Plato c. and pructis'd also of late by others besides Mr. Pool against Papists c. R. L. Hang the Church of England I was hastning to the Church of Rome as fast as I could but I broke my Shins by the way the Prince of Orange trig'd me and many more For my part I cannot believe any be such Fools to die at a Stake or any other way for Religion that contrive King James his return No doubt he will bring a French Wheel with him R. F. In troth I think we are all of us too wet to burn But tell me in good earnest Roger Did you ever in the least doubt whether the Earl of Antrim had a Commission from King Charles the First for what he did in the Irish Rebellion Or whether King James had a hand in burning the City c. R. L. Do you think me mad to doubt it No no the worst was he had not countenanced a Massacre in England too and King James had not burnt more Cities than one But what say the Phanaticks of us now R. F. They admire Providence that hath made us at last by our practice to justify them We are now the Dissenters and refuse to come to Common Prayer in the Steeple houses for so we may now call them because we like not a Prayer or two when they could not be excused that liked not one in the Book They say must we escape as we do who refuse to swear Allegiance to their King as no lawful one when they were in Goals for Noncompliance to Ceremonies tho they swore to our King They say what is true Now some of us have thrown up the Doctrine of Non-resistance as well as the new Bastard Church of England Others deny it to be any Work of a King to make Bishops or unmake them or to silence Ministers c. Mr. H. Remember what the Wise man saith There is a time R. L. Stay the Wise man Who do you mean of Malmsbury who had more wit in his little Finger than he that I doubt you mean had in all his Body Solomon is the Fool 's Wise man but the Wise man's Fool. O the depth that is in Leviathan and the best description of Religion in the World An Awe begotten in the minds of Men from Tales publickly told Come what Religion will the old Fox shall never get our Names in his Martyrology Indeed he must excuse us D me Mr. H. I will kick you down stairs if you thus talk before me and d so R. L. I will stop then whilst this fit of Zeal or fanatical Fury is on you For I remember the story of the Quaker That Yea and Nay kickt D me down stairs Mr. H. Will you hear me reason with you R. L. No not I with your long-winded stile like Jovian which we as well as the Phanaticks complain'd of as tedious and contradictory And he said right that said Either you had no Friend or would not use him You could not print Kid and Kings dying Speeches but run none knows where when one complain'd of motions to evil whether the Motus primo primi were evil c. For my part I think if any Pope were infallible it was he that said Quantum nobis profuit haec de Christe fabula If I could believe a Devil and a Hell I should think with King Charles the Second of blessed Memory for Whoredoms Perjuries and Infidelity That Calvin sat at the Devil 's right hand in Hell and Oliver Cromwell at the left R. F. Talk of other things What think you R. of the Doctrine of Resistance Is it so black so unusual as you said When I was an Antimonarchical Man a Whig and then Williamite I thought it not so neither can I now For my part I say of King James as other good Loyal men do I care not if the Devil brought him back so we could get him When you were Old Nol's Fidler and were for deposing Kings did you then and I after talk without Book R. L. Between our selves I will tell you my mind Nothing is more evident than that the old Romans in the best Government in the World depos'd their Kings Emperors c. Romulus the very Founder of Rome and first King was slain in the Senate for his proud Spirit Florus can hardly forbear speaking it out Ob asperius ingenium notwithstanding the Fiction of Julius Proculus his seeing him after his death and that he commanded the People to worship him They all along depos'd banish'd and put to death Tyrannical Princes Tarquinius Superbus as well as Jacobus Superbus after he discover'd his Cruelty by striking off Poppy's heads and other Pranks was forced to flee to Porsenna King of the Etruscans who helpt him to a great Army but in vain Tho not he but Arunta ravisht Lucretia yet the Father must flee for the Son's wickedness So King James went to the French King and all Attempts to bring him back are in vain This is a lively Transcript of that story He that reads Suetonius and other Authors will find Subjects singing Tiberium ad Tyberim A. S. I doubt not but when King James in his last Speech