take all you have do not say you hâ—rt us much less you wrong us take not on you to know or feel when you are hurt else we will have an Action of railing against you § 8. That wâ—iâ—h followeth I answered before But after he finds a notable piece of my ignorance The Pope inviting the King of Denmark to conquer a Province of Hereticks I know not who they were unless they were the Waldenses Well guest saith Mr. M. Waldo was in 1160 80 Years after Ans This will serve for men willing to be deceived It was the Persons and Religion and not the name that I spoke of Doth not he know that Rainerius himself saith that those Persons called Albigenses Waldenses and other such names professed that their way of Religion was Apostolical and they derived it down from Silvesters that is Constantines time If I did not guess well I wrong no Bishops by iâ— and I confessed my Ignorance that I knew not whom the Pope meant And why did not this callent Historian tell us who they were § 9. Next he hath met with my Ignorance for saying Vienna near France which is in the Borders of France Aâ—s 1. Is that any slander of Bishops or Councils 2 Truly I had many a time read in Councils that Vienna was in France and had not forgot it if Ferrarius and Chenu had not also told it me And whether it was the fault of the Printer or of my Hand or my Memory that put near for in I leave it freely to his Judgment for I remember it not And if the manner of Binnius naming it made me call Ordo Prophetarum in Gelasius a Book it 's no wrong to Episcopacy CHAP. XVII His Censure of my Design and Church-Principles considered § 1. AS to this his first Chapter I have before shewed how falsly he reporteth my design He saith he never saw any thing which more reflecteth on Religion Lucian and Julian have left nothing haâ—f so scandalous in all their Libels against Christians as this Church-History has raked up Here is nothing to be seen in his Book but the Avarice Ignorance Mistakes and furious Contentions of the Governours of the Church Ans How false that is the Reader may see in all the beginning the two Chapters in the end and much in the midst which are written contrarily to obviate such false thoughts 2. Is the ascendent sort of Prelates that were growing up to maturity till Gregory the Seventh's daies the whole Church of God Are there no other Christians Is all that is written against the Pope and such Ascendents written against Christianity Did Christ speak against Christianity when he reproved them for striving who should be greatest or Peter when he counselled them as 1 Pet. 5. And Paul when he said I have no man like minded for they all seek their own things and not the things that are Jesus Christ's Or when he said Demas hath forsaken me c Or John when he said Diotrephes loved to have the preheminence Or all those Councils of Bishops which condemned each other far deeplier than I judge any of them What have I said of Fact or Canons which Binnius and their other Flatterers say not Was it not there extant to the sight of all And that I Recorded not all their Virtues 1. The History of Councils saith little of them 2. Must no man shew the hurt of Drunkenness Gluttony c. and so of Ambition and Church-corruption unless he will write so Voluminous a History as to contain also all the good done by all the persons whom he blameth I have oft said that I wondered that instead of so greedy gathering up all the scraps of Councils the Papists did not burn them all as they have done many better Books which made against them § 2. I was about to answer all his first Chapter but I find it so useless a work that I shall ease my self and the Reader of that labour 1. He takes on him to answer a Piece of a Disputation written about 23 years ago whereas I have lately written a Treatise of Episcopacy with fuller proof of the same things which he nameth and takes on him to answer some part of it and answers not Till he or some other shew me the mistakes of that let them talk on for me in their little Velitations 2. Most that is considerable which he saith is answered already in that Book As his fiction that Unum Alt are in Ignatius signifieth not an ordinary Communion Table c. And much more out of Ignatius and many more is added which he saith nothing to 3. I have before shewed that he goeth on false Suppositions that I am only for a Bishop of a single Congregation or against all and many such when yet he himself confesseth the contrary yea derideth me for making Twelve sorts of Bishops and being for such as no Party is like to be pleased with 4 The contradictions and mistakes are so many as would tire the Reader to peruse an answer to them And when he hath all done with the numbring of Churches over-passing the full proof of the Primitive Form of them which I gave as before he confesseth that even his great esteemed Jesuite Valesius believes that the City Church was but One even in Alexandria and in Dionysius ' s time p. 64. And while p. 65. he makes Petavius and Valesius so much to differ as to gather their contrary Opinions from the same words and consequently one of them at least understood them not I that profess my self not comparable to either of them specially Petavius in such things am taken for a falsifier if I misunderstand a word that concerneth not the matter of the History This therefore being not about Church-History so much as against my Opinion of the Antient Government when he hath answered the foresaid Treatise of Episcopacy if I live not some one may reply if he deal no better than in this CHAP. XVIII Of his Second Chapter § 1. PAg. 78. He would have men believe that it is Discipline against real Heresie that I find so much fault with and ascribe all mischief to Answ Utterly contrary to my most open Profession It is only making those things to seem Heresie that are none either Truth or meer difference of words or small mistakes or curing Heresies by rash Anathema's without necessary precedent means of Conviction or by Banishment or Blood § 2. Is this it that you defend the Church for and we oppose it for When we would have none in our Churches whom we know not and that have not personally if at Age profest understandingly their Faith And what is the Discipline that you exercise on Hereticks It 's enough that you know them not and so never trouble them Your Talk and Pamphlets truly complain what swarms of Hobbists Sadduces Infidels Atheists are among us Do they not all live in the Parishes and Diocesses Doth the Bishop know them Are any of
