REASONS FOR unity, Peace, and Love, WITH AN ANSWER (Called Shadows flying away) to a Book of Mr Gataker one of the Assembly, entitled, A Mistake, &c. and the Book of the nameless Author, called, The Plea: both writ against me.  
And a very short ANSWER, in a word, to a Book by another nameless Author, called An After-reckoning with Master Saltmarsh; and to Master Edward, his Second Part, called Gangrena, directed to me.  
Wherein many things of the Spirit are discovered, Of Faith and Repentance, &c. Of the Presbytery: And some things are hinted, to the undeceiving of people in their present Ministers.  
By John Saltmarsh, Preacher of the gospel.  Acts 7. 26. Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? 
LONDON, Printed for Giles Calvert, at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West end of Paul's. 1646.   

Reader,  
IN this Answer to Master Gataker, I conceive thou hast a taste of the true Notion both of the sweetness and glory of the gospel.  
Imprimatur, John BACHILER▪ May 26. 1646.   

To the Right Honourable, the Lord Maior, Aldermen, and the common-council of the City of LONDON.  
Right Honourable,  
MAny who call themselves Ministers and Prophets of God accuse us of heresy and Schism before ye. But I hope ye will take notice they are but men as we are, and of like passions with us; neither Apostles, nor Prophets of the first Baptism, or gifts of the Spirit. Yet if the Priests and Elders, or any orator, as Tertullus▪ accuse Paul to Festus or Agrippa, he cannot but a●swer for himself.  
I have but few words to speak to ye (Noble Citizens) That ye would in that Spirit which is of God, judge the Doctrines of Men, and single them from Traditions, customs, counsels, Synods, Interests. Ye are bid to try the spirits whether they be of God▪ or no.  
Try whether it be according to God, for some Ministers, and these not Apostles, to call others heretics who believe not as they believe: What will become then of the strong and weak Christian, 
Rom. 15. 1. 1 John 2. 13, 14.  of the children, fathers, and young men?  
Try whether they ought to p●ea●h to ye to suppress all but themselves; since they are not infallible, but may err; and where is the Remedy then, if they err? Who shall judge the judges?  
Try whether this make for unity of spirit, to allow no more fellowship nor brotherhood then in form and practice. And what will they have ye do if forms should alter? For States may change: England hath done so.  
Try whether this make for the glory of Christians, to persecute or banish (as they would have ye) all but themselves. May they not as well tell ye that God hath made England only for men of the Presbytery or one opinion to live in, and worship in: And where find they that?  
Try whether some by their daily Invectives from press and Pulpit against Independents and others, bring not in the Popish design in another form, to divide the godly party, both Presbyterian and Independent, and so to ruin all.  
Try if all such Doctrine as they commonly preach and write to ye, resolve not itself most into their own interests, profits, place power: And what doth the Scripture and Histories tell ye of that?  
And now I have done; praying for ye,  
That ye may be still a free City, and not disputed by the miscellany of logic and Divinity of some, into bondage.  
That ye may be still populous, and not your streets growing with grass through any unneighbourly Principle of Persecution, which must needs lose ye many, and much resort from this famous City, under the name of heretics, not letting such live beside them.  
That ye may be a peaceable City, and not raised up and dashed by any breath of men against the other and greater part of yourselves, the Parliament. England hath long enough broken itself against its own walls: let it now be our strength to sit still, and to stand still and see salvation.  
And since the Lord hath let the most of the success of the Presbytery, which is so much desired, come thorough the hands of those and that Army whom they have told ye over often were heretics; let this be but taken notice on by ye, what God hath told ye in the success of that Army; and I trust ye will never regard the Messengers by whose hands the Presbytery in a kind came, by beating them out of doors. Thus rests he,  
Who would rejoice in your Peace, Prosperity, and gospel-unity, JOHN SALTMARSH.   


REASONS FOR unity, Peace, & Love.  
THe Nations and Kingdoms of the world shall bring their glory to Christ, and be at peace with all his, according to the prophecies, Isai. 11 6, 7, 8. Revel. 21. 26. Isai. 49. 23. And how happy is that Nation or Kingdom which shall be first in this truth, and have rather a peace of prophecy, than policy, a peace of God, than man. How happy shall this Kingdom be to fulfil any of this prophecy, of peace to one another, and to the Saints.  
That all Kingdoms, and Nations, and Princes, and People, prospered according to their love to Christ, and his: Pharaoh for Joseph, Ahasuerus for Mordecai, Artaxerxes for Nehemiah and the people of the Jews; and those Nations have been ever nations of bondage and tyranny to themselves, which became so first to the Saints.  
That Jerusalem hath been ever a burdensome stone, and a cup of trembling to all that oppressed her, and the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, too mighty for all the mountains of the world: And the blood of the Saints, wherever spilt, and wherever found in literal or mystical Babylon, never left crying, till that very place had blood given them to drink for in her was found the blood of the Prophets.  
That the true Peace indeed, is more spiritual and comprehensive than men usually think it, and takes in several natures, nations, people, languages, of every tongue and kindred; so, several spirits, consciences, judgements, opinions; not a Peace only of such or such an Opinion; not a Peace only of such or such a Society; of such or such a Body; not a Peace of Presbytery only, nor Independency only, nor Anabaptism only, but a Peace of All, so far as that all, or many may be one, which is that unity of spirit in the bond of peace.  
That true Peace is an enemy to all selfish interest, and selfish preservation, and selfish unity, or selfish peace; because that when Unity, Peace, Preservation, gathers up from that common interest Peace and Unity, to which they are appointed by the law of Creation, and Institution, and becomes only their own, and not another's, their own peace, their own unity, their own preservation, they breaking that law of the Spirit, and Communion of their first Creation, each perishes in their single, private and unwarrantable way of saving themselves; And the eye saith unto the hand, I have no need of thee, and the head to the foot, I have no need of you.  
That there is no such impossibility of being one under divers Opinions, as we are made believe, no more than there was for those that eat flesh, and those that eat herbs; for those that regarded a day, and those that regarded it not; for those that used milk, and those that eat stronger meat; for those that were zealous of the Law, and those that were more in the gospel, to be one, or together, or to please one another to edification. Did Paul bid the eaters of flesh call the eaters of herbs, heretics? or them that regarded a day, the others that regarded it not, heretics? or them that were zealous of the Law, them that were of the gospel, heretics? or thus; Flesheaters, and Day-regarders, and Legalists? as we do, Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists.  
That there is so much in every one of these, wherein they appear to stand in need of one another, that the Presbyterian cannot say, I have no need of the Independent; nor the Independent, I have no need of the Presbyterian; nor either of them say, we have no need of you Anabaptist: For, the Presbyterian may need the Independent, because he is for a purer Communion of Saints than he; They both the Anabaptist, because he baptizeth believers, as the Apostles always did: They both the Seekers, because none of them have these Ordinances by the first pattern in the Word, as by Apostleship and baptism of Spirit: Nor these the Presbyterians, because there may be some gift, some power of the Spirit, some principle of Administration in them, which may help the Body, and the commonwealth, or Parliament. All these, because they are all members of the same State.  
That Love is the more excellent way revealed, then either the way of Gifts, or Ordinances, and therefore no gift or ordinance is to be preferred before love: 
1cor. 12.31,31.2  Love neither envies, nor vaunts, nor behaves itself unseemly, but beareth all things, and hopeth all things: and this is that love which is of God, and extends itself as God, and comprehends and embraces men; not as this man, or that man, merely; not as a man of this, or that opinion: but because it is love from the fountain of infinite love, it flows upon all, and hath a kind of peace with all, and loves all: God is love; and therefore just and unjust good and bad, are taken into something of him, seeing he giveth to all things l●fe and breath, and all things: and the more this love is amongst men, the more they love as God, and the more large in love, and universal in love. That love which is only to one kind, is but low, narrow, and natural, the mere love of creatures as creatures▪ but that love which can love those of other kinds; as Presbyterian, Anabaptist, Independent, is not that love of a creature only: so as the more we love any that are not as we are, the less we love as men, and the more as God.  
