ranged the World in quest of Adventures though all places were still as full of Giants and Enchantments as they were in the Age of Barbarism and Romances he could not have encounter'd more Difficulties and Exploits then he has engaged upon at home And if he have forced himself upon this trouble with reluctancy and violence to his Humour what havock had he made had his Stars destined him to this Heroick Employment How might he have scowr'd the World as once Theseus did How might his Immortal Pen have clear'd the Age of the pest of Writers as Herc ' les Club did Greece of Thieves and Robbers He might ere this time have ransackt and confuted all the Libraries in Europe and out-done the Goths and Vandals in the Destruction of Books But length of time and continual use have worn this counterfeit pretence so lamentably thin that in stead of shrowding his Vanity it onely serves to betray and discover it and therefore hereafter I would advise him either to write less or to write with less regret and not to imagine the World so silly as to be perswaded that a Man that has such an Antipathy to Writing as he pretends should be so prodigal of his Ink as he is But the truth is Men that have the Itch as they are ashamed to own it so they cannot forbear upon all occasions to discover it But however this Book as he informs us was finished and dictated at a few Idle Hours I beseech you Good Sir will this Mans bashfulness never leave him Will he suffer his youthful shamefacedness to overwhelm him in his old Age Did you ever read a greater strain of Modesty and Humility What a mean Opinion has this Weak Nothing of his Parts and Learning that can think the rash and immature Products of his Idle Hours fit to present if not to oblige the Publick With what want of Confidence does he presume upon the World to expect its acceptance of all his crude and undigested Thoughts And 't is no boldness in him to thrust upon the Publick View every rash and precipitate Conceit that thrusts it self upon his wandring Fancy But this Man does not always consider what he says he has contracted acquaintance with certain Schemes of Speech that stand always ready at his service and he brags and dissembles by rote and this Vaunt of the Vigour and Pregnancy of his Wit is as familiar with him in all his Writings as the excuse of his Reluctancy and he scarce ever Pen'd or Publish't any thing but with mighty speed and mighty remorse But this Information he might well enough have spared his imperfect and unlick't Notions are themselves evidence enough of their own over-hasty Birth and Conception and all he gains by this pedantick Boast is to give in clear proof of his Pride but none at all of his Sufficiency for no Man that is not fool'd with a darling Opinion of his own Abilities could ever have abused himself with so dear and fond a Conceit of his own hasty and fortuitous thoughts And perhaps his bold Attempt upon the Biblia Polyglottae was scarce a stronger Essay of Confidence when he takes upon him to chastise Persons that had given such a publick and unparallel'd proof of a thorough Insight into that kind of Learning with a brisk Confession of his own superficial Skill and Knowledge Tell me a more becoming Instance of Modesty then for a smattering Sciolist to censure and provoke even Rabbies of the greatest fame and deepest skill And therefore you have no reason hereafter to wonder at such fulsom Intimations of self-conceitedness especially if you consider that when Confidence grows old it is changed into something more Monstrous and the Serpent becomes a Dragon § 2. But to leave him to his own darling Self and proceed to his Book where you shall find my Account of their way of Preaching to be the first Object of his Indignation Upon this they principally value themselves and for this he is desirous they should be principally maligned by others though it must needs be a pitiful low and creeping Envy that fastens upon an Object so mean and despicable And for my own part I could name some Popular Oratours that are as often as the most eloquent Clack of the Party surrounded with crowding and numerous Congregations the dexterity of whose Talk would sooner tempt my Envy then their loose and ranging Preachments the main knackishness whereof as far as I could ever observe in their printed Sermons consists in their surprising Extravagance and Impertinency A thousand Instances of this nature might be produced out of a Treatise publish't by I. O. concerning the Saints distinct Communion with the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost i. e. as he accurately explains himself Distinctly with the Father distinctly with the Son and distinctly with the Holy Ghost though by the way this doubty Explication can do no great service towards the unfolding of this great Mystery for to enjoy Communion distinctly with each Person of the blessed Trinity is not much more intelligible then to enjoy distinct Communion with them and by reason of its Resemblance to it calls to my mind a Direction prescribed elsewhere by the same Author for carrying on the Work of Watching viz. To be always awake it being a certain and undoubted Truth That no Man can watch whilst he is asleep But little absurdities start up so thick in my way that they divert me from my main quest and therefore let me onely desire you to consult the forementioned Treatise and then tell me whether some of them have not acquired a notable knack at spoiling the Scriptures and fooling with the Divine Oracles And what else can be expected from the design and nature of the Discourse it self that endeavours to make out such a nice and Metaphysical Devotion But here his Zeal burns and kindles and vents its self in an unusual heat and vehemence of Declamation though all the Noise of three or four Pages amounts to no more then barely to tell the Reader that I am not able to prove the Charge and to Challenge me and all my Associates to make it good before any equal competent and impartial Tribunal under Heaven But the passage he inveighs against is transposed out of the second Chapter of my Book and therefore shall in its proper place be justified to purpose for there you shall meet with all the same stuff again according to his method though as himself professes contrary to his design in haste oftentimes speaking the same things over and over But in the mean while to give some check to this boldness I accept his Challenge and defie him to a defence of the printed Sermons of I. O. which if he dares undertake I will engage to give in such an Evidence against them as shall infinitely make out and exceed the particulars of my Charge And though he think not himself obliged to justifie
own Conclusion for having once dropt a rash Challenge I am now in honour bound to keep up the humor and to let them know that I am so far from abating of my Courage that I fear not to heighten the defiance so that you have my free leave to publish this Discourse if you will in Latin Greek and Hebrew and to proclaim to all Nations Kindreds and Languages that What I have written I have written and justified THE END SIR YOU have been pleased to interess your self so obligingly in my concerns that though I have been thinking of it near half a year I could never tell in what terms to give you thanks for the excess of your civility to me I was forced to be silent because I knew not what to say And I think you had not now heard of me were it not for the vexation I have conceived at the trouble you have drawn upon your self by your kindness to him that cannot yet deserve the title of your Friend Not that I think it will cost you much pains to blow away the trivial exceptions which a rash Head hath taken at what you said about the Friendly Debate but you are like to consume so many pretious hours in raking into that indigested heap of stuff which he hath hudled together against your own Book that I ought not to presume you have any spare moments to throw away in the Vindication of mine Your good nature indeed I know will be apt to prompt you not to leave it without some defence and in your hands it will be safer then in my own Yet pardon me I beseech you if I be not wholly an idle spectator in the contest and let not your zeal to serve me so exceed all bounds as not to leave room for me to appear with an offer of that help of which you have no need The most of his Declamation every body sees is spent against the manner and way of my Writing which he would have his easie Disciples believe notwithstanding all that hath been said is peculiarly accommodated to render the sentiments and expressions of our Adversaries ridiculous and expose their persons to contempt and scorn Insomuch that in points of Faith Opinion and Iudgment this way of dealing hath been hitherto esteemed fitter for the stage then a serious disquisition after Truth or confutation of Errour Thus this high and mighty Dictator is pleased to pass his censure and he seems to pronounce it standing on his tiptoes imagining he hath spoken bravely and blasted the credit of all Dialogues for ever But when his head is a little cooler so that he can distinguish between the results of a sound judgment and the flashes of a distempered fancy I perswade my self