subversion they are no better than Statues and Images of Authority page 13. 38. A Prince is endued with a Power to Conduct Religion and that must be subject to his Dominion as well as other things Ibid. p. 27. 39. If Princes should forgoe their Soveraignty over men's Consciences in matters of Religion they leave themselves less power than is absolutely necessary Ibid. 40. The Supream Government of every Common-wealth where ever it is lodged must of necessity be universal absolute and uncontrollable in all affairs whatsoever that concern the Interests of Mankind and the ends of Government Ibid. 41. He in whom the Supream Power resides having Authority to assign to every Subject his proper Function and amongst others those of the Priesthood the exercise whereof as he has power to transfer upon others so he may if he please reserve it to himself Ibid. pag. 32. Quaere Quaere Whether this be not a learned exposition of Mat. 28.19 And whether there were any Kings in that Commission 42. The Government of Religion was vested in Princes by an antecedent Right to Christ Ibid. pag. 34. 43. Men may think of things according to their own perswasions and assert the freedom of their Judgments against all the powers of the Earth This is the Prerogative of the mind of Man within its own Dominions its Kingdom is intellectual whilst Conscience acts within its proper sphere the Civil Power is so far from doing it violence that it never can Ibid. p. 89. 44. Mankind hath the same natural right to liberty of Conscience in matters of religious Worship as in Affairs of Justice and Honesty that is to say a liberty of judgment but not of practice Ibid. p. 92. 45. In Cases and Disputes of publick Concernment private men are not properly sui juris they have no power over their own actions they are not to be directed by their own judgments or determined by their own wills but by the commands and determinations of the publick Conscience and if there be any sin in the Command he that imposed it shall answer for it and not I whose duty it is to obey Ibid. p. 308. Quaere Quaere Whether according to this Position a Man or his Horse be the happiest Creature 46. The Commands of Authority will warrant my Obedience my Obedience will hallow or at least excuse my Actions and so secure me from sin if not from errour Ibid. 47. In all doubtful and disputable cases it 's better to err with Authority than to be in the right against it Ibidem Quaere Quaere Whether this be not an excellent Exposition upon Acts 5.29 we ought to obey God rather than man 48. God hath appointed Magistrates to be his Trustees and Officials to act and determine in moral Vertues and pious Devotions according to all Accidents and Emergencies of Affairs to assign new particulars of the Divine Law to declare new bounds of right and wrong which the Law of God neither doth nor can Limit Ibid. p. 80. Quere Whether this be not proved out of Deut. 17.17 18 19 20. Neither shall he multiply Wives to himself that his Heart turn not away Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself Silver or Gold And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priest the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall Read therein all the Days of his Life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them That his Heart be not lifted up above his Brethren and that he turn not aside there from to the right Hand or the Left 49. Moral Virtues being the most Material and usefull part of all Religion is also the utmost end of all its Duties Ibid. p. 69. 50. All Religion must of necessity be resolved into Enthusiasm or Morality the former is meer Imposture and therefore all that is true must be Reduced to the latter Ibid. p. 76. 51. It 's absolutely necessary to the Peace and Happiness of Kingdoms that there be set up a more severe Government over mens Consciences and Religious Perswasions then over their Vices and Immoralities Preface to the Ecclesiastical Policy p. 53. 52. Princes may with less Hazard give Liberty to Mens Vices and Debaucheries then their Consciences Ibid. p. 55. 53. If Princes will be Resolute they may make the most stubborn Conscience bend to their Resolutions Parker p. 271. 54. Princes must be sure to bind on at first their Ecclesiastical Laws with the straitest Knot and after ward force them in by the severity of their Execution Ibid. p. 121. 55. It 's so easy for men to Deserve being punished for their Consciences that there is no Nation in the World in which were Government rightly understood and duly Managed mistakes and abuses of Religion would not supply the Gallies with vastly greater Numbers then villany Ibid. 223. 66. There is not any sort of People so inclinable to Seditious Practices as the Trading part of a Nation Ibid. p. 49. 57. Of all Villains the well meaning Zealot is the most Dangerous Ibid. p. 154. 