once they perswade me to Reviews and Retractions Partly heaping up abundance of down right Falshoods Partly clipping Sentences and leaving out the part that should make them understood and turning true Words by perversion into Falshoods And partly by mixing this known Truth That I was on the Parliaments side and openly declared it But when at the new Model I saw that they changed their Cause I changed my Practice was from the Day that I went into the Army a resolved Opposer of all that they did to the Changing of the Government their Usurpation was sent among them to that end which was immediately after Naseby Fight And continued openly disowning the Usurpation and the Means that set it up And though I was Preaching and Writing against the said Usurpers when an Army was Fighting for them against the King and the King knew how to forgive and Honour them that did so much to his Restoration yet are the Accusers so far from forgiving those that never personally hurt a Man that they forbear not multiplying false Accusations yea and accusing those Ministers and private Men that never had to do with Wars Yea the same Men that then wrote against me for the Changers and Usurpers have since been the fierce Accusers of us that opposed them And if these Men be unsatisfyed of my present Judgment I have no hope of giving them Satisfaction if all will not do it which I have largely written in my Second Plea for Peace for Loyalty and against Rebellion and all my Confutation of Hooker's Politicks in the Last Part of my Christian Directory with much more But this Book must have if any a Peculiar Answer V. Lately when I taught my Hearers That we must not make the World believe that we are under greater Sufferings than we are nor be unthankful for our Peace and that we must when any hurt us love and forgive them and see that we fail not of our Duty to them but not forsake the owning and just defending by Scripture-Evidence the Truth opposed They Printed that I Bid the People Resist and not stand still and dye like Dogs And I was put the next Day to appeal to many Hundred Hearers who all knew that the Accusation was most impudent Lies This is our present Case VI. The Players I hope expect no Answer to their Part. London Printed for R. Janeway in Queens-Head-Alley in Pater-Noster-Row 1682. The General Part containing the Design and Sum of this and the former Book that it may be understood what it is that Mr. Morrice defendeth and opposeth and what it is that I maintain or blame and by what Evidence § 1. I Have been these forty years much troubled with the temptation to wonder why God suffers most of the World to lie drown'd in Ignorance Infidelity and Sensuality and the Church of Professed Christians to live in so great Scandal Contention Division and for the greater number in a Militant Enmity against the Word Will Way and Servants of Christ while in Baptism they are Listed under him But of late since Experience tells me of the marvelous Diversity of Humane Interests and Apprehensions and the deep Enmity of the Fleshly Mind to Spiritual things I admire the Wisdom and Providence of God that there is so much Order and Peace and Love in the World of Mankind as there is And that all men live not as in a continual War And I perceive that if God had not preserved by Common Grace some remnants of Moral Honesty in the World and had not also sanctified a peculiar People whose New Nature is LOVE the Sons of Men would have been far worse than Bears and Wolves to one another and a man would have fled with greater fear from the sight of another man than from a Snake or Tyger But God hath not left himself without witness in his Works and daily Providences and in the Consciences of those who have not sinned themselves into Brutes or Devils And hence it is that there is some Government and Order in the World and that sin is ashamed of its proper name and even they that live in Pride Covetousness Ambition Lying Persecution c. cannot endure to hear the name of that which they can endure to keep and practise and cannot endure to forsake § 2. And indeed it is a great Credit to Honesty and Piety to Truth and Love and Peace and Justice that the deadliest Enemies of them are ambitious of their Names and though they will damn their Souls rather than be such they will challenge and draw upon any man that denieth them to be such And I must profess that I fetch hence a great confirmation of the Immortality of Souls and a Future Life of Retribution For if there were not a very great difference between Moral Good and Evil what should make all the world even the worst of men be so desirous to be accounted Good and so impatient of being thought and called naught and as they deserve And if the difference be so vast here must there not needs be a Governour of the World that hath made such a difference by his Laws and Providence and who will make a greater difference hereafter when the End and Judgment cometh § 3. Among other Causes of Humane Pravity and Confusion one is the exceeding difficulty that young men meet with in the