A LETTER TO M^R. EDWARDS.

WEe cannot wonder at the loftinesse of your lookes, nor at the exuberant tumor of your spirit, when we finde you so wofully bespatter'd, and courted from every part of the Kingdome, where Sathan we feare hath his throne, with so much honour, so much worth, so much Sir, so much reverence, &c. But reverend Sir, if we may be but as bold, and as plaine, as your late correspondents have been false and flattering, give us (or rather take you) the advantage of a short, but serious war­ning.

And truly Sir, in the entrance of our discourse, we must tell you, our thoughts are extremly divided; your folly hath been so mani­fest to all men, that we know not well whether to looke upon you, under the blindnesse of a deluded brother, or the perversnesse of a resolved enemy; having once (we once believed) received the know­ledge of the truth. Wee will put our charity on the Tenters, (as you have put the Covenant,) and if through too much indulgence wee force it beyond the line of its conscience, wee hope you'l par­don us.

The over-acting of your zeale, and the so violent advance (should we looke no further) hath made us jealous, yea confident, that the fire that hath kindled, and consumed the sacrifice was not from hea­ven; But Sir, In the so desperate carreer, give us leave sadly to aske [Page 2]you whence? and whither so fast? Is it so long since you came out of the house of your Bondage, that you have forgotten your anguish, and your sorrow there, and will needs be posting backe againe? was their yoke so easie, and their burthen so light, that you can so freely bow-down your necke and your backe, and rejoyce in your approa­ching slavery? Is your late, and your present mercy (your halfe hours silence in heaven) so uncouth, and unsavoury, that nothing but the Onions and Garlick of Egypt will satisfie the lustings of your soule? Is the affliction of Joseph so smal in your eie, that like Hammon all your enjoyments are nothing; while Mordecai sits in the gate of the King, and will not bow the knee? and nothing else shall cool the tip of your tongue, but the irons, and fetters, the whips and imprison­ments, the confiscation, the blood, the death, and the ruine of the Saints? God shall smite thee thou whited wall, that thus in the pride of thy heart, flyest in his face, and strikest at the very apple of his eye. If divine justice shall suffer thee without checke or con­troule to run on for a time, adding Iniquity to Iniquity, and treasuring wrath against the day of wrath: confident we are, when thy soule shall sit upon thy trembling lips, and thy two last years pro­vocations, and persecutions, (wherein thou so much gloriest) shall be set in order before thee, and thy conscience awakened, to behold thy guilt; thou wilt appeare a spectacle, of as much horror and a­mazement as ever the Sun beheld; In the meane time, come forth and appear in your colours, and let the world see whither you have acted the part of a Christian, or of a Jew; of an English man, or a Turk; of a Saint or of somwhat worse: lay aside the squint eyed by as­sing respects of this adulterous Generation, and let conscience speake; once in your dayes (if you can) tell truth; who (under God) have been the pillars and onely supporters of a reeling tottering State? At the price of whose bloud for some yeares have you eaten your bread in peace, and injoyed every thing that is sweet and pleasant? who hath stept between death and you, and for you have offered them­selves so gallantly in the high places of the field? yet once againe, (if conscience will be but true) whom hath God honoured (as with his power, so) with his spirit in an exellent measure? This we know is the rocke of offence. And yet here will the asse whom you ride, rise up and unplead the blindnesse of his master. Take the common people that have neither God nor goodnesse, but meerly acted by you [Page 3]and your party, (setting aside the Malignants and the fore stall'd) and scarce any but will acknowledge a spirit of Gospell-sweetnesse, and that of a truth God is in those people. And Sir, are these the onely objects of your scorne and contempt, and the rage of your retinue, that rude and Godlesse Generation? Are these to be trampled under foot, and not fit to live in a Kingdome? In whose faces no dirt nor dung is too filthy to be throwne. Had wee a desire to gratifie that grand accuser, to publish through Gath and Askelon, and to make the uncircumcised to Glory in your shame; we could present the world with farre more, and more faire testimonies of the notorious villanies (not in matters of judgement (which is your charge) for therein their grosse Egyptian ignorance takes care) but in matters of fact) among the rest, we could tell the world and you a truer story of the late Prankes of Mr, &c. (whose name you know, but we will spare) of his late supplanting the Merchant, and getting his espoused Mistris with childe (which act, with its circumstancies we finde not in all your gangrene paralleld) and of his publique penance and acceptation; we could give you in another of the same name, order and crime, in a neighbour-Parish in London, and both (we must tell you) as popular, as Reverend, as Orthodox, and as Covenant-engaged as your selfe; we could bring in a bed-roll of those halting sonnes of Eli, but we professe it not our trade, and we will not intrench upon yours.

