publick Self-defence against Forreign or Home bred Enemies 14. But I believe that this power belongeth not to a wronged or persecuted party but only to the Body of the Kingdom Because their good is not the bonum publicum and a Civil War would do more hurt than their death or ruin Nor may a Kingdom defend all its Rights or revenge all its injuries by a Civil War which will do more hurt than their wrongs But where the destruction of the Kingdom is apparently endeavoured or the change of their Constitution or a hurt greater than a Civil War a Self-defence is lawful and necessary 15. I believe Grotius and all Politicks that Regere perdere rempublicam are inconsistent and that whoever declareth his purpose to destroy the Kingdom can be no King of it For the terminus is essential to his relation If it be Murder not to defend the Life of a Brother against the assault of a Murdering Robber it is far worse not to do our Duty to save a Kingdom against publick Murderers and Destroyers 16. If a King profess himself a Papist according to the true definition he taketh Approved General Councils for the Rule of his Religion And the Laterane Council sub Innoc. 3. bindeth all Temporal Lords on pain of Excommunication and Deposition to exterminate all that deny Transubstantiation and others called Hereticks from their Dominions if they are able and other Counsels and Popes have the like And it must be supposed that he that professeth himself so bound in Conscience is resolved as soon as he can to do it And he that imposeth on them a false Religion and faith Turn or Die professeth to destroy or damn them Yet may he be endured if he disclaim such Councils or promise Liberty till Evidence of perilous attempts nullifie that promise But if he put the Nation under the power of Souldiers Judges Magistrates of the same profession it must be supposed that he cannot save the Kingdom from them or that all they will be neglecters of their own Religion Or if he put himself into the power of an Army of that Religion he puts the Nation into their power though he were a Protestant himself For he is utterly unable to resist their power when Religion engageth their deluded Consciences to destroy us And though causless fears will not warrant defensive Arms rational well-grounded fears will For when Men are dead it is too late 17. But it followeth not that therefore a Papist may be resisted in France Spain Portugal or any Papist Kingdom nor yet a Heathen by persecuted Christians as in the Roman Empire Because their Religion bindeth none of these to exterminate or destroy their own Kingdoms as being of the same Religion as themselves And the Christians then and Protestants there now are not the Kingdom but a Party Therefore King and Parliament have here newly enacted for the setling of this Crown that no Papist may be here King or Regent Queen For though as in the Pond Judge Hale tells us two Pikes devoured all the other great store of Fish and survived only themselves God never authorized one Man to damn or murder a whole Kingdom 18. The Interest of the King his Honour Safety and Power and the Interest of the People their common safety and welfare are distinct but must not be opposite The King is for the Kingdom finaliter under God's Glory though the People are as Subjects to obey the King it is to that end the common good 19. In application I did believe that both King and Parliament sinfully began and managed this War For if either or both were wronged so much was by them to be endured as was not worse than a Civil War I believe that the Parliament did very ill in being emboldened by the Scots Army to provoke the King beyond the degree of meer necessity And that it was ill done of those that secretly or openly encouraged the Apprentices tumultuous way of Petitioning to move any Parliament Men from following their Judgments and in permitting the gross Scorns and Abuse of the Bishops and Liturgy And I believe that after they did yet worse in taking and imposing the Scots Covenant to procure their help 20. I did and do believe that yet they did but their Duty in seeking to redress the dangerous Abuses of Ministerial Governours and bringing the Instruments by Legal tryal to Punishment For what purpose else are they a Judicature Subjects are all under the Law And the common Judges are Sworn to do Justice though the King's Seal should be sent to Prohibit them 21. I did believe that the King did ill to forsake them and on pretence of the Tumults to gather an Army in Yorkshire Nottingham and Shrewsbury and that whose Commissions soever were first dated his Armed Collection of Men was first raised But yet that the beginning was by such degrees of mutual Provocation that to this day it is hard to say who began 22. I had read the King's Letter in Spain to the Pope promising to venture Crown and Life for the Union of the