careful to admit and practise nothing in the Worship of God unless it comes in his Name and with Thus saith the Lord Iesus You know how many in this Nation in the days not long since passed yea how many thousands left their Native Soils and went into a vast and howling Wilderness because they made it so in the utmost parts of the World to keep their Souls undefiled and chaste to their dear Lord Iesus as to this of his Worship and Institutions So that they scorn to pretend any less Authority than our Saviours own express Warrant for any thing wherein they differ and divide from the Church of England And this is a ruder and more insolent Affront to our Christian Liberty than the most confident Jew could ever have been guilty of for though he might endeavour to enslave us to his own Customs and Prejudices yet they are such as once bore the impression of Divine Authority whereas these Men would stamp the Authority of God upon their own Dreams and phantastick Conceits and vouch their humour and their ignorance with a Thus saith the Lord Iesus and so would bore the Ears and enslave the Understandings of all Christendom to their own folly and confidence And certainly there never were greater Tyrants and Usurpers in the Church of Christ than these exact and curious Judges of Divine Rights with what Confidence will they prescribe Truth to Mankind and adopt their own uncertain Problems and Scholastick Fooleries into the Fundamentals of Religion With what Assurance of Authority will they restrain all Mens Faith to the Standard of their own Apprehensions How briskly will they warrant this Opinion and explode that And how dogmatically will they assign the precise bounds of Orthodoxy All their Sentiments are the Decrees of the Medes and Persians all their Rules of Worship are Obligatory as Apostolical Canons all their Opinions are Oracles and had they sate in the Infallible Chairs of Rome or Geneva they could not have been more confident and peremptory in their Determinations But thus is the Church of England requited for her modesty and because she does not abuse the Consciences of Men to a rigid Observance of her Institutions under a false pretence of Divine Authority the gentle and moderate exercise of her own lawful Jurisdiction is by these Men branded with Tyranny and Usurpation whilst themselves in the mean while are not ashamed to obtrude their own Fancies and little Conceits upon their credulous Proselytes with the counterfeit Seal of Heaven and inslave their Consciences to their own imperious dictates by exhibiting forged Commissions from God himself and then the People dare not murmur against their unreasonable Impositions for that reverence they bear to that Authority which as they are told is imprinted on them But this has ever been the subtilty of these Men as it is of all Malefactors to rail most at their own Crimes and to avoid the suspicion of their own Guilt by deriving its imputation upon some of their innocent Neighbours But once more to return to our Authors Inference If then he means that the Church of England imposes her Ceremonial Institutions with an Opinion of their antecedent Necessity and so it is apparent he is willing enough to be understood 't is a bold Calumny if he means that they become consequentially necessary onely by virtue of their Institution 't is a woful impertinence and is no other infringment of our Liberty than what is inseparable from the Nature of Humane Laws And so all the Civil Laws of Commonwealths are apparently as chargeable with this sort of Usurpation as any of our Ecclesiastical Constitutions And therefore by the way I would willingly be satisfied that seeing the Judicial as well as the Ceremonial Law of Moses was annull'd and abrogated by the Establishment of the Christian Faith and seeing by consequence it was part of their Christian Liberty to be freed from its Obligatory Power what imaginable Reason can be assign'd why Authority should more invade the Rights of our Christian Liberty by establishing new Ecclesiastical Canons than by enacting new Civil Constitutions Or why the Common Law of England should not as much infringe that part of our Gospel-Priviledges whereby we are exempt from the Judicial Law as the Canons and Determinations of the Church do that other part whereby we are rescued from the Ceremonial To this Enquiry they will never be able to return any tolerable answer but by shifting the matter of their plea and then they forsake their hold of Christian Liberty and shelter themselves in a new Pretence Perhaps they may plead that God has reserved the Appointment of the way manner and circumstances of his own Worship to his own immediate Jurisdiction but has vested Civil Magistrates with a power to govern the secular Affairs of Common-wealths But then this is an open Flight from our present Engagement and now the thing pleaded in behalf of their Disobedience is not their Christian Liberty or their exemption from the Law of Moses but their Christian Duty or their subjection to the Law of Christ. Though when this Refuge comes to be attaqued it will be found more weak and defenceless than this that is