aspect and appearance will be found by any man conversant in Scripture and acquainted with the estate and affairs of the Church notorious falshoods 1. Presbytery hath no divine appointment was not commanded by God never used in the ancient Church hath nothing in it piously morally or poâ—itically good or necessary Epist to the Reader How Sir can you read of the Elders of Ephesus and the Presbyterie that ordained Timothy and say Presbytery was not commanded by God Can you read in the Fathers of the Presbyterie advancing by their own power a primus Presbyter in the antient canons of the essentialitie of the Presbyteries concurrence in all acts of Discipline of the Fathers Epistles to and concerning Presbyteries and yet say Presbytery was never used in the Church Can you consider Presbytery is a Colledge of Gospel Ministers goveâ—ning communi consilio by jâ—ynt advice and yet conclude there is in Presbyterie nothing piously morally or politically good Will not every childe in his double Psalter tell you In the multitude of Councellors there is safety and every School-boy teach you plus vident oculi quam oculus and yet are you so blind as to see no moral political good in Presbyterie but this is but one Doctors opinion the meanest Clerk in your Cathedral would tell you your Grace was at a loss when you thus concluded Nor do you hit the next 2. Presbytery was not conjoyned to Episcopacy if you mean in its first constitution and the order of it which was without and before Bishops afterwards made by its power you begin well nor hath any power or authority unto the governing of the Church is no way necessary to a Bishop otherwise then by advice when called and required and that to be taken or refused at the Bishops pleasure pag. 289. I pray Sir help the Papists and untie that knot whether Peter received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven as a Presbyter or Bishop ordinary Minister or Apostle or prince of the Apostles It is pity John Chrysostom had not you for his Advocate when he was charged as with a crime for ordaining without his Presbyters I hope the correction of the ancient Canons being committed to you you will purge out those that confine the Bishop to his chair to declare and execute the decrees of the Presbyterie and make void the ordinations and censures made without the Presbyterie forget them of the Council of Carthage And Sir there is one passage or two in Scripture worth your notice Let him tell the Church sufficient to such an one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishment inflicted by many You know Sir they are words that imply plurality dignity and authority I pray Sir when your pen is in your hand draw a line through these words in the form of ordering Priests minister the Discipline of the Church to what end should they promise faithful diligence to that which they have nothing to do withal and concerneth them not But to the third 3. To endeavour to advance Presbytery to exercise in the rule and government of the Church is Schisme and Superstition pag. 214 215. How is Church Government an Article of Christian faith and an essential act of Divine Worship Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. your friends at Oxford were of another mind when they charged the Scots supposed say so to look like Schisme and Superstition What fools were Clemens Alexandrinus Augustin and Gregory the great and other Fathers to Father John Gauden they left us this ground of Schisme and Superstition Vnitas Ecclesiae catholicae non consistit in uniformitate disciplinae sed in unitate fidei but our Bishop standeth on their shoulders and can see further then little Mr. Crofton who yet hopes to see as far as little Zacheus in his Sicamore Tree advancing Presbytery as Gods institution and to keep the unty of the spirit in the bâ—nd of peace 4. Bishops are the sole and chief cisterns conservators conduit and derivators of all holy orders discipline and Government the principal Pillars and Fathers of the Church pag. 221 248. I hope Sir you will then make your succession as clear as the sun I would make a journey to Exeter to have the intricacies thereof well unravelled what became of the Churches when in Alexandria per totum Aegyptum the Presbyters did ordain and think you that Denmark demolished the Church when Christian their third King did by publick edict beat down your Pillars your charity is more to the reformed Churches then to condemn or censure them as no Churches pag. 196. but yet you will cut off their pipes cisterns conduits and make them come fetch Waters at your Wells your charity is very rational 5. Episcopal presidency and authority is a Soveraign power and spiritual jurisdiction in ordination confirmation censures rebuking silencing excommunication absolution and other exercise of Ecclesiastical power without above and against Presbyters and people pag. 215 229. Well said D. Gauden I like a man that can speak out Mr. Crofton shall know your meaning anon but your jurisdiction is so spiritual that to him your Sovereign power is invisible it is probable you may make him feel it though he cannot see it but I am confident it must be in his body not in his soul make good this description by Scriptures Fathers Divine principles or good Authors Popish or Protestant and if you make not a full formal Pope I will burn the Covenant renounce my reason and believe as your Church believes for all that I have met with give Presbyters an interest if not the greatest share with and without the Bishops in every of these acts of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction 6. The Episcopacy which England had or the English Hierarchy for its difference from Presbytery in place honour office authority use and honourable support is of universal tradition and observatiâ—n in all ages and places eminent in the judgment and practice of antiquity and the Church from Christ and his Apostles until now of late in use and authority in the Church as the Lords day and infant baptisme which to deny is impudence and falsity against the very letter and practice of the new Testament and judgment of all antiquity Pag. 198 220 228 248. How Sir the practice and letter of the new Testament and yet but a tradition you sure will say more of it you do well to paralel it to the Lords day and infant Baptisme for they will be evidently grounded on the practise and letter of the new Testament and so be found more then a tradition but Sir will you stand by it that Episcopacy was an universal observation in all ages and eminent in all places till of late I pray Sir enquire when it came into Scotland and how basely it was driven out of Denmark they are places in the Christian World again was Englands Hierarchy distinct from Presbyters in place office authority honour use and honorable support of universal tradition and practice how am
gradual difference between Englands Prelacie and Romes Papacie this being in specie the same with that and so a formal papatus alterius mundi 9. Under this usurpation Presbyterie sensible of its intrinsecal power did resist and often complain and when it was by force acted by fraud restrained yet made and continued its contests and its paritie in order and authority and hath ever been dogmatically asserted and polemically debated by not only the enemies but friends of the Papacie by Canonists Schoolmen Commentators and open discourses in Councils where the Pope durst never admit a free dispute not so much as in the Councel of Trent and as the Reformation of the Church proceeded Presbyterie not only pleaded but reassumed its own proper power and authority and managed the affairs of the Church as against the Pope so without Bishops and England it self though through the policie which too much attended and acted its reformation it retained an Episcopacie yet did dethrone its spiritual jurisdiction and resolve it into a meer humane and civil constitution acting circa ecclesiam and most plainly avowed the intrinsecal power of Presbyters in the act of the submission of the Clergie and other Statutes disavowing any ecclesiastical or scriptural constitution of Prelacie and baring them from all juridical acts otherwise then by the Kings commission and in his name And all our English Divines have openly asserted and polemically defended the power and authority of the Presbyters in their contests against Papists concurrence with and defence of the reformed Churches and their Presbyterial acts and at length our late learned Primate of Armagh in his grave Reduction affirmed it to be the Presbyters right to rule and govern the Church and propounded an expedient in order to the restitution thereof too long held from them the which being in its natural tendency desperata causa papatus as Voetius hath well termed his defence of the Presbyterated reformed Churches the man of sin doth under a Cassandrian accommodation withstand and endeavour to stifle it in which however he succeed to oppose he shall not prevail Presbyterie being Christs own ordinance and the primitive constitution of the Church and mediate discharge of his pastoral and Episcopal office whilst this is a plain humane constitution conform to the course of the world and contrary to the charge of our great Shepherd Matth. 