58. Princes cannot pluck a pin out of the Church but immediately the State shakes and totters Ibid. p. 166. 59. No Rites nor Ceremonies can be esteemed unlawful in the worship of God unless they tend to Debauch men either in their Practices or their Conceptions of the Deity Ibid. p. 82. 60. 'T is no part of the Princes concernment to institute Rules of moral good or evil that is the care and the prerogative of a Superiour Law-Giver Ibid. p. 241. 61. Christ was not only in an hot Fict of Zeal but in a seeming Fury and Transport of passion Preface p. 17. 62. I do profess to all the World that the Transforming of Indifferent Opinions into necessary Articles of Faith hath been that Insana Laurus or cursed Bay Tree the cause of all our brawling and contention Bishop Bramhall p. 141. 63. When the Civil Magistrate takes upon him to Determine any particular Forms of outward worship it is of no worse consequence then if he should go about to Define the signification of all the words used in the worship of God Parker p. 110. 64. Some have thought they could not be esteemed Loyal if they appeared Devout And therefore to purchase the one Character were willing not only to throw off but openly to reproach the other all they could Mr. Burnets Sermon before the Court of Aldermen Jan. 30. 1680 1. p. 10. 65. It is not to be conceived that amongst them who are so Zealous in the opposing of a Plot against his Majesties Person our holy Religion and the peace and safety of the Nation there can be any that dares mock God and man so audaciously as to be designing any such thing themselves the same time they are accusing others of it To suppose
THE Assenters Sayings PUBLISHED In their own Words For the Information of the PEOPLE Being in Requital of Roger L'Estrange's DISSENTERS SAYINGS By an Indifferent Hand LONDON Printed for Henry Jones 1681. The Epistle to the Reader In this Collection you will find Sayings of two sorts some Good and some Bad the Good are all spoken in favor of Dissenters by men of as much Piety and Learning as any have been in the Church of England since the Reformation Among the Bad ones you will find some Enthusiastick and Blasphemous some in favor of Debauchery c. In making this Collection I have taken care to avoid that which L'Estrange is so frequently guilty of in his pretended Dissenters Sayings viz. taking a line in one place two or three words in another and a word from another and drawing them head and shoulders into one Sentence which thus jumbled together speak quite contrary to the Author's sense and meaning So that to say the truth some of those Sayings are not the Dissenters but L'Estrange's Now here you will find the whole Sentence laid down in the words of the Author without the least alteration I shall conclude with my hearty Prayer to God That Assenter and Dissenter and all other Names of Division and Causes of Animosity may be taken away from among us for ever The Epistle to the Reader THE Design of the ensuing Collection is in some measure to put a Check to those Clamorous Outcries that are daily sent forth against the Dissenters especially in those two famed Pamphlets called The Dissenters Sayings c. And to inform the World That the Dissenters from the Church of England are no such manner of Persons as R. L. Heraclitus Club and the late fam'd William Gould cum multis aliis would represent them to the Common People for and there is nothing more plain than that many sober Assenters to the Church of England are Dissenters from them For you shall find many of these Sayings spoken in favor of the Dissenters by Men of more Brains and Learning and therefore more capable of judging than Roger L'Estrange and though being Guide to the inferiour Clergy as the Worshipful JEST-Ass was pleas'd to stile himself in a Letter to a young Divine at CAMBRIDGE he may with Authority correct them yet certainly he will not do so by those of the superior Clergy Men of far more Holiness and Piety whose Sayings are more to be regarded than the envious and malicious Railings of every prosligate Buffoon Men of far better Estates and larger Revenues whereby they are not so liable to be imposed upon by a debauch'd Companion or an imperious Strumpet a pressing Poverty or an insatiable Revenge a covetous Bookseller or a turbulent Clergy-man the one promising to pay well for his Copy and the other to make larger Contributions among those of his Tribe For it is apparent to all unprejudic'd Persons that the whole design and ultimate end of all his Writings is to promote the Roman Interest supply his Necessity and satiate his Revenge THE Assenters Sayings PUBLISHED In their own WORDS TO Inform the PEOPLE I shall Introduce the Reader with a Choice Collection of the Sayings of a Great Champion of the Assenters wherein he endeavours to prove K. C. the First to be the Third Person in the Trinity 2ly That there is no Salvation to be obtained out