Wee could trace you through the unhallowed paths of your Anti­pologie, and your ungodly gangrenes, (first, second, and third,) and throw many a lye in your face. That businesse of Mr. Bachelors, wherein (though you brand him in your booke) you could not deny to his face, but acknowledged him, to be cleare in fundamentals, (wherein was his charge) and that he was not the man you took him for. This you confest, yet (perhaps out of purpose to forsweare, when time may serve) you refused to discourse before his friend, though he offered you the liberty of yours.

Wee would aske you what godly Minister, or Gentleman, or Friend that was, that told you that ungodly lye of that godly Lieu­tenant, who you say, was thrown out of the Army, because a god­ly Presbyterian, when hundreds can testifie, he was casheerd by a Councell of warre, for drunkennesse, and swearing God dam-mee, &c. wee could with a little paines (but lesse pleasure) dig up those [Page 4]filthy dunghils, and send home your bastards to their proper parents. Truly Sir, our wonder is the lesse that your births are so Monstrous, when we finde the contributions have been so adulterous. Flectere si nequeas superos Acheronta movebis. To carry on the designe you doe well to usher in a forraigne force: The Netherlands have done you good service: The Munster Brigade, bearing the Van, hath made the most desperate assault, and yet through a narrow watch, and diligent inspection, the gust thereof is broken; the Leader on, and Charger, being found a stranger, is not an enemy. However Sir, be not discou­raged (if you dare) the cause is still the same (as bad as ever) rally once more, and bring in againe (you are good at that) your weather-beaten forces; give not up at the first repulse, you know whom for­tune doth usually favour. Send againe to the Reformed Churches, and see if any more aid may be expected thence. Search Amsterdam once more, (if you please with candles) or any other corner of the world (so farre as the Covenant by you so wyar-drawn will reach) where ever you can heare of a Saint, and let something be done to­wards so honourable a worke. Go on Sir in this gallant service, if conscience or prudence will give you leave, and hug the world as the world seemes to hug you, untill their turne be served, and tell us then (for then you will speak truth if ever) whether's more tollerable, Nick-nam'd Heresie, or Malignant-Prelacy, that seven headed, ten horned beast, which for a little time hath withdrawn, and changing his form in such furious persons as you are, appears again, acted dire­ctly by the same spirit, speaking great things against God and his Saints, and differing onely in the Number of his name.