20.25 The Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority over them but it shall not be so among you Sir consider well this Climax I will assure you it is to me so obvious and apparent in Ecclesiastical story that he that will not see must turn Sceptique and must say Non persuaseris etiamsi persuaseris and how much soever Presbyterie be sleighted and represented to the world with the insignificant odious charge of Schism and superstition Christs kingly Office in and over his Church is bottomed in it and the recovery of its full liberty to the exercise of its just authority is not only justice but duty that may that which must be pursued pleaded for unto bonds yea death it self and therefore to match your number I upon these undeniable premises make these conclusions which if you will turn your Rhetorick into Reason and with a calm and composed spirit debate it I will be bound logically and theologically to defend against you Hierarchia Anglicana non est ecclesia nec ad ecclesiae entitatem aut gubernationem necessaria adeo ut ejus extirpatio estimetus schisma Hierarchia Anglicana est nullo modo divina aut ecclesiastica sed mere humana civilis cujus abolitio extirpatio sit licita sub juramento faederanda Englands Hierarchy is not the Church nor necessary to the being or government thereof so as that the extirpation thereof should be accounted schism Englands Hierarchy is neither divine or ecclesiastical but meerly civil and humane whose abolition and extirpation may be lawfully sworn and covenanted Until Sir these be confuted you who blame others do your self build upon a plain petitio pincipii Dr. Gauden being well considered will be found no less erroneous in his Politiques then in his Ecclesiastiques running away with certain general notions as if universally granted and undoubtedly true and agreed upon by all whilst indeed they are openly and generally denied I shall gather them together as the former and leave the Reader to take notice of them as he reads his book they running as a line through his book some of them being obvious in every page where his passion would give him leave to speak like a reasonable creature As that 1. The Hierarchy or Episcopacy is established by the Laws of England which I have in my Analepsis Analepthe denyed and the Covenanters plea hath more fully and judiciously expostulated and contradicted in Cap. 6. pag. 22 23 24. I do aver that the English Laws finding Episcopacy conversant about the Church doth restrain its exorbitancies and direct its administrations but neither Canon nor common law doth establish it and in terminis declare and authorize it to be the Government of the Church of England 2. No Oath may be fully sworn which shall bind to an endeavour to extirpate what is established by law and therefore although sworn by the legislative authority and command or by the sharers in the legislation it is ipso facto void and yet endeavour of alteration is to every man sui juris no way inconsistent with that passive obedience which we owe to laws in force and all Laws lye vailed and at the legislators feet to take up or refuse and void and an Oath is the most positive authentique repeal of a law vailed and at the least binding the sharers in the legislation and such as shall succeed into their capacity to repeal those laws which establish the thing which they have sworn to extirpate 3. There is no legislative power de facto operating and exerted binding the subject to any action or obedience unless all things concur which may constitute a full and formal statute law and so all Votes Orders and Ordinances Resolves and Judgment of any the Estates of Parliament are of no force power or authority during their session Which all Lawyers acquainted with Englands constitution will deny unless their Oracles of divinity have at the Temple taught them new notions of law which the constant practice of Lords and Commons and subjection and obedience of those whom they represent doth ordinarily contradict 4. That Lords nor Commons severally nor both conjunct can impose on themselves or others whom they represent any Oath without the knowledge consent and command of the King and if they do it is ipso facto void therefore you suggest that the protestation which is apparently sworn by Parliament and Kingdome without the King to be precarious whilst there is nothing of petition in it but much of legislation and that manifest by the subjects obedience even to your
he one of them guide or guided because he knoweth not how to go into the City which one thus illustrates Nesciunt viam in Vrbem Lava qui a recto tramite aberrant in loca a via adducuntur The Dr having in his Analysis loosed from the Haven of Reason true Religion and the fear of God runs adrift where-ever the wind of his own words can hurry him and leads his Reader into a wilderness where he hears no sound but the shrieks of Satyrs barking and howling of beasts at best raging and rayling of men or wilde and improper discourses that direct to no certain end The Dr having unhappily returned railing unto what seemed rational in his Anatomist according to what is noted as usual with heretiques Haeretici cum perver sitatis suae non possunt reddere rationem in maledicta convertuntur and endeavoured by words and shuffling glosses to darken the plainness and clearness of the truth urged by the Analeptist of whom we must say as Bishop Jewel of the Jesuite Harding in his confutation of him Who so takes upon him to maintain untruth must needs be forced to discourse about with long vagaries to lead his Reader from the purpose and to feed him with words for want of matter Defence of the Apologie of the Church of England Preface to the Reader The truth is the Reverend Dr hath expressed great affection to Episcopacy in his zeal for it fully matching Harding's apprehension of the Papacy and Assertion That the Popes chair or English Prelacy is the very knot of Christian Vnity and so branding with Schism all that say the contrary Nor falls he much short of Pope Boniface having according to the measure of his Prelatical power Anathematized all Presbyters as he did Aurelius and all the Bishops of the Councel of Africa not exempting Augustine himself Aurelius cum collegis suis instigante diabolo superbire caepit contra Romanam Ecclesiam Nor is he much defective in their subtilty whilst visum est utile ut scribatur ad Episcopum Romanum ut consideret res nostras det consilium will more easily signifie the Popes power and be rendred It hath seemed good that we write unto the Bishop of Rome that he visit us and determine our matter by his sentence then I swear with reality sincerity and constancy to endeavour the extirpation of Prelacy that is to say the Government by Arch-bishops Bishops c. can be rendred I do swear to my power to establish and advance Prelacy the Government by Arch-bishops Bishops only I will consent to reform the excessive and defective abuses thereof but the cause cannot be good that must be salved by such strained yea contrary interpretations especially in matters of an Oath with how great ability the Dr hath managed his great affection against his little Antagonist let wise men judge the weight of the cause and some mens doting on the bare say so of a Bishop more then the cogency of the Reply hath produced this following Tract to thy cost and trouble as well as my pains and expence of more precious time into which before I pass thee I must minde thee of these two things pretermitted in the following Animadversion 1. That Dr Gauden seems to gather much strength from the silence or seeming compliances of some to his absurd contradictory interpretations of the Covenant Because I will do him or them on whom he reflects no wrong read his own words viz. I finde no men of learning and ingenuity but are ashamed to appear in such a cause Sober Presbyterians do very loyally piously prudently own yea and profess to the King's Majesty a quiescence under Episcopal Government as no way inconsistent with the Covenant Epist to the Reader This mitigated and just sense of the Covenant some that were and are great masters in our Israel and assertors of the Covenant are now content to owne abating the rigour which somtime possessed some Covenanters against Episcopacy in that sense wherein this and most other Churches ever owned and used Episcopal Government and Authority among and above Presbyters yea many of them begin to cast a favourable eye on Episcopal dignity no less then on Church lands fearing nothing so much as not to have a share of them much congratulating as the King 's happy restauration so the hopes of recovering the pristine Honour and Government with the Revenue and Rights of the Church in point of Episcopacy not in the fallacy of a Presbyterian parity but of a presidential constant eminency of Bishops in authority over Presbyters pag. 72 73. That any have by their silence or seeming compliance given the least occasion to this insultation is matter of grief and scandal to good men who yet have observed the subtile attempts strenuous endeavors of Prelats and their abettors to tempt debauch the consciences of some Zealous Covenanters and cannot but bless God that any have obtained power to withstand such temptations decline such glorious baits which should they and many have admitted I was am resolved