Chapter XLI: Appendix: Extracts From “epistles.” (1)

JOHN ROGERS, SR.

_Christian Reader_:—

I direct this my book to thee, without any regard to one sect more
than another, for the unity and fellowship of God’s people is
Love, and this Love is the bond of perfectness, and by this Love
shall all men know that we are Christ’s disciples; and if this
Love be with us and dwell in us, by it we shall know that we are
translated from death unto life; for that faith that purifies the
soul works by this Love, and by this faith which works by Love we
come to have the victory over the world.

Beloved brethren, Since that great apostacy hath been, which the
holy apostles did in their day fore-tell of, which hath spread
over nations and kingdoms, so that the very names of things in
scripture hath been (and in many things yet are) wrongly applied
and generally believed to be that which they are not; and those
false customs which this great apostacy hath brought in hath been
received (and yet are in many things) for truths; but God hath in
these latter ages raised up such lights in the world at several
times as hath discovered much of the great mystery of iniquity;
but they have always been accounted (at their first appearing) as
deceivers and seducers and the like, by the dark world in general,
and met with great opposition from the powers of this world, even
from the powers of darkness; but the God with whom all power is
hath so borne them up, through their faith, that the gates of hell
were not able to withstand them, nor all the powers of darkness
able to gainsay them, so that Satan hath been forced to fit up a
new form of pretended holiness to deceive the world with, at
several times, yea, even at every such appearance of the light of
the gospel; for so often as the Lord hath been pleased to reveal
unto his Church the life and light of the gospel, by shining into
the hearts of his children, so often hath there been a falling
away, and that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world, hath at such times endeavored to work
in the hearts of governors and great men of the earth to set up
that which they imagine to be the worship of God, and to maintain
the same, and this hath ever been a snare and net whereby God’s
children have been ensnared and hypocrites set up; for the true
worship of God is in righteousness and true holiness in the inner
man, and none can thus worship God till he sets them free from the
Egypt of sin, and works this righteousness in their own hearts by
his own Spirit; and such as these cannot conform to any prescribed
form set up by the powers of darkness of this world, without
procuring the great displeasure of God; for they are to be God’s
witnesses of that worship which God hath set up in the hearts of
his own children, who alone can worship God in spirit and in
truth, and none else; and these are the light of the world, and
yet are but strangers and pilgrims in the world; for their kingdom
is not of this world. But those that fall away from the spirit of
truth into the spirit of the world are the false prophets and
antichrists, and these are they whom the world doth follow and
close with, according to scripture testimony; for saith the
scripture, They are of the world, and the world heareth them; he
that is not of God heareth not us; by this we know, the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Here is a plain description laid
down for us to know the false prophets by, to wit, “for the world
heareth them”; by this we know they are always the greatest
number, because the body of the people will hear and speak well of
them; but the world will not hear and speak well of the true,
saith the scripture; and this is the description the scripture
gives us to know them by. I John 4, 5, 6. Luke 6, 26. Mat. 5, 11,
12.

* * * * *

What I have written in this book to the churches of Christ called
Quakers I did present to the ministry of the said people in the
time of a general meeting at Rhode Island, desiring of them it
might be read to the congregation at the said meeting, and so
handed among them till it come to Wm. Penn and the rest of their
ministry. But after the ministry had perused it, some of them told
me that I knew they did look at water baptism useless after a
person came to be baptised with the Spirit. To which I replied,
Your argument is just contrary to the scripture; for said Peter,
“Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptised which
have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them
to be baptized in the name of the Lord.” Acts 10, 47, 48. Another
replied, saying, “Thou holds forth the light contrary to what we
have done, both in our public testimonies and printed books.” To
which I answered, “If you can shew me wherein I have held it forth
contrary to the holy Scriptures, it shall be rectified:” But I
heard no further reply to that. I then told them that if they
would be pleased to publish it among themselves, I should be
satisfied, and proceed no further with it, otherwise my purpose
was to print it. Whereupon, some of them asked me whether I would
be satisfied if they read it in their private meeting. I told them
Yes; for I directed it to them and not to the world. Upon which
they appointed me to come to the same place the next morning at
seven of the clock for an answer; accordingly I did, where my book
was returned to me again, some saying “It holds forth things
contrary to what we have done, both in our public testimonies and
printed books, and may make a division among us.” To which I
answered, “If truth make a division among you, it is such a
division as Christ came to make.” But they thus refusing to
publish it among themselves, I have thought it my duty to put it
to public view, believing there is yet a remnant among them which
have not defiled their garments.

I have also added something more at the end of that epistle which
I presented to them, to show the difference between the
ministration of the moral law (written in the hearts of all the
children of Adam) and of the ministration of the gospel of Jesus
Christ (written on the hearts of God’s children by the spirit of
the living God) the one being the light of condemnation, the other
being the light of life, or the light of our justification,
through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, and both proceeding
from the self-same God.

