from Presbyters pag. 21. arrogate unto themselves the sole power of Ordaining Ministers and to be the chief Conservators Cisterns and Conduits of Ecclesiastical authority and Ministerial power page 12. who have not only Precedency and Order but paternal authority page 18. and that not only over people but their Pastors who are by this antithesis fraternal with them and so fillial to the paternal power of the Bishops and make up the paternal fraternal and filial unity of Bishops Presbyters and people pa. 5. Nay in opposition to whom the ordinary Minister or Presbyter is divested of all power and degraded of all dignity among the people and the Bishop as dignified above him so distinguished from him by his Lawn sleeves which is plainly suggested when he tells us The people of England are not to be governed by their equals and inferiors because they are in black Coats page 17. All these expressions with many of the like nature do seem to set up and point out such an Episcopacy as is not Primitive and Regular And I say if this be the meaning of his Episcopacy as the word in the vulgar acceptation by the too long appropriation of it to such an unjust and Anti-christian frame of Government may be understood Truly Sir then I must be free to tell him the sence and very Letter of the Covenant is clear against it and binds the taker in terminis to the extirpation of Prelacy that is to say the Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy So that it is the thing not its abuse the subject not its adjuncts the Fabrick not its defects and excesses is covenanted against nor will the Covenant be accomplished or the conscience be satisfied by the removal of the pride presumption dulnesse covetousnesse and tyranny of Bishops whilst the preheminence prerogative paternal power and juridical authority assumed by them as distinct from and above all other Ministers of the Gospel as the only immediate Successours of the Apostles and enforced by their High Commission and starchamher with other imperial Courts Officers and proceedings are continued and established nor must he think by his Sophistical comparison to deceive and delude the conscience telling us page 17 18. That they that Covenanted against Popery cannot think they did abjure or must abhorre all those saving truths and duties of Christianity which are mixed with Popery for whatsoever is formal popery though it be an English Masse or Altar that all that though only that must be abhorred and I conceive it yet remains to be proved that the paternal authority of Episcopacy is a saving truth or Christian duty or not of the formality of prelacy and that government covenanted against It is no hard case of conscience to resolve whether a man may use the good and substantial materials of a destroyed Fabrick but I conceive it an high fallacy from thence to impose the very form resolved against You see Sir at what uncertainty we are left whilst the object of the obligation is propounded under a general term whose proper primitive and genuine signification suggests one thing and the vulgar and long-used acceptation suggests another and our resolution is darkned by the multitude of expressions concluding sometimes one and sometimes the other thing which of these shall a conscientious Covenanter embrace You cannot Sir but know the work of a Casuist is to be full and clear in the discovery of the Ratio formalis thing or matter concerning which the conscience conceiveth it self obliged and that it is a great unhappiness in an Interpreter and much greater in a Casuist to resolve obscura per obscuriora But Sir that I may testifie my willingness to understand him and cement what in me lieth the sad differences in the Church Shall I intreat you will please to provoke the Dr. and his Anti-covenant brethren such as seem to advance and promote an Episcopacy scrupled by Covenanters to speak out and clearly to declare whether they will admit the removal of the Government by Arch-Bishops and that late Hierarchy which he concludes page 18 is dead and must rise in another quality and according to what is suggested in the Reduction by him urged consent to the establishment of Congregational Classical Provincial and National Assembâ—ies oâ— Synods of Church-Officers Presbytarial Episcopacy admitted Communi concilio Presbyterorâ—m to debate and determine the affairs of the Church and exercise all Acts of discipline and Ecclesiastick power In each of which if there be Ignatius his Angel Tertullian his Summus sacerdos or Armagh's Bishop or Super-intendent for order-sake to call Assemblies propound questions gather suffrages require Order and composure in audience and debate pronounce sentence and sign Decrees and to be fixed in that place enjoying all the dignities thereto belonging and to be distinguished by some special denomination from his Chorepiscopi or Colleagues they shall not only enjoy my consent who I hope make conscience of the Covenant but also endeavour which I think will not much need that all the Covenanted Ministers may joyne with them in a Petition to His Majesty that by a Synod by His Majesties Authority called it may be speedily consulted and concluded on under which I doubt not but the Peace of the Church