through divine grace to sing no song under the sufferings that are threatned against me save only this All this is come upon me yet have I not dealt falsly in thy Covenant but charity bids me conclude that the Dr reckons without his host and that the boasting clamour is a base calumny He professeth the reason of the so late appearance of this elaborate wilderness was an expectation of what others would say in the cause and yet he runs so fast as not to heed the Covenanters Plea which would have told him some men no way short in learning and ingenuity of Dr Gauden did appear in such a cause moreover many may and do appear in it that appear not to write for it Pen and Pulpit are different capacities multitudes of books need not let the Dr judiciously not judicially confute one of his Antagonists I dare assure him more will take up the quarrel and defend it I could if he call on me shew the letters of many faithful Covenanters out of many Counties in England joyntly and singly owning the same cause of the Covenant with Mr Cr. and are neither afraid nor ashamed to own it I know not what any particular Presbyter might profess to his Majesty I hope such on whom the Dr reflecteth will in due season vindicate themselves I have cause to think the Dr reports this as faithfully as he did Mr Baxter's discourse about the Liturgie I well know that those who had immediate conference with his Majesty professed in private debates with their Brethren another judgement of the Covenant and Episcopacy then what is now reported of them I am sure at a general meeting of the Covenant Presbyters in and about the City of London the cause of the Covenant was debated generally owned in its opposition to Episcopacy and other things returned amongst us and by joynt consent it was agreed to petition his Majesty and
the Houses of Parliament the heads of which petition being agreed on was committed to certain brethren to prepare and draw up and was this To the Kings most Excellent Majesty Humbly sheweth YOur Petitioners humbly blessing God for your Majesties happy Restauration to the Throne of your Royal Father being also sensible of your Majesties gracious acceptance of our humble Address made to your Majesty as likewise of the great piety and zeal in your Majesties late Proclamations for suppressing of prophaneness and countenancing protection of godly Ministers are thereby encouraged to lay this humble presentation and Petition with our selves at your Majesties feet That whereas your Petitioners by the Authority of the two Houses of Parliament were brought under the sacred obligation of a Solemn Oath wherein with our hands lifted up to the most high God we did Covenant to endeavour a Reformation in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and Vniformity of the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms and in pursuance thereof the said Honourable Houses with the advice of the Assembly of Divines did ordain a Form of Church government a confession of Faith a Directory for Worship and the greater and lesser Catechisms which we and our Congregations have through God's goodness for many years together and still do comfortably enjoy and practise We are therefore humbly bold in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ for the prevention of divisions offences snares to the consciences of many thousands within the three Kingdoms both Ministers and people who are pious and peaceable with all humility to beseech your Majesty That the things of God and Religion which have been so solemnly Covenanted for may be owned and confirmed by your Royal Authority which notwithstanding we do sincerely profess our readiness to accommodate with our Godly and Orthodox brethren dissenting from us so far as may consist with our consciences and Covenant This Petition however by some State stratagems and Court complement and over prudent cowardize of some who contrary to the due order of all Assemblies would never let it be reported it was prevented from being presented to his Majesty yet I know it was agreed and assented unto by many learned and ingenious men who are yet ready in all â—â—ble lawful and submissive wayes to own the same cause of the Covenant in which Mr Cr. hath appeared and is here inserted as a check to Dr Gauden's fancied complyance of Covenanted Presbyters 2. Dr Gauden doth often suggest the extinpation of Episcopacy to be inconsistent with loyalty to the King and therefore affectionately wisheth that Mr Cr. may maintain and express his loyalty to which he findeth him a pretender To this give me leave as Dr Gauden hath done before me to play the fool and boast and I can say without vanity in expressions of loyalty on conscience of the Covenant I think I have not come behinde the highest Prelate which pretendeth most to it though it be not so visible at Court as they make theirs to be yet all England knows Mr Croftons contest against the cruel and barbarous murther of his late Majesty how plainly he did in the pulpit at Nantwitch in Cheshire to the face of the chief Republican agents reprove it as an actual positive breach of Covenant in a solemn Assembly and Thanks-giving held on Jan. 25. 1649. what rage and reproach he that day underwent and what hazard he thereby ran into the yet Minister of that Town and other Gentlemen loyal to his Majesty can declare In conscience of this Covenant and loyalty to his Majesty he withstood and declined the Engagement and that against the open and violent threats of promoters of it perswasions of complying brethren one of whom pressed me to it with this great argument The fight at Dunbar is lâ—st the Kings Interest quite overthrown these times afford few Martyrs yet Mr Cr. resolved to make one and conflicted with a violent and vexatious people to a Sequestration of his Estate on no other reason but not subscribing to the Engagement It is too long to report my constant praying for and preaching up the King's Interest to the conviction of the enemy my constant refusal to observe any of their Fasts or solemn Thanks-givings my preaching at Westchester at the beginning of Sr George Booths attempt and my troublesome attendance on the Councel of State and Militia with the threats and rage I then underwent The Articles of Treason against Oliver charged against me for which I underwent much trouble the friendly and angry conflicts I have often had with John Bradshaw whom I feared not to minde of his wages of unrighteousness my constant asserting of his Majesties Interest and subjects duty of returning to the Lord and to David their King which I preached in St Peters Cornhil when the hearers trembled and all the City expected Mr Crofton's bonds at the least All which were expressions of loyalty to the King and conscience of the Covenant But I will only present thee with a Letter which I sent unto a Member of the Rump Parliament on the very day of their triumphant return from Portsmouth it was then published though without my name I shall now affix it to this Epistle and leave thee to judge how far conscience of the Covenant hath acted Mr Croftons loyalty to the King and tell thee he retaineth the same duty for his Majesty and in sense of it doth and cannot but do it now contest for and assert the solemn League and Covenant in that religious part which must be promoted with utmost zeal by all who wish well to King and Kingdom though the devil and his instruments do endeavour to damp deaden and divert the discharge of duty by the clamorous charge of Treason Rebellion Sedition and Disloyalty of that Act which is in its Nature Principle and Disposition of the Agents most truly loyal and faithful to the King and Kingdoms Interest Honour and Happiness which none hath or can more sincerely seek and promote then the zealous conscientious Covenanters amongst whom to be reckoned cost what it will is the Ambition and Resolution of March 14. 1660. Zach. Crofton A Letter written by a Minister in London in Answer to one sent from a Member of the Long PARLIAMENT Honoured Sir YOurs of the 18th instant I received whereby I discern your sense of the sad hand of God upon these Nations in the many sad Revolutions to which they have been subject And now you seem studious of the way of its recovery in which I rejoyce Though Sir your Enquiry doth a little amaze me not so much for the matter as that you should press me to it in this juncture of time You well know Sir I have not declined to let you know my thoughts of all the late transactions of those who called themselves The Long Parliament Did I not much presume on your Faithfulness never to use it to my damage however God deal with