* * * * *

And as to what I have written to the observers of the Seventh Day
Sabbath, these may certify thee that after it pleased God, through
his rich grace in Christ Jesus, to take away the guilt of my sins
from my conscience and to send the spirit of his Son into my
heart, whereby he did reveal unto me his love and his acceptance
of me in Jesus Christ, this unspeakable mercy did greatly engage
my heart to love God and diligently to search the Scriptures, that
thereby I might know how to serve God acceptably, for then I soon
became a seeker how to worship God, though more zealous of the
tradition of my fathers till I saw them to be traditions and no
scripture precepts. I thus, upon diligent search of the
Scriptures, found that the First-day Sabbath was nowhere commanded
by any law of God, and the Scriptures telling me where no law is
there can be no transgression, and that it is but vain to worship
God by men’s traditions, Mat. 15, 9, and also finding by Scripture
that there was a commandment for the keeping of the seventh day, I
then openly labored on the first day of the week, in faithfulness
to God and my fellow creatures, and strictly kept the fourth
commandment, which commanded labor on the first day of the week,
and required rest on the seventh. But I continuing a diligent
searcher of the holy Scriptures, and begging at the Throne of
Grace for direction in the way of truth, it pleased God to open my
understanding to understand the Scriptures and to see that the
seventh day sabbath was but a sign (under the law) of a gospel
rest that Christ gives the soul, and that the shadowing part of
the law was nailed to the cross of Christ; I could then no longer
observe the seventh day without defiling my conscience; for saith
Christ, Mat. 10, 27: “What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in
light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the
housetops.” I then wrote to those of my brethren that kept the
seventh day sabbath, showing them how it was but a sign or shadow
of a better thing that was to come by Jesus Christ, and since have
writ this following Epistle to them, wherein is opened the
covenant of the law and the covenant of grace, the first covenant
being a figure of the second; which covenant, with all the rites
and ceremonies of it, continued until the establishment of the new
testament by the blood of Jesus Christ; which testament contains
the substance of those things shadowed out in the first covenant;
and though the shadowing part of the law was nailed to the cross
of Christ, and so ceased, as they were signs and shadows, yet it
is as easy for heaven and earth to pass as it is for one tittle
(of what was shadowed out by the law) to escape of being fulfilled
by Christ in the substance of it; for what God had before
determined should be fulfilled by Christ was prophesied of by the
law, as well as by the prophets, as is to be seen, Mat. 2, 13. But
John the Baptist came so near to him that he pointed at him
saying, Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the
world.

I have thought it my duty to put these things to public view,
being sensible of the wiles of Satan, who is wont to work in the
darkness of men, to mislead them to make idols of such things
which God commanded to be observed as signs of instructions to his
church as is to be seen, Numb. 21, 9, compared with II Kings 18,
4, and what it was a sign of is to be seen, John 3, 14, 15.

Then follows the Epistle to the Quakers and that to the Seventh Day Baptists.

EXTRACTS FROM “TWO MINISTRATIONS.”

JOHN ROGERS, SR.

... But before he came into the world, those that were under the
second ministration were led and taught by a shadowing law, and
were under typical judges, kings and priests, who were types of
Christ’s kingly, prophetical and priestly offices; but since his
coming in the flesh, they have ceased, and He himself is their
alone King, Priest and Prophet, to rule and teach them, in a more
evangelical or gospel way; and this was prophesied of before his
coming into the world, Deut. 18, 15, Isa. 7, 6, Psal. 110, 4. Thus
was He prophesied of before his coming in the flesh, to wit in his
prophetical, kingly and priestly offices; but He being now already
come, we are to hear Him in all things, and to follow Him in all
exemplary things, and He alone is to rule in his church, being
their King, Priest and Prophet.

... And although we are of another kingdom, and therefore are not
to be concerned in the kingdom we do not belong to, either to sit
in judgment with them, or to fight and kill under their kingdom,
yet, as being in their country and limits, rather than to offend
them we have liberty from our King to pay them tribute for the
carrying on the affairs of their kingdom and government, both by
his doctrine and example, Rom. 13, 6, 7 etc., Mat. 17, 24 etc....
But although the children of God are free, being of another
kingdom, yet they are not to use their liberty for a cloak of
maliciousness against them, but as they are the servants of God,
and proper subjects of his kingdom, they are to honour all men,
and to fear God and to honour the king, and to make conscience, as
Christ did, not to offend them, but rather to give them their
demand for carrying on their affairs in their own kingdom, ...

Can it stand with Christianity, according to Christ’s doctrine and
example since He came into the world, for his church and people to
join in with the powers of this world to resist evil, by judging
and condemning sinners, and to destroy men’s lives, by fighting
against flesh and blood with carnal weapons; or to lord it over
others by exercising authority over them, as the kings and judges
of this world do?