Christian Churches including the Roman which is recorded in Mr. Chesne the King of France his Geographer and in Prin and Rushworth And whether it be true or not that the Scots say in a Book called Truths Manifest that K. Charles then in Scotland had possession of their Broad Seal and put that Seal to a Commission for the Irish Insurrection I am past doubt that K. Ch. II. granted a Commission to Monk Manchester and others to try the Marquis of Antrim's Plea by which it was proved and determined that he had the K. Ch. I's Commission Though I believe that the King that caused them to rise allowed them not to Murder all the Protestants Put whom else were they to rise against but the Protestants And must they rise against them and not kill them And was not the Murderous temper and use of the Irish well known 23. I know that the Irish a year before Edgehill Fight on that day Oct. 23. 1641. were to have surprized Dublin And by the full Account of Dr. Henry Jones since Bishop and Sir John Temple and the Earl of Orery Murdered Two hundred Thousand and boasted that they did it by the King's Commission and that when they had done there they would come hither Though I believed them not I knew that Two hundred Thousand men dead are past Pleading their own Cause or defending their Country It is easie to Plead the justness of their Cause against dead Men that cannot contradict them Solitudinem faciunt Pacem vocant There is no resisting Murderers in the Grave And I thought that if the King put in Arms and Power the English Papists of the same Religion bound to destroy us his own good meaning could not preserve himself or us And I knew that the King stopt the Carriage-Horses that were sent by the Parliament to relieve Ireland and took them for his own Service and many
to this day § 32. Accus XIX He was acquainted Forty years ago with many Aged Nonconforming Ministers and probably Confederate with them c. Ans Yes in the Baptismal Covenant renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil I repent not of that Nor take it for a sin to have known them § 33. Accus XX. Prejudices against Conformity possest him from his Youth Ans Not unless Cainism be Conformity or twenty four years old be my Youth such as your Writings and Doings are an ill cure of prejudice § 34. Accus XXI Is that I broke my Oaths to the King and Ecclesiastical Superiors whom I was bound to obey Ans I thought verily that I broke neither I Swore not to obey the Convocation much less against the Parliament in unlawful Canons and imposed Oaths never yet Authorized I took the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and thought that defending the Land against Armed Delinquents and Irish and Papists Insurrections had been no breach of it If I was mistaken the Lord convince me and forgive me But your way is unapt to it Let the Reader peruse but Sir Edward Deering's Speeches in Parliament proving that this Et caetera Oath was sinfully imposed without Authority by them that were neither a Convocation a Synod or Commissioners the same Man that spake so much for Liturgy and Episcopacy against Presbytery and Independency And I doubt not but it was flat Perjury that by it we were required to Swear viz. That the described Et caetera Government of the Church ought so to stand And was I perjured for refusing Perjury As a summary Confutation of a multitude of his Lies I at once tell the Reader that I neither was nor am for the way called Presbytery Independency or the English Diocesane way But for the mixture described excellently by Grotius de Imper. Sum. Pot. and Bishop Usher and Sir Edward Deering whose Counsel I wish'd that the Parliament had followed And that I was and am far from defending the irregular Actions of the Parliament or any Members of it Tho' they thought that the Delinquents had put a necessity on them to overgo their own Judgments to please the Scots and the Indiscreet and Schismatical part of the Nonconformists I doubt not but they did ill herein and should have trusted God in the use of none but lawful means I believe that a few Men by Craft and unwearied Industry over-reach'd many that knew not what they did Sir Edward Deering nameth some of them especially Sir H. V. Sir A. H. and O. C. that over-reach'd his own upholders and all the rest I believe they did ill to excite and encourage disorder and tumults on pretence of Petitioning and of scurrilous defamations of such Men as the Lord Falkland the Lord Digby Sir Edward Dering and some other worthy Men and so many good Bishops as they abused And yet that I durst not for these miscarriages consent to give up the Kingdoms Parliamentary Security for its present and future Safety and Liberties I still think is consonant to the most common Principles of Lawyers Politick Writers Historians Divines Protestants Papists and Heathens Even the late great Lord Chancellor