Levit. 26. but no longer for then his end is effected Repentance doth engage divine return for he hath promised that when ever he speaks against a Nation to pluck it up or root it out if that Nation repent he will repent Jer. 18.8 He ever meets relenting Ephraim with Repentance for inflicted judgements his method is to give Repentance and Remission of sins Jer. 31.18 The greatest good intended for Israel is contracted into the promise of repentance the Sun doth not more certainly follow the morning Star then the return of Gods presence doth attend repentance Nay Sir in this case repentance is an actuall re-enjoyment of blessing not only a quality disposing to it but an act putting into the possession of it as your Armies late repentance for their back-sliding put your Members actually into the House to rule and govern and their counter repentance put you out again so the repentance of your pretended Parliament and the People of England puts lawfull Governours into their proper places and fixeth Authority in its right Center which sin un hingeth and expelleth You may observe Israels Repentance was an actual and ardent Contest to bring home the King Repentance breaks open the Bar of Sedition and Rebellion which shutteth out lawful authority will but God give Repentance the Restitution of Englands Government will be very feasable and speedy For this Repentance consists in two parts 1. To abide for rightfull Governours however expelled and at present excluded and not to be for any other Magistrate by any act of Allegiance or acknowledgement of Loyalty strike not hands with consent not to any self-created Governours by Pride Perfidy and Rebellion slipping into a Chair of State play not the wanton with any self-advancing Absalom be not seduced by every seditious Sheba If proud men have power and profaneness to catch a Scepter and stamp Authority upon themselves let men maintain their Chastity deny their Allegiance court them not as rightfull Governours Mens giddy unconstancy is the blood that nourisheth Rebellion resolved chastity is the rebuke of adulterous attempts if with Mephibosheth men cannot follow their exil'd David let them abide in their widdowhood and retain their Loyalty untill he return According to Nature and Scripture a people may better be without any Prince then strike hands with a Usurper for in that is sorrow but in this is sin I should Sir wish that fond and blind affection may not engage any to commit lewdness with any the Members of Englands late Husbands body let not any the Members of our Collective Body now beheaded and bemangled cheat us with the claim of Allegiance by pretence of Relation and cry of a Long Parliament but rather let these Members be dispersed throughout the Tribes of Israel as evidences of that unheard of violence and unparallell'd cruelty which hath been acted on our Espoused Lord. Englands Subscription of sinful Engagements and shamefull Addresses to unlawful Powers hath been the breach of her chastity let us abide for lawful Government when we can doe no more evidence our integrity and assert our duty and relation when we cannot enjoy our right The second Act of Repentance to be done Second part of Repentance is to return unto the Lord and to David their King Return to God is the formall act of true Repentance Sin and Repentance have the same object though some sin is more immediately against God yet all sin is a transgression of his Law The same God that said Thou shalt have none other Gods before my face said also Thou shalt honour thy Father and thy Mother and Thou shalt not commit adultery Israels Rejection of Samuel was a Rejection of the Lord as light as men make of Civil Right and Order it is Gods direction in the second Table of his Law The complaint of the Penitent for any sin is unto God Against thee thee only have I sinned seeking to the Lord will spur a seeking unto David their King sence of God offended engageth a return from all sin not only from last but first acts of violence done unto Authority not only the interruptions made on you in 1653. but those chiefly made by you in 1648. and that with fulness of Resolution to back-slide no more a return to God will awe the conscience and obviate all the difficulties and discouragements of Repentance danger sinfully created by rebellion shall not deter repentance because it is a return to God ready to forgive let me say to England as God to Israel Jer. 4.1 If thou wilt return return unto the Lord who enjoyned your duty whose Law hath been violated by your impiety unto the Lord to whom you sware in the day of your distresse who is a God of jealousie and will avenge the quarrel of the Covenant sad is the Repentance which is but an exchange of sin or of sins object a bewailing of one rebellious act but maintaining and proceeding in a series of Rebellion violence and sedition Sir whatever Souldiers doe Saints must not thus return Israels return to God must be with a return to David their King by David is generally understood the Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ nor doe I deny it only Sir I wish it may be noted the Messiah is called David for Relation and Succession sake because the same seed and rightful Successour of David as the Pharaohs of Egypt and Caesars of Rome he is their King not only as the Messiah but by a lineall discent from and lawful succession to the Crown of Israel so that a return to David their King is mentioned with an allusion unto their Apostacy from and Rebellion against the House of David which must be repented in their return for they must embrace the Lord Jesus not only as the Messiah but also as their naturall Prince and lawfull Sovereign and therefore Calvin cryeth out Aliter vere ex animo Deum quaerere non potuit quin se etiam subjiceret Legitimo imperio cui astrictus erat they could no way seek the Lord in truth but by becoming Subject to their lawfull Soveraign Englands repentance must be according to this they must seek the Lord through Christ by subjection to their lawfull Government and Governours from which they have revolted the formality of Repentance from Rebellion is a return to Loyalty Sir Restitution is an essentiall act of Repentance the only restitution made for repented of Rebellion is a re-establishment of Authority and a return to Loyalty becoming subject for conscience sake Israel repenting the Rebellion into which they run after self-advancing Absalom 2 Sam. 19. they fell to strife among themselves about fetching home their King Nay Shimei's Character of repentance is this Thy servant doth know that I have sinned therefore behold I am come down the first of all the House of Joseph to meet my Lord the King if God will doe England good he will give them hearts to give God the things that are Gods
see and say this was not from the beginning You do indeed profess to the first six hundred years but I dare say the last three hundred of them are those you would chiefly cleave to And what do you mean by Ecclesiastical Laws where are these recorded and by what authority were they composed When you have given me a plain clear and distinct resolution to these if I mistake your meaning let me be blamed till then blame me not I love not the Rhetorick which contrary to its end proposeth objects with that obscurity that they cannot be with certainty determined and that under a profession to clear and convince the conscience Yet Sir to do you right When I observe you page 114. eat your own words and offer as if your Brethren Prelates had brought you now into Cassanders School and charged you to make an Apology for your over-friendly proposal to Presbyterians which you pursue by telling us All Presbyterians do hug Bishop Ushers Reduction of Episcopacy which in your Analysis you assured us did reduce Episcopacy to an efficacious conjunction with Presbytery and on which Mr. Cr. concluded that sence which you say he seemed in a sober mood to own An Episcopacy consistent with the Covenant pag. 191. but now say will reduce Bishops to primitive poverty the estate which attended and enforced their piety and therefore tell us That humble learned and pious Lord Primate propounded that reduction not in order to binde the hands of or limit Bishops in England and Scotand but as a condescention and expedient at present to disarm and binde the hands of Presbyters and people Sir who told you that this was the politick stratagem of that pious Bishop did not Bishop Wren Sure I am he came not down from heaven to authorize you in your Book to call him hypocrite and to tell all the world he had in Machiavillian policy by his grave and judicious authority affirmed That it was apparent out of the Word of God and practice of the primitive times that Presbyters had an intrinsecal power unto all Jurisdiction and order in the Church and by after Vsurpation were thrust out and therefore he proposed an expedient prudendentially to restore them to their just authority but never intended it to be believed as a truth or ever be put in practice as a duty but to only be jingled in the ears of crying children Are you not ashamed to cast such a blot on the precious name of him who I know was by some Cassandrian Prelates judged Puritan whilst alive Do you measure every man by your own temporizing principles and think they are onely in a good mood till they have opportunity to be bad and base do not you blush to offer this reduction in one book and call it in in another But whilst I see you thus play fast and loose I know how to trust to you and am holpen the better to understand what you mean by Episcopal Government and when I observe the soveraign power by which Mr. Crofton you say and that truly is not willing to be ruled pag. 216. Coordination with Kings as cheif Governours by Divine appointment pag. 205. Honourable fatherhood and government p. 203. The legal constitution by the Laws of England to which our Episcopacy doth pretend the continued practice and exercise of it in this