That the first and most glorious and spiritual unity is that of spirit; and therefore things that are outward, formal, and perish with using, nor any Ordinance, were ever made an hindrance to that unity: let not Christians think they cannot be One, nor in any communion of spirit, till they be like one another in the body first, and in the Ordinance first, which it may be they never shall be, for we see God hath hid outward Ordinances deepest from discovery; so as they that find most, find but pieces and parcels, and one one part, and another another part, and another another part, all find not all, because all should not want one another, and we find these things last, because there was less need: how many hundred years from Christ, and nothing of these? yet Christ was known, and some of the more spiritual glory of Christ: and if Christians should not be one, till they be like one another, how little would the peace be? even as little as that unity they contend for: and what peace would it be, but that of flesh and form, the peace of Ordinances, not of Spirit. I desire this may be considered, that according to the first pattern, the baptism of the Spirit, or Gifts and Ordinances▪ were together, never asunder, from the Apostles times to the falling away: and let there be a Word held out for Ordinances by themselves without the like Gifts, or else let us be in more unity of Spirit than we are.  
Christians are truly so alike, and so one and the same, as they are one in Christ in union and spirit, one in God, as they partake of the Divine nature of the Image of Christ, as they are branches in the same Vine, members in the same body: so God loves all his, as they are of him, born of the incorruptible seed, being the glory of the second Adam, quickened by that life, that eternal life: God looks not nor loves not, as men are Presbyterians, or Independents, or Anabaptists, we commonly love so, who begin to love at the outward man before the inward: God loves us first as in Christ, and loves us because in Christ; God loves according to the figure of himself in us, and so we should love one another, if we will love according to God: let Papists love Papists only, and Prelates love Prelates only, because they are so; let us love according to that of spirit, we discern by the same spirit in each, according to that of love, faith, meekness, patience, purity, faithfulness, glory, which are the fruits of the Spirit: let us love, as we judge, and that is in spirit, as spiritually discerning according to fruits of righteousness and holiness, not according to this and that form which is carnal: for as he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, no more is he a Christian, which is one outwardly, circumcision and Christianity is not of the letter, but of the spirit; so as loving thus, we should not think nor speak against these, and these, because they are not Presbyterians as we are, because they believe not as we believe, and think not as we think.  
Were it not madness to fight, because we are not like one another in the face, in feature, in complexion, in disposition, in a word, because we are not alike in body? and what were it less to fight with one another, because we are not alike in the Spirit, in soul, in judgement, in conscience, in opinion? If the whole body were the eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?  
The less we endeavour this bond of peace, the more we shall take in new fuel to our old fire, the more advantage and opportunity will be opened to let in the old remainders of the war amongst us, which shall be as a train of powder to kindle us into new contentions; and thus new divisions will spring out from the ashes of the old, and those whom we conquer one day, will be conquerors amongst us another day, and we shall not know them from some of ourselves, and all our victories and conquests will be but the enemy's design of recruiting our misery; they whom we subdue, finding the vein of enmity running through Presbytery and Independency, will soon gird themselves to battle in those Notions, and we shall never want enough of Presbytery and Independency, till they undo us after our own fashion: and if they cannot kill us as Cavaliers and Malignants; in this new way, they may kill us as Presbyters and Independents. And surely they will have so much Jesuitism, as never to let us starve for Heeticks and schismatics: the Jesuits run commonly over to the Lutherans, and rail there against Calvinists and so they never want matter for division in Germany; it is the great design of Conclaves and Popish counsels, to practice upon States in their own religions and customs, and to turn us back into Popery, by being Protestants amongst us, and to raise up new troubles by changing the old, and by transfiguring their enmity; Satan himself can be an angel of light, when he cannot pass as a power of darkness, and where works he thus but in the children of disobedience? And Brethren, let us not let our enemies in at backdoors, of Presbytery and Independency: let us not undo ourselves when God would save us: let us see that these workings are but the old design in a new form.  
The last reason is: People are not wholly undeceived in their present Ministers. And to that end consider,  
1. That these Ministers who tell them thus, and preach thus, are neither as Aaron was nor as the Prophets were, nor as the Apostles were, nor have such an infallible gift, nor spirit of discerning, so as their words and Sermons are no more to be believed then the words of the Scripture proves▪ and people are to try all and to try spirits, and so trust, and now (friends) not believe Sermons too suddenly, because their Sermons are not very Scripture, but interpretation to their light, and light may be darkened with carnal reason and interest.  
2. That these Ministers who preach so for Presbytery through blood and persecution now, did but a few years since preach as confidently for the Service-book, for Bishops, or against the Presbytery, & our Brethren of Scotland.  
3. That these Ministers that preach nothing but presbytery, Government, and Divine Right, yet never tried it in their lives, nor lived in the experience of it, but have it by report, and by Idaea, or model, or Landship from other countries, and some specious Scriptures.  
4. That these Ministers who would press the Covenant against Popery and Episcopacy root and branch, yet will be content, though Bishops be unlawful, to say the Bishops hands which ordained them are not; and that Bishops could make them Ministers of Christ, though they were Antichrist themselves, and that Episcopacy could make a lawful ministry.  
5. That these Ministers who preached against Deans, and Archdeacons, and Prelates, as unlawful, can be content very well with their maintenance; their tithes are not popish, nor the profits nor revenues are not against Covenant: (people) look a little into these men, that hold there is no popery in any thing that makes them rich, or maintains them: is this the doctrine of the cross, and self-denial?  
6. That these Ministers who preached against Pluralities, 
Mr Seam●n, Mr. V●●●●, Mr. Hill, Mr Segwick, &c.  yet now a mastership of a college, and a great Living or two of some hundreds a year, with Chaplainships, as they commonly have, and two or three great Lectures in conjunction with a great Living, is not Plurality, nor must be accounted so: Nay, for a Presbyter to have two livings is no plurality now, but for a Prelate to have them is undoubtedly so. By the same tenure the Prelates formerly lived at Court, and in Lords' houses, and held Livings, as they in the Assembly, now, by their attendance there.  
7. That these Ministers who pretend to so much light and certainty of truth; yet after two years reasoning and proof, have not been able to prove their way of Government from Scripture; so as there are so many excellent queries propounded from the Honourable Parliament, which lie unanswered, unless the Ministers intend to resolve the Parliament some other way, by making the tumults more, and their answers less; for their books and Sermons speak no less. Was ever Reformation, but where the Red Dragon is in the Pulpit, preached for in so much blood? and I pray (friends) are all things so true as they tell you? our greatest and wisest counsel can see no such thing in it yet: and since you expect your Government from the Parliament, I pray go not before them in your judgements, but stay and examine as they do.  
8. That the mystery of the Popish ministry hath ever been to lead the people, and stir up the people, either by merit, or martyrdom, or ministry: and therefore the poor sou●es of England had given away all their land once to Monks and friars, and would all fight for the Holy Land, and the Kings and Princes their power to do with as they pleased: and all was, as the Priest said, for Religion too, all as the Holy Church said: and now merit, martyrdom, and ministry carry all before them yet, in some measure, though not in so much: England hath seen so much, as to take much of their lands again, and tithes again from the ministry; and the Parliaments have seen so much as a little to debate Religion with the Synods: and this Parliament hath seen more, by how much they have reasoned, disputed, quaeried with their Ministers: When did ever England see so much liberty before? when durst Parliaments talk with their Ministers till now? And (friends) let not the old Popish things of merit, martyrdom, and ministry, carry us away as they did. I remember an excellent saying reported of general Lesley to our Nobles and Gentry, when they were ready to fight for Bishops, to this purpose, Shall we lose our blood for so many fat Swingers? And I pray, are not these the Sons of the Swingers according to ordination, ordained and called by Bishops? Is our blood too good for Bishops, and not for Presbyters, as some think?  
9 That these Ministers who seem to close with those whom they so lately called, and preached against as Malignants and Cavaliers, yet cannot love them, or use them otherwise then in design to help up with the Government, and then leave them, und persecute them under the same Notion with us as heretics, using them now, as the Israelites did the Gibeonites, as hewers of wood, and drawers of water; and then what will become of these poor souls, who having helped up the Presbyters into the room of the Bishops, to be sure they shall neither have Common-prayer-book, nor Surplice, nor Bishops, nor Sacraments; for the Directory shall keep out the Common-Prayer-book, and Presbyters shall keep out Bishops, and Elders shall keep out all Communicants of such and such sins, and uniformity will keep out Conformity: And if ye hope for better, by the bustle and differenc●s, and sidings; Issues and success are in God's hand, not in ours: Ye may know when ye begin, but not when ye end; and they will be first in the Presbytery, before ye in the Prelacy. Therefore consider things.  
