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IT is hard to cōprehend any good vnderstanding in any thing which H. N. doth write / he is so ledd with the spirit of error in al his wayes. yet may we comprehend that his first reason here is against himself; we have not made the natural man;
wherfore he cannot belong vnto vs. Very true; but God hath made it; therfore it belongs to him. If he made it / and it be his; then may he require it when he wil / and we must not deny him his own. Now he requireth it / when for witnesse of his truth men wil shed our blood; though they doe it vnjustly / yet his requiring is just; and we may not deny him or his truth / for the saving of our lives; as before is proved. Of this reason therfore which H. N. bringeth / we may say with the prophet / | his sword hath entred into his own hart.
His next reason is a depth of iniquity; for seeming to plead for God / he seeketh to draw men from God. Gods wil is (sayth he) that al shaped creatures, so wel the manly creature as any other, should live & that it might goe wel with thē. So then to save their natural lives / ye Familists think they may deny & forswear Christ & al true reli∣gion; & may cōmunicate with al idolatrie & worship of divils / if Princes vpō payn of death / shal so cōmād. This was the intende∣ment of this present Letter / sent to two maydens / that refused (as it seemeth) the idolatrous Masse and subjectiō to the Romish An∣tichrist / with hazard of their lives. This is the dayly practise of the Nicolaitans H. Ns disciples / who rather then they wil suffer imprisonment / banishment / death or the like / for their religion; wil joyn with Papists / Protestants / Arrians / Anabaptists / or any religion / if the magistrate authorize and cōmand it. For though they hold that their God of Love (as they cal him) is the true living God, and besides him ther is no God more; and his Gods-service of Love, which they minister vnder the obedience of his Love, is the true safe-making Gods-service, and besides the same ther is not any Gods-service more, neyther in heaven nor yet in earth: yet wil they partake with any of the Godservices vsed in the world / though they be contrary one to another. For H. N. in his new Gospel complayneth that| many have vnorderly rejected and blasphemed the services and ceremonies of the catholik church of Rome, rented the concord & nur∣turable sustentation of the same, & turned them away therfrom, & even so out of their knowledg which they took out of the scripture, brought in certayn services & ceremonies in another wise or order &c. But his disciples in England / which land hath rejected / and departed from the catholike church of Rome / (as many other nations have / ) doe pretend / in their late supplicatiō to the King, yt they ar his true faith∣ful loyal and obedient subjects, to al his lawes and ordinances spiritual & temporal, and doe deny that they vary or swarve frō the now esta∣blished religion in this land, eyther in services, ceremonies, sermons or sacraments. Thus eyther H. N. or these his folowers / or both / must needs be hypocrites / that so doe write and professe of two adverse
churches and religions; when in deed they approve of neyther, but think as H. Ns| Co-elder avoucheth / that they which remayn without them and their Communaltie, and without the Requiring of the gra∣cious Word, and his Service of Love, or withdraw them selves therfrō: have no living God, nor yet true God-service; but are| without God, and without Gods-service, in this world. yet notwithstanding this their judg mēt and profession, rather then the manly creature should die / they wil fal down before idols / wil deny their God of Love, and wil worship the Papists God of bread in the Masse / yea wil cōfesse or deny any point of doctrine / and submitt vnto any Gods-service or religion. And if they wil thus doe / in things concerning God; how much more may we think they wil so doe / in things concer∣ning men. That if any Prince should be so wicked as to forbid al mariage on payn of death / and cōmand or permit a community of womē / or whordome; these mē rather thē ye māly creature should pe∣rish / would not spare to defile their bodies (as wel as their sowles) in al manner filthynes. Yet syn they not (as they perhaps think) if their God of Love have their hart in hold / and they be obedient to the requiring of the service of the Love; for as H. N. sayth| They know not of any other religion or godservice, then of the service of Love.
But let vs further see / if we can comprehend what H. Ns. positi∣on here doth imply. If it be Gods wil that the manly creature should live; and this be absolute and without restraynt; then may not the Magistrate put any to death for any crime; or make warre vpon a∣ny occasion; for H. N. wil tel the magistrate / he made not the natu∣ral man, wherfore he cannot belong vnto him; but vnto God, & his wil is, that al shaped creatures should live, and that it mought goe wel with them. This Anabaptistical error / is built on H. Ns. rotten ground; and that the Familists doe indeed deny the vse of the sword vnto the Magistrate (contrary to Pauls doctrine Rom. 13.) and al vse of warrs / may appear by H. Ns. words otherwhere / complayning of the Land of ignorance (which is every where / but in his Familie) that| they make there many swords, halberds, spears, bowes & arrows, guns, pellets, powder, armor or harnesse &c. for that the tyrannical op∣pressors and those that have a pleasure in destroying, should vse warr & battel therwithal one against another. And because the taking away of the sword / is the frustrating of the magistrates office / (for wher∣fore serveth he / if not as for the wealth of the good / so to take ven∣geance on them that do evil?) therfore it followeth necessarily / that they condemne al magistracie in the church / as do also the Anabap∣tists; for H. N. sayth of his lovely city / that‡ no man reigneth over an other, and that pleaseth God wel, namely that the one man of God reigneth not over the other. Thus vnder a colour that Gods crea∣tures al should live / he would abolish Gods ordinances / (who
hath commanded† that some malefactors should die and not live) and bring confusion vpon civil polities / as he hath vpon Christian religion.