Nation the superiority above and authority apart and distinct from Presbyters whose advice may be good and useful but not necessary as that which would make every Presbyter suffragan Bishop and the Bishop without his Presbyters a meer â—â—pher All which I finde predicated up and down your tedious discourse of that Episcopacy you would advance and which you say is not so obscure as Mr. Crofton would pretend but in express terms you tell us is That Church polity honour order and government which our Bishops had and now have and that we must not by an equivocal and levelling fence confound Bishops and Presbyters by a silly â—â—gomacâ—ie or cavil of names distinguished by a real rational difference of place honor office authority and use in the Church of Christ which you say no learned man can doubt of or deny but sure you mean affirm when I consider these things I must confess I should mistake you and do my self wrong by suspending yea stifling my judgement if I should not see clearly the Episcopacy which you pretend to reconcile to the Covenant is no other then that very frame and fabrick of government which Smectymnuus tells us was of humane invention and diabolical occasion by which the man of sin was made manifest and did advance himself in the Temple of God innovated by Austin the Monck so exercised that it appeared papatum alterius mundi which my Analepsis told you I was jealous you meant in your Analysis I have Sir with tiring difficultie discovered the ratio formalis objecti which you profess to reconcile to the Covenant and make consistent with it and in my eyes it doth seem to be the very same with that which in terminis was covenanted to be extirpated viz. Prelacy that is to say the government by Archbishops Bishops their Commissaries Chancellors Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons c. depending on that Hierarchy But let us see how you answer the third part of Mr. Croftons Analepsis and acquit your self from the imbecillity of argumentation charged on you And sir you seem to me to take a very preposterous and strange course to commend the strength of your reason by a tedious and long confused discourse of rage enmitie and opposition at the Covenant or by a general hypothesis that it must bind to what is good pious just lawful and not against reason religion justice pietie morallitie duty to God and man whereas you ought to remember that generalia non pungunt these may be all admitted and Episcopacy never the nearer reconciled to the Covenant whereas you ought to have given us a grammatical construction logical resolution genuine interpretation of that Article which seemeth cross to your Episcopacy and by a clear acceptation and vulgar apprehension or general scope of its words make it appear that the words will without straining admit such a sence and signification but it may be the simplicitie which becomes an oath of the terms extirpation or reformation being incompetible except in a fools fancie might strike you off this But them you should Sir have given a point blank charge against that Article which clasheth with your Hierarchy as binding to injury injustice immorality irreligion against the duty we owe to God and man and pursued that closely by clear and convincing demonstrations then had the Bishop shewed himself a workman who needed not to be ashamed but let little Mr. Crofton be never so great a Dictator he must finde è quovis ligno non fit Mercurius every tongue well hung cannot be well tuned nor will natural fluencie be easily kept to rules of art or under the command of
I mistaken in the poverty of the Primitive Bishops and the parity at least of Presbyterie to Episcopacy I must borrow your Spectacles when I look into any thing of antiquity but sure Sir Smectyâ—â—nuus will not think you modest to charge impudence and falsity on such as deny it they were bold to contradict your opinion in this very poynt asserted by the remonstrant your predecessour and assign several things in which the English Bshops differ from the primitive when you have reconciled them we will find you more but they will be enough for one book of forty sheets 7. This universal custome is not to be despised by any sober Christian yet this Episcopacy is not onely tradition and universal observation for it hath further the stamp and impression of divine order and wisdome Scripture precept and Apostolique pattern all right reason prudence and policie pag. 247. we need not go far to find the precepts canâ—ns commission power and authority of this Episcopal jurisdiction given by Jesus Christ and his Apostles pag. 228. such Bishops rooted in Christ branched in the twelve Apostles and spread in all the Christian world and endowed with honorary supports pag. 220. I like you Dr that you speak out most Episcopal men stand stammering at a divine right as if afraid to say it were to be found in Episcopacy and yet Dr. Gauden can plainly see the stamp and impression not onely of right reason prudence and policy but of divine order and wisdome yea Scripture precept and Apostolique pattern the very canons and commission of Jesus Christ I must confess I am so dark sighted I cannot see it I dare not encline to say or think as Dr. Gauden doth that the Apostles were proper Bishops or such as are our English Bishops because our learned and judicious Whitaker whom I judge no way short of Dr. Gauden declareth it to be the fancie of a crack brain Patres cum Jacobum Episcopum vocant aut etiam Petrum non proprie sumunt Episcopi nomen sed vocant eos episcopos illarum ecclesiarum in quibus aliquando commorati sunt si proprie de episcopo loquuntur absurdum est Apostolos fuisse episcopos nam qui proprie episcopus est is Apostolus non potest esse quia episcopus est unius tantum ecclesiae at Apostoli plurium ecclesiarum fundatores inspectâ—res erant non multum distant ab insania dicere Petrum fuisse proprie episcopum aut reliquos Apostolos I hope Dr. Gauden will not charge Dr. Whittaker with impudence and falshood and I think he strikes at the very root of his supposed Divine impresion and Apostolical practice and precedent to which you refer us for proof but that this may be believed you must needs proceed 8. The testimonies of the Fathers Councils and Historians are so necessary to the Scriptures that without them no man can receive satisfaction concerning the distinct offices of the Church the difference between the community of Christian duties as professors and believers of the common verity and specialty of the office of Preachers pag. 247 248. But Sir is a charge of imperfection in the Scripture the only support of your Prelacy or doth it abide as a mark of its papacy I apprehended the Scriptures profitable for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works which it can never be if we cannot by it receive satisfaction concerning the distinct offices in the Church which are the only means of intercourse between God and the soul or the common Christian duties of professors and beleiving of the common verity or specialty of the off ce of preaching certainly if the word be in this too short the writings of the Fathers Councils and Historians must needs aedisicare in Gehennam guide us like a dark lanthorn into inevitable danger for whence did they know these if not from Scripture this you stumbled on to divert the dispute of the Office name degree order and authority of your Bishop which Mr. Crofton put you upon Sir I am sorry I should be an occasion of your divulging such an error which your Anatomist will readily pick up as piece of blasphemy incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim you would avoid the dispute of the Divine right of your Episcopacy as that which was dangegerous to your See and have laid a foundation for another dispute concerning the perfection of the Scriptures as to the common duty of Christians and special office of Preachers and that on a fancy too For Sir Mr. Crofton would have you know he hath an audience and credence for the Fathers Councils and Historians as venerable witnesses in matter of fact but cannot receive them as judges in matter of right and sole Dictators of duty Mr. Crofton hath read that when Augustine was pinched with a passage out of Cyprian he made answer Sunt certilibri dominici quorum authoritati utrique centimus utrique servimus ibi quaeramus Ecclesiant ibi discutiamus causam nostram Sir whatever you say in an angry mood I wil hope you will joyn with me in an appeal to the Scriptures and then I say ibi quaeramus Episcopum find your Episcopacy there for otherwise if I find its extirpation in the Covenant I 'le stand by it it must be extirpated if King and Kingdome or peace and glory must be preserved from Gods angry extirpation for bona mutabilia are within the verge of mans vow and reach of his hand but you being loosed from the truth tumble you know not whither and therefore you suggest 9. Episcopacy is a matter of Faith essential to the being of the Church an eminent part of Gods Worship which may not be wanting withdrawn from or withstood changed or covenanted against without Schisme and superstition Pag. 195 214 215. Yet you dare not trust it to the tryal of the Scriptures I promise you Sir I dare not admit any thing as an Article of my Creed nor offer to God any thing as an act of his Worship which is not plain and obvious in the Scriptures without the witness and Authority of Fathers Councel or Historian I must adventure the schisme and superstition I hope Dr. Gauden doth not use Schisme and superstition as the old Prelates did the term Puritan and Englands late Tyrants did the term Malignant as words of no signification but onely served to nickname and reproach the opposers of their prophane principles and proceeding and to deter men from the discharge of required duty but to secure your Prelacy you go one step further and suggest yea speak out that 10. Bishops are coordinate and equal with Kings in that commission the word whereby God hath left liberty to his Church or the chief Governours thereof Kings or Bishops to order all things as they shall judge meet Page 205. Episcopacy is unalterable by any lawful humane power Dr. Gauden peremtorily
