The Bloody Tenant Washed and Made White in the Blood of the Lamb, Part 2 · Chapter 7
TO CHAP. VII.
IN the 7th Chapter Mr. Williams examineth thoſe words of my Letter, wherein I ſay, that were my ſoule in his ſoules ſtead, I ſhould accept it as a mercy of God, to baniſh me from the Civill Society of ſuch a Common-wealth, where I could not enjoy holy Fellowſhip with any Church of God amongst them without ſinne. For what ſhould the daughter of Zion doe in Babel? Why ſhould ſhee not haſten to flee from thence?
To this the Examiner anſwereth, that though his love bids him to hope, that Mr. Cotton herein intended him a Cordiall, yet if the Ingredients be examined, there will appeare no leſſe then diſhonour to the Name of God, danger to every Civill State, a miſerable comfort to him, and a contradiction within it ſelfe.
Reply. It is true, what I wrote was in love to his ſoule: but I intended not a cordiall of conſolation to him, (for I did not conceive his Spirit at the preſent prepared for it;) but I intended onelyonly a conviction, to abate the rigour of his indignation againſt the diſpenſation of divine Juſtice: And therefore preſented before him the mercy of God in that Adminiſtration.
But he beginneth with the laſt, firſt, to ſhew me the evill of theſe Ingredients.
And firſt for the contradiction to my ſelfe, in that I ſpeake of the daughter of Zion in Babel: If he call (ſaith he) the Land Babel, how can it be Babel, and the Church of Chriſt alſo?
As if Zion cannot be in Babel, but it muſt be Babel? or as if the Church cannot be in the world, but it muſt be the world? Or as if when I call the Land Babel, I ſpeake of it as it is in it ſelfe, and not rather as it is in his apprehenſion? the Churches (in his imagination) ſtill holding communion with Antichriſtian Babylon.
Secondly, He maketh it a dangerous Doctrine to affirme it, a miſery to live in that State where a Chriſtian cannot enjoy the fellowſhip of the publick Churches of God without ſinne.
Reply. 1. Though I doe affirme it to be a mercy to be delivered out of ſuch a State, yet I doe not affirme it to be a miſery to live in it. It is a mercy to be tranſlated, not onelyonly from miſery to happineſſe, but from a leſſe good to a greater. It is a mercy to a faithfull ſoule to be tranſlated from a Saint to a Miniſter; and yet Saintſhip is no miſery.
2. It is ſome degree of miſery, and no ſmall one to a ſpirituall minde, for a Chriſtian to live where he cannot enjoy the fellowſhip of Churches: or elſe David complained without cauſe; Woe is me, that I am conſtrained to dwell in Meſhek, Pſal. 120 5. & 42.4.
What if there be many famous States, wherein no Church of Jeſus Chriſt is knowne? Is it not a mercy to be diſmiſſed from ſuch a State to a Land of more liberty, and piety?
What if God commanded his people to Pray for the Peace of materiall Babel, whileſt they were forced to abide in it?
Was it not therefore a mercy from God, for Cyrus to deliver them out of Babel?
What if Sodom, Aegypt, Babel, be ſpiritually underſtood, Rev. 11.8. & 14.8.
Is it not therefore a mercy when God calleth his People out of ſuch Dungeons, and ſinkes of abomination?
What if there were a true Church in materiall Babel? 1 Pet. 5.13.
Let him remember what he ſpake a little before; That if I ſpeake not of Babel myſtically, I ſpeake not to the Point: Let him apply it to himſelfe.
Wherefore doth he tell us againe of his being driven into the miſeries of an howling Wilderneſſe?
1. It was no howling Wilderneſſe when he came to it, as hath been ſaid above.
2. He might have gone to other Engliſh Plantations Eaſtward, Paſcato que , and Agaminticus.
3. Solomon telleth us, It is better to live in a Wilderneſſe, then with a contentious, and angry woman, Prov. 21.19. And ſuch he accounteth all our Churches, and Courts to be.
