1. Their suppressing Lectures and Afternoon Sermons which is nothing to the purpose unless he had proved also that these are of Divine Institution or are necessary means of unfeigned Faith and holy Life 2. A book for sports and pastimes on Sundays enjoyn'd to be read by Ministers in their Parish Churches under penalty of deprivation What so as to exclude either Common-Prayer and preaching in the Morning or Divine Service and Catechizing in the Afternoon or so as to licence the absence of any Parishioner from that service either part of the day 3. Superstitious Innovations introduc'd Si accusâsse suffecerit quis erit innocens 4. A new Book of Canons composed and a new Oath for upholding the Hierarchy inforc'd By whom were not this Oath and those Canons composed in Convocation by our Church-Governours were they not confirmed and imposed by the Royal Assent And why I pray was the new Oath for upholding the Hierarchy establish'd by Law more superstitious than the newer Oath for destroying that Hierarchy so established Far be it from me says he p. 32. 42. to impute these things to all that were in judgment Episcopal for I am perswaded a great if not the greater part of them disallowed these Innovations These Innovations what Innovations The word must in reason refer to the particulars just now enumerated viz. The new Book of Canons the new Oath the Book for sports and pastimes on Sundays But are these men in justice and Reason of State to be protected and encouraged who dare to call new Laws either of State or Church or both occasioned by new emergencies Innovations or new practices superstitious meerly because not commanded in Gods word Now these things are so far from being a proof of the inconsistency of Prelacy with the lively opening of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel with the upholding of all Divine Institutions a laborious and efficacious Ministry c. that the contrary is evident from the instance of the Right Reverend Bishop Morton whom this very Author I believe hath scarce confidence enough to accuse as a Delinquent in those particulars since p. 67. 77. he reckons Bishop Morton in the number of those Episcopal Divines whose Doctrine is entirely embrac'd by the Presbyterians Who yet did not only approve of but had the chief hand in contriving and publishing that Declaration which allowed some Sports and Pastimes as that which was then the most probable course to stop the current of Popery and profaneness as appears from the story of that Bishop's life publish'd by Dr. Barwick p. 80 81. So 't is evident also from the Augustan Confession c. 7. De Potest Ecclesiasticâ and Mr. Calvin's Institutions that both he and the Lutheran Reformers were far enough from thinking the Lords day of Divine Institution who yet were for a lively opening of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel and a laborious efficacious ministry In some following Pages the Author pretends to manifest that the Presbyterian Interest will never be extinguished while the State of England continues Protestant For says he p. 34. 44. let but the Protestant Doctrine as 't is by Law establisht in the Church of England be upheld and preach'd and 't will raise up a genuine off-spring of this people whose way is no other than the life and power of that Doctrine But I as confidently affirm on the other side that if the Protestant Doctrine by Law establisht in the Church of England be upheld and preach'd 't will raise up such a genuine off-spring of true English Protestants as shall own Prelacy and the Churches Authority in appointing Ceremonies both which are establisht by that Doctrine but rejected by Presbyterians If their way be no other than the life and power of that Doctrine they act suitably to these Principles viz. That the Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies and authority in Controversies of Faith Artic. 20. That whosoever through his private Judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offends against the Common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren Every particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Artic. 34. They practically own the Kings power within his Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and all other his Dominions and Countries as the highest power under God to whom all men as well inhabitants as born within the same do by Gods Laws owe most loyalty and obedience afore and above all other Potentates in Earth They act as if they believed his Majesty to have the same Authority in causes Ecclesiastical that the godly Kings had among the Jews and Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church They use the Form of Gods worship in the Church of England establisht by Law and contained in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments without surmising it to be either corrupt superstitious or unlawful or to contain any thing in it that is repugnant to the Scriptures They are obedient to the Government of the Church of England by Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons and the rest that bear office in the same not fancying it to be either Antichristian or repugnant to the word of God They do not combine themselves together in a new brotherhood accounting the Christians who are conformable to the Doctrine Government Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England to be profane and unmeet for them to joyn with in Christian