he will be ready to eat his words and wish they had never been spoken especially if he consider these things following First From whence it is that he dates the time in which to the day of his Writing this way hath been in so low esteem I doubt he will find it is but a little while ago no longer then since the Printing of the Friendly Debate Before that the most excellent persons have chosen this way as exceeding fit and accommodate if not the aptest of all other both to teach the weightiest Truths and to baffle popular Errors Minutius Felix for instance a famous Advocate thought good to plead the most sacred cause on earth in a Dialogue between two Disputants a Christian and an Heathen Which that great Lawyer and Antiquary Franciscus Baldvinus calls Antiquum cruditumque scribendi morem an ancient and learned manner of writing For in this I observe Tully himself handled a great and grave Argument Rem maâ—nam complexus sum gravem as he speaks viz. that concerning a Common-wealth and tells us withal that a great many of the Books were joculatoria disputaâ—io a pleasant and jesting disputation as his words are in one of his Letters to Atticus And so were Erasmus his Colloquies in the beginning of the Reformation which were received notwithstanding by the wisest and best men with great applause read in the Schools with much greediness and commended for this among other things That by an admirable dexterity and most sweet manner of speaking they delivered to youth the precepts of Piety and good manners Since which time several matters of no small moment have been handled in this way by the approbation of the highest persons Mr. Alexander Cook I remember wrote a Dialogue between a Protestant and a Papist to prove there was a woman Pope which was entertained even by strangers with so much respect that it was translated into the French Language by I. de la Montagne And he hath heard I suppose of one before that called Deus Rex God and the King between Philalethes and Theodidactus wherein is proved that the King justly challenges whatsoever is required by the Oath of Allegiance Is this must we think no point of Faith Opinion or Iudgment Or was his Majesty mistaken in recommending to all his Subjects the perusal of this Book which handled the matter in such sort according to this Rabbi as made it fit only for the Theatre So the Oracle hath in effect pronounced and we must all lay aside our doubts and acquiesce in its word Kings themselves must not scruple submission to so inspired a Supremacy Now they hear the voice of this more Sovereign Judge they ought to revoke their own decrees and teach their people Obedience according to his sentence The only comfort is that he may contradict himself and so give us leave to decline his Authority And truly I have some hope to convince him of his Errour though he should loftily overlook all this as unworthy his notice if he will but vouchsafe to stoop so low as to cast his eye upon what he hath writ himself For I find that he who taxes others so boldly for not clearly stating the question in hand is doubtful and staggering in this easie business After he hath told us that Dialogues are peculiarly accommodated to the ends mentioned p. 48. and that they are absolutely most accommodated of all sorts of writing to such a design p. 50. He sinks extreamly in his confidence and only tells us the advantages mentioned are somewhat peculiar unto Dialogues p. 61. His heart at last began to fail him when he had a little evapourated his ungovernable heat and I have great cause to think it check'd him often in the very midst of it and bad him not be so presumptuous For Good man he dare not stand to this neither but acknowledges unawares before he hath done that there is no peculiarity at all in this way of writing to make things or persons ridiculous For first he is forced to acknowledge that it may be used to very serious purposes as it was by Tully and Plato who imployed this method as he confesses p. 47. to make their designs
of instruction more easie and perspicuous And whatsoever he is pleased to say falsly and scornfully concerning my boasting of the skilful contrivance of my Dialogues Ib. This is all that I alledged as my reason for that way of writing Which he is so far from disapproving when he is in a good humour that he cites Bishop Bilsons Dialogue in answer to the Jesuites Apology and Defence with due respect p. 174. But when he hath done this then secondly he cannot deny that Orations and Declamations that is his own way of writing are capable to be imployed to the contrary purposes which he makes peculiar to Dialogues as well as any other way of speaking or writing whatsoever Cato for instance was made the peoples sport no less by Cicero's Oration than Socrates by Aristophane's Dialogue so he calls his Comedy For he represented he acknowledges the opinions of that Sect to which Cato was addicted in such a fashion That he put the whole Assembly into a fit of Laughter p. 51. And he might have known and remembred if he be such a Scholar as he makes a show of by pouring out so much Greek and Latin that the best Masters of Rhetorick have given precepts about ways of facetious speaking and moving laughter in the making of Orations Cicero himself hath treated at large of this Argument in his second Book de Oratore and touches it again in his Orator ad Brutum And whosoever he was that wrote the Books ad Herennium he shows Lib. 1. how to refresh the Judge when he is weary of hearing a long Speech by jests and pleasant reflections So doth Quintilian likewise who treating of the way to move affections spends a whole Chapter and one of the longest in all the twelve Books in a discourse concerning Laughter the exciting of which he acknowledges may be useful and to good purpose Now what plainer instance can we have than this of the childish forwardness negligence or ill nature of this haughty Writer that after so peremptory a censure as that before-mentioned he should himself grant that serious things may be advantageously delilivered in my way of writing and ridiculous things in his own He seems to me to have a tang of the spirit of those Divines whom Martin Dorpius described above 150 years ago and forbad to meddle with that Dialogue which hath furnished this Writer with some swaggering language p. 13.46 who in this angry envious and impatient humour carp and bawl at every thing indifferently which is not in their way of learning Siquidem stomachabundi oblatratores facere Pergant etiamdum qd nunquam non factitant Clamoribus ampullosis infremere Venena livoris effunditare sui Et obloqui ogganire dentibus omnia Arrodere carnivoracibus sicut canes Solent quibuslibet allatrare sibi obviis Which a Friend of yours and mine hath thus Englished And let the cholerick testy Sirs bawl on Peevish and moody fret chafe their fill They act in all this but their nature still The secret poison in their entrails pent By full-mouth'd clamours seeks it self a vent Nothing from their envenom'd tooth is free But like to village-currs they snarl at all they see If he would have done like a man he should not have stood quarrelling with the way but plainly shewn that their opinions or sayings were falsly represented by me And if he had withal done this in the same form of writing that I used it had in my poor judgment been more for his reputation and he might have found a great example for it Gregory Nazianzen I mean who observing the Books of Apollinarius a person of great wit and learning his New Psalters though jarring with that of David his Elegant Poems on divers subjects take so much with the people that they were esteem'd as if they had been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Third Testament thought of a way how he might disenchant those poor souls and instil some better principles into their minds And what course did he pitch upon To declaim as our new Doctor doth against this way of dealing to say that Poetry was always imployed to cheat and gull the easie multitude peculiarly fitted to charm and bewitch their affection without nay against all reason No such matter He knew very well that this was an ancient way of instructing the World that Laws were sometime writ though not in Ryme yet in Measure and as St. Hierome his Scholar observes the most ancient Book as it is esteemed of all the Scripture is for the greatest part composed in the same manner That great Divine therefore resolved to encounter him with his own Weapon and tells Cledonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We will compose Psalms too we will write many Books and make Verses as well as Apollinarius And so he did some in his Old Age when he might seem to be most unfit for such inventions But this was the occasion as Elias Cretensis notes of his writing such a volume of Poems which still remain and were then in so great esteem that they made those of Apollinarius be quite forgotten Now what if Apollinarius had decried the Verses of this Father because they were not all Heroicks or all Iambicks or such as he most fancied Nay what if he had taken occasion to reproach those Composures because he used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Stile both of Tragedies and