communication of so much Knowledge as they must necessarily receive from others Knowledge is not born with them It is but the power and capacity of it and not the act in which an Infant excels a Dog And how shall they have it but by Objects and Communication And Objects tell them not things past the Knowledge of which is necessary to make them understand things present and to come and without which it is not possible to be wise And God teacheth not Men now by Angels sent from Heaven but by Men that were taught themselves before and by his Spirit blessing mens endeavours And when I have said by Man how bad how sad a creature have I named Alas David's haste Psal 116. was not erroneous passion nor Paul's words Rom. 3. a slander when they called all men Lyers that is untrusty and so little do men know that must teach others and so much doth all corruption incline them to love flattering Lies and to take fleshly Interest the World and the Devil for their Teachers and to hate the Light because it disgraceth their hearts and deeds and so much goeth to make a man wise that it must be a wonder of merciful Providence that shall help young men to Teachers that shall not be their Deceivers There were ever comparatively few that were truly wise and trusty and these usually despised in the World § 4. And how should young men know who these are This is the grand difficulty that maketh the Errour of the World so uncurable It requireth much wisdom to know who is wise and to be trusted who can well
and finding that I and such others are accused as being disobedient to them and for not swearing and covenanting never to endeavour any alteration of their present Church-Government and all excommunicate by the Canon that say there is any thing in it even from the Archdeacon downward to the rest in Office repugnant to the Word of God I took it at last to be my duty to give the Reasons of my dissent in a full Treatise of Episcopacy And because I perceived young men and strangers to former times deceived by the general noise How Antient and Universal Episcopacy hath been as if all that is called Episcopacy were but one and the same thing or as if we were against the Primitive Episcopacy therefore I suddenly and too hastily for want of time bestowed a few weeks in summing up the Heads of the History of Bishops and Councils out of a few Historians which were most common next at hand and of most credit with those whose faults I opened That it might be truly known How much the tumified degenerate sort of Prelacy had caused the Divisions and Calamities of the Church § 21. For this Mr. Morrice as fame saith and many more are so greatly offended with me and say of me herein what they do And on pretence of Vindicating the Primitive Church which untruly implyeth that I who vindicated it against corrupters did oppose it he defendeth the corruptions and sinful miscarriages and diseases of the Prelates And this he doth 1. By striving to make me contemptible as unlearned as if that would excuse the sins which I rehearse and lament He findeth in one place through my haste and heedlesness a word of Theodoret misplaced and the word Calami translated Quills which he thinks should be Reeds and one or two more such as if he prevaricated and had a design to extol the Book which he finds no more and greater fault in than he really hath done And he proveth it likely that I never saw the Histories that stood by me near twenty years because the Printer put a Comma between Marquardus and Freherus I think there are a dozen Comma's misplaced in my whole Book when he himself saith of his own Book The faults that have escaped are almost infinite But of these things more anon 2. He loudly and frequently chargeth me with malicious falsifying History and when he cometh to the proof I have shewed you who the falsifier is 3. The great thing I am accused of is making the Bishops more the causes of Heresie Schism and Violence than they were And of that I have said nothing but what I think I have fully proved And let the Reader judge by this following Catalogue Domineeâ—ing Pride hath been the chief cause of Heresies and Schisms especially working in the Clergy to tumid Prelacy and Tyranny I. I before noted how the Apostles began to strive who should be greatest till the effusion of the Spirit after Christs rebukes had cured them And what tiranny Diotrephes used through love of Preheminence II. If the doubtful stories of Simon Magus be true his tumor was more than Papal And Epiphanius makes Menander Saturnilus Basilides to be but his Off-spring The Original of the Nicolaitans and Gnosticks who Epiphanius saith had ensnared himself once is utterly uncertain Carpocras Cerinthus Ebion Valentinus Secundus Ptolomaeus were all but Birds of the same Gnosticks Nest a crazed sort of men that mingled Christianity Platonism and Magical Imaginations and what they were themselves is not known Such was Marcus Colarbasus Heracleon the Ophitae the Cainites the Sethians Cerdo Marcion was a Bishop's Son cast out for vice and Lucian Apelles and Severus his Off-spring the Heads of their little Sects whether Bishops or not is unknown What kind of Hereticks Tertullian Tatianus and Origen were and how many faults as soul Lactantius and many not numbered with Hereticks have is well known And among all these in those early daies till there were Popes and Diocesans such as now in the world none such could be Hereticks III. Many Councils contended about the time of Easter and Victor with one part of Bishops excommunicated Polycrates and the Arian Bishops while as Socrates and Sozomen tell us the Churches that left it indifferent had peace IV. A Council of the best Bishops at Carthage decreed Rebaptizing V. A Council of the Bishops of Cappadocia Cilicia Galatia c at Iconium