Profession They imagine not 1. that any of the 39. Articles are in any part superstitious or erroneous or 2. that the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England by Law establisht are wicked Antichristian or superstitious or such as being commanded by lawful Authority men who are zealously and godly affected may not with any good conscience approve them use them or as occasion requires subscribe to them or 3. that the sign of the Cross used in Baptism is any part of the substance of that Sacrament They hold that things of themselves indifferent do in some sort alter their natures when they are either commanded or forbidden by a lawful Magistrate and may not be omitted at every mans pleasure contrary to the Law when they be commanded nor used when they are prohibited These are parts of the Doctrine establisht by Law in the Church of England as is evident from the 1 2 4 7 9 5 6 30. Canons legally framed and ratified But where are those English Presbyterians to be found whose way hath been no other than the life and power of this Doctrine Have not their practises too loudly proclaimed to the world that they have
the Authors of is not yet exhausted but will work us more mischief and be very prejudicial to those initials of Order and Tranquillity which at present we through mercy enjoy The words of our late Soveraign quoted p. 58. 68. are no proof of that which this Author asserts and would prove by them viz. that Presbytery was decried and exposed to prejudice by those that were in sway in the more early times of the late Wars for those words speak rather of the conclusion of the Wars for 't was then and not in the more early times that Military success discovered to several Factions their particular advantages and invited them to part stakes but they are a considerable proof that 't is no such unreasonable thing as this Author pretends to object that the late wild postures and extravagances were the work of Presbytery For they inform us that Presbytery was the great Master of the lesser Factions Independents Anabaptists c. Which Factions were so well disciplin'd and documentized by that Arch-Faction that being some of them also men of quick apprehensions they speedily and throughly learnt the Presbyterian Arts of dividing and dissipating yea those Factious Scholars made such zealous diligent and sagacious Improvements of those Factious Principles which the great Presbyterian Faction had inculcated into them both by Doctrine and Practice that they became two-fold more the children of Hell than their Teachers and so extravagant and unruly at last as to whip their great Master out of that seditious and Tyrannical School with Rods of his own making and to rout Presbytery in the strength of those very principles by which Presbyterians had before routed Prelacy first and then Majesty Neither says he can Sects or Schisms with any Truth or Justice be reckoned the Off-spring of Presbytery If he mean by Presbytery exact Presbytery p. 44. 54. and that Scotch Form of Ecclesiastical Polity 59. 69. where there is no presiding Bishop he contradicts Father Hierome who though Presbyterians account him their great Friend testifies in several places that Episcopacy was instituted unus caeteri praepositus superpositus for the preventing of those Schisms which were begotten by Presbytery In Schismatis remedium factum est nè unusquisque ad se trahens Christi Ecclesiam rumperit Ep. ad Evagrium ut Schismatum semina tolerentur and those studia in Religione which happened when the Churches were governed communi Presbyterorum consilio in Ep. ad Titum c. 1. ut dissentionum plantaria evellerentur ibid. Nay in his Dialogue against the Luciferians he tells us that Ecclesiae salus in summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet cui si non exors quaedam ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur Schismata quot Sacerdotes The welfare of the Church depends upon the dignity of the chief Priest to whom if some extraordinary and supereminent power be not granted there will be as many Schisms in the Churches as Priests Yea he contradicts Mr. Calvin who acknowledges also that Episcopacy was agreed upon Nè ex aequalitate ut fieri solet dissidia nascerentur lest equality among Ministers should as 't is wont to do produce division I may conclude therefore with a late writer that if any Presbyterian Churches do keep themselves entire from the Gangrene of Sects and Schisms that Vnity springs from some other Fountain and is the effect of some collateral cause which has Antidote enough in it to preserve those Churches from the venemous contagion of Exact Presbytery A wide breach if he speak truth was once made in the Netherlands by Arminius and his followers but after some years conflict 't was healed by the Synod of Dort I discern not why this Author should produce this instance to prove that Schisms cannot truly or justly be reckoned the off-spring of Presbytery unless 't were because he was either ignorant or had forgot that the men who as he says made that breach viz. Arminius and his Followers were Presbyterians as vehement and resolute maintainers of the Ministerial parity as any that concluded or accepted the Judgment of that Synod say the Brittish Divines there present in their Joint attestation c. men that though they were not so presumptuous as to condemn our English Hierarchy as unlawful or so contentious as to fancy with our Puritans See their Exam. Consure