you, forestal either your affection or judgment, as if I had hasted
forward the sentence of your civil banishment; for what was done by the
magistrates in that kind was neither done by my counsel nor consent.”
[Sidenote: Persecutors of men’s bodies seldom or never do those men’s
souls good. An excellent observation of a worthy parliament man.]
_Answ._ Although I desire to hear the voice of God from a stranger, an
equal, an inferior, yea, an enemy; yet I observe how this excellent
man cannot but confess how hard it is for any man to do good, to speak
effectually to the soul or conscience of any whose body he afflicts and
persecutes, and that only for their soul and conscience’ sake. Hence,
excellent was the observation of a worthy gentleman in the parliament
against the bishops, viz., That the bishops were far from the practice
of the Lord Jesus, who, together with his word preached to the souls of
men, showed their bodies so much mercy and loving-kindness; whereas the
bishops on the contrary persecute, &c.
[Sidenote: God’s children are not so free in persecuting God’s children,
as persecutors whose professed nature and trade it is.]
Now to the ground from whence my prejudice might arise, he professeth my
banishment proceeded not with his counsel or consent. I answer, I doubt
not but that what Mr. Cotton and others did in procuring my sorrows, was
not without some regret and reluctancy of conscience and affection—as
like it is that David could not procure Uriah’s death, nor Asa imprison
the prophet, with a quiet and free conscience. Yet to the particular,
that Mr. Cotton consented not, what need he, being not one of the civil
court? But that he counselled it, and so consented, beside what other
proof I might produce, and what himself hereunder expresseth, I shall
produce a double and unanswerable testimony.
[Sidenote: Mr. Cotton by teaching persecution cannot but consent to it,
&c.]
First, he publicly taught, and teacheth, except lately Christ Jesus hath
taught him better, that body-killing, soul-killing, and state-killing
doctrine of not permitting but persecuting all other consciences and ways
of worship but his own in the civil state, and so consequently in the
whole world, if the power or empire thereof were in his hand.
[Sidenote: Mr. Cotton privately satisfied the consciences of some that
questioned, whether persecution for conscience was lawful.]
Secondly, as at that sentence divers worthy gentlemen durst not concur
with the rest in such a course, so some that did consent have solemnly
testified, and with tears since to myself confessed, that they could not
in their souls have been brought to have consented to the sentence, had
not Mr. Cotton in private given them advice and counsel, proving it just
and warrantable to their consciences.
I desire to be as charitable as charity would have me, and therefore
would hope that either his memory failed him, or that else he meant,
that in the very time of sentence passing he neither counselled nor
consented—as he hath since said, that he withdrew himself and went out
from the rest—probably out of that reluctation which before I mentioned;
and yet if so, I cannot reconcile his own expression: for thus he goes
on:—
CHAP. V.
_Mr. Cotton._ “Although I dare not deny the sentence passed to be
righteous in the eyes of God, who hath said, that _he that withholdeth
the corn_, which is the staff of life, _from the people, the multitude
shall curse him_, Prov. xi. 26, how much more shall they separate such
from them as do withhold and separate them from the ordinances, or the
ordinances from them, which are in Christ the bread of life.”
[Sidenote: Prov. xi. 26. The scripture produced by Mr. Cotton to prove my
banishment lawful, discussed.]
_Answ._ I desire to inform the reader why it pleaseth Mr. Cotton to
produce this scripture. One of our disputes was concerning the true
ministry appointed by the Lord Jesus. Another was concerning the fitness
and qualification of such persons as have right, according to the
rules of the gospel, to choose and enjoy such a true ministry of the
Lord Jesus. Hence because I professed, and do, against the office of
any ministry but such as the Lord Jesus appointeth, this scripture is
produced against me.
[Sidenote: Mr. Cotton satisfies all men concerning the chief cause of
my banishment. The word of the Lord is the soul’s corn; yet must it be
dispensed according to the word of the Lord.]