10. That these Ministers, though some of them were old Non-conformists, and have a power of God in them, (which I desire to love under any form) yet according to their Interests they are not so, nor to the flesh they are not so, and it is their old man I write against, not their new; so far as they are men, and so far as they are persecutors, so far as they are lovers of gain, not of godliness, so far as they are accusers of their Brethren, so far as they are in the form of godliness, not in the power: Therefore consider, these men are not all spirit and truth, we are not to call one of them Jubiter, nor the other Mercurius; They are men of like passions with us, and ye; and the worst I wish (saving their humour of Persecution) is that the Lord would make them love us in the Spirit, and we shall in all love allow them their forms.   

To Mr. GATAKER.  
SIR,  
I Hope I shall answer all things material in your Book; but your Margin I shall not meddle with: I observe, you commonly in all your books fill that with things, and Authors, of little value to Christ crucified; As in your last leaf, where you quote Sophecles the Poet, comparing yourself to an old prancing horse. I should not rebuke your years, but that I find you comical and poetical; and for my part, I am now ashamed to own those Raptures, though I am young, having tasted strains of a more glorious Spirit; how much more you that are old, and call yourself a Divine, ought not to have any fruit in those things?  
I hope I shall be in no more passion with you, than with your Brother of the Assembly, Mr Ley. I write to edify, not to conquer; nor to teach others, but that we may be all taught of God.  
JOHN SALTMARSH.   

To the Author of the PLEA for the congregational, or (as he should have said) parishional Government.  
SIR,  
A word to you the Author of the Plea. You have so entangled and wrapped yourself in the congregational and Church-principles, as if you meant to engage me at once against your Presbytery, and the dissenting Brethren. But that Spirit which makes me oppose you, makes me discern your design, and so I hope I shall single you from them; though you have clothed yourself in their apologetical Narration, yet I must deal with you as yourself, and your Brethren, not as theirs; and it is but a little I have to say to you. But why no Name? Is your Divine Right so questionable, that you will not own it? or are you one of them that sit too near it to commend it with open face, and think you may better, and more modestly do it in disguise, and without a name? Had I not some reason to suspect it came from some of that sort, I had passed it by with as little noise as it came abroad: And I have but little to say to you now; I cannot stand long wrangling in things that grow clearer and clearer every day, for the day breaks, and the shadows fly away.   

Shadows FLYING AWAY: Or, A Reply to Master Gataker's Answer to some passages in Master Saltmarsh his book of freegrace.  
Master Gataker.  
(1) THat he was traduced by one Master John Saltmarsh, a man unknown to him, save by one or two Pamphlets, as witnessing to the Antinomian party. (2) That he must unbowel and lay open some of the unsound stuff. (3) That some think they have found out a shorter cut to Heaven. (4) That my inferences upon his words are not true, nor as he intended: As if a Protestant with a Papist disputing about the mass, should say the controversy is not concerning the nature of Sacraments, &c.  
Answ.  
To the first, ●hat you were traduced by me: Let not you and I be judge of that: both our Books are abroad; and I have quoted your words to the very leaf where they are. Your meaning I could not come at▪ the deep things of the heart are out of the power of another's quotatior.  
For myself unknown to you but by two Pamphlets: I take your slighting: I could call your Treatises by a worse name than Treatises; for I knew one of them some years since, that of Lots, wherein you defended Cards and Dice-playing: And it had been happy for others as well as myself, in my times of vanity, had you printed a Retractation. I believe you strengthened the hands of many to sin. I know you love ancient Writers well, by your Margin and quotations. And I pray remember how Augustine honoured Truth as much by confessing errors as professing Truths. What fruit should you and I have of these things whereof we are now ashamed?  
For your witnessing to the Antinomian party against your will: Is that your fault, or mine? Nor am I to judge of your reserves, and secret senses, but of words and writings. Nor is it an Antinomian party I allege you to countenance: but a Party falsely traduced and supposed so: a Party called Antinomian by you, and others, and then writ against: A setting up heretics to deceive the world, and then telling the world such and such are the men. You may make more by this trick, than you find so.  
To the Second, that you will lay open the unsound stuff: I shall not be unwilling, I hope, to be told my failings: but I must look to the stuff you bring in the room of mine, and entreat others to try the soundness of yours It is not my saying, that mine is sound, will make it better; nor your saying it is unsound, can make it worse. Let every one's work be proved, and then he shall have whereof to boast.  
To your Third, of some finding out a shorter cut to Heaven then some former Divines: I know not what you mean by shorter cuts. The Papists find a way, they say, to Heaven by works, some Protestants by Jesus Christ and works, and others by Jesus Christ alone, and make works the praise of that Free grace in Jesus Christ: And is that a shorter cut than theirs, as you call it? or rather, a clearer revelation of Truth? Methinks your expressions have too much of that which Solomon calls frowardness in old men. Argue, and prove, and bring Scripture as long as you please, but be not too quarrelsome. But I shall excuse you in part, because you tell us you are not yet recovered from sickness: so as I take this, with other of your Books, as part or remainders of your disease, rather than your judgement; and the infirmity of your body, not the strength of your spirit. But why chose you not a better time to try Truth in, when you were not so much in the body?  
To the Fourth, That nothing less was intended by you: I undertook not to discover your intents to the world. You might have done well to have revealed yourself more at first, that I might not have taken you to be more a friend to Truth than I see you are: forgive me this injury, as the Apostle says, if I accounted you better than you desire to be. Love hopeth all things, and believeth all things. And Paul it seems was better persuaded of Agrippa then there was cause, and quoted some of the Heathen Poets better than they intended them, as it seems I have done with you; that being the greatest thing you lay to my charge.  
Master Gataker.  
(1) That our Antinomian Free grace is not the same with that of the Prophets in the Old Testament, and the Apostles in the New. (2) That in saying the Old Testament was rather a draught of a legal dispensation, than an Evangelical or gospel-one, was to tax the ministry of the Prophets for no freegrace. (3) That in saying the Ministers now by the qualifications they preach, do overheat freegrace as your poor souls cannot take it, doth make the Prophets, jugglers and deluders of the people.  
Answer.  
To your first, That our Antinomian Free Grace, is not the same with the Prophets and Apostles: Why do you tell us of Antinomians, of Prophets and Apostles freegrace? It is not the freegrace of any of these: freegrace is of God in Jesus Christ; Prophets and Apostles are but dispensers of it, and ambassadors of it, and Ministers of it; and yet ambassadors not in the same habit: The Prophets preached Grace in a rough and hairy garment, or, more Legally; the Apostles in a more clear and bright habit, in the revelation of the mystery of Christ: The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ. I could as easily say, Master Gataker's freegrace, and the Legalists freegrace, as he says Our Antinomian freegrace; but such words and reproaches make neither you nor I speak better truth.  
To your Second, That in saying the Old-Testament strain was rather legal than gospel, taxes the ministry of the Prophets for no freegrace: That is according to your Inference only. Because the Spirit says, the Law was given by Moses, therefore will you put upon the Spirit, that Moses taught or gave out nothing but Law● Because I say, The Old Testament was a legal ministration, therefore do I say there was no freegrace in it? or do I not rather say, Therefore it was freegrace legally dispensed, or preached, or ministered? Would not such Inferences be bad dealing with the Spirit, and will it be fair dealing with me? I wonder you who pretend to write against me, as having not dealt justly with your sense, will deal so unjustly with mine, and commit the same sin yourself, in the very time of your reproving mine. You may see what this logic hath brought you to, To deceive yourself, as well as your neighbour. Can you cast out my mo●e, and behold, a beam in your own eye?  
I have printed all you quoted: let the Reader judge from this and compare it with the rest of my Book.  
The whole frame of the Old Testament was a draught of God's anger at sin.— And God in this time of the Law appeared only as it were upon terms and conditions of reconciliation: and all the Worship then, and acts of Worship then, as of Prayer, Fasting, Repentance, &c. went all this way, according to God under that appearance. And in this strain (saith he) runs all the ministry of the Prophets too, in their exhortations to Duty and Worship, as if God were to be appeased and entreated, and reconciled, and his love to be had in way of purchase by Duty, and Doing, and Worshipping: So as under the Law, the efficacy and power was put as it were wholly upon the Duty and Obedience performed, as if God upon the doing of such things, was to be brought into terms of peace, mercy and forgiveness; so as their course and service then, was as it were a w●rking for life and reconciliation.  
Do not these words and terms inserted, As it were, and, in the way, and, as if, and, is it were, clear me from such positive and exclusive assertions of freegrace as you would make me speak?  