will be preserved and power truth and godliness promoted But if nothing will serve them but Bishops distinct in Office from Presbyters and exercising over them a paternal authority appropriating to themselves the power of ordaining Ministers Domineering Prelacy refused and the succession ro the Apostles and the Jurisdiction before noted we must intreat him to produce those clear pregnant and constant beams of right reason and true Religion which shineth in the brightness and stability of Divine and Humane Laws which may be the pillars of this truth firm supports of duty sure bounds of obedience and safe repose of conscience in this point greatly darkned by the many disputes of Bishops and Presbyters Papists and Protestants nay by the positive assertions of both Papists and Protestant Divines and determinations of Schoolmen who have concluded Bishops and Presbyters to be Ministers ejusdem ordinis equal in Office and authority and in this very case of government all which his very Reduction proposed doth not obscurely suggest Sir the conscience is by him confessed to be more tender than to be deluded with Sophistry or silenced by a pretence of Regulation and Moderation which intends no other save a Reduction of Episcopacy to its pristine and corrupt estate not unto Presbytery Thus Sir I have noted the first Rock and the Doctor 's unhappy dashing against it which must needs render ineffectual whatever he after writeth The inadvertency of his expressions will appear no less evident Inadvertency of expression than his ambiguous state of the Scruple and its resolution if we either observe its fierceness or falsehood The
it may not the very Ligue de Saint in France and Oath et caetera in England though sinful in their matter be good Spurres and Directions in Christian-policy May not the same means used to corroborate impiety be lawfully and prudentially used to strengthen true Religion and Reformation Why may not Popish policy teach Protestants to combine by Covenant as Protestant piety and prudence did dictate to them a Confirmation in Religion by Chatechising Courses common to men are not to be condemned because used by wicked men to wicked ends None Sir do deny the Covenant made in Baptisme to be the only new evangelical Covenant tò all Christians broken by wilful and presumptuous sins and renewed by repentance and the participation of the Lords Supper But it seems unto me a strange transport of so grave and serious a Divine to oppose it unto the Solemn League and Covenant that piece of policy rather than piety Baptismal Covenant no bar to the Solemne League and Covenant as he is pleased to term it The inconsistency of them I must confess is not to me visible sure I am Baptismal Vows are no bar but may be provocations to Solemn covenanting to and with God Let the matter of this Covenant be exactly scanned and if it be in any one Article found repugnant to or different from the Covenant made in Baptism we will renounce the whole I hope it will not be denyed that Baptized Nations and Churches may in their publique and politique capacities renew and amplifie that Covenant which was made in Baptisme And truly Sir the Solemn League and Covenant seems to me so little to differ from our Baptismal Covenant that it is no hard matter to resolve it into those three grand Heads we are instructed were promised in our names when we were Baptized and then all the difference will be in this the Baptismal Covenant was personal and private this publique and politique But I pray let us note his specification of the difference he suggesteth and the Reasons of this inconsistency he urgeth which he supposeth to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crying out How vastly different from this Sacred covenant this late piece of policy more than piety is and how little the true Covenant of a Christian binds him by his Baptisme or Repentance or the Eucharist against all Episcopal government I leave all sober-minded Christians to judge Truly Sir his universal particle All may make something look like a vast difference if we could but understand the species he would pitch upon as excepted by his discretive term but the uncertainty of the object is that we cannot but stumble at in all the conclusions of his suggested answers Methinks such an out-cry of vast difference should have been warranted by a clear antithesis Opposites cannot appear but by their opposition and yet he specifies no one Article different from our Baptismal Covenant but sophistically evades with an How little do Baptismerepentance or the Eucharist bind against all Episcopal government These may Sir very little binde against it and yet the Covenant and they be at no vast difference for the question is not how little the true Covenant in them agitated binds against all Episcopal government but how much it binds to any He is the first Divine I have found to plead our Baptisme as the bond of Canonical obedience and defence of Episcopacy I never did imagine Discipline and order to be the express positive condition of Baptisme and the Christian-Covenant thereby made qua Christian the only new Evangelical Covenant but especially this species of it Episcopacy I hope his jus divinum will be made as