AN ANSWER TO NINE ARGUMENTS: Written by T. B.  
WHEREIN IS PLAINLY FROM THE SCRIPTURES showed, the weakness of his Arguments, whereby he undertakes to prove both the Church and Ministry of England true; as likewise describing the nature and properties of a true Church and Ministry.  
Written long since by that faithful Servant of God and his Country, John Lilburne Lieutenant Colonel: And now published for further good, by a well willer to Him and the Truth.  Gal. 4.17. They zealously affect you, but not well: they would exclude you, that you might affect them. 1 John 4.1. Beloved believe not every Spirit, but try the Spirits, whether they be of God, because many false Prophets are gone out into the world. 
LONDON.  
Printed in the Year of our Lord, 1645.   


JOHN LILBURNE. AETAT: SVAE 23. Anᵒ 1641.  G: Glow: fecit.  portrait of John Lilburne 

Gaze not upon this shadow that is vain,  
But rather raise thy thoughts a higher strain,  
To GOD (I mean) who set this youngman free,  
And in like straits can eke deliver thee.     

To the Reader.  
Christian Reader,  
THe providence of God bringing to my hands this ensuing Matter, the Author of which thou well knowest, if thou be'st not a stranger in Israel, is famous in Sufferings both for the cause of Christ in holding him forth to be the only King, and Lawgiver of his Church, against that Prelatical faction which stood in opposition to the same, as likewise in standing to defend the privileges of the Kingdom, whereof he is a member, with his liberty, estate, and life, as counting nothing dear to himself, that he might render himself faithful to Christ, in giving to him that which was his due, and unblameable to Caesar to give unto him that which is his, resolving by the strength of Christ, that although others that have seemed to suffer for Christ, should deny him, and plead for Baal, yet to stand in his integrity, myself knowing him to be the same that he was standing a member of such a Church which he maintains to be the only spouse of Jesus Christ, I thought good to publish to thy vow, that which long since was written by him to that end, when he was in the depth of his sorrows, or rather sufferings, close prisoner in Irons in the Fleet, is being an Answer to some, Arguments, which by an Opposite to the truth were then written, wherein is unmasked those unsound grounds, by which a false church and ministry is pleaded for, as likewise describing from the Authority of the Scriptures the nature and properties both of true church and ministry.  
And if it should be Objected by any, that what is here published, is not useful to us, the Prelates being now thrown down, and a Reformation like to be established agreeable to the Word of God.  
To which Answer may be made, that if it were so, surely it would put an end to all contest of this nature. For what is that Reformation the Word holds out, but only the men should not Lord it over each others consciences, but to serve each other in love, and labour in the use of those means God hath apppointed to inform one an other, as knowing it is the work of the Lord Jesus alone, as to bring Souls to himself, so also to enlighten Souls in the knowledge of the truth, as it pleaseth him, and not men by banishments, Chains, or imprisonments to do it, as the Prelates have done, and the Presbyters in Scotland at this day do: But such a Reformation except God by a mighty hand interpose is like to be no other than a scourge to the States, and as contrary to truth in the pure nature of it as the other, (although it have wore appearance of truth) which will he plainly manifested to those whose eyes the Lord shall open, to help to see and examine what in this ensuing Discourse is said, there be two great evils, which frequently are apt to bearesway in the hearts of those that profess Religion which is spiritual sluggishness, which is manifested in living upon other men's light, takeing all for Gospel which Learned men say, without trial, (witness Mr. Enoch Grace, who hath forsaken the truth to embace this present world) and that great God of the World selfe love, that cup of gold in the hand of the whore, is so suitable to self, that rather than that shall be for gone, all the glory of Jesus Christ shall be trampled under feet by them: And in my observation I have perceived three sorts of men glued to those evils.  
The first is carnal Professors, that can content themselves with a form of godliness, and therefore takes all for gold that glisters,  
The other two are Clergy men and Lawyers, who are filled with self love, that like Herod and Pilate they both join together against Christ and his pure ways, and what should be the reason, that those two should cleave so fast together to go hand in hand to fight against Christ, truly I know not, unless they fear that if the truth of Christ take place alone, that it will bring such a lustre, with it, as to appear so perspicuous and clear upon the faces of all men, as thereby to root the one out of their Calling, and the other out of their Tithes, and thereby spoil all their glory and greatness at one blow; and I hope the wisdom of this present Parliament will see, that such as that, which now goeth by oppression into their purses, may be turned to make up the Kingdom's losses, which may with much ease be done, if they consult with God and their neighbour Country, (the States of Holland:) but I shall leave that to their wisdoms, and thee in thee perusal of this to the blessing of the most High, and if there be any thing in it that savours of harshness to thee, let it be looked at by thee as expressions of Resolution rather, knowing that such a spirit hath been still manifest by him both in the cause of God and his Country: And therefore I shall say no more, but rest  
Thine in all services of love to his power, M. N.   

AN ANSWER TO NINE ARGUMENTS of T. B.  
LOVING FRIEND  
TO satisfy your earnest desire to me, I have put pen to paper, to answer the ungrounded Arguments of your Friend, which you communicated unto me; but to tell you my Judgement of them, in few words: They are of such Insufficiency, and so ungroundedly compiled, without all Authority of holy Scripture; that I do assure you, if it had not been my promise to you to reply unto them, I should not once more have spent my precious Time and Paines in a second view of them: For in the laying down of nine Arguments, he hath not one Portion of God's word to prove them all, but only one; and that is nothing pertinent to his purpose: but runs on most deceitfully to prove Logic by Logic. Truly, I am afraid he is too near of kin to the Prelate of Canterbury and Pope of Lambeth, and the rest of his brother Bishops, that passed Censure upon that Worthy man Dr. Bastwicke at his Censure in the High-Commission Court, who there Blasphemously affirmed, that the Scripture is the Refuge of all Heretics and Sismatiques, as you may read at large in the Tenth and Eleventh Page of his Answer to Sr. John Banks his Information: and I believe your Friend that gave you these Arguments thinks so too, or else he would have proved that which he had undertaken; by the Authority of the Sacred Word of God. But Antichrists Owls love and desire Darkness, and cannot endure to bring their say and actions to the unerring Touchstone of the Holy Scripture, and there to try them, whether they be dross or Gold, for he that doth, or saith evil hateth Devil's Institution, and Invention, with which the Limbs of the Beasts Kingdom have for many hundred years together, and still do fight against the truth of God, and the Kingdom and Sceptre of the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore I exhort you, and all those that desire to fear God and walk in his ways, and love the Salvation of their own Souls, to take heed of such an Erroneous Sophister, as your supposed Friend is, that gave you these Arguments. But because I hear he doth brag and boast, that none of the Separation dare come to particulars, but only run upon generals; therefore to prove him a falsifier of the known truth, and also a liar; I leave my general speech to you, and come to the unfolding and ripping up every particular in all his Arguments.  
Therefore to my Opposite, I direct my speech. And in the first place you say, You have sent her (your Friend) those Arguments which do prove your Mother the Church of England to be a true Mother.  
To which I answer, she is a true Whorish Mother, and you are one of her Base-begotten and Bastardly Children, for you know a Whore is a woman as truly as a true wife, and she may have Children as proportionable as the Children of a true wife; yet this doth not prove her Children which are Base-begotten are true-begotten Children because they have all the parts and Limbs of Children that are begotten in a true married Estate and condition: even so say I, the Church of England, neither is, nor never was truly married; joined, or united to Jesus Christ, in that Espousal bond which his true Churches are and aught to be: but is one of Antichrists Nationall, Whorish Churches, or Cities spoken of Rev. 16.19. united, joined, knit to the Pope of Lambeth, as Head and Husband thereof; being substitute to the Pope of Rome, from whom he hath received his Arch-Episcopall Power, and Authority, as you may read in the beginning of Godwins Catalogue of Bishops, and in the last Page of Francis Masons Epistle Dedicatory to George Abbot: William laud's predecessor, in his book of Bishops, Priests, Deacons.  
Again, you confess the Church of England is a Scratched and Deformed Mother, in some respects which you could wish were reform, and removed from her. To which I reply, she is a Whorish Mother, and that is Deformity enough; for though a Whore be never so personable, and Complete a Woman in all outward respects, yet if she be a Whore, there is Deformity enough in that alone, to spoil all her personal Comeliness and parts. But it is much you will confess your Mother is Scratched and deformed in some respects, seeing in your ensuing Arguments you say, you have the true matter of a Church, and true Form, true Salvation, true Religion, and true Worship: but if you have all these, it is a wonder to me, wherein her Deformity can be; therefore I pray you the next time nominate, and particular your Mother's Deformities, that I may know them by your own confession. But put the case I should deny (as justly I may) that you have neither true matter, true Form of a visible Church, nor true Religion, nor true Worship: I doubt I should so perplex you to prove it, that all your Sophistical, decievable, logistical, Philosophical Arguments would be to scant to make it good: but I let it alone in this place, and refer it to the ensuing discourse, where it will come in more pertinent.  
But if you could wish your Mother's Deformities were removed, then, why do you not tell her of them? and labour to discover them unto her, that so her Deformed Face may be made straight and Comly? truly in my judgement you are but a very unnatural and unloving son, that sees your Mother's Deformities, and wishes they were removed from her, and yet will not strive to your utmost (as is your duty) to purge her from them that she may be, instead of a deformed Mother, a whole and beautiful Mother.  
Again, in the Third place you say, That your Labour may be effectual to your Friend, you would have her to observe these five things.  

1 Rightly to apprehend the truth of your Arguments.  
2 To hold her thoughts largely upon them.  
3 To strive to believe them.  
4 That she should strive to remember the danger that will follow the neglect of them.  
5 That she should go to God by Prayer to make them effectual to her, for her good.   
For the answering of which, in the first place, You would have her rightly to apprehend the truth of your Arguments. But how can she apprehend truth in those Arguments that have nothing but falsity in them, as by God's assistance I shall make it appear in my ensuing discourse, and if she should apprehend the truth of them indeed, she may justly say thus much of them, that they are all Sophistry and ungrounded Arguments, being destitute of any Authority from the holy Scriptures.  
2. In the Second place, You would have her hold her thoughts largely upon them. Truly if she should do so, she should exceedingly wrong her own Soul, for will you have her put Confidence in the broken Reeds of Egypt? which will pierce and run into her hand when she most trusts to them? but such are all your Arguments, being no better than Bulrushes which the Twoedged Sword of God's Word, at one blow will cut them all in pieces: and if she have no better Weapons to defend her self with, than these, she may come to beundon by them, by being more strenghtened & confirmed in Error and so lie open and liable unto Gods heavy Judgements, Plagues and Vengeance, which he hath threatened to pour down in abundance upon all those that worship the Beast. Rev. 14.9.10. and this is the Beast that she shall get by keeping her thoughts largely upon them: and therefore her safest course is to compare them with the infallible Word of God, by which she shall see it is her duty to keep her thoughts upon them as little as she can, lest she pay too dear for her so doing Rev. 19.20.  
3. In the third place, You would have her to believe them. I pray tell me whether you have the Spirit of God infallibly? that you cannot err in that which you say: that you would have her so confidently to believe your Arguments, without any proof unto them from the Authority of the Word of God, which is the only binder of the Conscience. Indeed she hath but a blind Guide of you, & an ignorant Leader, & if she follow your guiding & leading, you will lead her into more Rebellion against Jesus Christ his Sceptre and Kingdom; and so bring misery enough upon her, for Christ hath threatened to slay all those his enemies, which will not have him to rule over them, Luke 12.21. and if he died without mercy under two or three witnesses, that rejected Moses Law, of how much sorer punishment think you shall they be worthy of, that reject the commandments of Jesus Christ? as both she and you do for the present: therefore, let her look to it, and take heed of giving to much credit to your Heretical and Erroneous say, for are the things that you say of more authority than the say of Christ himself, or his Apostles, or the Angels of heaven, that she must believe them before by the divine Scripture you have proved them? truly you take more Authority upon you then Christ would do, for he would not have the Jews to believe him upon his bare say, but the Scripture that did bear witness of him Joh. 8.17.18. It is written in your Law (saith he) that the Testimony of two men is true, non (saith Christ) I am one that bear witness of myself, and my Father that sent me bears witness of me. So that you see Christ would not have the Jews to believe him upon his bare say only, but he brings his Father and the holy Scripture to bear witness what he is, and then commands them to believe him. Also Paul would not have the Galathians to believe either him or an Angel from Heaven, but to hold them accursed if they bring any thing contrary to the Scripture Chap 1.19. but you would have your Friend to believe your Arguments, and yet doth not bring two Portions of Scripture to prove them all: therefore I again advise her neither to believe you nor your say, because there is no light of truth in you, seeing that you go not to the Law and the Testimony to prove that you say, as you ought and should do, Esay. 8.20. therefore she is bound to reject your Arguments, as Ungrounded, Antichristian, and Erroneous, and to Search the Scripture herself, for that is it that truly testifies of Christ, and of his ways. Joh. 5.39.  