Hide sat Chairman of the Committee of Parliament that received the Petitions against Episcopacy Root and Branch and made such Speeches against the Delinquents as I dare not justifie But he forsook them when they quite over-went him If the King of England had a War with the French and I knew that his Cause were bad I would not defend his bad Cause but I would in his Army defend the Kingdom against those that would Captivate it by Conquest For the Kingdom doth not forfeit its safety by the Kings misdoing And if any say Then the King shall be defended in all his injuries how bad soever I would answer That is by accident it is the Kingdom that I defend and Him as a means to defend the Kingdom and not to justifie his sin I leave that to God What a case is a Kingdom in if it must Fight against it self and its representing security as oft as its Representatives miscarry by any sinister means And that all that are to be judged by the chief Judicature shall Fight to Conquer them if the King do but bid them If the safety of this Kingdom be once put into the Trust of the King alone the Constitution is changed and all Enslaved § 35. Accus XXII He saith that in 1640. I entred into a War against the King Ans Whereas the War in England began not till 1642. And I never medled in War but as aforementioned long after § 36. Accus XXIII He saith by the Treatise of Diocesane Episcopacy meditated 1640. I broached Faction in the Church my Pen disdaining to be less active than my Sword Ans 1. I never struck with a Sword in War or Peace 2. Did Meditating broach a Book that was not published nor written till thirty years after 3. Is it Faction to give reasons why I Swore not to Faction even that Antiepiscopal sort of Diocesanes that put down many hundred Churches and Bishops to set up the Name and Image of one 4. Why is not that Book answered to this day when so many Nonconformists have Challenged Called and Beg'd for an Answer to it Will a Lying Scorn satisfie any Conscionable Nonconformist 5. That Book owneth so much of Bishops and Diocesanes and Archbishops which Sir Edward Dering condemned that these Men now shew that it is not such as I only but such as Grotius Spalatensis Usher Hall yea most of the great Writers for Episcopacy of whose Judgment I have there given a particular account whom he condemneth for Faction and Enmity to the Church I have written against the Pope too And is not that as bad I am sure many Papists write more against Episcopacy than I. § 37. Accus XXIV It 's probable his Church History had its conception at the same time Ans About Forty years after 1640. Forty years breaks no square with this sort of Men I would this lort of History were not too common with them § 38. Accus XXV Page 23 He feigneth me in my Church History to commend all the Hereticks and omit what is good of the Fathers and Martyrs and write only their faults Ans It seems he thought that without reading the Book that disproveth him his Faction would take his word that he saith true § 39 Accus XXVI The like he saith of my reproaching Councils because I shew the miscarriages of many and our Bishops that plead for a Forreign Jurisdiction dare yet own but six or eight General Councils § 40. Accus XXVII Page 25. He reciteth my mention of the former courses of undoing Men for hearing a Sermon of a Godly Conformist at the next Parish when they had none at home and for Fasting and Praying c. And he taketh it for my crime to call these ungodly Persecutions crimes So that he that is not for them while they are
this be a Character of the best Church in the World to have such Ministers But if there be no Obligation from that Vow to the things aforesaid 1. Dr. Sanderson and most sober Casuists are mistaken who say That though a Vow be unlawfully imposed and unlawfully taken and part of the Matter be unlawful to be kept it bindeth us nevertheless to keep the necessary part And what am I that I should swear or say that I am wiser than all these Doctors and sure that they are mistaken 2 And then I must swear or say that neither King nor Lords nor any one took it in a lawful sense which else would oblige them And must I become a Voucher for Thousands whom I never knew 3 And then I must swear or say that the King was brought in by Errour and Deceit Monk's Presbyterian Army and the Presbyterian Gentry and Ministry of England brought in the King as bound to it by this Covenant as they declared And must I say it did not bind them to it But our Accusers are no Self-accusers but God will difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an Oath and dare not take God's Name in vain § 76 Accus LIX He dipped his Pen not in Gall and Vinegar but in the very poyson of Asps to keep open the wounds of the expiring Church To which end he endeavours to draw his Neighbour-Ministers into an Association and procures the Worcestershire Agreement