Secondly, let this be observed for satisfaction to many who inquire into
the cause of my sufferings, that it pleaseth Mr. Cotton only to produce
this scripture for justifying the sentence as righteous in the eyes of
God, implying what our chief difference was, and consequently what it was
for which I chiefly suffered, to wit, concerning the true ministry of
Christ Jesus. But to the scripture, let the people curse such as hoard up
corporal or spiritual corn, and let those be blessed that sell it: will
it therefore follow, that either the one or the other may lawfully be
sold or bought but with the good will, consent, and authority of the true
owner?[236]
[Sidenote: To some parts the apostles were forbidden to preach, and from
others to depart, shaking off the dust, &c. All the Lord’s corn must be
sold according to the Lord’s ordinance.]
Doth not even the common, civil market abhor and curse that man, who
carries to market and throws about good corn against the owner’s mind
and express command?—who yet is willing and desirous it should be
sold plenteously, if with his consent, according to his order, and to
his honest and reasonable advantage? This is the case of the true and
false ministry. Far be it from my soul’s thought to stop the sweet
streams of the water of life from flowing to refresh the thirsty, or
the bread of life from feeding hungry souls: and yet I would not, and
the Lord Jesus would not, that one drop, or one crumb or grain, should
be unlawfully, disorderly, or prodigally disposed of; for, from the
scorners, contradicters, despisers, persecutors, &c., the apostles,
messengers of the Lord Jesus, were to turn and to shake off the dust of
their feet: yea, it pleased the Spirit of the Lord to forbid the apostles
to preach at all to some places, at some times: so that the whole dispose
of this spiritual corn, for the persons selling, their qualifications,
commissions, or callings, the quantities and qualities of the corn, the
price for which, the persons to whom, the place where, and time when, the
great Lord of the harvest must express his holy will and pleasure, which
must humbly and faithfully be attended on.
[Sidenote: Mr. Cotton himself choosing rather to sell no spiritual corn,
than to yield to some ceremonies.]
In which regard Mr. Cotton deals most partially: for would Mr. Cotton
himself have preached in Old, or will he in New England, with submission
but to some few ceremonies, as the selling of this spiritual corn in a
white coat, a surplice? Did he not rather choose, which I mention to the
Lord’s and Mr. Cotton’s honour, to have shut up his sack’s mouth, to
have been silenced (as they call it) and imprisoned, than to sell that
heavenly corn otherwise than as he was persuaded the Lord appointed? Yea,
hath he not in New England refused to admit the children of godly parents
to baptism, or the parents themselves unto the fellowship of the supper,
until they came into that order which he conceived was the order of the
Lord’s appointing?
[Sidenote: In civil things nothing lawful but what is according to law
and order. In England now, not persons fit, but also truly authorized,
are true officers.]
Again, to descend to human courses, do not all civil men throughout
the world, forbid all building, planting, merchandizing, marrying,
execution of justice, yea, all actions of peace or war, but by a true
and right commission and in a right order? Is it not, in this present
storm of England’s sorrows, one of the greatest queries in all the
kingdom, who are the true officers, true commanders, true justices,
true commissioners, which is the true seal? And doubtless as truth is
but one, so but the one sort is true, and ought to be submitted to, and
the contrary resisted; although it should be granted that the officers
questioned and their actions were noble, excellent, and beyond exception.
[Sidenote: The curse of death in Israel of old, is spiritual death, and
spiritual cutting off, in the church of Christ and Christian Israel now.]
I judge it not here seasonable to entertain the dispute of the true power
and call of Christ’s ministry: I shall only add a word to this scripture,
as it is brought to prove a righteous sentence of banishment on myself
or any that plead against a false office of ministry. It is true in
the national church of Israel, the then only church and nation of God,
he that did aught presumptuously was to be accursed and to be put to
death, Deut. xvii. [12,] a figure of the spiritual putting to death an
obstinate sinner in the church of Christ, who refusing to hear the voice
of Christ is to be cut off from Christ and Christians, and to be esteemed
as a heathen, that is, a Gentile, or publican, Matt. xviii. [17.] Hence,
consequently, the not selling, or the withholding of corn presumptuously,
was death in Israel. But Mr. Cotton cannot prove that every wilful
withholding of corn, in all or any state in the world, and that in time
of plenty, is death; for as for banishment, we never hear of any such
course in Israel.
