tender am I of the Laws of Good Nature and Civility even towards all that have forfeited their Right in them could I ever have discovered the least appearance of Integrity either in his Writings or Actions or the least tokens of Repentance for his former Crimes or the least ground of hope for his future Reformation but when nothing appears but reprobate Hardness and Impenitence and an obstinate persisting in his old Rancour his case is desperate and when Men are past Grace they are past Mercy too And thus having done him Right and his Pamphlet Reason and prevented the Design of escaping the Disgrace of his Overthrow by sending abroad new Challenges before he had discharged himself of his old Engagements it is high time to return to the Argument upon which I was entring when he came in my way to divert me viz. To consider what likelihood or how much Danger there is of the Return of Popery into this Nation For my own part I know none but the Nonconformists boisterous and unreasonable Opposition to the Church of England for if ever that be Re-erected it must be upon the Ruines of this as long as this stands in Power and Reputation it will easily beat back and baffle all the Attempts of Rome and all its Adherents Our Reformation is Establisht upon such unblameable Grounds and Principles that all the Learning and Wit of our Adversaries was never able to fasten any Reproach or Dishonour upon the Constitution it self and next to the Puritan Cause there was never any so unequally managed as the Controversie between us and the Romanists their most plausible Reasonings are evidently no better than little Tricks and Sophisms and seem intended by themselves rather to abuse the Simple than to satisfie the Wise in so much that it is very hardly credible that those Persons who have lately appeared in the Cause can notwithstanding all their seeming Zeal and Earnestness be really in good earnest in their Pretences but 't is somewhat more wonderful that they should have the Confidence to suppose the World should be so simple as to think them so when they can boast such idle talk for Demonstration as themselves unless their Skulls are stufft with Mud and Saw-Dust cannot but know to be meer Trifling and arrant Sophistry And no wonder for every Cause must be defended as it can their Innovations are so undeniable and the Design of our Reformation so apparently Apostolical that those People must needs argue at a strangely wild rate that will be Demonstrating against Experience and Ocular Inspection and nothing could preserve them from being hiss'd out of the Pit but that they are extreamly confident and most Readers sufficiently ignorant so that the Church of England may safely defie all their Opposition she does not stand upon such trembling Foundations as to be thrust down with Bullrush-spears with sure Footings and Oral Traditions with Labyrinths and Castles in the Air. If there be any danger from them it lies more remote and out of view and if ever they get any Ground or Advantage of us they will be bound to make their Acknowledgments to the Puritans and the strength of their Assistance Not that these are a whit more considerable and dead-doing Enemy than the other they are Triflers beyond contempt and when they have in their mighty Zeal done their poor utmost and spent all their Ammunition a Man must be very splenetick that can refrain from laughing at the folly and the childishness of their Attempts No their strength lies in other Weapons and their danger arises from other Interests their Faction may be made use of as Instruments to dissolve and unravel the establish'd frame of things but they can never be able to set up any of their own Models and crazy Fancies in lieu of it they are too humorous and extravagant ever to be reduced to practice a little Experience quickly brought them all into the scorn and contempt of the common People and it would be a pleasant speciacle to see either the Classical or the Congregational Discipline Establish'd by Authothority But alas they are only excellent at their old Destruction-Work and beside that their Conceits are too freakish to be ever setled upon any lasting bottom they will always be supplanting each other by their mutual Squabbles and Animosities so that though they can never compass their own giddy Designs yet by their perpetual and restless Opposition to the Church they may possibly be the occasion of its utter Ruine and Dissolution and by that Change may probably make way for the Introduction of Popery And this is most likely to be effected by these Means and upon these Accounts I. By creating Disorders and Disturbances in the State For the present Fanaticks are so little Friends to the present Government that their Enmity to that is one of the main Grounds of their Quarrel to the Church They are generally fermented with a Republican Leven and are faln out with Monarchy it self as one of the greatest Instruments and Supports of Antichrist and no Liberty with them either of the Subject oâ— of Conscience but in a Commonwealth and that is a mighty piece of their Zeal and their Project to reform the Government of Church and State to the Platform of the Low-Countries T is the Good Old Cause that is the strongest Band and Endearment of the present Schism and the greatest Agents in and for Conventicles are Officers and Chaplains of the old Army And the warmest and most zealous of them such as have given the World no great ground to suspect either from their profess'd Principles or open Practices that they have the least Concern or Tenderness for Religion But this is the only plausible Device that is left them to rally and randevouz the People of God into a Body by themselves and distinct from the rest of the Nation and so keep up a Party always ready and prepared for their Purposes that if ever they may gain any hopes or advantages of recovering the Kings Power or the Bishops Lands for confident Men despair of nothing they may play the holy Brotherhood upon Demands and Attempts either of the old or some other new thorough-godly Reformation and enrage their Fiery Spirits against the Abominations and Idolatries of the Whore and Antichrist Though the danger here is not very formidable because Fanaticism it self is so much worn into Contempt unless among the meer Rabble that 't is never likely to gather strength enough to grapple with the Royal Power but yet whatsoever Power it has if it have any lies in the Old Army and the Old Cause And if we observe the true Patriots of the Godly Party in every County we shall find them generally such Persons as were never much concerned to give his Majesty any great assurance of their Loyalty and Allegiance and there are very few if any of any considerable Interest or Estate among them that was not raised by Plunder and Sequestration so
