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
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
authority and power which is given him by Law and is necessary for his high calling Is a man bound to take what the Law alloweth him and that whether he will or no if so if our prelate can beg the recognisances forfeited by licensed victuallers allowed by the law to the King it will make his Bishoprick a fat one But how do these cases clear the conclusion to be proved out of Numb 30 there is nothing relating to the Oath of the superiours but the asserting of their prerogative and absolute dominion over their inferiours to irritate or establish their vows what ever the Libeller did Mr. Grofton in his Analepsis allowed the Dr. this Text in its latitude and referred him to be judged by it and now granteth that the inferiour in things not sui juris may have the action vowâ—d superseded by the declared pleasure of the superiour and that whether it be son or servant but in our case he then affirmed 1. The Parliament sitting had over us a Legislative power to which we owed subjection they were in their capacity the Nation collective and sui juris and to be obeyed during their Session by those whom they represented their power in this Covenant was no less legislative then in the Protestation of May 1641. 2. The King who then was hearing of it did prohibit the Act but never did declare it null and void and Dr. Saunderson concludes the superiours dissent must be exprest in a full formal dâ—scharge ut tâ—llendo tâ—llat renuendo renuat is required to rescinde the oath But our late King advised to keep the Oath his present Majesty sware it sware his consent to it and to the Ordinances enjoyning it and conjured his Subjects to the keeping of it Both these Mr. Crofton suggested in his Analepsis and cleared more fully in his Analepsis Anelepthe which the Doctor should have considered before he had declaimed from the force of this Screpture Mr. Cr. doth not cannot extricate himself by his more serious endeavours whilst Mr. Cr. hath traversed his ground and turned the mouth of his cannon against himself and will offer again to joyn issues with a man acted by reason to establish the Covenant by the force equity analogie of this Scripture or otherwise to let it fall But he must not be worded out of Gods warrant But the judicious Doctor opposing p. â—45 14â— counteth Mr. Croftons observations pitiful shifts and not potent solutions and small twigs at which poor Mr. Crofton as a drowning man did catch yea weeds which sink him being of no deep reach nor any skill in swimming You are very right Doctor for Mr Crofton God be thanked could never yet swim with the stream or reach preferment with a profligated conscience But let us see these twigs and weeds he taketh notice of and observe whether the Doctors wits be not run a woolgathering in charging them with weakness Analepsis pag. 12. The first was The two Houses of Parliament are coordinatoâ— and sharers in the Legislation of England and so a constant lawfull authority To this the Doctor replieth He gently observeth a legislative power at least coordinate in the Parliament More modest man he this being out of his sphear otherwise then as a Subject and Casuist yet you might have pleased to observe he hath more strongly asserted and enforced it to the fastning of St. Peters fetters Sect. 4. But the Doctor enquires Can they legally exercise it without and against the Kings consent being not in his nonago nor out of his wits that they may do it without the Kings consent none do or can deny it common practice with the peoples constant obedience doth plainly manifest it as also the Protestation of May 1641. never doubted as to the validity of authority which you say was precarious but Resolves of the House declares to have been authoritative Votes Resolves Orders and Ordinances of one or both Houses do proclaim it and the priviledges of Parliament That the King take no notice of what is debated or voted ordered or acted by them until it be by themselves formally presented to his Majesty And the very nature of coordinate power if the Dr. understand it with their actings in case of his absence by minority or otherwise doth determine it As to the exercise against the Kings consent I shall conclude nothing but commend Mr. Prians Sovereign power of Parliaments to your serious study yet this much matters not in our case for a Parliament duly summoned and rightly constituted hath his Majesties consent to exercise that legislation placed in them so long as they shall continue in that capacity I think no English man will deny this And the legislative power of their Votes Debates Resolves Orders or Ordinances were never gainsaid by his Majesty though the peoples act of swearing the Covenant upon an unhappy difference and misapprehension