Comedies as Gregorius the Presbyter tells he did that he might represent divine things in all shapes and fashions to the Church of Christ would he not have been thought a ridiculous Caviller and justly passed for a pitiful Coward who when he durst not assail the Body of his Adversary fell a fighting with his Shadow It is no less ridiculous in this Innovator to reproach this ancient and profitable way of writing which I have used as if it were fit only or principally for abuse sport or laughter Let me tell him He that asserts this forgets that he condemns in effect the Holy Scripture it self For the Song of Songs as a learned Person of our own long ago expressed it is a kind of Divine Pastoral or Marriage-Play consisting of divers Acts and Scenes or a sacred Dialogue with many interlocutory passages First the Bride comes in and saith LET HIM KISS ME WITH THE KISSES OF HIS MOUTH Then the Bridegroom I HAVE COMPARED THEE O MY LOVE TO A TROOP OF HORSES c. After which he withdraws himself and sits at his repast v. 12. leaving the Bride with her companions as it were alone upon the Stage who thus speak to her WE WILL MAKE THEE BORDERS OF GOLD AND STUDS OF SILVER v. 11. Nor is this any novel Conceit of his but I can justifie it out of the Father before named who perswading Virgins of both Sexes to be carried with the whole force of their Affections unto God and to think that only fair and amiable which is Eternal So saith he
have scared and discouraged all Readers from venturing upon its perusal For this man never stands guilty of single Errors every Period he dictates is pregnant with Absurdities He defiles every truth he handles and though it be not in his Power to make it false yet he will be sure to manage it in such an awkerd and uncouth way as shall make it appear absurd and ridiculous But I have studiously over-lookt his little Indecencies and have been careful not to nauseate the Reader with too tedious a Pursuit of his meer Impertinencies and though I have not altogether spared to expose the Triflingness of his Cavils yet I have not so severely tied my self to their Examination as not to take frequent Occasion to cast in some more useful Discourses then the matter of such starved Pretences would afford I understand by the Information of my Friends and Acquaintance that this Rejoinder was sooner expected but to spare excuses the plain and undisguised Truth is it is finisht excepting only some little disappointment of the Press as soon as it was design'd and design'd I think as soon as it was seasonable And methinks once a year supposing a man has leisure is often enough if People will be reasonable to find publick Talk but if be has not it is too often for one that is willing to enjoy the Innocent Comforts as well as to endure the Common Drudgeries of humane life However I am not able as my Adversary is to write Books at Idle Hours and Spare Minutes and though I were I have them not And had I as many Talents of Dispatch as he thinks himself Master of I should think it my wisdom if not my Duty that I may borrow a Phrase of J. O. to Napkin them for some Season For I have not observed any thing that has so much spoil'd and debauch't the Stile of our English Writers as this hasty and preposterous way of writing and had I not exceeded the number of my Pages and should I not involve some Authors that deserve as much Admiration for writing well on the sudden as most do Correction for writing ill I should be tempted to digress into Satyrical Remarks upon this Vanity because from that alone have issued those prodigious Swarms of dull Books of Fanatick and bombast Divinity Beside all which I might represent under what mighty disadvantages and distractions this discourse was written but that smells somewhat of my Adversaries bragging Humour and therefore I had rather confess the down-right Troth that though I believe I could have dispatched it somewhat sooner yet I was easily inclined to allow my self as large a Compass of time for its Publication as I thought I could reasonably Excuse partly because I was not much enamour'd either of the Glory or the Pleasure of my Undertaking and took all Occasions to truant from such an Irksom Task partly because I stand in no little awe of my Adversary for though I have given him Rebuke enough to satisfie any modest man yet one may as soon put a Statue of Brass out of Countenance as convince or silence People of some Complexions And some men have the Face to bragg and insult most where they are most foil'd and to erect their Trophies where their Misadventures are most Remarkable so that nothing more inclines me to suspect this mans Readiness to Reply then the notorious badness of his Cause and shamefulness of his Baffle But if he should be so ill-advised what will become of me for he is gifted with such a fluent Impertinency that nothing can ever stop the Career of his Pen but the want of Ink and Paper and Confidence in the World And I doubt not but he is able to pour forth more pages of empty words in six days than I can hope to compose of coherent Sense in so many weeks Beside that he has the Advantage both of practice and inclination wrangling is the humour and genius of the man and he has been all his days up to the Elbows in Controversial Adventures and as much Reluctancy as he counterfeits to this Heroick Trade it had beâ—n as easie to cure the Knight of the Mâ—ncha of his Errantry as 't is him of his scribling folly and he cannot encounter counter 〈◊〉 honest man upon the high way but his 〈…〉 transforms him into a 〈…〉 though for no other Reason than that he may have some shew of pretence to excuse or justifie the rudeness and incivility of his pragmatical Assaults and therefore seâ—ing he is so incurably quarrelsom no man can justly blame me if I am so very desirous to rid my hands of him But to conclude if this be the Penance I must undergo for the wantonness of my Pen to answer the impertinent and slender Exceptions of every peevish and disingenuous Caviller Reader I am reformed from my incontinency of scribling and do here heartily bid thee an eternal Farewell CHAP. I. The Contents AN Account of the Fanatique Stubbornness Spiritual Pride an Impregnable humour A description of its Nature and Properties 'T is the refuge of dull People No vice so incident to humane nature as Pride Nor any Pride as that of Religion Men discern not its most obvious symptoms in themselves and why 'T is the greatest hindrance of Reformation Till 't is mortified all reproofs do but exasperate mens Passions A Character of the Fanatique deportment towards all Adversaries Their first reply to all Books is to slander and revile their Authors A description of their way of breeding and propagating stories An account of the baseness of this humour 'T is the most spiteful sort of persecution The malignity of the fanatique Spirit It drives away all good humour and good manners A character of the Fanatique behaviour towards Clergy-men particularly of the Pride and Insolence of professing Gossips A difference made between modest Dissenters and pragmatical Zealots 'T is this proud and petulant humour that is the only Cause of all our Divisions and humility that must be the only Cure This would make them ashamed of their brawling and contentious Humour Their second Reply to all Books is to pervert and falsifie their meaning The horrid Rudeness and Disingenuity of their wilful falsifications A notorious instance of it from that advantage they have taken to abuse my discourse of Trade By which no Trade is endangered but that of Conventicles An account of the design of my discourse upon that subject It s true intent vindicated against the bold and shameless Cavils of our Author The factious Partiality of the N. C. in behalf of their own Writers Our Authors careless way of Writing At his very entrance he defeats the design of his whole performance He confesseth that all who plead for Liberty of Conscience dissemble The most effectual Argument in the world against Toleration is the fundamental Principle of the Non-Conformists How their Language alters when they speak out The mystery of the Independents being for Indulgence A further