Leyd Fol. 232. Brownists and others that they ought to divide and separate themselves from our Church because governed by Prelacy if so be Prelates did not degenerate into Tyrants yet they not only deny that the superiority of one Minister above another is by divine right but also seem unwilling that that form of Government should be introduced into the Netherlands and yet they produce a pregnant Testimony from Bishop Carleton's book against Bishop Mountague's Appeal that the chief of their Belgick adversaries at that Synod were desirous of enjoying a Form of Church-Government modelled according to the English pattern And when that Bishop of Chichester had openly in that Synod declared against that parity of Ministers spoken of in the Belgick-Dort confession as instituted by Christ and manifested that imparity among Ministers and superiority was ordained by our Saviour and challenged any there present to prove the contrary he was answered only with silence And when afterwards he did in private conference with several of the best learned in that Synod maintain that the cause of all their troubles was the want of Bishops by whose Authority turbulent and contentious Novelists might be checked censured and suppressed they did not deny it but answered that they did very much revere and honour the good Order and Discipline of the Church of England and would heartily and gladly receive the same into their own Churches if the state of Affairs among them would permit it but that could not be expected and therefore they hoped that God would be merciful to them if they did what they could since they could not do what they would Which answer of theirs the Bishop lookt on as a sufficient Apology in that they did not openly defend that Anarchy and popular confusion which Presbyterian parity tends to Well it seems that wide breach was after some years conflict healed by the Synod of Dort Set certes if this Rector had a wide breach made in his body and if his Physicians should in order to his cure handle him in such an inhumane and imperious manner as those Synodists treated the Remonstrants yea and some moderate men of their own Party he would be loth to call it Healing His most virulent enemy could not easily wish him a greater torment on earth than to have a Bogerman for his Doctor a Sibrandus or Gomarus for his Chirurgion Let him read the brief account of the Synod of Dort annext by Tilenus to his Result of false Principles lately publisht or those letters from Mr. Hales and Mr. Balcanqual out of which 't is extracted or the Acta
themselves to be trodden under foot when they could not help it rather than comply with those that would not advance the Presbyterian Interest but what 's this to the objection of Rebellion and Disobedience Does it follow that they did not rebel against the King because they suffered themselves to be trodden under foot by Independents but 4. 'T is somewhat hard to understand what Presbyterians mean when they say they suffered themselves to be trodden under foot None can properly be said to suffer themselves to be ill used but those that are able to repel that ill usage if they please which Presbyterians being not able to do when Independents had the power of the sword they are very fond self-flatterers thus to apologize for themselves which I speak only on supposition that they were ill used and trodden under foot but that there is any Truth in that supposition thus indefinitely exprest is more than I believe unless they imagined themselves trodden under foot and ill used because they were not suffered to domineer over and still to rule the whole Nation as they listed as if all men were trodden under foot or cast out on the Dunghill like unsavoury salt that are not suffered to sit in the Throne and usurp the Scepter of Majesty For what else were Presbyterians deprived of when the Government was changed Did they not still enjoy their lives and in a far higher degree than Loyal Subjects their Liberties their Lands also and livings and their Sacrilegious Purchases and besides all this were not Lay-Presbyterians continued in and advanced to Civil offices and places of Trust and were not other Presbyterians Masters of Colledges and Halls in the Universities and continued in their Fellowships there as likewise Presbyterian Parsons in their fat Benefices in City and Countrey and had they not the liberty to exercise whatsoever spiritual power they pleased to claim and vindicate to themselves over their Parishioners Whence I conclude that the meaning of those words must as to the generality of Presbyterians be this They suffered themselves to be trodden under foot that is to live to be kept out of prison to reap the profits of the Lands in their possessions whether well or ill gotten whether by the robbing of God and his Church of their sacred Revenues or others of that which legally belonged unto them to be Mayors Bailiffs Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Constables c. And the Presbyterian Ministers in the University City and Countrey suffered themselves to be trodden under foot that is to be continued in those Headships Fellowships Parsonages Rectories Cures which by Law belonged unto and were illegally unrighteously plundered from other men and to enjoy the liberty of excommunicating in their respective Parishes whom they pleased and excluding as many as they pleased from the priviledge of both Sacraments But sure if