he threatned them that drew the sword well for him you dare not adde and against him is not doubted nay suppose it had been against Peter attempting his personal deliverance it had given you no advantage since he also rebuked him as Satan for desiring him to spare himself he blessed likewise the peace makers entituling them the children of God and our hearts desire is that God would raise up to us a true peace-maker to reduce you unto wisdome whose wayes are wayes of pleasantnesse and all her paths are peace The incendiaries of warre are indeed no where pronounced happie and the boutefeus of rebellion are certainly the children of him who was a murtherer from the begining but Sir is this fair dealing The question that you move and have to prove is that my friend is an incendiarie and boutefeu and behold without any reason offered you not onely conclude him but condemne him it were undoubtedly as easie and aboundantly just for me to inquire where perjurious persecuters are pronounced happie c but I will not so much as retort or retaliat with such expressions such as breath out warre and crueltie know not what spirit they are of and our prayer to God is that they who breathing out threatnings and slaughter against us terme just defence and necessarie resistance war and crueltie may at length have their eyes opened All in the Gospel-dispensation is truely gentle and peaceable and yet of all things in the world it hath been most reproached for tumult and sedition but the great consolation of all its followers is that its author the God of peace will one day make known all false pretenders and its Lord the Prince of Peace for their persecutions here will in the end blesse with everlasting peace all its true lovers when according to the excellent order of the Gospels rule of peace the Kingdome of God shall be fully revealed in righteousnesse first and then in peace and joy in the holy ghost But you say that all this viz a non-resistance of and submission to persecution was signally confirmed by our masters unexampled sufferings and yet you know so well that the free and voluntarie sufferings of our Lord are in themselves no lesse unexampled then unimitable and that it is the manner and not the matter thereof that we are to follow that I cannot but doubt your sinceritie Christ not onely refused the aide of the sword but came into the world willinglie went up to Ierusalem stedfastly exposed himself knowingly and lastly would not aske the assistance of legions of Angels readie at his desire that the Scriptures signifieing how that he ought to have suffered might be fulfilled and is it possible that you can think that these specifick acts are for our imitation But you say that he entailed perdition on these that should draw the sword to wit all these that are not warranted to doe it by the Magistrat How long will you love vanitie and seek after leesing Our Lord in that place doth most plainely for the averting of Peter's unseasonable zeal and the comforting of all his Disciples denounce that all these who take the sword unjustly shall perish by the sword and. Rev. 13.10 we have the parallel place more fully set downe he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword spoken of persecuting Magistrats aswel as others Here is the patience and the faith of the Saints And yet you have the confidence to smooth it over as if this sad doome had been pronounced not onely against Peter but all such as shall be by the force of oppression constrained to their owne defence You adde that he witnessed that good confession before Pilat that Caesar needed apprehend no hazard from his Kingdome since it not being of this world was not to be fought for And doe you indeed think that this is the emphasis of that good confession viz to satisfie Cesars unjust fears O perverse flatterie The excellent goodnesse of our Lords confession cannot but be sweetly relished by every serious Christian to lye in these words thou saiest that I am a King to this end was I borne and for this cause came I unto the world that I should beare witnesse unto the truth how then are you not ashamed not onely to wrest it unto the pitieful interest of Princes but to misconstrue the whole passage as if our Lord in purging himself by a voluntarie and free forbearance of the affectation of a worldly Kingdome did in effect disowne all defensive armes to the incouraging and strengthening of the most bloudie tyrans You think it strange that through the whole Gospel we should meet with repeated blessings on these that suffer but never one upon such as fight but if our Lord having declared that he came not to destroy the Law of righteousnesse did accommodat his incouragements to his Apostles unto the dispensation fo his providence under which for the greater glorie of the power of his free grace he thought good to gather and traine up his Church should you or any else be thereat stumbled for my part when I reflect upon both the sufferings and grace of the primitive times and how the Lord did order them I rather wonder at that admonition by you observed that they should sell their coats to buy swords but you say had the