the design of which you may see in his Gildas Salvianus Ans I have here some help to understand Christ They that kill you shall think they do God service What Duty so great that some will not say is a Crime that deserveth death The Agreement accused is printed in a Book called Christian Concord The terms of it were that Episcopal and Presbyterians and Independents should agree in the practice of so much of the Ministry and Church-Discipline as they were agreed about in their Judgments or Principles and be left in the rest to their several Liberties Was this a Crime Is an Attempt of voluntary Concord and Peace the poyson of Asps Or is not the poyson of Asps under their lips that are haters of it and have not known the way of peace I have had thanks from Helvetia and other parts of Germany for that Gildas Salvianus and that pacificatory Attempt which is to these Men the poyson of Asps § 77. Accus LX. But there was then a Petition that scandalous and insufficient Ministers might not administer Sacraments on which the Loyal Party were restrained Ans And is it a Crime to be against a scandalous insufficient Ministry and a Duty to be for them that we may be the best Church in the World Reader the truth is this There was a Petition by some that those of what side soever for King or Parliament whose Insufficiency and Scandal was so great as to render them utterly uncapable of Ministry might not be allowed it And I petitioned withal that no Man might be cast out or restrained for being for the King against the Parliament and their Cause Is this so poysonous Doth not this Man more disgrace his Church than me that taketh it for the poyson of Asps to cast out only the uncapable and keep in the rest § 78. Accus LXI He accuseth me for telling the World truly how the English Prelates had encouraged the Enemies of serious Godliness in the Land and at how much cheaper a rate a Man might be a Swearer a Drunkard a Whoremonger an open Scorner of Godliness than to fast and pray or to hear a Conformist in the next Parish when there was no Sermon at home Ans What doth the Man mean by rendering this odious If he mean that all this was well done and that as in Armies he hath most Honour that killeth most so in their Church he is the best Man that doth most against serious Piety this is to profess themselves the Devil's Militia But if he mean that I mis-report the matter of fact and this was not so he may as well persuade us that we lived not then in England or that we knew not our Neighbours or that Men spake not English Can we chuse but know that which every Corner in all the Land did speak Doth he say a word to confute all this And it was a meritorious work to silence and imprison with Rogues all that obeyed not their ungodly Canons but it must go for a heinous Crime to feel their Malice or blame their Cruelty § 79. Accus LXII Pag 66 c. He accuseth me as accusing King Charles the First of too much favouring the Grotian design of Union with the Papists But 1. Doth he say a word so much as to deny his Letter to the Pope to venture Crown and all for Union 2. Or to deny his sworn Articles for Toleration mentioned in Rushworth's Collections and others 3. Or to deny the Papists Murders in Ireland and their power in the King's Armies in England 4. Or that he set up such Bishops as Laud Bromhall and others But if accusing these Men be my Crime when I would have saved England from them Reader peruse but a full Treatise which I have long ago written and hope to get speedily printed with the very words of Laud Bromhall Gunning Saywell Thorndike Heylin Pierce Parker Sparrow Beveridge c. for our Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is sworn against and then judge whether I accuse them wrongfully Must we be brought under Aristocratical Popery or French Church-Government merely by saying It is not Popery And must the Land so tamely be perjured and enslaved § 80 Accus LXIII Pag. 67. He hath been made use of as one of the most keen and Catholick Tools that ever the Papacy did employ Ans 1. 'T is an unrighteous Honour to Popery to call it Catholick while they are a Sect contrary to Catholicism But why then do not these Men love and cherish me while they are striving for a Foreign Jurisdiction if I be so much for them § 81. Accus LXIV Pag. 68. That I am for a mixture of Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent Government Ans And what harm is that I am for that which is good in all and for the Faults of none But these Men must needs be faultless and curse all others that they may bless themselves But am I Episcopal and yet the greatest Enemy to Episcopacy Are they for Episcopacy that put down hundreds to set up one in their stead § 82. Accus LXV The next Accusation is That my five Disputations of Church-Government came out to keep out Episcopacy and justifie our Ordination Ans 1. It was to bring in a threefold Episcopacy which our Diocesans kept out viz. Episcopos Gregis Episcopos Praesides and Archbishops over these 2. Chancellor Hide and Morley produced that Book before the King Lords and Bishops at the great Meeting at Worcester-house and Morley said No Man hath written better