Royalists had been so favourably used by Presbyterians as Presbyterians were by Independents they would never have been so ingratefully and nonsensically querulous as to say they were trodden under foot In a Pamphlet printed 1648. called The Pulpit-Incendiary and directed against Mr. Calamy Case Cawton Cranford and other Sion-Colledge-Preachers there are these words p. 45. You complain of your misery bondage and slavery of oppressions sorrows and troubles of the Church that is doubtless of the Church Presbyterian and no other What doth ail you what troubles you who doth oppress you Have you not Authority on your side have you not all the Church-livings in the Kingdom have you not Declaration upon Declaration Ordinance upon Ordinance Order upon Order for to back you Is there the least shew of oppression sorrow or cause of complaint administred unto you except it be because you are not suffered to oppress vex and gall your Brethren that joyn not with you Can you feed upon nothing but bloud yea the bloud of your Brethren that though you have every thing else that only prohibited you complain of sorrow slavery oppression Is this your slavery and captivity that you cannot enslave and lead into captivity Is this to kill you with the sword that you cannot kill your Brethren with the sword I add Is this for Presbyterians to be trodden under foot that they cannot tread others under foot Besides this Author hath before intimated p. 45 55. that the generality of Presbyterians did at last comply with the men of violence in their changing the Government for they subscribed that Engagement which was designed for the defending and maintaining of that change The great if not only motive whereunto in all probability was that they might still keep possession of their Livings and livelihoods and not be outlawed and yet here he would perswade us that Presbyterians indefinitely suffered themselves to be trodden under foot rather than they would comply with those men of violence So true is that saying Oportet mend esse mem Some as he tells us in that p. if we may believe him utterly refused even to the forfeiture of their Preferments and the hazard of their Livelihoods Notwithstanding which words 1. There were but some only that so refused 2. Those very some might afterwards engage rather than the forfeiture occasioned by their refusal at first should be taken or their livelihoods lost as well as hazarded I have heard indeed of one Presbyterian Doctor who rather than he would subscribe the Engagement publickly at Oxford parted with a Headship of about 80. l. per Annum but yet the same man was so providently politick as to subscribe in the Countrey rather than suffer himself to be trodden under foot that is to have a Living of six or seven hundred a year taken from him and it may be there were a few more Presbyterians that had Pluralities who acted in like manner But this is no Apology for the generality of Presbyterians who did not so much as hazard their livelihoods or render themselves liable to be trodden under foot by refusing to comply And as for those eminent Presbyterian Ministers and others spoken of in the same p. who either hazarded or lost their lives in combining to bring our Soveraign that now is to the rightful possession of this Kingdom it cannot reasouably be said that such men suffered themselves to be trodden under foot since by those combining attempts they opposed and endeavoured to ruine and destroy those men of violence that trod them under foot Nor can they properly or justly be said to suffer themselves to be trodden under foot who do not suffer it meekly and patiently without railing at or reviling those that tread them under Whereas if the carriage of Presbyterian Ministers generally was like that which is reported of the Ministers of London in 1648. when they supposed that the men of violence were about to change the Government they made it their business to inveigh against those men of violence in sharp and bitter language For the Author of the Pulpit-Incendiary tells us that the London-Ministers were
so far from suffering themselves humbly peaceably and patiently to be trodden under foot that their Tongues were sharpned like Serpents Adders poyson was under their Lips stinging and poysoning the name and repute of the Army p. 16. calling them a Rebellious Army a generation of Vipers a Viperous brood c. And that on Sabbath-days and Fast-days in Preaching and Praying they still girded at the Parliament viz. the Independent majority as men that declined their Solemn League and Covenant hindred reformation minded nothing but their own Interest He tells us also p. 14. That the morning Lectures which they called the Ark of God in their frequent removals moneth after moneth from place to place were so modelled and constituted that in them a lamentable slaughter was made of the sweet affections of love kindness gentleness goodness patience each toward other p. 2. That that Ark of theirs seems frequently to be drawn by Bulls of Basan tossing and goring the Parliament and Army and their dissenting Brethren from day to day maliciously fomenting contentions strifes and divisions p. 3. That the London Ministers did by conjunction of Counsels and debates in Sion-Colledge London's nay England's distemper conceive sinful resolution to engage and tamper privately with chief Citizens in publick places as Common-Council-men c. and publickly in Pulpit and Press stirring