the most clamorous of the Herd are not able to give the least tolerable Account of their Zeal and Displeasure but run away with any pitiful and unintelligible Pretences and resolve to make good the Cause at all adventure by heat and noise and passion How do they dread the Superstition of a Symbolical Ceremony though they as little understand the true signification of that word as they do the Orthodox Notion of a Procatarctick Cause And therefore 't is not this hard word that scares them from the Churches Communion but 't is their own conceited and pragmatical Humour that affects and triumphs in Contradiction They think it a gallant thing to make a Noise in the World and to correct the Wisdom and Discretion of Publick Authority and that is a fine thing indeed This extravagant Pride is strangely agreeable to the Original Itch and Vanity of Humane Nature and is more natural to Mankind then the Follies of Lust and Wantonness and there is no Inclination that is so difficult either to govern or to vanquish as this petulancy of spirit And men had need to be very watchful and very serious to get the mastery of so fierce and impetuous an Instinct And therefore if we consider how insensible the People are of the Enticements of this Spiritual Lewdness and how unconcern'd to resist the Importunity of its desires or to subdue the force and vigour of its Inclinations 't is no wonder if so vehement a Passion gain without their own express Allowance so entire and absolute a Power over all their Thoughts and Actions So easie you see it is for well-meaning Men to mistake Humour for Conscience though not out of deliberate Malice yet through Ignorance and Inadvertency And therefore think not Sir that 't is the scope of my Design to scoff at their Faults and upbraid their Follies 't is nothing but a Cordial Love to Vertue and Themselves that put me upon these free open and ingenuous Reprehensions For could we but affect the Minds of Men with a serious sense of their Spiritual Wickednesses and prevail with them to make use of all the ordinary methods of Reason and Christian Prudence for the Mortification of their Original Pride and Sullenness and could we but reduce them to the softness and gentleness of a Christian Temper how ashamed would they be of this brawling and contentious Humour And they would then scarce think it decent to be bold and malapert to their Superiours for any cause of Religion nor would they think it worth the while to sacrifice the indispensable Duties of the Gospel for every scruple and weak Proposition nor disturb the Publick Peace nor affront the Publick Laws for Impertinencies and trifling Opinions They would then live quietly in their own Families and Neighbourhoods and pursue the Interest and Employment of their Callings instead of carrying Tales and sowing Dissentions And the precious time they now wast in quarrelling for Opinions and in arguings and disputings for Trifles and impotent Fancies they would then improve in Offices of Love and Charity among their Neighbours in relieving the Necessitous in reconciling Differences in stifling Slanders and in clearing injured Reputations To conclude so far would Tenderness of Conscience be from pleading Scruple and Nicety in Opposition to the Commands of Publick Authority that it would not be more tender and curious of any Duty then Obedience and Humility The serious sense of its own Weakness its Reverence to the Persons and Authority of Superiours its love of Modesty Meekness Humility Peace and Ingenuity would easily prevail with it to offer up all its private Conceits and uncertain Opinions to so many Advantages of Peace and so many Vertues of Obedience § 10. II. They are not content to run down the Author with Lyes and Calumnies but to make sure work they will slander his Reasonings and raise false witness against his Arguments They will alter and pervert his smartest and most convictive Proofs till they have made them as weak and trifling as their own Pretences With whatsoever plainness and perspicuity he express his Thoughts 't is all one for that they are a People of an undaunted and shameless Brow they will look Truth and Reason out of Countenance they will insult over his Modesty will triumph in their own Insolence and silence all the Reason in the World with Affronts and rude Behaviour They are resolved to joyn Throats to Vote him down and if they do to what purpose is it to Complain or Remonstrate all he shall gain by it is to be laugh't at for the vanity of his Attempt They blush not to commit a publick Rape upon the Understandings of Mankind and will impose upon us with that boisterous Rudeness as if they conspired to force all the World out of their common senses No Author must challenge the liberty of being his own Interpreter the Power of Expounding Assertions is the Priviledge of the Subject and the Prerogative of the Multitude and if they please they can enforce any Writer to accept a sense that contradicts his words And if they do there is neither Remedy nor Appeal their Judgement is final and arbitrary and what they will have they will have No Caution is sufficient to prevent their Clamours their Leaders can easily descry a foul Design under the fairest Disguise and 't is but setting themselves to contrive some dull and malicious Mistakes and obtruding them upon their blind and sturdy Proselytes and then they are confident and impatient against his whole Discourse and the poor Man without any more ado is knockt down with grievous and dead-doing Objections If Mas Iohn do but whisper some ugly and ill-contrived suggestion away 't is carried with Clamour and Tragical Declamation the Noise propagates like Thunder and spreads like Lightning and the whole City is filled with Tumult and Uproar And now after all this 't is no less impossible to perswade them not to rail at my Book then it is to read it No! 't is prophane 't is stuft with wicked and ungodly Opinions it strikes at the whole Power of Godliness and the very Foundations of Religion and then let me affirm and deny say and prove what I can the People must and will persist in their Anger and their Clamour they will refuse to be satisfied affront their own Consciences and turn Recusants to their own Convictions onely that they may not want pretences and opportunities to rail at me Now what shall a Man do in this case You will say there is no Remedy but Patience that is the onely Antidote against the Venome of malicious Tongues and let your own Innocence be your Defence and Apology But alas this Morality is too high a Cordial for my present exigence my Spirits are not so fainting as to stand in need of Philosophy to relieve and support them I am too proud you know to be affected with all the assaults of Noise and Clamour nothing but Reason can ever move or
humble me and what am I concern'd if impertinent People fret and rail or why should it offend me if Clowns want Breeding and Good Manners Would you not think it a fine piece of Pedantry should you see a Philosopher comfort himself with Grave Maximes and Stoical Paradoxes against the Affronts of those Creatures whose Nature it is to grin and snarl However it is in vain to reason with boisterous and ill-bred People and to discourse the Multitude to patience and calm enquiry and when they are resolved to be rude and uncivil better give way to their Folly then contend with their Madness And as they snuff in their Prejudices like wild Asses so 't is but natural they should bray and be impatient at all Opposition § 11. But yet one pleasant Scene of their Ingenuity in this kind I cannot forbear to represent and that is the advantage they have taken from my Discourse of Trade to expose me to Popular Hatred and to raise an uproar among the People for though the plain meaning and design of that Discourse is neither more nor less then to intimate that the Improvement of Trade is not of equal Importance to the Commonwealth with the security of Publick Peace and Setlement And yet upon this innocent Suggestion how have they bestirred themselves to inflame and enrage the Multitude by representing to them as if under pretence of Writing against Liberty of Conscience my main design had been to Write against Liberty of Trade How say they does this young Rabshakeh blaspheme beyond the Precedent and Example of all former Ages He pours forth his Blasphemies both against your Gain and your Godliness too he would raise a Persecution upon your Purses as well as your Consciences and bring Trade and Grace to the stake together What can the Prelatists design by such Discourses as these but to perswade his Majesty to reduce you to Beggery that he may the better reduce you to Obedience To sack the City to burn your Houses nay to blow up the Thames would not bring upon you such a fatal and irreparable desolation as that which the pursuit of this Counsel must inevitably produce Such is the talk of these Crafts-men to expose me to the rage and violence of the Rascality that are always most forward in Zeal and Mutiny and Reformation as if I had Preached expresly against their great Goddess Diana And they have so bestirred themselves to keep up this Out-cry as if they had seriously design'd to draw down their Myrmidons to the Palace-Gates according to the Pattern of Modern Reformers to make Uproars and tear their Throats in crying Great is Diana of the Ephesians And yet after all this Noise there is no Tâ—â—de endanger'd but that of Conventicles by which Craft Demetrius and his Accomplices get their Wealth I have indeed told the People that the Image they worship never fell down from Iupiter but that the Shrine-men abuse them with a Puppet of their own framing and then call it the Image of Diana That 't is not the Cause of God as is pretended but the Interest of a few seditious Men that first raised and still keeps up the Tumults in the Church and that the Doctrines on whose behalf they have made so many Uproars are no Gospel-Truths but their own fond and novel Inventions by all which there is no Trade or Occupation jeoparded but theirs who live by making Schisms and Factions But where their Interest lies at stake all Asia shall be concern'd and their Cause shall be made the Quarrel of Mankind Otherwise how could every young Prentice be taught to rail at me as an Enemy to his Preferment