for Rebaptizing those Baptized by Hereticks And Stephen Bishop of Rome excommunicated them all VI. A Council at Synadis and divers others decreed the same Rebaptizing VII Divers more African Councils of good Bishops with Cyprian decree the same whom Stephen Bishop of Rome condemneth VIII Divers Bishops are said to be Sabellian Hereticks IX Paulus Samosatenus Bishop of Antioch was a Heretick X. The Council of Bishops at Cirta in Numidia under Secundus Mr. M. calls worse than I do XI A Carthage Council of 70 Bishops An. 306. set up the Donatists Schism striving for the preheminence who should be Bishop of Carthage XII An. 308. Another Donatists Council had 270 Bishops Many more Councils they had XIII The first General Council at Nice we honour and assent to its Creed But thank Constantine for burning all their Libels and keeping peace by his presence and speech XIV The Schism made by Meletius and Peter Bishops is well known XV. The Heresie of Arius a Presbyter that would have been a Prelate quickly infected Eusebius Nicomed If not Eusebius Caesariensis and divers other Bishops XVI Epiphanius saith that Audius was driven to his Heresie by being long abused beaten and at last excommunicated for reproving the Bishops and Priests for their Covetousness Luxury and other sins And so he became a Bishop himself XVII Eusebius Nicom made Bishop of Constantinople whom you tell us Valesius thinks was no Heretick hired a Whore at Antioch to father her Child on Eustathius the Bishop there and got more Bishops to depose him and the Emperour to banish him XVIII A Council of Bishops at Tyre unjustly condemn and persecute Athanasius XIX Three Bishops saith Mr. M. overcome with too much Wine and persuasion ordained Novatian falsly Bishop of Rome before this aforementioned XX. A Council at Jerusalem An. 335. tryed and approved Arius Faith and restored him XXI A Council at Constantinople condemned Marcellus Ancyranus and Athanasius and justified Arius XXII A Council of near 100 Bishops at Antioch 36 being Arians deposed Athanasius XXIII Another Council at Antioch make a new Creed without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 XXIV A Council of 376 Bishops at Sardica decree Appeals to Rome which Augustin and the African Bishops were against XXV The Semi-Arian Bishops went to Philippopolis and condemned such as the other at Sardica had absolved but cast out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as not scriptural and cast dreadful accusations on Athanasius Paulus C. P. and Marcellus XXVI An. 350. A Council at Milan received Ursacius and Valens Arians XXVII Stephen an Arian Bishop hired a
Death I confess I understand not Latine I thought the Council meant Death by Lex perimi jubet but they would be more merciful which I blamed them not for but noted here what many other Canons instance where they also punish murder but with keeping men from Communion that this agreeth with some Sectaries Opinion I leave Mr. M's great skill in expounding Councils here to any equal Judge But if I ignorantly mistake in all this and neither Capitis sententia feriantur nor Vivas in terra desossas signifie Death but Excommunication yet many other Canons after cited fully tell us of the Bishops Clemency CHAP. VII Mr M's Exposition of Church History tryed by his Exposition of my own words And 1. Of his false supposition that I am only for a Church of one Congregation meeting in one place § 1. IF so many repetitions of my Opinion cannot save Mr M. from so untrue a supposition of my self I must not too far trust him of the sence of those that he is as distant from as I. Yet this supposition running through all his book shews that he wrote it against he knew not whom nor what His foundation is because I define a single Church by Personal present Communion § 2. I do so And 1. Doth he think there is no such thing as Christians conjoyned for assembling in Gods ordinary worship under the Conduct of their Proper Pastors I will not censure him so hardly as to think he will deny it 2. Are these Churches or not I suppose he will say Yea. 3. But is there no Personal Presâ—nt Communion but in publick worship Yes sure Neighbours who worship God in divers places may yet live in the Knowledge and conversation of each other and may meet for Election of Officers and other Church businesses and may frequently exhort reprove and admonish each other and relieve each other in daily wants and many meet sometimes by turns in the same place where they all cannot meet at once We have great Towns like Ipswich Plymouth Shrewsbury c. which have many Parishes and yet Neighbourhood maketh them capable of Personal Communion in Presence as distinct from Communion by Letters or Delegats with those that we neither see nor know And we have many great Parishes which have several Chappels where the People ordinarily meet yet per vices some one time and some another come to the Parish Churches Have these no Parochial Personal Communion To the well-being of a Church I confess I would not have a single Church of the lowest species have too many nor too few No more than whose Personal Communion should be frequent in Gods publick worship Nor so few as should not fully employ more Ministers of Christ than one But to the Being of a Church I only require that the End of their Association be Personal Communion as distinct from distant Communion by Letters and delegates And by Communion I mean not only the Sacrament § 2. It is in vain therefore to answer a book that goeth on such false suppositions and a man that will face down the world that I plead for that which I never owned and so frequently disclaim CHAP. VIII Of his false supposition that I am against Diocesan Bishops because I am against that species of them which puts down all the Bishops