unto the grace of God in Christ Jesus while in the mean time you do still arrogate them as a condition on the creatures part you the more declare the folly but in nothing diminish the sinfulnesse of your vanity These things need not to be illustrat questionless who ever doth consider his lost condition by reason of sin and wrath and hearkeneth unto that fundamental Gospel-precept deny thy self imprimis all self-righteousnesse and beleeve will find the power thereof so deeply descending into his Soul that all the desire trust and hope thereof will be fixed on Jesus Christ alone and to be found in him not having his own righteousnesse which unto his sincere reflection will be so far from appearing a condition that it will disappeare as dung but that Righteousnesse which is through the faith of Christ the Righteousnesse which is of God by faith But who can sufficiently declare and regret the madnes and ingratitude of this pride of man Jesus Christ is made of God unto us Righteousnesse and yet we will thereto join our own for Justification in Gods sight He is also made unto us Sanctification that in Him we may bring forth the fruits of holinesse unto the glory of God and the very same fruits will we impropriat to be the condition and as it were the price of our acceptance even with himself who is our only acceptation and our all Sir be not deceived as they who in the sight of sin and fear of wrath fâ—ee unto Christ alone for a refuge do finde his Righteousness not more sufficient then freely offered to every one that willeth for Justification in Gods sight so your Doctrine requiring both faith and a holy life as the previous conditions to give an interest in Christs Death and ascriving Justification to faith because forsooth of the pitiful fruits of our righteousnesse and not that perfect Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ which it doth apprehend is wholly dissonant unto the method of the Gospel and cannot possibly attain its end What shall be then said of your ensuing words Now judge but a little what it is to have a right apprehension of things since I have in a few plain words told you that which with much nicety swels among you to Volumes Really Sir if I may use the liberty of answering by you permitted I would say what a sad thing is it to have a wrong and conceited apprehension of things since you have in a few involved words in such a manner obscured and confounded a plain point of truth that notwithstanding of express Scripture-light yet it hath necessarily required a great many words clearly to unsold it There remaineth now to be considered the main reason whereby as you shut up so you would seem to enforce the opinion which we have heard and that is the necessity of a holy life which you say Your way of Iustification doth clearly declare as being that whereupon we shall be solemnly judged justified and absolved at the last day and afterward you add That it may correct the error of many carnall Christians who love well to hear of Salvation by the death of Christ provided they be bound to do nothing themselves that they may be saved 'T is answered 1. That there are many seeming Christians who have a name that they live and are dead who have and do delight in a form of knowledge but want the power of whose delusion the error which you mention may be a part is an old and true regret And yet the explication by you delivered being so many wayes unsound and peccant as we have heard cannot possibly be an antidote 2. As these carnal Christians pretending to lay hold on Jesus Christ for Righteousnesse and yet wholly neglecting the study of holiness are of all men the most sadly deceived and most wretched deceivers so your manner of Justification derogating from the holy Iustice of God and the perfect Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ flattering the natural mans pride to which of all vices we are most prone and seducing souls from the free Grace of the Gospel cannot be less dangerous and pernicious But 3. This your reason for departing from Justification by faith only as encouraging to licentiousness is so directly the objection which the Apostle Paul taketh notice of and fully answereth after his having declared the truth of Justification as by us professed that we are thereby exceedingly fortified The passage is thus the Apostle having shewed that it is by the Righteousnesse of Jesus Christ that the free Gift cometh upon all men to Iustification of life and that it is by the obedience of one that many are made righteous and summing up the whole matter that it is grace that reigneth through Righteousnesse unto eternal life by Iesus Christ our Lord he subjoineth What shall we say then shall we continow in sin that grace may abound Seing it is not by our works but of free grace through faith in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ that we are justified from sin shall we therefore in as much as sin commendeth grace and our good works availl not continow in sin that grace may abound The plain insinuation of what you object Now hear the Apostles answere both for us and himself 1. He saveth justification by faith only cannot encourage to sin because such as do thereby truely lay hold on Jesus Christ partake of his death and are made conformable thereto How shall they then that are dead to sin live any longer therein Sin may indeed remain but that they who through faith in his Death are planted in the likenesse thereof and become as crucified with him should live any longer in sin is not possible To the same purpose it is that the Apostle Iohn saith whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin and he cannot sin because he is born of God And yet if any false pretender should therefore say either that he cannot transgress or that his transgressions are no sins and so license himself unto wickedness he but deceiveth himself and the truth is not in him 2. Paul saith that Justification through faith importeth a more certain assurance of good works then any thing by you urged The necessity of good works which ye plead for is only that of a condition strict indeed as to its obligation but very uncertain if not desperat as to its cause and reall existence being previously required unto our acceptance by and being in Christ as I have already shewed whereas the Apostle tells us plainly that according to the truth of Justification by him and by us asserted the necessity of good works is causally certain depending upon such infallible causes that whereever true Faith is the study of holiness must necessarily ensue and where this is not the pretense of Faith and Justification thereby is but vain and groundlesse For seing by Faith the only requisite on our part for Justification we are not only dead indeed with Jesus Christ unto sin but planted