Thirdly, ſaith he, Mr. Cotton himſelfe would have counted it a mercy, if he might have Practiſed in Old-England, what he doth in New-England, with the enjoyment of Civill Peace, &c.
Reply. True; but what is that to the purpoſe? The Queſtion is if I could not enjoy the Fellowſhip of publick Churches without ſinne, (as in thoſe dayes I could not) whether then I would account it a mercy to be removed? Verily, I doe ſo account it, and bleſſe the Lord from my ſoule for his aboundant mercy in forcing me out thence, in ſo fit a ſeaſon.
But further, (ſaith he) what if Mr. Cotton ſhould diſſent from the new Engliſh-Churches, and joyne in worſhip with ſome other, (as ſome few yeares ſince, he was upon the Point to doe, in a ſeparation from the Churches there, as Legall) would he count it a mercy to be pluckt up by the rootes, him, and his, and to endure the loſſes, diſtractions, miſeries, that doe attend ſuch a condition?
Reply. The Examiner is falſly, and foully miſ-informed, when he ſaith, I was about to ſeparate ſome few yeares ſince from the new Engliſh Churches as Legall. For I never counted them as Legall Churches; nor was I ever about to ſeparate from them as Legall, or otherwiſe ſo uncleane, that a good conſcience might not hold communion with them without ſinne.
The truth is, There was a Generation of Familiſts in our own, and other Townes, who under pretence of holding forth, what I had taught, touching union with Chriſt, and evidencing of that union, did ſecretly vent ſundry corrupt, and dangerous errors, and hereſies, denying all inherent righteouſneſſe, and all evidencing of a good eſtate thereby in any ſort, and ſome of them denying alſo the Immortalitie of the ſoule, and Reſurrection of the body. When they were queſtioned by ſome Brethren about thoſe things, they carried it as if they held forth nothing but what they had received from me. Whereof when I was advertiſed, to cleare my ſelfe, I publickly Preached againſt theſe errors. Then ſaid the Brethren to the erring party, See, your Teacher declares himſelfe clearely to differ from you. No matter (ſay the other) what he ſaith in publick, we underſtand him otherwiſe, and we know what he ſaith to us in private. Yea and I my ſelfe could not eaſily beleeve that thoſe erring Brethren, and Siſters were ſo corrupt in their Judgements, as they were reported, they ſeeming to me forward Chriſtians, and utterly denying unto me any ſuch Tenents, or any thing elſe but what they received from my ſelfe. All which bred in ſundry of the Countrey a jealouſie that I was in ſecret a Fomenter of the Spirit of Familiſme, if not leavened my ſelfe that way. Which I diſcerning, it wrought in me thoughts, (as it did in many other ſincerely godly Brethren of our Church) not of a Separation from the Churches, as Legall, (whom we truely embraced, and honoured in the Lord) but of a Remoovall to New Haven, as being better knowne to the Paſtor, and ſome others there, then to ſuch as were at that time jealous of me here. The true Ground whereof was, an inward loathneſſe to be troubleſome to godly mindes, and a feare of the unprofitableneſſe of my Miniſtery there, where my way was ſuſpected to be doubtfull, and dangerous. I choſe therefore rather to meditate a ſilent departure in Peace, then by tarrying here to make way for the breaking forth of Temptations. But when at the Synod I had diſcovered the corruption of the Judgement of the erring Brethren, and ſaw their fraudulent pretence of holding forth no other, but what they received from me, (when as indeed they pleaded for groſſe errors, contrary to my judgement;) and thereupon bare witneſſe againſt them; and when in a private conference with ſome chiefe Magiſtrates, and Elders, I perceived that my purpoſe of removall upon ſuch differences was unwelcome to them, and that ſuch Points needed not to occaſion any diſtance (neither in place, nor in heart) amongſt Brethren, I then reſted ſatisfied in my abode amongſt them, and ſo have continued by the Grace of Chriſt unto this day.
But now to returne to Mr. Williams his Queſtion; In the time of this Difference, would I count it (ſaith he) a mercy to be pluckt up by the rovtes, me, and mine, and to endure the loſſes, diſtractions, and miſeries, that doe attend ſuch a condition?