No: for both his doctrine and example forbid his church all such
things, as appeareth by these following Scriptures, ... And thus
are we to be followers of Him, and not to take the place of a
judge upon us, from the hands of the children of this world, and
to follow them in their kingdom, to sit with them in judgment, to
judge and condemn sinners, whom Christ did not come to judge, or
to condemn, but to save. And also seeing He who was without sin
hath not executed justice upon us who were sinners, but hath
extended his grace and mercy to us, in acquitting and forgiving
us, so ought we to be followers of Him, and not now become judges
and condemners of sinners, seeing he hath not judged nor condemned
us for our sins. And seeing he who was without sin did not cast a
stone at the woman taken in adultery, who was a sinner, so
likewise let us, who were once sinners, learn of him to be
merciful unto sinners, as he hath been merciful unto us, who came
not to destroy men’s lives but to save them....

... But Christ’s doctrine doth not give his disciples so much
liberty as to defend themselves by the law of justice from the
hands of earthly judges, Mat. 5, 38 etc. “Ye have heard that it
hath been said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’; but I
say unto you that ye resist not evil, etc,” “And if any man will
sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy
cloak also, etc.”... We are to love our enemies, and to bless them
that curse us and to do good to them that hate us, and to pray for
them that despitefully use us and persecute us, Mat. 5, 44, and to
do violence to no man, and to live peaceably with all men, as much
as in us lies, by suffering ourselves to be defrauded, Rom. 12,
18. I Cor. 6, 7.

Thus we may see, by the doctrine and example of Christ, that it
cannot stand with perfect Christianity to be either governor,
judge, executioner or jury man, or to be active in the making any
laws which may be useful in the body of the kingdoms of this
world, who are only under the ministration of the moral law, and
their weapons are carnal, with which weapons they fight against
flesh and blood only, punishing both the righteous and the wicked,
according to what is written, “And he was numbered with the
transgressors” (by the judges of this world) Mark 15, 28.

... And this His kingdom and peaceable government was before
prophesied of, and how he should put an end to wars, and reconcile
sinners to his church, ...

... Then said Jesus unto him, “Put up again thy sword into his
place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the
sword.” Matt. 26, 52. “He that leadeth into captivity shall go
into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with
the sword.” Rev. 13, 10. Here He rebuketh the use of the sword,
according to what was before prophesied of him, threatening them
that use it to measure the same measure to them.... From hence it
appears plainly that the very reason why Christ bid them provide
swords was that He might fulfil those prophesies which prophesied
of him beforehand; that He should rebuke the use of the sword when
he should come, and cause them to beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and that they
should learn war no more. For when they told Him there were two
swords, He said, “It is enough;” but when they came to make use of
them, he rebuked the use of them, saying, “Put up again thy sword
into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with
the sword.” So that it appears he did not bid them provide swords
to kill and slay with them, but put an end to the use of them in
his church....

We thus seeing that Christ hath rebuked the use of the sword in
his church, and that they are to learn war no more, but are to
beat their swords into useful tools, for necessary uses, it is an
evil thing for a Christian to practice any gesture that tendeth to
war, as watching, warding or training, or exercising any posture
leading to war; for it is some degree of contempt to the doctrine
of Christ, who hath taught us to learn war no more, but to live
the life of faith and love, who hath promised us his protection
and preservation from famine, pestilence and sword, when we love
him and keep his commandments, as throughout the 91st psalm, Job
5, 19, 20. Isa. 26, 1, 2, 3, 4. Rev. 3, 10.

... But forasmuch as we have obtained mercy and grace by Jesus
Christ, and are thereby reconciled to God, and made heirs of a
better kingdom, and are but strangers, pilgrims and sojourners
here, we are not to mix ourselves with the children of this world,
by joining with them in their kingdom, to judge, or condemn, or
torture any man for his sin, seeing we are under another
ministration, having not been condemned by Christ for our sins;
neither are we to join with them to kill or slay our fellow
creatures, seeing Christ hath rebuked the use of the sword in the
hands of his followers; and except we deny ourselves in all these
things, and take up our cross and follow him, we cannot be his
disciples....

CONCERNING THE SABBATH.

_Extracts from a Reply by John Rogers, Sr. (1721), to a Book by
Benj. Wadsworth, entitled “The Lord’s Day Proved to be the
Christian Sabbath.”_

... When God’s children were in a holy frame and agreed to fast
and pray, they did it not with a mixt multitude in public
assemblies, as hypocrites are wont to do; as appears Neh. 9, 1, 2.
The children of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, in
time of offering up their prayers unto God. Acts 1, 13, 14. And we
nowhere read, throughout the whole Bible that God’s children ever
prayed in a public assembly, with a mixt multitude, and in a
customary way, as hypocrites are wont to do, as throughout the
whole scripture doth appear. Rom. 8, 26.

... This have I written that people may not be misled, by thinking
they worship God in forms and set times of prayer, while they are
in a state of sin; and that they may consider the publican, upon
his first prayer, accompanied with true repentance, went away
justified rather than the other that was zealous in his often
fasting and prayers....