of single Churches and those Churches themselves § 1. THis supposition goeth through almost all the book In his preface he saith The superiority of Bishops over Presbyters is acknowledged by Catholicks and Schismaticks Hereticks c. and yet this Church history would have us believe the Contrary And so throughout § 2. And yet to shew that he knew the Contrary in one place he confesseth it and described part of my judgment and saith that none will be of my mind in it but it is singular to my self Yea I had in my Disput of Church Government which he taketh on him in part to answer and in my Treat of Episcopacy which he also pretends to answer in part told them of more sorts of Bishops than one that I oppose not no not A. Bishops themselves And one of them hereupon notes it as if I differed but about the name submitting to Diocesans so they may but be called A. Bishops To whom I answered that A. Bishops have Bishops under them so that though I over and over even to tediousness tell them it is the dâ—posing of all the first or lowest Species of Bishops and Churches and Consequently all Possibility of true Disâ—ipline that I opposâ— and submit to any that oversee many such Churches without destroying them and their priviledges instituted by Christ I speak â—ill in vain to them These true Historians face down the world that I write whole books to the clean contrary CHAP. IX Of his supposition that I am an Independent and yet that I plead for the cause of the Presbyterians § 1. THis is also a supposition that is part of the Stamina of his Book and how far he is to be believed herein judge by the evidence following 1. He knew what I said before for three sorts of Bishops 1. Episcopi Gregis Overseers of single lowest Churches as of Divine Institution 2. For Episcopi Episcoporum or Presidents-Bishops ejusdem Ordinis non ejusdem Gradus in the same Churches as of early Humane Institution which I resist not 3. Episcopi Episcoporum Overseers of many Churches which I suspect to be Successors of the Apostles and of such as Timothy Titus c. in the continued ordinary part of their work exercising no other Power than they did Insomuch that Dr. Sherlock would be thought so much less Episcopal than I as that he saith It is Antichristian to assert Episcopos Episcoporum § 2. And Dr. Parker hath newly written a Book for Episcopacy which I hear many despise but for my part I take to be the strongest that I have seen written for it these twenty years but to no purpose against me for it is but for Episcopacy in general which I oppose not It excellent well improveth the Arguments of the K. and Bishops at the Isle of Wight even that one Argument that a Superiority of some over others being settled by Christ and his Apostles that Form must be supposed to continue unless we have clear proof of the Repeal or Cessation I have ost said the same I could never answer that Argument But this will not justifie the deposing of thousands of Bishops and Churches and of their Discipline to turn them all into two or three Diocesans § 3. Also he knoweth that I have written these 35 years against Lay. Elders believing that the Colledge of Elders which of old assisted the Bishops were none of them Lay-men nor unordained but of the same Order though not Degree with the Bishop himself § 4. And I have also written that Synods of Bishops or Presbyters are but for Concord and have not as such by a major Vote a proper Government of the minor part
matter made of it but they are Members of the Church of England the purest Church in all the World Whereas in those licentious times if one Souldier had spoken such a Word it would have rung out through the Land and perhaps his Tongue would have been bored with an hot Iron It was the errours of the proud rebellious Soldiers that made most of the noise that had no considerable number of Ministers left with them I had a hand in Mr. Edwards Book thus An Assembly of Ministers after Naseby Fight sent me into the Army to try if I could reduce them Dayly disputing with them a few proud selfconceited Fellows vented some gross words At Amersham a few Country Sectaries had set up a Meeting in Dr. Crooks Church to dispute and deceive the People A few of Major Bethel's Troop that afterwards turned Levellers and were ruined joined with them I met them and almost all day disputed against them and shamed them and they met there no more I gathered up all the gross words which they uttered and wrote them in a Letter to Francis Tyton and after I found them cited in Mr. Edwards Gangrena And what 's the absurd Speeches of a few ignorant Souldiers that are dead with them to the Heresies and Schisms that these 1000 or 1200 Years continue in all the Roman Communion and they say in all the rest of the Christian World One cheating Papist as a converted Jew got into an Anabaptists Meeting one Maxwell a Scot and all England rung of it But when Bishops have made and keep France Spain Italy c. in the same Errours Dr. Heylin and Bp. Bromhall and such others took them for such with whom a Coalition on the terms by them described was very desirable CHAP. XXIV His 7th Chapter considered § 1. THE Man had not the courage to defend the surgent Prelacy in its Manhood and Maturity but only in its Infant and Juvenile State nor to defend the many hundred Councils which I mentioned after the Council of Calcedon in which either his Modesty or Cautelousness comes short of his Rd. Fathers who some of them own the six first General Councils and some of them eight and some would unite with the Church of Rome if they will abate but the last 400 Years additions § 2. In his Gleanings in this 7th Chap. he over and over and over persuadeth his Reader that I make or affirm that the Bps. were the cause of all the Heresies in the world and of all