Agayn / in that he sayth al shaped creatures should live / and then the manly creature, so wel as any other; wil it not folow also herevp∣on that Beasts must live / & may not be killed for the food of man. For they are shaped creatures / and made by God / not by vs; and so by H. Ns. learning / cannot belong vnto vs; and therfore may not be killed for our sustenance; though God do playnly permit it in his law / Gen. 9. 3. Deut. 12. 20. 21. 22. And so here is another doctrine of Divils, (as the| holy Ghost caleth it) comprehended in this Oldest Fathers deep head / whiles by consequence he commandeth to ab∣steyn from meates; or els his ey-sight fayled him / when he set down this reason. But the Apostle gathereth quite contrary to this man; as namely because / The earth is the Lords and the plenty therof / therfore we may eat al flesh / 1 Cor. 10. 25. 26. Accordingly / should H. N. (if he had savoured the things of God) have reasoned and con∣cluded; The Lord made our bodies and our sowles / therfore it be∣longeth vnto vs / to look that with both we| glorify him. The bo∣dy is for the Lord / therfore not for fornicatiō: the body is the tem∣ple ‡of the holy Ghost; therfore it may not be prostrate before idols; for† what agreement hath the temple of God with idols; the body is the Lords / therfore it may not sit at the table of Divils; and what∣soever the| hethens or Antichristians offer / they offer vnto Divils / and we cannot drink the cup of the Lord / and the cup of Divils. Thus should H. N. if any Christian wisedome or grace had been in him / have collected and inferred; and not as now he doeth / per∣swade the two daughters to communion with the church of Rome / (which the holy Ghost caleth the habitation of Divils) because their bodies or lives are the Lords; and it belongs not vnto them / to lay down their natural lives for the testimony of Jesus at any time.
But if H. N. had known in any world what the true life meaneth; he would not so have disswaded from suffring temporary death for the Gospels sake. This present life (which he so much estemeth) is a‡ dying dayly, as the Apostle teacheth: the true life is / when the bo∣dy having been† sowen in dishonour / shalbe raysed in glory. Of which raysing vp / this Sadducee H. N. is vtterly ignorant / as af∣ter shal be shewed; and in his ignorance perverteth al religion / and even reason it self / for to maynteyn a momentany natural life / though it be to the / perpetual damnation of body and sowl in hel.
His| conclusiō what the man must forsake, that he may be recōciled to God? not any thing els but his own life, that is the man of syn &c. is like his premisses / ful of guile and errour; and what truth is in it / is against himself. Erroneous it is / to say or to insinuate / that we
may be reconciled to God, by any thing that we can forsake / be it syn or what els. For our reconciliatiō to God is wrought by Christ alone / not by ourselves when we forsake synn; of which poynt we have before spoken. Guileful it is to say or insinuate / that Christ in willing vs to forsake our lives for his sake / meant that by so doing / we should be reconciled to God, or that we do so esteem of any mar∣tyrs death. The man doth by it / (as Christ‡ signified of Peters death) glorify God; vnto whom he was before by Christs death re∣conciled. False it is to say a man must not forsake any thing els but his own synful life; for Christ telleth vs further of† forsaking how∣ses, brethren, sisters, father, mother, wife, children, lands for his names sake; and these I trow are not also the Man of syn that lieth hid in mans hart. But it was farr from H. Ns hart / to forsake any of these for Christ; he loved his sensual life so wel.
Erroneous it is / that our synful life is that man of synn spoken of 2 Thes. 2. of which poynt / is to be spoken in the next place.
And this onely truth / that we should forsake our own synful life, overthroweth H. Ns doctrine / and his disciples practise. For syn it is and a continual synful life / to frequent idolatrous assemblies / hear masse / worship a God of bread / and the beast Antichrist; ob∣serve his wicked ceremonies / and professe his heretical doctrines; as the Nicolaitans wil doe / and H. N. would perswade these daugh∣ters vnto; whiles yet he pretends to have them leav syn. Dissimi∣lation and| hypocrisie / is a hateful syn both to God and man; wher∣in they that live / are altogither strangers from the life of God: and this is the trade of life and religion among the Familists, who ha∣ting all religions but their own; yet wil professe counterfeit and walk in any religion / save their own; for that they doe onely in se∣cret / because their works are evil; but God in his time / wil give them their due reward / even openly.
Psal. 37. 15.
Fidelitas. Declar. chapt. 4. sect. 11.
Evangel. cha ••2. sect. 4.
Fidelitas. Declar. ch. 4. sec 11.
Eph. a. b.
Spir. land. cha. 39. sec. 8.
Spirit. land. chap. 5. sec. 9.
Rom. 13. 4.
Spirit. land. ch. 37. sec. 2.
Exo. 21. 12. 25. 16, 17. &c.
1 Tim. 4. 1. 3.
1 Cor. 6. 20.
ver. 13.
vers 19.
2 Cor. 6. 16.
1 Cor. 10. 20 21. Rev. 9. 20.
Reve. 18. 2.
1 Cor. 15. 31
vers. 42.
sect. 26.
Iohn. 21. 19.
Mat. 19. 29
Mat. 23. 28. 1 Pet. 2. 1.