Sir, you with your Gangrene have been waighed, and are found too light, and verily your expected Kingdome is departing; while you are beating your fellow servants, and your Sect triumphing over us and ours, a third hath surprised both, and all are posting into capti­vity againe: shift for your selfe and selves as well as yee can, and in your brick and no straw, remember who were once the Taskmasters. Wee do believe the Thumbs and Toes of Adonibezecke, will one day lye before you. For our parts we know whom we have believed, and (our feet being shod with the preparation of the Gospell) we doubt not but we shal be able to tread upon the Lyon & the Adder, & to play upon the hole of the Aspe. Wee know that an Idoll is nothing in the world, neither are we careful to fall down before Nebuchadnezzar, or [Page 5]his God, though the furnace be seven times hotter then ordinary; cost us what it will, Truth we know will pay its owne charges: Every institution and truth of God (though slanderously reported) we ho­nour and imbrace; but for that golden calfe, that nec jus humanum, nec divinum, neque sacrum, nec politicum, neque sanum, nec Christianum, that selfe contradicting, groundlesse, lifelesse, spiritlesse Image of jea­lousie, whose externall brightnesse is excellent, and the forme thereof very terrible, the head of gold, the breast and armes of silver, the belly and thighs of brasse, the legs of iron, the feet (or foundation) part of iron, and part of clay; this we have beheld, and beholding shall expect, untill that little stone cut out of the mountaine without hands shall smite head and foot, and over-turning the foundation thereof it selfe shall fill the world; we are thoroughly assured that not by might, nor by power, but by the spirit of the Lord, (which is both might and power) which you have so desperately denyed, if not despited) shall Anti-Christ be unvailed, and by the same spirit of burning shall every thing that is Anti-Christian be destroyed; what say you Sir, have you not faith enough to believe this? know you (not who saith the weapons of our warfare are not carnall (why then as men distracted cry yee out so loud for Magisteriall ex­ternall force?) but mighty through God, to the pulling downe of STRONG HOLDS, casting down IMAGINATIONS and EVERY HIGH THING that exalteth it selfe against the knowledge of God; and bringing into captivity EVERY HIGH THOƲGHT (or OPINION) to the OBE­DIENCE of CHRIST. Dare you not trust God on his word? but deny the Scripture, not in the letter onely, but in the spirit of it also? who is the Sectary and the Hereticke now Sir? A spiri­tuall man would judge that the SHIELD of FAITH, the SWORD of the SPIRIT, the GIRDLE of TRƲTH, &c. (whose very anoyntment and ordination is to that very office) might do as gallant execution in the hand of the spirituall champion (a Minister of the Gospell) and make as successefull an advance upon spirituall wickednesses in high places (as Errours and Heresies are) as all the unsutable, Incongruous, unapoynted provision of your car­nall Artillery; yee war indeed, but 'tis after the flesh, and no won­der your conquest is no more, for the spirit of the Lord we feare is departed from yee.

You stand quarrelling away your time, and wasting your little strength, in a company of frothy, ulcerous Pamphlets; vilifying the upright, and slandering the innocent, wholly neglecting your work, which (you would make men believe) is the Ministry of Christ, which you indeed either wholly wave, or grossely pervert; and to backe your unsound interpretations, produce the authority of a com­pany of (forsooth) Fathers of the Church, as Bernard, &c. men though lights in their darke Generation, and in many things sound in the faith, yet in others as palpably hereticall, as any of your damna­ble Sectaries, viz. the suffrage of Saints departed, prayers for the dead, the reall presence in the consecrated Hosts, &c. Sir, save your relfe this labour of searching these corrupt records, wee pin not our faith on the sleeves of any, though never so ancient, or Authenticke with you. Your suborning of witnesses makes us suspect the Scrip­tures are not your friends; we professe, (except your braines be in­toxicated, or your naturall reason be intranc'd (or which is worse then both) you make it your designe with Sophistry to cheat your proselites) wee know not what to thinke of your impertinent, ridi­culous, unschollar-like argumentations, a baculo ad angulum; from the Jew to the Gentile, from the law to the Gospell, from the Mini­ster to the Magistrate, &c. Tell us not Sir of a specious ordination any farther then you can attest its divinity by the concomitancy of the spirit; wee shall else looke upon it as a meanes to delude the simple. Tell us not (as your predecessors did) of order and decency in the Church: yours (you know) differs much from theirs, (as NEW LORDS use to make NEW LAWES) and why may not wee (without these complainings to Authority) a little dissent from you; if you and men of like spirit will constitute more then any (without the helpe of specticles) can see to be canonicall, Mickle gude may they doe yee; for our part, though our orders received not their forme from your mould, yet we are confident the Apostle speaks nothing but truth, when he said, God is not the Author of confusion, but of peace (or order) as in all CHƲRCHES of the SAINTS, 1 Cor. 14.33.