[Sidenote: Such as are excellently fitted to sell the spiritual corn of
the word of the Lord, and yet find not their call to the ministry, are
not to be put to death or banished.]
And secondly, least of all can he prove, that in all civil states of the
world, that man that pleadeth against a false ministry, or that being
able to preach Christ and doubting of the true way of the ministry since
the apostacy of anti-christ, dares not practise a ministry. Or that many
excellent and worthy gentlemen, lawyers, physicians, and others, as well
gifted in the knowledge of the scripture, and furnished with the gifts of
tongues and utterance, as most that profess the ministry, and yet are not
persuaded to sell spiritual corn, as questioning their true calling and
commission—I say, Mr. Cotton doth not, nor will he ever prove that these,
or any of these, ought to be put to death or banishment in every land or
country.[237]
[Sidenote: Spiritual offences are only liable to a spiritual censure.
Paul not to be banished or killed by Nero, for not preaching the gospel.]
The selling or withholding of spiritual corn, are both of a spiritual
nature, and therefore must necessarily in a true parallel bear relation
to a spiritual curse.[238] Paul wishing himself accursed from Christ
for his countrymen’s sake, Rom. ix. [3,] he spake not of any temporal
death or banishment. Yet nearer, being fitly qualified and truly called
by Christ to the ministry, he cries out, 1 Cor. ix. [16,] _Woe to me if
I preach not the gospel!_ yet did not Paul intend, that therefore the
Roman Nero, or any subordinate power under him in Corinth, should have
either banished or put Paul to death, having committed nothing against
the civil state worthy of such a civil punishment: yea, and Mr. Cotton
himself seemeth to question the sandiness of such a ground to warrant
such proceedings, for thus he goes on:—
CHAP. VI.
_Mr. Cotton._ “And yet it may be they passed that sentence against you,
not upon that ground: but for aught I know, for your other corrupt
doctrines, which tend to the disturbance both of civil and holy peace, as
may appear by that answer which was sent to the brethren of the church of
Salem and yourself.”
[Sidenote: Mr. Cotton himself ignorant of the cause of my sufferings.]
[_Answer._] I answer, it is no wonder that so many having been demanded
the cause of my sufferings have answered, that they could not tell for
what, since Mr. Cotton himself knows not distinctly what cause to assign;
but saith, it may be they passed not that sentence on that ground, &c.
Oh! where was the waking care of so excellent and worthy a man, to see
his brother and beloved in Christ so afflicted, he knows not distinctly
for what![239]
He allegeth a scripture to prove the sentence righteous, and yet
concludeth it may be it was not for that, but for other corrupt doctrines
which he nameth not, nor any scripture to prove them corrupt, or the
sentence righteous for that cause. Oh! that it may please the Father of
lights to awaken both himself and other of my honoured countrymen, to
see how though their hearts wake, in respect of personal grace and life
of Jesus, yet they sleep, insensible of much concerning the purity of
the Lord’s worship, or the sorrows of such, whom they style brethren and
beloved in Christ, afflicted by them.
[Sidenote: Civil peace and civil magistracy blessed ordinances of God.]
But though he name not these corrupt doctrines, a little before I
have, as they were publicly summed up and charged upon me, and yet none
of them tending to the breach of holy or civil peace, of which I have
ever desired to be unfeignedly tender, acknowledging the ordinance of
magistracy to be properly and adequately fitted by God to preserve
the civil state in civil peace and order, as he hath also appointed a
spiritual government and governors in matters pertaining to his worship
and the consciences of men; both which governments, governors, laws,
offences, punishments, are essentially distinct, and the confounding of
them brings all the world into combustion. He adds:
CHAP. VII.
_Mr. Cotton._ “And to speak freely what I think, were my soul in your
soul’s stead, I should think it a work of mercy of God to banish me from
the civil society of such a commonweal, where I could not enjoy holy
fellowship with any church of God amongst them without sin. What should
the daughter of Sion do in Babel, why should she not hasten to flee from
thence?”