to our Senators said often His Will should take place contrary to the Test and other Laws If he had had his due Julius Cesar with his 24 Wounds in the Senate-house had lookt more lovely than he R. F. We have all sworn to secresy in speaking our minds No one hears us You know Vitellius was with a Spear held up by the Chin when the People flung dirt on him And the Bones of Caius Caligula were melted by the Order of the Senate after his death who said to his Mother disswading him from Injustice Memento mihi omnia in omnes licere No doubt King James could with him have wish'd all the People of England as he of Rome had but one Neck that he might cut it off at a blow His Nurse did not in vain put Blood on her Nipples when she gave him suck He paid dear for his Optimum olere occisum hostem melius sivem Sueton. Mr. H. O Gentlemen talk you as Non-resisters R. L. When we did we only talkt as such as you Preachers have your Priestcraft so some Statesmen theirs Mr. H. Whatever King James hath done he hath made many fair Promises to us Protestants on his Return R. L. Protestants Quodlibetarians we ever were and will be A. S. Yes promiseth just perhaps as that Roman Catholick that in a Storm promised the Virgin Mary a Candle as big as a Mast but after would give one of ten to the pound It is a French Proverb After a storm the Saint is forgotten These are my fears sometimes Claudius Cesar would condemn a Man and after send for him and play at Chess with him and then hang him the next day Mr. H. If after the Storm the Saint is forgotten then let them who are no Saints but the greatest haters maligners and persecutors of
K. James owed his Crown to Coleman's Halter POSTSCRIPT WHereas I am in a scandalous Libel suspected to be the Author of the Declaration of the Congregational Divines in and about the City of London against Antinomianism and the preaching of ignorant scandalous Persons I do declare 1. That when I read this Charge against me I had not then read the Declaration 2. This Charge made me soon to do it and I find it true what the Bishop of Worcester and all Orthodox Men of what Perswasion soever say it is a sound and valuable Book God render a thousand sold into their Bosoms who oblig'd the World with so excellent a Confession I say with Mr. Lobb and others almost all the censur'd Errors there are in Dr. Crisp's Book a much worse Book than the Racovian Catechism I cannot but think as well of Sosinus as of Crisp only where it is here said Believers are not to mouvn for Sin confess or beg pardon I acknowledg Dr. Crisp tho he write Blasphemously and Atheistically against mourning for Sin yet not a word against Confession or begging Pardon and the reason may easily be conjectur'd which I gave in my three contending Brethren He could not read Common-prayer without Confession or begging Pardon This old nasty Ceremony monger never intended to turn out for this or to leave the good sat Parsonage at Brinksworth It is however well known some of his Followers are against confession of Sins or begging Pardon who are no Common prayer men 3. Since this Censure of me the Congregational Diviues I thank them have reprinted the Book wherein they declare That all except two or three men to whom they thought it not fit to communicate the matter approv'd of it Was not the Draper one Dr. Chauncy himself to his immortal honour was one of the Approvers this is certified by good Mr. Griffith Mr. Lobb Mr. Mead Mr. Taylor Mr. Nisbet 4. It is believed by some Antinomians as well as others that this Libeller whose Name nor Habitation can I know did not or could not believe I was the Author For 1. Mr. Lobb Mr. Nisbet and others to all Persons declar'd it to be theirs Could not the Slanderer have gone sent or written to them to know whether they disown'd it 2. I would have been not only a wicked Villain but a most impolitick one too who in my Apology for Congregational Divines against the Charge of Crispianism or Antinomianism The countenancing the preaching of incompetent Tradesmen wrote my self a Presbyterian if after all I should write my self an Independent and that in the name of the whole Body of such Ministers here when I might so easily be confuted But see the disingenuity of this skulking Scribler to render me odious he says I wrote against the Reverend Mr. Baxter When many of this Tribe caressed me about that Book the greatest disparagement to it and say which God forbid ever I should They believe he is not in Heaven And I declare undesir'd by any Man I was once thoughtful to recal the Book and give this as the only reason inducing me to it the wicked use