Disciples understood this of the material sword either their practises or writings should have had some vestiges of that sense by the which very argument a man may as easily deny that the Purse there spoken of is to be taken for a material one but seing the tenor of the context and relation made by the Lord to their former mission doe exhibit the meaning with that evidence as cannot be convelled for want of an unoccasioned confirmation I go on to examine the rest of your glosse upon the place and taking notice that the Disciples at the time by presenting two swords did shew that they understood the Lord to speake of a material sword you say that by his answer it is enough which cannot relate to the two swords produced no wise enough for eleven persons he corrects their error breaks off their purpose as if he had said enough of this or no more of it since he sawe they misunderstood his former words of a sword Thus rather then to assent to truth you would have our Lord by such a stop tacitly to acknowledge his own inadvertency but the passage is too obvious to be thus abused in asmuch as our Lord having before both signified and prepared for his owne imminent departure forewarnes them by the necessitie of a purse and a sword of the straits and dangers that would ensue whereupon they its like out of their blind and forward desire to have him delivered from the hand of the jewes lay hold on his words and shew him two swords probably with a confident remembrance of his former miracles and this their precipitancy our Lord according to
An ANSWER To the LETTER Directed to the Author OF JUS POPULI By a Friend of the Authors Printed in the Year 1671 An Answer to the letter directed to the Author of JUS POPULI By a Friend of the Authors SIR At the first view of your Letter to my friend I begun to apprehend you had transformed your self into an Apostle of Christ borrowed a mantle of light and perceiving you so cunning as from a plausible misapplication of the gospel precepts of charity meekness patience the like graces to study your advantages against a just and zealous indignation occasioned by provocations which might almost excuse the greatest excesse the least I could expect was a non-contradicting practice but how quickly am I releived of these apprehensions And how much more happily have you your self detected that which though by me evinced by clearest arguments yet could not have been so much as named without your complaint of reviling and persecution if your insinuation of a brotherly respect and fair professions of Christian charity freedome from wrath malice and bitternesse pity compassion a deep and affecting concernment for Gods glory and religious advancement high pretendings for humilitie meeknesse and true holinesse a tender reguard to the union of Christs body and daylie panting for an escape from the contentions and confusions here below unto these regions of peace and joy above even unto the undervaluing of Episcopacy aswell as Presbytery had been followed with an uniforme straine in all other parts they might have proven very pernicious deceivings but seing that beside the slee and scorneful mixtures which obviously bewray themselves through the whole tenor of your Letter yow are often transported to the very rudest and foulest eruptions accusing your opposit as a scurrilous bouffon bloudy incendiary agent of heel equal to Beelzebub guilty of the crime of Cham and in hazard of Canaans curse unjust malicious and cruel in reproaches nay in the gall of bitternesse and finally whom in the first page you accoasted as your brother representing him in the last as guilty of rebellion and treason worthie to be made an example to all such desperat incendiaries sure I am that he who cannot in these variant methods discerne your hypocrisy must yet acknowledge a strength of malice above its subtilty However Sir in returne to the acceptable deliverance you have given me from medling further in such naughty stuffe all the use I make of this observation shall be to let you see that you are but a man of like passions with us and that though the insolence of the Surveyer did in effect constraine my friend to some heat and sharpenesse yet we do also know in its exigence how to cut off occasion from them which desire it and to redargue your vaine glorying in the mylder calmer graces so to speake by a more consistent imitation in which resolution I addresse my self to a short review of your Letter And first taking God to witnesse of these groanes and teares which our furious distempers doe draw from some of you whom we so much persecute you fall into your heavy regrates to see the great designes of Godlinesse and piety suffering so much from some who pretend so highly and yet are more concerned for a few inconsiderable opinions and niceties then for charity meeknesse unity and obedience to Authority or for carrying on the great end for which Christ died c. Sir though I may not directly call in question your truth and sincerity in this appeale yet seing that all men know how that you or at least most of that party whereunto you associat did with hands lifted up to the most high God