Controversies of the Churches but of particular Persons or Parties in those Churches as well Protestants against Protestants and Roman Catholicks against Roman Catholicks as Protestants against Roman Catholicks Those Controversies which each Church doth tolerate within it self ought not to be any cause of Schism between the Churches Fourthly How many of our Controversies are about Rites and Ceremonies and things indifferent in their own nature in the use of which every particular Church under the Universal Church hath free liberty in it self and dominion over its own Sons When all these empty Names and Titles of Controversies are wiped out of the Roll the true Controversies between us may be quickly mustered and will not be found upon a serious enquiry to be either so exclusive of salvation to those who err invincibly and hold the truth implicitely in the preparation of their minds nor altogether so irreconcileable as some persons have imagined The two dangerous extremes are to clip away something from saving Truth whereof I do not find the Church of Rome to have been guilty and to obtrude erroneous or at the best probable opinions for Articles of Faith whereof I find many in the Church of Rome to have been most guilty Next to these are the practical abuses of the Court of Rome These were my thoughts in my younger days which age and experience hath rather confirmed and radicated in me than altered which if they had been known I deserved rather to have been cherished and encouraged than to be branded by any man as a Factor for the Pope Truly Mr. Baxter could hardly have fixed upon a Subject more improper for such a charge When I was commanded to preach to our Northern Synod where every one designed to discharge that duty chuseth some controversie between the Church of Rome and us my Subject was the Popes unlawful Usurpation of Jurisdiction over the Britannick Churches When I disputed in Cambridge for the Degree of Doctor my Thesis was taken out of Nilus that the Papacy as it was challenged and usurped in many places and as it had been sometimes usurped in our Native Country was either the procreant or conservant cause or both procreant and conservant cause of all the greater Ecclesiastical Controversies in the Christian World When our late King Charles of blessed memory was in Spain and Religion in England seemed to our Country people though without any ground to be placed in aequilibrio or reduced to a measuring cast I adventured with more zeal than discretion to give two of their Roman Champions in our Northern parts Mr. Hungate a Jesuite and Mr. Houghton a secular Priest one after another two meetings at North-Allerton and came off without any dishonour to the Church of England and stopped the Carrier of the Romish Emislaries at that time in those parts When I was last in Ireland and the Romanists had wrested some part of the power of the Sword into their hands they prosecuted no English Protestant more than my self and never left untill they had thrust me out of the Kingdom as conceiving me to be a great impediment to them in their making of Proselytes It was but an ill requital if I had been one of their Factors Since I came into exile these sixteen years where have my weak endeavours ever been wanting to the Church of England who hath had more Disputes with their Seculars and Regulars of all sorts French Italian Dutch English in Word in Writing to maintain the honour of the English Church And after all this am I traduced as a Factor for Popery because I am not a Protestant out of my wits or because my assertions of known Truth are not agreeable to the gust of Innovators Blessed are we when men revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us falsly for Christs sake for great is our reward in heaven But doth he think in earnest that my way of reconciliation is the ready way to introduce the Papal tyranny into England Nay directly on the contrary it is the ready way to exclude the Papal tyranny out of England for ever and to acquit us for evermore from all the Extortions and Usurpations of the Roman Court and to free us from all their Emissaries who now make a prey of such as are unsetled among us by the means of doubtful and give me leave to speak my mind freely impertinent Disputations And this I am ready to make good against any Innovator of either side who shall oppose it This is hard measure to be offered to me from him who professeth himself to be so great a lover of the Unity of the Church p. 6. which is but his duty if it be true as I hope it is But let him take heed that his love of Unity prove not to be self-love which insinuateth it self strangely into the most holy actions and designs All men could be contented to have others united to themselves and to chop off or stretch out the Religion of their Brethren as Procrustes did his Guests according to the measure of his own Bed I doubt not but he would be well pleased to have Independency stretched up to an ordained Ministery as he calleth it and Episcopacy let down to a Presbyterian parity or rather to an empty shew of equality For I never yet observed but one or two single popular Presbyters ruled the whole Consistory and had more absolute Arbitrary power than ever any Bishop pretended unto If this be all his love and desire of Unity to have Antiquity Universality and the perpetual Regiment of the Church to be levelled and moduled according to private fantasies it is meer self-love no love of Unity But I hope better though I sear worse If he dare refer all differences between us to be tried by the publick Standard we shall quickly see whether he or I follow Peace and Unity with swifter paces I offer him two Standards to be tried by First the Doctrine of the Church of England set down by those old Episcopal Divines whom he pretendeth to be more propitious to him than to me If he submit to this Standard all differences between him and me are at an end And then to what purpose hath so much plundering and so much effusion of Christian blood been unless it be to shake the dregs to the top of the Urinal But if he like not this Standard as I much fear he will not I offer him another that is the Pattern of the Primitive Church both for Doctrine and Discipline But it may be he will dislike this more and when all is done admit no Standard but the Scripture I am ready to joyn with him in this also But if he and I differ about the sense of the Scripture all men acknowledge that the Scripture consisteth not in the words but in the sense how shall we be tried what is the sense by the judgement of the Church of England that is the Standard of the place or by