For what can be more apparent then that I have affirmed nothing positively either for or against it but have flatly waved it as an impertinent Enquiry to my present Design Let them discover one Syllable that may tend to perswade its Discouragement and I will be content and I think it is but a just Penance to pay a double Price for all the Commodities I buy But though Malice and Popular Rage will not be tied to the strictness of Reason and Logical Discourse and may be allowed its Priviledge to find any Conclusions in any Premises yet methinks Writers of Books should be more severe and cautious because their Integrity may be exposed if they prevaricate though the Multitude cannot And in this instance of Ingenuity I find my Great Surveyor as faulty as the rudest He of them all and He rails as lavishly at me as if I had Fired the City or the Ships at Chatham But what is it that has moved so much Zeal and Choler Nothing but that I have been so presumptuous as to affirm in Print That the Setlement of Publick Peace in the Nation is a more comfortable thing then the Improvement of Trade Prophane Counsel this and if pursued must prove more fatal to the City of London then the late horrid Conflagration But to be brief and serious The scope and plain design of all that Discourse was to represent That Liberty of Conscience could not be supposed to be conducive to the Improvement of Trade because it was destructive of Peace and Publick Security it being a certain and a granted Truth That Peaceable Times are doubtless the best Seasons of Traffick and that it cannot be expected honest and peaceable Industry should thrive so well in the Dangers and Confusions of a Civil War when no Trade goes forward but that of the Saints Plunder and Sacriledge and therefore men that design to enrich themselves onely by employments of Peace will not seek their Gain in any ways that tend to its dissolution So that if this Supposition be true That Liberty of Conscience is one of the most Fatal Hindrances of the Security of Government and Setlement of Society the Consequence is infallible That for that reason onely it was not to be endured in the Commonwealth though it were supposed otherwise never so much serviceable to the Advancement of Trade And therefore had our Author design'd to reply at all to the purpose he must have made out either the Vanity of my Supposal viz. That Liberty of Conscience naturally tends to the subversion of the Publick Peace or the Absurdity of my Inference That though it were really serviceable to the Interest of Trade yet it was not to be endured if it were as really destructive of the Interests of Government But this Logical Severity concerns not him 't is his custom to balk Premises and fall foul upon Conclusions and therefore without regard either to the truth of my Supposition or my Inference he in his crude way of declaming inveighs against me as an Enemy to Trade and Industry though the next time he writes he may with as great a shew of Reason impeach me of Sorcery and Witchcraft § 12. For is this to Discountenance Trade to say that Liberty of Conscience is but an ill way to improve it Is
as the Capitol and you may sooner remove Mountains then shake their Confidence But is it not prodigious to see people so jocundly satisfied with a Book written with so much looseness as if its Author had either utterly forgot what I had utter'd or cared not what himself was to prove a Book wherein 't is hard to find a passage that is not coarsly false or impertinent and very few that are not apparently both a Book in which you shall meet with nothing singular and remarkable but horrid Untruths and Falsifications § 14. But however a Book he resolved to write without regard to Truth or Falshood and though he were not so lamentably costive as a late Brother of the scribling humour that was so far to seek for an Exordium that he was forced to take his rise at the day of the Moneth and the year of our Lord yet he was much more unhappy to make his entrance with such an awkerd acknowledgement as must for ever defeat and discredit the design of his whole performance by confessing that all his Pleas how solemn and serious soever he may appear are but dissembled and hypocritical Pretences When he tells us that 't is none of the least disadvantages of his Cause that he is enforced to admit a Supposition that those whom he pleads for are indeed really mistaken in their apprehensions But though this may seem a rash and unadvised Concession yet if you examine it you will find it a notable wily and cunning device For unless he will give place to such a Supposition or if he will rigidly contend that what he pleads in the behalf of is absolutely the Truth and that Obedience thereunto is the direct Will and Command of God there remains no proper Field for the Debate about Indulgence to be managed in For things acknowledged to be such are not capable of an Indulgence properly so called because the utmost Liberty that is necessary unto them is their right and due in strict Iustice and Law And yet the whole scope of his Apology and the onely Fundamental Principle upon which he builds is that they are obliged to do what they do out of Obedience to the Will and Command of God and by consequence the things they contend for are not capable of any Indulgence but are matters of indispensable duty and Divine right so that were the Government of Church-Affairs at their disposal they must establish the things that they desire to be indulged in as duties of strict Iustice and Law and restrain all other different forms and practices out of regard to the Divine Command and then to tolerate ours or any other way of Worship distinct from their own would be to permit men to live in open defiance to the direct Will and Command of God that has precisely injoyned a different Form of Worship So that it seems all pretences for Liberty of Conscience are but artificial Disguises for the advantage of farther Designs and when they gain it then the Mask falls off and the Scene is shifted and Petitions for Indulgence immediately swell up into Demands of Reformation So unfortunate is this Man in his whole performance that by all the Principles he has made use of to plead for Indulgence he is obliged to plead against it And there is not a more effectual Argument against Toleration of different Forms of Worship then their Fundamental Conceit that nothing ought to be practised or establish't in the Worship of God but what is precisely warranted and authorized in the Word of God For this restrains and disavows all Forms but one and ties all the Christian World to a nice and exact Conformity to that compleat and adequate Rule of Worship But suppose he were to speak to the Nature of the things themselves and not to the Apprehensions of them with whom he has to do Then farewel all soft and gentle Language and you shall hear nothing but Thundrings against Superstition Will-worship Episcopal Tyranny Popish Corruptions Rags of the Whore and the Dregs of the Romish Beast Then what is Prelacy but a meer Antichristian Encroachment upon the Inheritance of Christ And he that thinks Babylon is confined to Rome and its open Idolatry knows nothing of Babylon nor of the New Jerusalem the depth of a subtle mystery does not lie in gross visible folly it has been insinuating it self into all the Nations for 1600 years and to most of them is now become as the marrow in their bones before it be wholly shaken out these Heavens must be dissolved and the Earth shaken i. e. as he expounds both himself and the Text the setled and establish't Government of the West must be subverted Their Tall Trees i. e. Kings and Princes hewed down and set a howling and the residue of them transplanted from one end of the Earth to the other Or as the same Author expresses himself upon another occasion The Heavens and the Earth of the Nations must be shaken because in their present Constitution they are directly framed to the Interest of Antichrist which by notable advantages at their first moulding and continued insinuations ever since hath so rivetted it self into the very Fundamentals of them that no digging or mining with an Earthquake will cast up the Foundation-stones thereof And therefore the Lord Iesus having promised the service of the Nations to his Church will so far open their whole frame to the roots as to pluck out all the cursed seeds of the Mystery of Iniquity which by the craft of Satan and exigences of State or methods of advancing the pride and power of some Sons of Blood have been sown amongst them And then abundance of Scripture and dark Prophesie is pour'd forth to make good these mild and peaceable Doctrines It is the great day of the wrath of the Lamb. The Land shall be soked with blood and the dust made fat with fatness for it is the day of the Lords vengeance and the year of recompence for the Controversie of Zion All the Kings of the earth have given their power to Antichrist endeavouring to the utmost to keep the Kingdom of Christ out of the World What I pray has been their main business for 700 years and upward even almost ever since the Man of Sin was enthroned How have they earned the Titles Eldest Son of the Church The Catholick and most Christian King Defender of the Faith Hath it not been by the blood of the Saints And now will not the Lord avenge his Elect that cry unto him day and night will he not do it speedily Will he not call the Fowls of Heaven to eat the Flesh of Kings and Captains and great Men of the Earth Rev. 19.18 All this must be done to cast down all opposition to the Kingdom of the Lord Christ and to advance it to its Glory and Power That consists mainly of these three things that he there reckons 1. Purity and Beauty of Ordinances and Gospel-worship