these Men made of it Now to blacken me Mr. Baxter shall be a worthy pious Divine which I never denied but these Men do I never said Thare was never any Cause of God going in Church or State but Mr. Baxter would oppose it Nor there was no Sin but he had semething to say for it c. This is ten thousand times worse than for me to cite Mr. Crandon That he would if desir'd prove that not one Flower in his Aphorisms of Justification was his own but all stoln out of Popish Authors Mr. Bagshaw indeed says in his Epistle to him from his Poison You grant I am upright in the main I cannot grant so of you This was never any Language of mine both may be in Heaven for ought I know which way Mr. Baxter might get there I can imagine But for George Fox Muggleton and Dr. Crisp three unlearned Impostors I cannot so imagine if I could I would never question Arius Socinus Bellarmine or Pope Innocent XIV the Protestant Pope I have heard Mr. Baxter one day asking Mr. T.R. what Books he read He answer'd I read this day that an old Woman told St. Austin that if he had begotten as many Children as he had written Books he had done excellent service to the Commonwealth which made the old Gentleman grumble to purpose I am glad for Mr. Gouge that he is one of the Approvers of this Congregational Declaration and as I hear hath given away several of the Books This I have to say in behalf of the London Baxterians that they like Men and Christians rejoice that their Congregational Brethren have at last quitted themselves like Men Would they had done it sooner Now whatever foul Language this Libeller gives me returns on these Divines whose excellent profound Book he makes contemptible as if done by a man of a distemper'd Brain Are the now known Authors such Can no ingenious Discourse come out without a Name but Mr. Trepidantium Malleus as he calls me must be suspected presently to be the Author I never thought the Draper to be the Accuser I never believ'd he could print so much Grammar or Sense tho we are told We feel not what he hath felt No we are honester Men. Heaven forbid we should for it would put a modest Man to a blush to relate Whether the unworthy Branch of Dr. Crisp were the Author I doubt No Lie is too great for him to print that said Mr. Baxter died a Crispian Are the Pinners-Hall Lectures theirs now Was my Apology for them a Mistake Do not these now justify me as I once apologized for them God make him go weeping to his Grave for printing his Father's Book which will be the damnation of thousands of Souls I am now clear'd or else no man ever was in any Cause whatever tho I confess I much doubt whether Mr. T. who dispos'd of so many of that vile Book Honey out of the Rock Christ subscrib'd bona fide My Defamer censures the Authors for going to the Philistins Forge because they gravely cited Orthodox Dr. South and yet to blacken me could censure me for writing against the Reverend Mr. Baxter accounted by this Company a verier Philistin than Dr. South This is like censuring the Book because the Authors Names are not there when neither his nor Printer's can be found or heard of An Antinomian lately came from hearing one preach Obedience as the way and particularly Repentance call'd so a thousand times in Scripture said Drunkenness is as much the way as Repentance before me and others As for those words in a late Mercury there is come out an Answer to the Rebuke by that Learned Critick Y g of Plymouth in which is neither Wit nor Sense but a Jacobitish Cant c. The Writer was my Brother not I about Physick and Astrology not Divinity I wish him and my Learned Friend Dr. Salmon could better agree or more friendly diffent May I be so hold to direct Dr. Salmon my Brother or others to give them one Prescription how to make their Costive Patients soluble I pray them not to be displeas'd Get Dr. Crisp's Picture when his first Books come out and let them look on it one quarter of an hour or less for I declare it is able to give a man a Stool to see it as it was done truly by Mr. L. not falfly by his unworthy Branch Could any Man imagine I wrote a Jacobite Cant I cannot help it if he did Is he a crack brain'd Man as there call'd If he be some unusual Distemper hath lately seiz'd him I pray the Adorers of this Family to consider how many Heylin in particular Cosmog are forced to confess the Stuarts were a spurious Brood ab origine The Father of the first was a Great Man and Steward in Scotland Therefore his base Child bore the Name of his Father's Office a thing common among Bastards end Bastard-makers Doth Bishop Spotswood in his History of the Church of Scotland say