01.00 An Affair Reckoning with Mr. Edwards
An Affair Reckoning with Mr. Edwards
Or, A True and Sober Answer, to a False Accusation;
Wherein (Among other things) is showed the Unlawfulness of Giving the Name of Church to an House Made of Lime and Stone; And the Name of CHURCHES to Parochial Congregations.
Written by
Benjamin Cox,
Master of Arts, Being One of Them Whom Master Edwards has Abused, Unjustly Calling them Sectaries, Time-Servers, and Innovators, in His Gangraena, or Book of Slanders.
Jeremiah 20:10 I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side: Report, say they, and we will report it.
2 Corinthians 6:4; 2 Corinthians 6:8 In All Things Approving Ourselves as the Ministers of God, By Honor, and Dishonor, by Evil Report, and Good Report, as Deceivers, and Yet True.
London:
Printed by R. White, for Giles Calvert, at the Blackspred-Eagle, Near the West End of Pauls,
1646.
Mr. Edwards,
Although your Book of Slanders, by you entitled Gangraena, has been answered by divers of those whom you have abused, yet in as much as you have endeavored to defame me also in that Book, in two several places, and nothing has been particularly answered thereunto, it seems to be a meet and just thing, that you should hear a word also from me.
I judge it no honor to encounter with such a man as you by your writing appears to be, not caring whom you abuse and slander. Yet remembering what is written in Proverbs 19:25; Proverbs 26:5, I have thought it convenient to give you this ensuing Answer, partly (I confess) lest in the apprehension of some, my silence should argue a guiltiness of what whereof you accuse me, but principally (if my heard deceive me not) because I perceive that your drift in slandering me, is to disgrace the way of God in which I endeavor to walk. And observing the continuance and increase of the evil of your heart, and way, which has appeared abundantly, not only by your reprinting of your Gangraena, but also by your adding more thereunto, and discerning also some to be so foolish as to magnify your folly, and you therein, (though impartial Readers do show their loathing thereof, and the wiser sort of your friends are ashamed of it), I have resolved no longer to defer the publishing of this my Answer, and do now send it forth to the view of the world, committing it to the censure of every discreet and indifferent Reader. http://www.reformedreader.org/rbb/coxe/affairreckoning.htm