Let's not have such brutish dealing Sir, as to be put into Beares skins, and then your canibals to be let loose upon us; yee idle and loyter, and feed upon the fat of the flocke, and say, to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant; your Tithes and other Incomes your three or foure or five hundred pounds per annum take [Page 7]up your time and yee neglect the worke, in the meane time tares are sowne, and errors and heresies come up thicke and three-fold; and then with open mouth yee cry out, Oh these accursed Julians, Soci­nians, these damnable Antinomians, Anabaptists, Independents, &c. that will ruine all (The world is turned Bishop again to the very life; Bonner himselfe is risen from the dead, and nothing will doe but the death of dissentors, what say you (Sir) to the Sacrament of the Altar, fall downe to the Idoll, or bring in the halter) Sir, once more in good earnest take home your ugly brats; and yee that upon your beds of ease have gotten such Monsters, bestow then as yee please: for our part we doe professe they are none of ours, neither do we at all plead for their tolleration. Wee abhor the remembrance of them, and shall as freely contribute to their destruction as any; Only Sir, for the ordinance of Magistracy, we would not engage them in a practice so dishonourable, and destructive, but with (Mr. Marshall) shall desire them to peruse their Commission, and act accor­dingly.

Sir, Were you a messenger of Christ, your worke would be to go and preach, and hold forth the everlasting Gospell, which alone is the Arme of God to salvation, you would more cry up the sword of God, then of Gideon; you would see more cogent, convincing au­thority, to subdue the heart, by one Evangelicall Scriptum est, then a thousand politicall fiat justitia's, or all the Arbitrary, bound­lesse, canonicall, Ipse dixis's, in the world.

Fill not the world with clamors of Schismatickes, and Hereticall seducers; you have an engine in your hand, and that of God, which if weilded, as ordered, will fetch backe the wandring; yea, seduce the seducers themselves. However Sir, though thousands should fall at your right hand (I meane to errors) and ten thousand at your left, yet know that every one that the father hath given to the son, is as a starre in his owne right hand, and none shall be able to plucke him thence: Many must and shall back-slide, that those that are sound might be approved; and this Sir, is our everlasting rocke, that in the most desperate apostacy, and falling away) the foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this SEALE [the Lord knowes who are his.]

You have been bold Sir, with the truth and us; give us leave in the behalfe of the truth to be bold with you, 2nd plainly to tell you, that [Page 8]your Clergicall Interests have broke the back of Christendome, and the mystery of Iniquity begins to appeare; your fathers have eaten (sweet) sower Grapes, and your childrens teeth are set on edge; your Patent yee received from them, and they from Antichrist (as his last will and testament) by vertue whereof, the trade must wholy run through your hands; yee must kill and slay without controule, and wound at your pleasures, and none must binde up the broken but yee. The way to Heaven yee tell men is by the gate of Hell, and more then halfe damned they must be, ere they must thinke of being saved; and who but yee (in the dispaire of poor creatures) ordained to speak peace. And if any other (whom God hath better gifted for the worke of the Ministry then with a black coat, an university dialect, and the externall advantage of Arts and Sciences) shall presume to lay hands on your arke, why presently he usurpes the Priestly office (alias the Prelaticall preferment) And must immediately be cursed with Bell, Booke and Candle. These Sir, are the shrines whereby your Diana have been so long supported. This vault of darknesse, this hellish conspiracy, by a beam of the morning starre hath been discovered, which makes the Heathen rage, and which we hope will be found to be the last proppe of Antichrist, veniente Rege, &c.