4 You would have her to remember the danger that will follow upon the neglect of them. Your saying were very good if it were grounded upon the word of God but seeing (as I have already, and will more fully make it appear) they are not, I would have her remember the danger that will follow the observation of them, which will be very great, and terrible, for the things that you would have her to give Ear unto, will teach her to rebel against the voice of God himself, who hath commanded all his faithful people and servants, to give Ear to Christ only, and alone, in all things that pertain to life and Salvation, and his Worship and Service. Act. 3.22.23. For Moses truly said unto the Fathers, a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you: and it shall come to pass, that every Soul that will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the People. So you see what Doom the Scripture saith will befall all those that will not give Ear, nor stoop unto all the Laws of Christ, as well for the governing of his Church, as the Salvation of their Souls: for Jesus Christ hath been as faithful yea more faithful in his House, than Moses was in his, under the Law. Hebr. 3. who was strictly tied to make all things according to the pattern shown him in the Mount: yea, even to the very Pins of the Tabernacle. Exod. 25.9.40. and 26.30. and 27.9. Which Moses caused accordingly exactly to be made, and accomplished. Ex. 30.43. & this Moses did but as a servant but Jesus Christ was faithful in all things that pertains to the welfare of his Churrch under the Gospel, as a son: and none may add or defract from that which he hath done, and left in his last Will and Testament: but now if she should give Fare to your Grounds, she should declare and say in her actions, that Jesus Christ hath not been so faithful in his house, or Church, as Moses was in his; which were to tell the Spirit of God he lies, therefore let her look to the danger that will follow her keeping those things which you would have her to observe.  
5 In the fift and last place, You would have her to go to God by Prayer to make them Effectual to her, for her good: but if she should do so, she should put up an unacceptable and sinful prayer, for the prayer that any puts up to him for the keeping and confirming them in their Errors, is detestable and Odious to him; but those things that you would have her to go to God for, that they might be Effectual for her good; are gross Errors, and therefore I affirm it is her sin, if either she pray to be kept in them, or do not forthwith reject them.  
Well, but now to come to grapple with your strong Arguments, and the first of them is thus framed.  
Arg. 1 That People or Nation that is daily within the voice and call of God, calling them to Repentance, that so they may be saved, that same is a true visible Church.  
But the People (generally) of England are within the voice of God, calling upon them to repent, and believe; that so they may be saved.  
Therefore the Church of England is a true visible Church.  
Answ. 1 This is the Frontispiece of your work, and in the laying of it down you declare, that you do not in the least understand what the matter of a true Church is, which is to consist of believers Acts. 2.41.47. and not of people uncalled to God, and the knowledge of his truth Act. 2.30.5.13. And this I will (by the strength of God) fully prove by and by, and therefore if the rest of your Arguments be no stronger than this, they will prove no stronger to bind your opposers, than the Philistims flaxen Cords were to bind Samson, who when he had a mind to be loosed from them, they became as flax burnt with fire: and just such are your Arguments, no more able to hold off and keep bacl the truth from being set at Liberty, than Dellilahs' green Withes with which she tied Samson were able to keep him bound that his Enemies might cease upon him; for he broke them as a Thread of Tow is broken when it toucheth the fire, Judg. 16. 9 But now to the matter. I absolutely deny your Argument.  
And first for your Major. I cannot but express my Sorrow for you, to see you, who are so mighty a Champion as you boast yourself to be, to reason so shallowly and ungroundedly, for if your Argument be true, than all the Nations under Heaven are true visible Churches of Christ, for it is not possible that the Heathenest Nation in the World should run out of God's Voice and Call. Psal. 139.7.8.9. For (saith David) If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there, if I take the Wings of the Morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the Sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me, if I say surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me, yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. And also see Amos. 9.1.2.3. Where you may also read that no place can hid a people from God's presence or call; so that I say no place can exempt a people from God's voice, but wheresoever they are he can find them out, and by his Judgements laid upon a Nation or Peeple, whether they be Pagans, Heathens and Infidels that professedly serve and worship Idols, and nothing else: or whether they be a Nation of seeming Christians (as England is no more) like the Samaritans that profess the Worship of the true God, and yet serve their Idols. 2. King. 17.32.33. yet take them in which sense you will, I say they are within the Voice and call of God, and by his Judgements and Plagues laid upon them for their sins, he calls them to Repentance that so they might not perish, but be saved: as the Apostle Paul in the first of the Romans doth largely prove. Vers. 18.19, and so forward. So that by your Argment, all the Nations under Heaven are visible Churches of Christ, for I thus frame my Argument according to your own grounds.  
All the Nations of the Earth that are within the Voice and call of God, calling them to Faith and Repentance that so they may be saved are true Churches.  
But all the Pagan and Heathen Notions in the World are within the Voice and call of God, as I have already proved.  
Ergo. They are true visible Churches.  
Deny any part of the Argument if you can, and prove against it.  
But for the proof of your Argument you cite. Math. 20.16. where it is said, Many are called, but few chosen. the first part of the words, Many are called, (you say but do not prove) that we are to understand them of the visible Church, which are called to the outward preaching of the word: to which I answer, and say, you are not an Oracle of God that we must believe your say without ground, for you bring no proof for what you say, but your own bare Affirmations, but if you will be an Oraclo, it is but a lying Oracle, and not of Gods: you say they are called to the outward preaching of the Word, it seems to me that you will have all the people in a Nation, that are within Gods call to be Preachers (and then what shall become of all your Priests? for if this be not your meaning, I know not what you drive at, but for that place of Scripture many are called, but few are chosen, I understand it thus, many there was that heard the Word of God, and seemingly, professed it, as they that came to John's Baptism, and Herod that reform many things, and those many great multitudes that Christ preached unto, many of which made an outward profession of him for a time, but it was but for the loaves, as he himself doth witness, John 6.26.27. so here are many called to the outward profession of, the Gospel, but saith the Text few are chosen, that is to say, ehough there be many that make a formal profession of Christ, and have the oviside of Christianity, yet few are they that are chosen, either to Christ's glorious kingdom with his father, or are chosen and admitted as visible members and Subjects in his visible Church, or Kingdom, which in Scripture hath many and divers names, as, Zion, Jerusalem, his holy Mountain, the Lords holy place, the kingdom of Heaven, Psal. 54.7.147.12. Fsa 62.6.65.9.11. Psal. 68.17.33.46.4. Mat. 20.1. Rev. 21.1.10. this exposition of the place I plainly prove from Christ's preaching to so many as he did, the most of which for a time did outwardly profess him, yet all those great multitudes that he preached unto, and wrought Miracles amongst at his death there was but an hundred and twenty that entered into communion to worship him in a visible Church, Acts 1.15. and in the second of the Acts Peter preached to a great multitude of people yet that multitude were not members of a true visible Church, neither before he preached to them, nor after, but only so many of them as declared and manifested faith which were to the Number of three Thousand, and they were added or joined to the Church, and the Apostle commands them to save or separate themselves from the rest of the multitude which he preached unto, seeing they did not peleeve, nor were never the better for his preaching: saying, Save yourselves from thes untoward Generatron. Verse. 40.41. For the Lord would not have them to join Riff Raffe and all sorts of people to the Church, to whom the Word was preached, but only those that declared the work of Grace to be wrought in their hearts, therefore the Spirit of God saith The Lord added to the Church daily, such as should be saved.  
Now though I grant the Kingdom of England is within the Voice and call of God, calling the people thereof to Repentance, that so they may be saved, yet I grant no more than what all the Nations under Heaven are, therefore you cannot conclude from this Ground that the Church of England is a true Church of Christ seeing the Whole Nation, good or bad, wicked or righteous, godly or ungodly, have all one and the same Privilege, by virtue of their being professed Membees of your Ch. & therefore from that which hath been said, I frame this Argument.  
That the true visible Church of Christ under the Gospel, doth not consist of all sorts and kinds of people to whom the word of God is preached, but only to such persons, who by their outward Conversation may be judged to be true Believers. Esay. 4.3.35.8.9.10.51.11. Rom. 1.7. 1. Cor. 1.7. Rev. 22.14.  
But the Church of England is not made up, nor doth not consist of true Believers, that is to say Saints by calling and practice, but of all sorts and kinds of wicked persons, as Witches, Sorcerers, Whoremungers, Drunkards Idolaters, Swearers, Blasphemers & all sorts of Profane, Lewd & Wicked livers.  
Ergo, It is no true Church of Christ, but a false and Antichristian Church of Antichrists, 2. Cor. 6.9.10. Rev. 9.20.21. and 13.8.16.17. and 21.27. and 22.15.  
Both the Proposition and Assumption, I have already strongly proved by the Authority of the Scripture. and deny either of them, and prove against them, if you be able.  
Again, your second Argument to prove the Church of England a true Church is this. That Ministry which doth accomplish the same and which the Ministry of the Apostles did, must needs be a true Ministry. But the Ministry of the Church of England doth accomplish the same ends that the Apostles Ministry did, namely conversion and confirmation. Therefore the Ministry of the Church of England must needs be true.  
But to prove your Argument, you bring not one Place of Scripture but take that for granted which I confidently think neither you nor none in the Ch. of Engl. are ever able to prove, therefore I absolutely & in every respect deny your Arg. & two manner of ways prove against it. 1. I will prove that if the Ministry in the Ch. of Engl. did accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostles did, yet for all that, that is not sufficient to prove it a true Ministry; for to judge the cause by the effect is a Leaden and false Rule. 2. I will prove that the Ministry in Engl. doth not accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostls did, & therefore by your own Arg. is no true Ministry.  
Now for the first of these which answers the Major of your Arg. I say it hath been and still may be possible, for a man to accomplish the same ends that you here speak of, namely to be an Instrument to bring God's people to the manifestation of Faith, & also to build them up, & yet be no true Officer or Minister in the Ch. of God, & I prove it out of the Acts of the Apostles in which we read that when the Ch. began to increase, Saul raised a great persecution against it upon which, all the brethren viz. the members of the Ch. were scattered abroad, & they went up & down preaching the word Act 8.3. but the Apostles themselves they stayed still at Jerusalem. Verse. 1. Now all those that were scattered abroad were not true Official Ministers, for they were but Laymen according to your distinction in the Church of England, yet divers of them who were no true Officers, but Brothers, Disciples, or private men as you call them, yet they preached the Word to the Gentiles there & begot by their preaching maany of them to the Faith, for the Text saith. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of them believed, and then came Barnabas from Jeausalem, who was yet no true Officer in the Church of God, being as yet uncalled to his Apostleship, and he confirmed and strengthened, and more fully built them up in the Faith of Christ and in the Knowledge of the ways of God. Also Aquilah, and his wife Priscilla did further instruct and build up that Eloquent man Apollo's. Act. 18.26. Also there were certain women that laboured with Paul in the Gospel. Phil. 4.3.  