much less than that King James the 6th of Scotland and 1st of England was the Illegitimate Son of David Reese the Queen's Musician Did not the Earl of Lenox the Queen's Husband so believe when he slew David when sitting by the side of the Queen then big with Child of King James Hence it was he when a Man could never endure the sight of a Sword no not in knighting any One. From this invincible Timidity Flatterers gave him the Motto Beati Pacifici For the Old Rowly that filthy Stallion he had his Charles Nelson c. the Son of Charles and Nel. The now ejected King the Duke of Berwick c. Bless God that hath rooted out these and given us a King whose Life is a compendium of the best Morals and Politicks too As for the old Vinegar Bottle his pretended Zeal for Mr. Baxter and the Great K. is but Covetousness the Govering is too thin God forgive him for belying me A Country Tutor and Mr. Short of this City that Excellent Philosopher and Philosopher-maker too to my knowledg He is the basest Adversary I ever had who like an Owl fears the Light His Idol must fall that play'd the madman at Salters-Hall with Mr. S. and Mr. P. two ingenious Divines a Story too shameful to relate FINIS
A Friendly Conference Between the Suffering Saints for Conscience-sake the JACOBITES Met together at the Tavern Particularly R. L. R. F. and A. S. my Lord Bp of Salisbury promised to be so by K. James when he returns and other precious Ones there assembled at least to consult about and read Prayers for the dethroning the best of Kings and restoration of the worst With a Postscript concerning a late Declaration of Mr. Lobb and others against Crispianism Difficile est Satyram non scribere Juv. LONDON Printed and are to be sold by A. Baldwin in Warwick-lane 1699. TO THE READER IF it be askt why I argue not more against censur'd Antiscripturism and Non-resistance I have done the one at large in my Quakers Impostors or Apostates The other as largely in my Vindiciae Anti-Baxterianae If you ask why I write or Hint the Oaths or Curses of such vile Persons To represent them in their Colours others do so Mr. Dent in his Plain Man's Path Mr. Baxter in his Poor Man's Family Book Bring thine Antidote if in any danger If thou seest what Beast drunkenness and filthy talking makes some Jacobites and Blasphemy and Cursing make others or if thou wilt the same as Devils incarnate thou mayest loath the Sins the more in others and bless thy Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier who hath made thee to differ A Friendly Conference between the suffering Saints for Conscience-sake the Jacobites particularly R. L. R. F. A. S. Bishop of Salisbury and the rest of the suffering Brethren met at R. L. HOW fare your bodies Brethren for I know you are men of sense and think not of Souls as essential parts of you For my part I am Heart sick R. F. Before Jove I am far from being Heart-whole Saepius quam Euripus recurrit dolor A. S. This is a catching Distemper among us now I think not one of the Company is well there Mr. H. Let us take up the Bible then or the best of Books next to it the Common-Prayer Book and read something to comfort us R. L. Bible bibble babble I never thought that Book good for any thing but to make Folk humoursome And for the Common-Prayer Book the best cheating Book that was I cannot endure it since the Usurper's Name got into it and jostled out the King 's Pray call for a Pack of Cards and a chearful Cup and then by G I am for you R. F. I say the same and would swear by G too were I sure there were any and would curse the Prince of Orange and all his Adherents to the Devil were I sure there was any such Creature A. S. Fie Gentlemen fie talk not so profanely and atheistically We are Fellow-sufferers for Conscience-sake and if at any time we be sober it should be now R. L. Is Saul also among the Prophets What are you become a Saint and my Brother in Christ Come Sir every Man as be likes If you care not for Cups or Cards we will call for a Woman for you None but Fools talk of Conscience the old stale Topick of Rebellion It is a Bedlam thing and the ingenious P. laught it away with an As the Fool thinketh so the Bell clinketh A. S. What makes you to talk thus to me of a Woman R. L. We have Man been told long since That tho you pretended to leave the N. C. in P. for refusing the Oath of Allegiance to the Spark as we call'd him in the last intended Assassination you left it for a base Child That after an Anabaptist's Wife desir'd you to baptize her Child unknown to her Husband you baptiz'd the Child and lay with the Mother a great Scandal to the Cause of Pedobaptism