To the Third, That in saying the Preachers with their qualifications over-heat freegrace, I do by that make the prophet's deluders of the people, &c. I answer: That way of preaching the Prophets used, pressing, as you say▪ Repentance, Reformation, Humiliation, and with Commination, and the Law, &c. was but according to the way, and method, and strain the Spirit taught them under the Old Testament: but if the Prophets should have held forth Jesus Christ under the New Testament, and when Christ was manifested in the flesh, with such vails over him, and so much Law over him, as they did before, they had sinned against the glory of that ministration, as well as some of you, who bring Christ back again under the cool shadow of the Law, and make that Sun of righteousness that he warms not so many with the love of him as he would do, if ye would let them behold with open face as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and if you would give his beams more liberty to shine upon them; doth not the ministration of the Spirit exceed in glory?  
Nor were the prophet's deluders of the people then, because it was the people's time of Pupillage, and being under Bondage; they were shut up under the Law till faith came; they were under Tutors and Governors till the time appointed: So as that was truth, and right dispensation in them to preach so much of the Law, of curse, and judgement, &c. as they did; and of Repentance and Reformation in that strain they did: But in ye who pretend to preach Christ come in the flesh; ye who pretend to be Preachers in the kingdom of God, and so greater than the greatest Prophet, than he that was more than a Prophet; in ye, such preaching were delusion, because it were not as the truth is in Christ, nor according to that glory of the gospel, to that grace revealed, to that manifestation of Christ in the flesh, to that ministration of glory; but rather to those deceitful workers the Apostle speaks on, to those that troubled them with words, subverting their souls, who preached Law and gospel, 
Acts 5. 24.  Circumcision and Christ.  
Master Gattaker.  
(1) That we gird at those that bid men repent, and be humbled, and be sorry for sins, 
Matth. 18. 3. 16. 2●. Luk 14. 16. Luk. 14. ●3.  and pray, &c. as legal Teachers. (2) That Christ preached repentance, humiliation self-denial, conversion, renouncing all in purpose: this is not the same gospel with that they preach, as in freegrace, pag. 125, 126, 152, 153, 163, 191, 193.  
Answer.  
To your first, for our girding at those that bid men repent, and be humbled, &c. as legal teachers: If ye press repentance and humiliation legally, why wonder ye at such words as legal teachers? Will ye do ill, and not be told of your faults? must we prophesy smooth things to you, and say ye are able Ministers of the New Testament, when we are persuaded that truth is detained in unrighteousness? We blame not any that bid men repent, or be sorry for sin, &c. be humble, &c. if they preach them as Christ and the Apostles did; as graces flowing from him, and out of his fullness, and not as springings of their own, and waters from their fountains; as if the teachers, like Moses, would make men believe they could with such Rods and exhortations, smite upon men's hearts as upon rocks, and bring waters out of them, be they never so hard and stony. We agree with you, that repentance, and sorrow for sin, and humiliation, and self-denial, are all to be preached, and shall contend with you, who preaches them most, and clearest: but then, because John said Repent, and Christ said Repent, and Peter said Repent; are we to examine the Mystery no farther? Know we not that the whole Scripture in its fullness and integrality reveals the whole truth? and must we not look out, and compare Scripture with Scripture, spiritual things with spiritual, and so finding out truth from the degrees, to the glory and fullness of it, preach it in the same glory and fullness as we find it? We hear Christ preaching before the Spirit was given, Repent; and we find, when the Spirit was given, Christ is said to give Repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins; and shall we not now preach Jesus Christ, and Repentance in Jesus Christ the fountain of repentance, the author of repentance, and yet preach repentance, and repentance thus, and repentance in the glory of it more? The Apostle in one place saith, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved; and in another place, He is the author and finisher of our Faith; Shall we not now preach Jesus Christ first? and Jesus Christ the fountain, and Jesus Christ the author of faith and beleeiung, and yet preach faith; yea and thus preach faith, faith in the glory, faith in the revelation of it, faith from Christ, and faith in Christ?  
One Scripture tells us godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, &c. And another tells us, They shall look on him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, &c. Shall we not now preach sorrow for sin took from Christ, Christ piercing, and wounding, and melting the heart; Christ discovering sin▪ and pouring water upon dry ground? this is sorrow for sin in the glory of the gospel.  
One Scripture bids, He that will follow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross. Another saith, It is he that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure, and I am able to do all things through Christ that strenghneth me. Shall we not now preach Christ our strength, and Christ our selfe-deniall? and is not this self-denial in the glory of the gospel?  
So as the difference betwixt us is this; Ye preach Christ and the gospel, and the graces of the Spirit in the parts as ye find it: we dare not speak the mystery so in pieces, so in half and quarter revealings; we see such preaching answers not the fullness of the Mystery, the riches of the gospel, the glory of the New Testament: We find that in the fullness of the New Testament, Christ is set up as a Prince, as a King, as a Lord, as a crown and glory to every grace and gift: nay, he is made not only righteousness, but sanctification too; and so we preach him. Whereas to preach his riches without him, his graces by themselves, single, and private; as, repent, and believe, and be humbled, and deny yourselves, ye make the gifts lose much of their glory; Christ of his praise, and the gospel of its fullness.  
To the Second, of your alleging my Book in such and such pages, as another gospel from Christ's: I shall print them as you quote them; and with them, I desire these things to be considered, together with the other parts of my book, and the scope of it, which you have detained in unrighteousness: All these I freely open to the judgement of all who are spiritual.  
Master Gataker.  
(1) That John, Christ's, and his Apostles Method were all one for matter and manner; 
Mat. 3. 2, 8. Mat 4. 17. Mark 1. 15. Acts 20. 21. P. 11, 12, 13.  for they all preached Faith and Repentance; and yet we are ●a●ed for these things as Legalists by this Author. (2) John and the rest preached life and salvation upon condition of Faith, and Repentance, and Obedience. (3) Where we find Faith only preached, it is because we have but the Summaries or heads of their Sermons.  
Answer.  
To the first, that I tax you for preaching Faith and Repentance; a● the Apostles did, and John did, as Legalists. Nay, I tax ye only because ye preach it not as they did, according to the full revelation of it in the New Testament; but you preach it only as you find it in their Summaries, and in the brief narration of their Doctrine; and this you ought not to do, if you will preach according to that glorious analogy of the gospel: and to this, I shall only bring in your own words to convince you, and so from your own mouth condemn you. 
See p. 13.  You say of the Apostles, We have but Summaries of them, as in Acts 2. 40. and 16. 32. and you knowing this, preach only by their first Methods and Summaries, not looking to the revelation of the mystery, 
Rom. ●6. 25, 26.  which the Apostle says is now made manifest. And for John's manner of preaching, his Preaching is to be no more an example to you then his Baptism. You know the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.  
To the second, That Faith, Repentance, and Obedience, were conditions of life and salvation. Why keep you not to the form of wholesome words in Scripture? Where doth the Scripture call these conditions of salvation? They that are Christ's, do believe, and repent, and obey; but do they bele●ve repent, 
Ephes. 1.  and obey that they may be Christ's? Hath not God chosen us in him, & predestinated us unto the adoption of children in Jesus Christ? But I know you will say, That when the Apostles did believe, repent, and obey, it is by consequence as much as a condition, and the same with a condition. But answer: The interpreting the Spirit thus in the letter, and in consequence, hath much darkened the glory of the gospel. When some of Christ's Disciples took his words as you do, under a condition, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man▪ &c. the words, saith he, that I speak, are Spirit. Consider but what 〈◊〉 you bring the gospel into: first, you make life appearing to be had in the Covenant of Grace, as at first in the Covenant of Works▪ Do this, and live; so believe, repent, obey and live; thus runs your Doctrine: nar can you with all your distinctions make Faith in this consideration, less than a work, and so put Salvation upon a condition of works again. Is this freegrace or But you say Faith is a gift freely given of God; and here is freegrace still▪ But I pray, Is this any more Free-Frace respectively to what we do for life, than the Covenant of works had? All the Works wrought in us then, were freely of God, and of free-gift too, as Arminius well observes in the point of universal Grace; and we wrought only from a gift given. Either place Salvation upon a free bottom, or else you make the New Covenant but an Old Covenant in new terms; in stead of Do this and live▪ believe this and live, repent and live, obey and live: And all this is for want of revealing the mystery more fully.  