So that here you see, and I have proved it, that people may be called to the manifesttaion of Eaith, and further built up by those that are no true Officers or Ministers in the Church of christ: but if your Argument were true then it would follow that all those men, yea and the women too were true Officers and Ministers in the Church of Christ, because they were Instruments of bringing God's people to the manifestation of Faith, and further built them up, but your Argument is rotten and unsound, and falls here flat to the ground, and therefore if I should grant it (which I do not) that your Ministers by their Ministry did accomplish the same ends, that the Apostles by their Ministry did, yet this would not be sufficient to prove them true Officers or Ministers, for the excecution of an Office doth not prove an Officer but only a true and lawful call into the Office, which all your Priests and Ministers in England want, and therefore are no true Officers, nor no true Ministers of Jesus Christ. For you know that a King hath many in his Kingdom besides himself, that do those actions & administer those administrations that is peculiar to him alone to do and administer, unless they were Authorized by virtue of a power given and derived from him to do such actions without a lawful Authority given and received from him, they might lose their lives for the doing of them: but now if your Argument were true, that all those men that are means, or Instrumensts to bring God's People to the manifestation of Faith, and obedience to the Law and will of Christ, were true Officers and Ministers of Christ, it would follow by the same Argument, that all those men that do the actions of a King, or accomplish the same ends, that Kings by their actions do accomplish, are true Kings but so to conclude in England is little better than High Treason: Therefore your Argument is erroneous, and false, and hath not validity in it: for if so be you will have their Administrations to prove the lawfulness of their Office, than I pray you, wherein doth the execution of their Office consist? for an Office and the execution of it are two distinct things: for a man by virtue of being instated into the Office of a Judge though he never live to execute any of those acttions, or Administrations that belong to his place, or Office: but he must first receive power to sit in Court of Judicature, before he dare take upon to fit there as Judge; and when he hath receiced power from the King by virtue of which he is instated into his Office, and doth become an Officer, then doth he lawfully sit in Court of Judicature, and condemneth felons and guilty persons, and acquit the innocent, and doth there pass sentence according to the Laws, for the King under whom he is a Judge: But now if this Judge should usurp his place, and come into it by virtue of a false Authority, and then condemn the King's Subjects to death, though they be theives and malefactors, yet he would be in danger of losing his life for all that, though he do the act and actions that belong to a true Judge to do, because he had no lawful Authority from the King so to do: for it is the King's Authority placed upon a man, that doth make that person, to be an other kind of person then before he was; for before he had received this power he was but a private man, but now he is an other kind of man; namely, a a public person, in Office, and Authority, and may lawfully do those actions now, which if he should have done before would have cost him his life: Even so is it with the Ministers and Officers which Jesus Christ hath instituted in his New Testament, and left personally to officiate in his Church; they must be members of an incorporated or constituted City, body, or visible Church, and then if the Church find any amongst themselves fitted, or qualified according to those gifts, and qualifications which the Apostle lays down in the first of Timothy the 3. & 5. chapters, and the first or Titus: then the Church hath authority to choose them for her Officers, Num. 8.9.10. Ezeck. 33.2. Acts 1.23.6.3.5. & 14.24. but though they be never so fitted, guifted, and qualified, yet they are not to take upon them to officiate in the Church of God, by virtue of an Office, before they have a true and lawful Call from the Church, who only and alone hath power from Christ, her only King and Head to instate them into that Office, and whereas before they were but members or private men, (as you in the Church of England call them) and could not lawfully do those actions that belong to a true Minister, or Officer in the Church of God to do, yet now they may do them upon grounded grounds, for it is only their lawful Call, into their Office that puts a distinction betwixt them, and the other members, or Brethren of the Church, as is plain out of the first of the Acts, where Joseph and Mathias were by the Apostles and Brethren set a part for the Apostleship, and Joseph for any thing I know was as well fitted for the Office as Mathias was, for the Church was not able to put a difference betwixt them, which was the more fit, but yet for all this they were not both Apostles, but only Mathias who was lawfully chosen, and immediately called by God into the Office, and then those actions that he did and Adminstrations that he administered, was the execution of his Office, so that it any should have questioned him whether he was an Apostle or no, he would not run to the Administration or Execution of his Office to prove himself a true Apostle, but he would go to his Call into his Office which was from God, and which gave him a being in his Office, and power to Officiate and do those actions that he did: and though he had nev●● lived to have executed any of those actions that belonged to his Office, yet he had been a true Apostle for all thaes; by virtue of his Call into his Apostleship. So that I say to you of your Ministers, it is not sufficient for them when they tre questioned about their Calling, and put upon it to prove it, whether it be from God or the Devil (the one of which it must needs be) to run to the Execution and Administration of their Office, to prove the lawfulness of their stand in their Office; but they should go to the power and Authority that instituted them into their Office of Priesthood, and prove it whether it be true or no, which if they cannot do: I say they are all false and Antichristain Officers and Ministers, which all God's people are bound in Conscience to detest as the Devil, and oppose to the utmost of their power, and strength, and therefore I put you upon it to prove (if you can) the lawfulness of their standing, for do you think that they which are Antichrists Ministers have a greater privilege of exempion from proving the lawfulness of their Calling and Office, when they are questioned, then either that great Prophet Jihn the Baptist, or Josus Christ the son of God, and his Apostles had? truly I see no Ground nor Reason for it, unless you will say their bare word is of greater Authority than the words of the Eternal Son of God, and his Apostles.  
For first of all, John the Baptist when he was questioned by the Scribes and Pharisees what he was, he doth not say It is sufficient that I do the work of a Prophet, and therefore you need not nor have no ground to question me any further about my Authority: no he knew such an Answer would not serve their turn, and therefore when they ask him what he was, he confessed that he was not the Christ, what then art thou? say they to him: art thou Elias? and he saith I am not, who then art thou? he said I am the voice of one caying in the Wilderness make strait the way of the Lord as saith the Prophet Esay as Joh. 1.19.20. and so forward.  
So you see John brings Authority from the Scripture to prove his Office, & doth not run as your Priests do to the Administration or Execution of his Office, to prove his Office, or the lawfulness of his standing in it. Also Christ himself when he was questioned by the Jews about his miracles, and those great works which he wrought, by virtue of what authority he did them, he answers, and saith, If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true, and therefore he brings his Father, and John the Baptist, and the holy Scripture to bear witness of him, that he did not take up his authority that he exercised of himself, neither did he come unto them of his own head and in his own name, but brings the voice of his Father, and the authority of the Word, to bear witness that he was sent of God, & prophesied of old to be the Messiah, John 5.31.32.37.46. & 8.17.18. Also the Apostle Paul when he was questioned by his enemies about his authority, or the lawfulness of his office, he goes unto his Call into his office, and that authority that placed him in it, and by that proves, that he took not that authority that he exercised upon him without good grounds, but had it placed upon him by Jesus Christ himself, Acts 22.10.11. & so forward. Also when he was questioned by the false Apostles at Corinth and Galatia about his authority, he answers for himself, that he was an Apostle, and was free, for I have (saith he seen Jesus Christ) who placed me in my office, and by his authority gave me my Apostleship, and called me by his voice thereunto, so that my authority, and calling is not from men (as you false Apostles are, nor by men, (as the Ordinary Officers of the Church are, who are called by the Church, who hath authority from God so to do) but immediately from Jesus Christ our Lord, as all his true apostles are, 1 Cor. 9.1. Gal. 1.1. So that you see Paul proved he was an Apostle, and a true officer of Jesus Christ, before ever he preached his Gospel, and before ever he was an instrument to bring any to the knowledge and obedience of the truth, and before ever the Corinth's became (being begot by his Ministry) the Seal of his Apostleship. And doth John Baptist, Christ, and his Apostles whensoever they are questioned about their authority by their opposers, prove their calling into their office, by virtue of which they do officiate, and administer those administrations they administer? and think your Ministers those Priests and Deacons of Antichrist to have more exemption than Christ or his Apostles had? and therefore if they be ministers of Christ (as they say they are) I put you and them upon it to prove their calling and office from him, that they were instated into their Ministry by virtue of his power and Laws: which he hath left recorded in his last Will and Testament for the bodies of his particular visible Churches to elect, choose, and ordain their own Officers: either let them do this, or else I say, and will against them all maintain it, that they are Antichrists Ministers, set in by the power of Satan in the Kingdom of the seven headed, and ten horned Beast in direct opposition, and professed hatred against the Kingdom and Sceptre of Jesus Christ the eternal S●n of God, for they are but false Prophets, false She Pheards, and false Teachers, like those in Jeremiahs' time, that run before ever God sent them, and say they are of his sending, when as indeed thiy lie, Jer. 14.14. & 23.21.32 Ezeck. 18.6.7. for he never sent any of them, Rev. 9.3. Therefore do you, and all those that are under their Jurisdiction look to it, as they and you love your own souls: for the Lord hath not only threatened to plague false Prophets, false Ministers, and false shepherds, but also all those that give care and submit unto them, and are seduced by them, Esa 9.16. Jer. 14.15.16. & 23.15.16.34.39. & 27.15. & 29.8.9.18. Ezeck. 13.8.9.10. So that it is not enough for a man that takes upon him to be a Prophet, and a Shepherd to come in the name of the Lord, and do part of those things which a true Prophet, and Shepherd of the Lord doth; but first of all he must prove his Authority, and that he is of the Lords sending, else none of Christ's Sheep are to give ear unto him, John 10. the beginning; for Christ hath bid them beware of such, seeing many of them were, and still a●e to come abroad into the World, coming in such a foul deceiving flattering way, that they should deceive if it were possible the very Elect, Mat. 7.15. & 24.11.24. Mar. 13.22.23. 2 Pet. 2.1. 1 J●hn. 4.1. and the reason wherefore they should beware of them, and try, and examine their Authority from whence it is, as the Church of ●●●●esus did, for which she is highly commended, Rev. 22. is because that false Apostles, and false ministers, all of them are deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ and ministers of righteousness. Therefore all God's people had need exceedingly to labour for true knowledge and understanding is it is their duty, that so they may be able to try, and know false Ministers, and Sheepeards' from true ones, lest their souls run upon the Rocks, and so be in great danger of suffering shipwreck in submitting and giving ●eare unto those Ministers, and Preachers that never were of the Lords sending, nor never received their errand from him in the number of which are all the Ministers in England, as well the best as the worst, done of them being Christ's true Ministers, but Antichrists Locusts, which came out of the smoke of the bottomless pit, and are fully described in the ninth of the Revelation.  
But I know what evation you will have to prove your Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, true, which is to fetch, and derive their lineal succession (which Rabbi Pocklington in his Sunday no Sabbath boasts of) from his impiety of Rome, that Antichrist and man of Sin, and Son of Perdition, 2 Thes. 2.3. and so think to avoid all that I have said against them, and also you will rune to your greasy mouldy Consecration, and laying on hands, by which you give them your own Holy Ghost, namely the spirit of error, of blindness and ignorance, and therefore if you go to the Pope and derive their authority from him: as of absolute necessity you must, this being your best, and only Argument you have to prove them true, which Mason to the utmost makes use of against the Papists, who deny your Bishops, Priests and Deacons to be true ones, because you schismed away from them, and so they want Cannonicall Ordination (as they call it) and therefore Mason in his book of Ordination of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, proves it at large to be a false accusation, and that they are true having, had an inviolable canonical Ordination and Consecration from the Bishops of Rome, as there you may largely read, pag. 10. 41. 58. 62. 64. 88 and so forward to the end: Now if you go this way to work too, as of necessity you must, having no other way, at all to go to prove them true, then what do you else but even you yourself, prove your Ministers to be Antichristian, whom Mason in his foresaid Book, pag. 77 doth prove by the authority of the Scripture, that if they be so, it is the duty of all God's people to separate from them: And as for laying on of hands, I say it was but a Ceremony, which ceased when the visible working of miracles ceased, which if you say to the contrary, I put you upon it, to prove it, a durable and permanent action in the Church of God, absolutely essential to the making of a true Pastor, Teacher, Elder or Bishop: Also you will say, one minister must make an other, but your ministers and officers are made by other ministers and officers, therefore they are true: But I deny that either he that is made, or he that made your ministers is true: But for the Argument, I absolutely deny the proposition, and I affirm that it is not essential to the making of a true Bishop or elder, (which is all one, Titus 1. to be made by other Bishops or Elders, for those Bishops, Elders and Deacons, that were made in the Apostles times, were elected and made by the Church, who only hath power for that end, and the Apostles and Evangelists did nothing else by that action of laying on of hand, but show their liking and approbation of that action that the Church had performed, and of those persons that the Church had made Officers, to officiate in her, and at the laying on of the Apostles hands, God was pleased to work miracles, even to give the Holy Ghost unto those upon whom they was laid, which were no officers in the Church, Acts 8.17.18. & 19.6. and also at the curing the Father of Publius of his Fever, Paul laid his hands upon him and healed him, Acts 28.8. yea Ananias who was no officer in the Church but a Disciple or a private man (as you call them) yet he laid his hands upon Saul, at the doing of which he received his sight, and also the Holy Ghost, Acts 8.20.17. So that you see laying on of hands in the primative time, was not only peculiar to the Apostles and Evangelists themselves, bat also to others which were no officers, but Brethren, out of office, and was not only used at the showing their approbation and liking of those men that the Church had chosen into office, but also at the working of miracles, as the giving of the Holy Ghost, and healing of the Sick, so that I affirm, that Action ceased when the visible working of Miracles ceased, and is not in the least essential to the making of Officers. Again, in the New Testament you do not find, neither are you able to prove or show one example that an Apostle was made by anorher Apostle, or that on? Evangelist was made by another Evangelist, or that one Bishop or Elder was made by another Bishop or Elder, or ever that one Officer made another Officer in the same Office that he himself was in: so that your making of Bishops by other Bishops is an Invention of the Man of Sin, and his Fellows, therefore to make Officers by Officers will never be proved by you nor any others, to be Essential to the making of an Officer, and therefore I say of your Officers, that both the makars and those that are made by them, are all of them false, not only in regard this action is a siction of your own Invention, but also because your Church is false and Antichristian. Therefore if every Parish in England had power in themselves (which in the least they have not) to choose and make their own Officers, yet for all this they would be false, for a false and Antichristian Church as yours is, can never make true Officers and Ministers of Jesus Christ: and though that the Churches of the Separation want the Apostles in personal presence to lay hands upon their Officers which lawfully they choose out from among themselves, yet have they their Laws, Rules and Directions in writing, which is their Office, and is of as great Authority as their personal presence. Mat. 7.12. Luk. 16.29.31 Joh. 5.45. Act. 13.27. & 15.21. & 21.21. 2. Cor. 3.15. All these writings doth show that the Scriptures & Laws of Moses & the Prophets was their Office, for they themselves were dead long before Christ's time, but their writings did still remain, wherefore the spirit of God is pleased to call them by their names, shewong that they are of as great Authority as their personal presence were, and those that now read them if they do not obey them, is as inexcusable as those that lived in their days & heard them from their mouths and yet rejected them. Even so now though we have not Peter & Paul & the rest of the Apostles in personal presence, yet we have now their Laws, Rules, Epistles & directions which they sent & gave to the Churches of God that was planted in their times, & these are there Office, & are of as great Authority & Sufficiency as their personal presence, yea and of greater, as the very false Apostles themselves those enemies of Paul do confess for his letters say they are weighty & powerful, but his bodily presence is weak & his speech contemptible. 2. Cor. 10.10. For Paul in the writing of the Scripture was so powerfully guided by the Spirit of God that it was not possible for him to err in the doing of it, whereas in his other personal actions he was subject to sin & failings as well as Peter was Gal. 2.11. & the rest of the Apostles: some of which we read of Act. 22. which was his going into the Temple with others, after the Ceremonial Law of Moses to purify himself, when he knew his Lord & Master Christ at his death had abolished and put an end both to the Temple & all the Mosaical Rites Ceremonies & Worship, and he himself with the rest of the Apostles Act. 15. but the Spirit of God had decreed the same, which they commanded the Churches inviolably to observe, and also he himself before did preach the same, so that I say the Apostes Laws is their office, and is of as great, yea greater authority then if now we had them in personal being: therefore in my judgement those that do maintain Apostles now in personal being, do maintain an error, seeing that the Apostle Paul calls himself and Barnabas the last, as it were men appointed to death. 1 Cor. 4.9. & if they were the last than none were to follow or succeed them in their Office, therefore your Bishops are all Liars, in calling themselves the Apostles successors, for they are Antichrists Locusts & Frogs which are said to come out of the smoke of the bottommlesse pot, or out of the mouth of the Dragon, Beast & false Prophet Rev. 9.3. & 16.13. So that I affirm the Officers in the true Churches of the Sepearion, that are called by virtue of the Apostles Laws, though they want them to lay hands upon them, to show their aprobation of their fitness for their Office, yet they are as true Officers as those that they themselves caused to be made, and laid their hands upon.  
