Page 22]But as for the expediencies of Times, Places, Manner, &c. whom may we expect the Lord should make use of in ordering the Churches, but them that Planted, and such as God shall raise up in the same Spirit, according to the Scriptures. He that instrumentally called the Gentiles, is called The Apo­stle of the Gentiles. So of later time, Apostolus Mechli­niensis Pappas Bo­niface of Germany. Sadeel. our Brit­tish Rumold is called the Apostle of that Coun­try he Converted, as Theophylact of Bulgaria, and such others. But if the Vision of God be called in such a one an Imagination, and in others that give Testimony to it an Imitation, there Dispute by Arguments ceases. We own, with Protestants, the Scriptures to be the Outward, but the Spirit to be the Inward Immediate Iudge of the Church, and the sharp Sword that pro­ceeds out of the Mouth of the Word of God, must decide that, and hath done it. And the Ear, where it is, Hear; and the single Eye, the Light of the Body, that can, See: And Judge [Page 23]who is the Apostate, Schismatick, &c. And who the true Christian, with Christ's Spirit: and distinguish betwixt the Spirits of Division, Schism, or He­resy, of a darkned Understanding, with a perverse crooked Will; and the Ten­der with Weakness, and ignorance In­vincible, as they Term it; and make a Difference between them, even in the same Action. We do not with Papists, place Heresy and Schism more in Judgement, than in Will: But con­fess, That he that goes against his Judge­ment, though not so well informed, Condemneth himself; though in going according to his perswasion, he also of­ten go amiss, and is not therein justifi­ed, though winked at; not turned a­way from, but meekly born with, ad­monished, and instructed, watched, and waited for.