ways delayed their Relief Though he offered to go over himself the Parliament fearing he would go to Head the Irish 24. The King had before assaulted the Parliament-House in Person with Armed Men to have surprized Five Members and the Lord Kimbolton whom he accused And after frustration confest it a Breach of their Privileges 25. The Money sent Dolbier to buy German Horses and other actions and the Confessions of Sir Jacob Astley Sir John Conniers Sir Fulke Haukes my Mother-in-laws Brother Chidley and the other Commanders of the English Army that were to have been drawn up to London together with the King 's putting a Guarding Regiment on them did put me past all doubt that they were devoted to violence had they not defended themselves And no vain Talk to the contrary can make me doubt of it to this day So that though I think they had done more prudently to avoid War had they spared Strafford and Laud to please the King yet I am fully satisfied that afterward they were necessitated to save themselves from designed Force 26. I am certain that two things filled the Parliaments Armies And both of grand Importance 1. That all over the Kingdom save here and there a sober Gentleman and a formal Clergyman the Religious Party and all that loved them were generally for the Parliament alienated from the Persecutors and Silencers And the Profane Party in all Countries Debaucht Gentlemen Malignant Haters of Piety the Rabble of Drunkards Blasphemers were generally against the Parliament And religious People were loth to herd with such And could hardly believe that in so great a Cause God would reveal the Truth to all his Enemies the sensual Rabble and hide it from the generality of them that fear him And especially that in most Countries the Malignants forced away the Religious and either rose against them themselves or set the King's Soldiers to Plunder and Destroy them My own Father living 18 Miles from me was Plundered by the King's Soldiers though he never scrupled Conformity nor ever medled against the King and was thrice laid in Prison and had still lain there had not Sir Fulke Haukes his Brother in Law been by Prince Rupert made Governour of Shrewsbury and this for nothing And after laid in again till the Town was taken This last was only because when they made him Collector for the King he refused to distrein of those that paid not fearing lest he should be put to repay it And almost all the Religious People of Kederminster were forced to fly and leave their Houses and Trades to their undoing to save their Lives though they had never medled with Wars And the men that had no maintenance of their own were forced to become Garison-Soldiers in Coventry to avoid Famine The second thing and the main that drove men to the Parliament Garisons and Armies was the Irish Murders with the Papists Power with the King They thought that it must be an unusual War that should Kill Two hundred Thousand As dreadful as it was I do believe that all the Wars of England Kill'd not Fifty thousand nor near it And though Fear which is a Tyrant overcame partly their Discretion yet this joyned with the Experience of that which forced them from home was too strong a tryal for most to overcome And it confirmed their Suspition when the Queen brought in a Popish Army under General King and the Earl of Newcastle's Army had so great a number of Papists and after the Earl of Glamorgan was authorized to have brought over an Army of Irish Papists and the English Regiments that fought there against them had been called hither to fight against the Parliament and were routed at Nantwich No wonder if men thought that England would have been made too like to Ireland whether the King would or not had such Armies Conquered 27. The Parliament Protested to be for the King and not against his Person or Legal Power or Prerogative but only against his Illegal Will to defend themselves and the Kingdom from an unlawful Army and to bring Delinquents to Legal Tryal and Punishment And they accordingly gave out all their Commissions till the Cause was changed by fairfax's Commission that left out the King And the Soldiers of the Garison where I was commonly believed this to be their Obligation and the true Case of the War viz. Offensive against armed Delinquents as the Sheriff may raise the Posse Comitatus and Defensive against the Kings illegal Will and Way 28. I did believe that if the King by such an Army as he had should Conquer the Parliament the Legal and all Probable Security of the Nation for Life Property Liberty and Religion was in