You say that you feare the Non-conformists do study more to convince us of the need of Christs Righteousness then of having any of our own 'T is answered this your suggestion is a great confirmation of my reflection on your last passage I have already shewed that the fear whereby you usher it in hath no reall nor palpable ground none were more serious sound and powerful in the pressing of holiness then the men you would accuse Neither do I stand to appeal to the fruites of their Ministery notwithstanding of your cavilling at our practice but I have a greater fear of your fear that it prove only proud reason spurning at the righteousnes of Jesus Christ and aspiring to adde a Mantissa an addition of your own to his sole purchase If I could conceive you a man to propose feares both groundless and designless I might be judged uncharitable but the certainty of the first by removing the second too plainly justifies my apprehension beside your fear is so solicitous for your own righteousnes that it doth not so much as allow the righteousness of Jesus Christ to be more pressed and yet you know that not only his righteousnes as being the price spring and acceptation of ours doth therefore acclaime an infinite preference but that the conviction of its necessity by reason of the untoward reluctancie of the pride of reason and blindness of unbeleefe doth require a more powerful perswasion And therefore I must again tell you that I almost suspect your insinuation of a very deep tincture of a greater Sophistrie then that which you give warning against but seing you do profess to beleeve that Christ came to lay down his life a ransome for our sins and Non-conformists are perswaded that without holiness we shall never see the face of God it is certainly the better part for me to applaud your good agrâ—ement Only that you may be assured of this necessarie holinesse and also of its acceptance see that you hold fast Jesus Christ as the sole foundation for he it is who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousnes and Sanctification and Redemption And remember that although Non-conformists love not to talk much of their own righteousnesse at best both freely bestowed and as in us Viatores while we are in the way such as of it self can no wayes endure the consuming fire of divine jealousie yet they not only subscribe to your necessity of holinesse but further do beleeve with joy that it is impossible for any man to lean truely and entirely unto Christ who doth not imbrace him and have him both his Redâ—emer Lawgiver and Sanctifier 4. You suggest that Non-conformists think they may quite the communion of the Church If in their opinion nor in the truth in every point at least you will have this to be the case betwixt you and your Non-conformist Really might it not offend your reverence I would remit you to Eph 4. 25. and abide the reproof of the 26. without more answer but because 't is like the sottishnesse of the person you confer with hath induced you to this mistake beleeve me in name of all true Non-conformists that as they do not think they may quite the Communion of the Church if in their opinion not in the truth unless the difference be both reall in profession practice so it is not every reall difference in profession or practice that they hold to be a sufficient cause Nor do they judge that even the cause being sufficient the separation should be alwayes carried to the extremity but the sound and clear rule which they propose for Christian practice in this matter is that where the controverted difference is such as would render a conjunction therein either sinful or contagious then a just and proportionat sepaâ—ation precisely and with all tenderness Commensurate to the exigence is the safer course As for your conceit stating the cause of Separation upon difference of opinion in a truth of greater importance then the article of our faith the Catholick Church the communion of Saints the examining of it by what I have said plainly discovers both its mistake and ambiguitie In the next place let me tell you in behalf of honest Non-conformists that the true reason of their present withdrawing is none other then what you allow That they account themselves bound to obey God in adhering to their true Pastors and disowning Intruding-hirelings rather then man commanding the contraire I will not digress to a more particular inquirie since you are pleased to carry your Non conformist by it but if you had made him give this answer together with a clear condescendence I doubt not but either he or I had made it out I might here take notice how smoothly and perswadedly you suppose that Non-conformists do separate from the Church although they for the most part think your conceiting your partie to be the Church no better founded then the rest of your usurpations but because this point will againe occurre I proceed to your 〈◊〉 hint that in former times Non-conformists repressed some sins specially these of the flesh but fcâ—rce in a Gospel way and for other sins were very gentle to them nay were themselves guiltie of them Sir your suggestion being so general and groundless I only wish that its latter part were as void of malice as its former is farre from truth I know that all men are sinners and heartily desire that all Non-conformists may be serioussly warned throughly and impartially to search and examine their wayes and unfainedly to repent of their transgressions Nay though the frequencie and high import of your generall accusations render the sinceritie of your meeknes in forbearing particulars many wayes suspected yet I urge it not Only remember that as I disown the Patrocinie either of mens failings or infirmities so I do as little hold the work of God chargeable with any such extrinsick and accidentall objections but should thy impudence make men hold their peace and when thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed When you offered to reflect upon the infirmities and failings of former times might not and should not the present irreligion and wickednesse every were abounding which are not only connived at by your Church-men but do visibly go forth from them into all the Land for they commit lewdnesse and walk in lies they strengthen also the hands of evil doers that none doth returne from his wickednesse have confounded you unto silence Certainly this your procedour cannot but suggest to all sober men that too applicable passage of the Gospel And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brothers eye And thus Sir I am arrived at your plain and set impugnation of the N. C. courses And to begin
208. l. 32. For r. To. p. 215. l. 17. r. fealty ibid. l. 34. r. and any p. 217. l. 3. r. That p. 220. l. 2. r. our p. 228. â—l 9. r. 1590. ibid. l. 10. r. doubted p. 242. l. 8. r. on p. 252. l. 9. r. one p. 253. l. 7. r fervent p. 269. l. 29. r. pattern p. 284. l. 17. r. ridiculous p. 341. l. 16. r. mostly p. 387. l. 6. r. mitigated p. 391. l. 31. r. ashamed p. 572. l. 14. r. this p. 496. l. 8. r. maintained p. 502. l. 17. r. convinced ibid. l. 18. r. qualifies Reader what others thou may find through a letter wanting or redundant or one for another or through a comma colon or the like misplaced or wanting thou mayest correct as thou readest The first DIALOGUE Answered SIR If I premise that your modest and free conference doth obviously appear to me to be rather a phantastick rancountre of a mocking Conformist and a Mock-Non-conformist it is not from any design to preoccupy by so severe a character but only to releeve both you and my self of the fruitless observation and tedious prosecution of the many impertinencies incident to such a practice and therefore as you are not to expect my particular noticing of the high pretensions weak replyes faint cedings ridiculous evasions plain concessions and flattering insinuations whereunto you prompt your Puppet-non-conformist either for your own advantage or diversion so in the tracing of these things that seeme to be more serious and important in your Dialogues I promise you all the candor and calmness whereof I am capable Yea though your double dealing in this cause which not content to impugne as a Conformist you go about also as a Non-conformist to betray might well warrant a more sharpe and large animadversion both upon your end and method yet being only desirous of truths vindication and in the occurrence of so many temptations justly jealous of my own infirmitie I do here francklie cease from and lay aside all wrath and bitterness that I sin not and shall as sincerely distinctly as I can review and answere your reasonings as they ly Before you fall to your direct accusations you suggest 1. That the Non-conformists do boast of their way as the Glory 2. That their Ministers tell them only of Christs death which is not to preach him 3. That they study more to convince them of the need of Christs Righteousness then of having anâ— of their own 4. That Non-conformists think they may quite the Communion of the Church if in their opinion noâ— in the truth in every point 5. That in former times they repressed some sins specially of the flesh but scarcely in a Gospel way and as for other sins were very gentle to them Nay were themselves guiltie of them Sir were I not very loath to irritate you in the entrie I would tell you that to commence your conference with such groundless odious and incoherent hints which you dare not positively affirme is more agreeable to a design of prejudice then to the charitie you so amply professe But to particulars to the first that the Non-conformists do boast of their way as the Glory 1. We bless our God our Glory who hath made all the manifestations and means of his Grace Glorious these are the overflowings of the excellent Glory by the streames whereof all our gloryings and praises ought to be carried back to concentred in and swallowed up of the Ocean-fountain whence they proceed 2. The Scripture is plain that Jesus Christ the Prince of Glorie in the revelation of his Glorious Gospel hath made the ministration thereof so farre to exceed in Glory that even he himself accounteth the Messengers thereof his Glory Whether these things be not sufficient to justifie both the Non-conformists boasting and regrete needeth not my assertion Sure I am if a pure Ministrie not modelled by the policy and pride of man but singly squared to our Lords institution if able Ministers of the New Testament declaring all the Counsel of God and imparting the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel And lastly if the growing and Multiplying of the word of God and his peoples desire after and rejoicing in it have any lustre of this Glory the present sad catastrophe whereby all these have been so wickedly and wofully changed to their contraries may more justly move every concerned serious soul to a lamentation for the departed glory then these occasions that first produced that complaint If you judge these to be swelling words of vanitie remember that as I do speak the true Non-conformist so it is your part by this your conference more solidly to redargue him The second thing you suggest is that the Non-conforming Ministers tell us only of Christs death which is not to preach Christ. Sir this allegeance short as it is presents it self with a disgust that I can scarce express Not that I think the Non-conformists are thereby in the least noted Nay on the contrarie I am confident that in whatsoever sense you are able to render the accusation pertinent the Non-conformists are most free to deny it and that with the universall evidence of all their unprejudicate hearers and the unanimous testimony of all their confessions and writings extant And whether this be more to their advantage or your dishonour I hope you will consider But that which in my heart I detest is to hear the glorious subject of the precious death of Christ so both slighted and narrowed within its Scriptural acceptation by such a Cold restrictive If the Apostle Paul desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified and Gloryed only in his Cross If the death of Christ doth necessarily suppose and did certainly confirme his preceeding Testament nay if in the Gospel it be often mentioned as the substance and root of all had you no fitter words for your intended accusation of N. C. then that they tell us only of Christs death I know your meaning viz. That to tell people onely of an interest in Christ while they are strangers to his Laws and Gospel is to deceive them is as sound as it is untruly charged upon the Non-conformists Neither would I have taxed an innocent lapse in the phrase observed but it s too visible tendencie to the discredite of the doctrine of Justification by the bloud of Christ and to the new rationall Method of more exalting our righteousness to an equality with his merit then pressing it in Conformity to his life and love is the cause of my aversion The Non-conformists therefore do indeed tell us of the death of our Lord Jesus not with your ill appropriat and restringent only but do preach to us alwayes and principally this doctrine of his Cross as that whereby both the great mean of our reconciliation â— and the strongest motive best pattern and most certain assurance of our dying unto sin and living unto God wherein our Sanctification consists are held forth 3.
you in a word what is the reason that the Christian world doth not patiently stretch out its neck to the Turkish Cruelty Sure you are not ignorant that the pretended cause of his invasions hath often been to destroy the Christian Faith if then the spirituality of Christs Kingdom doth altogether prohibite his Servants fighting wherefore do not Christian States and Princes lay down their Carnall defensive weapons and rest quietly in this that God who governs the world can maintain his own right and the wrath of man doth not work his righteousnesse as you are pleased to Cant to your N. C. I know the only reply you can make is that the case of free Estates and Soveraigne Princes against foreiners is very different from that of Subjects against their Rulers but doth not this plainly discover the Sophistrie of your Method you tell us first that Subjects may not fight for Religion against their persecuting Prince because the spirituality of Christs Kingdom forbids all fighting upon that account And then when you are urged with the incontrovertible practice of Christian Kingdomes you just recurre say that the instance not being of Subjects against their Prince doth not quadrat and not remembring that this is the very quaesâ—â—um you make the vain and emptie assertion of the irresistibilitie of Princes without any proofe both head and tail of all your reasonings I may not insist to tell you that if the spirituality of Christs Kingdom did cause the King of Kings and him who even on earth owned himself greater then Solomon to suffer without resistance The Soveraignity of Christian Princes cannot give them a contrary privilege I know these of your way and many others also carried away with their error forgetting both the Authority which Christ exercised and for which he was questioned by the jewish Rulers and also his own most expresse words no man taketh my life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again stick not to make an obligation of subjection to the then Tyrannes Murtherers an ingredient in his submission but I am tedious More consideration of the worth and wonderful love of our Lord Jesus Christ would teach you no doubt both a better understanding in the Truth of God and more reverend and tender vindications then these you make of the True and Faithfull Witness You proceed in the next place upon occasion of your N. C. alledging that you condemne our first Reformation carried on by Fighting to tell us that the ages immediatly after Christ afford the best examples in these the Christians though suffâ—â—iently numerous and cruelly irritate did onlâ— increase by suffering and not by fighting the force used in our Reformation was the enemies tares and no precedent of men is to be opposed to the expresseâ— word of God Sir to begin where you leave I hope I have already fully cleared that the expresse word of God is against you and not for you neither will I expatiat upon the undeniable Necessitie Righteousnesse Reason and evident blessing of that Force used in our first Reformation by which our Religion Libertie yea the Royall line and Crown were under God only preservedâ— Nay your reprochful likening of it to the devils tares is so far from lessening the evidence of that Spirit which after having resisted unto bloud and wrestled through many great and strong persecutions did animate the Lords people to a very noble defence countenanced by all the then Reformed Churches that it doth not so much as demurie my charitie that if you your self had been in these dayes you had taken part with the Congregation That which I shall stay a little upon is the practice of the Primitive Christians whereby you think fighting for Religion to be as much condemned as suffering is highly commended And because this objection doth lead unto the delightful search and vindication of the works of God for answere I observe first that as in the holy and determinate Counsel of God it became the Captain of our Salvation to be made perfect through suffering so it pleased him for the greater manifestation of the power of his Grace by the Foolishnesse of Preaching and Weakeness of Suffering to render the propagation of his Truth more glorious and thus in the first times of the Gospel the greater the crueltie and the more ineluctable that the necessity of the suffering was the more inexpressible was the glory of that presence and the joy of that consolation whereby the Church in its deepest distresse did most highly triumph 2. So unspeakeablie did the power of this assistance prevail to the dispelling of the fear and removing of the horrour of all these torments and afflictions that many instead of flying incontrovertibly lawfull did directly run to suffering and to a great part the Garland of Martyrdom became a most Ambitionat Crown by the mistake of the exuberance of which assisting grace not only many odd practices in precipitating themselves unto suffering and death but Opinions also then held such as that of the unlawfulnesse of all resistance for Christians even against Robbers and Murtherers can only be excused 3. But if the beautie and splendor of this grace did in some measure dazle the eyes of its more immediate witnesses how much more did it astonish its more remote and after admirers who receiving the report with fames increase and taking their measures more from their own good design then the exact simplicitie of truth by their pious and affectionat Rhetorications stopt not to strain matter of fact sometimes beyond probabilitie If you be a stranger to this truth advert how the almost immediate after Age magnifies their Patience and Sufferings such as veflra omnia repleâ—iâ—us with more then one grain of allowance 4. As this was the dispensation of the first ages of the Gospel so when the Lord advanced the Church to a certain and visible capacity of defence peruse Histories and you will find plenty of instances of Christians their fighting for Religion The Armenii very early even before Constantine his Empire Libertatem exercendi Christianismi Armis vindicant Clade afficiunt Maximinum as the History beares and how the persecuted Christians under the Persian and Arrian did implore and receive the aid of the Roman and Orthodox Emperours would be superfluous to narrate By these few reflections as I have cut of from your argument all the necessary suffering and strained capacities of the Primitive Christians so I have given you such a full and evident account of their not searching after or improving sooner any real measure of sufficiencie for defence which probably they did but little minde that this their omission cannot without manifest calumnie be adduced to disprove either their immediate afterâ— practises or the agreeable and universally approven examples of our late reformations Now if for proving their more early capacite for or expresse dissent from Defensive Armes
institute for and greatly commended by the effectual propagation of the Gospel and conspicuous advancement of holinesse so the ignorance and licentiousness which as the shadow doth the body do attend the prevailing of your Order are not more the imputation of men then the bitter and corrupt fruits that undeniably demonstrate the corruptnes of that plant of Prelacie not planted by God whereby they are produced ye shal know them by their fruits is a Test for Courses as well as Persones and that a good tree bringeth forth good fruit but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit is no lesse applicable to and clearly verified in the one then in the other The pure ordinances of a Gospel Ministrie and Church-Government according to our Lords appointment as they have his warrant and promise so they may expect his blessing but Lordly Prelacie the unwarrantable invention of man accomodate to a politique or worse designe and carried on by palpable avarice pride and falshood for the reducing of the just liberty of preaching and due respect to Conscience unto a subserviencie to mens lusts and secular interests cannot be more attended with the evil effects of ignorance profanitie and irreligion then it hath a peculiar influence directly productive thereof and therefore Sir as you say that you are so far Episcopal as to love the order I suppose because it is Ordered and submit to it because you see that rest is good so â— intreat you to be so far Rational as to consider that Presbytery and Prelacie are not meere distinguishing names but such realities as have even in our experience produced most Important and different effects and then I question not but the sad and woful consequences of that abounding Sin and Profanenesse which from your Prophets are gone forth into all the land will render you so far Christian as to know by such fruits the corruptnes of your Episcopacie that hath brought them forthâ— and without adjuring you to any Sect turne you not only to be a mouâ—ner for the sins of your partiâ— but a serious supplicant that the accursed cause thereof may be removed But you say that Non-conformists are guiltie of the present loosnesse who 1. By making Religion a cloak to so many State-designes make too many suspect Religion to be but a designe oâ— it self 2. by driving people to an outward compliance in formes cause them to nauseat at all Religion but. 3. and mostly by their waxing cold in love to which our Saviour plainly knits the abounding of iniquitie Sir as to your two first reasons If I should as lightly deny them as you do affirme them you should be fully answered but this your accustomed confidence of objecting to Non-conformists these things whereof their Adversaries are mostly if not only guilty obliges me to a further reflection That Religion may be made a cloak to State-designes nay to the greatest villanies is certainly one of the most grievous of these offences because of which a wo is pronounced to the world but that this hath not been so much the accidentall practice of any Person of our way as the very substance of your whole course is obvious to the meanest Consideration How austerly our first Reformers were denied to all Worldly advantages and how faithfull to the Crown and then infant King I leave it to the candid and impartiall consideration of all sober Men not preferring the vain pretenses made for perverted yea profaned Authority in Odium of Truth to the most convincing evidences of all impotencie and wickednesse that can be instanced from any History The next passage that occurres of these who on our part in a most stedfast simplicity did assert and establish Presbytrie untill the year 1596. of others who on your part by Fraud Perjury and Violence did in compliance with King Iames his design of Complementing the English Clergie on the one hand and attaining to a greater freedom of indulging and gratifying the Popish partie on the other both supposed necessaire for assuring the then much courted Succession endeavour the overthrow of Presbytrie as being too straight for such crooked courses is an instance against your first reason which I am bound in Charity to think you did not call to minde sure I am that which you object of our aiming at State-designes change but State into Court and you will finde it was so far from being our guilt that it was King Iames his regret on our behalf that honest Men would not be thereby tempted But it is like the times you hint at are these of our late Troubles Wherein though I acknowledge that the feigned concurse and corrupt designes of some did in their occasion discover themselves Yet it cannot be denied that such was and is the truth of the work of God and stedfastnesse of its faithfull Adherers that even unto this day through all the various temptations of Malignancie on the one hand and Sectarianisme on the other both it and they do retain their integrity Really Sir when I consider that neither the tempting terrour of the prevailing Malignant interest in the Years 1645. and 48. nor the succeeding victory usurpation and very plausible and insinuating offers of the Sectarians with all these strange revolutions that have since happened have moved the Lords faithfull remnant in the Land from that well tempered and justly ballanced fear of God and honour to the King which from the beginning they professed and do hold forth in the Covenant and all their Publick actings Your accusation of the work of God as a State design appears to me a very palpable inconsistencie and ridiculous calumny to design State changes or advantages and yet to omit and slight all the probable yea and possible opportunities of compassing them are things which Malice it self cannot affirme to be compatible As for these who not being upright nor stable in the Lords Covenant have according to the impulse of their own worldly designes turned and figured themselves unto every sort of compliance they are now so unexpectedly and wholly almost become of your way that there needs no other evidence of the eà sie accommodation that all selfâ—seekers and time-servers do finde in it but wherefore do I seek to retort Can there be any thing more certain then that as corrupt Court designes have only imposed this heavy Yoke of Prelacie upon the Lords Church and People amongst us so such have been and are the wicked and ungodly practices of its Lords and their dependents the vast dissonancie of their lives even from their own Canons and profession that I do not so much wonder at your impudence in objecting against our course The tempting of many to suspect Religion to be but a design of it self as that the monstrousnesse of your Hierarchy hath not scandalized the whole world to account all Religion but a cheat 2. You say by driving of people to an outward compliance in forms we have caused them to Nauseat at all Religion
Who would think that this were the accusation of Non-conformists who from the very beginning of Reformation have been continually vexed by your impositions and not rather conceive the objection to be made by them against your violent pressing of Crosse Surplice Service-book Book of Canons and other â—rash wherewith the Lords people have been uncessantly urged as the main yea only things of Religion But I cannot stand upon every one of your calumnies the Lord deliver you from this perverse spirit Only if by the driving objected you do understand our causing the people of the Land to stand stedfast and adhere to the Lords Covenant whereby they were formerly obliged it is already fully answered But that which you say is of greatest weight is that we are guilty of the waxing cold in Love to which our Saviour knits the abounding of Iniquity And this challenge you qualify by our judging you in Matters which are doubtful disputations spreading tattlesâ— of you as you call them carrying sowrly toward you and casting odious aspersions upon you as Apostates and the like with petulant railings and this you adde is a greater persecution then any little suffering of ours in the World Sir though I cannot sooth you as you do your felf by the mouth of your N. C. whose tongue you teach to speak lyes in your smooth words of deceit by telling you that too much of what you speak is true Yet I heartily wish there were more Charity on all sides but where you accuse us of waxing cold in Love and thence would inferre our accession to the present abounding iniquity I would first have you to read the text aright which runeth thus And because iniquity shall aboâ—nd the love of many shall wax cold which is a plain inversion of your causality 2. Admitting your ground to be good I seriously wish without vanity that the waxing cold in love both toward God and your Neighbour were not more your sin then ours then had we not been scorched into a blacknesse and consumed almost into ashes by these fiery trials kindled blown and kept into a flame by the Grandees of your way pourtrey them as you please whose heat speaks them to be set on fire against the Work People and Interests of God 3. To call the causes of our Differences matters which are doubtfull Disputations when both by Scripture Reason and Solemne Engagements and many sad experiences they are so fully determined is indeed to put false glosses upon things and to pretend to be a good Christian and to acclaime the charity and kindnesse of others in an avoued persistence in open Perjury Opposition to the Cause of God and persecution of his People is it not to wipe your mouth and say you have done no wickednesse But you say it is from the spirit of the Devil to fasten the brand of Apostasie upon the leaving of a partie and that to grow wiser is not to play the changling nor is a consciencious obedience to standing Laws time-serving Sir as I love neither to irritate nor prejudicate by hard words so I approve not either your or your N. C. tattles but if to leave God and not a Partie be Apostasie if to forsake the way and Truth of God be to play the changling and if to obey and conforme to mischief framed by a Law be time-serving I am sadly apprehensive that what you account to be but the Malice of the spirit of the Devil shall one day be found the Verdict of the Spirit of God Whether it be thus or not in our controverted differences let the things themselves and the issue of our discourse declare What you tell us of the primitive application of the word Apostasie is no restriction of its proper acceptation And for your other petty conceits in this place with your mock-complaint of the persecution of a just but disdained censure they are not of that moment to stop my procedour to that part of your conference which concerns Episcopacie This head you say falls asunder in two the one a general consideration of that Government the other supposing it were amisse how far it ought to be separated from And for the Government in place of all these weighty and unanswerable objections viz. the want of our Lords Warrant 2. Repugnancie to his and his Apostles Precepts and practice of restless labour simplicity equality humility and contempt of the world c. 3. Disconformity to the first and purer times of the Primitive Church 4. The pride avarice usurpation and cruelty to which it naturally tends and hath been depraved And lastly these evil and bitter fruits of profanity ignorance and superstition that it hath ever in its prevalencie produced which have been charged upon and made out against it by many of the Lords faithfull Witnesses you make your N. C. faintly and poorly to aledge I cannot think that Church-men should be called Lords and be great Persons that this is a desingenuous prevarication is obviously manifest Yet such is the weaknesse of your cause that the meanest argument you could put in your N. C. mouth is stronger then your answere wherein you tell us That this belongs not to the thing it self but is an addition of the Christian Magistrat But I must remember you first that Church-men and Ministers are not capable of every addition Civil offices and administrations are very lawfully bestowed by the Magistrat upon fit Recipients but as for Ministers they are not only an intolerable distraction many degrees above that charitable imployment which the Apostles could not bear but so inconsistent with the nature manner and end of their Ministrie that even our Lord while in this capacitie doth bruskly decline to be so much as an amicable trister And therefore to justify Bishops titles from this ground that they are extrinsick additions or from their civil place and voice in Parliament is no wayes concludent 2. Though this were not yet I am confident that who ever considers the received use and import of this title of Lord amongst us will find it an addition as full of fastuous vanity for Ministers as the title of Rabbi even admitting that its excess did lye another way therefore excepted against and prohibited by our Lord was unlawfull for the Apostles but 3. This title is not an addition flowing from the Christian Magistrat as you pretend but the very product of that pride and usurpation that at first exalted Prelacie which as as first it was assumed by the connivence of if not rather forced from the Civil Magistrat so now by the Bishops it is only derived from him in consequence of that Supremacie which both falsly against our Lord Jesus Christ and traiterously to the Pope in this respect their proper head they have for their own conveniencie transferred upon him But you add that we consider not that Sir and Lord Gentleman and Nobleman differ but in degree since therefore a Minister by Office â—hes the temporall â—onour of
therefore left us to the worse Tyranny of mens pretended and corrupted power and deluded imagination God forbid but as the hath set us free for ever so he hath only laid on us his own easie â—â—oke and light burthen of Pure and Evangelick ordinances by which our Liberty is so far from being intringed that it is thereby both preserved and enlarged In the next place you say Since no Allegorie holds it is ridiculous to argue because offices in a Kingdom are named by the King therefor it must be so in the Church It 's answered 1. do you then think that our Lords Kingdom is only Allegorick Or because the symboles and badges usuall in Earthly Kingdoms are in a figure thereto transferred is it therefore wholly a figure but God hath set his King upon his holy Hill of Zion and Know you assuredly that God hath exalted him to be both Lord and Christ bâ—wisâ— therefore and be instructed Kiss the Son lest he be angrâ— and learn to acknowledge his Kingdom in all the parts and privileges thereof by him declared Next it is most evident that not only Christs Kingdom in and over his Church is reall and certain and that Officers truely such vested with his Authority and therefore depending on Christ as King are held forth by the Scripture and to be really found therein but seing he himself hath in the Gospel so expressly founded their mission upon that All power given unto him and Paul so plainly referres the giving of Apostles c unto his Ascension and exaltation are you not ashamed to alledge these things to be only by us concluded from the vain appearance of an Allegory And thus to make your self ridiculous in that scorne you intended for others But poor wretch you adde That we may as wel say that there must be coin stamped by Christ as Officers appointed by him in his Church for this is the runing of your words Lord deliver you from this profane Spirit thinkest thou that the Kingdom of Christ hath need of money as it hath indeed need of Officers Or because money is current and symony a frequent practice in your Church hes it therefore any place in Christs true Church Sir your profane scoffing at the Kingdome of Christ is one passage amongst many that give me Confidence to say arise O God plead thine own cause remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee dayly But I professe I am confounded in my self when I think of my own provocations and on the iniquitie of his Sons and Daughters for if the abuse of the Glorious Gospel shineing amongst us in so much puritie had not been great he would not have given up the dearly beloved of his Soul into the hand of such persecuting adversaries and such scoffers at him who justifie these malicious mockers in Cajaphas Hall with an over-plus of wickednesse O if he would returne he would quicklie emptie Pulpits and Chairs in Universities of such who bend their tongues for lies and make the world see because they have rejected knowledge he hath also rejected them that they shall be no Priests to him The next thing you subjoin is what King will think his prerogative lessened by constituting a Corporation to whom he shall leave a liberty to cast themselves into what mould they please providing they obey the General Laws and hold that liberty of him Thus you will alwayes aspire to enter into the Counsel of God if your vote had been here asked it is very like you would have bestowed large privileges upon that Church where you might have been a sharer But we bless him to whom the Church is committed and on whom the Government is laid who hath provided better and given unto his Church complete Officers perfect Ordinances true Laws and good Statutes and ordered his house in all things and therefore as we are not to enquire what the Lord might have done but humbly and thankfully to acknowledge what he hath done so in these things for men to disown his Authority and deny his bounty and usurp to themselves a power of altering what he hath established and fashioning the worship and Government of Gods house according to the device of their own heart is no doubt no lawful liberty but a licentious invasion of Christ's prerogative and a jealousie-provoking sin of Laese Majestie Divine That thus it stands betuixt you and us the preceeding passages do plainly witness and the faithfulness of Jesus Christ as a Son over his own house so expresly commended and preferred before the faithfulnesse of Moses is an argument which you will never dissolve You say his faithfulnesse consisted in his discharging the Commission given him by his Father Most certain but you ask who told us that it I suppose you mean the appointing the Officers Ordinances and Government of the house of God was in the Fathers Commission Herein is a marvellous thing You know that Jesus Christ whrist was sent by the Father to redeem gather feed guid and Govern his Church and you see that as the things in question are thereto necessarie so in discharge hereof he sends out Apostles and Ministers Ordains Officers vests them with power and Authority instructs them to a Ministerial and lowly administration and deportment defines Censures appoints his Ordinances and Laws liberats the Worship of God from the shadows and types of the Jewish Pedagogie and cleares its true and spiritual exercise and liberty and finally acquits himself faithfully in all his house do you then question if he did these things or doubt you that he did them by Commission it is a hard Dilemma which you will never evade but you adde that if we argue from Moses it will inferre that all particulars must be determined whereupon you urge that as Moses determines the dayes of Separation for a legal uncleannesse why doth not the Gospel the like for spirituall uncleannesse It 's answered if you had taken up the Argument aright and considered the faithfulnesse of Christ and Moses not in order to the same but with relation to their respective Commissions You had not fallen into this mistake but the Scripture parallel is clear Moses as a servant did faithfully completely order Gods house therefore Our Lord much more as a Son hath thus ordered the Church his own house Whence as it doth no wayes follow that whatsoever things were institute by Moses ought to have been in like manner imitate by our Lord so this is most concludent that as Moses as a Servant did diligently and exactly execute his Commission in order to the Tabernacle its service Ministers and all its appurtinents so Christ both by reason of a command received and of his interest and power hath exceeded the faithfulnesse of Moses in the Ordering and appointment of things appertaining to his Church But for the better confirming our Reasoning and the removing of your Mistake I do only recommend to you this obvious truth viz. that the Commendation of our Lord held
Innovations of Prelacie and the Perth Articles thereafter introduced were by this Oath condemned Notwithstanding that its obvious meaning doth abundantly import the same both in the particular abjuration of the Popes corrupt Doctrine anent the nature number and use of the holy Sacraments his unwarrantable dedication of Dayes and his worldly Monarchie and wicked Hierarchie and also in the generall detestation which it contains of all Rites and Traditions brought into the Kirk without or against the word of God And that the generality of the Godly in the Land did so understand it yet such was the tenderness then used that the practice was only at first agreed to be forborn and the determination of the Question for the gaining of the doubtfull and refractory referred to a lawfull Assembly Now if this Assembly in the light of the reasons already touched and others mentioned in their Act did clearly determine this matter and the Covenant was thereafter taken with an agreeable Declaration where can you fixe your challenge To alledge after an Oath is taken that to be thereby abjured which doth no where appear in it is certainly as false as the termes you use are scurrilous but to declare from undeniable grounds these things to be contained in a prior Oath which only the temptation and darknesse of an after-defection did make to be questioned is nothing els then a just vindication and application requisite to a faithfull pursuance and whereof the instance of Nehemiah his renewing Covenant with God with a more large declaration of the manner of the Sabbaths observance then is to be found in the Law is an undeniable warrant But reason failing your passion and big words must be made use of to supply that deâ—ect for you say what violence did we use to oblige all to bow on this Idole Church-men refusing were deposed yea both they and Lay-men also excommunicat 'T is answered A faithfull and zealous prosecution of the Lords Oath from the Conscience of his holy jealousie is only the just and laudable effect of his fear and no wayes to make it an Idol But seing you love such expressions to sweare and forsweare as your partie hath done without either constancie or repentance is certainly to make an Idol not of the Covenant only but of the Great God thereto invocked who infallibly will one day avenge it As for the Censures you speak of if the perfidie of that refusall with the other transgressions and delinquencies whereof the persons particularly censured were for the most part if not all notoriously known and found to be guilty be duely pondered they will rather be found to fall short of then exceed the proportions of righteousness And though I deny not but the heats prejudices and other temptations inevitable in such changes to humane infirmity may possibly have rendered the lot of some few and these very few recusants rather obstinate then malitious a little hard and apparently rigid yet this is most obvious that the late revolution hath so infinitly exceeded not only for iniquity but also in the measure of its oppressions all the excesses chargeable on former times that nothing less then an impudence sutable to the late perjury could prompt you or any of your partie to move such an objection but let us hear your conclusion What man of common sense can think this the Cause of God which had such monstruous errours in its first conception Sir though I think that in the matters of God you do appeal to an ill Judge yet I am so little diffident of the cause which I maintain that only wishing you to be more sparing in obtruding your own ridiculous delusions for monstruous errours I heartily referre our discourse to my greatest Opposite In the next place making a step of your N C. weak and groundless concession That there were faults in the imposing of the Covenant and taking it up at your own hand That the matters of the Covenant are in themselves indifferent you go on to argue that seing in these things a man is not his own Master but by the command of God obliged to obey the Magistrat in all things lawfull a tye before all Oaths as by no act of ours we can be bound to break the Command of God so no more can we oblige our selves to do any thing in prejudice of anothers right our Soveraign's Authority and therefore since the King and Parliament have by Law annulled the Covenant and required submission to Episcopacie our antecedent Oath a voluntary deed of our own can no longer â—ind us against the commands of the Powers which are the mediatâ— commands of God I have set down this argument of yours more fully to the effect you may perceive that if I have not so much of your common sense as to comprehend it as a clear demonstration yet it is not for want of a just and true apprehension but really from the greater evidence of the answeres subjoined and first I say your foundation fails the matters of the Covenant are not things indifferent but in themselves true righteous and holy importing such an antecedent obligation as in the occurrence of the preexistent circumstances did render the taking and requiring of that Oath an indispensable dutie And this when you think good to quarrell I am most ready to make out 2. Supposing with you that the matter of the Covenant is indifferent and that in such things the Magistrates power of commanding cannot by any Oath or deed of ours be prevented or prelimited yet Sir think you that your Omission must so farre charme us to oblivion as to make us forget that as King Charles the first did in plene Parliament An. 1641. under his hand-writing ratifie the Nationall Covenant with the explication and Bond thereto annexed and prior Acts made anent it with such solemnities and concurrent considerations as it is impossible to question it so his Son who now Reigns did in the year 1650. and 51. take and confirme both it and the Solemn League and Covenant with such Oaths Subscriptions as well private and unrequired as publick Declarations and Acts that greater grounds of assurance were never heard of amongst men if then this was the case of the obligation of these Covenants at his Majesties returne admitting all that you suppose dare you or any say that the King and Parliament had power either to resile or to loose others from the Bonds which they themselves had thus established If a Fathers silence and non-contradiction to a Daughters vowing and whose vowes he may disannull do make her vowes to stand so that he cannot thereafter make them void how can the express solemn and sworne confirmation of King and Parliament in favours of a Covenanting people with any colour of reason be thought to be either in it self ambulatory or toward others less effectual But 3 to undeceive you of the vain esteem you have for this argument the very grounds of it are manifestly fallacious For
destroy all liberty and render men in every Oath how free and voluntary soever obnoxious to the Magistrat's absolute control and plainly to ranverse both the freedom of making and necessity of keeping all vowes which nevertheless the Lord hath most expressly allowed and confirmed Sir as I have with you supposed the matters of the Covenant to be in themselves indifferent and taken this pains for no other end then to rectifie your Common sense and refell your pretended Demonstration notwithstanding of so faire a concession so give me leave again to remember you and all concerned that seing the matters in these Covenants were antecedently true and righteous and are now concluded under the great Oath of God your pitiful quibling upon the Kings power in matters free and indifferent is so far from licensing us to the least violation that though we do further unanswerably alledge his Majesties supervenient ratification yet it is more for your redargution then our own confirmation whose Consciences are by the former ground most satisfyingly established And here I might put a period to my reflections on this Dialogue seing that what remaines doth nothing convel these sure grounds whereupon we are founded but because in pursuance of your conceit of the Magistrats power of rendering the matter of Vowes antecedently free unlawful and thereby making their obligation to cease you in returne to the Question What could move the King to preferre Episcopacie to Presbyterie pretend to many strong inductives whereby you suppose the change to be undeniably authorized This calumny must also be removed And before I enter upon this matter I cannot but commend your providence who fearing that your allegations would be found false do prudently provide a refuge in the profound and recluse deepth of Princes their secrets which you think should put a stop to the inquirie which indeed neither you nor all men beside are able to answere but as the strange wickedness and folly of this Act is such as all the devices imaginable cannot so much as vernish it with any apparent colour and its consequences have been so pernicious as have left no Subject in the Nations unconcerned in their smart so I hope without the imputation of a mutinous curiosity I may take the liberty to tell you that it was not our Leaders which occasioned the work you hint at to the King's Grand-father his Father and Himself Art thou he that troubleth Israel is an old and royall accusation of the Lord's Ministers I wish the answer now a dayes were as improper as I am tender to use it we have not troubled Israel but thou and thy Fathers house in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed thy own inventions I need not put you in minde of K. Iames his engagements to defend the Gospel and maintain the true and pure Ordinances and Discipline of God's house and how he thereafter turned and corrupted his way by no less then a direct invasion of Christ's Throne manifest perversion of his Ordinances designed subjection of the liberty of the Gospel and its Ministery to his lust and pleasure and open persecution of many faithful Ministers and Professours These things if you were ingenuous you should rather have essayed to answere as being already objected and proven by others then provoked me to the repetition As to what you objecte from latter times I am sorry that by so rude and false an accusation viz. You involved the Nations in bloud and not satisfyed with all the security you could demand you engaged with the King his Enemies in England and opposed the design of his deliverie An. 1648 you should engage me to reflect upon a worthy but abused Prince all whose faults I think both may and ought to be buried under his mis-fortune but seing this you will not suffer I shall only desire you and others to consider these sad grievances which are elswhere undeniably cleared viz. 1. The Prelatick Tyranny and impositions of these times 2. The rage and fury wherewith they endeavoured to inflame and stirre up all against this Kingdome after that they had first constrained us to just defence 3. Their notorious and reiterate persidies whereby they rendered all securitie desperate And lastly the sin of that backsliding course 48. now so evidently unmasked by the 9 Act of the late Parliament 1661 which instead of delivering did visibly precipitate his Majestie 's sad fate these things are so manifest even from the publick Records of the Nation that I can not but admire the effronterie of your confidence that can so overly pass them But you add a Question In a word what jealousies had you justly raised in the hearts of Princes of your Government Sir I wish you had deigned your self with another word of answere for really I know none except these old and endless ones the temptation and sin of all worldly Powers against the Lord and his Anointed As for our Tyranny 1649. against the Nobility you should first have answered for their breach of trust 1648 But since they themselves have publickly by the Act above mentioned avowed it your charge of Tyranny against the moderately disproportionate censures then inflicted merites no answere In the last place you say our Ministers divided shamefully among themselves I grant and sinfully also though that all engaged were not equally guilty and this was a great triall but since that an excess of charity toward your party on the one hand and a sounder judgement of your principles or rather looseness on the other was the only cause of the difference is it not invidious in you not only to have dissappointed your favourers but to taxe the greater number whom you have since so fully justified as men of maximes incompatible with Government Sir this is the summe of the account you make us of the reasons of his Majesties change with what evidence the Reader and not you must judge If he miss your Sun in its Meridian and finde your light to be but darkness a more simple eye and heart may be both his satisfaction and your remedy If I might enlarge in a more full returne I could easily demonstrate that all things being considered both before at and since the Kings restauration his adhering to the Covenant and owning that interest had been not only his safety and peace but his most certain establishment and Glory if the favour and countenance of the most High the firme love and loyalty of all good men and the undoubtedly equal compliance and submission of the other parties may be fit media in such an argument the conclusion is obvious But lest you say art thou made of the Kings Councel Forbear leaving events to God I shall be silent Having all along endeavoured to burne in the close of this Dialogue you go about to blowe us I am not for triffling with you in such unsincere and mixed complements the Lord purge both you and us from all dross and restore to
faults of your vain airie and insipid reasonings upon the matters themselves by you treated If you have foolishly and petulantly impugned not only the work of God and his Covenant in these Lands the Ordinances of the Government Discipline and Worship of his House but also endeavoured to unsetle and subvert the very foundations of Justification by Faith in Christ Jesus without the deeds of the Law a sent Gospel-ministerie determined Sacraments and Christian Liberty And if your N. C. pretending to be the Respondent hath on the other hand manifestly betrayed the Cause by such a faint ridiculous and absurd defence as you were pleased to suggest the folly of this your wrangling remaineth with your self alone the matters therein handled as they continow still to be the firme truths signal blessings and especial means given us of God for the declaring of his Glory and the promoving of our Salvation and are not by your discourse in the least prejudged so they are so farre from excusing that they greatly aggravat these jejune and gustless Methods wherewith you manage this your conference but foreseeing this censure you cunningly cast in our way the mention of better subjects whether with a designe thus to evade or by your insinuat distinction betwixt the forgoing matters as dry and arid and your subsequent speculations as these better things only to be pursued to drive on the deceit of an irreligious indifferencie so much at present studied by the Adversarie and his Emissaries let others Judge Two things only I must say 1. That to go about to smooth the World with the pretensions of sublime and Seraphick attainments and in the mean time from these hights as it were but really in a convenient accommodation to every guise whereunto carnal ease doth invite and outward peace perswade to slight despise and labour to relaxe from the conscientious observance of these ordinances and midses which the Lord hath given and appointed as the only way leading to himself and the felicity of his favour is the most delusive appearance of an Angelick light wherewith Sathan can possibly palliat his blackest enterprises 2. Though your subsequent discourse were much more sound and candid both in its tenor and scope then truely it is yet therein to figure your self to be as it were a new burning and shining light teaching your N. C. in such a strain as if all of us whom by him you personat were wholly ignorant of the truth of Religion both in its methods and ends and altogether strangers to its life is visibly more disingenuous and arrogant then sincerely charitable Say not that I am ill natured if you find these words a little more pointed it s you that hath sharpened them Nay if I should assume a furder confidence of boasting in behalf of the Lords Ministers and the true Seekers of his face found amongst us according to the measure of the grace which God hath distributed unto us and even become a fool in glorying for the abasing of your self-flatterie I do neither want a just provocation nor a clear precedent for my warrant But seing there are several things by you here proposed which may be for the use of edifying to a serious and considerat Soul and wherein a real union would indeed prove a most effectuall corrective both of sinistruous designes and evill mixtures I shall therefore wave the direct prosecution of such discoveries and wishing that that power light and life which is in true and pure Religion may indeed end all our differences I heartily join my assent to your subsequent discourse with all the harmony and affection that truth doth allow That some do place Religion wholly in debates others in external Forms others in some privat devotions others in the regulation of the outward man and others in certain inward speculations and self-devised strains are things not so strange as grievous but as to know the Father the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent is the summe and substance of Religion and Eternal life in which profession we are all agreed so it is the power of this knowledge descending from Christ Jesus our Wisdom and apprehending him for Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption which is mostly and most sadly wanting If in the conduct thereof men were abhorring and denying themselves and in the acknowledgement of him who hath called us unto Glory and Virtue laying hold on these great and precious promises which in Christ Jesus are all yea and amen then from the application of His Righteousnesse should the peace of reconciliation and joy in the Holy Ghost abound from the communication of his life and grace should the Divine seed propagat and diffuse it self through the whole man and from and by this truth and power of Religion Believers should be transformed into the likeness and image of God and rendered partakers of the Divine Nature by which it is manifest that as Christ Jesus is the only foundation so it is that in him alone there is Salvation neither is there any other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved The power as well as the reward of Natures light was long since forfeited in Adam and though in the succeeding Ages God left not himself without a witness in that he did good and gave the invisible things of him from the creation of the World to be clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead yet the ungodliness of men still prevailing and holding the truth in unrighteousness this weaker light served only to render them without excuse 't is true the Patriarchs were burning and shining lights but it was from Divine revelation and the oracles and promises of God in which they saw Christ's day and rejoiced and not from natures light that this their radiancy was derived The dawning opened by Moses had certainly a great splendour and therein Christ Jesus the end of the Law for Righteousnesse was very observably held forth but as it pleased the Lord to vail the glory of this discovery with many types and shadows not making it a great ridle as you do unadvisedly affirme but keeping and conducting that people under the Pedagogie of that more burdensome and severe dispensation until the fulness of the time should come so then it was that he sent forth his own Son a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel to bless them in turning away every one of them from their iniquities to turne them from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctifyed by faith that is in him thus our Lord Jesus abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel and the great designes thereof not lying in that preposterous in coherent order by you represented are first by proposing to us that stupendious mysterie of the