In page 5th sayth he: “The apostle doth not oppose the keeping one
day in a week holy to God.” To which I answer, It is not what the
apostle doth not oppose, but what the apostle commands, I Pet. 1,
16, “Be ye holy for I am holy.” An unholy man cannot do one holy
act, no more than a corrupt tree can bring forth good fruit: but I
have no where read in the books of the New Testament that we are
commanded to keep one day more holy than another....

... And the next place, I shall shew that the first commandment
that both the angel of God and Christ himself gave forth to his
apostles was to make the first day of the week (the day of his
resurrection) a day of labor by travelling out of one province
into another.... Thus it appears that had they believed them that
was sent by the angel of God and by Christ himself they should
have set out on their journey early in the morning for Galilee,
which was in another province, and by all probability more than
one day’s journey, as appears in the 2nd chapter of Luke, which
shews that Christ’s parents went a day’s journey towards Galilee
before they missed him.... So that it appears that Christ had no
regard to the day, otherwise than to make it a day of labor ...
through their unbelief they were disobedient to the message that
Christ sent them and did not make it a day of labor by travelling,
as they were required by the angel of God and by Christ himself;
which journey according to history was above 40 miles and the
message was sent them in haste, to set out upon this journey, upon
the first day of the week, the day of Christ’s resurrection.

In page 6th he quotes Gen. 2, 2, 3, which speaks only of God’s
resting from the works of creation, when all things were finished
and “was very good” ... and this God’s Sabbath or rest from his
works of creation had no evening or morning ascribed to it,
because it was his eternal rest or Sabbath, all things being now
finished. And it could be no Sabbath or rest to Adam, for he had
done no work to rest from, for he was the finishing work, ... So
that Adam in his first creation entered into God’s Sabbath and so
continued, till he by sin brought labor upon himself ... and we
have no account in Scripture of any Sabbath commanded or kept from
Adam till Mose’s time, ... For when God delivered the two tables
of the ten commandments, he gave Moses a particular account about
the seventh-day sabbath, how it was a sign, as is seen Exod. 31,
12 etc. compared with the last verse.... And a sign is not the
thing signified by it, any more than a shadow of a thing is the
substance....

In page 19 he quotes ... “I was in spirit on the Lord’s day.”...
that is, I was spiritualized on the Lord’s day of his revelation
for that work he employed me in, but here is no account what day
or days it was of the week or month, this God hath not revealed to
us.... But for any to affect it to be on a first day of the week
is presumption, seeing no such name in Scripture was imposed on
the first day of the week in any other place of the Scripture....

In page 27, he quotes Acts 20, 7, “And upon the first day of the
week” ... This text tells us the disciple’s coming together was to
break bread; it does not say to celebrate a Sabbath, or give the
day any pre-eminence above the five other working days ... the
word breaking of bread is used in common eating, Acts 2,
46.—“breaking bread from house to house,”—Christ brake bread to
two of his disciples and also when Christ fed 5000.... And in this
place it is said they came together to break bread, and Paul was
at that time tending a ship, as appears....

But as to the Lord’s Supper, it was always attended at supper
time, ... It was first instituted by Christ at supper ... And
Paul, the Gentile apostle, hath left it on record that he did
deliver it to the Gentiles to be attended in the night, as appears
I Cor. 11, 23.... The Gentile churches attended the time and
season, tho’ they got into a disorderly way of partaking of it,
yet they attended the season ... “For in eating every one taketh
before other his own supper.”... So that we see this coming
together to break bread, on the first day of the week, was not for
preaching (but a feast of charity), for that was attended the
night following (when the young man fell from the loft), nor for
the Lord’s supper.

The following is at the end of the book containing the answer to Benjamin Wadsworth. The “questions” were written in New London prison at the time John Rogers was confined there on account of troubles arising out of the arrest and imprisonment of Sarah Bolles for a “matter of conscience.”

The following questions were presented as they are underwritten,
but when I saw I could obtain no answer but persecution, I then
presented them to a Superior Court in the colony New London, and
from them to the next General Court in that Colony, and so to the
Elders and Messengers of the churches of the Colony of
Connecticut, requesting of them an answer, upon the consideration
of the Confession of their own Faith and the good counsels there
given, and printed in New London, in the year 1710. And here
follows an account of some part of what I presented to them, taken
out of the Confession of their own Faith.

In page 6. “First Counsel. That you be immovably and unchangeably
agreed in the only sufficient and invariable rule of religion,
which is the Holy Scriptures, the fixed canon, uncapable of
addition and diminution. You ought to account nothing ancient that
will not stand by this rule, nor anything new that will. Do not
hold yourselves bound to unscriptural rites in religion, wherein
custom itself doth many times misguide. Isai. 8, 20. To the law
and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them.”