of the Church of England 1. THE first Objection is say they What doth your Scripture Proofs make for King Charles I answer With those that hate Him and the Truth the Proofs are of little or no force With such as love Him and the Truth the Proofs will prevail There are darker Proofs than these brought to prove the verity of our Saviour Jesus Christ Eccho to the Voice from Heaven Printed 1652. in the Preface 2. As the Jews will find Objections enough against the Gospel so many will find Objections against this King but let them take heed what they say against Him for Jesus knew that the Scriptures heretofore was dark and therefore he said to them that spake against his own Person then It was forgiven them but saith he Whosoever speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost it shall never be forgiven him Matth. 12.32 That is against his appearance in this King John 14.26 Jer. 9.28 which thing is so clear that all the Mysteries of God are opened by it So that now an Angel swears that time shall be no more for Ignorance to shelter under Rev. 10.7 Ibid. 3. For this King is that Key of David by which all Secrets was locked up Isa 22.22 Rev. 3.7 and by which Key all now is opened for this Day of Light was appointed to be in a King and therefore it is said in Heb. 4.7 he limiteth a day saying in David To day after so long time giving to understand that the Day was not the Apostles Time nor David's time but our time Ibid. 4. Christ signifies Anointed in English and I hope none will deny the King to be the Lords Anointed the Lord our Lord is the Lord Jesus and the King is the Lord 's Anointed or in Greek his Christ for all knows that Christ is a Greek word and one of the most learned Bishops in England upon the hearing of my Book read before him gave this sentence of Approbation upon it That he wished that all Men were of my mind and for the Third Person all the true Ministers in the King's Dominions fifteen years ago gave him the place of the Third Person saying of him to God the Father in their Prayers CHARLES by thy Grace and Providence King of great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the true Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith next under Thee and thy Son supream Head and Governour Ibid. 5. Here they place the King to be next to Jesus Christ making no mention of the Floly Ghost except they meant Him to be the King Ibid. 6. The Holy Ghost is the Chief Governour of the Saints on Earth by the Apostles Testimony for when the Decree is sent to the People of God Acts 15.28 it runs thus It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no other burdens than these And for the Ministers words by the orational sense of them we must understand them thus That by the King they mean the Holy Ghost and third Person or else we must understand thus That they do not acknowledge the Holy Ghost to be the third Person for they spake of God the Father and of God the Son and King Charles to be next and immediate under the Father and the Son Ibid. 7. Here they put out the Holy Ghost from being the third Person except they mean him to be signified to us in the King's Person which may very well be for Christ himself in the first place where he speaks of God's sending the Holy Ghost saith he John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter and
Eccho to the Voice from Heaven pag. 20. 22. Comparing this trouble of mine by Kindred to that of my Saviour's who was in a like manner dealt with by his own Kindred I taking it to be unto me a similitude of my Saviours grave I rested confidently that I should be delivered the third day the first and second day came and I had nothing when I did ask for something but threatning words and by that the third was come I was very faint and as I lay upon my Bed the third day in the morning expecting some sign of deliverance from God there came in at the Window a round Cloud in Colour like unto the Rain Bow and it covered me abiding upon me about a quarter of an hour and when it came upon me I was so revived as if I had eaten all the Delicacies in the World and after a quarter of an hour the Cloud departed out of the window in the same manner as it came in untill it ascended out of my sight Ibid. pag. 33. 23. He answered You said Woe be to them that are not of this House shortly meaning the Queens Chappel I said Friend you err as the Jews did for I did not mean the Chappel but this House of my Body and of my Faith and Judgment Ibid. pag. 43. 24. I said I believe we shall be better acquainted for you are the King's Secretary and I am God's Secretary To Secretary Windebank ibid. pag. 45. 25. William Heyfer reading a Book called the Anatomizing of the Common-Prayer Book which I disputed against but not being able longer to heare him read such Blasphemies again the truth I cried out saying Lord for thy truths sake shew thy displeasure against this wicked Book and as I spake a mighty flash of fire struck against the window put all in a fright and the fellow cast away his Book Ibid. pag. 51. 