the Heresies Schisms and Evils that have afflicted the Church And hath this Historian any proof of this Or is it the melancholy fiction of his Brain Yes this is his proof contrary to my manifold Instances because I say in one age We have a strange thing a Heresie raised by one that was no Bishop which I have answered before To be then strange and never to be at all are not words of the same sense But his Answers throughout do mind me of Seneca's Words that a man that is sore complains or cries Oh when he doth but think you touch him § 3. He thus himself accuseth the Bishops p. 276 There have been wicked men and wicked Bishops in all times And p. 277. That some Bishops have abused their Authority and Office and been the cause of Heresie and Schism cannot be denied But yet He hath shewed sufficiently that most of my particular Accusations are void of all truth and Ingenuity Ans Or else those words are so § 4. He saith All Ecclesiastical Writers agree that Simon Magus was Author of the first Heresie in Christian Religion Ans All confess that Judas was before him And if it be a Heresie to buy the Spirit for Money it is a Heresie to sell Christ for Money But I confess some tell us of his after pranks at Rome and imitating Icarus at Peters Prayers If you would see why Dr. More takes this for a toyish Legend see his Mystery of Iniquity Lib. 2. C. 19. § 6 7. p. 447 448. § 5. P. 286 287. Baronius first and Philastrius after are made guilty of Forgery and disregardable History so that I may well bear some of his Censures § 6. P. 290. To confute me effectually he saith much what the same which is much of the sum of all my Book And yet it 's false and malicious in me and true and charitable in him viz. Praising the first 300 years when the Bishops were such as we offer to submit to he adds The following Ages were not so happy but as Christians generally degenerated so did the Bishops too Ans What! Before the Council of Nice That 's a sad Confession I was ready to say as a Roman Emperour said to a flatterer that still said all that he said Dic aliud aliquid ut duo simus But his next words allay it But yet not so much as our Author would make it appear As the Dominicans and Oratorians must say some falshood of Calvine lest they be thought Calvinists And yet he addeth The beginning of the 4th Century was very unhappy to the Church for Persecution without and Heresie and Schism within Meletius an Egyytian began a Schism forsook the Communion of the Church c. Next the Donatists Arians c. Ans It seems that the Emperours Constantius and Valens were without the Church and yet the Arian Priests and Bishops were within it When he defineth the Church we may understand this But is it not this 4th Century that is made the Churches more flourishing state by others § 7. Even the great Historian of Heresies Epiphanius is said p. 292. to be unaccountably mistaken in several things relating to that History And 293. hath a strange unaccountable mistake in diverse other things relating to that matter If I had at any time erred with such a Bishop and Father I might have been excusable for reciting his History § 8. Pag. 295. He opens the very Heart of his Parties Principles and saith The Church is never distracted more by any thing than Projects of Moderation Ans Experience proveth that you speak your Heart The words are no wilful Lye which agree with a mans Mind be they never so false as disagreeable to the matter No man was more of that Opinion than Hildebrand that would not yield the Emperours the Investiture nor as I before said abate the Prince of Calaris the shaving of his Bishops Beard to save his Kingdom Victor began with that Opinion too soon but his Successors have these Thousand Years been as much for it as you can wish 2. But to whom is it that you intend this Sure not to all Was Bishop Laud of that mind toward the Papists if Dr. Heylin say true Was Grotius of that mind toward them Was Arch-Bishop Bromhall Forbes Beziar Thorndike and many more such of that mind No I 'le excuse you that you meant not them and their Projects of Moderation Nor I believe neither Cassander's Erasmus's Wicelius's Sancta
an Interdict till the Bishops and King were restored and that Christs Gospel was no more to be preached in England till Diocesanes returned but all Souls be given up to Damnation unless Christ would save them without the preaching of his Gospel and the Land was to be left to the Devil and Paganism And who can deny now but the Diocesane Species is essential to the Church IV. When I spake only of the silencing and ejecting Act of Aug. 24. 1662. he would make the Reader believe that this Change was to restore the Churches to their ejected Pastors or cast out Usurpers whereas unless Ignorance or worse hinder him he knoweth that all that were cast out and were alive laid claim to their Benefices and were restored before that and their Livings resigned quietly to them to say nothing of the rest that were supposed to be at the Lord Chancellors disposal Those that were put out that the sequestred might re-enter were none of them silenced nor made uncapable of other Livings till August 24. 