was by an unusual way inhibited But the Doctor further profoundly demands Are they legislative in fact where there is no law made as none was for the Covenant was there legislation in actu secundo in exercise or act as to commend a writer for a book never writ or an architect for an house never built Where are now your wits good Master of words Is there is no writing or architecture in actu secundo in act and exercise until the whole book be writ or house built I fancied the writing of every page and framing of every board or squaring of every beam and laying every brick to be somthing more then scribendi or aedificandi potentia and if any more how far is it short of actus secundus Is there no Legislation without a full and formal Statute law What do you make of Votes Resolves Orders Ordinances of either or both Houses suspending superseding the Laws and Courts of Judicature directing and disposing the Subjects enquire at the Temple whether these be legislation in actu secundo Let your old friends a little laugh to see the Prelate-Justice his profound notions of legislation But the Doctors enforcement of these premises of legislation in potentia and actu is very considerable At best the two Houses nor King nor both together have any legislative power to decree or execute what is unrighteous against God or man Suppose they have not have they therefore no legislation in actu secundo act and exercise else what is this to the purpose But stay Sir What is that you say King and Parliament have no legislative power to decree or execute what is unrighteous against God or man I must deny this have you never read of wickedness established by a law Had Queen Mary and her Parliament who cast out the true and returnned the false Religion no legislative power by which they did it Doth the injustice of the matter nullifie the authority of the Law and Legislators is impiety enjoyned by a just authority to be actually disobeyed and relisted will not this prostitute legislation to every private
fancy and furnish all Rebellion with Apology I am not bound for the thing decreed is unrighteous and neither King nor Parliament nor both had legislative power to decree and cannot therefore execute it for execution is subsequent to legislation I must not be punished where I am not bound to obey Doctor whose wits are now a woolgathering to run away from the Covenant by stating a doctrine of Sedition yea Rebellion Mr. Crofton should more soberly have said The King and Parliament have legislation to all acts of humane Society but must be careful they do not decree unrighteousness establish iniquity by a Law You have indeed very powerfully opposed Mr. Cr. his first observation beating down all legislation in actu secundo yea and in some cases which will fall too often and must be judged by every private man all potentia legem ferendi What say you to the second M. Croftons second notion saith the Doctor his second nothing observed as his safety is that a thing may bind in conscience which doth not bind in law or in the Judicature of man This M. Crofton did say and will stick to against the raging billows of your proudest words But what saith the Doctor to this notion True is it true and yet M. Croftons nothing True and yet a pitiful evasion a small twig a sinking weed Sure Sir the true of so big a bladder will keep little M. Crofton swiming above water How doth D. Gauden avoid the strength of what he confesseth to be true hath he well weighed it is an Oath that bindeth in conscience though not in law or humane judicatu how is it that he having cryed true turneth off with a but nothing can bind in conscience against the Laws of man in cases of equity justice and right Suppose Mr. Crofton cry True to Dr. G. what hath he gained Mr. Cr. did not affirm that any thing of that nature did bind conscience but that the Coveâ—â—nt not charged on any by a Statute Law yet bindeth the conscience of all personally or politically subjected to it And Dr. G. runs away with his petitio principii that Englands Episcopacy is established by Law and cannot according to Juâ—tice Equity and Common right be extirpated which M. Cr. hath denied and doth deny and when it is proved will further examine how far an oath bindes in conscience against it But as yet Dr. G. offers nothing to prove it but his Worships say so which will not be beleived Only M. Cr. must say that my oath may bind me against what according to equity and right the Law must adjudge me as in cases of contracts bargains or alienation of Land or goods where I have sworn or vowed a release of which the Law according to common justice equity and right can take no cognizance but must restore I am bound from requiring or by law receiving the restitution or performance It is hard that Dr. G. should lose the power of conscience by preaching equity