engage sincerely really and constantly to own and mantaine these things which you do here plainely disowne and blaspheme give me leave to remember you that though deceivers may deceive themselves aswell as others yet God will not be mocked If these furious and unchristian distempers the object of your groanes and teares and the persecutions that you mention be indeed nothing else then the zealous dissent and testimony of such who in the feare of the same high and holy Lord God whom you attest dare not comply with the present manifest bakslidings and for which they have been greivously vexed and if this your Character of their way as fury be onely either from delusion of interest or delicacy of humor it is much to be feared that he who is the true and faithful witnesse shall one day witnesse against you and not for you one thing I am perswaded of that whoever at present is a true mourner before the Lord and as in his sight doth not more finde the reigning sins of the Land and the desolations and profanations of Gods sanctuary to be his principal motive then the causes which you assigne to be false and deceitful The great designes of godlinesse do certainly suffer much And O that God would as manifestly declare the authors of these sufferring as all men know thier beginnings That we are the men you point at by this overconcernement for a few inconsiderable and disputable opinions is aboudantly obvious but seing you are not ashamed to terme these things in considerable and disputable which yet doe as certainly both by their institution and in our experience conduce to the great ends of holinesse and happinesse as from Scripture and cleare reason they were evidently determined and by most righteous and solemne lawes and cannons and sacred oathes established amongst us it were unreasonable for me to redargue your imputation as for your prejudicial comparing of Ordinances with Dueties and your endeavours by magnifying the ends of religion to vilify its midses as meere nicities it is a peice of art so frequently practised by G. B. in his dialogues and by his antagonist so soberly and convincingly discovered that I need to adde nothing onely let me tell you that he who truely values the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus as he will assuredly dearely esteeme all his purchase for gifts unto his Church so in these bacslidings oppositions and overturnings which we have seen he cannot but judge your comliant charity unseasonable meeknesse easeful peace censpiring unity and excessive obedience to mans authority to be at best the delusions of a lukewarme indifferent you say There is a generation who was once by appearance seriously minding their souls but now are taken off that noble exercise thus you discerne the change but cannot discerne its causes nay of these you are so willingly ignorant that while you referre them to foolish and unlearned questions you altogether dislemble who were the first movers this poor Church was injoying although with some infirmity our Lords pure ministry and Government and then These excellent lessons of charity patience humility meeknesse and true holinesse though not in your perverse application were in some request when behold as if we had been delivered from our civil bondage to commit all these abominations a furious
truth we contend for without further canvassing of what you subjoine of the nature of Moses dispensation or the Gospels call to the Crosse I frankely leave it as you do with all free mindes to consider whether your poor blinde negatives be of any moment to preponderat that cleare light of reason which shineth in our assertions and is confirmed both by old testament examples and new testament approbations as my friend the answerer of the dialogues do evidently hold out As to your ensuing section anent the first ages of the Church their unacquaintednesse with this doctrine and your boasting Historical observe that until Pope Gregory the 7th his dayes it was unheard of in the Church with your endeavours to render it odious by the patrociny of Cannonists and Jesuits it is so exactly the same with the discourse of the dialogues and is by the answerer so clearly discussed that I am not affraid to oppose his single reply to your vaine repetitions one thing I must tell you that seing you cannot deny that about and after Constantines dayes when Christians arrived to a greater consistency and better capacity not only did Constantine himself with the express approbation assisting presence of the Godliest teachers in these times fight against Licinius for his persecutions but also both the oppressed Christians in the east did assert by armes the liberty of the Gospel against Jovius Maximinus and at other times and in other places they implored the aid of Christian and orthodox Emperours against pagan and Arrian persecuters your endeavour to put a tashe upon these practises as criminal which yet all the after ages of the Church have approven and to evade by saying that the doctrine was not then owned which was onely not expressely maintained because not contradicted is nothing at all ingenuous therefore since it is certaine