“Second Counsel. That you be determined by this rule in the whole
of religion. That your faith be right and divine, that the Word of
God must be the foundation of it and the authority of the Word the
reason of it, etc. For an orthodox Christian to resolve his faith
into education, instruction and the persuasion of others, is not
an higher reason than a Papist, Mahometan or Pagan can produce for
his religion.”

Page 7. “Believe, in all divine worship, it is not enough that
this or that act of worship is not forbidden in the word of God;
if it be not commanded, and you perform it, you may fear you will
be found guilty and be exposed to divine displeasure. Nadab and
Abihu paid dear for offering in divine worship that which the Lord
commanded them not. It is an honour done unto Christ, when you
account that only decent, orderly and convenient in his house
which depends upon the institution and appointment of Himself, who
is the only head and lawgiver of his church.”

Page 65. “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it
free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in
anything contrary to his word, or not contained in it: so that to
believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands out of
conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the
requiring an implicit faith and an absolute and blind obedience,
is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also. Acts 4, 19.
Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more
than unto God, judge ye. Acts 5, 29. We ought to obey God rather
than men. Jam. 4, 12. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save
and to destroy: Who art thou that judgeth another? Col. 2, 22. But
in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines commandments of
men? Mat. 15, 9. Which all are to perish with the using, after the
commandments and doctrines of men. John 4, 22. Ye worship ye know
not what. Hos. 5, 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment
because he willingly walked after the commandment.”

These are the scriptures they quote for their proof, with many
more. All these quotations, quoted out of the book of the
Confession of their own Faith, with much more, was presented to
the abovesaid Courts, Elders and Messengers of said churches, with
the following questions, grounded upon the said Confession of
their pretended Faith, but can obtain no answer but violence to
compel us to rebel against it, as will appear by said questions as
followeth.

To Richard Christophers Assistant, and from him to Gov.
Saltonstall and Eliphalet Adams.

I request of you, as you profess yourselves to be Christians, and
the Scripture to be your rule, to give me a direct answer to these
scriptural questions, Rom. 4, 15. “For where no law is, there is
no transgression.”

My question is, Hath God any law to forbid labor on the first day
of the week? If he hath, quote chapter and verse for it, to
convict us of our error, or be convicted that you will be found
fighters against God, in striving to compel us to worship the
works of your own hands, which would be idolatry in us.

And consider the age and antiquity of an idol doth not make the
sin one whit the less, but the greater; for God’s patience and
long suffering towards idolaters should lead them to repentance.

A second question I crave of you is, Whether the name “Sabbath”
(which you impose upon the first day of the week in your law book)
be a title that God by his word hath put upon it? If it be, pray
quote the chapter and verse, where it is so named by God’s word;
if not, judge yourselves.

A third question I crave your answer to is, Whether the name
Lord’s Day (which you impose in your law book on the first day of
the week) be a Scripture name peculiar to that day? And how you
prove the revelations of Jesus Christ to John was upon the first
day of the week?

And if you cannot answer the said questions by the holy
Scriptures, then I request of you to read and to consider what is
written, Psal. 94, 20, 21. “Shall the throne of iniquity have
fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather
themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn
the innocent blood.” From the New London Prison, the 17th of the
9th month, 1719.

And here follows a copy of my request to Court Elders and
Messengers, wrote under the above questions as it is here.

My request to you is, That you will be pleased to see that an
answer to my questions may be returned, by you or your elders, as
you will answer it before God, the judge of Heaven and earth, and
that we may not be compelled by the Authority to offer to God in
divine worship that which he hath not commanded, against our
consciences, and contrary to the Confession of your own Faith; and
if God hath commanded the first day of the week to be kept for a
Sabbath, to quote to us the place in Scripture where it is so
commanded, and send it to us: And if there be no command of God
for it in the Holy Scriptures, and only your own law in your Law
Book, and your minister’s doctrine for it, then I desire you to
read and consider what is written, Mat. 15, 7th, 8th and 9th
verses, “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth
me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain
they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men.”

New London, the 7th of the third month, 1721. From him that wishes
you well, and desires to see your salvation and not your
destruction.

But I could obtain no answer from them; “For every one that doeth
evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved.” John 3, 20.

And now my request to you, the said Courts, Elders and Messengers,
is, in the presence and view of the world, to shew us chapter and
verse, or verses, where God’s command is which commands the
keeping the first day of the week for a Sabbath, by which you are
not in the same danger Nadab and Abihu was, that we may escape
with you; for I can find no such commandment throughout the whole
Bible: For you, in the Confession of your Faith, set before us the
great danger we are in, if we offer to God that in divine worship
which he hath not commanded; not only the loss of our lives, as
Nadab and Abihu did theirs, but eternal damnation also; as appears
in your “Confessions of Faith,” Page 7, and in your second Counsel
(before quoted).