To your third, That where we find Faith only preached, and so Salvatio● made short work; that it is because we have but the Summaries. I agree with you that we have but the Doctrine of the Apostles, as John's, of whom it is said, He spoke many other things in his exhortation to the people: It is true, we have much of what they said, and we want much; yet we have so much, as may show us, that according to the work of Salvation in us, Faith is the work which gives most glory to God: Abraham believed, it is said, and gave glory to God; they that believe, give glory; and Faith of all the works of the Spirit, is the glorious gospel-work; Christ calls it the work indeed, this is the work that ye believe: So as the only reason why we hear so much of Faith in the gospel, is not only and merely as you insinuate, because we have but their Sermons in Summaries, and because of another reason of yours, drawn from the qualification of some they Preached to, that had other gifts, and not Faith; But because Faith is of all spiritual increasings in us, the most gloriously working towards Christ, Faith goes out, and Faith depends, and Faith lives in Christ, and Faith brings down Christ, and Faith opens the riches, and Faith believes home all strength, comfort, glory, peace, promises.  
And Faith hath so much put upon it, as becomes a stumbling stone, and a rock of offence, to many: Justification, imputation of righteousness is put upon Faith; Salvation upon Faith as Christ's blood, is put upon the Wine; the Cup that we bless, is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ; and Christ's body upon the bread, the bread that we break, is it not the Communion of the body of Christ? and yet neither the Wine nor the Bread, is his blood or his Body, no more than Faith is either Justification or righteousness; but such a work as goes out most into him, and carries the soul into him who is righteousness and Justification to us.  
The Word were no mystery, if it were not thus ordered, and things so mingled, that the Spirit only could discern and distinguish; Do not the Papists stumble at Works? And why? because they see not Faith for Works: And do not others stumble at Faith? And why? because they see not Christ for Faith▪ Do not some say that the words, world; and all, and every man, makes some stumble at the Election of some, and so conclude Redemption for all.  
Master Gataker.  
(1) That Christ and his Apostles never Preached freegrace, without conditions and qualifications on own parts, 
Pag. 14, 15, 16.  Rom. 8. 1. Mat. 5. 8. &c. (2) Christ's blood or Wine is not to be filled out too freely to Dogs and Swine, to sturdy Rogues. (3) That saying, promises belongs to sinners as sinners, not as humbled, &c. and all that received him, received him in a sinful condition, is a creeping to Antinomianism. 
Pag. 17.  (4) That God may be provoked to wrath by his Children, and David and Peter made their peace with God by repentance. (5) That God loves us for his own graces in us; God is as man, and as a Father is angry and chastiseth his for sin. (6) Faith is not a persuasion more or less of Christ's love, all may have that, men may believe too suddenly, as Simon Magus. 
Pag. 20, 21.  (7) Christ bids us repent, as well as believe; yea, first to repent, we are to try our Faith, 2 Cor. 13. 5. 1 John 4. 1. (8) That he clogs men with conditions of taking and receiving, as well as we of repenting and obeying. 
Pag. 24.  (9) The sum of this man's Divinity is, Men may be saved whether they repent or no, whether they believe or no.  
Answer.  
To the first, That Christ and his Apostles never Preached freegrace, without conditions, &c. on our parts:  
I answer, They Preached Faith, and Repentance, and Obedience: But how? First; in degrees of Revelation, the gospel came not all out at once in its glory: They Preached them, but how? not in parts, as we have their Doctrine, as you confess they Preached them; but all along in the New Testament there is more of their glory and fullness revealed concerning them; so as the degrees of revealing, the parts or summaries of their Sermons, the fuller discovery in the whole New Testament, are those things you consider not, and they are the things we only consider, and so dare not Preach the gospel so in halves, in parts and quarters as you do, and yet will not believe you do, which is so much worse, Ye say ye see, and therefore your sin remaineth.  
To the second, Christ blood is not to be filled out to Rogues and Dogs.  
Take heed you charge not Christ for being with Publicans and Sinners, you may upon this ground say he Preached false Doctrine because he said, He came not to call the Righteous, but Sinners.  
What, were all of us in our unregenerate condition sinners or righteous persons▪ unholy or holy? men of Faith or unbelief? or not rather deal in trespasses and sins, till quickened with Christ?  
To the third. That saying, Promises belongs to sinners as sinners, and not humbled, &c.  
I pray, to whom doth all Promises belong first, but to Christ? and from whom to us, but from Christ? and what are the Elect, and the chosen in him, before they are called or believe, but sinners as sinners? Do you look that men should be first whole for the physician, or Righteous for Pardon of sins, or justified for Christ; or rather sinners, unrighteous, ungodly? While we were yet sinners Christ died for us; He died for the ungodly. Christ is the physician, the righteousness, the Sanctification, and makes them beloved that were not beloved, and to obtain mercy that had not obtained mercy, and Saints who were Sinners, and spiritual who were carnal.  
So as we look at Christ and the Promises coming to men in their sins; but those men were beloved of God in Christ, who suffered for sins before; so as they begin not now to be loved, but to be made to love; God begins not to be reconciled to them, but they begin to be reconciled to him; The love of God being shed abroad into their hearts by the Holy Ghost, 
Rom. 5.  which is now given unto them.  
So as we looking at persons as chosen in Christ, and at their sins, as borne by Christ on his body on the Tree, we see nothing in persons to hinder them from the gospel, and offers of Grace there, be they never so sinful to us, or themselves, they are not so to him who hath chosen them, not to him in whom they are chosen: And this is the mystery, why Christ is offered to Sinners, or Rogues, or whatsoever you call them, they are, as touching the Election, beloved for the father's sake: 
Rom. 11. 28.  I speak of men to whom Christ gives power to receive him, and believe on him, and become the Sons of God; and Christ finds them out in their sins, and visits them who sit in the region and shadow of death, and them that are darkness, he makes light in the Lord.  
To your fourth, That God may be provoked to wrath by his Children.  
I pray, Can God be as the Son of man▪ Is there any variableness or shadow of change in him? Can he love and not love? Doth he hate persons or sins? Is he said to chastise as Fathers, otherwise then in expressions after the manner of men; because of the infirmities of our flesh must we conceive so of God as of one another? Can he be provoked for 〈◊〉 done away and abolished? Hath Christ taken away all the sin of his? Hath he borne all upon his body or no? Speaks he of anger otherwise then by way of Allusion and Allegory, as a Father &c. And is that, He is a Father after the fashion of men? Or speaks he not in the Old Testament according to the Revelation of himself then, and in the New Testament of himself now, only because our infirmity, and his own manner of appearing which is not yet so; but we may bear him in such expressions, and yet not so in such expressions, but we may see more of him and his love, and the glory of Salvation in other expressions, and not make up such a love as you commonly do of benevolence and complacence.  
Did David and Peter, as you say, make up their peace with God by Rapentance: Is there any that makes peace but one Jesus Christ, who makes peace through the blood of his cross? Can Repentance make peace? Or Obedience make peace? Is there any sacrifice for sin, but that which was once offered, even he that appeared in the end of the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself? 
Heb. 9 28. & 10 12.  And was not this called by the Apostle, One sacrifice for sins for ever?  
Repentance Obedience, &c. may make way for the peace made already for sin, that is, in such workings of the Spirit, the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ, may shine upon the soul more freely and fully; and the more the Spirit abounds in the fruits of it, the more joy and peace flows into the soul; and the more the soul looks Christ in the face, so as peace with God is not made but more revealed by the Spirit in obedience and love, &c.  
To your fifth, That God loves us for his own graces in us.  
I thought he had loved us too in himself, and from that love given Christ for us, and yet loved us in Christ too; Can any thing without God, be a cause of God's love? Doth God love as we love one another, from complexions or features without, or loves he not rather thus? God is love, and therefore we are made, and Redeemed, and Sanctified; not because we are Sanctified therefore he loves us; We love him, because he first loved us; he loved us, because he loved us, and not because we love him; not because of any spiritual complexion or feature in us; because of his Image upon us, that is but an earnest of his love to us, that is only given us, because he loved us; he loves us from his will, not from without: for though we are like him, yet we are not himself, and he loves us as in Christ and himself.  
Whereas you say, God is as man, and as a Father; I hope you mean not as in himself, but as in his ways of speaking and appearing to us, and if so, we are agreed: But your taking things more in the Letter, than the Spirit, makes your Divinity less Divine, and your conceptions more like things of men then of God: This makes the gospel so legal and carnal, when we rise little higher than the bare Letter or Scripture, not the inspiration by which it came all Scripture being given by inspiration.  
