chief Magistrate of a Commonwealth to be similis altissimo as high as the highest in three Kingdoms which unity of this Church those have sought most subtilly to divide whose interests and purposes was to destroy it that by balancing of parties they might better keep up themselves as dancers on the rope are wont to do This restoring of the Church to its pristine unity is to be done by such an harmony of Doctrine as may be publickly owned and confessed by such an uniform way of worship as shall be publickly recommended and encouraged by such an authoritative and orderly Church Government among Bishops Presbyters and People as may carry on the Discipline of the Church for Ordination and Censure with gravity and honor with piety and charity redeeming both holy things and the Ministers of them from that vulgar insolency and Plebeian contempt under which they are fallen and have long lain either by their own indiscretion levity and divisions or by the petulancy force or fraud of others whose aim is to have no Presbyters as well as no Bishops yea and no Churches of the Reformed Religion That lenitive of equanimity forbearance and moderation in respect of consciencious Dissenters from the publique consent customs and constitutions in the Church which Christian charity requires and publique peace with safety may bear will best be prepared and applied when we fully see what is noxious malicious and intolerable what is only inconvenient and imprudent or infirm and venial in mens opinions and pretensions to be sure such a wise method may be used and such a course taken to have able Ministers and honest Magistrates concur in their judgement and joynt endeavors that the Justice of the one and the gentleness of the other the ability and sanctity of both in their places and performances may be such as shall render the established Religion so venerable and conspicuous as will in a few years draw all sober men to it when they shall see nothing in it but what is for the main conformable to Gods Word and necessary either for the being ot wel-being of Humane and Christian Societies As Civil so Ecclesiastical hurts are best that is soonest easiest surest healed revertendo ad leges bonas antiquas by returning as the wounded Hart to Dictamnum to those Laws and Canons wâ— are not therefore bonae quia antiquae but therefore antiquae quia bonae in which the aequum unum bonum make the vetustum Their verity equity and piety gave rise to their antiquity and their antiquity gave reverence and solemnity to their equity or goodness T is certain there can be no compleat health in the body till every part every limb every vein every vessel doth its Office in due time and place irregularities must be rectified defects supplied excesses repressed ill humors purged and all reduced by Law to good order A blessed work and to be done with as much Moderation and gentleness as the fidelity of the cure will permit and the spreading of the disease doth require wherein many parts may by weakness or by nearness to the fons morbi the first peccant or ill affected part have contracted sad distempers which will easily be cured of their anguish if the evil neighborhood be mended Here generous and gracious remissions are just and Christian to misled multitudes and to such whose penitent errors shew they were not of malice but credulity and mistake who are more zealous now for health than ever they were to be debauched and disordered so much to their own and the publique affliction Acts of pardon Amnesty or Oblivion are excellent lenitives Publico bono tam publicae quam privatae simultates injuriae sunt condonandae to pardon as well publique as private losses and injuries to the publique peace to interpret the intent and meaning of either side to have been good who persist not in evil the zeal of some to maintain their Loyalty to the King for which they thought they had the clearest commands of Gods Laws and mans The zeal of others to preserve the lawful priviledges and fixed authority of Parliaments against any thing that by violent overthrowing of those must needs hazard the overthrow of all possibly neither of these parties might be so bad or blameable as to the first intentions but that they may easily be reconciled in the medium which both first professed to intend namely King and Parliament setled laws and established Religion if this had been kept to the quarel had been soon ended in Church and State the misery was that by jealousies and misunderstandings the passions and transports of both sides might so overbear them as to occasion those sad conflicts and consequences upon both which neither of them at first intended but deprecated and detested mean time while humors were in motion new and unexpected diseases got head under the name of interest of State of liberty and common equity which had no law little reason or Religion So between the Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent Parties much of the acidness and sharpness of the humor would be allayed if this Poltice of charitable censure and interpretation were applyed one all sides that the first did but aim to maintaine the order and eminency of presidential Episcopacy which was so universal so antient so primitive so apostolical and so prosperous in the Church of Christ the second designed onely to bring Episcopacy to such a paternal temperament with Presbytery that the whole Clergie of a Diocess and the concerns of Religion might not be exposed to one mans sole jurisdiction without the such joynt counsel consent and assistance of Ministers as is safest for Bishops Presbyters and People the third of Independents or Congregationists which seemed to stickle for the interests of people in religious transactions where their souls are so much concerned what Minister they have and how both he and others of their congregation behave themselves either to the edification and comfort or the scandal and grief of that part or members of the Church with which they actually congregate and communicate It seems but agreable to the ancient usage of the Churches of Christ in St. Cyprians Tertullians and Irenaeus his time that no publique transactions much less impositions touching Religion should be made without fairly aquainting the Clergy and Christian people too with the grounds and reasons of them that Church-government might not seem to be a tyranny or an arbitrary and absolute domineering over the faith and consciences of Christs flock but a mutual and sweet conspiring of the Shepherds with the sheep to make each other happy in truth and love by orderly authority and due subordination I should be glad to see the beams of this candor this kindness this charity shine in all faces from all sides that the Shiboleths of different dialects and designes the carnal and unhappy discriminations of I am of Paul I of Apollos and I