already demolish'd and you may well expect wise work when they are urged to produce Testimonies of Scripture that restrain the Civil Magistrate from enacting Ecclesiastical Laws and Constitutions for the due government and performance of external Worship Here their Pleas are so horridly vain and ridiculous that in comparison of them the Celebrated Text of the Romanists super hanc Petram in behalf of the Infallibility of the Papal Chair is as Impertinent as it is Reason and Demonstration But after this I suppose we may have occasion to enquire elsewhere In the mean time 't is enough that we have beaten down this Paper Fort of Christian Liberty in which if men may be allowed to take sanctuary for their disobedience to the Churches Constitutions it will not only be a plausible Refuge for all Schismaticks and Male-contents but an eternal Annoyance to the Churches Peace and a perpetual Nursery of incurable Schisms and Divisions For all parts of outward Worship save only the two Sacraments being left undetermined in the Word of God and some particular determinations being absolutely necessary to prevent Disorder and Confusion and these being not capable of any force or obligatory Power and by consequence of any Usefulness to their proper End but by vertue of the Authority of the Civil Magistrate It follows unavoidably that if laying Restraints and Injunctions upon men in the outward Exercise of Publick Worship be a violation of their Christian Liberty that 't is absolutely impossible to make any effectual Provisions for the orderly and regular performance of the Worship of God or to provide any security against eternal Tumults and Seditions in the Church of God And whenever Phanatick spirits have a mind to be peevish and humoursom they have here a sacred and
Persons And all this was accordingly put in practice by the Kirk and all the World knows how bold they made both with the Persons and Prerogatives of Princes upon all occasions studying to cross with Royal Authority daring to repeal and annul Acts of Parliament protesting against Edicts and Proclamations summoning the Lords of his Majesties Privy Council before their Assemblies for giving the King evil Counsel and vexing and affronting the King himself upon every trifle even to the indicting of strict and solemn Fasts upon those days in particular upon which the King had appointed any greater and extraordinary Feast But the Characters of these mens Principles and Practices are sufficiently upon Record and there is not an Aphorism of Treason or Disloyalty that they have not justified in their Writings and owned in their Actions all which are so well known that I will not insist any farther upon their proof especially seeing our Author himself has when time was branded them for a Pack of perfidious Knaves and Hypocrites though it was then when they hapned to fall into the scandalous Crime of Loyalty Calling their Ambition to rule and have all under their own Power their zeal to the Church of Christ and their endeavours to re-enthrone Tyranny Loyalty and all according to the Covenant This miscarriage it seems is so unpardonable that they must for ever become Traitors to the cause of God because they were but once guilty of being Loyal to their Prince Time was when they were better Friends i. e. when the Presbyterian was the only visible head of the Rebellion then who more forward for that Church-Government which is commonly called Presbyterial or Synodical in opposition to Prelatical or Diocesan on the one side and that which is commonly called Independent or Congregational on the other But farewel Presbytery if it can be so false to its own Principles as to revolt to its duty and its Allegiance Then with what deceivableness of unrighteousness and lies in Hypocrisie the late grand Attempt of those in Scotland with their Adherents was carried on is in some measure made naked to the loathing of its Abominations In digging deep to lay a foundation for bloud and revenge in covering private and sordid ends with a pretence of things publick and glorious in limning a face of Religion upon a worldly stock in concealing distant Aims and bloudy Animosities to compass one common End that a Theater might be provided to act several parts upon in pleading a necessity from an Oath of God unto most desperate undertakings against God and such like things as these perhaps it gives not place to any which former Ages have been acquainted withal As he speaks of the Covenanting Brethren of the Kirk when they joyn'd in with the Royal Interest in opposition to the designs of the Republican and Independent Party This man was never constant to any Principles but those of disloyalty and it was his perpetual Custom to preach up that most for Gods cause that was most contrary to the Kings And the work of the Lord in which he spent so much Pulpit-sweat was nothing but the subversion of Monarchy in the Death of one King and the Banishment of another And now is not this a modest man to boast of the faithful adherence of himself and his Confidents to the present Government But so much and I hope enough if not too much of the first Principle