determineth that Parliaments Kings Lords and Commons have no prudent moral religious and lawful authority to change the antient universal and excellent government by Bishops for Christian Kings and their Parliaments are obliged to the Laws of God and rules of Christian piety and policy too of which the whole Church in its primitive example and constant custome is the best interpreter No legislative power is empowred by Gods law to bring in heresie error or schisme into the Church or take away the essentials of sound Doctrine and Christian Communion ever owned and maintained in the Church of Christ pag. 196. well said Doctor aut Caesar aut Nullus No Bishop no King must now be a Scripture maxime and article of faith if Smectymnuus his stirr up to the papacy be not now held Salmasius his Apparatus ad papatum asserted and Beza his Episcopi papam pepererunt verified by the Bishop of Exeter I am much mistaken but Sir have you not stretched too far and stept into a premunire little Mr. Crofton should fear to be made less by the head as guilty of Treason sedition at the least should he thus confront King and Parliaments in what all their Statutes declare to be their own creature and constitution changeable at their pleasure even from the statutes of Carlile and 25. of Edward the 3. Declaring against the Pope that holy Church was founded in prelacy by their own donation power and authority Where is Sir the Kings Prerogative over all persons in all causes Ecclesiastical What is become of your Oath of Supremacy can you make this peremptory determination as your self calls it consist with it any more then with your Covenant hath a gracious King lately advanced you to debase nay dethrone him and his Parliament too I know no better confutation of this errour then the hundred eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty pounds payd by the Bishops to Henry 8. to redeem the premunire into which this perswasion had betrayed them with the Petition and Statute of the submission of the Clergy which in my apprehension runs direct counter to Dr. Gaudens peremptory conclusion It hath been observed to be the fatal chance of the Deputies of Ireland to lose their heads and the Bishops of England to run themselves into a Premunire which when his Majestie affected with their bold encroachment doth exact will make them feel and it may be deal with them as did the King of Denmark provoked by the same peremptorie determinations These Sir are your errors in matters Ecclesiastical which you must give little Mr. Crofton leave to tell you are more obvious notorius and abominable heresies then was that charged upon Aerius though an undeniable uniuersal truth by Epiphanius nor doth he fear to be contradicted by any sober or judicious Prelate resolved to keep Episcopacy one peep short of Papacy unto which I shall make bold to oppose these few conclusions of undoubted verity and universally confessed by all Antiquitie which that little Mr. Crofton may not appear too great a dictatour let Dr. Gauden owning sacred or Ecclesiastick story deny it if he can 1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Shepheard and Bishop of our souls the great good chief and onely one to whom all must be gathered by whom all must be ruled that will be saved and from whom all must be authorized that will feed his flock 2. The Lord Jesus executeth this pastoral charge and Episcopal function by the Ministry of men successively sent and commissioned by his immediate authority and in his name without which they may not Minister to or be received by his flock 3. That the mission and commission of Jesus Christ is directed and given to two onely officers in his Church Bishops or Elders and Deacons the one to look after the bodies outward necessities and condition of his sheep to serve Tables the other to manage all the pastoral charge and Episcopal office as it immediately concerneth the soul of his people 4. That all Ministers are equally invested with and do intrinsecally possess authority from Christ for administration of all acts of feeding or ruling the flock of Christ without any difference of order place charge name office or dignity and therefore are joyned in the same general commission called by the same name Bishop or Presbyter chosen by the same characters conseerated after the same order charged with the same duty feeding or overseeing and challenge the same dignity esteem obedience and double honour from and among the sheep 4. That for some time in the pure and primitive time and estate of the Church the Presbyters did by and among themselves govern the Church communi consilio without any over them as Episcopus episcoporum or Pastor pastorum as having from Christ a different order and function yea without any gradual priority or preheminence of any particular Presbyter above the rest 6. That in process of time the Presbyters neglecting the course and care of Christian mortification by which they ought to have subdued their ambition and passions and so silenced their schism did by the working of the man of sin and permission of God devise a politique way or remedy thereof and advancing among themselves a Primus Presbyter ad schismatis remedium who was after dignified with the title Bishop and was by Canons honoris causa placed in Cities who was before in any poor village This giveth just ground for Smectymnuus note that Episcopacy above Presbytery was an humane invention on Diabolical occasion 7. That all jurisdiction and ruling power was yet acknowledged to abide originally intrinsecally and properly in the Presbyterie whose creature the Bishop was to act pronounce and execute their decrees and therefore when Bishops began to encroach and invade the Presbyters libertie and authoritie to usurp and ingross their power and function and make them subject and servile to them Canons were made to limit confine and subject the Bishop maintain and preserve the Presbyters power in Ordination Excommunication and Absolution not to be done without the Presbyters So that Presbyterie was ever known in the Church as Christs and his Apostles institution and Bishops apart and in preheminence to them the Churches Canonical constitution and Presbyters creation to the formality of whose advancement consensus clericorum was essential 8. That by this political preferment of a primus Presbyter the man of sin did work and exist in the Church engrossing the power of the Presbyterie and advancing himself above them he assumed by degrees a Principality to which he made the Presbyters sworn vassals by which became the subject of Princes indulgence and benevolence until capable of universal influence and extention through the Christian world he assumed an universal Papacie which he executed by subordinate Bishops heads of Diocesses and Provinces contracted universalities throughout the Church thus Beza well notes Episcopi papam pepererunt and Salmasius discovers the apparatus ad papatum â—nd many judicious men see nothing but a
Champions the Authors of the Oxford reasons and therefore must be proved 5. That the Parliament putting an Oath upon themselves as the collective body of the Nation doth not transmit an obligation to the Nation us and our posterities who shall any way succeed into that national capacity as if Parliaments were not the Princes yea more the body of the people doing in their names and by their consent what ever they do and if they do it by an act of permanent nature binding posterity in all ages that can dispose their succession into that capacity of this see more in my fastning of St. Peters Fetters Sect 6. 