That you when the Spark was expected to land look'd out for a fair Wind and asked Mr. W. and others Is there any hope the Prince will land if he do not we are all undone We thank your natural Child for your company So that they that knew you there say you are a great R A. S. In plain terms you are no little one thus to reflect Mr. H. In plainer terms both may be true and between our selves is so But what if Brother S. had a Bastard the great Apostle of the Scottish Presbyterians had a Bastard as I printed in describing that Tribe Mr. Yes printed it but could never prove it to my knowledg when question'd for it unless it were before his Conversion when a Member of our Church They grant a Convert-maker in their Church might first be a Bastard-maker in ours You could not prove this any more than another Story That the most learned Presbyterians in London acknowledged Duke Lauderdale to be a pious Man When no sober Churchman or prosane either could so believe disown'd by a Parliament for corrupting his King and other Villanies As you have worded the Story of Rutherford it is false If he had a slip before he was accounted so learned pious and angelical among them tho they cannot find he ever had any was it fair to twit St. Austin with his base Child before his Conversion whom in his Confessions he calls Adeodorus A. S. Why reflect you on King Charles the Second of blessed Memory If he kept Women you know who preach'd before him on that Text Was not Solomon beloved of his God yet Women drew away his Heart He made it clear That this is no parting Sin between God and Man especially a King Tho I confess Solomon never kept another Man's Wife never a Castlemain in the company of his Concubines Mr. H. I heard the Story but like it not for one Gentleman as he then came out of Church said There was nothing in Religion R. F. He said never the worse if you like it not I say It was the wisest word ever that Man said in his life I was inclinable to think so when I canted and ton'd and whin'd among the Phanaticks but I am much more confirmed since I turn'd Jacobite and came among you Mr. H. I say this was scandalous as was what that Bishop said to one of the King's Whores weeping for a dead Child Madam be not too much troubled God can soon send you another I tell you these are great Sins and it is a Duty not to justify them R. L. By Hercules What a Cant is here about Sin and Duty It is enough to give a man a stool to hear such Twit-twats Come for an Huzza or the old Trinity we gloried in twenty Years since of Wit Wine and Women R. F. Yes by my Faith you speak now to purpose R. L. You have broke the Order already to talk of Faith R. F. Pish that is but Vulgariter as the Atheist in France when burnt as such said when he cry'd feeling the Flames O God Doth any man think that any Bishop of ours had so little wit to be a John the Baptist at the Court to lose his Head If he had I would have taken it up as a Calves head Mr. H.
For God's sake Gentlemen be more politick than thus to talk for if any Phanatick should know this Discourse they would hate us more than they do R. F. I never did any one thing for God's sake nor will not be guilty of no such a piece of Phanaticism now to begin but thousands of things for the Devil's sake or if you will all things for my own sake and not one thing for any one else I know the Phanaticks better than you for their hatred of us on due information of our Morals is so great it is not capable of any addition And seeing you would be Saintish too they say your Character of no man is to be regarded and that your Pride is intolerable and made them unlearned men except Mr. Pool and Mr. How You that make them Fools say they fly in the Face of God too and have said that he knew not whether Men should be saved or damned till they died If Vorstius or a few more denied Prescience supposing a God I think it folly and madness Mr. H. Who said thus Mr. T. M. He once wrote me a Letter two years after he left me to give me thanks for my Arguments inducing him to Conformity and as I lately told him I have often mention'd the Story What good a Man may do by words he thinks not regarded and Mr. Stop Sir He said then to you He was positive in it He never wrote you such a Letter when he was awake and if he did it in a sleep he supposeth you received it in a dream That he never conformed had Presbyterian Ordination never us'd Cross or Surplice or our Form of Baptism only sometimes read Common-Prayer as other Noncons did when he had privileged places seven years nay sometimes us'd none of the Liturgy This made him the more doubt your Answer to