that even the most excellent truths have been lyable to the foulest abuses neither your odious dating of the doctrine of resistance from a notorious Papall rebellion nor your futilous essay to make men beleeve that its onely propagators were the Popes Parasits do deserve any further notice And now we are come to the close of your Letter wherein conceiting that either you have made sure our conviction or discovered our cure to be with men impossible you think good to give a testimony to your self which I am perswaded considering the folly or falsehood of the poor purpose that I have perused among all that have written on the subject you deserve least But if you misse of your owne praise you are resolved my friend shall fare no better and therefore as if this were the first of it you pretend constraint for one severe word to tell him whom almost in the beginning you termed an agent of hell as evill as Beelzebub that you do feare him to be in the gall of bitternesse Sir although such reproaches be to me very light yet I wish that for your own souls good you would seriously ponder that to undervalue the grace and despise the glory of the work and cause of God that we have seen in the land to strengthen the wicked in their wickednesse adde affliction to these whom for conscience onely men do persecute are characters of this wretched and woful state equal if not worse to what appeared in him against whom these words were first pronounced whether your preceeding discourse and subsequent stricture in this place against the cause of God do partake of these evils I leave it with your selfe Your last observe is upon my friends postscript occasioned by the Bishop of St Andrews his affirming in a sermon that the subjects lives were more the Kings then their own and his passage so moves your spleen that it is evident you resolve to be behinde with him in nothing and therefore after you have charactered him as insolent guilty of rebellion and treason all the difference betwixt you and him is that what the postscript would have done by St Andrewes upon himself in a just consonancy to and punishment of his lying flattery you would have the King for no cause to inflict on my friend as real demerit But that which I concerne my self most to notice is the medium that you use to convince us of the truth of the Bishops position viz. that because a subject committing a capital crime hath no right to be the executioner of justice on himself therefore his life is more in the Kings power then in his own but not to differ with you about thir pitieful words which were that all mens lives are in the Kings hand and hold of him what ever agreement or place the argument may haue as to the Bishop and amongst his complices persons its like conscious of their own guilt yet sure I am as all honest men are without the compasse of such a title so he must be a fool aswell as a knave that will hold a plaine forfiture to the King to be a good tenor of him the Bishop no doubt thought he had passed a great complement upon his Majesty when by putting his life in the Kings power he gave more unto him then he hath himself but when you come to be his interpreter how strangely do you mis-serve them both the Bishop by supposing him to be criminal and fo making him by right to amitt what he thought he had freely given and the King by presenting him with nothing else then the forefeited lives of wretched catives in place of the loyal resignation of free leiges but leaving these your follies which if they had escaped my friend had no doubt been lashed by you as dull buffonries and the coursest of rallerie without either edge or point the truth is our lives are not our own all soules are mine saith the Lord and therefore as we neither can give them up absolutely unto the Prince his arbitrary disposal not hath the Lord even in the case of the most atrocious crime obliged the criminal to be felo dese and his own executioner so all the power the Magistrat can pretend is onely founded in the sentence of righteous Law by which the person guiltie losing his right is therefore both by the will of God and his owne consent subjected to the Magistrats execution and how much this doth militat both against the Bishops flatterie and the pretensions of tyrannie all sober men may preceive Thus Sir in place of your examining my friends book in bulk evident enough by the grossenesse of your reflexions I have considered your Letter by retaile wherein I am assured you will see that I have omitted to answer nothing except such things as silence will best reprove What satisfaction you will finde in my reply dependeth upon your self only in this I think I merit your acknowledgement that by my prevention I have delivered you our of my friends hands who probably would have searched you out in a more accurat manner if my sineere endeavours shall produce to you any greater advantage it is according to the serious desire of one who though he hath no reason to be more yet subscribeth himself SIR Your real well-wisher PAg. 6. lin 3. read sufferings Pag. 9. l. 3. r. enough p. 10. l. 1. r. doing p. 17. l. 12. r. Skeens p. 25. l. 1. r. this FINIS