spit his Gloom and cast darkness and ambiguity over the design of my Discourse How has he bestirred himself to raise Mists upon my clearest and most perspicuous Expressions And what Clouds of Words has he pour'd forth to involve the Evidence of my Arguments and the plainness of my Method How dexterously does he cull out a single Proposition to oppose to the scope and plain meaning of the coherent Discourse And when he has got the poor naked and defenceless Thing alone how unmercifully does he turn and tease it into a thousand postures and how wantonly does he tire himself with insulting over the feebleness of its supposed Escapes and Subterfuges But to give you some particular Instances of this woful way of trifling In the first place he quarrels my first Paragraph as obscure and ambiguous Why because it gives not any Definition of the Nature of Conscience nor any Account of the Bounds of its Liberty nor determines divers other great and weighty Difficulties relating to the present Enquiry What a monstrous fault is this Not to couch the sense of three hundred Pages in one single Section and what a fatal Misadventure not to decide a perplexed Controversie before 't is fairly proposed Pray Sir by what Rules of Art am I bound to determine the Right of the Cause when I onely undertake to represent the Pleas and Pretences of the different Parties If I have not accurately enough described the Competition between the Liberties of Conscience and the Prerogatives of Princes which is the onely thing I pretended to attempt in that Paragraph let him cavil at that but if I have it seems but an untoward humour to quarrel me for not crowding the Discourse of my whole Book into the compass of the Contents of one Chapter But Men resolved to be peevish are never to seek for Grounds of Contention Of the same nature and to as wise purpose is his Cavil at my first Proposition viz. That 't is absolutely necessary to the Peace and Government of the World that the Supreme Magistrate of every Commonwealth should be vested with a Power to Govern and Conduct the Consciences of Subjects in Affairs of Religion And though I have at large proved this Assertion from that Powerful Influence that Religion has upon the Peace of Kingdoms and the Interests of Government yet as for Proofs he always scorns them as neither pertinent to his purpose nor worthy his Cognizance 'T is below his State to answer Arguments he can bear them down with scorn and confidence 't is the Work of his Generation to establish final Determinations of Controversies and he was born to put an everlasting Period to all Disputes and Scholastick Brawls And therefore having first pour'd forth above two Pages full of positive and rambling talk upon this occasion with what severity does he afterward school me for so crude and unlearned an Assertion For who says he understands what are the Affairs of Religion here intended all or some What are the Consciences of Men what it is to govern and conduct them c. What a strangely nice and delicate Confessor have I that will not allow me the Liberty to use any known and vulgar Word till I have first defined it with solid and Scholastick exactness Methinks 't is somewhat too severe this a Man had better hold his peace than be put to this penance for every word he speaks But the plain truth is I thought simple as I am every Swain that understands but Country English could not be ignorant of the literal meaning of those terms Affairs of Religion Conscience Government c. and therefore I did not dream it was necessary for avoiding ambiguity to guard every common Expression with rigorous and Logical Definitions But yet what if after all this I have distinctly accounted for these things and set restraints upon their signification as far as it might concern the matters of my Enquiry What if I have expresly declared what affairs of Religion they are that are subject to the Government of the Supreme Magistrate viz. not all but some i. e. matters of outward Worship and that are not in themselves apparently or essentially evil What then can be the importance of this mighty Cavil Nothing but this that I am a crude and unskilful Writer because I have not been so happy as to couch the whole state of an intricate Controversie nor to clear off all Difficulties and Objections relating to it in the compass of five Lines And if this be a Miscarrriage yet my Adversary has not stuff't his Words so full with Sense and Notion that he should object it as a defect to any Man for not being able to reduce the sense of an ordinary Volume into one single Proposition other Men have more Cry then Wool as well as my self And yet he is so unmerciful and unreasonable as to expose my Title Page for not expressing my particular Determinations of the whole Matter in Debate and often produces that as a shameful instance of my loose way of stating Controversies But this Man would snarl at the Title of the New Testament because it contains not every particular Story recorded in the four Gospels I am sure he might do it with as just reason as urge the Title of my Book for proof that I have not distinctly enough represented my particular Thoughts and Conceptions of the whole matter under debate Did ever Man burthen the Press with such slender stuff or present the World with such pitiful entertainment And yet he has vast stores of this Ammunition and he never charges upon me with more fierceness then when he shoots these Paper-Pellets § 2. Thus you find him in the same Page ratling my carelesness for calling Conscience sometimes every Mans Opinion sometimes an Imperious Faculty which surely are not the same Though I might with warrant from good Authorities have stiled it a Domestick God a Guardian Angel the Mirrour of the Divinity the Law of the Mind the Practical Understanding the Repository of Moral Principles a Book and a Table with innumerable other Appellations given to it as it bears Analogy and Resemblance to other Beings all which Names may agree to Conscience as vastly as they disagree among themselves and it is a very little proportion of likeness that you will find between a God and a Book and yet Conscience is both But however I discoursed not of this important matter in such fanciful and allusive Expressions and kept my self close to the rigour and propriety of Scholastick Terms and so I might warrantably call it both an Opinion and a Faculty upon the account of its several Acceptations For every Novice that has seen but a Dutch Systeme of Divinity knows that 't is sometime taken for the Faculty of the Practical Understanding sometime for an habitual Recourse to its Practical Principles and sometime for a single Action and Exercise of Conscience from which variety of Apprehension it is not
are pretended to be the onely matters of our present Schisms and Differences and 't is these things onely that I assert to be determinable by Supreme Authority provided they neither encourage Vice nor dishonour God under which Restrictions whatsoever Rites and Usages they may enjoyn can never be concluded unlawful in themselves and if they are so upon any other account that is to be discoursed elsewhere but it concerns not our present Enquiry that onely undertook to account for the Comparison between the matters of Religious Worship and the Duties of Morality in reference to the Power of the Civil Magistrate as consider'd in their own respective Natures I might give you in many more proofs and instances of his abuse of these words but what I have already represented is I hope a sufficient taste of his Ingenuity And yet as gross and shameless as this slander is 't is infinitely out-done by the next viz. That I have given as absolute a Soveraignty to the Civil Magistrate over the Church of God as to the Lord Christ himself And this he endeavours to prove after his way by amassing together all the former Calumnies that I have already washt off but to complete and accomplish the whole design he adds one of his own pure wit and contrivance Is the Authority of Christ the formal Reason making Obedience necessary to his Commands and Precepts So is the Authority of the Magistrate in reference to what he requires Do Men therefore sin if they neglect the Observance of the Commands of Christ in the Worship of God because of his immediate Authority so to command them binding their Consciences So do Men sin if they omit or neglect to do what the Magistrate requires in the Worship of God because of his Authority without any farther respect In the former passages there are at least some sprinklings of my own words but this is meer and abstracted slander and has nor colour nor foundation in my Discourse and therefore I can give it no other