And as for the second that of the Anabaptists that claim'd an Exemption from the Power of the civil Magistrate upon the score of their Saintship 't is so notorious beyond all contradiction and the blessed Pranks that Iohn of Leyden Muncer Knipperdolling and the Boors of Germany plaid under its Protection are so vulgarly known that I need not stand upon its proof any man may soon satisfie himself out of Bullinger Sleidan Osiander Gualter Alsted and divers others out of whom I am not now at liberty to transcribe Collections having already well-nigh exceeded the Number of Pages allowed me by the Master of the Press and those that remain I must reserve for matter more pertinent to our present debate and present Affairs § 4. And therefore as for the third and last Principle that of the Independents that to pursue success in Villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence Let us a little consider and examine their serious Thoughts concerning it seeing to deny it is such a frontless Contradiction not only to their former practices but to their present behaviour in ascribing every common Accident of humane life to some extraordinary design of Providence and interpreting all mischances that befal their Neighbours as visible Judgments upon them for particular Actions insomuch that if ever I die before the day of Judgment and by Constitution I am like to be none of the longest livers I here foretell that it shall be voted the hand of God and the stroke of divine vengeance upon me for my severity and unkindness to his secret ones But 't is in vain to convince them by Experience and Notoreity of fact and 't is no forcing them to stand to any thing unless when they are lime-twigg'd with Ink and Paper and gagg'd with Quills and therefore that is my comfort that most of them are choak'd with their own Gaggs and for ever entangled with their own Lime-twigs For 't is notorious to all the World how the Parliament Sermons those edifying Homilies were continually beating upon this string and crying up all Transactions of the War and false Reports too as Tokens of Gods favour to the Cause and making the Diurnal a Comment upon the Revelations and the secrets of Providence What our Authors private Practice has been it were would he be modest neither pertinent nor civil to pry into 'T is enough that those of his Communion have not been behind any party of Saints in this kind of Presumption But 't is not possible when there is such plenty of Game I should be able to set every Covy and therefore to keep to my man and my Resolution I shall confine my self to the Writings of I. O. the Cock of the Congregation I am sure it was his Custom to account for all the various Contingencies of the War by the secret Counsels of Providence only known to himself and some other secret ones and to discover its particular design in every particular event And should I insist upon all Proofs and Instances to this purpose I should exceed the eleventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews in the number of Examples and Precedents To be short then By Providence was General Fairfax personally call'd forth to the Siege of Colchester By Providence was I. O. pitch't upon to attend his Excellency in that fortunate Expedition By Providence were Sir Henry Mildmay and the Committee deliver'd from their Imprisonment by the Enemy By Providence were they reserved from a sinful complyance with the Royal Party and from a
Articles of my Charge He cares not to have it observed because he neither dares justifie it nor will renounce it It has and may again by Providential Alterations do brave service for the separate Churches but 't is so apparently inconsistent with the establish't setlement of things that it can never safely be owned but when it may safely be used and therefore 't is more politick to let it lie dormant and unregarded till opportunity shall call it forth to Action And let us upbraid them never so much with its mischievous and noisom consequences 't is their wisest course still to counterfeit an artificial deafness and not to understand its meaning till they may own it to some more effectual purpose What other probable Reason can you imagine why he should so carefully pass it over in silence whilst he so faithfully relates all the other particulars of my Impeachments He cannot have forgotten how oft some body has proclaimed it from the Pulpit in a thousand dresses and varieties of Canting 't is the Result of all his Preachments in behalf of the Proceedings in the late Rebellion and what is more unhappy it has been all along publickly owned and pleaded by the Chiefs both of the Presbyterian and Independent Factions and never yet that I could hear or read of once disavowed by any and therefore though I charged it not upon any Party but only branded the Principle it self this advantage this man has gain'd to his Brethren by his rashness and presumption that it shall lie at their doors till they shall remonstrate to it by some publick Protestation § 3. The other Articles that I chose to specifie among many other were these three that Princes in case of Disobedience to the