together with him in the likeness of his Resurrection and alive through him unto God that we also should walk in newness of life the necessity of holiness is evidently thereby as much assured as the acts of life are in their proper principle How can it then be alledged that in our way the necessity of holiness is less secured then in yours Nay such is the certainty of this truth that true Faith in Jesus Christ is the root and principle of the new life of holiness that as it is by you acknowledged so I cannot but wonder how reason could so quickly desert you as to think that any necessary effect such as you must grant good works to be of true Faith can be rationally joined with its cause in the consideration of a condition which your discourse imports If fire or life were in any case required as a condition he that should thereto join heat or motion necessarily thereon dependent were plainly ridiculous I need not take notice of what may be objected from these seeming Beleevers who because of their profession are said to be in Christ and yet for want of fruits to be cut off as it doth not more militat against us then against you who acknowledge true faith to be alwayes fruitful so it answereth it self But 3. because by necessity its like that you do understand the obligation to holiness as if in your way it were rendered more binding and pressing and thence would commend your explanation as more engaging unto a holy life I shall not here resume what I have already declared viz. 1. That to press the necessity of holiness antecedently to our being and acceptation in Jesus Christ is vain and fruitless 2. That to join our imperfect holiness with Christs unspotted and alone sufficient Righteousnesse which is faiths value is proud and presumptuous but rather represent these true grounds of the necessity of holinesse which are found in our way equally yea more obliging then all your vain pretenses And 1. We say with the Apostle that the holy and just and good Law of God remaineth in its entire force threatning and condemning all sin whereever found and as the poor sinner convicted is thereby urged to flee for refuge unto Christ who alone delivereth from the wrath to come so he who expecteth Salvation by the Death of Christ and doth not witness the truth of his profession in a holy life is in so farre no less exposed to its severity and terror neither can the Beleever sinning whatever may be the difference of his state in Gods sight more pretend to the peace and favour of God without repentance renewed and faith in Christ reacted whence the study of holiness will undoubtedly revive and flow then the wicked persisting in his impenitence What is then the difference betwixt you and us You must acknowledge that the great obligation of holiness doth descend from the Law of God and we grant that this holy Law continueth in the same force and power against all sin I say not sinners whereever found whether in the Beleever or Unbeleever so that thereby in our way licentiousnesse to sin must be equally excluded If you say that by requiring Faith alone for Iustification we relaxe the study of holiness I must again tell you that true faith in Christ Iesus the thing which we require cannot be without the study of holiness Next if any person should thence delude himself unto licentiousness the Holy Law of God remaining in the same severity against it cannot but in our way wherein that high aggravation of turning the Grace of God unto wantonnesse is more manifest be also more powerful If any man go on to urge us with the possible delusions of presumption and libertinisme whereunto the Devil both hath and may abuse the truth and free grace of God he but fighteth with the Devils weapons whereby mans wretched frailty is indeed discovered but the truth by Paul plainly asserted against the like cavâ—â—â—aâ—ions and by us owned not in the least impugned Nay I may further affirme that as all error is delusâ—on and inductive of more so where one hath been tempted to abuse the proposal of free Grace hundreds through Natures pride both desiring and overvaluing propriety have stumbled upon this your so descrived conjunction of our good works and fallen into that not entire submitting unto the Righteousness of God and a going about to establish their own Righteousness by which sin the rock of Salvation became unto the Iews a rock of offence 2. As the Law in the severity of its sanction doth still abide in force to deterre from all sin to bring in and reclaime unto Iesus Christ our Righteousnesse and also our Sanctification so it s more binding Authority derived from the greatness and goodness of God it s own holiness and perfection are upon none so powerful and in none so effectual as these who through faith have laid hold on Christ Iesus for Righteousness and therethrough alone have attained unto peace I need not tell you that true repentance discovering the sinfulness as well as the guiltiness of sin cannot but endeare holiness and that God appearing in Christ Iesus in that inconceivable glory of his Holiness Iustice Love and Mercy and justifying us through Faith in his Name cannot but beget a deeper reverence and a greater regard to his will and commandments then all the thunderings of mount Sinai the greatest motive to holiness in the construction of your way But when I consider that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousnesse and that the Law through Faith is not made void but more established and therefore we are chosen and created in him unto holiness and good works to the Glory of God when I observe the connexion that God hath established and his word holds out betwixt Iustification and Sanctification 1. In his purpose Eph. 1. 4. 2 Thess. 2. 13. 2. In his promise Ezek 36. 25 26 27. Micah 7. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 3. In his precept Tit. 3. 8. 4. In Christs purchass Tit. 2. 14. 5. In the Gift of Christ to his people 1 Cor 1. 30. 6 In the sincere desire of and great dâ—light in holiness as well as pardon recorded of the Saints in all the Scripture specially Psal. 51. 103. 3. 7. In the description of lustification given us by Paul in the first 6 chap. Rom. and Gal. 2. I seriously wonder how you or any man can doubt but a holy life both in its obligation and also in its performance is by the way of Iustification by Faith only molsty assured 3. In the way of Justification by faith only not only the obligation of the Law of God remains in the manner declared but also our Lord for our further encouragement unto holiness hath graciously intimat that even these good works wâ—ich we performe in his strength shall be by the same grace from which they flow also graciously rewarded Wherefore the Apostle saith