inordinate self-lovers covetous bosters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents natural civil ecclesiastical unthankeful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers in continent fierce dispisers of those that are solidly sincerely and constantly good Traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then of God having a form of godliness but denying the power of it as the Apostle gives their character by an holy Satyr And can any thing that is good for the health of the daughter of my people proceed from such Galileans such evil men who meditate mischeif night and day who decree unrighteous decrees and act wickedness with both hands greedily Who think themselves most hurt if the State and Church should be throughly and speedily healed they fancy themselves undone if any publick good be honestly done t is paine and death to them to have the bones well set which by them have been broken to see the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} rather than the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} gaging wounds or gulphs rather closed up which they have either made or widened and kept so open that they threaten in a few years to swallow up all the wealth and peace and honor and strength and happiness of the Nation and Church Yet these are the men that say peace peace that would be thought the only blessed Peace-makers the soveraign healers of the hurts of the daughter of my people such Monopolisers of all medicines and healing drugs that they are impatient any others should take the cure in hand or have any thing to do in Church or State beside themselves and their applauders They tell the poor patient which is full of wounds and putrfied sores that they will do her more good with their tongues and lips added to their lancets and swords than the best Physicians can do by their best unguents and soveraign balsoms while the poor sick wounded and languishing creature crys out for some ease and pity yea roars for the very disquietness of its soul and continued pains yet without any shame or blushing these Physitians of no value these miserable Mountebanks affecting a supercilious shew of soveraign majesty severely frown on the pittiful looks and tears of the daughter of my people with terror threatning her to hold her peace to believe she hath peace nay to say and swear it is peace peace yea and to abjure the use of any other men or better means which have been formerly very effectual for her healing and recovery Quis coelum terrae non misceat mare coelo Here patience it self is a sin and impatience a vertue Who not stupid can forbear with the Prophet to cry out Hear O heaven and give ear O earth Was ever any Nation so tampered with so pestred by a company of fallacious Physitians pretenders to heal superficial skinners dilatory Empiricks and miserable Medicasters who resolve small hurts into grievous ulcers and green wounds into virulent gangreens and little bruises into fell and inflamed tumors yet cry peace peace and we have healed you why do you yet complain As if the Prophet should say it is high time indeed after so many years of wasting and wounding of war and trouble of death and bloodshed of undoing and destroying of cutting and dividing the Body Politique turning the daughter of my people as on the gridiron from one side to the other by vicissitudes of burning Feavors by continual tossings and fits of high distempers between the wrath of God and heavy hand upon her beside the fury of men against her yet to cry peace peace to her when as the Lord lives there is no peace nor many steps between the patient and death or at best such a sorry peace as is no less chargeable terrible and oppressive than an open war Pax omni bello tristior a peace patched up with popular pretentious and impious injuries as the body of Lazars whose plaisters rather hide than heal their sores What true peace can that be which is founded only on sands and quagmires on violence and exaction daubed over with the untempered mortar of policy and hypocrisie which holds not one winter built up with cries begun with violence carried on with oppression and ending in desolation Peace or health and salvation are far from the ungodly What peace can there be to the wicked Princes or people Senators or Souldiers whose feet are swift to shed innocent blood whose hand are full of bribes whose hearts are hollow and double minded whose power is usurped whose decrees are unrighteous whose mouths are full of fraud and flattery Peace and Establishment in Church and State with God and men are the fruits of Justice and Righteousness of true Religon and good Laws of just Magistracy and legal Soveraignty of fixed free and united Councils of wise and honest Valour the study prayer and endeavour of men fearing God and hating covetousness men of true publique spirits who are not swayed by private interests and passions to any novel designs and factious adherencies Men of wisdom and honor fortified with just Authority are only apt to make a Nation happy by healing her in those ways of honest decrees and impartial dealing which are legal and regular not fanatick and extravagant which every night dream and in the morning propose new receits Seraphick projects and untried medicaments which sufficiently shew that such Chyrurgeons and Physitians are either ignorant or pragmatick or impertinent either not knowing what to do or not willing to do what they know but are resolved to do any thing never so foolish and pernicious rather than sit still and do nothing or give way to better heads and hands who have more authority from God and man and so may better expect a blessing What peace can there be or true healing while the most crying sins that mankind are capable to commit or conceive the deepest wounds and sorest hurts from the hand of man that a Nation can receive are unpunished and unrepented yea unconsidered yea incouraged yea cried up by some for rare examples of Justice of Liberty of Piety of Sanctity when neither the holy God ever commanded or holy men ever practised any such thing What peace can there be while fleshly lusts and all manner of evil concupiscence in Rulers and ruled fight against mens own souls against Gods Spirit and against the publique welfare while worldly lusts of pride envy covetousness ambition and Sacriledge daily supply matter for general discontents publique wars and perpetual woes What peace or healing can there be in Church and State while men of the same polity are like Pikes in a pond or fish in the sea or beasts of prey in a wilderness pursuing and devouring one another while neither the bonds of the same Laws nor the same oathes nor the same covenants nor the same Religion can hold them while they will not endure the same Magistrates nor the same