and right among the Lawyers Mr. Croftons third Observation of the Kings oath making a supply to the supposed defect of authority binding the Covenant is entred upon with a drop of his sarcastical pen for Mr. Cr. bold and odious no less then fallacious if you will make a right Shemaiah add seditious and treasonable too urging by a Presbyterian pertness the present taking of the Covenant in Scotland I pray you sir though this be bold wherein is it fallacious that his Majesty sware the Covenant is not nor can be denied the form of his Royal Coronation his Royal Declaration from Dumferling and the History of King Charls the Second have made it known through the world that it cannot be hidden Though had not Dr. G. blurred paper to bring perjury upon King and Kingdom it had not been here pleaded by Mr. Crofton But Sir Wherein is an argumentative urging the Kings taking the Covenant so odious a piece of Presbyterian pertness Shall not every Disputant have liberty with freedom to express what will enforce his argument Is not the meanest Subject interested in the Kings oath and capacitated humbly to demand performance Do not Royal acts fall under the consideration of Casuists resolving conscience Are not Kings objects of ministerial admonition how bold soever it may seem none but a proud Pashur and shameless Semaiah could count it odious in Jeremiah to say to the King Keep the oath and thou shalt be delivered from that distress which may too late engage his Majesty to send to his faithful Monitor to pray for him Is not Mr. Cr. capacitated in all these respects to consider his Majesties oath even when he is abstracted from his Presbyterian pertness Sir I must tell you it is more odious in you to make his Majesties Legislative authority depend on the piety of his decrees then for Mr. Crofton to urge his Royal Oath as a bar to the Nations perjury Wherein lyeth the odium of an argumentative urging the King taking of the Covenant it was but modestly mentioned in the Analepsis though more fully and forcibly to the fastning of St. Peters Fetters It is every way visible Mr. Cr. doth neither justifie nor commend the insolent imposing of it but doth expresly condemn that although the maturity of his years here mentioned by this Doctor maketh it the more obliging as having the full exercise of his judicium rationale which if it were any way restrained by the distress of his affairs will not release him because it was chosen as his best course and juramentum metu extortum is agreed to bind the conscience and as a moral rule reacheth Kings as well yea as much as other men though therein he is more obnoxious to temptations and needs to have the case more clearly resolved if his Majesty delight not to hear of it as Dr. G. scandalously reporteth more is the pitty Mr. Cr. hath in Loyalty to his Majesty pressed it and perswaded others to press it on the same principles in his Analepsis Analepthe Sect 1. convincing and affirming his Ministers and Chaplains ought as his Monitors to mind him of it and affect him with it though I fear flattering prelates will rather expose him to hear of it in Gods wrath and by his Enemies reproach for the breach thereof then hazard their dignity by discharge of the duty they owe to God and his Royal soul That the Kings taking the Covenant can make any thing in it lawful which by the rules of religion and civil justice is unlawful Mr. Cr. did not affirme or urge it to that purpose but that it maketh up the supposed defect of authority in the first taking the Covenant is that which Mr. Cr. said nor doth D. G. deny it his consent unto the ordinance for taking the Covenant expressed by Oath gives it at least to conscience the formality of a Law That what his Majesty did in Scotland must not extend to England is a most false maxime according to which we
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
you I might burn my pen and paper for fear of a Charge of Treason and High Court of Justice But I will not fear to write at his request to whom I have often spoken freely and yet met with the fidelity of a Friend Sir your Enquiry is serious and seasonable and calls for a better resolution then I can render It is this Quest What is to be desired by them that wish well to England I understand your Enquiry as grounded on the present sad state of the Nations affairs and so my resolution is as of a Minister of God that of Israels Repentance promised in Hosea 3.5 Afterwards shall Israel return and seek unto the Lord their God and unto David their King is the unum necessarium one only thing to be desired for England as her sovereign Remedy against all her maladies by the hand of God inflicted on her On serious observation of England I cannot but judge her the parallel of the ten Tribes in sin and sorrow and wish she may precede them in a serious and seasonable