the Child which seing it meets not our Question you both objecte and answere to no purpose The next demand your N. C. makes is How then is Saul charged and his Children punished for killing the Gibeonites And to this you make a very pleasant return not unlike your answere made to our obligation of Allegeance viz Shat Saul is taxed for bloud and killing the Gibeonites who by the Lords ratiâ—ying the Princâ—s their Oath to them had got a right to their lives and not for perjurâ— against that Oath which the Princes swore Before I consider this answere let us first hear the Scripture 2 Sam. 21. 2. Now the Gibeonites were not of Israel but of the Amorites and the Children of Israel had sworne unto them and Saul sought to stay them c. Wherefore David said to the Gibeonites what shall I do for you do not these words clearly intimate that the injury done them was contraire to that former Oath whereby they were secured To this you say The Oath is only here mentioned to reminde the Reader of the former History but doth not at all say that the Oath was still binding But if the words be set down to reminde the Reader certainly it is in order to some apposite purpose and the blind account that you make is scarce worthy of your self let be the Scriptures of Truth Next what can be more evident then that the Oath is first mentioned to shew their right thence derived and Saul's injury being thereto subjoyned it is manifest that for his breach thereby incurred a reparation for an attonement is offered and seing the Scripture saith enough if it say not expressly that the Oath was still binding it seems only to be omitted because in that Age there was none who doubted much less of your opinionâ— to deny it Now as to your answer I must take notice of what you seem to insinuat that the Gibeonites were spared not by reason of their Covenant made with the Princes but by the Lords ratisying of it whereby they became to be excepted from the rest of the devoted Canaanites But Pray Sir do you not in so supposing conâ—adict your Fellow-brother the Surveyer of Naphtaly who ranteth as you use to do against his Adveâ—sary the Author of the Apologetical Relation who asserted the same which you here suppose 2. You speak of a ratification of this Oath of the Princes by virtue of which abstracted from the Oath these Gibeonites were spared which you would do well to explain and cleare Seing then you cannot but grant that the Gibeonites were spared and enjoyed their lives by the right of that peace sworne unto them my next reply is most evident viz. that your answere alledging Saul's killing the Gibeonites to have been cruell and bloudy against their Right but not perfidious against that Oath and Covenant whereby their Right was granted can no more be said of Saul then it might have been said of the Princes who at first swore if so be they had the very next hour brocken their Oath and destroyed these whom they had saved it being a truth most certain that as every violation of Faith is an injurious invasion of that right which was thereby secured so it is impossible for a right arising from a Contract or Covenant to subsist unless its cause do still stand be repute to be in force You add that Saul is taxed of bloud and not of perjury A poor shift But I have already shewed him to be noted for both bloudy deceitfull are of too near a conjunction to allow of your negative inference of the exclusion of the other because one only expressed And now Sir I have ended this point only let me say it without vanitie that as I judge your folly in this last discourse to be such as no sober man could lightly fall into without a judicial desertion so I am confident if there be any ingenuity in you the return which I justly make you of the Epilogue which in this place you so vainly use will cover you with blushes viz. Thus I have taken more pains then was needfull to shew the ridiculous fondnesse of your absurd notion viz. That Children can not be bound by their Fathers Oath and have said more to disprove it then ever you will be able to answere What follows in this Dialogue is a meere rapsodie of railing and in the first place to decline your N C. too pungent demand that for all you have said you cannot deny but the Covenant binds these who tooke it you make a hydeous noise of that Little noise which you say we made in breaking it in some things viz. In our silence and not declaring against the Apostacy Tyranny and Perjury of the Usurpers and in our faint giving over to Pray for the King Sir contemning your calumny I answere were not the Usurpers sufficiently opposed in their evill courses while there was hope And is this all you can say that the Lord having broken us and brought us under their feet in the humbling sense of his dreadful displeasure we did not madly declaime against such to warn whom after their rejecting of our brotherly admonition the Lord did not further require us We love not to vye with you or any other either in stedfastness in the Covenant or faitfulnes to the King in these confused and calamitous times but of this one thing I am most confident that his Majesty was more obliged to the Covenant and these who to this day adhere to it for the continuance of his remembrance both with God and men in the dayes of his Exile and in disposing to and preparing the way of his return then to all the present high and false pretenders who are not ashamed in their flattering impudence to averre that the most notorious and base acts of Compliance whereof they were then guilty were yet the effects of a pure and constant loyalty As for the thundering you say was in your Pulpits against your course before we were silenced and is at this day in our Conventicles is it not enough that you mock at the warnings of the Lords Servants whom for no other cause then true Zeal for God and tender Love to your Souls and just indignation at your sin you have beaten and expelled but you must also thereto add falshood in your alledgeance anent what you call Conventicles and insolent insulting over our undeniable short-coming in due admonition after his Majesties Restitution whereunto an excessive desire by faireness and moderation to stop the precipitant current of your late defection did too generally tempt us before we were ejected but the Lord hears and regardsâ— You tell us in the next place That the Tyrann's cruelty did formerly terrify us and now we presume upon the King's clemencie If I had ever professed the hundred part of that respect for Oliver that the Chief of your way did I would say and say it truely that what ever he was
you do further urge particular Authorities when you have answered all my just scruples against the former and satisfied me in all their other opinions in the matter of Armes then you shall have my Answere but in the mean time pardon me if while I do indeed admire and praise the Grace and Glory of these Primitive sufferings I be neither too credulous of the mistakes of men nor do condemn the diversitie of the operations of the same God which worketh all in all specially seeing that by the same sufferings whereby you go about to impugne he hath so signally confirmed these practises which I do maintain But to this last you answere that you are far from thinking the better of a Cause because some die handsomlie for it Neither Atheisâ— Heresies nor Murthers want their pretended Martyres Sir I neither approve your too much magnifying pag. 7. nor your too much undervaluing pag. 9. of mens sufferings And therefore as at best I account them only a confirming and accessory and not a principal and leading argument so I must tell you that I conceive the force of its inference to flow from a certain lustre and insinuation of grace which your jejune Epithets of handsomnesse and gallantrie do but meanly expresse whether or not this appeared in our late Sufferers I wonder nothing that you deny it but sure I am that all the sincere lovers of the Truth have to their joy both acknowledged it been established by it After this by a transition of your own framing making your N. C. faintly and childishly disown and wave bygones whereof to deal plainly I do as little fear the odium as I account your Aâ—ologies taxing them of Rebellion to be most odious you come to enquire wherefore wee keep not the day of thanksgiving for the Kings restauration and seing you are not pleased with your N. C. answere I will give you mine Aud first it is not because you make it a holy day I know this is as much above your power as your act is presumptuous in ordaining it to be observed and your practices are far from keeping it as a holy day Nor do I now debate the Magistrates power in appointing pro re nata dayes of solemne thanksgiving wherein it is more then certain that the apparent abuse that hath been in institutions of this kinde and the end and designe of the appointment do give the Church a very necessary interest of advice Nor lastly will I detain you in the application of the difference of designing a day as a Circumstance for thanksgiving to be performed on it and dedicating a day to be kept as Holy in Commemoration a Popish error expressely by us abjured and by you revived he who desires a full clearing in this matter with a satisfying answere to all objections may find it in the English popish ceremonies but the great reason wherefore N. C. neither doe nor ought to keep that day is because you have assigned for the cause of it not only the mercie of the Kings returne but also the wicked overturning of the work of God and that with such a libeling preface of blasphemies against God and his cause and vile reproches upon the whole Nation that no true hearted man can read the Act without abhorrencie Now before you reject this my answere I only desire you to peruse and consider the Act and I am almost certain that although perhaps you will not come the length of the character I have made of it yet you will think it strange that men accessorie to many of these Righteous things against which it so foully railes should have been on the one hand indulgently indemnifyed without any acknowledgementâ— and on the other obliged under the pain of losing their sâ—ipends to a thanksgiving expressing the highest recantation Are these wayes equal Think not that my indignation against this Act is all and only from my disaffection to your establishment that is indeed one cause sufficient to produce a just detest but ingenuously I have so much of true Loyaltie to my Prince and affection to my Countrey that the disservice done to the King in rendering the celebration of that day which in its righteous and proper use might have been an acceptable kindly warming of his Subjects affection a very odious provocation to aversion and alienation is to me not a more just then powerfull incentive but such were the healings of these violent Physitians and such have been and will be the effects Again making a stepping stone of both your N. C. and his cause after you have made him confess disloyaltie because you are not able to prove it you hold out his way to be evil because of its crueltie and rigor in forcing men to take the Covenant and punishing such as refused and your N. C. granting this to be a fault also you charge it home very odiously against our Leaders as Men unacquainted with the meek spirit and obstinat in those severities It s answered whether these things be objected or not in a meek spirit is more your concernment then mine who regard not your bitternesse in any dresse That which you call cruelty if counter-ballanced with the guilt of the recusancie will quickly be alleviat to moderation If the Covenants for I shall touch both pressed had been new Oaths arbitrarely imposed there were some ground for your challenge but as to the first was it not the same wherein the Nation stood engaged from the first beginning almost of the Reformation and if after a great and visible defection it was upon our returning renewed and with a more expresse application against these corruptions whereunto we had backslidden required to be taken by all who could not decline without a manifest declaration of both their unsoundnesse and insinceritie in the Oath of God call you this Rigor And as to the second the League if the Communion of Saints and that sympathie wee ought to have with all Christs sufferings Members did persuade it as a dutie and if your then ejected Prelats did by their restlesse instigations and the breaches of Faith and Hostile invasion from England thereby procured render it convincingly a most necessary meane for the preserving and prosequuting the ends of the first was it not both rational and righteous that they who stood thus obliged by vertue of the first Covenant to take the Second upon their recusance should be proceeded against as Deserters And the truth is as they were not many that were troubled simply for not taking the Covenants so there were but few if any who refused the second who either before were not or thereafter became not directly opposite to the First Nor did these few refusers subsist in a quiet dissatisfaction but for the most part turned violent and bloudy Enemies or at least partakers with such Adversaries Notwithstanding of all which perjury and wickedness the procedour against these recusants or rather Apostates was so litle adequate either to
and many excellent qualities of our deceased Prince and the dutie I owe the now King nothing else could refuge you from the full returnes of a just resentment Passing therefore the many horrid Blasphemies Lies and Reproaches wherewith your Clergie during these unhappie wars did not cease continually to proscind the Cause and People of God more precious to him then all the Monarchs on Earth and did most instantly labour to render both detestably hateful unto the Prince until they brought all to ruine I shall in a few sober words vindicat the Lords servants from all these umbragesâ— and appearances whereby you endeavour to set off your reproach That the late King by evil Counsel specially that of unconscionable and ungrate Prelats wickedly abusing for their own ends a Conscientious Prince unto a fatal obstinacie was precipitat into many grosse errours of Government such as an excessive indulgence to Papists illegâ—ll and violent exactions many unusuall and high attempts against fundamental Laws and Liberties a strange connivance at the Irish Rebellion and at length a bloudy and pertinacious war against his Parliaments his greatest and best friends and Counsellours it was not the invention of evil affected men or Ministers as you alleage but the sad evidence of plain deeds and the unanimous verdict of these most capable and proper to discern Now if in this state of things the Lords Ministers favouring his righteous Cause did endeavour by a true representation both to avert the People from and animat them against evil courses destructive to Religion and Right wherein are they to be reprehended You say they charged the King with all But know you not that as whatever passed upon the Kings side did beare the impresse of his Name and Authority so they did continually charge the guilt and wickednesse of all mostly upon bad Counsel praying the Lord uncessantly with much tendernesse to the Kings Person that the Wicked might be removed from about the Throne that so it might have been established And as to what you alleage That contraire to Humanity and Christianity they did Persecute the memory of that Prince after his death and that with the hight of insolencie and barbaritie in the presence of his Son who now reigneth It is a calumnie which you are not able to justify It s true they wished and moved the King to repent of his accession to and mourne for the opposition to the work of God violence and bloud wherein his Father was unhappily engaged and from which the Throne except by serious Repentance will never be purged If this be the Inhumane Insolent and Barbarous raking into his ashes which you lay to their charge you remember little and fear lesse the jealousie of God who â—isiteth the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth Generation Neither doe you consider that the stain of Bloud is such specially upon a Throne that the unfeigned teares even of the Author do not wash it away Ezrah and Nehemiah mourned and repented for the Provocation of Kings and Princes many Ages past without the least reflection upon their memories Seeing therefore that the practises whereupon you found these high accusations were altogether consonant to the Word of God and the Principles then acknowledged both by King and People and to which in Conscience we do and must still adhere doth not your apparent bearing with us in the main and yet so virulently inveighing against a clear dependencie manifestly discover more then an inveterate malice As to our Ministers their manner of reproving sin you say they reproved not in secret but triumphed in the Pulpit without controll and against absents and that either out of Malice or ostentation Thus the tumor raised by the poison of your last calumnie doth still swell and you forget that you your self are vainly triumphing in Print against a Mock-adversarie But as you cannot verifie that ordinarely or allowedly secret reproof was omitted where there appeared reason and accesse for it so I am confident your allegeance hath no better ground then that Ministers for the strengthning of the Lords people did freely hold out the Apostacie and wickednesse of his declared Enemies for whom such a reproofe had been but in vain intended In the next place you tell us that the Sermons of our Ministers were no Extraordinary things Sir I will not compare I am no lover of Extraordinary things but I heartily wish that such Preaching were now more Ordinary to believe and therefore to speak though with speach contemptible is certainly infinitly more gracefull then to speak even Seraphickly and in practise to counter-act There is a Foolishnesse of Preaching commended by Paul above the wisdom of man Whether you would value it as an Ordinary or Extraordinary thing I know not But this Epithet of Extraordinary which you seeme to desiderat is very little consonant to Luthers Opinion Hi sunt optimi ad Populum Concâ—onatâ—res qui pueriliter populariter quà m simpliâ—issime docent These are the best Preachers unto the People who teach in a plain homely and most simple way You adde that their Sermons were half stuffed with Publick Matters nothing concerning Souls Why do you Hyperbolizâ— so widely in prejudice of Truth You know publick Matters were not medled with but in a clear exigence and if some did exceed others were defective and these were the infirmities of both but you tell us That these things concerne not Souls This is a touch of your Convenient Religion Pray Sir are Publick Maters transacted without private mens accession or in this accession hath Conscience no concernment Nay are not the solid practises of Christianity such as the contempt of the World for the most part most necessaire and conspicuous in Wrestling with and overcoming the great and frequent temptation of a publick sinful course But O the rare temper of this New device that both inwardly elevats to the highest Spiritual abstractions and outwardly smooths to a most easie temporizing complyance You say further that the solid Practises of Christianity were scarce â—ver named and that vertue was little Preached by us and far lesse Practised but why do you make so little Conscience of truth Your often touching upon this string with the presumption of Common ingenuity which I have and desire to retain for all men have made me apply to all conjectures to find out your ground for this allegance but in the end I see it is a plain forgerie The Lord knows that I am far from boasting of former Practises but that in this so visible a change attending the present Establishment from the Generall restraint and aw of Sin that before did oblige even the most profligat unto a seeming conformity unto these confessed aboundings of all manner of profanitie which do now fill the Land you should have the confidence to sayâ— that vertue was by us little Preached and far lesse Practised is that which I am sure these of your own way
these corruptions and superstitious practices whereunto in a convenient compliance with the present course you cunningly endeavour to subjecte us you make you N. C. preface That there is no good to be hoped from you who are so fierce against us and to add with little serious reverence but God be thanked an ill-willed Cow hath short hornes Whence taking the occasion you tell us of your extreme aversion from fierce and violent courses your love to all Christians your pitie of such as you judge mistaken and that you quarrel with no man for his opinion in these lesser matters Which are but the skirts and suburbs of Religion and so forth Sir if Censure were either my Genius or office how easie were it for me to strip both you and your partie of this your sheeps clothing We have heard in the preceeding Dialogues your frequent accusations of Rebellion and Faction your virulent calumnies of the most inhumane unnatural and barbarous Wickedness that can be paralleled your insolent mockeries at fancied mistakes and lastly all that hath preceeded a continual quarrel about these things which you call lesser matters and all this against the generality nay against the whole of the Godly and sober in the Land but especially the Lords faithful and suffering Ministers and yet you have the boldnes to wipe your mouth and make a boast of your singular gentlenes Christian love compassion upon them that are out of the way and tender forbearance toward dissenters in lesser things But I have already medled too far in this concention only as I would not have men mistaken concerning you so for preventing of their mistake of us from your N. C. suggestion I assure you plainly that though any man may affirme without fear of a contradiction that the Prelatick Spirit mingled in the midst of you is irreligious false fierce jealous cruell covetous and proud and in these few years bygone hath less or more appeared in all these evill qualities yet as the seen fury folly and prophanitie of your Bishops and Curates and a secret conviction in all men of the consistencie of true Loyalty with the Countreys just aversion from them may in politick prudence induce our Governours to restrain some what of the rage of that Partie which we are thankfully to acknowledge so it is our Prayer to God that he would lead them on to a full and just consideration of the true causes of all our grievances and to serious repentance and returning unto God who alone with truth can restore unto us true peace and establishment You subjoine here the late King's advice of Moderation to his Son who now reigneth and would forsooth have us to beleeve that his words to express both your opinion and temper and really though I cannot altogether acquit their strain of prejudice nor carrie their designe higher then the ends of Policie yet they contain so much of sound reason and the later part of them viz. take heed that outward circumstances and formalities of Religion devour not all or the best encouragements of Learning Industrie and Pietie is so sadly verified in the present condition of affaires that I cannot but with wonder reflect how such a rational instruction taught to the Author by long and costly experience should at his Majesties return have been so much neglected and even to this day after so visible an accomplishment so little remembred But the use you make of this passage is only to bewray your N. C. childishnesse and shew a little of your own affectation by causing him first to say It seems you are a Latitudinarian and then by your answering that if by latitude be meant charity you glory in it but as I have already demonstrat in the second Dialogue that it is conveniencie more then sincerity which relaxes and dilates your charity and as it is too too evident that it is the love of Peace more then of Truth which doth recommend men to the favour of your good opinion so I would have you to consider that rectitude and not latitude is the measure and character of the wayes of God Nay when I remember our Lord's words Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction but strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life The fairest gloss whereof your latitude is capable cannot reconcile me to the designation It is therefore in the streightness yea and straitnes of this Rule and in the practice of the new commandement of Love that you may truly glory but only in the Lord The assuming of Names other then that of Christian is but an emptie vanity and that of latitude is so little expressive of pure Christian charity that you see it is the very Gospel-epithet of the broad way of damnation In the next place taking as it appears with this new name of Latitudinarian for all your disowning of it within a few lines preceeding you and your N. C. together playing to others hands compound a prettie garland of praises for your self and complices And where he acknowledgeth That you live very good lives are strong witted People sound against Socinianisme clear and free from Popish errors you add on your part That your principles are neither dangerous nor loose that there are none greater haters of and enemies to Atheisme that you give a rational and convincing account of Christianity to all clear witted men that with a due measure of Charity for Papists and regard to the union of the Catholick Church you disclame all errors and give a most clear and scriptural account of the points debateable and lastly that even where the attributes of Gods soveraignity and goodness seem to interfere by faith you stope the mouth of weak reason Certainly then the men of the latitude are sound and orthodox men nay no doubt but ye are the people and wisdome shal die with you Yet if I might a little search you out I would demand 1. Why you thus distinctly characterize your self under a peculiar name for that you do not understand these Epithets of all your partie nay not of your Bishops and most of your Curates is evident even from the first whereby you assert that you live very good lives which I am certain many of them do not so much as pretend to 2. If the principles of you Latitudinarians be the same that we have set down in the preceeding Dialogues viz. that preaching is not to be termed the Word of God and consequently that Ministers are not his Messengers that the Church and we know not what Church may antiquat and cause to cease the obligation of practices such as the washing of feet and anointing the sick with oil though as punctually and perpetually enjoined in the Scripture as either of the Sacraments that Christs Kingdome is so inward and spiritual that Offices and Officers can no more be thence pleaded for in the Church then the stamping
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
plainly accused of having joined to the confederats against the inquisition for remisness in the maintenance of the Romish Religion were very early cut off even in the first fermenting as it were of these tumults before the ensuing war was formed but however certain it is that although they professed and practised mainly for the liberty of their Countrey against tyranny yet they greatly favoured the persecute protestants and also much inclined to their way as is clear from their very accusation and also from the manner of their death specially Horn's who for all Grotius his saying that they were execute post sacra romano ritu peracta yet at first refused to confess to the Bishop of Ypre saving that he had confessed himselfe unto God What then doth this allegeance destitute of reason and little favoured by truth avail you Your next argument is that the States by a Placaet declared it scandalous to say they fought for Religion Sir I wish you had given us the words at least the date of that Placaet For sure I am that in what termes soever the Estates in policie might think fit to declare and publish the cause of these wars and to assigne for the same rather the invasion of liberties and priviledges which was the effect of the Spanish persecution then Religion which was the more remote cause yet whoever reflects upon their first beginnings will finde that it was after this manner The Flamings receiving the light of the Gospel being therefore sore vexed by long and cruel persecutions the same upon the succession of Philip to his Father Charles are by the Spainards much intended and a resolution being taken to root out the Protestants new Bishops are created the Spanish Inquisition is threatned and many terrible edicts emitted by which courses not only in themselves wicked but also contrary to the priviledges and destructive of the liberties of that people many tumults and confusions were in all parts occasioned untill at length the Nobles do confederate for resistance and mutual assistance and relief in consequence whereof they petition the Regent and applications are made to the King when in the meane time on a suddain these of the Religion seeing no success that way keep their meetings and assemblies openly assuming armes for their own defence aggainst suddain violence and by the meaner sort of the people images and idols are as with a whirl-winde quales olim saepe motus Iudeorum erant which is Grotius his remark thrown down almost in all places These things make the Regent more easie towards the Protestants and force her to remit bygons and indulge their Preachers but the Lords retearing to their respective charges for rendering the concessions effectual and being terrified by the reports of the King 's implacable displeasure betake themselves to divided Councels whereupon the Regent resiles from the agreement renewes the persecution levies new forces imposeth new oaths and the Spainards supposing the whole people one way or other to have been involved in the late tumults conceive them as guiltie of rebellion to have forfaulted their former liberties and to be become obnoxious to an absolute domination This being the condition of matters when the Duke d'Alva was named to the government the Prince of Orange Brederode both Protestants retire Brederod his forces of the same Religion resist and are beaten and many shift for themselves then the Duke arriving fills all places in a moment with tyranny and persecution putting to death many Lords and Gentlemen and many thousands beside because of the former confederacie and upon the account of their Religion And the Prince of Orange being cited and not compearing his Estate and Lands ar seised on and thereafter takking armes by the perswasion of the banished and declaring to the world both the injuries done unto him and that he was of the Religion he is once and again beaten so that there remained no opposition to the Duk 's rage violence save what was made by a few escaped from the former defeats given to the Protestants who made war in the Princes name partly by piracie at sea and partly from woods and forests against Priests only and Officers of justice In this deplorable estate under most insolent tyrannie and violent persecution these poor Countries remain untill the Earl vander Marke with his Protestants or sea Gueux as they were then called surpriseth the Town of Breill after which Flussing and several other townes in Zealand and Holland refuse spanish garisons and being Protestants revolt to the Prince of Orange who having implored the aid of all Protestant Princes after a successess enterprise for the succour of his Brother Ludovick at Mons and a proclamation emitted declaring the cause of his ingagement to be for relief of these Countreys form Alva's tyranny and from the crueltie and oppression of his proclamations edicts taxes and imposts cometh unto Holland from which time the war for Religion and liberty proceedeth thorow many and various accidents and both are in all places equally restored This is the plain and true and account of the rise of these wars at which period even Grotius who of all the writters of that History doth most decline and wave the cause of Religion as an ingredient in the quarrel noteth Religionis causa primi talibus caeptis sociaverant Smalcaldico faedere Germani post quos Galli proceres plurimis etiam Scriptis disseruerant non peccare in fas obsequii minores potestates qui invito quà mvis principe divina ac publica jura vitam que innocentium si necesse â—oret armis defenderent c. And a little after romanae ceremoniae ejectae templis c. Whether or not then persecution for Religion appears to have been the cause of these wars let all impartial men judge But you tell us that the true ground of the quarrel as we may read in all the Histories was that their Prince was not an absolute Soveraign but limited in his power and that by expresse compact they might use force if he transgressed his limits as he notoriously did Sir for the true and proper ground of the war I have alreadie clearly narrated it from the best Historians that which you point at here is rather a justification of their resistance from the right and capacity whereunto their Prince was astricted But 1. You cannot deny that persecution for Religion whereby they were injured both in their special priviledges and common and natural rights and liberties was the provoking cause of these wars and consequently that Religion no more then other interests doth not forbid to subjects necessary defence and resistance against their Superiors 2. For all the vaine talke that you and your fellowes make against us for allowing to the people a discretive judgement anent their Princes actings yet you not only suppose and approve it in these of the Netherlands in order to their Prince but stick not to vent your aime in saying
that the King did most notoriously and tyrannically pass his limits 3. Though we should urge this instance no further then you allow it yet it stil remaines a very agreeable precedent for justifying our late courses it being certain that not only the rights and priviledges of both Kingdomes were violate but that the undoubted priviledges of Parliament and the resticted nature of the Kings soveraignity over us did give us as good and sufficient a warrand for the oppositions then made as upon this head can be alledged and instructed by these of the Netherlands And really when I reflect upon the particular case of the late warres betwixt the King and Parliament and how that in the Papers printed by consent of both for clearing the controversie there appeareth nothing save the pretensions and pleas of prerogative and priviledge and yet all do acknowledge Religion to have been the original cause I think this sole consideration might have made you to forbear this poor vindication It is true Grotius sayes and seems to lay much weight upon it quod Brabanti illud quoque proprium pacisci solent ut principe leges violante ipsi fidei obsequii vinculo liberantur donec demantur injuriae But not to draw you to long discourses anent the effect of an irritant provision adjected to a mutual contract 1. It were no great difficulty to shew you from undeniable reason nay from Grotius himselfe in his de Iur. Bell. that as there is such a connexion in all contracts that the failzeer of the one party doth in so far liberat the other from his mutual corresponding ingagement and repone him to his antecedent condition and liberty so in the present case an irritant provision though in other cases it may sometimes extend its vertue and influence beyond the intrinseck import of the failzie wherby it is committed appears not to have any special use but only to serve ad majorem quia expressiorem cautelam 2. It might here be sufficient to make that answere for us which Grotius a little after in the same place makes for the other Provinces viz. ab aliis quoque Belgarum nationibus idem jus moribus usurpatum which may be verefied as to Scotland and England by many most pregnant and luculent examples Butâ— 3. As I grant that a reservation of these things which otherwse would be imported in the peoples surrender appertain to the Soveraign fortified or not fortified by an irritant provision may give to the people when therein wronged the liberty of asserting their own right which without a special reservation had been none so undoubtedly as to such rights which do reserve themselves and are so much ours that even by an express surrender they cannot be absolutely resigned such as the right of Religion our lives and whole fortunes are the preservation whereof being the very ends of go vernment can not be understood to be permitted to the Governour 's absolute arbitrement the people therein invaded by vertue of the power inherent to rights reserved and the liberation flowing from all such failzeours though not expressed may very justly resist and demand reparation And is it indeed possible that any rational man should think because of a reservation of things of less value and therefore within our power a Prince transgressing may lawfully be resisted and that nevertheless these high and atrocious invasions in matters of the greatest value and which therefore can neither be absolutely surrendered nor do need an express reservation should and ought to be stupidly swallowed down But seing the greatest Royalists do in certain suppositions wherein their own sense and interest do give them a better understanding not stick both to acknowledge and practise according to this principle it is very evident as I have often said that it is only their indifferency in matters of Religion and the security that they thence derive which makes them and us to differ on this subject In the close of this instance you tell us That for all this you refer us to Grotius And for matter of fact I decline him not as you may perceive but if his too manifest prejudice in matters of Religion do make him less express to our purpose I hope the supplement of other Authors and also of solid reason shall obtain from you al men a just acknowledgment The 8th instance that you would vindicate is that of the Civil warrs of France and first you say Their first civil wars were managed by the Princes of the blood who by the laws of that Crown are not ordinary subjects And certainly by all law and common sense extraordinary persons may well be said not to be ordinary subjects but are they therefore not subjects Surely the conferring of high dignities and great Authority may well intend their obligation it doth not alter their condition And how often have we heard and seen them accused and forfeited for rebellion Why do you then render youâ— selfe ridiculous by such a pitiful alledgeance But you add besides the wars were begun in the minority of the King And do you seriously think that setting aside the greater incapacity it might have put them into had the King been major they would have been of another minde But you say that in this case the power of the Princes is greater And we have indeed often heard that the dignity of the Princes doth consist mainly in two viz. their right of succession and privilege of Regencie during the Kings minority or absence but as in the matter of Regencie the nearest and not all the agnati of the royal blood can pretend to it and that only in the case of no nomination made by the preceeding King and during the space of the young King's pupillarity just according to the common rules of tutela legitima so you may remember that the wars we speak of falling out in the reigne of Francis the Second being for the time at least sixteen years of age there was no place for the Princes their pretence of Regencie beside the first appearance of these wars was only supposed to be countenanced but not openly by them owned And as for the continuation of the war in the non-age of Charles the Nynth it is certaine that the King of Navarre to whom as nearest agnat the Regencie belonged did voluntarily renounce his pretension in favours of the Queen mother nay that he joined with her the Guisians and died fighting against the Protestants headed by Conde and the Admiral And likewise these wars were againe renewed in the King his Majority But not to enter further into these iliads of tumults and confusions occasioned by the restles perfidie and unsatiable cruelty of the adversaries though I should admit that these wars were not only incited and provoked to by persecution but that also even on the Protestants their side they were not a little influenced both by particular interests and passions and the general fervor of that Nation