clear as the Doctrine of the Trinity whil'st it is and must be owned as the absolute condition of Baptisme and nerve of union with the Church Yet Sir give me leave to tell the Doctor if the late Hierarchy or Episcopacy of England which he seems to advance as the late honour of the Ministry and encouragement of Learning and Religion be as on an easie discussion it may be found to be of the pomps and vanities of this wicked world we are not only a little but very much bound against it for our God-fathers and God-mothers did promise in our behalf That we should forsake them as the Devil and all his works and then he may well imagine all sober-minded Christians must judge there is a vast difference between Baptisme and such Episcopacy and that he is acted with a strong zeal that will by our Baptisme binde unto it who yet declared it to be but a tradition and universal observation But he addes a reason to enforce it and that is Since both the power of ordaining Ministers and by them to consecrate and celebrate both Sacraments Of the power of ordination by Bishops was ever derived from and by Bishops of the Church as the chief Conservaters Cisterns and Conduits of all Ecclesiastical authority and Ministerial power from the very Apostles the first Bishops of the Church Acts 1 c. But Sir is it determined and agreed on without controversie that the power of ordination was ever derived by and from Bishops in his sence paternal Bishops above and distinct from Presbyters that so it must be concluded No ordination by Bishops no Minister no consecration or celebration of either Sacrament and so where these Conservators Conduits Cisterns were never laid or have been any way cut off Ecclesiastical authority and Ministerial power never came or is removed and quite gone for without doubt this water must run in its own Pipes Were it not for that subordination and dependance of ordinary Ministers Shepherds and Rulers unto and upon the Angels Presidents and chief Fathers of his Episcopal authority he at after noteth I should by his adjunct Chief have conceived that he would grant Some small Pipes had run from the Apostles times in union with Christ our chief Bishop and drived Ecclesiastical authority and Ministerial power in the vacancy of his Bishops which if he deny the Church of Rome will triumph in his Episcopal union with her but the Reformed Churches can give him little thanks for this Church annihilating Notion Again is it cleare that Episcopal and Apostolical Ministry is idem ordo the same kinde distinct from that of Pastors and Teachers it must be imagined so to be whil'st Bishops only as Bishops lay so much claim to the immediate succession of the Apostles That the Apostles had an Episcopacy we cannot deny for we reade of it in Acts 1. 20. Nor I think can it be reasonably denyed that the feeding-Ruling Elders at Ephesus were Bishops for so Saint Paul called them as consecrated by the Holy Ghost Acts 20. 28. and immediate successors to the Apostles yet it is not evident that they were all Angels Presidents and chief Fathers and such as set Timothy over them as their Bishop must needs deny them so to have been and then Sir some that wanted this paternal authority
must be confessed Cisterns of Ministerial power and Ecclesiastical authority and immediate successors to the Apostles and so the Bond of Baptisme binds to Gospel-Ministers as the explicite and preceptive institution of Christ whil'st Episcopal order can claim no more but tradition and that very disputable the Prelatical Divines of our Nation would not be thus tyed to the observation of the Lords day nor I to the observation of Easter yet both these especially the first look as like an immediate institution of Christ preceptive and explicite or tacite and exemplary as any order or kinde of Episcopacy he suggesteth to be upheld by the bond of baptisme As to what the Doctor addeth concerning the signal and intolerable injuries offered to the persons of such excellent Bishops as England lately had and still may have and the abatement of the honour of this whole Church and its Ministry c. I wish it may be considered That the Covenant is not levelled against any Real Excellency in the Bishops but an unwarrantable greatness power and authority assumed by them or attributed to them which conferred an unfitting honour on the Church and then the exclusion of it is no injury and the mighty abatement thereof is a positive duty I cannot think but that learning and the due honour of the Church may and will be best encouraged by the vailing of that pompous worldly state and wicked superiority her Governours had obtained the Churches perspicuity seems not to me so necessary that it must needs shine in Lawn Sleeves and succession of Bishops of paternal authority over their brethren nor know I to what Churches save those of Rome who make the Succession of their Bishops the sole and singular Note of the true Church a Supersedeas of such Episcopal order how ancient or venerable soever it be deemed can be so scandalous as is suggested I am sure few of the Reformed Churches see cause so to judge it and then Sir we finde little force in this his complicated Answer Thus Sir I have made bold to consider the Doctors