And thus have I sufficiently by the authority of the sacred word of God proved all your Officers & Ministers, false & Antichristian & none of Christ's, which if you can groundedly contradict, show your best skill challenge I you, & put you to● prop to hold up your tottering & sandy Ch. & Min. or else your great brags will prove no better than wind and fables, and you, yourself found to be a liar.  
2. Again in ●he second place if your Priests by their ministry do not accomplish the same ends, that the Apostles by their ministry did, then by your own grounds they are no true Ministers of Christ: and that they do not by their ministry accomplish the same ends, that the Ministry of the Apostles did, I prove it out of the 1 Cor. 11.2. where the Apostle doth praise the Corinthians, that they did remember him in all things, & keep all the ordinances as he had delivered them unto them; here was one main end that the Ministry of the Apost. did accomplish; namely to bring the Saints in the ch. of God to the obedience not only of some but of all the Laws of Christ, but your Ministry never did, never will, nor never can, so long as they stand in their present calling, and office accomplish this end, in the heart: & lives of those that hear and give ear unto them, but rather by their Ministry they teach them flat Rebellion to the Laws and Ordinances of Christ.  
1. As first Christ is not only the alone Priest of his Church and people to reconcile them by his blood to God his Father, but also he is the alone and only Prophet of his Church, to whom alone they are to go for counsel and knowledge, and to whose voice only they are to give ear, and to no other Prophet, and this did his Apostles teach his people to observe, Acts 3.22.23. for Moses truly said unto your Fathers, a Prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto me him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you, and it shall come to pass, that every soul that will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people, and Gal. 5, 1, there Paul bids them stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Jesus Christ hath made us free and b● n●t again entangled in the yoke of bondage. And in his giving Laws to the Corinthians, he would have them follow him no further than he followed Christ 1. Cor. 11.1. But your Ministers in their actions and practice do declare and say unto the people that they will not own Jesus Christ for the only Prophet or his Church. and therefore they teach the people to worship the Lord with Ceremonies, and Will-worship, as Capping, Cringing and Duking, clean contrary to the seccond Commandment: and also with Holy Garments as they call them, and with book prayer translated out of the Pope's cursed Mass-book, as worthy Dr. Eustaricke doth in the third part of h●s Litany, declare and prove: by which they teach the people to leave the naked simplicity of that worship, which Jesus Christ hath instituted in his New Testament, John 4.23.25. saying to the woman of Samaria, the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him, for God is a spirit, and they that worship rim, must worship him in spirit and in truth; and tie, and bring the people to worship God, with a worship which is merely and altogether sinful, men's inventions and foolish devises, which worship is odious, detestable, hateful, abominable to God, Esa 1.11.12.13. & 66.3.4. Jer. 6.19.20. & 25.6.44.21.22.23. Amos 5.21.22. Mat. 15.8.9. Mark 7.7.8. Col. 2. So that I may truly say, of the Church of England, and the worshippers therein, as the spirit of God said of Judah in the second of Esa 8.9. their Land also is full of Idols, they worship the works of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made, and the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself; therefore forgive them not.  
3. Again in the third place, as Jesus Christ is the only Priest, and Porphet of his Church, so he is the only King and Lawgiver of it, and to it, and none else, Psal. 2. & 149.19. Esa 9.6.7. & 83.20. for the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, (saith the Church of God) the Lord is our King, he will save us? now the Apostles by their ministry taught this to the Saints, and Churches of God, That Jesus Christ is the only King, and Lawgiver of, and to his Church, unto whose Laws and Sceptre alone, and to none other they must stoop, submit, and yield unto, Ephes. 1.21.22. & 2.22.23. Col. 2.2.3.6.7. Heb. 3. begin. & 20.28.29. & 12.25.  
But your Ministers by their Ministrery teach the people to rebel and bid defiance against the Sceptre, Laws, and Commands of Christ, as though he had not had wisdom and power enough, to have erected and governed his own spiritual Kingdom, and to have instituted sufficient Offices as void places for his people, by virtue of his Laws to elect and choose Officers to administer, therein for the building of them up, till they come to perfect then in the knowledge of God, and unto the measure of the fullness of Christ; contrary to what the Apostle affirms by the spirit of God, Ephes. 4.11.12.13. and therefore they teach the people to run to Antichrist, and seek for more Officers: Away with such horrible wickedness as this which your Bishops, Priests, and Deacens, those little toes of Antichrist daily, and hourly perpetrate and commit, as if so be Jesus Christ had not been so faithful in his House, as Moses was in his, and as though he had not had so sufficient a care of his Church under the Gospel, as Moses had under the Law, and therefore they go unto Antichrist, Christ's professed enemy, and there would teach the people to seek for Laws for the governing of the Church of God under the Gospel, rakeing them out of his cursed counsels, Books of Articles, and diabolical Traditions, and in their doing of this, which is their constant practices, they teach flat Rebellion, and High Treason againg the Sceptre and Kingdom of the everlasting Son of God, who will have his church governed by his own Laws, which he instituted, and left recorded in his last Will and Testament, which he hath bequeathed to his church, commanding them, as they will answer it before his dreadful appearing, to observe and keep them strictly without violation in the least; and also by his own Officers therein expressed, who are only five, who are to be permanent, officiating in personal presence and Being for the freedom of his church; namely, Pastor, Teocher, Elder, Deacon, and Widow, Rom. 12.7.8. Phil. 1.1. 1 Tim. 3. & 5. chap. But they teach the people to go to the Laws, and Officers of Antichrist, which are a great multitude in number, as, Patriarches, Primates, metrapolitans, Arch-Bishops, Lord Bishops, Deans, Chancellors, Vicar general, prebend's, Doctors of the Civil Law, Doctors of Divinity, Proctors, Registers, Arch-Deacons, Subdeacons, Priests, Jesuits, Parish-preists, Parsons, Vicars, Curates, Cannons, Petty Cannons, Chanters, Vestrey men, Church wardens Sworn men, Side men, Parish clerks, damnable and devilish Pursuivants, Summers, Apparritours, with a great many more.  
And therefore in this respect do not by their Ministry accomplish the same ends that the Ministry of the Apostles did, and so by your own grounds are no true Ministers.  
And a● for those two things, of conversion, and confirmation, or building up in the ways of God, which you speak of, if you mean by conversion, an opening of the eyes, to turn them from drunkenness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God: Or if you mean, by conversion, a deliverance from the power of darkness, and a translation into the Kingdom of the Son of God, both of which the Apostles Ministry did accomplish in the hearts and lives of God's people, Acts 26.18 Col. 1.13. I absolutely deny it, that your Ministry in England doth this: And therefore I desire you to declare, what you mean by conversion, and prove your definition by the holy Scripture and also prove that you in England are so converted, which when you have done, I shall further answer you, by God's assistance. And as for their building them up in the ways of God as all true Shepherds ought to build, up their sheep, as Acts 20. 1 Pet. 5. yet I deny it, that your ministers do it, for how can they build them up in that which they themselves are ignorant of, and enemies unto; for as Jannes and Jambres which withstood Moses, so do these men also resist the truth, being men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, 2 Tim. 3.8. and do feed you with husks and chaff, being neither willing to embrace it themselves, nor to let those that would, as their constant preaching and speaking against the truth, of God, and the Kingdom of his Son doth witness.  
And in the conclusion of this your Argument, you say, when the Separation can prove conversion in an Antichristian Church, you will say more to them; this belongs to you to prove, for we do not plead for Antichrist, but against him, and all his: And therefore have I taken the pains by the Word of God, and demonstrable Argument grounded thereupon, to prove the Church of England Antichristian: And when you or any other do by the Authority of the unerring and pure Word of God, sufficiently confute what I have writ against it, I do promise you, I will be a member of the Church of England again; but if that be not done, I will by the strength of the Lord of Hosts for ever separate from Church, Ministry, and worship in England, as all and every one of them Antichristean and false: yet thus much I say, and do acknowledge, and the Scripture proves it, that God hath a people or an elect number in spiritual Babylon, yea in the Kingdom of Antichrist, part of which the ch. of England is, and none of them shall perish, but ●e eternally saved: yet I say, it is the duty of all God's Elect & chosen ones, that as yet in the whorish ●os●… of the ch. of Engl. or in any part of Antichrists regiment i● separate away from it, and come out of it, lest God plague them for their staying there, 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 forward, & 51.6.9.11. 2 Cor. 6.16.17. Rev. 14.9.10. & 18.4. Now from all that which hath been said, I frame these Arguments First that every lawful Pastor, Bishop, Minister, or Officer in the visible Church of Christ ought to have a lawful call, and be lawfully chosen into his Office, before he can be a true Officer in the Church of Christ, Acts 1.24.25. & 26. & 24.23. Gal. ᶜ 11. Heb. 5.4.  
But the Ministers and Officers in the Church of England have not a lawful call, neither are lawfully chosen to be Officers in the Church of Christ see the Book of Ordination of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons compared with the Scripture.  
Therefore, all your Ministers are false and Antichristian Officers, Rev. 9.3. 2. Secondly, The doing of those actions that belong to the execution of an office, doth not prove a man to be a lawful officer, but a lawful power instating him into his office, Acts 8.4. & 11.28.24. & 18.24.26.  
But all the Ministers in the church of England have nothing to prove the lawfulness of their standing in their Ministry, but the actions of a Minister, and are not able to prove that they are instated into their Ministry, by virtue of a lawful power and authority.  
Therefore, they are not true Ministers of Christ, but false and Antichristian Ministers of Antichrist.  
3. Again in the third place upon your own grounds I frame this Argument. Those that by their Ministry do not accomplish the same ends, that the Ministry of the Apostles did, are no true ministers.  
But the ministers of the church of England do not accomplish the same ends by their ministry, that the ministry of the Apostles did, 1 Cor. 12.2.  
Therefore, your ministers are no true ministers.  
So you see I have overthrown your second Argument, and that in your own way, and deny that which I have said, and prove against it if you be able.  
3. Again your 3. Arg. to prove your scratched and deformed mother a true visible church is this.  
Whatsoever people do enjoy & outwardly submit themselves to the true worship of God, they are a true visible ch. of Christ. But the people of Eng. d●e outwardly enjoy and submit themselves to the true worship of God. Ergo the people of England are a true visible Church.  