1662. V. He would insinuate that it was only the Nonconformists that were cast out of such sequestrations Whereas in the Countries that I either lived in or heard of it was as many or more of the Conformists that had sequestred Livings and were cast out and took new presentations VI. And this is evident by his Intimation as if it were a very great number of the Church Livings that were so possest Whereas of Nine Thousand or Ten Thousand Ministers then in Possession Seven or Eight Thousand Conformed Therefore it 's likely that the Conformists had most of the Sequestrations VII He tells you that the Ejected Ministers were brought in to instruct the People in the Lawfulness of Rebellion Doth not this intimate that this was the case only or chiefly of the silenced Nonconformists But I have oft cited Jewel defending the French Protestants Was not he a Bishop I have oft cited Bilson affirming it no Rebellion if the Nobles and People defend their Legal Constitution against one that will I will not recite the rest I have oft cited Ri. Hooker whose popular Principles I have conâ—ured and goeth higher against absolute Monarchy than I or any of my Correspendency did in all the Wars Heylin is for Conciliation with the Papists He knoweth not their Writings who knoweth not that the Papists are more for popular Election and Power towards Princes far than ever such as I were And had he not put his Head and Eyes into a Bag he could hardly have denied but that they were Episcopal Conformists on both sides that began the War But being got into the dark he loudly denieth it VIII He saith There were many others that himself would not have thought fit to have continued Ans I thought I was more likely to know them than he I remember not one such of an hundred that did not conform I confess that when the Prelatical party intreated me no longer to refuse the Westminster Commissioners Letters deputing me with others to try and judge of some Episcopal Conformists that stood then for Livings to avoid all seeming opposition to that way I did stretch as far as I durst to approve and keep in some Conformists of very low parts who knew not a quarter so much as some Lay People did But none of these were Nonconformists IX He saith All the rest were such as would not submit to the Rule then established in the Church This is true And what was that Rule Did Peter or Paul make it or submit to it Did they refuse any thing that God commanded in Nature or Scripture Or any Circumstantials necessary in genere left in specie to the Magistrates determination They were guilty of believing that God is above man and that there is no Power but of God and none against him and that we must please him whoever be displeased They were guilty of so much Self-love as to be unwilling to be damned for a Benefice or for a Bishops Will. They did not consent to profess Assent and Consent to all things contained in and prescribed by three Books written by such as declare themselves to be fallible and such as not one of Fourty ever saw before they declared the said Assent and Consent to them They did not consent to cast out all Infants from Christendom whose Parents durst not offer them to Baptism under the Sacramental Symbol of the Cross nor unless they might have themselves been Covenanters Undertakers or Promisers for them as well as the Godfathers Or that scrupled getting Strangers to undertake that perfidiously for their Children which they never intended to perform They durst not read Excommunications against Christs true Servants nor repel those from Christian Communion who scruple kneeling in the reception of the Sacrament They durst not swear that many Thousands whom they never knew are not obliged by the Covenant when they know not in what sence they took it For they are not willing to believe that the compounding Lords and Knights did not put a good sence on it before they took it They durst not say that all is so well in our Church Government by Diocesanes Lay-Chancellours Power of the Keys Archdeacons Officials Commissaries c. that we may swear against all endeavours to amend it by any alteration They do believe that the Law of Nature is Gods Law and that as it alloweth a single Person only private desence so it alloweth every Nation publick defence against Enemies notorious destroying assaults And they dare not swear or covenant that if any should from the Lord Chancellour c. get a Commission to seize on the Kings Navy Treasures Forts Guards Person and to seize on the Lives and Estates of all his Innocent Subjects that it is unlawful to resist any that execute such a Commission They find it so hard a Controversie what God doth with the dying Infants of Atheists Infidels Mahometanes and Persecutors that they dare not declare that if any of their Children be baptized and die it is certain by the word of God that they are undoubtedly saved We say not that the Law binds us to any of the evil which we fear But we dare not take Oaths and Promises which we understand not Abundance I preâ—ermâ—t He is extreamly censorious if he think that Mr. R. Hooker Bp. Bilson Bp. Grindal A. Bp. Abbot Bp. Rob. Abbot Bp. Jewel c. would have been Conformists had they been now alive X. He saith They chose rather to leave their Livings Ans They chose not to conform but submitted only to leave their Livings Eligere est agere They were passive in this they refused to conform as supposed by them a heinous Sin but they chose not to be silenced or cast out but they chose to endure it when the Bishops chose it for them XI He saith that the Bishops could not help it any otherwise than as they were Members of Parliament Ans 1. I confess Scripture useth the like Phrase