And in conclusion, as a monumentall relique of your unspeakable atcheivements in the fundament of Learning, (setting aside those sublime Encomiums of a godly friend, a Godly Minister, &c. sent from such and such a place in the Country, and your selfe-flattering dreames of a second Luther, cum multis aliis ridiculosis) were is not to broad a disparagement to our mother university, we could send you with your hornbook at your backe, to take your degree among the pupils in Pauls for helpe to reconcile the absurd contradiction of a believing Atheist. Turne to Page the ( [...]) of your last Gangrene, and blush not if you can) wee know not what were the methods of your Masters Indulgence, but the Tithe of this errour in our Schoole had been six lashes at least: But Sir, this and twenty such scapes, wee'l winck at; wee'l accept of the will for the deed, and ballance the ac­compt with your zeale, your loyalty, and your faithfulnesse to the Church of England. But Sir, In good earnest let's have more sence and lesse volumes, fewer tales and more truths, smaller bookes and bigger Arguments. (These bum-baste editions tyre all, but satisfie none) Reasons are sold by weight, and not by tale. No marvell you [Page 9]catch no more birds (except now and then a woodcocke or two) your baite is so slight and chaffey; your Industrious SMITH wil­tell you so, by that time he hath cast up his cards, and brought in a to tall accompt, a ruffe draught whereof you may take at present, as followeth. Imprimis, given to the Honourable House of Commons, out of hopes to finde favour there, so many books. Item. given to your Reverend self, for your reverend Copy so many. It. given to a School­boy to correct your false Latine, and other amendments 40 s. in dry money (too much by 39 in so dry a bargaine.) It. given to the Greci­an for helping you to the Originals, and filling up the Hebrew blanks, 59 s. and three groats, (Oh the Lamentation of a bad market) It. sould at severall times with much adoe and little profit, so many: It. sent to the Reformed Churches to shew them the variety of our Se­ctaries, and your valiant encountrings, so many. It. given away to friends to make a party, who have taken the Covenant to be faith­full to us till death, so many. It. so many let out at Livery at pence a peece, but finding no satisfaction returned them, spoiled, so many. It. so many sold for little or nothing, to the Exchange, to Grocers, Cooks, &c. It. trusted in the hands of Hucksters, but not yet retur­ned, (nor we believe ever will) being hardly worth bringing backe so many. It. so many stolne for want of care, and looking after, being pind on the wall for a Lure. It. so many sequestred for my owne proper use, in my study behind the doore (alias the house of office) and for my servants so many. It. transported for France, that hot inflaming clymate, the leaves there of (as you said) being very sove­raign for the healing of the Nations. And lastly, (to ballance the ac­compts with the bakers dozen) lying still in my hands, and are like there to lye so many hundreds; Come along customers if you lacke any. That this is a true and perfect accompt, I have hereunto set my hand, R.S. Yet that you may not take all upon bare report (as hither­to you have done) behold the powerful convincing pen of our Metro­politan Surveyer, who is able to give you as good an accompt in this case as hee did of the Tithe in Christ-Chuch.

Brother Tom, this Account though strange and unexpected, yet up­on the request and credit of our well-beloved Trustee R. S. I have perused, and cannot but judge Orthodox; and though for the honour of our Cause (Consider atis considerandis) nullo modo Imprimatur, yet for the incouragement of that speaking Ignoramus, and all such wor­shipfull [Page 10]undertakers, Ambobus manibus, Iterum Iteru [...] que approbatur, J. C. — And now Sir, having presented you with a small Map of your unworthy dealing, your Rabshakah-ralings, your accursed ac­cusings, your undue, untrue, unchristian slanderings of your Brethren, We shall spread the same in the presence of the Lord, and leave you to the Rebnkes of him, who hath and will rebuke Kings and Kingdoms for his anointeds sake. Onely (if yet there may be hope) apply to thy Gangrened state, that corroding plaister, Heb. 6.4, 5, 6. And so we bid thee farewell. From our Pallace in our prison, from our Harbour in our storme, from our strong City, in our wayfairing state, from our all in all in our nothing at all, wherein no stranger shall in­termeddle, nor any theef shall break through to spoile us of our sweet repose.

Primo Febr. 1646.

The Copy of the Letter to the Gentlewoman, in which this Letter to Mr. Edwards was inclosed.

THe inclosed is the Copy of a Letter sent and delivered to the hand of Mr. Tho. Edwards, the famous forger of these latter dayes, whom when you see commend us to him (for the world and his Con­science well know, how fouly we have been belied) and tell him the Session is hasting wherein our plea will impartially be heard and ma­nifold reparations awarded us for our manifold tribulations, till when the Anchor of our Hope being entred into that within the Vaile, we shall bee able to passe the streights of this wicked world, and to ride out the rugged wafts of a Rocky Sea: