he threatned them that drew the sword well for him you dare not adde and against him is not doubted nay suppose it had been against Peter attempting his personal deliverance it had given you no advantage since he also rebuked him as Satan for desiring him to spare himself he blessed likewise the peace makers entituling them the children of God and our hearts desire is that God would raise up to us a true peace-maker to reduce you unto wisdome whose wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse and all her paths are peace The incendiaries of warre are indeed no where pronounced happie and the boutefeus of rebellion are certainly the children of him who was a murtherer from the begining but Sir is this fair dealing The question that you move and have to prove is that my friend is an incendiarie and boutefeu and behold without any reason offered you not onely conclude him but condemne him it were undoubtedly as easie and aboundantly just for me to inquire where perjurious persecuters are pronounced happie c but I will not so much as retort or retaliat with such expressions such as breath out warre and crueltie know not what spirit they are of and our prayer to God is that they who breathing out threatnings and slaughter against us terme just defence and necessarie resistance war and crueltie may at length have their eyes opened All in the Gospel-dispensation is truely gentle and peaceable and yet of all things in the world it hath been most reproached for tumult and sedition but the great consolation of all its followers is that its author the God of peace will one day make known all false pretenders and its Lord the Prince of Peace for their persecutions here will in the end blesse with everlasting peace all its true lovers when according to the excellent order of the Gospels rule of peace the Kingdome of God shall be fully revealed in righteousnesse first and then in peace and joy in the holy ghost But you say that all this viz a non-resistance of and submission to persecution was signally confirmed by our masters unexampled sufferings and yet you know so well that the free and voluntarie sufferings of our Lord are in themselves no lesse unexampled then unimitable and that it is the manner and not the matter thereof that we are to follow that I cannot but doubt your sinceritie Christ not onely refused the aide of the sword but came into the world willinglie went up to Ierusalem stedfastly exposed himself knowingly and lastly would not aske the assistance of legions of Angels readie at his desire that the Scriptures signifieing how that he ought to have suffered might be fulfilled and is it possible that you can think that these specifick acts are for our imitation But you say that he entailed perdition on these that should draw the sword to wit all these that are not warranted to doe it by the Magistrat How long will you love vanitie and seek after leesing Our Lord in that place doth most plainely for the averting of Peter's unseasonable zeal and the comforting of all his Disciples denounce that all these who take the sword unjustly shall perish by the sword and. Rev. 13.10 we have the parallel place more fully set downe he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword spoken of persecuting Magistrats aswel as others Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints And yet you have the confidence to smooth it over as if this sad doome had been pronounced not onely against Peter but all such as shall be by the force of oppression constrained to their owne defence You adde that he witnessed that good confession before Pilat that Caesar needed apprehend no hazard from his Kingdome since it not being of this world was not to be fought for And doe you indeed think that this is the emphasis of that good confession viz to satisfie Cesars unjust fears O perverse flatterie The excellent goodnesse of our Lords confession cannot but be sweetly relished by every serious Christian to lye in these words thou saiest that I am a King to this end was I borne and for this cause came I unto the world that I should beare witnesse unto the truth how then are you not ashamed not onely to wrest it unto the pitieful interest of Princes but to misconstrue the whole passage as if our Lord in purging himself by a voluntarie and free forbearance of the affectation of a worldly Kingdome did in effect disowne all defensive armes to the incouraging and strengthening of the most bloudie tyrans You think it strange that through the whole Gospel we should meet with repeated blessings on these that suffer but never one upon such as fight but if our Lord having declared that he came not to destroy the Law of righteousnesse did accommodat his incouragements to his Apostles unto the dispensation fo his providence under which for the greater glorie of the power of his free grace he thought good to gather and traine up his Church should you or any else be thereat stumbled for my part when I reflect upon both the sufferings and grace of the primitive times and how the Lord did order them I rather wonder at that admonition by you observed that they should sell their coats