Reply than sincerely to profess that were there any thing in my Book that should but seem to ascribe to the Civil Magistrate as immediate a Soveraignty over the Consciences of Men as our blessed Saviour both claims and exercises I my self would be the first Man that should cast a Stone at such bold and ridiculous Assertions And here one would think is enough of Slander and Calumny and yet he has not done with so pleasant an Argument but gives it you all over again in a Proclamation framed out of the supposed Principles and Directions of my Book which being nothing but a meer Repetition of the same Trash that I have already cashier'd I deem it neither needful nor pertinent to return him any other answer than that as 't is not the first Proclamation that this Author has drawn up so I pray God it may be the last § 14. And now Sir tell me what I shall conclude of this Mans Conscience Must I impute such labour'd and affected Mistakes to an excuseable Ignorance and set the most shameless Falsifications upon the score of Inadvertency I know the power of prejudice and passion to seal up the Minds of Men against the evidence of Truth yet such is the evidence of Truth in our present case that no prejudice can be thick enough to withstand or passion blind enough to defeat its efficacy Nothing but an hard Forehead and a lewd Conscience could ever embolden him so rudely to spoil and discompose the apparent aim method of my Discourse and so impudently to abuse and impose upon the World by such groundless and enormous pervertings A multitude of his weaker Cavils and less Miscarriages I am inclined to ascribe to his rash and precipitate Humour for I know he is wont to write or dictate Books as fast as other Men can read them and a wise Man would take more time to weigh the matter of a Discourse than he does to confute it and so may possibly pour out gross and palpable mistakes through haste and inadvertency But those Instances I have represented to you of his way of shuffling and falsifying are so many so labour'd and so unreasonable that they could proceed from no other Fountain but wilful and affected Malice for 't is absolutely impossible that meer Chance and Heedlesness should blunder upon so many Impostures so full of design and contrivance But however you see how by this means not onely the state of the Question but the whole matter of the Enquiry is quite alter'd 't is not now contended whether the Supreme Magistrate of every Commonwealth be vested with an Ecclesiastical Power and Soveraignty over matters of Religion Tush that is granted without demur or dispute and our Author though his Acquaintance are none of the most loyal and peaceable knows no Man that pretends exemption from the Obligation of Humane Laws but onely on this Plea that God by his Law requires them to do otherwise So that in what matters soever the Law of God does not require them to do otherwise there Humane Laws must pass a certain Obligation upon Conscience for if they do not oblige that they oblige nothing Now this is an ample Grant of all that I design'd and pretended to prove in my first Chapter viz. That Magistrates are vested with some Authority over Conscience in matters of Religion So that in this it seems we are fully agreed and our Author after all his heat and talk freely confesses 't is indispensably necessary to the Publick Peace and Tranquillity which you know is the main Consideration that I urged and pursued in behalf of my Opinion But says our Author this is not all for I have so described and discoursed of the Power of the Civil Magistrate over Conscience and Religion as to make it of an absolute Jurisdiction an unlimited extent and an immediate Obligation 't is this he all along represents and upon this that he mainly insists If I am guilty of this Charge I must shift as I can but if I am not what hinders but we may shake hands and be friends And therefore having so fully discover'd the horrid and unconceiveable vanity of the proofs alledged against me to this purpose and so fairly clear'd the innocence and honesty of my Intentions I may I hope hereafter reasonably expect and justly challenge a compleat discharge from all such sinister and idle suspicions Is not this blessed work that I should be forced to write so much to so little purpose not at all to prove the Truth of what I have written but to disprove the Falshood of what I have not written § 15. And now though I am provided with Remarks upon the remaining passages of this Chapter yet I know not to what purpose I should trouble my self or the Reader with them after the Considerations that I have already represented that are I presume competent enough to justifie the innocence of my Design and to shame
and a few idle Men CHAP. VI. The Contents OVr Authors perseverance in Cavil and Calumny His disingenuous way of shifting the proof and pursuit of their own Arguments All their Writers have ever begun and ended with Cartwright and either wrangle themselves into Conformity as he did or run themselves into perfect Enthusiasm and Phanatick Madness Their impertinent way of defending their own Objections when they should prove them Nothing can be charged of being a Part of divine Worship unless it pretends to divine Institution This mans stubbornness and invincible Resolution in Schism A speech to the Non-conformists to encourage them in their separation in the Language and out of the Writings of J. O. Their bold way of abusing the People and the Word of God by laying the same stress upon their own Fancies as upon the Fundamentals of the Gospel Our Authors Plea in their own behalf from the Prescription of one way of Worship in the Word of God the most effectual Argument against Toleration This Plea as managed by this Author is as directly levelled against all other Parties excepting only the Independents as against the Church of England 'T is the only Pretence of all Impostures and 't is serviceable to no other end The silliness and palpable disingenuity of our Authors Quotations out of the Fathers Their Fundamental Principle equally overthrows all manner of Church-setlement By his Principles and Good-will nothing is to be tolerated but Independency The Precedents alledged both out of the Old and New Testament in the former Treatise for the warrantableness of uncommanded Ceremonies cleared and vindicated Our Adversaries way of affrighting the Rabble with hard and sensless words The vanity of attending to these mens Proposals of mutual Condescension A farther Prosecution of my Challenge to the whole Party of Non-conformists to answer Mr. Hooker A notorious and intolerable Instance of our Authors disingenuity in falsifying the design of my Discourse § 1. THus far have I made good my ground against all this mans Talk and Confidence for there and there alone lies all his strength and should now proceed to an Examination of his Censures against the fifth Chapter of my former discourse For against the fourth he only drops his old Calumny viz. that what I have there discoursed against the absolute and uncontroulable Power of the Civil Magistrate as 't is stated in Mr. Hobs's Hypothesis of Government is destructive of my own Pretensions in the foregoing part of my discourse where as he is resolved to bear me down I have made humane Laws the sole and supreme Rule of Religious Worship insomuch that the Magistrate of every Nation hath Power to order and appoint what Religion his Subjects shall profess and observe and thereby binds their Consciences to profess and observe that which is by him so appointed and nothing else are they to observe making it their Duty in Conscience so to do and the highest Crime or sin to do any thing to the contrary and that whatever the precise Truth in these matters be c. The horrour of which bold Calumny I have already I hope competently enough discover'd and detested But 't is the choicest Topick of this mans Logick to falsifie Arguments and represent his own Inferences as his Adversaries Opinions and then load them with loud and lusty Conclusions And then they are Oracles and Demonstrations to the People that understand neither the Truth nor Consequences of things and therefore does he repeat this fundamental Forgery in all Places and upon all Occasions and 't is the only thing that gives strength and colour to all his other Trifles and Impertinencies upon this he at first founds all his Reasonings and into this he at last resolves them insomuch that his whole Book is but one huge Lye 400 Pages long And this Confidence takes so successfully with the believing Disciples that they will at all adventure lay wagers that all those Prodigious Untruths he has obtruded on me are my own positive and direct Assertions But having manfully quit himself in this Performance he baulks the whole discourse of this Chapter as being of no Concern to himself and his dear Brotherhood and so advances to the next where we might trace him through all his former Methods of Truth and Ingenuity but at present we will wave that Province and rather chuse first to discharge our selves of those froward Exceptions wherewith he labours to entangle and perplex the design of my sixth Chapter because the matters there debated are of a more close and immediate