Repentance Methinks Sir the Prophet Hosea his Prophetical Marriage of an Harlot and leaving her a long time with this charge Hos 3.3 To abide for him and not to play the Harlot or be for any other is a lively Emblem of Englands state and duty England Sir as Israel have gone in the way of Jeroboam and have sinfully against all Natural Civil and Religious bonds cast off and shut out their Lawful Governours and Established Government left them by their Progenitors Englands Disease and under which she long flourished unto the Enriching of her self Envy of her Neighbours Nations and Encouragement of the Reformed Churches And that after many Declarations Protestations Vows Oaths and the SOLEMN LEAGVE AND COVENANT for the defence and preservation of the Kings Majesties Person and Posterity the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties of the Subject and that Sworn in a day of Extremity when they seem'd to be in danger and men were Jealous the subversion since effected was intended Nay and after a vast expence of Blood and Treasure in the defence of them and when under an Obligation inviolable and never to be dispensed withall wherein we have sworn to God Not to suffer our selves by any comminations perswasions or terrors whatsoever directly or indirectly to turn aside to the right hand or to the left or to make defection from this Cause Yet have our Nation to the Scandal of Religion Reproach of the Nation and Blasphemy of God and Provocation of his Justice with Israel made defection from their Lawful Natural Prince yea and altered their unalterable Government at the Lusts of Men subverting very Foundations Only Sir I must be free to let you know that in two things Englands defection hath been more vile then that of Israels in that it was made by a violent base unjust extrajudicial barbarous Regicide with an hypocritical pretence of Justice Secondly In that Members of the Parliament have been to themselves an Herod Ascalonite to violently break up their own Sanhedrin and Guido Faux to blow up King Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled to the everlasting blemish of the Protestant Religion and in the room thereof have been subjected to usurpation and self-created Governours with whom most of the Nation have concurred and to them consented And for the support of this Vsurped Magistracy Calves have been set up at Dan and Bethell all falshood in Religion Tolerated the Ministry laid common who will becomes a Priest unto the Lord. So that Sir Schism and Sedition Rebellion unto Regicide Perfidie and Perjury is become Englands Guilt and impiety written in such legible and indelible Characters that all men must say She is become an Harlot and see repentance absolutely necessary to prevent her ruine England Distempers Sir give me leave to tell you Englands sin like Israels hath been pointed out by her Sorrows for she having shamefully shaken off her Rightful Governour and Government hath been prostituted to the Lusts and Ambition of particular men and proudly trampled on by Military insolency in so much that our very Bell-men can reproach us as we lie in our Beds Shall I Sir make bold to insert a Bell-mans sound which I heard with my own ears It was this Whilst you securely Sleep I Ring my Bell Which lately hath rung out your Freedoms Knell Your Souldiers now your Sovereigns are become Your Laws and Liberties command by sound of Drum Nor is it strange for they read no Commission Regard no Bonds but prosper by Transgression By Pride and Perjury these Saints most rude Have Cut off the King and Parliament subdu'd Your eyes have seen 't vile Slaves yet in this season You are Rid like Asses and not Rul'd by Reason Oh Sir how many sad and shameful revolutions have passed upon us and yet we are full far from Settlement Authority like a Tennis-Ball hath been cast up and down for him to catch that catch can and hath been tossed between a republican pack and single Person whilst both are plain and palpable Vsurpers for indeed in nature and by Gods just judgement Revolution is the constant Attendant on Usurpation the Globe of Magistracy must roul up and down whilst off its Pin and from its Center it only resteth in right Subjects and now we are covered with confusion and left without King any lawful nay without Prince any unlawful Governours without any establishment in Church or State Civil and Religious order and this was the punishment of Israels now is of Englands adultery The estate of her widdowhood the time of divine desertion for Civil Order is Gods presence in the World and Religious Order his presence in the Church The very Heathen conclude from the confusions in the world the Gods have forsaken the Earth so that Sir he must have no Religion who seeth not in Englands case to conclude and cry out Righteous art thou O Lord and just are all