To your sixth, That Faith is not a pers●sion more or less of God's love, and that all may have that.  
I pray mistake not, Can all believe from the Spirit? Can all be more or less spiritually persuaded? Do I speak of any persuasion of Christ's love which is not spiritual? Deceive not yourself, nor your Reader, nor wrong not your Author; or do I speak of Faith abstracted from all Repentance, Obedience, etc, why deal ye thus? When you say men may believe too suddenly, because I press men to believe, and you instance in Simon Magus; Was he blamed for believing too suddenly, or for misbelieving? because he believed the gifts of the Holy Ghost were to be bought with money? Can any believe too soon? 
Rom. 3.  if some misbeleeve, or believe falsely, what is that to them that truly believe? Shall the unbelief of some make the Faith of God without effect? God forbid: Can Christ be too soon a Saviour to us? Can the fountain be too soon opened for sin? Can the riches of Christ be too soon brought home? 
Rom. 16. 5, 7.  Paul counts it an honour to be first in Christ: Salute Andronicus and ●unia, who were in Christ before me, and the Church in Priscilla's house, and Epenetus, who were the first fruits of Achaia unto Christ.  
To your seventh, That Christ bids us repent as well as believe; yea, first repent.  
Yea, but will you take the Doctrine of the gospel from a part, or summary of it, as you say, and not from the gospel in its fullness, and glory, and Revelation: Will ye gather Doctrines of Truth, as Ruth for a while did gleanings, here one ear of corn, and there another; and not rather go to the full sheaf, to Truth in the Harvest and Vintage? Will you pluck up Truth by pieces and parcels, in Repentance, and Obedience, and self denial? and not reveal these as Christ may be most glorified, and the Saint● most Sanctified, and these gifts most spiritualised and improved? Will ye Preach Doctrines as they lie in the Letter, or in their analogy and inference of Truth? The Papists Preach Christ's very flesh and blood to be in the Wine: And why? but because they look but half way to the demonstration of Truth in the Spirit, they shut up Christ in one Not●●● and not in another, and so loses the Truth by revealing it in that form of words which is too narrow for it, 
Ephes.  and too short of the height, and depth, and length of it.  
You say, We are to try our Faith: So say I too, if you would not pick and choose in my Book, to make me some other thing than you find me: But you mean, we must try our Faith for assurance, as your other words imply; and so far I say too, but you will not hear me speak: But you would have the best assurance from trial; but so far I say not as you say, is that the best spiritual assurance that is from our own Spirits in part, or from God's alone? from our own reasoning, or his speaking? Can a Spouse argue better the love of her friend from his Tokens and Bracelets, or from his own word, and Letter, and seal?  
One of the three that bear witness on Earth is the Spirit, and in whom, after ye believe, ye were sealed with that Spirit of promise. Can any Inference or Consequence drawn from Faith, or Love or Repentance, or Obedience in us so assure us, as the breathing of Christ himself, sealing, assuring, persuading, convincing, satisfying; I will hear what God the Lord will say, 
Psal.  for he will speak peace to his Servants: A Saint had rather hear that voice, than all its own Inferences and Arguments, which though they bring something to persuade, 
1 Pet. 1.  yet they persuade not so answerably till the voice speak from that excellent glory.  
To your eighth, That I clog men with conditions of receiving, as well as you of repenting, &c.  
I answer, I preach not Receiving as a condition, as you do Repenting. I Preach Christ the Power, and Life, and Spirit, that both stands and knocks, and yet opens the door to himself. I Preach not Receiving as a gift, or condition given or begun for Christ, but Christ working all in the Soul, and the Soul working up to Christ by a power from himself. And if you would Preach Repentance and Obedience as no other preceding or previous dispositions, we should agree better in the Pulpit than we do in the press.  
To your ninth, That the sum of my Divinity is, That men may be saved whither they Repent or no, or believe or no.  
I answer, Should I say to you, The sum of your Divinity is this, That Faith, and Repentance, and Obedience, are helps with Christ, and conditions with Christ to man's Salvation; and that Salvation in not free, but conditional; the Covenant of Grace is as it were a Covenant of works? Should I do well in this to upbraib you and those of your way?  
Say not then that I think men may be saved that never repent nor believe: Why do you thus set up and counterfeit opinions, and then engrave our Names upon them? Could not I piece up your Book so (if I would be unfaithful) as make ye appear as great an heretic as any whom you thus fancy; because I preach not Repentance, or Faith as you do; because I make all these as gifts from God's love in Christ, not as gifts to procure us God, or his love, or Christ; because I make all these the fruits of the Spirit, given to such whom Christ hath suffered for, to such whom God hath chosen in him; because I Preach Faith, and Repentance, and Obedience▪ in that full Revelation in which they are left as in the New Testament, and not in that scantling of Doctrine, as they are merely and barely revealed in the History of the Gospel, or Acts of the Apostles, only where the Doctrine is not so much revealed as the practice, and the Story in Summaries; because we Preach thus, therefore we are all Antinomians, heretics, men not worthy to live.  
Brethren must ye forbid us to Preach, because we follow not with you, because we Preach not the Law as ye do, nor Faith as ye do, nor Repentance as ye do? therefore do we not Preach them at all.  
We Preach them all, as we are persuaded the New Testament and Spirit will warrant us, and as we may make Christ to be the power of all, and fullness of all, as we may exalt him whom God hath exalted at his own right hand. And we wish that ye and all that hear us, were both almost, and altogether as we are, except in reproaches.  

Conclusion.  
FRom the 29 Page to the last, all your replies amount not to any thing of, substance, but of quarrelsome and humorous exceptions; and I shall, I hope, redeem my time better than in making a business of things that will neither edify the Writer nor the Reader: There are some things you might (had you pleased) raised up into some spiritual discourse, as that of Works, and Signs for assurance, &c. But you say of yourself (how becoming such a one as you I leave) that you were like an Old Steed which neighs and prances, 
Pag. 43.  but is past service; so as I must take this of your age and infirmity, as a fuller Answer, or Supplement to what you fail in against me.  
There are two or three things more observable than the rest:  
1. That you tax me for saying, That the marks in John's Epistles and James, are delivered rather as marks for others, than ourselves to know us by; and I affirm it again, not as you say, excluding that other of our selves, but as I said, rather marks for others, though for both in their degrees, and kinds of manifestation.  
So in James 2. 24. where he saith, By works a man is Justified, not by Faith; So in verse. 18. 21. All which set forth Works a sign to others rather than ourselves. So in 1 John 3. 14. Hereby know we, we are passed from death to life, because we love the Brethren; compared with Ver. 17. 18. shows, That it is a love working abroad in manifestation to the Brethren; and yet I exclude not any evidence which the fruits of the Spirit carry in them, 
Pag 81. 32.  as in my Book, which yet you allege to that purpose, after you have been quarrelling so long with it, pulling my Treatise in pieces to make yourself work, and then bind it up again after your own fashion.  
For your Story of your Lady, and your fallacy, That she might as well conclude herself damned because she was a sinner, as one that Christ would save because she was a sinner, And durst you thus sport with a poor wounded spirit, that perhaps could see little but sin in herself to conclude upon? Know you not that Christ came to call sinners, to save sinners? And durst you make use of your logic to cast such a mist upon the promises to sinners? Suppose one should ask you how you gather up your assurance, now you are an old man? how would you account to us? Would you say, such a m●asure of Faith, so much obedience, so much love to the Brethren, so much zeal, Prayer, Repentance, and all of unquestionable evidence? But if we should go further, and question you concerning your failings when you writ in the behalf of Cards and Dice, of the Common-Prayer-Book; if we should ask ye of your luxuria●cy in quotations in your Books and Sermons; whether all be out of pure zeal, no selfishness, no vainglory? Whether all your Love was without bitterness to your Brethren of a diverse judgement, whom you call Antinomian, &c. Whether you preached and obeyed all out of love to Jesus Christ, and not seeking your own things, not making a gain of godliness? Whether all your Fastings and Repentance were from true meltings of heart, sound humiliation; or because the State called for it, and constrained it? Whether your praying and preaching was not much of it Self, of Invention, of Parts, of Art, of Learning, of seeking praise from men? Oh, should the light of the Spirit come in clearness and glory upon your spirit; Oh! how much of Self, of hypocrisy, of Vanity, of Flesh, of Corruption, would appear? how would all be unprofitable? For my part, I cannot be so uncharitable but to wish you a better assurance than what you and your Brethren can find in your own works or righteousness: For, it is not what we approve, but what God approves is accepted. And I am persuaded, however you are now loath, it may be to lose reputation by going out of an old tract of Divinity, as Luther once, yet when once your spirit begins to be unclothed of forms of darkness and art, of selfrighteousness, and that you with open face behold the glory of the Lord, you will cry out, woe is me, I am undone, for I have seen the Lord; and Lord depart from me, for I am a sinful creature; and, What went I out to see? My own unrighteousness; or rather, A Reed shaken with the wind.   