Upon this consideration, I request this favor of you, so that we
may venture in with you in keeping of it, by a commandment from
God, if you know of any, for this will be more for your honour
than to compel us against our own consciences (and your own
counsels) by your own law, accompanied with your whips, stocks,
fines and imprisonments; which hitherto you have been using to
compel us to offer in divine worship that which God hath not
commanded; and besides this, we are ashamed (I do not say you) to
pretend to be “orthodox Christians” and “to resolve our faith into
education, instruction, and the persuasion of others,” seeing you
say in your “Confession,” page 6, that “this is no higher reason
than a Papist, Mahometan or pagan can produce for his religion;”
for we would not be like such spoken of in Zeph. 3, 5, “The unjust
knoweth no shame.”

Thus it appears nakedly before your eyes, and to your consciences,
that either your Counsels, in the Confession of your Faith, is
very erroneous, or else your first day Sabbath, if it have no
command of God for it, which I can find nowhere throughout the
whole Bible—and that which can be found nowhere may well be
concluded not to be at all. And the said Counsels in the
Confession of your Faith is so substantially grounded on the holy
Scriptures that I think it most safe to conclude that it is your
Sabbath that is erroneous and idolatry (except you have a
commandment of God for it) by the Confession of your own Faith.

I having been treating upon your Sabbath, the foundation almost of
all your worship, which is the works of your own hands, by your
own Confession, except you can find a commandment of God for
it....

_The following from “A Midnight Cry,” by John Rogers, Sr._

I desire that these following things may be well considered.

First, when God delivered the two tables of stone into the hands
of Moses, he gave him a particular account about the Sabbath how
it was a sign, as is to be seen Exod. 31, beginning at verse 12 to
the end of the chapter, yea, it was a covenanted sign to that
people, as is to be seen, verse 17. Ezek. 20, 12, 20.

Secondly, Moses testifieth to Israel that it was commanded to be
kept upon the account of that deliverance out of Egypt, as is to
be seen Deut. 5, comparing the 12, 13 and 14 verses with the 15th
verse. So that as their deliverance was from a temporal bondage,
so the sign of it was a temporal rest; and the sign was for a
covenant between God and them, of his safe protecting them from
the oppression of their enemies, in that inheritance which he gave
them while they kept his laws.

Thirdly, Christ testifieth that the priests profaned the Sabbath
in the temple and yet were blameless, Mat. 12, 5, compared with
Numb. 28, 9, 10, so that we may well conclude those sacrifices by
which they profaned the Sabbath, though they were but signs in
themselves, yet the Sabbath which was of less value was to give
place that the greater might not be omitted.

Fourthly; The man that bore a burden on the Sabbath day, to wit,
his bed, John 5, 10, profaned it in so doing, and was as blameless
as the priests; for that sign under the law was not the Sabbath,
any more than that circumcision commanded to Abraham was the
circumcision, and therefore, saith the apostle, That is not
circumcision that is outward in the flesh, Rom. 4, 12. Thus we see
he calls it the sign of circumcision, though the scriptures did no
where call it a sign, but called it circumcision; but the 7th day
Sabbath God declared to be a sign, yea, a covenanted sign with his
people, as circumcision was, as is to be seen, by comparing these
places of scripture together, Exod. 31, 13, 16, 17. Gen. 17, 10,
13 and 14.

Fifthly, Seeing that God testifieth that the weekly 7th day
Sabbath is a sign, and gave no such plain demonstration of any
other of the Sabbaths under the law, we have good and better
reason to judge that Paul’s words, Col. 2, 16, 17 (Let no man
therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy
day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a
shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ) comprehends
the 7th day Sabbath in a special manner, seeing it agrees with
God’s testimony to Israel, that it was a sign to them, and a sign
is not the substance; for a shadow is but the sign of the
substance.

And lastly, Seeing that God testifieth to Israel that the 7th day
Sabbath was a sign, so it was no more the Sabbath than the seven
stars which John saw in the right hand of Christ were the angels
of the seven churches, nor no more the Sabbath than the seven
golden candlesticks were the seven churches, nor no more the
Sabbath than those fat kine that Pharaoh saw were the seven
plentiful years; which sort of creature (we afterwards read) they
made an image of and worshipped; nor no more the Sabbath than the
sign of circumcision was the circumcision; nor no more the Sabbath
(under the first covenant) than the wine that Christ gave his
disciples to drink was the blood of the New Testament or covenant;
nor no more the Sabbath (under the first testament) than the bread
that Christ gave to his disciples was his body under the second or
new covenant.

Thus we see that signs (in the Scripture) bear the complete name
of the substance or thing they signify; so the 7th day Sabbath was
a sign under the first covenant, and so continued till the
establishment of the second, and then both the covenant and signs
under it ceased; for they were signs of instruction to the church,
that they might impose their faith on the things they signified,
which were to be fulfilled by Christ, who was the substance of
them all; and so at his coming they were all nailed to his cross,
and so ceased. Eph. 2, 15, 16. Col. 2, 14. And so likewise the
signs that are now in being (under the new covenant) are to
continue till Christ’s coming in his manhood, I Cor. 11, 26, and
then they will cease also.