Answ. 3. And for the proof of your Arg. you say that the Separation grant and teach the proposition, but the assupmtion they stiffly deny (as well they may do) but you will stiffly maintain, and prove it to their shame But first of all I will prove your Arg. false to your shame, and then I will examine your proof of it: Therefore I deny your proposition, assumption, and conclusion. And first you say the Separation teach where there is true worship, there is a true Church, what they teach I do not very well know, for I never heard any of their Sermons, but only one, neither have I read but very few either of their Books or writings; but yet I say your Major is not found, for true worship doth not prove a company of people, to be a true visible church of Christ, for they must be a true visible church before they tender and offer up any public worship to him: therefore true worship doth not prov● a true church, but rather a true church proves true worship, for the cause must ever go before the effect which it produceth; but a true Church produceth true worship, and not true worship a true Church: Now to the making of a true Church, there must not only be true matter, but also a true form, 1 Cor. 15.13. Col. 2.5. or an entrance into that heavenly state, or spiritual city, called the New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven, and which is (in the last end) described in the Word of God, and so becoming a politic Kingdom or Body that makes them a true church; or an uniting, joining, or combining of a company of Beleivers together amongst themselves, and so unto Christ their only and alone head and King, promising perfect obedience to all his Laws, and to walk in all his ways, that gives them the denomination of a true visible church of Christ, by virtue of which they come to have Christ's power to execute all the Laws that Jesus Christ hath left and bequeathed in his last will to his well-beloved Spouse, and to administer all his administrations, which out of this state cannot lawfully be administered: as I have already proved at large in my Answer to W. G. an eminent Profess●… in your Church, but yet an earnest pleader for Antichrists Kingdom and dominion, as well as yourself, and therefore for this particular I refer you to that.  
And as for your Minor and Assumption, which is that you in the Church of England do enjoy, and outwardly submit yourselves to the true worship of God: It is most false and a notorious, lie and untruth, and as well might wicked Faux, and the rest of the Gunpowder plotters say, that they submitted unto noble King James Laws and Sceptre, when they went about to blow up the Parliament House, that so they might destroy him and all his; for you do not only oppose, and justle out the true worship of God, and throw down and trample upon the Sceptre of Jesus Christ his Son, but also you set up a false and Antichristian worship, the inventor of which is the Devil, and the man of Sin, his eldest and most obedient Son: Therefore I am ashamed to hear you who boast yourself to be such a mighty champion, as you ●ay you are (having as I hear you have said, that you have confuted many of the Separation) to reason so shallowly and ungroundedly, and against the known and confessed truth and therefore you are but like Goliath the Philistines great champion, who exceedingly reviled as you do, the Host of the Lord, and kept a mighty challenging of them, as though none of God's people had been able to encounter and grapple with him; when as poor David that yongue stripling with his shepherd's staff and a company of smooth stones fling out of a sling overcame and destroyed that mighty Giant, who thought none so strong as himself, 1 Sam. 15. and justifieth an one are you, and will prove to be, for you fight for the spiritual Philistims, the enemies of the Lord, namely for Antichrist, and his Kingdom, and you send forth great brags & boasts against the truth of God amongst your ignorant acquaintance, but indeed they are nothing but wind and chaff not able to stand before the breath of God's sacred truth, which his weak servants for their conquering weapons make use of, as I have already, and shall more fully by the strength of God make it appear in my following lines, and therefore to confute your Argument, and lay it even with the ground, I will bring your own Writers weapons, who were members in the Church of England, who do not plead for Separation, but for Reformation therein read but the Lincolne-shire Ministers Abridgement, and Mr. Cartwrights Defence against Bishop Whiteguift, sometime Pope of Lambeth, and Dr. Ames his Fresh Suit against Human Ceremonies, and you shall see your worship proved to be Antichristian, and none of Christ's, but of the Devil's invention. Also read the Scots Dispute printed in Holland the last Summer, and you shall see the greatest part of your worship, and all your human Ceremonies, with which you serve God, proved to be Idols, as your holy garments, and your invented gestures of bowing, and cringing, and your kneling at the act of receiving the Sacrament, etc. Also read a little Book of Mr. Damfords (sometime Minister of Colmanstreet in London) against the Service. And noble Dr. Bastwickes' book called The Vanity and Impiety of the old Litany. and you shall see the Wickedness, Sinfulness and Ungodliness of it set forth to the utmost, for there it is proved to be an Idol, which as he there faith, sends more souls to Hell in a year then all the profaneness, deboystnesse, wickedness and ungodliness in the Kingdom doth besides, and that nothing could have been invented either by the Devil, or the Pope, for a greater means to pull down the Kingdom of Christ, and for the maintaining and building up the Kingdom of Antichrist, and therefore I put you upon it to Answer their writings, and confute the Arguments of your own Authors, which have fully proved that your worship is no divine but humane worship, and therefore not a true but a false worship.  
Now if you should deny that your human invented diabolical Book of Common prayer, and your sacred Ceremonies (as your Lords and masters the Bishops calls them) are not the worship, with which you in the Church of England worship and serve God, the Book of Common prayer itself will confute you, for there in the Preface before that Book of devised Service, and wicked man's invention they ascribe to the dumb Ceremonies, a Sacramental naature, and the very Office, and work of the spirit of God, the doing of which makes them all to become Idols, and all those Idolaters that use them, or partake with them that do it, for there they say, they are apt to stir up the dull mind of man to the remembrance of his duty to God by some notable and speacial signification whereby he might be edified: Also in the act of uniformity they themselves do confess that they are but of man's Invention, and device, and to worship God with man's devices and Inventions, is odious and detestable unto him, as before I have fully proved: and therefore you in England have not the true Worship of God, and so by your own confession are not a true Church of Christ.  
But now to answer your Argument which you bring to prove your Assumption, which is this: You have had those that have lived and died in the same Worship which you still have, and have been saved in it, therefore it must needs be a true Worship.  
This you say, but do not prove it in the least, but still take that for granted which I deny; which is, that it doth not therefore follow because some in the Church of England have been saved that have used your Worship, that therefore it is true Worship, for than it would follow that the Worship in the Papistry, which in some respects is more grosser than yours, is a true Worship, for you dare not deny it, which if you do, you are not able to prove it, that in the Papistry there hath not been many people that have lived and died therein that have been saved, for the Scripture doth declare that God hath a people there, which he calls upon to come out thence. Rev. 18.4. for he owns his Elect even in Spiritual Babylon: yet for all this it doth not follow that their Worship is or ever was a true Worship, though the Riches of the Grace, and unfathomable Goodness of the Kindness and Love of God doth reach and extend so far as to save some that live and die in that Worship as well as in the Worship of England; yet I say it is as extraordinary a work as the manifestation of God's love to the Thief upon the Cross was, but for all that, I will maintain it, that none of those that yield and submit themselves unto your or their Worship, cannot by the Scripture prove himself to be a visible Christian or a true believer, if they should be put (by God's people) to prove it. Joh. 14.21.23.24. & 15.8.14. Col. 15.19 to the end. Eph, 5.8. Col. 1.21. Tit. 1.16. & 2.14. 1 Pet. 2, 9 Heb 9.14. Jam. 2.17, 18. 1 Joh. 3.8. & 2 Joh. 9 Rev. 13.8. & 14.1.4.9.10. & 19.20.  
Now from that which I have said I frame these Arguments.  
1 That Worship which is of the Devils and Antichrists Invention, Institution & setting up, is no true divine Worship.  
But the Worship of the Church of England is of the Devils & Antichrists Invention, Institution & setting up, as the forenamed Authors, and the 13. Chap of the Rev. doth fully prove.  
Ergo. The Worship in the Church of England is no true Morship.  
2. That Worship which is a main means & cause of pulling down the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, & establishing, maintaining & upholding of the Kingdom of the Devil & Antichrist, & sends more Souls to Hell then all the wickedness Impiety, ungodliness in the Kingdom doth besides, is no true Worship of God● but aught to be detested and abhorred of all his people.  
But such is the Worship of the Church of England as worthy Dr. Bastwicke in the third part of his Litany doth prove.  
Ergo. It is no true Worship, but aught to be detested & separated from by all Gods faithful ones.  
And thus much for the answering of your third & fourth Arguments, which you say are so strong and true, that you say you need spend no more time in the proof of them, but indeed you are exceedingly mistaken, for you have not in the least proved either of them, as I have made it manifest. Well now to come to your fift Argument, which is thus framed.  
If the Church of Engl. have the true matter and form of a true Church than it must needs be a true Ch. But the Ch. of Engl. hath the matter & form of a true Church. Ergo. It is a true visible Church.  
Ans. 5. I Answer, if it had the true matter & form of a true visible Church, then ti were true indeed, for these are both and only essential to the being of a true Ch. but I say, you want them both: But you for to prove it say, that the matter of a true Ch. is a company of men and that you have: and you say the Form is a profession of true Religion: truly you bewray the blindness and ignorance of a man whse brains and understanding is infatuated and made drunk with the spiritual cup of fornication of the scarlat whore, not in the least understanding what you say and affirm: yet to answer your Arg. though I grant, that where true matter and true form is there is a true Church, yet I absolutely deny that you have either true matter or true form, which you say you think none will deny; so that the begging of things, and takeing that for granted which I deny, and which you are never able to prove, is the best ground you have to prove your false Arg. true. But now for the matter of a true Ch. you will have it to be a company of men, making no distinction, but let them be what kind soever they will serve it seems to be true matter in your ch. whether they be a company of men possessed with Devils and unclean spirits from whose mouth Christ will own no confession, nor service, but absolutely commands them to hold their peace and not to take his name in their mouths to speak of him, Mar. 1 s 25.34. oa whether they be Enchanters, Sorcerers, or diviners, or weather they be whoremongers, fornicatorss, Idolaters, adulterers, drunkards, swearers, blaspheamers, profane persons, liars, or those that commit the sin against the holy ghost, so they be but men, let them he what kind of men they will, you say they are fit matter for a true church; indeed I confess they are the fittest matter for your church that you can have, and your church is made up, and doth consist of all such sorts & kinds of wicked persons, which doth evidently & and undeniably prove it to be an Antich. Ch. and one of the national Cities that is under the government of the Beast, for he is said to compel all as you do both rich and poor, high & low, bond & free, to become his servants & subjects and to worship him according to his laws, and whosoever will not, shall not live neither in peace nor quietness. Rev. 13.15.16. and this is the practice of your Church daily and hourly: for the most unfittest matter for your Churches are the Conscientious Saints that desire to glorify God as well in their bodies as in their Souls, and to walk unblamably in all his ways, and if there be any such among you, they are cast out of your Synagogues by you and prohibited either to buy or sell with you though such as these alone be the only true and fit matter for the visible Church or Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Esay. 35.10. & 51.11. Jer. 4.5. Act. 1.14.15. & 2.41.47. & 11.21.23. Rom. 1.7. 1 Cor. 1.2. 1 Pet. 2.9. Rev. 22.14. For all unclean, wicked and ungodly persons of what sort soever, are no fit matter to become members of Christ's holy City, new Jerusalem which is said to come down from Heaven, or visible Church, for all such should and ought to be kept out from thence. Act. 2.40. 1 Cor. 5.13. & 6.9.10. Rev. 21.27. & 22.15.  
In the second place you say the proffession of true Religion is the form of a true Church, & this you in England do and have, and therefore are a true Church. For answer to which I say, that I have already in the foregoing discourse fully proved, that your Religion is not a true Religion but a false, seeing you worship and serve God, not according to his Laws and commands, but with, and according to your own devises and Inventions, but yet I do confess that ye do profess (like the Samaritane) the worship of the true God, but for all that (with them) you serve your Idols, therefore by your own grounds you have not the form of a true Church, wherefore by the same Ground it follows that you are not a true Church. But now punctually to answer your Argument, I affirm that th● form of a true Church is for a company of believers who are washed in the blood of Christ by a free and voluntary Consent or willingness to enter into that heavenly and holy State, City or Kingdom, which in the word of God is plentiuflly described, and by the power of Christ to become a constituted or politique Body or Corporation, or an enclosed or fenced Garden or Vinyard, and then by virtue of their combination uniting & joining themselves together each to other & so unto the Lord, promising to walk in all his ways & to yield obedience to all his Laws & commands, as he requires they should. Gen. 17. 2 Cor. 6 17.18. they become a true visible Church of Jesus Christ. Deut. 29.9.10.11. 2 King. 11.17. 2 Cron. 15.12. Nehe. 10.29. Psal. 110. 3. Jer. 50.4.5. Act. 23.24 & so hath power from Christ her head, to cast out offenders. 1 Cor. 5. to choose elect & ordain her own Officers Act. 6.3.5. & 14.23. & they ordained them Elders in every Church by Election. as the Original and Beza's Translation with others, read it (though the word, Election, by the Bishop's fraud and Policy, be left out in our last English Translation) and to receive in believers. 2 Cor. 2.7.8. and to keep out wicked persons Rev. 21.27. and 22.15. and to reprove and admonish her own Officers Bishops or Overseers Col. 4.17. or do herself any spiritual good, or exclude from herself any evil she fears, or is like to come upon her without the help or assistance of any either church or officers besides herself, Rev. 1.2.3. ch. but the Ch. of Eng. neither hath, or ever had this form in the least, as I have fully manifested elsewhere: as also you may read in a little Book lately printed called the Three Estates, that is to say, the Civil State, the rrue Ecclesiastical Sat, and the False Ecclsiasticall State, and also you want the profession of the true Religion, and therefore your Ch. is no true Ch. of Christ, for it is united by profession & subjection to the Pope of Lambeth, who is substitute to the Pope of Rome, whom Mason in his Epistle Dedicatory before his Book of Ordination of Bishops, Priests and Deacons, calls the Head and chief over the Ch. of Engl. for they in their public Court of High Commission at the censure of that noble and worthy Dr. Bastwicke have renounced the King as Head thereof, and have placed it upon the Bishops of Canterbury, as you may read at large in the 10. and 11. p. of his Answer to sir John Banks, if Canterbury be her Head, as Mason and others affirm, then sure I am, that Christ is none of her head, for his body is no monster, to have two heads Therefore the Church of England is a whorish and Antichristian Church, and none of Christ's, having nothing to do with Jesus Christ. nor any of his Laws, Worship, Offices, Ordinances or Administrations; but in the next place you bring an Argument to prove the Religion in the Church of England to be true, and you thus lay it down.  
