4 APPENDIX Numb. III. London, the rgthof :anuary, 163.8. Dear Sir, <THESE are to return you many Thanks for your two Letters; which ' A have been a very great Comfort to me in myAfi&ionand Warfare that I. ' am now ingaged in. Sir, I thought good to he filent a while, and not to trouble you with any more Letters till I had feme new thing to fay to you : Now what < I have to fay is reducible to Three Heads ; r. Í would inform you what God e bath done for me fince my laft. z. What I have done, I hope, in his Strength ' and that I may not doubt to fay 'tis for him in* the Pointof Union. And 3. The ` prefent Frame of my Spirit and State. ` For God's dealing with me. Sir, after waiting on the Lord inhisway, figh-. ` ing for Light, and panting after him for refrefhing ; as the Heartpanteth after the s Water Brook : My Light bath broke forthas the Morning : It bath rofe in obfearity o ` -and my Darknef, became as the Noon Day. Ike by Experience, that though I am dark,God is Light ; and though I ampoor,heis Rich ; and I believe there is nothing ` 1 want, but Heaven is full of it. The right Notion ofGod's Univerfal Church, and theUnity he would have amongft the Members; and indeed, the necefGty `thereof upon the Penalty of infinite Dametage to the moft excellent Body of Chrift is, that God bath bleft me with the Sght of, and (hewn me as in a Glafs, ' the Condition of all our Congregations that refufe Communion with other ` Churches of Chrift, flooding off horn the main body of the Church militant, ' as Chriff's Part of that Body, as Antichriftian; and fo refuting to give or take In- ' fuences for their Comfort and Succour : It healeththe whole, but dreadfully en- ' dangereth thofe (mall Parts fo divided : Jail as it would endanger a.Troop or ' Company that fhould Fond off from the main Body of a great Army that hath a potent Enemy engaged in the Fier(' againft them. By this Light I perceive our Cafe, namely, that we are, as you fay, guiltyof Schifm. The Light in this Matter being clear to me,. I nowbegin to be fatisfied that the Lord path vifitedme from an high in Mercy, and that all my inward Oppofitions, and outward too, ' from my Friends, areof Satan toflopme in a bleffed Work. I praife God I am now help'd to bear the Reproaches of my dear Friends that pour Contempt upon one daily, as a molt dreadful Apoftate, a Jade's, one that it had been good for ne. ' -ver to have been born ; one, that though I were as the Signet on God's Right ' Hand, I fhould be pluck'd from thence; others wifhing they had followed me to my Grave when they went with me to Baptifm. But it ftirreth me not much ; for though their Zeal for God and his Truth, and their Love to Chrift and Ho- ' linefi, and Ability to !offer for Chrift be morethan mine, yet my Confcience tel- ' loth me they are in an Error, and that I am fincere in all I do, not fwayed by carnal Confiderations, in which I ans fò manifeft to their Confcienees, that they ' are more troubled with me for that things fake. Oh, Sir, I admire how a Man ` without the Breft-plate of Righteoufnefs holdeth up his Head in fuch a Day : But ' withal, I expo, ience the Worthand Excellency thereof. By the Grace of God; my Righteouf eß I will hold fafi, andmy Heart fhali not reprove me all my Days: My confcience telleth me (which is my great Comfort) that I have not wickedlyde- ' patted frommy God, that I would not break the 'eat of his Laws willingly, to ' gain a Thoufand Worlds : That the LoveI bear to my Saviour, and his molt ex- I cellent Body, the Church, is the chiefthing that infpireth me in all I do. ` Now z.Touching whatI have done towardsUnion fence Iwrote fall, it is as fol- 'loweth: r. I have been at Mr.G.'sCongregation, from whom I departed,toacknow- .' ledge my Sin in feparatingfrom them upon fuch filly Grounds,and have offeredmy fell to breakbread with them if they pleafed : But withal, told thewhole Church, that for two Reafons I could not come fo dole to them as heretofore, n. be- ' caufe ofmy Relation to the poor People I now fern, beingnot yet well lodged in ' tome fife Place. And z. becaufe of force Scruples in my Mind, whetherInde- pendencydid not infer Schifm in the Church Univerfal : As that Independency upon the narrow foot ; I mean, that which divideth Communion with Saints, as Saints cloth, fo my refuting Communion with them, made me guilty of Schifra, ' in refpeft of that particular, I do not doubt it, and ourAnabaptifts are their natu o ral Ofhpring. But how to determine my Duty, in refpe& of Mr. Goodwins `Church, from whom I feparated, and with whom I was for many Years joined, I know not, confidering their Principles arelarger for Communion than s.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=