“ADVERTISEMENT.”

JOHN ROGERS, SR.

Whereas there is a printed law in her Majesty’s Colony of
Connecticut, entitled only “Heriticks,” in the preface to it they
say “To prevent the danger persons are in of being poisoned in
their judgments and principles by hereticks,” etc.

Which said law the queen by advice of her council hath condemned,
repealed and declared it void and of none effect, it being
contrary to their charter. And indeed there is a good hand of God
in the Queen’s act, for I know of no sect worse poisoned in their
judgments and principles by gross heresy than the Church of New
England; and it is very evident that hereticks have ever
persecuted the true church under abusive titles, as deceivers,
hereticks, Quakers, and the like abusive titles, which they
themselves are guilty of; for erroneous persons, principles and
practices are condemned by the scriptures of truth; so that they
have no other way to cloak themselves, under their delusion and
heresy, but by casting such like odious titles on the children of
God, and so persecute them and burn their books; for Satan’s
design in making use of these deluded persons, thus to act, is to
suppress truth under pretense of heresy; as for instance I shall
begin with the master of the house, whom they called Beelzebub,
the prince of devils, Mat. 12, 24. He went by the name of
“deceiver,” Mat. 27, 63. Paul by the name of heretick, Acts 24,
14. Luther’s books were burnt under pretense utterly to suppress
heresy; the worthy martyrs in Queen Martyr Mary’s time suffered
death under the name of hereticks; and those worthy martyrs in
Boston in New England under the name of Quakers and hereticks; and
my books by this law now repealed have been condemned and burnt,
under pretense of heresy, though I have made fair proffers at
their General Court to reward any person well for their time and
pains that would endeavor to show me any one error in them, but
none have yet publickly appeared.

FOLLOWING FROM ACCOUNT OF SAMUEL
BOWNAS OF HIS “CONVERSATION
WITH JOHN ROGERS,” 1703.

He (John Rogers) spoke very much of his satisfaction and unity
with George Fox, John Stubbs, John Burnyeat and William Edmundson
as the Lord’s servants, with sundry others of the first visitors
of that country, that he knew them to be sent of God, and that
they had carried the reformation further than any of the
Protestants ever did before them, since the general apostacy from
the purity both of faith and doctrine; first the church of England
they did nothing in the end but made an English translation of the
Latin service used before, the Presbyterians they dissented and
the Independants, but came not to the root of the matter; the
Baptists dissented from the other three, but went not through.
Upon which, though I could not wholly agree with him in his
assertions, I queried if he thought that all these several steps
of the English church from Popery, the Presbyterians and
Independants from the English church, and the Baptists from all
three of them, had not something of good in them, viz. I mean
whether the first concerned in dissenting from Popery, though they
afterwards rested too much in the form of worship in the Episcopal
way, had not the aid of Christ’s spirit to assist them in their
dissent? And so for all the rest. This he did readily grant to be
a great truth; and so allowing that the first reformers actuated
by divine light, and being faithful to what was made known to
them, had their reward; and their successors sat down in that form
their predecessors had left them in, but did not regard that Power
and Life by which they were actuated, and so became zealots for
that form, but opposed the Power. “And this,” said he, “is the
true cause of the several steps of dissent one from another; and
the reason why there is so little Christian love, and so much
bitterness and envy one against another, is their sitting down
contented, each in their own form without the Power, so that they
are all in one and the same spirit, acting their part in the
several forms of worship in their own wills and time, not only
opposing the Spirit of Truth, but making it the object of their
scorn and those who adhere to it the subject of their reproach,
contempt and envy; and this is the foundation of persecution” said
he....

FROM REPLY TO J. BACKUS.

JOHN ROGERS, 2D.

... Here I think he (Backus) does the government no honor by
informing the world that they have made laws to debar such as
differ from them in matters of religion the liberty of the king’s
highway to pass to their own meetings, since our lord the king
hath granted equal liberty of conscience to all dissenters to hold
their meetings and serve God according to their consciences....

In his 13th page he gives a record (of his own making) relating to
John Bolles, which record declares that J. Bolles acknowledged
that he came from New London, and was going to Lebanon, and that
he knew it was contrary to our law, and that they did it in
defiance of the law.

To which I answer, “That God’s three children were cast into the
fiery furnace for declaring their defiance to the king’s law,
which was made to force men’s consciences in matters of religion;
and all the prophets and apostles suffered for opposing those laws
which were set up to force people’s consciences in matters of
worshipping God; And all the martyrs which have suffered the
flames and other tortures ever since, it has been for manifesting
their defiance to such laws as have been set up by the worldly
government to uphold false worship, or to restrain them from
worshipping God according to their consciences. Now for as much as
God has justified all those sufferers above-mentioned, for their
bold defiance of such laws as were set up by man to prevent people
serving God according to their consciences, well may we have
confidence that God will justify us for the same thing. We have
also further to plead in our own justification in this matter than
those sufferers above-mentioned had, inasmuch as our lord the king
has granted us the same liberty to meet together and worship God
according to our consciences as he has given to our persecutors:
So that in the consideration of what is here expressed, I think J.
Bolles and his brethren are highly commendable for their
faithfulness to God, in manifesting their defiance against such
laws as would restrain them from worshipping God according to
their consciences.