6. That tumults stirs and the timorous withdrawings of some doth nul and void a Parliament established by a positive law and without any positive visible and real force securing their doors to the barring of the entrance of any the Members to the discharge of their duties and easie way to dissolve Parliaments and blow them up without Gunpowder 7. That the Parliament can Act Vote Determine and execute nothing under the Kings withdrawing from them into any part of his own Country Who may yet do all things in his infancy or whilst in a Forreign Country as if the place of his retirement or reason of his absencâ— did add or abstract to the Authority of Parliament 8. That the two houses alone nor King alone no nor King with them have any legislative power to decree or execute what is unrighteousnes against God or man So that the legislation is founded in the piety and justice of the decree And rebellion against authority is acquitted by the iniquity of the command An authoritative aholishing of any subordinate order or society of men is injustice to the persons and possessions of the present Occupants And so England is bound to pennance for the abolishing Monks Nuns and Abbeys and that no King or Parliament have a power or can justly extirpate and abolish out of the Nation any trade calling or order of men any way useful to the Common-wealth Tinkers and Pedlers and men of the like order will certainly cleave close to this conservator of their liberty 9. That no King can lawfully swear to the diminution of his own prerogative and power or honorable estate which all people in the world must and will contradict 10. The solemn League and Covenant binding to an endeavour to extirpate prelacy is irreconcileable to the duty we owe to God and man First to the Kings Supremacy Second to the Church and Countrys peace and honour Third to the glory of God in the Government of the Church Fourth to the reformation of reformed Religion Fifth to the conscience and care of avoiding Sacriledge Schisme and Faction Sixth to the justice we ow to all godly honest and deserving men especially Ministers cujus contrarium verum est Sir whilst you take these for granted which are contrary to right reason natural policy Ecclesiastical story yea and truth it self you may easily raise your Fabrick swell your book and run on in a magisterial redaâ—gution prelatical determination and raging reviling opprobrious rebuke but Sir you must remember a man that is first in his own cause seemeth righteous but his Neighbour cometh after and findeth him out Prov. 18.17 We shall leave the Doctor to a view of these Rafters proportioned to his foundation and promiscuously scatterd up and down his book And more particularly observe the strength of his argumentation in his reply to what was excepted against in his Analysis and specially as it relateth to Mr. Crofton leaving Anonymous to himself who herein will finde full work for his anatomizing genius The first onset of Dr. Gauden in this his vindication of his Analysis made upon Mr. Crofton his Analepsis is in page 147 and thus enters viz. Which was the thing Dr. Gauden had to prove as Christ did the resurrection not out of the letter only but the Analogie and equity of that Scripture from the force of which M. Crofton cannot extricate himself by his more soberendeavours Under this charge I must enquire what it was he had to prove and I find nothing in this sentence dictating what it should be save only the relative which from which his rhetorick or rather his indigested heap of words hath removed the antecedent at such a distance that I cannot easily find it I looked into the Paragraph fore-going to find out the thing spoken of as that which according to the grammatical construction should make the Antecedent to the Relative and there I find this general conclusion viz. Such Vows and Covenants so much to the scandal of Religion reproach of Reformation gratifying dangerous factions disgrace of this and all reformed Churches dishonor to Jesus Christ his Apostles and chief Successors the Bishops so injurious to many worthy men to the whole Church and Nation of England either ought not to be taken by Christian King and People or if by force fraud or fear and facility they aâ—e so taken or rather imposed and mistaken yet they muâ—t never be kept in any such sence bue either repented of and dissolved or else the words must be resolved and reduced to such a sence as is good and lawful Id quod erat demonstrandum To leave his Libeller to take up his petitio principii as to our Covenant not such in point of matter or form nor so imposed or mistaken as he suggesteth and taketh for granted and to demand his Id quod erat demonstrandum This sentence must be the antecedent to his relative which for so it is connexed which was the thing Dr. Gauden had to prove out of that Scripture But what is the Scripture out of which he must prove this conclusion I find no Scripture nigh hand that can be the proof produced running some seven pages back through a wilde wilderness of words I find in pag. 140. a quarrel begun about Numb 30. and other Scripture is not urged this was the Scripture which was produced in his Analysis though with a misquoted verse and must be vindicated in this book so that this only must be the Scripture predicated to prove his which before noted and then indeed Mr. Croftons more serious endeavours cannot extricate him from the entanglements of the Doctors wilde fancy for the Text neither the letter nor analogy doth afford any such conclusion All Mr. Croftons brains cannot beat such a sense into the words they are so far out The Text in the letter of it is a special direction concerning the vow of a daughter or wife vowing without the knowledge of the Father or Husband In the Analogie of it of the Inferior swearing without the knowledge of the Superiour and directeth an establishment or irritation of the vow not any sencing or interpretation id quod erat demonstrandum And how Dr. Gauden can make it grammatically speak or logically conclude Such a Vow so scandalous to religion gratifying to faction dishonourable to Christ disgraceful to England
whom our consent must be subject but in it self huâ—tful yea sinful and so the subserviency of the will to the understanding is superseded by an Oath Again the dictates of nature and discoveries of the Old Testament do direct the matter of an oath to be expressed with all certainty and clearness and the Covenant doth accordingly express all the particulars covenanted but this oath is so far from certainty of the matter sworn that it binds the conscience to an caetera of infinite extension and boreth a passage into a mans conscience for whatsoever shall be fathered upon and said to be intended in the caetera which might be at least Moneks and Abbeys no less legal and established then this Episcopacy Again the dictates of Nature and discoveries of the Old Testament do direct the National tie of an oath to be stamped by the collective body of the Nation as was the Covenant but not the Oath caetera which was by a picked pack'd Convocation without any authority Ecclesiastical or civil to impose or prescribe an Oath upon the Subjects Nay if we give the Doctor his fancy and suppose the Prelates Justices of the Peace they run into a premunire who bind the Subject to the good behaviour by an oath not directed by Law Thirdly That the Oath of the caetera disseised no honest man of his freehold or estate I must understand him in his consequences of it as he doth the Covenant and then I must enquire what it means that the Minister or beneficed dignified person refusing this Oath after one moneths consideration shall be suspended ab officio after two moneths consideration a beneficio after three months consideration shall be deprived of all promotion and execution of his function Sure the Doctor is as well studied in the Canons of 1640. as the Covenant 1643. Is not a Benefice the Ministers freehold and estate as much as the Bishoprick is the Bishops or are the suspension a beneficio yea deprivation no disseisure of the same and suspension ab officio no injustice and impiety Sir Your second thoughts will sure sink your parallel and consequence and your reply will be found more light and shufling then Mr. Croftons Queries which answer themselves by way of expostulation Pag. 14â— proving against Dr. Gaudens assertion that the New Testament is not the onely rule which must direct the Nationalty or other circumstances of a Covenant determinable by the light of nature As to the question you pretend not answered it is but now started and is not in your Analysis What erigents in religion did ever put any Church or Christian Subjects upon such a way of publick covenanting c. Yet by your leave Sir Mr. Crofton did say something which may answer it Find you a Church or Christian people and erigents of Religion so capacitated for nature number quality and just authority Analepsis p. 22. and Mr. Crofton will finde such a Covenant untill then observe Mr. Croftons Query Must we enquire onely what hath been done in the Christian Churches to do that and no more without regarding what may be done the condition of the Church so requiring And study Mr. Crofton his Analepsis Anelephthe sect 3. The Doctor hath not more shufled about Mr. Croseâ—f answering expostulation then he poorly shifts off his vindication and rescue of the Covenant from the odium of the Ligue de Saint in France which he as writing after his friends John Russels copy in his margin with a notorious falshood calls Mr. Croftons patteâ—n and in the Text upbraidingly crieth out Mr. Crofton not like an Eagle but a meaner bird stoops to feed on that long ago dead and noysom carkass the holy League in France as a very exemplary parellel for his holy Covenant Doctor are not you ashamed to father the Brats of your own fancy on Mr Crofton This parellel is your own bastard and quod fieri non debuit factum valet you begot it you must keep it Did not you in your Analysis labour to make the Covenant odious by this example Doth Mr. Crofton own or allow this League de Saint Nay doth he not condemn