to be Jesuites and Socinians themselves but O Tempora O Mores they will force all others that desire to be admitted into her Communion to submit to Popish and Heretical Subscriptions and there is no other cause of the Independent Separation than that they dare not in Conscience conform to Popery and Socinianism Dear Heart How could I hug and kiss thee for all this love and sweetness Well fare poor Macedo for a modest Fool He could never have rubb'd his Forehead to such a burnisht Confidence as to venture upon such notorious and palpable Forgeries so contradictory both in themselves and to every Man 's own Knowledge and Experience For in the Name of Truth what new Doctrines have we made necessary to Conformity over and above the old Articles which yet he is so far from bringing under this Indictment that he makes our departure from them the very Charge of our Apostasie So that how wild and wanton soever we may be in our own Sentiments there is nothing to be found in Nature of so daring and desperate a Confidence beside the great and renowned J. O. as to belch in the face of the Sun such foul and uncleanly Railings But he is a Man of that inveterate and incurable Pride that there is no rancour spiteful or disingenuous enough to be admired at in him But now that I have seized him I cannot let him pass without taking notice to the World of another eminent instance of his Ravishing Candour and Ingenuity That when he had without any Provocation though that he never needs in a publick and solemn way undertaken the Defence of the Fanatick Cause and when he had reason done him in a particular Rejoinder to all his Pretences and Exceptions such as they were he could think of satisfying his People and salving his Reputation by Scribling over the very same stuff again and presenting it to the World in a new Pamphlet and under another Title without regarding how comfortably it had been exposed and baffled by a loving Friend even for his own dear sake For whoever will be at the idle pains to peruse his late Discourse of Evangelical Love Church Peace and Unity will never be able to find one syllable to the purpose beside a perpetual Repetition of the old worn-out Story of Unscriptural Ceremonies and some frequent Whinings and sometimes Ravings about his hard usage in being so severely chastised and innumerable Suggestions that all that are or pretend to be Loyal to the present Setlement of the Church of England are not so upon any Principles of Integrity or Conscience but purely for their own seoular and carnal Ends i. e. in plain English they are all downright Knaves These are the most pertinent passages I can meet with in the Book but they are not very new some others indeed I meet with somewhat newer but then they are not very pertinent It is a very new discovery to demonstrate that the Church of England is desperately Schismatical because the Independents are resolved one and all to continue separate from her Communion and though it is not as new yet it is as odd an Observation that all Parties in Christendom except only the little Flock of their own Secret Ones are profest Rebels to the most necessary and indispensable Institutions of the Lord Christ that none of them ought to be suffered to live in an open and habitual contempt of his Laws particularly that the Church of England is as little to be endured as the Church of Rome because they persecute those that are better than themselves and St. John tells us Revel 21. 8. Murther is as bad as Idolatry If it will do him or his cause any kindness we will let these pass for New Lights and wonderful pat to the business of Toleration Did ever Man write or speak with such a fluent Vein of looseness and impertinency Is it credible that any Creatures that pretend to common sense and the shapes of Men could ever accept much less admire such dull and intolerable Bungling And yet it is rare and admirable to the Wits of the Congregation and the Doctor is a wonderfully precious and convincing Man But the truth is he has an Advantage above most of his Neighbours for Writing Non-sense in that his common Readers despair beforehand to understand the Categoricalness of his Logick Otherwise he abounds so plentifully with Absurdities and Incoherences in every Page that there is nothing to keep him from being despicable even to the Apron-men of his own Dispensation but a peculiar Uncouthness and Obscurity of stile whereby as they cannot hope to carry along with them the Thread and Connexion of the Discourse so neither dare they presume to observe its Flaws and Weaknesses but if their Prejudices so incline them they suppose at all adventure some extraordinary depth of Reason and Metaphysicks that Men of their Education are neither able to fathom nor obliged to understand And he may take his Liberty as much and as long as he pleases to amuse his own gazing and admiring Drove with this profound and wonderful Non-sense provided he will be advised not to lay out his Talent to the disturbance of his Neighbours But if he will be venting his Gall and his Ignorance against the establisht Laws and Constitutions of the Commonwealth he must not take it ill if his shameful folly not to name something worse be discovered and laid open to the World And therefore in my Opinion it would be very good advice if he would be perswaded to give over this thread-bare Controversie of Church-Government and spend the remainder of his Days in embellishing and illustrating that great and important Discovery with which he has so lately obliged the World viz. That the Determination of a Septimary Portion in the Hebdomadal Revolution is or is not I care not whether an addition of the Law Decalogical to the Law Natural Ah! What Edifying Doctrine is this to the White-Aprons It could be no less to them than a Demonstrative Evidence of the Morality and Divine Institution of the Lords Day and doubtless they would with the Iews sooner Rost themselves than a small Ioint of Mutton upon the Day of Sacred Rest. He may I say trifle with his own Proselytes after this rate as much and as long as he pleases and no body will be much concerned to disabuse People so resolved to abuse themselves But if he will not be satisfied with the Priviledge of being learnedly impertinent unless he may make use of his Liberty to discompose the Publick Peace he may thank himself for what will follow For he will be sure to encounter to his cost too many Persons that love their Country too well to suffer it to be over-run and debaucht by such shallow Mountebanks and Impostors But my just Indignation against this Mans insolent and insufferable Behaviour transports me into too vehement and smart Resentments of his vile and dirty Practices yet because he is so forward