An Answer to a Book entitled  
A Plea for congregational Government: or, A Defence of the Assemblies Petition, &c.  
YOu write thus:  
(1) That the independents confess you a true Church and Minstery. (2) Those that are ordained by Bishops, may be true Ministers; else how am I a Preacher, or they true Ministers? (3) Succession is not necessary to the essence of a true ministry. (4) If no true ministry, no true baptism. (5) Must not there be persons ordaining, and persons ordained? And so the dissenting Brethren held. (6) That you abuse the Assembly in ●●ing their Humble Advice touching the Divine Right of a congregational presbyterial, and not of the other. The Independents assert a Divine Right there, and in Synods too, as they do: They hold a Divine Right in one as well as the other. (7) Their ordination by Bishops though it should be null, yet they have all you can allege necessary to a Preacher. (8) Parishes here are but as in New-England, as in Jerusalem, Antioch. (9) Some of the dissenting Brethren hold Synods an holy Ordinance of God, and this Assembly so to be. (10) If no Presbyteries must be of Divine Right, because not infallibly gifted, this concludes against Presbyteries and Ordinances. (11) If you would have them content with a mixed power partly prudential, because of their mixed ●●ointing, you contradict that pure one you plead for. (12) The Apostles, and Elders, and Angels of the Churches of Asia were not infallible as in divers practices. (13) To say the Apostles did advise in place of the written Word, is little less than Blasphemy. (14) The Presbyterians in France, and Scotland, and the Netherlands, do 〈◊〉 so embroil Kingdoms. The fear of excommunicating Parliaments and Kingdoms, is but a bugbear. (15) They ask not of the State an ecclesiastical power, but a liberty to exercise that power. (16) Hath Christ said, that in a sound Church, Church-Officers shall excommunicate, and in an unsound, 
Pag. 17.  the Magistrate shall do it? (17) He may in time say as much against Equity and justice living upon voices in Assemblies, 
Pag. 21.  as against Truth.  
Answer.  
To the first, That the Independents confess you a true Church and ministry. You are not to prove what others confess or hold you to be, but what you are indeed, according to Truth. Nor do I contend with those that hold you so, but with you that hold yourselves so; as the Spirit to the Laodiceans; Thou sayest thou art full &c. and, behold, thou art poor, &c.  
To the second, That they ordained by Bishops, are true Ministers as the Independents, and I a Preacher, for all that Ordination. If you mean that the Bishop's Ordination makes not one for ever a false or Antichristian Minister, I grant it, because it is no mark to them that renounce it: Babylon is no more Babylon to them that are gone out of it. But what is this to your ministry or Ordination, who are yet under the mark and Babylonish Ordination? Renounce it, come out as the Spirit calls ye, and then your being Antichristian is no more to ye, then to the Ephesians that they should be less light because they were once darkness, or less alive because they were once dead.  
To the third, That Succession is not necessary to a true ministry, It is both true, and false, in several acceptions. When there was a true power, they ordained others, and others them. There was succession. But that being lost under Antichrist, so far as visibly to derive it to us, there can be no such true visible Succession appearing. And yet you that pretend to stand by the first power, must prove your Succession, if you will prove your power.  
To the Fourth: If no true ministry, no true Baptism. For that as you please: I dare not exalt the truth of your Baptism above that of your ministry, no more than you.  
To the Fifth: The dissenting Brethren hold there must be persons ordaining and ordained, as well as we. Ye●, but do they hold Bishops ordaining, and Presbyters ordained by Bishops, and Presbyters of their ordaining, ordaining others as you do?  
To the Sixth, of my unjust citing the Assemblies model or Humble Advice: and that there is no more Divine Right asserted in the congregational Presbytery then in the classical, &c. which is done so by the dissenting Brethren. I answer: Let the model be printed to the world, to end the difference betwixt you and me. And for the Divine Right of the one and the other, I am of your mind; they are able to prove both alike of Divine Right that is in their Presbytery: The one is no more of Divine Right than the other, and neither of them of any. And for the dissenting Brethren, it is not them, but you I deal with. Why come you under their shadow in a storm, and yet will let them have no liberty under yours, but would turn us all abroad as heretics and schismatics.  
To the Seventh: Though the Ordination by Bishops be null, yet they have the other necessaries to a Preacher. Will ye undertake for the Assembly they shall stand to this, that all their former▪ Ordination by Bishops is null? If so, we are agreed: if not, all their other necessaries are no more than Ahab's peace: What peace, saith Jehu, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel are alive? So, what ministry, so long as the whoredoms of Babylon yet remain?  
To the Eighth, That the Parishes are but as in New-England, as in Jerusalem, &c. I pray forbear this; it is too manifest an error. Are the Parishes of England and Churches of jerusalm one and the same, so discipled, so constituted? Were all of Jerusalem and Antioch reckoned for Christ's Congregations, as all Parishes are?  
To the Ninth, That some of the dissenting Brethren hold Synods Ordinances of God, 
Mr tombs.  and this Assembly so. I know some of our Brethren for the Presbytery hold Infant-Baptism unlawful, and Antichristian, and hath better defended it then any yet whom I have read, hath answered it. And for this Assembly to be an Ordinance of God, I thought that had been but an Ordinance of Parliament, and stood by that power by which they were called by at first: Yet deny not but that consultations for holy ends, about the things of God, are lawful by the Word.  
To the Tenth, That Presbyteries, because not infallibly gifted, are of no Divine Right, and so concludes aga●nst all Presbyteries and Ordinances. Yea, against all your Presbyteries to be of Divine Right as the first. But our question is rather whether the first was any such Presbytery as you now affirm: and for aught I see, you can no more prove the truth of the Presbytery then in the sense you take it, than your Presbytery to be one with it, one only in Divine Right, not in Divine power or gifts. And how are these things suitable?  
To the Eleventh, That I contradict the pure Government I plead for, by pleading for yours as prudential. It were true indeed, if I pleaded it in mine own behalf. I plead it occasionally for them, who will needs have what the State cannot in conscience allow them, and yet will not practise any other but what the State shall give them; and so trouble both the State and their own consciences, and would cast a snare upon both. Brethren, if ye will needs have the State to allow ye your Presbytery, Why are ye not content with what they can allow ye? If ye will have a Divine Right which they cannot allow ye, why do ye trouble them, and sit down under a bondage of your own making? But how justly is this yoke come upon you, who would have brought a worse upon your Brethren.  
To the Twelfth, That the first Presbyters, and Apostles, &c. were not infallible as in divers practices. What is this to the truth and gifts they taught and taught by? They failed as men, but not as Apostles: They erred as they were Peter and Paul, but not as moved by the Holy Ghost. Take heed by opening the Apostles failings to justify your own, you speak not worse Blasphemy than you name in me, and make that glorious Word of Scripture questionable which they preached, like the words that yourselves preach from that Scripture.  
To the Thirteenth, That to say the Apostles did advise in place of the written Word, is Blasphemy. What Blasphemy is it to say, that the same Word which they writ and preached; the same Spirit spoke in them, and spoke▪ the same truth in them which writ in them? And is it so with any of your▪ Presbyters? Therefore till the same Spirit speak truth in them so as in the first Presbyters, will they challenge the same right, the same power? Will they have a Divine Right acted by a spirit less Divine than the Right?  
To the Fourteenth, That the Presbyterians in France, Scotland, and the Netherlands, do not embroil Kingdoms. There is good reason: in France they cannot if they would. I wish you would walk under the Magistrate as they do, and as your dissenting Brethren here, and not make him serve you, And in the Netherlands, do you as they do there, and leave your Brethren to the like liberty that is in that State, and they will not grudge ye your Presbytery amongst yourselves. For Scotland they are Brethren I wish no worse to, than Truth, and Peace, and power above their Ministers.  