That Religion which will lead men on into the true way of salvation, that must needs be the true Religion.  
But the Religion which we profess leads into the true way of salvation, for men to look for salvation in Gods free mercy in Jesus Christ.  
Therefore (say you) your Argument must needs be true.  
I answer that if it were granted (which in the least I do not) that your Religion is true, yet this alone were not sufficient to prove your Church true. But I absolutely deny your Argument, and affirm that your Religion neither is the true Religion, nor that it leads men the true way to salvation, for I have already proved it to be a false Religion, and that it leads men the true way to Rebellion against God, and his Son Jesus Christ. But you will say how comes it to pass that some are saved, which profess our Religion, which you affirm to be false? I answer in Moses words, hidden things belongs to God, but revealed things to us and our Children, Deut. 29.29. but yet when I seriously consider of it, and with a deliberate eye look into the holy Scripture the revealed will of God, it makes me think, say, and cry out with Paul, Rom. 11.33. O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unspeakable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out, who can save his People, those elect ones, even in the bosom of Antichrist his cursed Kingdom of darkness, contrary to all grounded reason that the wit of man is able to give or render from his revealed will, but only must say, it is alone his mere mercy, and gracious, and omnipotent pleasure so to do, who is tied to no means, place or person, but can work, and bring to pass his own ends, and purposes without means, yea and beyond all outward means, 1 Kin. 19.10.17. Ezec. 57 for the holy one of Israel is not limited. But to prove this Argument you lay down an other after this manner. If men professing the same way to salvation that we do, have lived and died in the profession of it, and been saved, then is the Religion and way to salvation that we profess a true Religion and way to salvation. But men that profess our Religion have been saved. Ergo it is true. what childish reasoning is here to beg things after this manner, and to judge the cause by the effect contrary to the whole currant of the Scripture, for it doth largely show, that a bad and wicked cause or action may produce and bring forth a good and glorious effect and this is just as they said in Paul's time, let us do evil that good may come of it, but saith he, such men's damnation is just, Rom. 3.8. and if you have read the Scripture, (which it appears you have not very often) you may know, that the Midwives, and Harlot Rahabs lying saved the Israelites children, and the Spies lives, Exod. 1. Josh. 2. for which act of mercy they are commended in the Word of God, and also it produced good effects to them, for the Lord caused the Midwives to prosper, and saved Rahab alive, yet for all this they sinned in lying, and do you not know, that the Word of God saith we must not do the least evil that the greatest good may come of it: but yet by your reasoning a man may, which to affirm is the height of wickedness, and impiety, and also by your reasoning a man may defend and justify all the sins and say of God's people, and others recorded in the Book of God, out of which that God that is able to bring light out of darkness, and good out of evil, hath brought much glory to himself, as out of Pharaohs hard heartedness and blood thirsty cruelty that he exercised upon God's people, it produced good to them, by working their deliverance, and glory to God, by manifesting his power and goodness, yet for all this Pharaohs sin was never the less. And also according to your reasoning Judas his treason might be excused, for that sin of his brought a world of glory unto God, and salvation and eternal glory to his elect and chosen one's; yet though his betraying of Christ did produce such a good and glorious effect it did nothing at all excuse his sin.  
Again your Arg. is nothing to the purpose to prove that which you have undertaken, for we are not reasoning of the way and means of salvation, which is only and alone by faith in the Lord Christ, which is possible may be had in a false Ch. yea also in no Ch. but the thing we are about is to prove & see whether the Ch. of Eng. be a true Ch. of Christ, or a false Ch. of Antichr.  
But yet more fully to Answer your Argument what though it be confessed that many of God Elect have been saved, that have professed your false and Antichr. Rel. it will not therefore follow, that your Religion is a true Religion, nor your church a true church, because some have been saved, that have professed it: I hope you will not so conclude, which if you do, than I say by your own grounds, that the church of Rome is a true church, the Religion there a true Religion, for many therein have lost their lives for the maintaining of some truths, which have yet adheared to the Church of Rome, & of many of their eternal happiness, as good grounds may be given as the most of the martyrs of the ch. of Eng. yea, and I verily believe, that God hath had, and still hath a people there which belongs to his Election of grace, which both hath and will save, and so by your own grounds their church and Religion are both true, because it is possible that some that profess have been and still may be saved But if you will maintain this, than you contradict your own writers, which have plentifully proved the Religion in Rome and the church thereof, to be false, and yet have granted that some have been saved there, & therefore for you to go about to prove the church of Engl. true, and the worship therein true, because some of the members thereof that have professed the Religion therein have been saved, is an erroneous & unsound ground, for by this ground it will follow, that the Cross upon which the Thief was hanged was a true church, for there he had salvation & the apprehension of God's love, & his assurance of his entrance into the Kingdom of glory, as fully as ever any in the ch. of En. had; and also it will follow, that the Chariot in which the Eunuch road, Acts 8. was a true ch. for there he came to the knowledge of his salvation & the apprehension of the true love of God in Christ; also you know God by his almighty power saved Daniel & the three children alive even in the Lion's den, and in the hot burning furnace, and because God by his power did this, shall I therefore go cast my false into the fire, and among the Lions, & say, they have no power to burn me, or kill me, but I am safe enough because God preserved Daniel, and the three children alive in the like condition: every wise man would conclude surely I were out of my wits: So you see how erroneous, rotten, insufficient & unsound all your grounds & arguments are in the lying down of which you run with your deceitful Logic, like a blind horse in a mill, about, & about, and still come to the same place, where you begun, never in the least prove any thing you say by the authority of the word of God, nor yet by any grounded reason, but ruly your false affirmations, for the wind that comes out of you. mouth, is so weak and feeble, that it will scarce blow away a straw if it lie in your way  
And then in the last place, you bring an Arg. in the neck of this, being of the same nature with the former, and it is this. That because Latimer, Hooper & Bradford, with many others were martyrs in your ch. and were saved ss●… by the judgement of charity (not infallibly) we may judge were saved, and knew the corruptions of your church, and yet did not separate away from it, therefore it is a true Church, and need not be separated from, seeing men may be saved in it. Truly I must confess unto you, I am almost weary with answering your paultery, old, rotten, mouldy stuff, and you are such a novice in the mysteries of God and godliness, and the Kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ, not understanding what you say, or affirm, nor bow to prove an Argument, that I am almost loath any more to contend with you in regard the victory in overcomeing you will be so poor and mean, and your wares are such paltry, and peplary commodities, that I am even tired with looking upon them and turning them over: but yet for all this I will a little reply to this your last Argument, but I hope you do not hold that maxim in the Church of Rome, extra ecclesia nulla salus, that is, out of the Church no salvation, if you do, it is most erroneous, for I have proved it, and the whole New Testament doth declare it, that it is possible for a man to be saved, though he be a member of no visible Church; yea and that some that are joined to a false Church may be saved, but yet if they may be so, it is no ground for their staying, or abiding there, for God calls, and commands all his people to be separated from the World, and all false churches, 2 Cor. 6.16.17.18. Rev. 18.4. but it seems by your reasoning, you hold that if a man get salvation, and get to heaven, and so get his own ends served, let God's glory go a begging, and lie at the stake a bleeding for all you, but truly such a servant deserves no wages, but rather punishment; for alas man this is but self seeking at the best, in which a man can have no spiritual comfort, and joy: But God would have his people to joy and rejoyc in walking in his ways, and sing and be merry, and be of a cheerful countenance, as it doth become the heirs of the Crown of glory, and he would have them not only as it were creep into Heaven, but to strive and labour to have an abundant enterane thereinto, 1 Pet. 19.10.11. but by your reasoning you would have them never be merry, joyful, nor cheerful (for in false ways there is no peace nor comfort, Esa. 59 8 9.11. Mal. 2.2.) but live like forlorn men destitute of all comfort, hanging down their heads like bulrushes, and so dishonour their God and their Christ in the eyes of the men of the world, who will glory and triumph over them, as though there were not that sweetness, beautifulness, amiableness, fullness, satisfaction and contednes in the enjoying of God in his Son Christ, that might make them walk with merry counterances, cheerful hearts and rejoicing souls, as it becomes the Sons and heirs of the King of glory, disdaining, contemning, and lightly esteeming the base and empty moth eaten contents of this present world, and to have their affections crucified to it, and it to them, and though they be in the world, yet to walk as those whose conversation is already in Heaven, longing and desiring to be dissolved to be with Christ which is best of all: Away man, Christ hath no need of such unserviceable self seeking servants as you on are, to wear his glorious and rich Livery, and let me tell you, God never sent his son Christ to save us for that end to live at ease, and delight, as we lift, or in the fashion of the World: but that we should glorify him in being unlike to the World in our lives and conversation by an unblameable walking in all his ways, labouring and endeavouring to yield obedience to all his Laws and commands, not suffering our hearts to be possessed with base fears of the world, nor be in love with the things thereof, but that we should hold forth the profession of the purity of his truth and Gospel without fear before the eyes of the world, and though we suffer persecution, affliction and tribulation for it, that we should joy and rejoce in it and esteem it our Crown and happiness that the Lord counts us worthy to suffer for, his sake: And truly let me tell you, he that seeks but his own ends, and so that he could be but saved cares for no more, not regarding or takeing thought what becomes of God's glory, honour and praise, it is an evident and demonstrable sign, that that man doth not belong to God, nor never shall be heir of glory, John 14.23.24. & 25.8.14. 1 John 3.8.10. & 2.9. Rev. 12.11. & 14.4.  
And what if Latimer, and the rest of the martyrs had communion with the Church of England, is that a sufficient ground, that therefore we must not separate away from it,? I hope not, for what if God winked at their blindness, darkness, and ignorance, yet now let me say with Paul, that in truth he will have all his people to come to the knowledge of his truth and ways, Acts 17.20. because he hath apppointed a day, wherein he will shortly judge that great scarlet whore of Rome, and all her national churches, cities, or daughters that depend upon her, one of which England is; and woe to that man at that day, that is found within her territories, or the Pail of her great catholic church, or the walls of her great wide and fare spread spiritual city.  
Alas man there is a great deal of difference betwixt King Edward's and Queen mary's times, and ours now; the martyrs and people of God were then but newly enlightened, to see the black and spiritual dark Kingdom of Satan, and Antichrist, in which they were brought up, the darkness whereof was so great, the Sun and the Air was both clouded, Rev. 9 2. and the bright, shining light of the old and new Testament shut up in much obscurity to what it is now, and they did but see the abominable wickedness of his kingdom a fare of, like the man in the Gospel, whose eyes Christ opened, who at his first looking up, did see men walking a fare off like trees, even so they saw but the truths a fare off, which made them rejoice at a little Reformation, and highly to esteem of those things in the worship and service of God, that now are made manifest by the light of truth before the open Sun, to be no fit for God's worship and Service than kennel dirt, being mere Idols, and those Idolaters that communicate with them, and though they rejoiced at a little Reformation of Antichrists errors; but now it is made manifest that no Reformation of his Kingdom will serve the turn, but it must be now annihilated and nullified before the visible Kingdom of Christ can flourish, and become the praise of the whole Earth, and you know and confess they would have no Communion with the Church of Rome from which they thought they had separated, neither with that abominable Idol the Mass which you confess they counted detestable, though they had communion with the Church of England and the Service-Booke, but now the Church of England is proved again and again by hundreds of the Separation, and others in their disputes, Sermons and writings, to be as Antichristian as the Church of Rome and the Service Book to be as detestable as the Idol of the Mass, being even one and the same with it, saving that it is in Latin and this in English (as Noble Dr. Bastwicke hath proved) And what though the abomination and fornication of that great Red WHORE of Rome, in King Edward's time was not so fully laid open, but that the Martyrs and chosen people of God did then commit some spiritual Fornication with her, must we therefore do the like? no, God forbidden! for the Lamb that standeth upon mount Zion with an Hundred forty and four Thousand of his Elect and chosen ones having his Father's name written in their Foreheads hath proclaimed and made it manifest, that Babylon or spiritaall Rome is now fallen and is become the habitation of Devils, and though hold of every soul spirit and the Cage of every unclean and hateful, Bird: with whom God's people now at no hand are not to be mixed in spiritual Society or Communion.  