Affinity to the nature of those things that fell under our last Consideration and therefore seeing he has been pleased to break the Coherence of my method I conceive it will be a more perspicuous and useful way of proceeding to dispatch them both together especially when what remains to be there examined is either meer impertinence to the drift of my Discourse or relies meerly upon the Principles here already confuted For what he dictates in defence of their darling Principle that nothing ought to be practised in the Worship of God but what is prescribed in the Word of God is either such loose and general Tattle as whether it be true or false it does neither service nor disservice to our present Enquiry Or if there be any thing more close and direct to the Purpose it resolves it self entirely into the Dispute of the last Chapter in that he restrains the Universality of this Maxim to instituted and significant Ceremonies which being exempted upon this score he seems not unwilling to allow the Governours of the Church a Power of determining natural Circumstances for the ends of Order and Decency so that in the last Result of things all this Cluster of Trifles and Impertinencies grows upon the stock of the former Principle and therefore that being cut down root and branch this that depends so entirely upon it must by consequence fall and perish with it For which reason I had once resolved with my self wholly to omit its distinct Examination and only to put them upon the proof of this Principle as 't is here stated by our Author out of the written Word of God But because he here counterfeits more assurance and pretends more Accuracy and to speak in his own stile by the Longsomness of his Discourse and the number of his Propositions seems more elaborate than in all the former Parts of his survey and withal to avoid their Clamour and other mens suspicion of dealing with him as he has dealt with me in wholly baulking the last Chapter of my Discourse that was most pertinent and material to his Pretences I have at last resolved to undergo the Penance of a Reply and thus it follows § 2. In the first place then he flings down the Ball viz. that nothing ought to be establish'd in the Worship of God but what is authorized by some Precept or Example in the Word of God and then tells us If men would lay
Gibellines another Party of professed Enemies to the Church of England But to take down the Confidence of these forward Pretenders and to give a more distinct and satisfactory Account of this Affair you may know that our Reformation consists of two parts Doctrine and Discipline the design of the former was to abolish the corruptions and innovations of the Church of Rome and to retrieve the pure and primitive Christianity and the design of the latter was to abrogate the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome and to annex all Superiority and Preheminence over the Ecclesiastical State to the Imperial Crown in both which attempts the Non-conformists or Puritan-Recusants have absolutely forsaken our Communion 1. As to Discipline The design of those great men that first arose to that great work was to redeem the Christian World from the shameless and exorbitant Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome that had invaded the Thrones of Princes and made their Scepters do homage to St. Peters Keys and enslav'd the Royal Dignity to the Interests and Insolences of a proud Vicar And this was the Schism of the Church of England its defection to its lawful Prince and its first departure from the Church of Rome was nothing but its Revolt to its due Allegiance and at this day its greatest Heresie is the uncatholick Doctrine of Obedience to Sovereign Authority Whereas the great project of the men of the Separation was never to abrogate but only to exchange the Papal Usurpation and to setle that Power and Supremacy of which they stript his Holiness of Rome upon the Presbyterial Consistory The Holy Discipline is but another name for the Papal Power it equally disrobes Princes of their Ecclesiastical Supremacy and entirely setles its Jurisdiction upon the Presbytery and vests them with an Authority to controul their Commands restrain their Civil Power and punish their Persons in that by the Principles of the Holy Discipline Kings must be subject to the Decrees of the Presbytery in all matters of Religion neither small nor great may be exempted from subjection to the Scepter of Iesus Christ by which they mean the same thing that the Papists do by the Keys of St. Peter viz. an Original Power in themselves of exercising a temporal Jurisdiction over the Kings of the Earth under pretence of their Spiritual Sovereignty So that in this part of the work we have not been encountred with more disturbance and opposition from the Jesuites than from the Presbyterians that are as to the Doctrine of Regal Supremacy as arrant Recusants and therefore it as much imports Princes for security of their own Rights and Prerogatives to have an eye to the Factors of Geneva as to the Emissaries of Rome They are both men of bold and fiery spirits and all the late Combustions of Europe have either been procured or occasion'd by the seditious and aspiring attempts of these two daring Sects But the Tumults and disorders of the Jesuites concern not our present Enquiry nor may I enter upon the History of all the Leagues Conspiracies Seditions Spoils Ravages and Insurrections of the Puritan Brethren It has been lately performed by an Elegant Pen to purpose that has thereby done that Right to the Cause of Reformation as to absolve the true Protestant from the Charge of Seditious Doctrines and Practices and to score all the Embroilments of the Kingdoms and Estates of Christendom on the Account of the Calvinists who thrust themselves into all Places and Designs and if any where they were suffer'd to grow into any considerable strength and Interest were upon all occasions drawing in the zealous Rabble into holy Leagues and Confederacies against their Governours And if you will but compare the first practices and proceedings of the Hugonots in the Kingdom of France of the Gheuses in the Belgick Provinces of the Kirk-faction in the Realm of Scotland with the Actings Treasons and Disloyalties of the English Puritans as you will discover a strange agreement in the issues of their principles and proceedings so you will find their disorders to exceed the common mischiefs and exorbitancies of Mankind But I must not pursue particular Stories the History of their Tumults Outrages and Desolations would require a larger Volume than the Book of Martyrs It was these hot and fiery Spirits that in most places spoil'd this gallant Enterprize and by their seditious Zeal and madness drove up the Reformation into down-right Rebellion and were so outragious against the Church of Rome that they had not patience to wait the lazy temper of Authority for the Reformation of Abuses It s Wisdom and Moderation was Carnal Policy and if Governours would not set upon it in regular and peaceable ways at their first alarm then the only Doctrine they thunder'd from the Pulpit was That if Princes refuse to reform Religion themselves 't is lawful for their godly Subjects to do it though by violence and force of Arms. These are the Men that are so forward to thrust themselves into the Reformed Communion and whom we are so resolved to disclaim as shameful Apostates from the Reformed Cause and judge just such Protestants as the Gnosticks were Christians the scandal and dishonour of their Profession and whom the true Sons of the Church were forced to avoid as much if not more than Heathens and Infidels though it were only to secure their own Reputation that their Tumults and Disorders might not be scored upon their Reckoning This is plain matter of Fact though how it will relish with our Author 't is easie to foretel and it is not to be doubted but he may have the confidence to remonstrate to the most credible evidence of History that has the boldness in defiance to so many publick Ordinances and Declarations to deny that the Pretences of Reformation had any concern in our late Confusions But however he would be well-advised not to dare to Apologize for other Men unless he could first clear his own innocence for if a Man shall undertake to plead the Cause of a notorious Offender that stands himself chargeable of the deeper guilt he does not defend but betray and upbraid his Client his very Apology becomes a strong Accusation and all the World will suspect that Mans innocence when they shall see a person so scandalous so forward in his defence He is but an ill Apologist for the peaceableness or Loyalty of any Party that has himself been a famous Trumpeter not to say a great Commander in Rebellion and when our late Thirsty Tyrants had gorged themselves with Royal Blood was the first Chaplain that proffer'd his service to say a long Margarets Grace to the Entertainment § 11. This short account may suffice to let you see that the Nonconformists as to this particular however they may glory in the Name of Protestant are but another sort of Papists that pluckt down one Popery to set up another and justled his Holiness out of the Chair only to seat themselves in it