thy Judgements Now Sir I have shewed Englands disease and distemper it remains that I direct the cure and remedy and that I say is Repentance true and hearty Englands Cure and Remedy General and Vniversal Repentance Let the Ministers of God lift up their voice and cry Repent England repent repent let all that wish well to England pray that God would pour out a Spirit of Repentance that from Dan to Beersheba all Israel may return and seek unto the Lord and to David their King Sir Repentance is the end and errand of all Afflictions Isai 27.11 Men cry out of doing the Work of God nor doe I deny it in all our strange revolutions only I desire it may be noted it is Gods strange work speaking his displeasure and summoning his Peoples Repentance A relenting heart a returning spirit shall no sooner be effected but these sharp rods will be rejected God will walk contrary to a stubborn People untill their uncircumcised heart be humbled
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
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
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
up seaven of the chief Violators of the Vow will your Worship please once a day to take a turn in poor Mr. Croftons walk and deliver your soul from this pittiful passion if you can however you fancy that fraud and force make void an Oath your Brother Bishop Sanderson all Protestant Divines and Civilians yea Popish Cafuists will dictate to you other things and little Mr. Crofton desireth to fear an Oath and to tremble at every tendency to a breach of faith with a jealous God but judicious Dr. Gauden can find a difference in the case of the Gibeonites from the case supposed by Mr. Crofton and makes it a specialty to that people and that in these particulers First The League with the Gibeonites was onely civil and secular not Religious Secondly Made by the chief councel and authority of the Nation Thirdly It was of things within their power as civil and secular Fourthly No injury to honest men Fifthly Though unadvised in prudence and policy of War yet it was confirmed by God to punish unadvisedness to preserve leagues obtained by honest fraud God had mercy for the Gibeonites as less sinners and more disposed to fear and repent A most profound comment but Sir was the Covenant with the Gibeonites wholy civil and secular within their power were they not the Hittites by Gods express command to be destroyed observe well the Catalogue Deut 7.1 2. Exâ—d 23.32 your predecessour Dr. Hall saith the sentence of Death was passed against all the Cananites and that Joshuas heart was clear from any intention to make a league with the Canaanites and enters a caution against it So Sir this was a League against the Laws of Israel given by God something more then civil confederacy with the Canaanites was inhibited for the safety of their Religion lest they should be seduced by them but Sir where the matter is religious will the case alter or the Oath be any more void then where it is civil the validity or religion of the matter whilst either it may be just and lawful according as the occasion of the Covenant doth direct 2. In that the Covenant was made by the chief Councel and authority of the Nation it doth not relieve the fraud whoever they were they were cozened by a peopâ—e who appeared to them what they were not Mr. Cr. will not fear to affirm the Solemn League and Covenant was sworn by the chief Councel and authority of England though not compleat But the question is of the fraud by which any are deceived into an oath 3. Was the oath of the Gibeonites no way to the injury of honest men you will not stand to it was it no injury to Israel to lose four Cities out of their inheritance given them by the Lord Was it no injury to be engaged in war and to hazard their lives for a company of Trepanners and cheaters who should have faln by their sword and D. Gaudens interpretative spirit would have left to fall by the sword of another was it no injury to have such a temptation to Idolatry which God had charged to be removed and such tormenting affliction Canaanites as pricks in their eyes and thorn-in their side If it were no injury to Israel what was the well-meant zeal of Saul on which his resumed reason did perjuriously destroy the Gibeonites 4. But say you it was confirmed by God how Sir not by any post-fact or immediate signification of his pleasure nor by the special dispensation of the High Priest but meerly by the power and vertue of the oath fraudulently obtained buâ— admitttng God did confirm it an oath obtained by bone fraud and surprisal as you phrase it if any can be honest is established as permanently binding and the breach of it is punishable by God hath not then Mr. Crofton cause to fear or must his fear be super superstition or not â—ather Dr. Gaudens observation be super-ignorant