Presbytery may be excommunicated and by consequence deposed that Dominion is founded in Grace and that to pursue success though in Villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence But all the World says Modesty knows what it is that hath given him the advantage of providing a covering for these monstrous Fictions and an account thereof hath been given elsewhere And what now if those intended do not believe these things nor any one of them What if they do openly disavow every one of them as for ought I ever heard or know they do and as I do my self These monstrous Fictions so are all the Histories and Records in the World Were there never any Sects of men that placed a Power in the Presbytery to excommunicate Princes or that challenged an Exemption from the Commands of Authority upon the score of their Saintship or that taught Success to be a certain Argument of Divine Approbation Did you never hear of such Creatures as Presbyterians Anabaptists and Independents Were there never any such men in the World as Iohn Knox Iohn of Leyden and I. O? Or are all the Stories that are recorded of them fairy-tales and Romances If they are not these things are as far from being monstrous fictions as any thing upon Record in the four Gospels But an account of these things has been given elsewhere Perhaps so among the Antiquities of China or in Lucians true History And a wise and true account it is no doubt that shall undertake to prove there never were any People in the World that have abetted these Principles And 't is hugely sutable to his following Apology that if any may heretofore have owned them yet for ought he knows they have openly disavowed them But this is pure and burnish'd confidence to bear down certain and undeniable matters of Fact with a flat denial a peremptory Perhaps Did I ever imagine I should be put to prove there have been men in the World that have own'd and acted these Principles or to disprove the Reality of a publick Repentance never heard of This mans insufferable Perverseness would vanquish the Patience of an Arch-Angel he cares not what he says so the cause go forward and he would deny that Abraham begot Isaac if it stood in his way And if he should it would not be a greater Violence to Truth or Affront to Modesty than this Attempt to clear some men from the guilt of these Perswasions But still what if those intended do not believe these things Then good Sir Pertinent they are not intended I named no body but only enquired upon this supposition that if heretofore there has been or hereafter there should arise such a Race of men in the World whether the Belief of a Deity and the dread of Invisible Powers blended with such innocent Propositions were likely to secure their due Obedience and Respect to Authority or rather to drive them to attempts of disturbance and sedition when they thought themselves obliged under the most dreadful Penalties to act sutably to their Principles And therefore I intended none but those that either actually have been or possibly may be guilty without naming or specifying any particular Criminals Though indeed the matters of fact are so notorious that upon bare Intimation every man has knowledge and sagacity enough to discover the Offenders and they themselves are so conscious of the Notoreity of the Crime that as it happens in the Excuses of all Enormous Malefactors they cannot avoid to bewray their own guilt by their own Apologies unless this be sufficient to clear their Innocence and their Reputation that for ought any body knows they have publickly repented which if they had every body must certainly have known it Whatsoever disorders they have run into in pursuit of these Principles yet if the boldest and most scandalous offender in the whole Mutiny shall come forth and with a bare-faced confidence tell his Governours that perhaps and for ought he knows they have forsaken them they immediately become loyal and peaceable Subjects and must be supposed as white as Snow and as harmless as Doves But to particulars The first Article then falls directly upon the men of the holy Discipline who challenge to themselves an original and independent Jurisdiction over all Persons and in all matters of Ecclesiastical Concernment so that though they acknowledge themselves subject to the Power of Kings in civil and secular Affairs yet in the Government of the Church and conduct of Religion the temporal Power is subject to the spiritual and Princes must submit to the sovereign Decrees of the Presbytery and therefore in case of disobedience to their Authority they are as obnoxious as any of their Subjects to the Censure of the Church and the Sentence of Excommunication This in brief is the true Platform of the Discipline publickly owned by all its Patrons and Assertors and whoever does not vest the Classical Meetings with a Supremacy over Kings in Ecclesiastical Government is no true Disciplinarian when 't is the only design of the Discipline to put the Scepter of Jesus Christ into the hands of the Presbytery i e. to strip the secular Authority of all spiritual Jurisdiction and to settle it entirely upon spiritual