ABSTRACT
Sister, notwthstandinge my buisines presse me much and I might for the multitude of them, although not vtterly have denyed, yet delayed vnto yowthis duity of aunswer; yett my desire to do yow good hath pDvailed wth me; The rather for that the day of my trouble approchinge1, I knewe not, whether if nowe I lett it passe, I shoulde after recou) the oportunity to aunswer to yor Ire. Nowe, although I could haue reioyced in the Lords guifte of memory bestowed vpon yow, wch retaigne so faythfully many of the speeches that passed betwene vs, yett my reioycinge herein is somwhat abated; In that I may ptly feare yow remember them to farther Judgem*; if havinge no substanciall aunswer vnto the reasons I offer yow, yet yow should bowe no knee vnto the truth wch euidently shyneth in them, or at the least in some of them. Howbeit let vs come to the discourse yow make in yor lettre. Yor grounde that yow maie not comunicate wth vs in the worship of God, ys, for that we are none of the Churche. Lett vs then see whether yor reasons do throwe vs as farre from the Church of Xrist as yor opinion and wordes do. Yow say we are not the Church: and why ? first for that we are not obedient to the voice of Christ. Here I aunswered that or obedience is impfecte as or faythe ys, and therefore that we are not to be shutt from the Church, although or obedience were not full. Wherevnto yor
replye is, that or synnes are pDsumptuous, and not of Infirmity, and therefore none suche as the Churche offendeth in. But who are yow that iudge yor brother ? And why do yow iudge before the tym ? and herein not to tarry vntill the day of the Lo: shall open the hearts of all men ? We pfesse that we doe herein accordinge to that we are pswaded out of the Word. If we be deceyved, as yow saie we are, yett is or synne in Infirmitie that is to say in Ignoraunce, wch in parte cleaveth to the most pfect vpon earth; especially, seeing [51 recto] yow have not any that can evidently convince vs of error. And then yow ought to have remembered that wch thapostle _saith Heb. 5. That euery High Priest (and much more or Savior Xrist) doth moderatly take pitty of them wch are ignorant, & are deceived. And if it were so that we synned against or Conscience through the light of the truth wch shineth in or hearts, yet if we held this light in darkenes for feare, and for that, as yow say, the world goeth not wth it, and so it beinge in weakenes, and not maliciously: It must needes followe that yor iudgm of vs, to an vtter blottinge of or names out of the record and register of the churche of God, is not far from the iust charg of an vnadvised and ou) hasty sentence. I adde for further aunswer out of the 19. Psal. that the children of God have also theire proude and ^sumptuous synnes: wherevnto yor reply was (as yet it is) that I wrest the truth. But yow should tell, out of what points I wrest it, wch allege the words as they are, and in that sence, wch yorself, if yow have feelinge of synne, must needes have experience of; namely that yow have advisedly, contrary to yor knowledge, in hope and pDsuminge that the Lord could1 be m)cifull vnto yow, broken the most holy Comandemts ofthe Lord. Howebeit I will write more nowe then I did then say, and yet nothinge wherof I bring not [ ]2 out of the scripture: That is to say, although the chrch ought indeede to be obedient vnto the voice of Christ, yet it followeth not, that whatsoeu) company obay not the voice of Xrist, is therefore none of the church. The wief ought to obey the husband and yet it followeth not, that because she obeyeth not, therefore she is no wief. Wherfore euen as the wief is a wief although she obey not, as longe as she kepeth the fayth she plighte in marriage, and defileth not herself wth anothers bed: even so it is in the church: That although she be manifoldly vndutifull, yet not having abandoned her husband net ft) by Atheisme, nor by Idolatry, she remayneth still the wief of Xrist. What althoughe she should breake her faith in Idolatry, or Atheisme ? yet as a wief that hath broken her faith is not forthwth out of accompt of a wief vntill she beinge convicted
thereof, or for that cause divorced from her husband: So the Church notwthstandinge her spuall adult)y, is not vnchurched neither ceaseth to be reputed a church, vntill such tyme as the Lo: takinge away the ministry of the Word from her, and the administracon of the Sacramts hath as it wer by bill of divorcemt disabled her, in taking from her all her Jewels and ornamts, wherwth he bewtified [51 verso] her, when first he contracted wth her. And this as in diu)s other places of the Prophets is manifest. Jerem. 3 where not the 10 tribes alone but Juda also, is charged wth Idolatry. Yet for all that, either Juda ceased not to be the Church of Christ, or there was at that tyme no Church of God in the world; the latter whereof beinge absurd, the form) must needes be true and Catholic#. This is yett more evident in the Jewes wch lyved in or Saviors tyme, who not wth standing that they had vtterly renounced the soonne of God, and that be [mc] ye crucifying of him, yet for all that are in the 2. 3. & 4 of the Act$ dealt wth by Peter and other apostles as brethere and fathers, as wth those to whome the promises do apteine. So that theire synne and Apostacy, al though neu) so greate nor so horrible, dothe not dislodge them from their place in the Citty of God, vntill such tyme, as beinge [ J1 and sharpely [sic] reproual for theire synne, they declare themselves despat enemyes of the truth whereunto they have resisted. Now therefore consider wth yor self, yf we, as yow say, are falne from the truth, whome have we had to convince vs of or apostacy & depture from or god ? Yow have indeed enowe that bitterly speak against vs, that denounce fearfull Judgemts vpon vs: but neither are they mynisters sent vnto vs: and yf they were, yet haveinge no reproof in theire mouthes, nor argumts to con fute vs; their thunderbolts of Judgem* and condempnacon are like headles arrowes, not taken out of the lords quyver but from theyre owne sydes, picked forth from a weake hand of theyr owne conceyt, then shott out from they [sic] myghty arme of the Lords spirit. Neither is the place of John 3. 36 that he that obeyeth not the truth shall not see lief ag* [ ? ]2 for besides that it is vntruely alledged for the obedience of works wch or Savior doth euidently vnderstand of obedc of faith, as appeareth by the form) pt of the verse. Yow maie vnderstand that they may and ought often tymes remaine in accompt of the church whom the L. will fearefully condempne.