his Question Whether you did your best to save the Life of your Brother John Hicks His own Son's Letter to the contrary signified but little to him who knows what he is He was a proud Ape he says once and odious as such If Dr. Calamy call'd his Father an Old Rogue how much or little a conforming Son might be concerned for the death of a Nonconforming Father he knows not He denies That your Charge is true He said not You did not your best but only doubted it and thought you or others must have so understood him You answer You did And seeing you protested in the presence of Almighty God you did your best and Mr. Lobb told him he was satisfied you did he hath given it under his hand to you That he charitably hopes you did and will so declare to others but says the Reasons of his Doubts were these 1. He was sure you lov'd not your Brother would speak of him with unusual contempt and visited him not as he complain'd when last in London you as he phrased it went up and down in your Wheelbarrow Coach and regarded him not tho once he help'd to maintain you as he said 2. In a printed Letter of Mr. John Hicks he hath these words I have written to your Uncle George to intercede for me but I cannot hear from him Or to this purpose 3. It was reported you then said If he would not subscribe to a Confession sent him you would not intercede 4. That your Books discover your bloody Principles and you were justly accounted one of the greatest Enemies to the Dissenters in the three Kingdoms and therefore might not care for your own Brother because such tho so much a Gentleman every way No Fool as you were wont to call him R. L. D me What a long Story have we heard of a damn'd Fanatick and Rebel as before forsooth of Sin and Duty Drawer bring us up the best Wine you have Drawer Yes Sir and a pretty Wench R. F. This is to the purpose this is Preachment worth a hearing Come shut the Door Here is a Health to King James another to Queen Mary another to the Prince of Wales another to the Confusion of the little Man of the Hague and all his Adherents R. L. About with it brave Boys again and again A. S. Come Gentlemen the time is come to read Prayers R. L. Pox on 't you should have brought the Book sooner whilst we were all sober A. S. If I should never read Prayers but when all the Company were sober it would never be done drunk or sober I will read Reform we pray thee these perjur'd Nations Restore to us thy Servant King James our lawful Sovereign In the mean time comfort him in all his Adversity and Sufferings Bless the Queen and Prince of Wales And R.F. Nay stop speed in one thing before you ask more I believe more than one are of Brother B's mind in Somerset That had he thought King James would have been so long a coming he would have better considered it before he had left his place for him Besides what talk you of Prayer If there be a God we cannot believe he regards our Prayers King James will never return unless you give over praying for it I remember I have heard of a Parson that would often pray in the Pulpit for his Patron who one day said Mr. Parson I beg one Kindness of you What is that said he Leave me out of your Prayers for I can never hear that you pray for me but I have always a terrible fit of the Gout after it But what says your Grace my Lord of Salisbury A. S. Would I had a good Parsonage A Bird in the Hand is worth two in the Bush Hope delayed maketh the Heart sad Were my Wife the only Woman that wanted with her Children I would not care but oh there are others of the Fair Sex R. L. I advise you as an old Man go into some corner of the Land where you are not known and conform swear to the Usurper but be sure break your Oath by the first opportunity R. F. Stay let him not be too hasty let us see what will be the end of Plotting first For my part I may say to the Spark what she did to Jason Adeone credit omne consumptum nefas If King James should return and find us Williamites we have spun a fair Thread But can you tell Mr. H. what makes that unsanctified Villain T. M. you talkt of but now to write of late by way of Dialogue which is by many accounted no fair way of writing You know the Dialogue between R. and F. Mr. H. He says thus in defence of himself 1. That Patrick's Friendly Debates were all approved of by us tho foully managed by him this way 2. That he blames not any of ours that write this way if they bring in an Adversary in his best dress He thinks the Dialogue between Irenaeus and Novatus done by Fisher the blind Man of Cambridg to be one of the shrewdest Books written for the Church of England 3. This was the antient way of