of rigid Presbytery hath been heavier than the loyns of moderate Episcopacy It is a Monstrous either want of skil or of conduct or constancy for publique Physitians to let things run to such impolitick lapses under the pretence of curing the hurts of the daughter of their people as while they sought to recover the frequency of Parliaments thereby to moderate all enormityes and remedy all burthens inconvenient in Church and State that at last the publique welfare should come to that sad pass or ill fare that some things called Parliaments should be thought the greatest publick grievance and what convention is there so illegal and contemptible which some flatterers of times and powers will not christen and consecrate with the venerable name of that almost sacred Senate How desperate and sad a State is it when any grievance should be called a Parliament or any Parliament prove a publick grievance as if Parliament had the name from Parium Populi Principis lamentum the lamentation or complaint of Prince Peers and People or their contempt till at length even military insolency dared to adventure as the requital of the long and great pay which they as Soldiers had received from their dear Country-men to garble and purge to shufle and cut to lay out and take in Parliaments at their pleasure like a stock at Gleek yea and not onely to act against them and without them but above them in a game of Government wholy new to England called Stratocracy Mean while good God! what became of the wits of some of our wise Physitians and our confident Surgeons Could they not have foreseen and prevented by discreet counsels and moderate methods of seasonable applying State Physick those swoonings and heart faintings those convulsions and dyings those groans and bleedings of Church and State of Kingdoms and Commonwealth of Laws and Religion of Magistracy and Ministry which have all suffered in twenty years of tedious attending their cure more hurts than they ever did for an hundred years by all the diseases that were pretended so necessary to be cured that rather than fail all even head and members limb and life it self must be ventured where was the vertue of former oathes of late Protestations of all their Covenants and Vows the Antidotes which they had taken or given against Anarchy and Apostacy Sage and well-advised Physitians must still consider how subtil and Proteus-like distempered humors and spirits are in a body that is foul they instantly being moved but not removed slide as from one part so from one disease to another as easily transmuting interests and dangers as the scales of a ballance go up and down when more weight is cast into one than the other it presently follows the preponderancy and grows lower when heavier which was before higher because lighter So in publick or epidemick distempers preventive and prophylactick medicines must be used as well as Cathartick and purgative else things will by secret and insensible steps suddenly vary from one extream and oppression to another as the cold and hot sits of a Quartane especially if the grievances of sharp and unseasonable remedies like some corroding plaisters follow the grievances of the sore and disease so either stupifying instead of suppling or exasperating instead of mollifying or cutting noble parts quite off instead of reducing them to due temper and proportion State Physitians must be as wary of using too much of the salt of popular Proposals and the niter of levelling principles as other Physitians are of using Quick-silver uncorrected or unmortified for they are both most acute poysons if not well prepared and aptly applied by which either unfit or unseasonable or immoderate or rude or forcible applications men are quickly carried beyond their own duties and others deserts for want of that caution conscience charity and discretion which is necessary for all those who meddle in matters of life and death in private much more publick healing and welfare else the quick as well as the dead flesh may be cut off and consumed the vital as well as vitiated spirits and humors may be exhausted The very Arteries and Sinews of Government are prone to be rotted and the whole fabrick of the body will fall one limb from another Especially when by the fury or fear of Prince or people things are brought to that pass that all other medicines being laid aside nothing is made use of but the weapon-salve that ungnentum armarium the sword of war which hath seldome the vertue of Achilles his sword which was to heal as well as to wound hence follow those horribe healings which like Simeons and Levi's cure of the Sichemites when they were sore destroy both prince and people either lopping off the armes and legs of the body Politick the strength and multitude of the Nobility Gentry and Communalty which is the glory of a King and Kingdome or else by a dreadful abscission cropping off the very head of Soveraginty from the body of the polity the first reduceth a Nation to its stumps and makes it a cripple a long time the other makes both its appearance and its motions as monstrous and deformed as if a body should move without an head as it was in those dayes when there was no King in Israel or as the Giant Polyphemus did when blind he gropeth for Vlysses so are a great people when in the darkness and confusion of Anarchy they seek in vaine for that order wisdome and authority which are the body soul and spirit of Government and are eminently comprehended in the head with which the whole body best corresponds when happily compacted together This principal part once taken away by violence the body like fouls whose heads are wrong off may flutter for a while with blind inordinate and dying motions but no better can be expected unless as in Hydra many heads could presently spring up in stead of one which is neither easily nor suddenly done in Nations whose native courage emulation spirit and metal raiseth up many rivals for soveraignty and as many disdainful enemies against all that either obstruct their pretended power or affect to enjoy it themselves 6. When these pretending healers are much for a new Paracelsian practice for unexperimented applications or medicaments of their own inventions which are occasionally extracted and Chymically made with sin and force by themselves and such as are of their faction but they do not natively flow as the balme of Gilead doth from the tree of good Government and polity that is from those Laws and constitutions which have been long approved as most proper for the Nations welfare which without doubt are best able and most apt both to preserve and restore the health of the daughter of my people no counsel practice or power of Prince or Potentate or Parliament that are praeter or contra-legal can be for long or sound healing but rather proves more noxious and infestive at last