all likelihood gone If it should lye on the King's Will only thereby it were gone For what then were our Constitution or Parliaments for and what differ we from Slaves And were he willing and those with him that meant well he would not be able to Master such an Army 29. I did believe that if the Parliament were certainly more faulty than they were the Kingdoms Security was not therefore to be forsaken by the Subjects nor all Parliaments and Government to be left to the Will of the King who had for so many years interrupted Parliaments and dissolved them still in Displeasure and had raised Taxes called Ship-money by himself without them and on the same account might command all the rest Therefore I owned not any of the discerned Miscarriages of the Parliament but only thought I was bound to defend the common Good and Safety as it was the End of Government My judgment yet is That if the King of England wrongfully begin a War against France the Subjects ought by Arms to help him not owning his wrong Cause but to save the Kingdom which would be lost and enslaved if he were Conquered So the fault of the Parliament could not disoblige the People from labouring to secure the Constitution of the Kingdom and therein their Posterities Properties Liberties and Safety And the bare Promise of a King is no such Security 30. I did believe that if there were a Controversie in these Cases the Supream Council and Judicature of the Kingdom had the most satisfying Power of Determination to particular Persons As the Judgment of a General Council is preferable to any lower Judges and the Judgment of the College of Physicions is more authoritative than of a single Dr. And the Judgment of the University is more than of the Vice-Chancellors or one Man And tho yet it may fall out that the Dissenter may be in the right the unlearned that cannot confidently judge are more excuseable for not resisting the higher Judges 31. Obj. By this Rule whatever wrong a Parliament shall do to the King we must all take their part against him And if they betray their Trust we must bear them out in their Treachery Ans 1. Distinguish between a wrong to the King and the betraying of the
War stated by the Parliament Commissions for the King and Parliament I was in it and for it Because 1. He that is for the Highest Power in a Civil War is of the righter side caeteris paribus than he that is against it but they that were for King and Parliament were for the Highest Power in our Civil War Proved They that were for them that have the Legislative Power were for them that had the Highest Power as Morley confesseth and almost all others But they that were for King and Parliament were for them that had the Legislative Power Ergo c. Obj. What Hypocrisie is it to shoot at the King and say you fight for him Ans 1. The King protested to be for the Parilament as his Shrewsbury Half Crowns shew while he fought against their Armies and Persons Ergo the Parliament might more clearly be for the King while they fought against his Army and not his Person though in the Field 2. They knew that the King had discretion enough to keep his Person out of the reach of Danger And so he did At Edgehill he stood on the Hill as I heard and look'd down on the Fight in the Field At Naseby where he was nearest he was safe but that was after the first Cause and War I never heard else that he came near 3. Else any Traytor that could possess the Kings Person and carry him about as they did Henry VI. should be for the King and all against him that would rescue him Obj. He was willingly with his Army Ans He may fight for the King that doth it against his Will while he doth it not to hurt his Person Prerogative or Rights We Sware not to be for all the Will of the King If in a Passion he would kill Himself his Son his Lords his Parliament yea or would but Ravish a Woman he may be held and resisted Arg. 2. They that were to bring King and Parliament again to Union fought for the King and Kingdom and the Highest Power for it is the Constitution But the first Wars Commissions were to bring the King and Parliament to Unity Ergo c. Arg. 3. They that were really for the Common Safety and Salus Populi and the very Constituted Form of Government in a case of notorious danger and only against an Army of Subjects that fled from the Justice of the Supream Judicature were righter than those that were against their Wars But c. Ergo c. Arg. 4. They that were for a Defensive War according to Law and Constitution were righter than they that raised War against them contrary to Law and Constitution But c. Ergo c. The Parliament to the last were against all violence to the Person of the King and were cast out by Cromwell for Voting to receive him As it was easie for Bradshaw and â—ook to Charge all the Bloodshed on the King so is it fo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accuser