it onely stave off the odious reflection designed by an envious Renegado and Apostate I pray Sir read Mr. Croftons words again and see whether Mr. Crofton feed on this as a pattern on only a fence against your assault made by it May not the League de Saint and Oath caetera in England there is your parallel Dr. though SINFVL IN THE MATTER Sir rub your Romish spectacles be good spurs and directions in Christian policy may not the same means as abstracted from the matter be used to corroborate true Religion and Reformation why may not Popish policy teach Protestants to combine by Covenant Reverend Sir read my ridle Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness Sir was not Mr. Crofton herein like an Eagle on the horns of an Hart scattering that dust in your eyes that caused you to throw your self into the praecipice of false accusation or appear not you like the envious and cruel Vulture killed by the oyl of Roses which sprang and grew out of the dung of a noysom dead carkass O man be honest though a Prelate p. 242 243. The Doctor tells us Mr. Crofton stranges at Dr. Gauden not finding the like lineaments in the Covenant as in the baptismal Covenant you are again mistaken Doctor for Mr. Cr. stranged at the transport of so grave and serious a Divine to oppose the baptismal Covenant to this Mr. Crofton did easily admit they were disparata but not opposita contraria this was Dr. Gaudens work to demonstrate if you will believe him he tells us the inconsistency is plain and fully explained by Dr. Gauden where or how why if it obligeth to injustice oppression sedition sacriledge schisme and Iliades of miserable innovations at this rate it will appear but ifs or ands are no proofs or demonstrations if they were I would soon prove your Prelacy a Papacy and store your Table with Episcopal plenties and dainties for if the Elements fall we shall catch Larks this way of disputing is apparently Jesuitical Machiavilian and barbarous so far from baptismal that it is plainly irrational what good duty Justice morality or Religion may not be ruined if a man 's fancyed if be reason enough against it if the Bishoprick of Exeter be unjustly held by Dr. Gauden from Mr. Crofton or Bath and Wells from D. B. it is unjust and sacrilegious and they are both bound to abandon their places and avoid their Seats and to restore them how like you the Argument is it not very Logical and Cogent Sir draw up a positive charge and prove it Mr. Crofton will stand to it that he will renounce the Covenant in the mean time let me desire the Doctor to take a view of the parallel between this and the baptismal vow or covenant proposed
by Mr. Cr. in his Analepsis Analephthe Sect. 3. pag. 35. and avoid it if he can onely take notice it is the honesty of the Covenant not all Covenanters that Mr. Crofton pleads with confidence he confesseth many cups may be found in his brethrens sacks but not in any Article of the Covenant and Dr. Gaudens multiplyed reiterated Ifs do make me confident of Benjamins innocency and apt to think things unknown are thrust upon them but not from so pious a principle and to so charitable an end as Joseph acted from and aimed at but truely Doctor it is a Sophistical evasion to confound things and persons in a dispute but this the learned Doctor doth decline as to the name office degree order and Authority of a Bishop in Scripture Sir do you not now appear a greater dictatour then little Mr. Crofton Pag. 249. who rationally urged his exception and is no way affraid or unwilling in this case to try a turn with Dr. John Gauden on the questions before propounded who yet will hold to his ingenuous agnition which so much pleaseth you viz. that the Covenant is not levelled against any real excellency in the Bishops which is all that Mr. Crofton agnifed Analep Pag. 25. though you according to your usual falshood do add authority estate and honour which Mr. Cr. noted to be unwarrantable neither to be assumed by them nor attributed to them and Sir I must tell you ruine and extirpation of the frame of the English Hierarchy doth no way interfere with the preservation and esteem of any real excellency in Bishops but that Mr. Crofton may be ready and bound if in a capacity to vail that pompous worldly State and wicked superiority which Church Governours had obtained a note or instance of which he gave in Lawn sleeves no more puerile or scurrilous nor unbeseeming a Scholar or Gentleman then the baseness and contemptible inferiority of Presbyters was by you marked out in a black coat to which that was opposed is below the sobriety of a man the humility of a Primus Presbyter and reverence of a Christian to the poorest meanest Minister of Christ and speaks your prelatical Pride much more then your Rochet and Chymer sets out your pomp which my baptisme binds against and will engage the Boanergesses of God to thunder out terrour against Covenant breaking which you account a weak Womanish flash Pag. 249 251. yet will not be quenched by your first demonstrations or this reply by your judicious self proclaimed rational and conscientious though to all men beside proud prophane ridiculous weak and wicked whilst Mr. Crofton seeketh not to strain the â—ovenant beyond its own just and ingenuous resolution Pag 251. sence operation influence and obligation consenting to and rejoycing in its limitation to the Word of God and dutys of our places and callings by which Mr. Crofton is resolved he will be judged and is in himself assured that King and Kingdome accordingly keeping their Covenant the controverted Episcopacy will be at an end and the commission of our present Prelate Justices expired and useless covenanters by their good behaviour proving the solemn League and Covenant to be as indeed it is Berith Anti-Baall which Dr. Gauden blasphemously denominateth Baal Berith and Mr. Crofton is nor shall no way be shye of retrospection how or by whom to what or in what sence it binds and the rationality of its obligation all which he hath seriously considered in an opposition to the Oxford Reasons to which the Doctor so often retireth as he may see in my Analepsis Anelephthe pag. 265. We have seen the Doctors strength in the defence of his indirect answer and consideration of the Covenant which being done he proceeds to reinforce his direct answer and Goliah like being encouraged by the stature of little Mr. Crofton not taking notice of his stone and sling he triumphantly enters and tauntingly crieth Mr. Croftons fear good man is lest Dr. Gaudens down right blows may quite break in sunder Pag. 273 274. whatever may be of sacred bond in the Covenant the Reader that well regardeth the strength of his book cannot but with Laughter say there was great cause of fear but the best is it was but a fear and so on past for in the next assault Mr. Crofton is victor Mr. Croftons note that the paucity of the Covenanters doth not discharge its obligation is true had not Mr. Crofton much cause of fear and trouble I but in making Dr. Gauden one of the number Mr. Crofton reckoned without his host when that appears Mr. Crofton will cry true but the Doctor doth not dare not deny he sware it which if he should Mr. Crofton can tell who heard him preanh upon the Covenant acd saw him in the Pulpit at Bocking lift up his hand and swear it He doth indeed like a shifting runnegado labour to darken the act which retorts on his conscience in his now estate and tell us he never took an oath but those appointed by Law he might reckon the Covenant to be of this nature for the Authority of Parliament is by the Petition of Right the legal appointment of an Oath He tells us a large story how he did sense the Covenant and with what nonsense he did approve it understanding Extirpation to signifie Reformation and so by general salvoes and restrictions he cheated others and himself which Mr. Crofton hath detected in his Review of Reordination pag. 35. but may as soon acquit his soul from the bond as make the words of the Covenant bear his sence let him â—now equivocation in an Oath is no way short of Ananias and Saphira's lie unto the Holy Ghost it is much patience that the punishment hath not yet proclaimed it The Lord grant it may lead unto repentance He proceeds Mr. Crofton is apt to think the Covenant national not as in a Presbyterian illegal caetera sence which the Doctor adds but will not alter the case the sence being no way considerable to the Nationalty of it but in any sence signifies as little as other mens thoughts to the contrary But good Sir weigh the Reasons brought by Mr. Crofton and his answer to what you have objected as to the troubles of the Houses absence of some members or the like in Analepsis Anelepthe sect 6. which had you read would have saved or encreased your labour in your Reply Mr. Crofton must not shufle that into this book and therefore shall make bold to tell you His sacred Majesty and the Kingdom must submit to the plain and literal sence thereof though it seem as sowre grapes unless we will by Gods wrath set our own and childrens teeth on edge for the capacity of the Covenanters doth extend the obligation But The Doctor judgeth an oath extorted by fear to a mans private damage doth binde Pag 279. sure he means a proper damage for I cannot think he will in cool blood deny the Parents oath