To that of excommunicating kingdoms being a bugbear. You do well to say so, till ye be established: but you that dare so capitulate with States, whom ye are called to advise in things only propounded, what more may be expected upon all your principles, I leave to be judged.  
To the Fifteenth, That they ask not of the State a power, but a liberty to exercise that power. Well: and will ye trouble the State no further? Will ye not entreat them to punish such a one, and such a one, whom ye judge an heretic and a schismatic? to fine and imprison, when you have done with them at Excommunication? May the State be quiet if they say to ye, go all that are so persuaded as you are, and worship and practise as your dissenting brethren and other Saints, and trouble not us to provide for your tithes, and Rule for you in things of your own cognizance over Consciences.  
But you would only have liberty from them; your power is of Christ. But you cannot so clear things as you think. If your power and liberty respectively to your selves and the Magistrate be so distinct, why have ye mingled them and confounded them all this while? Why make ye the truth and power ye have from Christ, wait so at Parliament-doores, as Master Case said? if the powers on earth will not do for Christ, as you would make the people believe, Why do not ye yourselves more for Christ? Is it better to obey God or man? Thus the more ye would single yourselves in your power and right from the Magistrate, the more your practice makes an argument against ye.  
To the Sixteenth, That I should say, In a sound Church, Church-officers shall excommunicate and judge of offences; and in an unsound the Magistrate, and the Inference there: I answer, I spoke and writ so, according to your principles, not to my own. Nor can I see how you can challenge such a one, entire, and simple. Discipline exclusively to the Magistrate, upon no more true, pure, and Scripture-principles than your present Presbytery is. And I conceive the powers on earth, or in the world, have to do in every Government that is more of the world then of Christ: For if ye exclude them from a part in that Government which is partly prudential, and of man, you exclude them from off part of their own kingdom, which is theirs by inheritance, and of more Divine Right than I conceive yours to be. And whereas you would make us believe you stand only in a pure Gospel strength and power, and desire no more of the Magistrate but liberty: can this be so in truth, when all is esteemed invalid and nothing, if the Magistrates power doth not actuate the Ministers power? I know you may distinguish of powers Scholastically, and Spheres of working for those powers, and so tell the Magistrate and us, he doth but act in his Sphere, when he acts in yours, and indeed acts yours, making it to be stronger than it is in itself. But is not his Civil power that which puts life, as you think, into all your Presbytery? Yet he must think he doth but as a Magistrate still, as if so be that the Magistrate were made to be rods in the hands of the Church, and Swords to be drawn by them, and Iron whips at their girdles. We are not now as Aaron and Moses: we are not a Kingdom of Israel, nor a Church of Israel; though too many of you have preached the Old Testament more than the New; for what advantage, let the Magistrate judge.  
To the Seventeenth, That he may in time say as much of justice living upon voices in Assemblies, as of Truth; and so to be a Mystery of Iniquity. These are but infirmations to the Magistrate, and ghosts of jealousy which you raise. And to put an end to such fears; when I make Church and State, Magistrate and ministry, gospel laws and civil to be both one, then challenge me for that opinion: But I have learned, that Christ's Kingdom and the worlds have a several Policy; and that may be a Law in the one, which is not to the other. And now is it your Inference, or my Principle, wrongs the Magistrate?   

An Answer in few words to Master Edwards his second Part of the GANGRENA,  
And to the nameless Author of a Book, called, An After-reckoning with Master Saltmarsh.  
MAster Edwards, the difference betwixt ye both, is this: You set your name to more than you know, as hath been well witnessed; and this man dare set his name to nothing: You sin without shame, and your Partner is ashamed of what he doth. Sin is too powerful in you against Truth, because you show yourself: and Truth is too powerful for him, because he hides himself.  
Master Edwards, I shall answer you in these few words: but first, The Lord rebuke thee, even the Lord.  
1. If the Image of Christ be in any of those you so persecute; how can you answer it to Jesus Christ, to cash any dirt on the glory of him?  
2. If God be in any of those you are so much an enemy to; how will you answer it to fight against God, any thing of God?  
3. If any of those be the children of the heavenly Father, or the little ones of the gospel, It were better that a millstone were hanged about your neck, and you cast into the Sea: So Christ tells you.  
4. What is it to sin against the holy Ghost, but to hate the Light once known; or to blaspheme the works of the Spirit? And you once professed to me you had almost been one of those whom you call heretics. Oh take heed of that sin! there is no more Sacrifice for that. And how if the works of those you so judge, be wrought in the Spirit? shall you ever be forgiven in this world, or in that to come? Read the words, and tremble.  
5. Doth not the Word bid you restore those that are fallen, in meekness, and tell your brother his fault, first betwixt you and him? And you never yet came to any of them that I could hear of; but print, proclaim, tell stories to the world of all you hear, see, know. Is Christ in this Spirit? Is the gospel in this strain? Will this be peace to your soul hereafter?  
6. Solomon tells us, that a man may seem fair in his own tale, till his neighbour search out the matter. And how dare you then take all things at one hand, and not at another's? How dare you have one ear open for complaints, and faults, and crimes, and the other shut against all defence? Did ever Justice do this? Did you ever call for their accuser's face to face? Did you ever traverse Testimonies on both sides? And dare you judge thus, and condemn thus? Shall not the Judge of Heaven and Earth make you tremble for this Injustice? Shall he not make Inquisition upon your soul for this blood?  
7. It is any other ground or bottom you stand on in this your way of accusing the Brethren, but Paul you say named some, and the Fathers named some so, and Calvin, as you told me the other day when I met you? And was there ever crime without some Scripture, or shadow of the Word? Did not Canterbury on the Scaffold▪ preach a Sermon of as much Scripture and Story for what he did, as you can for yours, if you should ever preach there? He thought ye ill heretics, as you do us; he thought he might persecute you, as you do us; and he had a Word from John Baptist for his manner of death, and a Word from the Red sea and Israelites for his death, and enemies; and a Word from Paul for his Changing Laws and customs: and for his crime of Popery, he had a Word from them that feared the Romans would come and take away their Government. Thus Satan and self can paint the worst kind of sin.  
poor soul▪ Is your conscience no better seated then in such airy apparitions of Scripture, and failings of Fathers? Do not you hear the Prayers of those souls you wound, pleading with God against your sin? Are you not in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity? Is not your spirit yet flying; when none pursues you? Are not your dreams of the everlasting burning, and of the worm that never dies? Have you no gnawings, no flashings, no lightnings? I am afraid of you. Your face and complexion shows a most sadly parched, burnt, and withered spirit. Me thought when I called to you the other day in the street, and challenged you for your unanswerable Crime against me, in the third page of the last Gangrena, in setting my name against all the Heresies you reckon, which your own soul and the world can witness to be none of mine, and your own confession to me when I challenged you: How were you troubled in spirit and language? Your sin was, as I thought, upon you, scourging you, checking you, as I spoke. I told you at parting, I hoped we should overcome you by prayer. I believe we shall pray you either into Repentance, or Shame, or Judgement, ere we have done with you. But Oh might it be Repentance rather, till Master Edwards smite upon his thigh, and say, what have I done?  
For your Anagram upon my name, you do but fulfil the prophecy, They shall cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.  
And for your Book of jeers and Stories of your Brethren; poor man! It will not be long music in your ears, at this rate of sinning.  
For the nameless Author and his After-reckoning; let all such men be doing, for me: Let them rail, revile, blaspheme, call heretics: It is enough to me, that they write such vanity they dare not own.  
And now let me tell ye both, and all such Pensioners to the great accuser of the Brethren, Fill up the measure of your iniquity, if ye will needs perish whether we will or no. I hope I rest in the bosom of Christ, with others of my Brethren: rail, persecute, do your worst, I challenge all the powers of hell that set ye on work, while Christ is made unto me righteousness, wisdom, sanctification and redemption.  
And I must tell ye further, that since any of the light and glory of Christ dawned upon me: since first I saw that morningstar of righteousness, any of the brightness of the glory in my heart, that heart of mine which once lived in the coasts of Zebulon and Nephtaly, in the region and shadow of death, I can freely challenge ye, and thousands more such as ye, to say, write, do, work, print, or any thing, and I hope I shall in the strength of Christ, in whom I am able to do all things, give you blessings for cursings, and prayers for persecutions.    
FINIS.   

Pag 144. line 37. for Antichristian, read great corruption.