upon all occasions and without them too to appear in the Head of the Party and is at present not only the chief Ringleader but the only Champion of the Cause I cannot prevail with my self to let him go yet without remarking for the prevention of all their Subterfuges and Tricks of escape one little Artifice whereby his Followers would salve and redeem his Reputation viz. That his Adversary was not so ingenuâ—us as to engage him upon equal terms but took advantage of his old Miscarriages and Engagements in the late Rebellion and prevailed more by personal Reflections than strength of Argument so that though he could with case have Replied to all his pertinent Objections yet he could not in discretion revive so many old and forgotten Stories 1. Be it so And if he stand indicted of such Enormities against his Prince and Countrey as are neither to be exòused nor defended yet however it is not modest for him to defie his Accusation as he has done in publick by charging it with slander and scurrility If he be not guilty he ought to plead his Innocence if he be he might have some reason to complain of want of Candour but none at all of want of Truth And it only becomes his Confidence to defeat the Credibility of a plain and undeniable matter of fact by hussing and giving the lye in plain English and that in defiance to the Convictions of his own Conscience to the Testimony of his own Writings and to the Notoreity of his own Practices This is pretty well for Modesty But if he ever were guilty he is so still for nothing can recover his Innocence but a sincere and an hearty Repentance and till he has cut off all his Ancient Crimes by some publick acknowledgment and satisfaction he cannot be supposed to have forsaken his old Dispensation but still to continue as very a secret one as ever And now had he been proceeded with as they pretend it would not have been in the least impertinent to his Adversary's Cause or Argument whilst he was perswading the Government to beware of that sort of men to represent how those that are most forward to appear in their Defence were never considerable for any thing but Sedition and Disloyalty And that is a very strong Accession to the direct force of his Argument when we find none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enervate or disparage its Ev◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are known to design nothin◠〈◊〉 â—hief or disturbance And there can scarce be a more effectual Proof of the Dangers and Ill-consequences of Toleration than that J. O. and some others of his Kidney so much bestir themselves to obtain it all Governments have certainly reason enough to be jealous of all such designs as are carried on by professed Enemies of the State The only unanswerable Objection that the Nature of the Argument it self affords is the natural Tendency of fanatick and enthusiastick Principles to wild and seditious Practices but when such right peaceable men as these are observed to come forth in its defiance that farther proves the Event that was but probable in the Nature of things to be really laid and intended in the minds of men and the Result of all is that publick Broils and Tumults is not only the natural Effect but the serious end of all their Pretences And this I presume is competently material to the scope of the Discourse And as this way of Procedure could not have been justly charged with any Impertinence so much less with any Disingenuity for in sober sence what milder Correction could a Person so obnoxious deserve or modestly expect though it were only to take down his malepert Confidence and Presumption but when beside that it was so direct a Consideration to the matter in Debate no Laws of Ingenuity could oblige no nor scarce excuse any man that should baulk such weighty advantages to so honest a cause only out of regard and tenderness to a malefactours Reputation Especially when he shall so often as he has publickly done proclaim open Defiance to all Accusations boast of his own meekness and innocence and with such an intolerable Confidence pish at the vanity and silliness of all such ungrounded reflections What other course can be taken with such a boisterous Huff than to dash back his bold Affronts and Challenges into his own Teeth and beat down such a daring Impudence with the weight of its own Guilt And thereby let the world see how little Conscience or Modesty is to be expected from these demure precious ones that can bare up so bravely under such a sinking load of horrour and vilany And though the Government has been pleased to forgive and forget all their Godly pranks yet it is not to be endured to see them look so big and talk so loud upon Presumption of their own Innocence and who could believe it that People so guilty upon all accounts both before God and Man and so they are and must be till they have disowned their former Practices and renounced their former Principles by some publick Protestations of Repentance should be so irrecoverably faln from all shame and modesty as to spit at the most modest suspicions of their Honesty to stand on tip-toe upon their own Iustification and in stead of being brought to any Remorse or Contrition for all their horrid and publick Crimes to cast off all Reflections upon their Guilt with all the stateliness of Pride and all the assurance of a good Conscience And therefore until they have given us some more satisfactory Symptoms and Indications of their Repentance they have nor can have no reason to complain of our want of Charity for supposing them constant to their good old Principles and their good old Cause If these Men complain of their hard usage till they have given us some hopes of their Reformation so may Wolves and Padders 2. Supposing he had been bespattered with uncivil and unhandsom Reflections yet certainly a Person of his abstracting and Metaphysical Head is able to separate the Argument from the Abuse and though possibly he could not wipe them off to the satisfaction of all Readers yet he might fairly neglect them as of no Concernment to the matter of his Enquiry And he is not so shamefaced as not to Huff and Out-swagger all Affronts Nay he has quit himself like himself of them already not only by holding forth that it is more Christian-like to forbear all such Provocations because they tend to mutual Exasperations of Spirit for that signifies little more than that he Good Man is very angry and I think he has no very great reason to be very well pleased but also by retorting them with all the Keenness of Revenge whilst poor Nothing he protests his unfeigned Resolutions of Meekness and Forgiveness as he has done a thousand times over in his late goodly Discourse of Evangelical Love and Unity particularly pag. 8. he defies all the Revilings of his Adversaries because they are such
Persons that have no regard to Truth or Modesty or Sobriety towards God or Man and shall be sure to be accounted with at the Day of Iudgment to the great Relief of his tender Heart That are animated by their secular Interest or desire of Revenge that are unacquainted with the Spirit of the Gospel and the Christian Religion that are incompassionate towards the Infirmities of others whereof yet none in the World give greater Instances than themselves that have no thoughts but of Rage and Destruction and that had they Power would render all Christians like the Moabites Ammonites and Edomites that is are for nothing less than Massacres and cutting of Throats c. Sweet Sir Enough enough of these healing Words we are vanquisht for ever with these generous strains of Meekness and Civility Did ever Man pass by such unparallel'd Injuries and Provocations with so much Gallantry and Greatness of Mind What execrable Miscreants must they be that could treat so brave an Adversary with Rudeness and Incivility or assault such an Heroick Ingenuity with ignoble and unhandsom Arts He is too hard for us at all Weapons there is no contending with a Person of such an Adamantine Honour he rebukes us with his Endearments and strikes us dead with his sweet and kissing Looks We yield we yield we cannot resist all this kind and melting Goodness He has requited our Malice with so fair and â—ivil a Character that it were a notorious Calumny to paint any thing but the Devil himself in blacker Colours And if but one half of this Enamouring Description that he has bestowed upon his Adversaries in the very Pangs of Love and Compassion were true or credible no Man that is yet unhang'd unless he had been marked thrice at least with the Honourable Brand of Authority would ever be so mad as to change condition with such cast and irreclaimable Wretches However we accept his kind Offer and his Good Meaning and seeing he is willing to respite his Revenge to the Day of Iudgment Ah sweet Day when these People of God shall once for all to their unspeakable comfort and support wreak their Eternal Revenge upon their reprobate Enemies it is agreed upon for we are not so fierce and fiery but we can wait with as much patience as he for satisfaction And therefore let us by mutual consent forbear all this unnecessary Courtship and Complement for the future and fall on bluntly upon the Argument without hugging and kissing before we draw Sword It is a pretty point of Honour for young Gentlemen but we that are a more sullen sort of Combatants may without any great inconvenience spare the Ceremony And now upon this Proposal it will be found that these intemperate Reflections as he calls them are so far from making the Book unanswerable that they are the only thing to which he has ventured to make any Reply so that it is plain this is not the Reason but purely the Pretence of his Reluctancy For alas the Evidence of the Cause is so bright and convictive as prevents all tolerable Mistakes or Exceptions and as for his bold and bare-faced Falsifications they arâ— all spent in the former Engagement and all his jugling shifts have been so sufficiently laid open to the World that they can never do him or his Cause any service for the future And setting these aside the Argument of the Controversie is so plain and easie that it is not capable of any farther Doubt or Disputation For all their Exceptions especially as they concern the Church of England relate either to the Power it self or to the Matters of the Command the first are directly levell'd against the very Being of Authority and Magistrates of what kind soever according to their general Pretences must not dare to put any Restraints upon their Subjects Consciences lest they invade the Divine Prerogative overthrow the Fundamental Liberties of Humane Nature and undo honest Men only for their Loyalty to God and their Religion Now if this Right be claimed without Restraint or Limitation then the Consequence is unavoidable That Subjects may whenever they please cross with the Authority of their Governours upon any pretence that can wear the Name or make a shew of Religion But this is so grosly absurd that J. O. nor any Man else in his Wits never had the Courage to assert it And then the Necessity of a Sovereign Power in Matters of Religion is granted and all Arguments that prove it in general necessary to Peace and Government are allowed or at least not contradicted for whoever admits an Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction howsoever bounded and limited admits it and that is enough to the first Assertion of a Supreme Authority over the Conscience in Matters of Religion But then say they there are some particular things exempted from all Humane Cognizance which if the Civil Magistrate presume to impose upon the Consciences of his Subjects as he ventures beyond the Warrant of his Commission so he can tie no Obligation of Obedience upon them seeing they can be under no Subjection in those things where they are under no Authority Now this pretence resolves it self thus that they do not quarrel his Majesties Ecclesiastical Supremacy but they acknowledge it to be the undoubted Right of all Sovereign Princes as long as its Exercise is kept within due bounds of Modesty and Moderatiâ—n Which being granted all their general Exceptions against the Sufficiency of the Authority it self are quitted and they have now nothing to except against but the excess of its Iurisdiction So that having gained this ground the next thing to be assigned and determined is the just and lawful bounds of this Power and that has been already distinctly enough described as to all the most material Cases that can probably occur in Humane Life all which may be summ'd up in this one general Rule viz. That Governours take care not to impose things apparently evil and that Subjects be not allowed to plead Conscience in any other case this is the safest and most easie Rule to secure the Quiet of all that are upright and peaceable and all that refuse Subjection to such a gentle and moderate Government make themselves uncapable of all the Benefits of Society in that if we stop not their Liberty of Remonstrating to the Commands of Authority at this Principle we shall for ever be at an utter loss for making any certain Provisions for the Peace and Security of Commonwealths So that if they will attempt any thing here to any purpose they must again either cancel all Ecclesiastical Power or confine it within narrower bounds of Iurisdiction both which are equally absurd and dangerous the former we have already cashiered as flat Anarchy and the latter is no less because there is no end of the Follies and Impostures or at least the Pretences of Religion so that if they may be suffered to over-rule the Power of Princes then can Princes claim no Power over any
that have no mind to obey them i. e. they have none at all because all that are or would be disobedient may plead dissatisfaction for their Priviledge and that supersedes all the proceedings of Authority And here too before they can do any good they must justifie the reasonableness of the Pretences of Scandal or an unsatisfied Conscience in Opposition to the Publick Laws i. e. they must prostitute all the Wisdom and Power of Government to the Humour and Ignorance of the common People and that is plainly to destroy it Nay though we should grant them all this and any thing else that they can with or without modesty demand yet when all is done the Puritan Controversie will prove the most desperate and indefensible Cause in the World For that relates to the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of the Matters of the particular Laws and Constitutions themselves and now when the Question is cast upon this Issue attend Heavens and Stars Here are Wonders and Mysteries to be discovered that would make an Archangel stare A flourishing Nation has been embroiled in a bloody War As Vertuous a Prince as ever sate upon a Throne has been Murthered and Martyred An Establisht Church has been Plundered and Dissolved and Fellow-Subjects have been enraged against each other with implacable Zeal and Cruelty and we are still shatter'd into numberless Schisms and Factions and People are seared from returning to their Obedience upon peril of their Eternal Salvation though for what reason all this is done Elias must tell us when he comes for as yet it is above the reach of our Inquisition and the comprehension of our Understandings As for my own part I have wasted not a little time I fear more than I shall be able to give a good account of to search and enquire what mighty Prize it is that they contend for in good earnest and yet after all my pains I must protest that I understand their meaning no more than I do the Great Secret or the Philosophers Stone For the result of all their endless talk is plainly reducible to these two Heads Either what they plead in their own behalf that they may have Liberty to Worship God according to that Rule that is instituted and prescribed to them in the Gospel or what they object against us which is in the last Issue of things nothing else than the horrible Unwarrantableness of Symbolical Ceremonies As for the first they still persist to urge it with their old Zeal Clamour and Confidence though it is apparently no more concern'd in the matter of our Controversie than the possibility of squaring the Circle For when we descend to particulars and proceed by Induction there is not any thing by which they divide and distinguish themselves from the Church of England that can so much as pretend to the least foot-steps in the Word of God And though they have been so often challenged upbraided and taunted to shew one Divine or Apostolical Injunction that expresly requires their way of Worship as far as it is opposed to our establisht Rites and Constitutions yet you may sooner beat out their brains if they have any than make them so much as attend to your motion or at least prevail with them to specifie this general Rule in any one particular case If they would but once undertake this it would bring all our Differences to a very speedy and a very easie issue For if the Scripture have determined any certain and standing Rules of outward Worship what ean be more reasonably demanded or easily performed than to assign them It is full as obvious as to find out the Rules of the Liturgy by the Rubricks and Canons of the Church If it have not what can be more disingenuous or seditious than for men to stand upon such conditions of their Obedience as they know to be impossible They have had time enough to search the Sacred Records for particular Forms and Rituals of outward Worship and when with all their pains they have not been able to discover so much as one express Institution is it not prodigious beyond all Precedent that they should persevere in their old Confidence and that in defiance to their own knowledge and experience And they may with all their searching as soon find out the Institution of all the Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter in holy Writ as any one Form of Worship enjoined to all Ages of the Church under a perpetual and unalterable Obligation beside barely the two Sacraments What can be imagined more peevish or humoursom than for Men under so much demureness and seeming Sanctity to persist so seditiously in such a baffled and precarious pretence It is rank and self-convicted waywardness But then Secondly When they come to object against us the last result of all their outory there is the sad unwarrantableness of Symbolical Ceremonies though had they made it Syncategorematical Ceremonies the Objection had been more terrible than it is by at least three or four Syllables It is both an hard and a big word and for any thing the People know may signifie one of the bloodiest things in Popery They will endure any Ceremonies provided they be well purged of all their Symbolicalness that is the very Essence of Paganism Superstition and Idolatry They will and ought sooner to broil in Smithfield than submit to such Abominations of the Strumpet and the Beast It is less dangerous to Worship the Host and more easie to believe Transubstantiation than to defile our selves with this lewd and Antichristian Trangam The Iesuites Powder was first extracted out of it it is worse than Witcheraft and Sorcery the least Infusion of it immediately transforms a Man into a Papist or a Iew or any thing else as the Enchantment is laid 'T is the very Potion wherewith the Scarlet Whore made Drunk the Kings of the Earth Heliogabalus and Bishop Bonner loved it like Clary and Eggs and always made it their Mornings-Draught upon Burning Days and it is not to be doubted but that the seven Vials of Wrath that were to be poured upon the Nations of the Earth under the Reign of Antichrist were filled with Symbolical Extracts and Spirits And were all this dismal Story a sad and serious Truth Men could scarce be more affrighted than they are at two or three very innocent Ceremonies only because they are called Symbolical and yet after all this hideous noise and outery 1. It is very unhappy that there are no Ceremonies to be found out in the World but what are Symbolical in that it is the very Nature and the only warrantable Use of Ceremonies to be Symbolical But 2. Suppose there were any that are pure and Unsymbolical yet it will be a cruel task to find out any certain Prohibition either in the Law of Nature or the Word of God against all those that are Symbolical and if it cannot be done they will not prove so deadly dangerous as hath been hitherto
of Grotians is that they are for a visible head of the Universal Church whether Pope or General Council They who are for the Headship of a General Council are no fit instruments for the introduction of the Popes tyrannical power It seemeth he rejecteth the Authority of General Councils either past or to come as well as Popes so dare not we If under the name of the Universal Church he include the Triumphant Church we know no head of the Universal Church but Christ. If he limit it to the Militant Church we are as much against one single Monarch as he we dislike all tyrannical power in the Church as well as he yet we quarrel with no man about the name of Head or a Metaphorical expression But if he think that Christ left the Catholick Church as the Ostrich doth her Eggs in the Sand without any care or provision for the governing thereof in future Ages he erreth grosly So the Catholick Church should be in a worse condition than any particular Church yea than any Society in the World like the Cyclops Cane where no man heard or heeded what another said Particular Churches have Soveraign Princes and Synods to order them but there never was an universal Monarch And if he take away the Authority of General Councils he leaveth no humane helps to preserve the Unity of the Universal Church what is this but to leap over the backs of all second Causes The first Council was of another mind It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Act. 15. 28. And so have all the Churches of the World from Christs time until this Age. His fifth note of Grotians To dery the sufficiencie of Scripture in all things necessary to salvation might well have been spared for we all maintain it as well as he but he shuffles into the question such impertinent and confused generalities about the Peace of the Churâ—â— and Traditions as deserve no answer The sufficiency of Scripture is not inconsistent either with prudential Government or the necessary means of finding out the right sense of Scripture When he expresseth himself more distinctly he may expect a Categorical answer His last mark is that they will not be perswaded to joyn on any reasonable terms for the healing of our present divisions This dependeth upon his own interpretation what he judgeth to be reasonable terms We have seen his dexterity in making wounds and would be glad to have experience of his skill in healing them He complains only of illegal Innovations Dare he stand to the ancient Laws If he dare the Controversie is ended If he like not this for we know their exceptions were against the Laws themselves not against illegal Innovations let them name those Laws which they except against and put it to a fair trial whether there be any thing in any of them which is repugnant to the Laws of God or of right reason If they will but do this seriously without prejudice the business is ended I will make bold to go yet one step higher though our Laws be unblamable yet if the things commanded be but of a middle or indifferent nature we are ready to admit any terms of peace which we can accept with a good conscience so as we may neither swerve from the analogy of Faith nor renounce the necessary principles of Government nor desert the communion and ancient and undoubted customs of the Universal Church Such an accord would be too much loss both to you and us He would perswade us that there are two sorts of Episcopal Divines in England the old and the new And that there is much more difference between the old and the new than between the old and the Presbyterians Sect. 67. O confidence whither wilt thou what is the power of prejudice and pride The contrary is as clear as the light we maintain their old Liturgy their old Ordinal their old Articles their old Canons their old Laws Practices and praescriptions their old Doctrine and Discipline against them Then tell us no more of old Episcopal Divines and new Episcopal Divines we are old Episcopal Divines one and all out of his own words I condemn him The old sort of Episcopal Divines that received the publick Doctrine of the Nation contained in the 39. Articles Homilies c. I wholly acquitted from my jealousies of this compliance Sect. 12. If they be old Episcopal Divines who maintain the Doctrine of the 39. Articles and Homilies then we are all old Episcopal Divines In acquitting all them he acquitteth all us If he can shew any thing that I have written contrary to these I retract it if he cannot let him retract his words He might have taken notice of my submission of whatsoever I writ to the Oecumenical essential Church and to its Representative a free general Council and to the Church of England or a National English Synod to the determinations of all which and each of them respectively according to the distinct degrees of their Authority I yield a conformity and compliance or to the least and lowest of them an acquiescence Pref. to the Reply to Bish. Chalc. So far am I and always have been from opposing the Church of England wittingly He maketh a shew as though he could make it appear that the Grotian design was the cause of all our Wars and changes in England but it is but a copy of his countenance How should the Grotian design be the cause of all our Wars when our War began before Grotius himself began his design or to write of the reconciliation of Protestants and Papists which was in the years 1641 and 1642. But without all controversie either the Grotian design was the cause of our Wars or the design and more than the bare design of his own Party The World knows well enough and I leave it to his own conscience to tell him whether of the two was the right Mother of the Child Though he fail in his proofs against Episcopal Divines yet he produceth sundry other reasons to prove that there was such a Plot on foot to introduce Popery into England but they do not weigh so much as a Feather nor signifie any thing more than this how easily men believe those things which they wish He saith Franciscus à Sancta Claras design and Grotius his design seem the very same and their Religion and Church the same Sect. 73. Nay certainly that is more than seemingly their Religion and Church was not the same unless he mean the same Christian Religion and in that sense his own Religion is the same with theirs but in his sense they were not the same This is begging of the question which he ought to prove Grotius was not of the French Communion And for their designs the World is so full of feigned Plots and designs that I do not believe that either of them had any design except that general and pacificatory design which he himself professeth and extolleth every where I
or Schismatical Sermons or Heretical Sermons or for intruding himself into the Sacred Office of a Preacher without Lawful calling or for some Abuse of his function Even so the Buyers and Sellers might have pleaded that they innocent People were whipped by Christ for furnishing Gods People with Sacrifices And Uzza might have pleaded much better that he lost his life for seeking to support the Ark of God from falling Doth he think that we are such silly Birds to be catched with such empty chaff as this is Or not to be able to distinguish between an action and the the obliquity of it The Pharisees Prayer the Harlots Vow the Traitors Kiss were commendable actions in general as well as his Preaching of Lectures But either the incapacity of the person or a sinister intention or a defective manner or a contempt of lawful authority might render and did render all these actions sinful and punishable Apollos watering is necessary as well as Pauls planting especially until the plants have taken good root But after whole Nations have been long radicated in Christianity and have framed to themselves Liturgies and other Books of devotion for the publick and private Worship of God And Catechisms which comprehend all necessary and essential points of Faith and all the parts of new obedience to phantasie that without weekly Sermons all Religion is extinct is as much as to perswade us that no man can possibly write except he have his Master perpetually by him to hold his hand or that a Field cannot yield a good crop except it be sowen over and over again every month of the two a private guide seemeth to be more necessary to a grounded Christian than a publick Preacher But if Preachers shall not content themselves to sow the Wheat over again but shall sow Tares above the Wheat If they shall seek to introduce new Doctrines new Disciplines and new Forms of Worship by popular Sermons different from and destructive to those which are established by Law who can blame the Magistrates Political and Ecclesiastical if they begin to look about them A seditious Oratour is dangerous every where but no where more than in the Pulpit Then blame not Magistrates if they punish seditious or Schismatical Preachers more than one who is no Preacher All Laws and all prudent Magistrates regard publick dangers more than particular defects Yet farther supposing them to be both faulty the fault of a Reader is purae negationis a meer omission of duty extenuated many times by invincible necessity but the fault of a seditious Preacher is purae dispositionis a fault of a perverse disposition Then he may cease to wonder why Preachers are sometimes punished more for Preaching ill than for being silent and recall to his mind the practice of that prudent Schoolmaster who exacted but a single salary from such of his Scholars as had never been taught but a double salary from those who had been mistaught because he must use double diligence with them first to unteach them what they had learned amiss and then to teach them I have much more respect for those poor Readers whom he mentioneth every where with contempt I hope they may do and many of them do God good and acceptable service in his Church and co-operate to the Salvation of many Christian Souls by reading the Holy Scriptures and the Liturgy and Homilies of the Church and administring the Holy Sacraments And I have heard wise men acknowledge that if it had not been for these very Readers in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign when Preaching was very rare England had hardly been preserved as it was both from Popery and from Atheism Their very Reading is a kind of Preaching Act. 15. 21. Moses of old time hath in every City them that Preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day And their reading of Homilies doth yet approach nearer to formal Preaching Or if it come short of Preaching in point of efficacy it hath the advantage of Preaching in point of security The private conceits of new fangled Preachers by being vented publickly as the Word of God have done much hurt which the reading of publick Homiles never did Let not this Apology for Readers occasion him or any other man presently to condemn me for a Loiterer in my calling Those who have known me will acquit me Let this be considered and acknowledged that as Readers Talents are mean so are their Benefices And this is the great comfort that they have that they are below a Sequestration The fire of Zeal which driveth able Scholars out of their great Churches never lights upon their little Chappels So the great Flyes are catched in their publick Nets whilst the lesser pass through and through them without any danger or fear of being entangled Nondum sinitus orestes His invective is not yet done Hundreds of Congregations had Ministers that never Preached and such as were common Drunkards and openly ungodly c. I know not how it comes to pass that in this last Age the Pastors of Churches have got the name of Ministers that is Servants or Deacons and they that are Ministers or Deacons indeed have got the name of ruling Elders Those whom he accounteth for no Freachers were Preachers in an inferiour degree And our Canons provideth that the meanest Churches or Chappels throughout England which had cure of Souls should have formal Sermons at least four times in every year If some common Drunkards or ungodly persons were crept into the English Church it is no wonder Among the twelve Apostles there was one Iudas What may be expected among twelve thousand This is just the manner of Flies to leave the whole Body which is sound and dwell continually upon one little sore I have seldom observed that ever any man who had a good cause which would bear out it self did make such impertinent objections as this or sling dirt in the face of an Adversary in the stead of weapons He saith no more of the English Church than God by his holy Prophets hath said of his own Church no more than may be justly retorted and said of any Church in the world even upon his Presbyterian Churches in particular with as much and much more truth as it could ever be objected against the Church of England He addeth when yet the most learned Godly powerful painful peaceable men that durst not use the old Ceremonies or the new must be cast aside or driven way c. Comparisons are odious But such superlatives are incredible and argue nothing but the Writers pride and partiality and little regard to what he writeth Let Mr. Baxter sum up into one Catalogue all the non-conformists throughout the Kingdom of England ever since the beginning of the resormation who have been cast aside or driven away at any time because they durst not use the old Ceremonies or the new or rather because they found it advantagious to them to disuse them I dare abate