indirect answer and arguments wherein he endeavoureth to shake and subvert the whole fabrick of the Solemn League and Covenant and in them to my judgement there is so little strength of Reason or true Religion that it affords but a poor ground for his insulting and triumphant discharge in page 13. These things being thus premised are sufficient as I conceive to abate the Edge and Rigour of the Covenant and to ravel that cabel and bond of Religious obligation For Sir notwithstanding his supposal asserted in good earnest there is neither Law of God or man requiring imposing or comprobating any such Covenant The Boanergesses will finde cause to thunder out terrour against Covenant-breaking lest Rhetorical flourishes without strength of Reasons should release the consciences of the vulgar from the power of religious bonds It may be Sir we shall finde more strength in the Doctors down-right stroaks His direct answer than in his back-blows His batteries in his indirect answers attempted have bespoken his purpose to break in sunder the Sacred bond of the Covenant His power to effect it in point of Episcopacy must appear in his direct Answer wherein we thank him he looks on the Covenant in the softest sence that can be made as it is a voluntary vow or Religious bond which private men spontaneously took upon themselves c. But yet he suggesteth it was taken by very few not one fourth part of the Nation now living and those few made to take it by the terrors of prison plunder sequestration and the like wracks Unto which before we observe his particular reconciling Answers relating to the special point of Episcopacy I propound to consideration that The paucity of Covenantets will not discharge its obligation be there never so few I hope those few may be free in asserting and must be faithful in adhering to the Covenant in which their confidence may be the greater for that His most Sacred Majesty comes in to make up the number But if the Doctor saw with my eyes he would not suppose the number to be so small if all Tables were as legible as those of the Lords and Commons I believe their number would be found many more than the fourth part of the Nation But can any considerable observer take notice the Covenant was imposed on and submitted unto by all sorts and degrees of men in all Counties Cities and Towns tendred and since testified by their publique subscriptions by the most Ministers in the several Counties unto their individual Congregations and that under the success of War which usually extendeth a Covenant unto all who come under its influence and yet without the supposal of a very great mortality imagine not the fourth part of the Nation to have taken the Covenant The Doctor sure judgeth by such with whom he converseth and I easily believe they are not a fourth part of the Nation yet methinks he himself being to be reckoned into the number might well conjecture them to be more But again Sir the capacity of the Covenanters is more considerable than the number and will make it a question well worth consideration Whether it be not obligatory to the whole Nation When I consider the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled and under that notion and capacity swearing the Covenant as the collective body of the Nation though not near a fourth part in number I am apt to think it looks very like a National Obligation For I know not how they can take pardons if they may not make promises in our names especially when the assent of His Most Sacred Majesty is made so legible by His Royal Subjection to the same Solemn League and Covenant I am much mistaken if the Oath of Zedekiah and the Princes without popular delegates did not binde the people of Israel I hope the Doctor will be more warie than to plunge the whole Kingdome into perjury That there was any such Logick as Prisons Plunder and Sequestrations to enforce the Covenant I am not well-pleased I hope he had more fortitude than to suffer his Reason and Religion to be so captivated he knoweth the will cannot be compelled and I imagine he will not make extortion by force any more than fraude absolve the Obligation and warrant the recession or violation of an Oath he knows that Nature and Scripture do teach the contrary whatever was Cicero's affection to him he knows wherein he commends Pomponius the Tribune as to his extorted Oath nor will a Casuist deny Juramentum metu extorium to bind greater force can besiege none to the making of an Oath nor greater fury from God follow any for breaking the oath so forced than that which befell Zedekiah to the King of Babylon But let us see by what strength of Reason he worketh out release from this voluntary vow that we may be also free-men and it is produced by several suggestions where of The