Paper describing Eight such We did but begin to debate one of them Casting such from the Communion of Christs Church that dare not take the Sacrament kneeling though they be mistaken and our time ended Dr. Pierce undertook to prove it a Mercy to them to deny them the Sacrament and he made a motion to me that he and I might go about the Land to preach men into satisfaction and Conformity I asked him how I could do that when they intended to silence me For though I scrupled not kneeling at the Sacrament if they made any one Sin the condition of my Ministry I should be silenced though they abated all the rest It may be this went for All or Nothing And I am sorry that the Bishops be not of the same mind St. James was that said He that breaketh one is guilty of all And Christ was who said He that breaketh one of the least of these commands and teacheth men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of God So that it was not All Inconveniences but All flat Sins that we craved in vain to have been exempted from Much less was it the Establishment of all that we proposed to have been treated of openly professing our selves ready to alter any thing amiss or needless upon treaty and supposing there would be many such words But they would not touch our offered additions nor entertain any treaty about them And now pitty your self who have been drawn to believe such Reverend Prelates as you say and pitty such as your Writings will deceive § 17. That you take it to be contrary to a Christian temper to be sensible of the Sufferings of the Church and to name and describe the sin that causeth them and that but in a necessitated Apology for the Sufferers is no wonder the Reasons and your Answer I gave you before § 4. and 5. I think it no breach of Peace with Persecutors or Silencers to tell them what they do especially when the Sufferers are feigned to deserve it all and not to sin and that deliberately is made a sin deserving all that we suffer and the Nation by it § 18. But p. 77. tells us yet more whence your Errours come even by believing false Reports and then reporting what you believe You say Some People have talked of a Combination or Pact amongst themselves that except they might have their own Will throughout they would make the World know what a breach they could make and how considerable they were Ans 1. Do you not think that Rogers Bradford Philpot and the rest did so in Qu. Maries days and that it was they that made the Breach by being burnt What is it that such Historians may not say So Luther was taught by the Devil Bucer was killed by the Devil so was Oeclampadius Calvin was a stigmatized Sodomite and what not And even the most publick things are yet uncertain before our Eyes Godfrey killed himself The Papists had no Plot The Presbyterians have a Plot against the King The Nonconformists silenced themselves And did not the Citizens of London burn their own Houses When you that are a Bishop cite other great Bishops for such things as you do may it not come in time to be the Faith of the Church and thence to be necessary to all 2. But how do you think all these that were scattered all over England and knew not one another by name or Dwelling should so confederate 3. Do but think of it as a man There were Nine or Ten Thousand Ministers that had conformed to the Parliaments way in possession They were all to conform or be cast out The Book and Act of Uniformity came not out of the Press till about that very day Aug. 24 Neither Conformists nor after Nonconformists could see it but those in or near London What time was there to tell them all over England in one day How knew we who would conform and who would not when Nine Thousand were equally in Possession If we had written to them all would not One Thousand of our Letters have detected it Or at least some of those that conformed with whom we prevailed not 4. What was it that moved them all to this Confederacy To suffer Ruine in the World To make themselves considerable you say and shew what a Breach they could make And for what Unless they might have all their own Wills And what was their Will Was it to be Lord Bishops Or domineer over any Or to get great Benefices I think no high-way Robbers do any Villanies meerly to shew what mischief they can do much less ruine themselves to shew that they can do Mischief by Suffering Some such thing is said of some odd Circumcellians that they killed themselves to make others thought their Persecutors But Persecution was more hated then than now Did the former Life and Doctrine of these Two Thousand men signifie a Spirit so much worse than the rest 5. And do you think that the other Seven Thousand or Eight Thousand that conformed did confederate beforehand to conform How could they do it who declared Assent and Consent to every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book which they never saw unless they confederated at a venture to do whatever was imposed And if Seven Thousand could agree without confederating why not Two Thousand I could not then have my Post Letters pass without Interception And it 's a wonder that no Letter of this Confederacy was taken And I 'le tell not you but those that believe me how far we were from it When we were all cast out and some new motion was made for our service one weak man moved here that we might draw up a consenting Judgment to how much we could yield that we might not differ I answered that it was not our business to make a Faction or to strengthen a Party nor were we all of one judgment about every Ceremony and therefore no man must go against his judgment for a Combination with the rest If they would abate but so much as any one mans Conscience would be satisfied in that one man must serve the Church accordingly And if any were taken in the rest would rejoyce This Answer silenced that motion and I never heard any move it more And I am fully assured there was never such a Combination But with this exception How far any thought the Covenant bound them against our Prelacy I cannot tell Those that I convers'd with said it bound them to no more than they were bound to before But I confess we did all confederate in our Baptism against willful sin And I know of no other Confederacies but these which indeed was enough to make all men forbear what they judged to be sinful § 19. You add But yet it is not fair to over-reckon knowingly and in ordinary course Two Hundred in the sum as Mr. Baxter and others do p. 155 210. thereby to swell the account to the greater odium by