26. I had the same Spirit to declare the Scripture as did Pen them Ibid. pag. 54. 27. When Green the Recorder asked me what I was suppose I had answered him saying I am the Lord thy God thou shalt have no other God but me I am sure I had not sinned in it Ibid. pag. 67. 28. As I was desiring God to shew me a figure of the Judgment to come and the Glory that is to follow I fell into a Trance that I seemed to be at Maysellan-kadder-ruse where I was brought up and I was with my elder Brother by the River-side it was a glorious Day about Two in the Afternoon but on a sudden my Brother was gone I knew not how nor where and as I lifted up mine eyes again the Sun by degrees became dark so that the Stars appeared about it at which darkness the Sheep did cry and run to seek a shelter in holes of the Rocks as they use to do in those parts when a darkness comes before a storm and all the light of Heaven was taken away Then appeared by a mad-man's house that lived there when I was a Boy a great Bonfire and people making merry about it but as I still waited for some light above I espied a little white Cloud breaking out in the North-east after which the Sky appeared and upon the Sky appeared the King's Arms as it is upon blue in some Churches and it rid upon the Heavens very terrible towards Southwest and as the light appeared abundance of waters sprung out of a dry Hill Northwards Ibid. p. 107 108. 29. The interpretation of it is thus My Brother did signifie Jesus Christ appearing and after absenting himself for a time from his people Ibid. 30. I beheld and saw a peaceable modest young Woman standing on a Plain another of a malicious Countenance and looked enviously upon the modest Woman and she took up a small Pipe as it were of green Glass but I was given to understand it was the sting of a Serpent and she did put it in her mouth and blew it against the modest woman and they came close together and did blow one against the other so furiously that a Wheel of sire in colour like the Rainbow covered them both that I thought she had consumed the modest woman but at last she that took up the sting was consumed to nothing and the modest woman remained peaceably and did shine with beauty far more glorious than before The first woman signifies the Church of England the other the Presbyterians that took up the Sting against the Church of England but at last the Church of England gets the Victory and the other is consumed Ibid. p. 113. 31. On Good Fryday at Night about Ten a Clock as I came from one Mr. John Lee who lived then in Printting-house Lane and I lived in Cob's Yard but as I came by Black-Fryars Church along the Paved Alley it being a light Night over against the Church-yard there I met a man all in black with a black long Cloak like a Presbyterian Minister and we justled close he fell before me as if a black Cloak had been spread upon the ground and vanished away This was that Presbyterian evil Spirit which knew I should discover his wickedness and banish him out of the World as I did in part in 1646. 32. I say there is no true Church of God in all the world but the Church of England and from henceforth there is no Salvation for Souls but in it there is no Elect visibly seen save those of the Church of England and all the Elect must come to Unity with these in Form of Worship Doctrine and Discipline before they can be justified and saved England at this time contains all the Elect of God and those that will not come to this Church must be destroyed Preface to the Eccho to the Voice from Heaven 33. The Reformation of Luther in Germany of the Calvinists Hugonites in France of John Knox in Scotland are but rebellious Rules like the Rods of the Sorcerers in Egypt Voice from Heaven p. 54. 34. The Book of Common Prayer is promised Isa 35 8 9 10. and is called the way of Holiness wherein a wayfaring man though a Fool shall not err therein Ibid. page 30. So much for this Welch Prophet and mighty Gigantick Champion of the Prelacy 35. There sprang up a mighty Bramble on the South-side the Lake Lemane that spread and flourished with such a sudden growth that by the industry of his Agents abroad and partly by its own indefatigable pains and pragmaticalness it quite over-ran the whole Reformation Parker's Defence Policy p. 663. 36. It is absolutely necessary to the Peace and Government of the World that the Supream Magistrate of every Commonwealth should be vested with a Power to govern and conduct the Consciences of Subjects in matters of Religion Dr. Parker p. 10. 37. Unless Princes have power to bind their Subjects to that Religion that they apprehend most advantageous to publick peace and tranquillity and restrain those religious mistakes that tends to its