Anſw. Yea truely, if thoſe jealouſies, and differences had ſtill held, I ſhould have accounted it, and then did account it a mercy to ſee a doore open for remoovall. And therefore in my heart choſe it, and purpoſed it, as a way of wiſdome, and mercy.
But whereas he talketh of plucking up by the rootes, the Metaphor is too Catachreſticall. An old Tree pluckt up by the rootes is not like to grow againe: but neither he, nor I, was expoſed to ſuch an Eradication: we might have remooved (with our ſelves) whatſoever mooveables we had; and what we could not remoove, we might put it off (ſooner, or later) unto others for a valuable conſideration. So that though wee had been plucked up by the rootes, our rootes had not been dried up, but would have ſprung forth againe to our comfortable ſupportance.
It is a queſtion altogether impertinent, which the Examiner putteth in the next place, Whether if the Inhabitants in New-England were permitted to enjoy in Old-England their Congregationall way, whether then Mr. Cotton himſelfe (if be were ſeated in Old England againe) would count it a mercy to be baniſhed from the Civill State?
For that is not at all the Queſtion in hand, but this: whether if there were no Congregationall Churches in Old-England, unto which we might joyne without ſinne, whether then it were a mercy to be thruſt out? And verily for my ſelfe (and I doubt not for many a thouſand more) I ſhould account is a mercy, to be haſtened out, yea, (if I lingred) to be thruſt out in ſuch a caſe. If many thouſand godly perſons in this Countrey did not make the ſame account, how came we to dwell here, as we doe this day?
Neither yet doe I make God the Author of ſuch cruell mercy, in them that were the cauſes of our caſting out, as he calumniateth.
For the Inſtruments of any unjuſt dealing with the ſervants of God may be cruell: when yet the hand of God in ordering ſuch a worke may be moſt mercifull. The hand of God was moſt mercifull to Joſeph in caſting him out of his Fathers houſe into Aegypt, when yet the hand of his brethren was defiled with bloud-guiltie cruelty.
When the Examiner concludeth, that if I had been expoſed to the miſeries, poverties, neceſſities, wants, debts, hardſhips of Sea and Land, in a baniſhed Condition, he preſumeth I would reach forth a more mercifull Cordiall to the afflicted; and therefore looketh at himſelfe afflicted, as a Lampe deſpiſed in the eyes of him that is at eaſe, Job 12.5.
I deſire the Lord might be pleaſed to open his eyes by ſuch afflictions, wiſely to conſider whether he be not out of his way, when he meeteth with ſuch miſeries, poverties, debts, hardſhips? Surely when God hedgeth in the way of his people with thornes, he calleth them to returne to their firſt husband, for then it was better with them, then now, Hoſ. 2.6. His baniſhment was doubtleſſe no cauſe of ſuch afflictions: Divers others have been caſt out of the Countrey, as well as he, and yet God hath generally reſcued them from affliction, & proſpered their eſtates before his eyes. But when he chooſeth rather to betake himſelfe to merchandiſe by Land and Sea, (unto which he was never brought up) then to ſerve the Lord, and his People in diſpenſing ſpirituall food to them in a Churchway, no marvell if the Lord doe not ſhine upon his way, but expoſe him to debts, neceſſities, poverties, miſeries, hardſhips by Sea and Land. It is farre off from me to deſpiſe his afflicted condition: but the trueſt mercifull cordiall to his afflicted eſtate, would be to perſwade him that he is out of his way, and ſtill bleſſeth himſelfe (though God both croſſe his eſtate, and blaſt his ſpirit) in ſuch a way.
As for my being at eaſe, (as he calleth it) had he been a little longer acquainted with the faithfull diſcharge of a Miniſters office, he would not judge it ſuch a ſtate of eaſe. If I durſt allow my ſelfe to ſeeke, and take mine eaſe, I ſhould ſooner chooſe a private ſolitary condition in his Wilderneſſe, then all the throng of employment in this numerous ſociety.