and super-arogant in reputing the hypothesis illustrating the very pinch of the Question against the very utmost supposed strength of opposition the least issue of weakness and exhausted spirits yet this is as ingenuous as the next note is honest Pag. 352. Mr. Croftons Oratory reason and civility failes his zeal whilst he makes such a reflection on his honorable Covenanting Masters comparing them to Colliers whilst they acted like Kings Where Sir did Mr. Cr. make this reflection had he not asserted and established their authority though to detect the weakness of your argument he imagineth what you fancy to make against the binding power of an Oath and your self is constrained to see the weakness thereof but verbosity must be venting though with falshood yet this is as honest as the next is sound that not the honour and authority but reason and religion in a Parliament must be weighed as if there were nothing in such an assembly but what is common to men if your prelacy may be thus measured it will soon be found a vanity But Sir I must tell you the man can be afraid God will be angry for not keeping Oaths unlawfully made and also for keeping and making unlawful Oaths or lawful Oaths by unlawful means but he cannot admit the say so of a Runagado as an evidence against the Covenant but affirmes it will be broken before your strain of Rhetorick can make extirpation to signifie reformation of your Episcopacy the first being so plain in the words and unavoidable sence of the Covenant that it needs no Presbyterian stretch as you scurrilously taunt or strappado more then it will endure the Antiphrastical strain of an apostate Presbyter and English Prelate But stay Sir you crow before the Victory Mr. Crofton was so far from shewing his wit and art in this defence as you falsely say by presently withdrawing that he who out of his sally port appeared to you like a little Mark and picolhomo did so little fear your first Granado that he followed you to your trenches and encountered your main body encamped in the Oxford reasons and yet keeps the field within reach of your Gunshot not fearing to have his brains beaten out by Dr. Gauden his reason if God restraines the Prelates high commission batteries against the truth which they can neither bear nor contradict let me tell our Champion notwithstanding his renewed assault he must go down to the Romish Phylystines to sharpen his prelatical Pikes before his battering rams can make impression on the Covenant and enter the garrison of Presbyterial reformation impregnably guarded by Mr. Crofton his Woolsacks which the Doctors skill cannot remove Having as he thought reinforced his battering Rame he proceeds to what he calleth his gulph between the Covenant and its legality and sanctity the tumultuating terrours of those times in which it was contrived conceived and brought forth or impâ—sed as if sanctity and legality could not exist in tumultuous days pag. 177. And he tells you in this mud Mr. Crofton was afraid to
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
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
must not be sworn if sworn not kept if kept senced and interpreted I am certain all the Doctors in Oxford cannot discern it If Christ had thus proved the Resurrection the Saducees would never have been silenced and we must have been at a sad loss for the great Article of the resurrection of the body that ground of our Christian hope Will Dr. Gauden please to frame his argument a pari for little Mr. Croftons rescue he conceives it must run thus Numb 30. Directeth that the Oath or vow of a Daughter Wife or other inferiour made without the knowledge of Father Husband or Superiour should be at the pleasure of the Superiour confirmed or made void Ergo no scandalous disgraceful dishonourable Oath may be taken if taken must not be kept if kept it must be well interpreted by what rules must we measure this argument the Anticedent is particular the consequent is general it must needs be a syllogisme currens quatuor pedibus running as fast as B followeth A C followeth B and so one followeth another and all follow A immediately the frame such upon which the conclusion followeth the connexed termes as naturally as the Jesuites at the conference at Ratisbone Qui negat articulum fidei est haereticus sed hoereticus est qui negat Tobiam habuisse canem Ergo sequitur articulum esse fidei quod Tobias canem habuerit The barking Cur at the Moon-light of Dr. Gaudens logique is seen as plain as the sun continually disturbing his reason I find the Dr. in a Wilderness of words and wood of invention tossing the words of this Scripture telling us one while they are meant of lawful vows another while the Oath is made through weakness another while to the damage of the superiour and so stretching them as the onely square and rule