to buy swords but you say had the Disciples understood this of the material sword either their practises or writings should have had some vestiges of that sense by the which very argument a man may as easily deny that the Purse there spoken of is to be taken for a material one but seing the tenor of the context and relation made by the Lord to their former mission doe exhibit the meaning with that evidence as cannot be convelled for want of an unoccasioned confirmation I go on to examine the rest of your glosse upon the place and taking notice that the Disciples at the time by presenting two swords did shew that they understood the Lord to speake of a material sword you say that by his answer it is enough which cannot relate to the two swords produced no wise enough for eleven persons he corrects their error breaks off their purpose as if he had said enough of this or no more of it since he sawe they misunderstood his former words of a sword Thus rather then to assent to truth you would have our Lord by such a stop tacitly to acknowledge his own inadvertency but the passage is too obvious to be thus abused in asmuch as our Lord having before both signified and prepared for his owne imminent departure forewarnes them by the necessitie of a purse and a sword of the straits and dangers that would ensue whereupon they its like out of their blind and forward desire to have him delivered from the hand of the jewes lay hold on his words and shew him two swords probably with a confident remembrance of his former miracles and this their precipitancy our Lord according to
Religion however the honour and excellency of the cause may much allay a mans smart and make him cheerfully to undergo it even to a not-accepting seeming contempt of deliverance yet he hath the Privilege of common defence no lesse then in other occasions which if he finde the interest of Religions preservation to concurre it ought so much the more to animat his resolution now if this be a spirit totally different from Christ's who came not to destroy the Law but teacheth us to fulfil all righteousnesse I leave it to your own second thoughts Christ's Kingdom is indeed not of this World that he did most evidently demonstrat by telling that if his Kingdom were of this World then would his servants fight and therefore seeing that even for his owne rescue he had not called them when he might have had ten Legions of Angels upon his desire that his Kingdome was not from thence could not be doubted but to turne this over as if our Lord had said Because my Kingdome is not of this World therefore my servants may not fight so much as for their own preservation is a manifest ranversing of both the text and the truth Next you tell us That to stirre up to Religions defence by its value is but an ignorant though plausible mistake but as your perswading us to abandon the maintenance of Religion by the firmenesse of Gods decree and our Lords Kingdome sounds more like the Turkish errour of unalterable fate then to a Christian deference to divine providence which alwayes admits of our lawful concurse and as this your doctrine is most palpably contradicted by the constant practice of the whole Christian World who with might and maine do arme for and stand to the defence of Religion against the invasion of infidels so your extenuation as if the hazard of our lives fortunes and liberties were not to be regarded is but an insipide deceitful affectation if God in the dispensations of his holy and wise providence especially by bringing us under the power of men subject us to suffering and call for a testimonie it is most certaine that neither ought Religions concern to discourage nor the considerations of life fortune and liberty in the least to demurre us but thence to inferre that in case either a Nation or a Person for as to the point in general there can be no difference be unjustly and violently invaded for Religion they ought without further care in a tempting confidence that Religion cannot be indangered by the Worlds opposition and a base and unrequired abjection of themselves and their interests foolishly throw Religion and all down headlong unto the rage of in jurie and tyrannie is a doctrine too agreeable to the Devils temptation for to deceive any rational man The truth of the matter therefore is that as we ought neither to flight nor apprehend too much our own prejudice so it is from patient and not by stupid sufferings that our holy profession receives the advantage But to this you subioine your grand discovery viz. that the great designe of the gospel is to elevat our mindes to a noble contempt of the world and a just disreguard of our bodies c. whence perswading patience trust in God and submission to his will you conclude let all the world judge whether suffering so like to it or fighting speaking out a froward and impatient minde do best agree with this temper and designe Sir if I may so far digresse under your conduct I would say in the first place that the great designe of the Gospel is to reconcile sinners unto God through Jesus Christ who of God is made unto us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption your representing it by elevations of minde and neglectings of the body doth savour too rankely of that dangerous errour of making the righteousness of Christ a meer help to ours and the Gospel onely the perfection of morality next I say that setting aside the necessity and beauty of every duety in its season if it were all your intention to commend suffering above fighting I would not onely with you in your judicious discerning preferre patient suffering to passionat and impatient fighting things which I suppose were never before compared but even in humanity let be in Christianity advance the palme of a well composed and resolved patience above the laurel of a warlike though righteous triumph But because your rise taken from the designe of the Gospel doth plainly enough insinuat that it is the particular fightings for religion which you go about to decry it is in thithat I desire more distinctly to know your consequence seing the same arguments of heavens hope and this worlds contempt do equally mitigat the passions and depretiat the worldly prizes of all warres whatsomever to admit that Religion doth allow all other lawfull warres except what is levied in its owne defence is evidently in an excesse of self denial to make it deny nay destroy it self but seing all the pretensions that we have here repeated out of the late dialogues of the Gospels designe spirituality of Religion the probability by sufferings of advance to the Gospel and carnality of fighting are already sufficiently discussed by their answerer I shall at present content my self to passe them with a few remarks As 1. That seing you are upon the persecuting side pardon to truth the uneasinesse of the expression or at least do exhort to patience your antagonists not your partakers in the same cause you must permit us to apprehend design aswel as truth in all your reasonings 2. Although if the will of God be so the Gospel excellently instruct to suffering yet it neither condemneth lawful warres nor is it imaginable wherefore defensive wars being allowed a defensive warre upon the most injurious provocation viz. persecution for Religion should not be accounted most righteous 3. That though patient suffering and holding fast of his name under persecution be a strong and convincing evidence of our faith and hope yet as our Lord by retaining the dispensation in his owne hand hath onely commanded unto us the manner of our suffering and having expresly permitted flight hath not engaged us to run upon it so to use the right and capacity which God giveth of self defence without furious passion or revengeful designe can neither be reprehended nor suspected I know a wicked man may fight couragiously for Christ and so have some blasphemers and Atheists suffered constantly but seing we have seen the same persons with the same strength of grace both offer themselves resolutly and suffer in testimony even of their fighting most patiently you must pardon us to reguard the truth more then your cavilling exceptions But in the following section you goe about to disprove defensive wars against persecutions for religion by our Lords precepts and practises who you say blessed those who should suffer jor him And why not Surely they are pronounced blessed and they shall be blessed But
truth we contend for without further canvassing of what you subjoine of the nature of Moses dispensation or the Gospels call to the Crosse I frankely leave it as you do with all free mindes to consider whether your poor blinde negatives be of any moment to preponderat that cleare light of reason which shineth in our assertions and is confirmed both by old testament examples and new testament approbations as my friend the answerer of the dialogues do evidently hold out As to your ensuing section anent the first ages of the Church their unacquaintednesse with this doctrine and your boasting Historical observe that until Pope Gregory the 7th his dayes it was unheard of in the Church with your endeavours to render it odious by the patrociny of Cannonists and Jesuits it is so exactly the same with the discourse of the dialogues and is by the answerer so clearly discussed that I am not affraid to oppose his single reply to your vaine repetitions one thing I must tell you that seing you cannot deny that about and after Constantines dayes when Christians arrived to a greater consistency and better capacity not only did Constantine himself with the express approbation assisting presence of the Godliest teachers in these times fight against Licinius for his persecutions but also both the oppressed Christians in the east did assert by armes the liberty of the Gospel against Jovius Maximinus and at other times and in other places they implored the aid of Christian and orthodox Emperours against pagan and Arrian persecuters your endeavour to put a tashe upon these practises as criminal which yet all the after ages of the Church have approven and to evade by saying that the doctrine was not then owned which was onely not expressely maintained because not contradicted is nothing at all ingenuous therefore since it is certaine that