... In his 14th chapter, he charges the sufferers to be most
daring and malicious offenders, utterly disregarding those
Scriptures, Rom. 13, Tit. 3, I Pet. 2, etc.

In the first place I shall fully grant from those Scriptures, and
many more that might be mentioned, that the worldly government is
set up of God, and are God’s ministers to act in worldly matters
between man and man, and that the law that God hath put into their
hands is good, if they use it lawfully;... according to what is
written, I Tim. 1, 8, 9, 10. And while the worldly government act
within their commission, God is with them and has put such carnal
weapons in their hands as is sufficient to rule all carnal
persons, which are stocks, fines, prisons, whip and gallows, which
above-named weapons are sufficient to conquer and subdue all
carnal and guilty persons, so that rulers are a terror to
evil-doers.

And forasmuch as we acknowledge the worldly government to be set
up by God, we have always paid all public demands for upholding
the same; as town rates, county-rates and all other demands,
excepting such as are for the upholding hireling ministers and
false teachers which God has called us to testify against. Now
when the worldly rulers take upon themselves to make laws relating
to God’s worship, and thereby force men’s consciences, and so turn
their sword against God’s children, they then act beyond their
commission and out of their jurisdiction; and are so far from
being God’s ministers that they are fighters against God and his
church; and God is so far from making them a terror to his church
that he gives his church and people faith and boldness to
withstand them to their faces....

... Here I think he (Backus) does the government no honor by
informing the world that they have made laws to debar such as
differ from them in matters of religion the liberty of the king’s
highway to pass to their own meetings, since our lord the king
hath granted equal liberty of conscience to all dissenters to hold
their meetings and serve God according to their consciences.

FROM ANSWER TO A PAMPHLET BY
COTTON MATHER.

BY JOHN ROGERS, 2D.

... A travelling ministry are sent from town to town and from city
to city, and from country to country, and over sea, so that they
are not only taken from their own employment, but are also sent
upon charges; their state and condition is like a man that is
prest a soldier and sent away from his own living on charges and
therefore maintained at the king’s charge. And hath not this man
power to forbear work? though he tarry some days at a place, must
he therefore maintain himself by his own labor? is not this the
very state of a travelling ministry of the gospel?...

... I have thus proved by Scripture that a traveling ministry of
the Gospel hath power to forbear work. And secondly that the
churches ought to relieve them: And thirdly have shewed their
differing state from settled elders.

... In the second place, I shall now prove by Scripture that
settled elders are commanded to work with their hands and thereby
to support the weak; by being givers rather than receivers.—We
find that the apostle sends for the elders of the church.—He saith
to them, I have coveted no man’s silver or gold, or apparel; ye
yourselves know that these hands of mine have ministered unto my
necessities and to them that were with me; I have showed you all
things, how that so laboring, ye ought to support the weak, and to
remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more
blessed to give than to receive....

... And 3rdly Whereas Christ, upon sending them forth to preach
the gospel, forbids them making any provision for their journey,
requiring them to expect their meat and reward from his hands....

... From hence we may see by Scripture that Christ’s ministers,
whom he calls and sends to preach the Gospel, are so well provided
for by Him that they have no need to be hired by the children of
the world; for in so doing they would reproach their Lord and
Master and shew themselves not only faithless, but wickedly
covetous, in practising contrary to this doctrine of Christ, and
to come under the condemnation of this great sin so much condemned
in Scripture, “The priests whereof teach for hire, and the
prophets whereof divine for money, yet they will lean upon the
Lord, and say, is not the Lord among us; none evil can come upon
us. Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be plowed as a field, and
Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountains of the house as
the high places of the forest ... yea they are greedy dogs, which
can never have enough, they are shepherds that cannot understand;
they all look to their own way, every one for his gain from his
quarter.”... Christ calls them hirelings and ravening wolves.

And though the nameless authors of the said Pamphlet are pleased
to call such (as join with Christ and his shepherds, to testify
against these hirelings) by the name of wolves, yet these
hirelings, or at least their shearers, the collectors, have always
taken them for sheep, especially about shearing time.... Now we
that join with Christ and the true shepherds to testify against
these hirelings, we come under the blessing of Christ ... Blessed
are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, for so
persecuted they the prophets which were before you; yea this must
we suffer all the time that these hireling prophets are under this
curse of Christ. Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you,
for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

... In page 8, they assert ... “That he be given to hospitality”
and say they, “how is it possible for him to be so, if you be
given to covetousness, and given to dishonesty and cheat him of
his maintainance?”