for all Oaths but yet can stumble on no ready way due proportion or fit parallel whereby to resolve them but at lenth preposterously breaks through them with an invective against the nameless Libeller which concludes with a dolosus versatur in generalibus which none is more guilty of then Dr. G. and concludeth that may be just by some general maximes or customes of common law which yet is very unjust when brought to the rules of Chancerie as D. B. well knows in Hipslies case pag. 145. The Dr. hath sure made a good proficiency in his Temple Studies but I must enquire what Chancery can comment on the maximes of the common Law I know the just and proper strict rigour of them may be mitigated must not be denied otherwise then as to execution what Chancellour must do it on Gods Law or hath a Commission to interpret an Oath beyond what its genuine sence alloweth or to restrain the performance of it unto God Dr. Gauden doth assume not to say presume to do it and we well know Bishops have been Lord Chauncellours of England Though we deny his Authority let us a little consider his equity for the strictness of an Oath is an heavy burden and many times bindeth a man to loss and grief and he proceeds by some special cases which he suppose thought not to be made or kept let us take a glance of them that our minds may be cleared in the sence of Numb 30. His first case is If Parents vow not to give a Child in Marriage or not till such a time or not to give him such a portion but to devote him to single life poverty banishment or base employmennt it is sinful and injurious may nâ—t be made or kept in this case he must give me leave to dissent from him untill he have stated the case more perticularly as to the reason and ends of such a vow and until he have proved the Child as to all these things is not to the parent sui juris to be disposed of debased or advanced although I should neither advise nor commend so harsh and heady an exercise of parental power and prerogative yet if pinched with the question I durst not determine the negative The Parent finds the Child Proud Stubborn Disobedient Perverse voweth to cut him short in his portion may he not do this in Justice and in his just displeasure perform it may not the Parent send the stuborn Child to Barbadoes by slavery to subdue his spiritâ— may not the Parent vow he will not give in Marriage to such a person as he judged unfit for his child or is not the Parents consent in his own power the danger of a single life are not proper effects of the Parents not giving in Marriage and Dr. Saunderson distinguisheth between the thing sworn De juram pâ—eâ—ect 3. Sect. 1â— which is causa propria and occasio or causa per accidens of sin and concludeth that an Oath made concerning the last is not unlawful I should wish Parents to be very wary of making such vows and Dr. Gauden as wary of discharging them though rashly made that may be sinfully sworn by a Parent which must be sorrowfully performed if the parent have unadvisedly devoted the child to want the law may rather take Alimony for him then the parent perjuriously give it I hope Abraham shall not be charged with injury to them in sending away Hagar and his son Ishmael Gods encouragement could not acquit the sin and what a parent may do he may swear to do without injury And methinks the case of the Israelites should resolve this case fully they had I admit rashly sworn they would not give their daughters to Benjamen the effect reflects their Oath very sadly and reduceth them into a strait yet they fear to break it and upon Counsel from God find out a way to save it and make some supply unto the defect which falling short they devise some think indeed sinfully a second stratagem rather then break their Oath what ever others may say upon this case I cannot but observe Children are fully sui juris to the Parent an hurtful oath is to the child no injury strictly to be so accounted an Oath concerning them when rashly made must be strictly observed and kept the light of nature and law of Scripture doth in my apprehension in this dissolve our Chancellours injunction The next case is of the like nature in reference to Servants and Subjects for supposing their Masters and Princes to have as Prelates suppose of every King merum imperium though they may swear rashly sinfully in reference to God yet not injuriously as to the slave or Subject Although Gomarrus and others note that man hath not from God aâ— absolute dominion over himself yet they deny not but men may vow and must keep their vows to the latitude of that Dominion God haâ— given them over themselves or others and this is the rule ourâ— Bishops Chancery should interpret and relieve against for this will conclude against him that a King may swear or having sworn must performe a diminution of his own just Soveraignty and that