even the most excellent truths have been lyable to the foulest abuses neither your odious dating of the doctrine of resistance from a notorious Papall rebellion nor your futilous essay to make men beleeve that its onely propagators were the Popes Parasits do deserve any further notice And now we are come to the close of your Letter wherein conceiting that either you have made sure our conviction or discovered our cure to be with men impossible you think good to give a testimony to your self which I am perswaded considering the folly or falsehood of the poor purpose that I have perused among all that have written on the subject you deserve least But if you misse of your owne praise you are resolved my friend shall fare no better and therefore as if this were the first of it you pretend constraint for one severe word to tell him whom almost in the beginning you termed an agent of hell as evill as Beelzebub that you do feare him to be in the gall of bitternesse Sir although such reproaches be to me very light yet I wish that for your own souls good you would seriously ponder that to undervalue the grace and despise the glory of the work and cause of God that we have seen in the land to strengthen the wicked in their wickednesse adde affliction to these whom for conscience onely men do persecute are characters of this wretched and woful state equal if not worse to what appeared in him against whom these words were first pronounced whether your preceeding discourse and subsequent stricture in this place against the cause of God do partake of these evils I leave it with your selfe Your last observe is upon my friends postscript occasioned by the Bishop of St Andrews his affirming in a sermon that the subjects lives were more the Kings then their own and his passage so moves your spleen that it is evident you resolve to be behinde with him in nothing and therefore after you have charactered him as insolent guilty of rebellion and treason all the difference betwixt you and him is that what the postscript would have done by St Andrewes upon himself in a just consonancy to and punishment of his lying flattery you would have the King for no cause to inflict on my friend as real demerit But that which I concerne my self most to notice is the medium that you use to convince us of the truth of the Bishops position viz. that because a subject committing a capital crime hath no right to be the executioner of justice on himself therefore his life is more in the Kings power then in his own but not to differ with you about thir pitieful words which were that all mens lives are in the Kings hand and hold of him what ever agreement or place the argument may haue as to the Bishop and amongst his complices persons its like conscious of their own guilt yet sure I am as all honest men are without the compasse of such a title so he must be a fool aswell as a knave that will hold a plaine forfiture to the King to be a good tenor of him the Bishop no doubt thought he had passed a great complement upon his Majesty when by putting his life in the Kings power he gave more unto him then he hath himself but when you come to be his interpreter how strangely do you mis-serve them both the Bishop by supposing him to be criminal and fo making him by right to amitt what he thought he had freely given and the King by presenting him with nothing else then the forefeited lives of wretched catives in place of the loyal resignation of free leiges but leaving these your follies which if they had escaped my friend had no doubt been lashed by you as dull buffonries and the coursest of rallerie without either edge or point the truth is our lives are not our own all soules are mine saith the Lord and therefore as we neither can give them up absolutely unto the Prince his arbitrary disposal not hath the Lord even in the case of the most atrocious crime obliged the criminal to be felo dese and his own executioner so all the power the Magistrat can pretend is onely founded in the sentence of righteous Law by which the person guiltie losing his right is therefore both by the will of God and his owne consent subjected to the Magistrats execution and how much this doth militat both against the Bishops flatterie and the pretensions of tyrannie all sober men may preceive Thus Sir in place of your examining my friends book in bulk evident enough by the grossenesse of your reflexions I have considered your Letter by retaile wherein I am assured you will see that I have omitted to answer nothing except such things as silence will best reprove What satisfaction you will finde in my reply dependeth upon your self only in this I think I merit your acknowledgement that by my prevention I have delivered you our of my friends hands who probably would have searched you out in a more accurat manner if my sineere endeavours shall produce to you any greater advantage it is according to the serious desire of one who though he hath no reason to be more yet subscribeth himself SIR Your real well-wisher PAg. 6. lin 3. read sufferings Pag. 9. l. 3. r. enough p. 10. l. 1. r. doing p. 17. l. 12. r. Skeens p. 25. l. 1. r. this FINIS