before it will puzzle me to charge him with iniquity for so doing Thirdly No man can in conscience be bound by any such Covenant against that which may upon second thoughts and after-view He that sweareth to his own hurt is bound and better information appear to be good and useful to him he is here bound not to keep his Coveuant in the latitude of his mistakes and presumptions nor to act according to his prejudices and former supposals but rather to retract his rashnesse and unadvisednesse in taking it at first and to act according to his present evidence of what is true just good lawful and useful even in Episcopacy c. Truly Sir this is to me such strange divinity that I cannot but wonder D. D. should be attendant on the assertor of it I am sure if it be admitted one reason produced by no mean Casuist to defend the Obligation of an Oath extorted by fear Sander de Juram Lect. 4. Sect 15. must fall to the ground Elegit id quod tunc visum est sibi melius he chose that which he then conceived to be the best but according to our Casuist he might on an after-view discern hurtful and so retract How happy and cheering would such a resolution as this have been unto Jephtah in his anguish and out-cry I have opened my mouth unto the Lord and cannot go back Why man can you not on second thoughts and an afterview see the goodness and usefulness of your daughter Retract the rashnesse and unadvisednesse of thy vow and act according to thy present evidence Nay how advantagious had this resolution been to Israel when Joshuah and the Princes preserved the Gibeonites to be pricks in the eyes and thornes in the side of Israel To what end do they plead We have sworne unto them by the Lord now therefore we may not touch them Why must they needs act to the latitude of their presumptions and mistakes could they not on second thoughts and an after-view discover their craft and discern them to be of the people commanded by God to be destroyed dangerous to disturb their peace and divert them from their Religion How sad was the fate of the sons of Saul in the want of such a solution as this which might have saved them all from hanging for the Scripture witnesseth That Saul slew the Gibeonites in his zeale to the children of Israel and Judah 2 Sam. 21. 2. Without doubt on second thoughts and an after-view of the good which might ensue on the violation of that Covenant caught by fraude I hope our Prelates will take care in the next Impression of the Common-Prayer-Book to make the words in Psalm 15. ver 5. conform to Psalm 105. vers 28. it is but the expunction of a Negative particle and for disobedient we reade obedient and for repenteth not we reade repenteth and so the Character of a man for heaven shall be conform to our Casuists resolution and Scripture-Text He that sweareth to his own hurt and repenteth I cannot but commend the correction of this verse to the Drs. care for as it is now read it is not only different from the Original but also dissonant to his doctrine whilst it is read in the Old Common-Prayer-Book He that sweareth to his neighbour and disappointeth him not though it were to his own hindrance Thus Sir I have tryed the strength of the Drs. Arguments and find in them very little force to rectifie conscience release St. Peter and reconcile the Covenant with Episcopacy Truly Sir were Episcopacy in it self never so good yet it must appear necessary before it break through the bond of the Covenant It is now indeed high time to learn righteousness and wisdom the which works not more in any thing than a conscientious cleaving to the Covenant and paying the vows made to God in the day of affliction I freely consent with him that the cautious and conscientious covenanter take a calmer view and exacter measure than perhaps he did at the first But methinks he should not leave them to rules of so great latitude that will not only discharge the Covenant but all Sacred Religiousties What Oaths can bind if words are of no force or but wit hs and cords his own imagination of no influence no good may be excluded or involved and second thoughts discovering usefulness will discharge it where shall be the certainty of humane contracts or force of Religious bonds if these principles be admitted who shall ever scruple to make or care to keep a Covenant if other mens interpretations must direct it and our own retraction on sence of rashness may discharge it If Sir these propositions be the Doctors props for Episcopacy it will appear too prophane for pious men to meddle with Sir I doubt not but he and all men shall find every conscientious Covenanter enjoy the comfort of his accomplished oath when in his place he hath seasonably advised humbly petitioned and lawfully endeavoured to remove Englands old Hierarchy and to restore such an Episcopacy to be exercised by the Officers of the Church in Common and good order as is neâ—â—st the Scripture primitive practice and perswasion of sober grave pious and learnâ—â— men such as was the late Primate of Armagh but if either His Most Sacred Majesty or any other in authority fail in the exercise of their capacity as he seems to hope to effect the ends of the Covenant I hope it shall be no offence to mourn for their iniquity and the iniquity of the Land nor will it be inconsistent to that humble submission active or passive I confess we all owe unto His Most Sacred Majesty whatever shall be the establishment in the Church though never so corrupt yet whilst consistent with salvation though it may occasion to me suffering and a suspence of my Ministry by Gods grace it shall not effect in me or such on whom I have an influence Schism from the Church or Resistance of His Majesties just Right