_Answer._ Love bids me hope, that Mr. Cotton here intended me a cordial
to revive me in my sorrows:[240] yet, if the ingredients be examined,
there will appear no less than dishonour to the name of God, danger to
every civil state, a miserable comfort to myself, and contradiction
within itself.
[Sidenote: A land cannot be Babel, yet a church of Christ.]
For the last first. If he call the land Babel, mystically, which he must
needs do or else speak not to the point, how can it be _Babel_, and yet
the church of Christ also?
[Sidenote: Famous civil states where yet no sound of Jesus Christ.]
Secondly, it is a dangerous doctrine to affirm it a misery to live in
that state, where a Christian cannot enjoy the fellowship of the public
churches of God without sin. Do we not know many famous states wherein
is known no church of Jesus Christ? Did not God command his people to
pray for the peace of the material city of Babel, Jer. xxix. [7,] and to
seek the peace of it, though no church of God in _Babel_, in the form and
order of it? Or did Sodom, Egypt, Babel, signify material Sodom, Egypt,
Babel? Rev. xi. 8, and xviii. 2.
[Sidenote: A true church of Jesus Christ in material Babylon.]
There was a true church of Jesus Christ in material Babel, 1 Pet. v.
13. Was it then a mercy for all the inhabitants of _Babel_ to have been
banished, whom the church of Jesus Christ durst not to have received to
holy fellowship? Or was it a mercy for any person to have been banished
the city, and driven to the miseries of a barbarous wilderness, him and
his, if some bar had lain upon his conscience that he could not have
enjoyed fellowship with the true church of Christ?
[Sidenote: The mercy of a civil state distinct from mercies of a
spiritual nature.]
Thirdly, for myself, I acknowledge it a blessed gift of God to be enabled
to suffer, and so to be banished for his name’s sake: and yet I doubt
not to affirm, that Mr. Cotton himself would have counted it a mercy if
he might have practised in Old England what now he doth in New, with the
enjoyment of the civil peace, safety, and protection of the state.[241]
[Sidenote: Old and New England, for the countries and civil government
incomparable.]
Or should he dissent from the New English churches, and join in worship
with some other, as some few years since he was upon the point to do
in a separation from the churches there as legal,[242] would he count
it a mercy to be plucked up by the roots, him and his, and to endure
the losses, distractions, miseries that do attend such a condition? The
truth is, both the mother and the daughter, Old and New England—for the
countries and governments are lands and governments incomparable: and
might it please God to persuade the mother to permit the inhabitants of
New England, her daughter, to enjoy their conscience to God, after a
particular congregational way, and to persuade the daughter to permit
the inhabitants of the mother, Old England, to walk there after their
conscience of a parishional way (which yet neither mother nor daughter
is persuaded to permit), I conceive Mr. Cotton himself, were he seated
in Old England again, would not count it a mercy to be banished from the
civil state.
[Sidenote: Mr. Cotton not having felt the miseries of others can be no
equal judge of them.]
And therefore, lastly, as he casts dishonour upon the name of God, to
make Him the author of such cruel mercy, so had his soul been in my
soul’s case, exposed to the miseries, poverties, necessities, wants,
debts, hardships of sea and land, in a banished condition, he would, I
presume, reach forth a more merciful cordial to the afflicted. But he
that is despised and afflicted, is like a lamp despised in the eyes of
him that is at ease, Job xii. 5.
CHAP. VIII.
_Mr. Cotton._ Yea; but he speaks not these things to add affliction
to the afflicted, but if it were the holy will of God to move me to a
serious sight of my sin, and of the justice of God’s hand against it.
“Against your corrupt doctrines it pleased the Lord Jesus to fight
against you, with the sword of his mouth, as himself speaketh, Rev. ii.,
in the mouths and testimonies of the churches and brethren, against whom,
when you overheat yourself in reasoning and disputing against the light
of his truth, it pleased him to stop your mouth by a sudden disease, and
to threaten to take breath from you: but you, instead of recoiling, as
even Balaam offered to do in the like case, chose rather to persist in
the way, and protest against all the churches and brethren that stood
in your way: and thus the good hand of Christ that should have humbled
you to see and turn from the error of your way, hath rather hardened you
therein, and quickened you only to see failings, yea, intolerable errors,
in all the churches and brethren rather than in yourself.”
_Answer._ In these lines, an humble and discerning spirit may
espy:—first, a glorious justification and boasting of himself and others
concurring with him. Secondly, an unrighteous and uncharitable censure of
the afflicted.
[Sidenote: The lantern of God’s word must alone try who fights with
the sword of God’s mouth, the same word of God. Whether Mr. Cotton
persecuting, or the answerer persecuted, be likest to Balaam.]
To the first I say no more, but let the light of the holy lantern of the
word of God discover and try with whom the sword of God’s mouth, that
is, the testimony of the holy scripture for Christ against anti-christ,
abideth. And whether myself and such poor witnesses of Jesus Christ
in Old and New England, Low Countries, &c., desiring in meekness and
patience to testify the truth of Jesus against all false callings of
ministers, &c., or Mr. Cotton, however in his person holy and beloved,
swimming with the stream of outward credit and profit, and smiting with
the fist and sword of persecution such as dare not join in worship with
him:—I say, whether of either be the witnesses of Christ Jesus, in whose
mouth is the sword of his mouth, the sword of the Spirit, the holy word
of God, and whether is most like to Balaam?
[Sidenote: The answerer’s profession concerning his sickness, which Mr.
Cotton upbraids to him. Scripture, history, experience can witness the
censures upon God’s servants in their afflictions.]
To the second: his censure. It is true, it pleased God by excessive
labours on the Lord’s days, and thrice a week at Salem: by labours day
and night in my field with my own hands, for the maintenance of my
charge: by travels also by day and night to go and return from their
court, and not by overheating in dispute, divers of themselves confessing
publicly my moderation, it pleased God to bring me near unto death;
in which time, notwithstanding the mediating testimony of two skilful
in physic, I was unmercifully driven from my chamber to a winter’s
flight.[243] During my sickness, I humbly appeal unto the Father of
spirits for witness of the upright and constant, diligent search my
spirit made after him, in the examination of all passages, both my
private disquisitions with all the chief of their ministers, and public
agitations of points controverted; and what gracious fruit I reaped from
that sickness, I hope my soul shall never forget. However, I mind not to
number up a catalogue of the many censures upon God’s servants in the
time of God’s chastisements and visitations on them, both in scripture,
history, and experience. Nor retort the many evils which it pleased God
to bring upon some chief procurers of my sorrows, nor upon the whole
state immediately after them, which many of their own have observed and
reported to me; but I commit my cause to him that judgeth righteously,
and yet resolve to pray against their evils, Ps. cxli.
CHAP. IX.
_Mr. Cotton._ “In which course, though you say you do not remember an
hour wherein the countenance of the Lord was darkened to you: yet be not
deceived, it is no new thing with Satan to transform himself into an
angel of light, and to cheer the soul with false peace, and with flashes
of counterfeit consolation. Sad and woeful is the memory of Mr. Smith’s
strong consolation on his death-bed, which is set as a seal to his gross
and damnable Arminianism and enthusiasm delivered in the confession
of his faith,[244] prefixed to the story of his life and death. _The
countenance of God is upon his people when they fear him_, not when they
presume of their own strength, and his consolations are not found in the
way of precedence and error, but in the ways of humility and truth.”
_Answer._ To that part which concerns myself, the speech hath reference
either to the matter of justification, or else matter of my affliction
for Christ, of both which I remember I have had discourse.
[Sidenote: A soul at peace with God may yet endure great combats
concerning sanctification.]
For the first, I have expressed in some conference, as Mr. Cotton himself
hath also related concerning some with whom I am not worthy to be named,
that after first manifestations of the countenance of God, reconciled
in the blood of his Son unto my soul, my questions and trouble have not
been concerning my reconciliation and peace with God, but concerning
sanctification, and fellowship with the holiness of God, in which respect
I desire to cry, with Paul, in the bitterness of my spirit, _O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?_
[Sidenote: Affliction for Christ sweet. Two cautions for any in
persecution for conscience.]