And what though the everlasting Gospel than was not so fully preached and revealed as now it is, so that God's people than were exceeding ignorant of it, and by their blindness thought they thought they had separated away from the Beasts Kingdom, yet were they in it, and did worship him, must it then follow that we must do so too? no: for now the great City Rome is, much more fallen and descovered then it was: and now a third Angel hath proclaimed it with a loud voice having his Commission from God so to do that seeing now the Book is opened, and the truth of the everlasting Gospel is preached and Light is now brought into the world: so that now if after all this a man worship the Beast and his Image, or receive in his right hand or in his forehead his mark, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the Cup of his Indignation, and he shall be tormented with Fire and Brimstone in the presence of the Angels, and in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their Torment ascended up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night that worship the Beast or his Image, or receive the mark of his Name. Rev. 14.8.9.10.11. Wherefore saith the Spirit of God, Came out of her any people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues, chap. 18.5. here is the express command of God himself to all his chosen and elect ones to separate away from all Antichristian Assemblies, and not in the least to partake with them in any of their worship, ordinances, or administrations, which precept if any of them refuse to obey, let them know, that God will plague them, and though for his Covenant sake, he save their souls, yet it will be through much difficulty, accompanied with many an heavy and sad heart, and many a bitter uncomfortable Cross. Therefore let all God's people that yet are in her, or in the bosom of the Church of England, her daughter, as they love their own inward peace, and spiritual joy, and look that their souls should prosper and flourish with grace and Godliness look to it, and withdraw their spiritual obedidience and subjection from all Antichrists Laws and worship, and now join themselves as fellow Cttizens of the City of God, to worship and serve him in mount Zion the beauty of holiness, and there only to yield all spiritual obedience to Christ's spiritual Laws and Sceptre.  
Now my Opposite, I have fully by the authority of the sacred and pure word of God, particularly answered your trifling, childish and frothy arguments, and proved against you and them, that the church, ministry and worship in England is all of them Antichristian, from which all God's people are bound in consolence, ind in pain of undergoing the Lords high displeasure hnd indignation, and being portakers of his fearful and dreadful plagues, to separate away from it, and to have no communion with it.  
Therefore to you my Opposer I say with the Prophet to backstyding Israel, I● God be God follow him, or if Baal or Antichrist or Rome he God then follow him.  
And so much for the Answering of your erroneous Arguments.  
BUt now you will, it may be say, if salvation as you have confessed and proved may be had in a false Ch. yea in no Gh. then wherefore do you enter into, and become a member of a true Church? My Answ. to this is, in the first place negatively: I do not enter thereinto for to be saved thereby, or for to seek for Jesus Christ, as though I wanted either, for I have both Christ and salvation, as all those aught to have, that become fellow citzens of the City of God, as I have before largely proved, neither do I enter into into it to live securely and carelessly in sin & pleasure, looseness of life and conversation; no, none such are fit to be there, and if any such creep in thither, us it is possible they may, they ought to be cast out from them, 1 Cor. 5.13. But affirmatively in the second place I answer, That I enter into it, First in obedience to God's command, Es●. 26.20. who hath commanded and enjoined me, and all his faithful people to become Citizens of his City, and members of his visible church, there to worship him Zion, the beauty of holiness, according to his own Laws and appointment. Again I enter into a true Church estate, to honour and glorify my God, who hath passed by so many thousands as he hath done, and left them in their sins, and yet hath chosen me freely before the foundation of the world was laid; out of the riches and abundance of his grace, and through and for his Son Christ my Saviour's sake, by whose blood my soul is washed and cleansed from all my sins and pollutions, and presented spoils and blameless before his and my heavenly father, by which I am made fit, being an beir of glory, to partake with him in eternal glory in the never ending Kingdom of glory, with unspeakable grace, mercy, and favour, ties and binds me to walk uprightly and is  without fear or self respects in all his ways and commands, and with all my strength and might to set forth his prasie, and to honour and glorify his great and holy name, which is done by my public and open professing of the purity of his truth, and walking inoffensibly and unreprovable in all his paths, endeavouring to the utmost of my power, being assisted with his renewing spirit, (who is the worker of all my works in me and for me) to yield willing and cheerful obedience to all his Laws & commands, by the doing of which, light doth shine so before men, that they may see my good works, and so glorify my father which is in heaven. Also by this I become a witness bearer against the world, leaving them without the least excuse before God in the day of their great accon●nt, in that I esteem the enjoying of God in his Christ above all earthly favours & riches, the sweetness of which makes me with wilingnes and cheerfulness freely & willingly to part with all worldly treasures, delights, & pleasures aed with rejoicing & glorying to suffer persecution, tribulation, and all sort of affliction for the enjoying of him, and yet though I profess the truth of God amongst the men of the world, and do so highly prise it, and esteem it worthy the losing of my life for it, yet they neither do nor will embrace it, has despise and reject it, which makes their sin inexousable. Also I enter into a true church estate, as into a speacial place of shelter, and resume, Esa. 4.5.6. where God in an espeaciall manner hath promised to be a shielder & defender of me from harms and dangers which when I see are, I may press him with the making good of his promise, who in especial manner hath promised to be an hiding place to his people walking here in his ways; whereas though I be his, yet if I walk in false ways, and have communion with false Assemblies, which it is possible for Gods own people to do, then am I without all promise of protection, peace and comfort; for God is terrible and dreadful out of his holy place, or in false ways or in ways of our own invention we shall neither find nor know prace, Esa. 29.13. & 50.10. & 59.8.10.11. & he hath threatened to curse those blessings that are got therein, Mal. 2.2. for the vine thereof is as the vine of Sodom, & of the fields of Gomorah, their grapes are grapoes of gall, and their clusters are bitter, their wine is the poison of Draggans, and the cruel venom of Asps, Deut 32.32.33. but his visible Ch. (or Kingdom) is his City walled, Rev. 21 which he will save & protect his vineyard fenced, Esa. 5. which he will keep Esa. 27.3. his Garden enclosed, which he will preserve; his Spring shut up, which he will the end; his fountain sealed, which he will not suffer to be be broken open, Can. 4.2. his body pelitique, over which he ●s Head, Ephes. 1.22. and therefore bearing a a tender love to the members thereof, Ephes. 5.23.25.30. he will not suffer them to be wronged, but will defend them from their enemies, and keep them in the midst of all afflictions, Esa. 43.1.2. & 41.10.11.14. & 54.17. Heb. 13.5.6. Also I enter into a true Ch. estate, there to find Gods espeaciall presence, which he hath promised therein Psal. 0.11. & 4.6.4.5.68.16. Jer. 8.3. Rev. 21.3.22.23. and that I might grow & increase in grace which he hath promised there, Ps: 132.13.14.15.16. & 133.3. Jer. 8. for he hath said he will water it every moment Esa. 27.3. that so his people may become fruitful and grow ●d like tall Cedars in Lebanon. Lastly, I enter into it, that I might draw more to my God, and gain more and more spiritual fellowship, and communion with him, and that I might make my election & salvation sure, that so an entrance abundantly may be administered unto me, to enter into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ, 9 Pet. 1.10.11. and that so I may walk comfortably, irejoyceingly & cheerfully, as it doth become one united to the Lord of glory, in the professing of whom alone so much riches, treasure, comfort, rejoicing and unspeakable joy is to be found & had, that a beleiver may spend largely & plentifully all his days upon and live like a King, and be never able to exhaust it. And those are my reasons amongst many others. Wherefore though God hath manifested his love and kindness unto me in his son, yet I desire according to my duty to enter into a visible Church, as a visible christian, there publicly in the eyes of his people to worship and serve him only according to his own Laws, without any man's inventions whatsoever.  
But now to say a little to that, which followeth your Arguments, and so I will conclude. You desire to let your Friend know, there have been known wicked men in a true Ch. and therefore though in the Ch. of Eng. there be all sorts of wicked men, yet God's people may have communion with them, because there were wicked men in the Ch. of the Jews, and the Corinth's: And this is that you labour to prove, let me tell you, you might have saved yourself a great deal of pains, for the Separation de confessi & acknowledge, that there hath been wicked men, and also corruptions in a true Ch. and that still may so fall out, that yet in may be so, and yet not the essence of it destroyed: but what get you by this? for this will not serve turn, to warrant communion with the Ch. of Eng. in regard I groundedly & absolutely deny, that either the Ch. of Eng. is or ever was a true Ch. and till you have proved it true, all the pains that you have taken in proving that it is possible for corruptions and wicked livers to be in a true Ch. is spent in vain and to no purpose, and I am confident, that you nor none else will ever be able to prove the Ch. of Eng. true, nor any other Nationall Ch. for Jesus Christ by his death did abolish the National Church of the Jews, with all there Laws, rites and Ceremonies thereof, and in the new Testament did never institute no national Ch. nor left no Law, nor Officers for the governing thereof,, but the Church that he instituted, are free and indedendant bodies, or Congregations depending upon none but only upon Christ their Head: Therefore, national Churches under the Gospel are of Antichrists, that man of sins institution and ordaining, who only hath ordained Laws and officers of his own for the governing of them, as I have sufficiently proved at large in my foresaid Answer to W. G. and but put the ease, the Ch. of Eng. had been a true Ch. as it never was, yet those abominable corruptions, and most detestable, gross, open, notorious wickedness and profanes, would have utterly destroyed long ere this her Essence and Being, and have made her utterly to have forfeited her Charter, and have ceased to a true Ch. for if God threatened to unchurch the Ch. of Ephesus, Rev. 2. and to take his heavenly state, Charter, and Candlestick frow her, for but forsakeing her first Love; and the Gh. of Pergamus for having some in her that taught the Doctrine of Balam; and the Ch. of Thiatira for suffering Jesabels' doctrine to preached amongst them: do you think that he would have spared the Ch. of Eng. to this day, who for many hundred years, even ever since her first constitution, take her at her best, hath been ten times worse than all these, in which all manner of false doctrines have been manifestly maintained and preached, and all kind of profanes & wickedness by her nembers practised & perpetrated. Therefore for you, or any other to say, and affirm, that this monstrous, ugly, botched and skabbed body, is Christ's true Spouse, is dishonourable to his blessed Being and Mediatorship, who gave himself for his Ch., that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, & that he might, preserve it to himself a glorious Ch. not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish, Ephes. 5.26.27. for the name of this City, is the Lord is there, Ezr. 48.15. all the true Inhabitants of which, are to be righteous as the servants and elect ones of the Lord, Esa. 60.21. & 65.2. but in the Ch. of Engl. he that is most acute in teaching false doctrine, and setting up Antichrists wicked Kingdom, climbs to the highest preferment and Church dignity, as they call it, witness, the profane ignorant, sottish, athiestical Bishops, who are so void of understanding in the mysteries of God and godliness, that they dare not publicly dispute with the yonguest boy, that doth oppose them, though they have been challenged to it. Also he that commits the most widkednes and ungodliness, is the best loved and respected, and those that labour to oppose false doctrine and walk more holier than others, are the most hated, despised and reejcted, and this even in the bosom of your Church, even by the Pillars and corner stones thereof, witness those late, bloody, barbarous, and tyrannical cutting of men's ears at the Pillory, and whipping others at the Cart, that even for conscience sake: therefore do you think, or have you any ground to imagine that if ever your Ch. had been true, but that these transcendent, exceeding gross & vile corruptions, would not have nullified destroyed and annihilated her, and ●●●e made Christ long ere now, to have given her a Bill of Divorce, as he did to ●…keslyding Israel, and to have taken her Charter from her, as he hath done from all those famous, flourishing & renowned Churches recorded in the New Testament. It is true, The Ch. of the Jews had gross & mighty corruptions in her, which was the height of her sin, for which God severely plagued and punished her many times: And what if she had such things in her, that will not in the least defend the mighty corruptions in your Ch. seeing as I have proved, it never was a true Ch. no nor never so long as she stands in that false Antichristian, Nationall state as she doth; but as for the Ch. of the Jews, it was a true Ch. unto whom God truly gave his Laws & Ordinances, in the observation & keeping of which, she might have continued lovely, amiable, and beautiful in his eyes, but yours hath not her Power, Laws and Ordinances from God, but from the Devil & Antich. Rev. 13.2.4. It is true, it was the sin of the Jews to commit such gross evils, as they did, and to suffer the offenders amongst them to go unpunished, contrary to their wholesome Laws & Gods own command, who had ordained & commanded them, that the soul that committed such & such evils, should be out off, & destroyed from amongst the people (as you may largely read in the 4. last Books of Moses) because the Land as well as the people was an holy Land by virtue of God's institution of it, and setting it a part for himself, as well as the people; and therefore he would have had heinous transgressors to be destroyed, or killed, lest the Land should be polluted & defiled with their wickedness, as he himself speaks, now because they would not observe the Laws & Ordinances that he had given them, though he suffered their manners long, and bare much with their sin, in that he fatherly chastised and corrected them again & again, before he utterly destroyed them, and anhialated their national Ch. that so they might be left without excuse, but seeing no Reformatton after so many corrections could not be had, but their profanations and gross abominations were so great and continued in, it caused him at the last utterly to renounce them, and for ever put an end unto their national C. and Ceremonial Law, which was done at the death of Christ, when he spoke, and said, it is finished and now he will never any more return again unto them, to become an husband, as he was to the Nation of the Jews, though yet he hath, as the Scriptures declare an elect remnant and company amongst them, and at the end of their Nationall Church, Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God by virtue of that power, which he had received of and from his Father, changed their Laws & Ordinances, as the History of the Acts of the Apostles with the rest of the new Testament doth fully declare, and he institued no national, but particular Churches or Congregations, many of which may be in one Country or nation, & all of them independent bodies, depending upon none, but only upon Christ their head, and withal instituted for it spiritual matter, the particulars of which are to be Believers, as I have already largely proved, & from them only and alone he will accept Service and homage Esay. 43.21. & 51.7. for they alone & not others have true right to take his name in their mouth, & to declare his Statutes & to meddle with his Law, & Testimony Psal. 50.16. Prov. 15: 8.9. & 21.27. Esay 8.16. Mar. 4.34. & also instituted for his Church a spiritual Worship, spiritual Laws, spiritual Government spiritual Ordinances, spiritual Administrations, which none upon pain of Rebellion against Jesus Christ the son of God & Wisdom of his father, are to add to, or detract from.  