up the people by all possible means under the pretence of the glory of God a blessed Reformation the keeping of the Covenant c. to set all together by the ears and raise a new War p. 18 19. From which premises I may for ought I see well enough conclude that this Author instead of pretending that Presbyterians suffered themselves rather to be trodden under foot than to comply with men of violence in changing the Government should in Truth and Justice have thus represented them That rather than they would comply with the men of violence when they presumed they were about to change the Government they endeavoured to prevent the being trodden under foot by them by imbittering mens spirits against them in their preachments and direful Prayers by sowing the seeds of contention and division and by inflaming mens minds to take Arms resist and destroy them and when notwithstanding all such English and Scotch endeavours Independents had effected the change of those small remains and parcels of the English Government which Presbyterian violence had left unchanged that Party generally did by degrees so far comply even with that change also that rather than they would be trodden under foot outlawed and sequestred they engaged to be faithful to the Commonwealth of England as then establisht by the men of violence without King or House of Lords it seems they who thus act are said in the Presbyterian dialect to suffer themselves to be trodden under foot And now judge whether statuimus must not here again signifie abrogamus Let us as our Author proceeds further examine Are the persons that adhere to Prelacy more conscientious in duty to God and Man than those that affect Presbytery Are the former only sober just and godly and the latter vicious unrighteous profane A. Though I could speak something to these Questions from my own experience having lived both in Episcopal and Presbyterian Families and places and being acquainted with divers Persons Ministers and others of both perswasions yet because comparisons of this kind are odious I shall answer only in reference to the main thing in Question that there 's more reason of State for the pro ecting a drunken Royalist than a sober Rebel and yet I am fully perswaded that neither of them so remaining have holiness enough in this world to render them capable of happiness in the next Nor do I doubt but it may be as much the lot of some Traiterous spirits to be sober as 't is if this Author tell truth in the following lines of some that adhere to Prelacy to be loyal but whether I have not already said enough to prove that Presbyterian principles encline to Rebellion and the principles of English prelatists to Loyalty let all impartial Readers judge If this be not answer sufficient to those Quaeries I shall supply the defects of it with transcribing for this Authors sake a passage or two out of the writings of his fellow-Rebels The first shall be out of William Sedgwick's Leaves of the Tree of Life for the healing of the Nations p. 36. Of the two 't is more strange to see that the Presbyterian who the other day was opprest by the Bishop for his conscience in point of the Sabbath c. who could not long since live without the favour of the Bishop should now thrust out those under whom he lived for not taking the Covenant which is contrary to their conscience and shew less favour to them than he received from them and do that which he condemned in others and this upon weak and fleshly grounds admiring his own way which is to pray and preach longer and more than another to be strict in repetition on Sabbath-days and some such poor formal things to set up this as the power of Godliness and Reformation to the ruine of another who it may be is a man of more justice ability and wisdom more sobriety more stability more patience and constancy in suffering c. The other shall be out of J. Price's Clerico-Classicum p. 40. Have we not cause to judge better of many of the Prelatical party who being men of learning and conscience and never so violent against their opposers in Church and State as your selves you Presbyterian Ministers of London making no distunbances rents divisions Factions by Pulpit and Press as you do from day to day as all men observe that being conscious to themselves of the many Oaths Vows Covenants that they have made of subjection and obedience unto Bishops the then establisht Church Government Book of Common Prayer Homilies Canons c. cannot take the Solemn League and Covenant and rather chuse to lose their Livings and Livelihoods committing themselves Wives and Children to the mercy of God having no visible means of subsisting than to break the peace of their Consciences by taking an Oath Vow or Covenant contrary to all their former Oaths before satisfaction received than of you or some of you that presently turn'd Presbyterians cast away Episcopacy took the Covenant and having taken it turn it and wind it wring it and wrest it making it to look East and West North and South as your Interest works with King Parliament or Army or against them all And this says he is not my saying only but it is vox Populi the late King the Lords the Commons the City the Countrey the whole Kingdom observed it To these I shall add some passages of the like import out of Dr. Owen in his Mortification of Sin in Believers p. 29. There is indeed says he a broad light fallen upon the men of this generation and together therewith many spiritual