and Authority for whom as I have not suffered the least so if God should so far leave Him which God forbid I am ready by Him to suffer the utmost in adherence to the Solemn League and Covenant untill it be discovered a band of iniquity a snare and gin for schisme and sedition to act by to the dishonour of God and reproach of Reformed Religion Yet I cannot but most heartily pray for the honest and ingenuous Reformation of Episcopacy beyond the former defective or excessive Constitution or execution of it which I doubt not will effect the corruption and extirpation covenanted I confess every conscientious Covenanter oweth this Justice and duty 1. To God to approve love desire and use what is good not being within his own power and excluded by his oath or covenant may and must are things very different 2. To obey the King as chief Governour of Church and State enjoyning things lawful and honest so not covenanted against though
not the very best 3. To pity the Bishops and Fathers of the Church who have been there too injurious or injuriously used and pull down all proud Prelates and paternal authoritie over Presbyters which abuse their brethren and debase their Ministry because in a black Coat 4. To encourage Ministers and endeavour the rescue of them from dividing factions and popular insolencies which have befaln them for want of the King and Ecclesiastical order but may be enjoyed without a Bishop advanced in power above his Brethren 5. Love to the Church in endeavouring its unity peace and prosperity in the ruine of Prelacy and establishment of an Episcopacy and over-sight duely constituted and carefully executed 6. Care to his own soul inward and eternal peace not to be couzened by glosses courted by Rhetorical flourishes nor cudgelled out of his Covenant by most bitter sufferings but to cleave unto it with care constancy and diligence and take heed of all sophistical solutions and subtle reconciliations which endeavour to baffle the Covenant and break in pieces the very power of all Religious bonds Sir Knowing how under and dclicate a thing Conscience is yet fearing it might be baftled and deluded by Sophistry and scovered I have presumed to surveigh your Doctors Solution of the Covenant and give an account of my apprehensions of it Covenant-breaking is so direful a God-provoking sin that I tremble to think of Englands least tendencie to it whatever men fancie to themselves of the Covenant being the Rock of his late Majesties shipwrark it is visible that the violation of it hath been the destruâ—â—ion of our late Ilsurpers who laid i aside that they might leap into their Chair oâ— State and it cannot be denied to have beene the chief and only means of his Majesties most just and honourable Restitution and an adherencie to it I doubt not will prove the establishment of his Royal Throne I cannot therefore but be grieved to finde contempt poured on the Covenant not only by the vulgar but such whose ranck and gravity should make them more sensible of the weight and worth of an Oath When Sir your Doctors Solution came first into my hands the Speech of Julian Cardinal of Saint Angelo concerning the League of uladislaus King of Hungary with Amurath the Turk came into my memory and one observation seems too much alike unto it I pray you pardon the comparison the pretended principle of the one was Zeale for the Church History of the Turks p. 290 291 292. and love of Religion and so of the other the scope of the one was to discharge the Oath and so of the other the method of the one was to absolve by colour and pretence of binding under the Oath so of the other the Arguments of the one were defect of authority from Gods Vicar on earth consent of Confederates contrariety to former Covenants exclusion of greater good exposal to reproach and scandal rashnesse and unadvisednesse in making and the like and such are the arguments of the other the one was by a man of eminencie and esteeme and engaged in the same Oath so is the other such is Sir the agreement in every point that it would much better have become a Jesuite or Popish Cardinal than a Protestant Doctor I cannot but pray they may not agree in their intended end the breach of the Covenant lest God make them agree in the miserable effect the losse of the Christian Cause ruine of King and people and their perpetual infamy I shall Sir trouble you no longer save to tell you this answer was dispatched in two days and had waited on you much sooner but that I hoped some more eminent and able pen would have pleaded the Cause of the Covenant and matched the Doctor suitably to himself such as it is you now have it I desire it may be weighed in the ballance of Reason and Religion without respect unto the person who by his meannesse and many calumnies which yet he weareth as his crown is obnoxious to no little prejudice but if he prove a Taylors Goose hot and heavie but blinde and dark will be contented to wear the Cap whilst resolved to approve himself no lesse zealous in the Religious than he hath appeared in the Political or Civil part of the Solemne League and Covenant and make it his care to give God the things that are Gods as Caesar the things that are Caesars July 8 th 1660 SIR Farewell be faithful