Again, in the second place, it is true, that many of those Churches which Christ in his new Testament instituted, as the Church of Corinth for one, in process of time became corrupt, and had gross Offenders in her, yet though at the first Constitution of the Church of Corinth, Rome and others did consist of Saints by calling, and sanctified in Christ Jesus Rom. 1.7. Cor. 1.1.2. Gal. 1.22. that is to say, such as by their outward conversation did declare, that they were united by faith to Jesus Christ; and what though afterward they had corruptions in them, yet that makes nothing at all for you, for first, I put you to prove, that ever your Ch. was true, which if you cannot do, to plead that corruptions may be in a true Church, will do you no good, nor serve nothing to your purpose, nor be no way advantageous to your Ch. which always even from the first day hath been false & antichristian, and what though Corinth had offenders in her, did God wink at them, or did Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles connive at their wickedness? no, for he commanded them to cast out the incestuous person, or give him over to Satan, Epist. 1. chp. 5. as he himself did, Hymeneus & Alexander, that so they may learn not to blaspheme, 1 Tim. 1.20. which casting out into the world under the Gospel, is as great a spiritual punishment, as killing of the body was to the Jews corporal. Also he commands them, that if any of their members were a fornicatur, or covetous, or an Idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, that they should avoid him, and not keep company with him, no not so much as to eat with him▪ ver. 11. But now if this rule should be narrowly observed in your church, as it ought to be in all true visible churches of Jesus Christ, I wonder with whom a man should have any spiritual society or communion, sure I am, not with one amongst ten thousand in your Ch. no nor with one at all, it being in every respect so grossly papistical, antichristian & idolatrous.  
Again, as for that place which in the 2 Cor. 12. last end you cite, where he saith, that he was afraid, that he should be troubled among them, not finding them such as he would, and that he should be humbled among them, in bewailing mamy which have sinned already, and have not repent of their uncleanness, fornication, and lasciviousness, which they had committed, but if you read the next chap. you shall see how he threatneth them, and tells them, that at his coming again 〈◊〉 th●n, though before he had used gentilenes and mildness, yet now he will not spare them, but exercise warrantable sharpness and rigour towards them, according to that power which the Lord had given unto him to edification, and not to destruction, seeing (as he saith) he can do nothing against the truth but for the truth, so that you se, though there were corruptions amongst them and gross sinners yet there is no conniving at it, nor no tollerating of it, but sharp and bitter reproving of it. And as for the rest of those other Scriptures which you cite I answer to them as before, and grant that there was gross corruptions in many of the Churches recorded in the New Testament, yet I say and affirm, it was their sin to suffer, for which God admonished and threatened them, as you may read in the 2. & 3 Chap. of the Rev. which became they continued constant in their sin, and would not reform and amend themselves as they ought and had power to have done, God hath taken away his Candlestick o● heavenly state from them: Whose examples serve for all other Church's warning, for God hath cast them all off and unchurched them, taking the foe feature of their heavenly Charter, as is to be seen at this day. Yea also the Chur. in and at Rome itself, though once the Faith thereof was spoken of to the praise of the Saints therein throughout the whole World Rom. 4.8. Yet they also are cast off, and are now no Church of Christ, but is become long and many years since the seat of Antichrist the man of sin, that son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God. 2 Thess. 2.3.4. that is to say, above all Civil Magistrates, yea Emperor's kings and Princes, which the Spirit of God in the Book of the Psalms calleth Gods. And is become the Habitation of Devils and the hold of every fowl spirit, and a Cage for every unclean and hateful Bird to rest in, with whom all Nations have been made drunk, and still are, with the wine of the wrath of her spiritual Fornication, with whom the Merchants of the Earth are grown rich through the ahoundance of her delicacy●s Rev. 18.2.3. that is to say, her Officers, which the Spirit of God calleth here, Merchants, by virtue of their Offices, have got fat and rich benefices, which they call Spiritual Promotions, by which they are mightily swelled up with Pride, Venery and Luxury, but their day is shortly a coming, wherein they shall cry with weeping and wailing for the final destruction of the great spiritual City of Babylon, saying Alas, Alas, for in one hour she is made desolate & naked. Ver. 15.16.17.18. For she doth been drunk with the Blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Jesus Christ which she hath spilt in great abundance, like water upon the ground, but the day is almost come, wherein the Justice of God will render her a full recompense with Vengeance and Fury: Wherefore to you all God's people that yet is in her, Come out of her & departed from her, for if you stay in her you will partake of her sins, in dsobeying Gods commands and so will be liable and open to his Plagues, wrath and Fury: for her sins have reached unto the Heavens, & God hath remembered her Iniquities. Therefore let us call together the Archers & valiant Spear-men of the Lord, and according to our duty Let us set ourselves in Array against her, & camp round about her, & shoot at her, without mercy: and let none that belong unto her escape your spiritual Darts, but let us reward her even as she hath rewarded us, & double unto her double according to her works, in the Cup which she hath filled to us, let us fill to her double: for she hath been exceeding proud against the Lord of Hosts, even against the Holy One of Israel. Jer. 50.8.14.29. & 51.6.9.10. Rev. 18.4.5.6.  
And also, I will maintain that the Church of Rome as it is called,, and as at this day it stands, and hath done for above a Thousand years, neither is nor never was, a true visible Church of Christ. It is true, there was a true Church in Rome and at Rome, but never of Rome: the members of which were Saints and Believers, but the Church of Rome now consists of all sorts and kinds of wicked and ungodly persons, which they force by spiritual Tyranny if they refuse to submit unto them. Rev. 13.15.16. Yea the common Strumpets & Whores, that pay so many thousand in the year to the Pope's Graceless Impiety for keeping public and open Stew-houses even in Rome itself, for all eommers and goers: are as good members of the Church thereof and as well accepted of as the best they have. And thus I have punctually answered the second thing that you desire your friend to take notice of, which is, that Corruptions may be in a true Church, which I have granted, but yet have proved that it is their sin: & the continuance in their corruptions, will overthrow their Essence & being, & make Christ to begun from them and so unchurch them.  
Also I have showed that it serves nothing to the benefit of your Church, seeing you are not able to prove that ever it was true.  
Now to that which I have said, and by the Authority of the sacred word of God proved, I challenge your particular and punctual Answer in writing wishing you to go to W. B. and G. W. who both have been main sticklers & enemies of late to the truth of God, professed by the total Separation; and desire their best and ablest assistance, for I believe that some of your nine flexible Erroneous & Antichristian Argumenss were digged out of their Leaden Mines, wherefore with importunity, without any denial, desire them to help you to reply in writing, to this my public answer, otherwise I will say and proclaim it, that you all three are fearful cowards, and but the ignorant, dark, night, bragging and screeching Owls of Antichrist. Now out of that you have largely proved you say (but I affirm) you have proved nothing at all to the purpose, you infer those four Conclusions.  
1. That all the Descriptions & Definitions of a visible Church, given by the Separation are all false, because they will have none but Saints in their Church, to be the matter of it. 2. That all their buildings are false. 3. That the ground of their Separation is not sound, seeing that in a true visible Church there have been known wicked men. 4. From hence you infer, that it is lawful and warrantable to have spiritual Communion mith known wicked men in a religious worship seeing they are the greatest part of a visible Ch. & then to conclude all, you say many more things you might have set down if time had permitted, but these you say are sufficient.  
To which I answer, that these four Conclusions are all of them wicked, Antichristian and damnable: without all warrant in the least from the Scripture, as as I have already largely proved; therefore they are not in the least sufficient to satisfy the Conseicnce of any man or woman: I truly desire to walk-in God's ways, therefore if you would still keep your Friend a subjected servant to Antichrist, as you yourself are, then publicly in writing answer that which here I have writ, otherwise I believe and hope that you will lose her with many more besides ere long, so leving you unto Baal for whom you plead and stand up salyng with the spirit of God in Rev. 22.11. he that is unjust let him be unjust still, and he that is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous let him be righteous still, he that is holy let him be holy still; yet for all that if you belong to God's Election of Grace, I desire for you, as it is my duty, that God would reveal his truth, counsels and secrets unto you, which he doth less or more to all those that truly feore him, Ps. 25.12.14. Pro. 3.32. Mar. 4.34. and that you may give true declaration of your unfeigned repentance for your great sin, for standing for Antichrists Kingdom, with all your might, and for so bitter and malicious opposing and reviling the truth of God, and the true professors thereof, which if God give you not grace to do, assuredly know, that seeing you have fallen upon the chief corner stone Jesus Christ, he will destroy and break you, but if he fall upon, as you may justly fear, he will grind you all to dust and powder, Mat. 21.44. Therefore as you love your soul, look to it, seeing you are now admonished by me your Opposite. And so  
I rest your opposing Oppugner in the truth's behalf against all Antichrist are ●…ours and maintainers thereof, though in most cruel and close imprisonment in Irons with my bloody Prelatical enemies desire and hope will shortly put a period to my days.  
John Lilburne. Anno. 1638. which to me is the second year of Remembrance, and the 21 year of my age.   

From the Fleet the Prelates fiery Furnace, yet to me God ●hat made it a delightsome and rejoicing Palace and Castle, in which I stand Sentinel night and day, to defend Zion the City of the living God from her enemies, and to oppose all her opposers, desiring all my fellow brethren, that profess the same truth with me, as valiant and worthy Soldiers of Jesus Christ to lend me their best and courageous assistance, with the choicest of their spiritual weapons, that sow may have in hand with violence ●…ble down in the ground the tottering confused Tower of Babel These Verses were my meditations one night in my close Imprisnment after the reading of a pamphlet sung in the streets of London, in which I was joined as a Traitor with the Scots at their first coming into England.  

The Lord our God is both firm and stable,  
And all his Counsels and Decrees unalterable:  
Which when they surly shall accomplished be,  
The downfall of his enemies we shall see:  
Which I by faith do apprehend to be at hand,  
Which fills my soul with zeal full fast to stand,  
To that renowned cause, for which in bonds I lie.  
Seeing his praise and truth doth spread thereby.   

O happy be the day, that he me brought  
Unto my sorrows, for they unto my thought  
do serve to be the choicest safety can be found  
Upon this vain and empty earthly ground:  
For in them my soul such large experience hath got  
Of that celestial treasure, that ne'er shall rot,  
But will for ay and ay endure,  
As long as God's both stable, firm and sure:  
The like whereof I apprehend can not be had  
As liberty, though my estate esteemed be had.  
Therefore for ever praised be my God,  
That no my house of clay hath laid his rod  
In loving kindness, mercy, and in favour,  
That so my soul from him might never waver.   

Wherefore before I will his Truth deny,  
Resolve, d I am at Stake to die.   
John Lilburne.   

Errata.  
p. 2. l.r. Deut. 16.16. p.l. 12. r to you my l. 18. that her. l. 16. r. so knit. l. 29. r. ordination of. p 6. l 11. r. best. p. 9 l. 41. r. one of. p. 10. l. 16. deal 54. 7. l. 91. r. yet for all. p. 12. r. of faith l. 29. and unless. l 31. deal without a lawful authority given and received from him. p 14. l. 13 they are. p. 19 l 3. r. to observe. l. 19 r. I challenge. l. 20. r. your people. p. 20. l. 28. r. bind. p. 21. l. 21. r. feeding p. 25. l.r. therefore. p. 26. l. 28. r. Gal. 5. p. 30. l. 25. r. failings p. 31. r. only. p. 36. r. under l. r. of l. in Zion. p. 39 l.r. never can be. p. 40. l. 13. deal though.  
FINIS.