to Charge it according to his Judgment But all of us must be willing of Conviction and deep Repentance so far as we shall be proved guilty Arg 5. The present King and Parliament have by Practice and by Law declared the right of more than Arming and Resisting a King in several Cases Arg. 6. In a doubtful Case under God there is no Judge that hath a deciding power above the Supream Judicature § 50. Accus XXXVII He next accuseth me as falsly Charging the peaceable Reign of King Charles the First with Persecution wherein there was no such thing but Peace save against the Seditious And he appealeth to the Canons Ans 1. See the Preface to my Book called Cain and Abel for an answer to this 2. We appeal to the Canons too and to the Bishops Visitation Articles and to the experience of all England that delight not in the Destruction of the true Servants of Christ 3. But alas how far are Leeches from feeling the smart of the Persons whose Blood they feast upon The Papists say none were punished in Queen Mary's days but the Hereticks and Seditious So saith the King of France And so said the Irish when they Murdered 200000. 4. Q. 1. Was there nothing but Amiable Peace when Laud and others wrote for a Forreign Jurisdiction under the Name of our obeying the Pretorian Power of Forreign Councils Q. 2. Was it Sedition not to Read the Book for Sunday Sports and Dancing which exempted Children and Servants from the Government of their Parents and Masters For which many Ministers suffered Q. 3. Was it Sedition for Religious people to go hear a Conformable Preacher at the next Parish when they had no Preaching at Home Q. 4. Was it Sedition for Religious people to pray with their Sick Friends and Fast and Humble themselves to God without Travelling to the Bishop for a License Q. 5. Was it Sedition for a Man Vowed to the Ministry by Episcopal Ordination to Preach or Expound any matter in the Church or elsewhere without a new License from the Bishop Q. 6. Was it Sedition for any Man Noble or Ignoble to affirm that any thing was repugnant to the Word of God in the Ceremonies Liturgy Ordinations or the Et caetera Government of the Church Q. 7. Was it Sedition to refuse the false Et caetera Oath of 1640 Q. 8. Was it Sedition to say that other Societies in England were true Churches besides the Episcopal Churches At least the French and Dutch Q. 9 Was it for Sedition that Men were punished for not Receiving the Sacrament when the Conscience of their ignorance and unfitness deterred them Q. 10. Were the many thousand Families that were put to fly the Land to Holland and America punished for nothing but Sedition Were New England and Barmudas planted without any Persecution Or was it no punishment to be driven from House Land Goods Kindred and Native Countrey into an unplanted Wilderness among VVoods and wild Men and Beasts Q. 11. Was it no Persecution to be Excommunicate ipso facto by Canons 6 7 8 c. without being admonished or heard Q. 12. Was it nothing but Amiable Peace that laid all the Ten sorts of the Excommunicate named in the Statute in the common Goal during Life depriving them there of their Estates unless they Lied by a feigned Repentance Q. 13. Yea was it only harmless that made Seriousness in Religion such a common Scorn as the word Puritane then signified if Mr. Robert Bolton Bishop Abbot Bishop Downame and other Conformists may be believed But say these Accusers All this was but justice and was well done But the casting out of two hundred accused on Oath for gross scandal and utter insufficiency by the Parliament was Persecution and was not well done § 51. Accus XXXVIII Next I am accused because other Men exploded the Lords Prayer Ans 1. And what is that to me that constantly used it 2. And who may not see that the use of it was prescribed in the Directory 3. And the Presbyterian
if he eat saith Paul England yet feeleth such Mens Mercy There is I think but one of their Commissioners now surviving nor on our side but few even Dr. Tho. Pierce Dean of Salisbury And he moved for leave by Disputation there to prove that it is a work of mercy to all that think it unlawful to receive the Sacrament kneeling to deny it them and the Communion of the Church though the prohibition of all kneeling in Adoration on any Lords Day was one of the Ancient Ceremonies of the Church setled also at the great Council of Nice and continued near a Thousand years saith Dr. Heylin But Morley had the wit to take him off that dispute § 90. Accus LXXIII Page 96. After other Harangues he alledgeth false Causes of my refusing a Bishoprick I satisfied the Lord Chancellor Hide by a Letter with truer Reasons too long here to repeat § 91. Accus LXXIV He next accuseth my Moral Prognostication Ans Let it answer for it self to the Impartial Reader § 92. Accus LXXV He threateneth me for blaming the Laws Ans And do not many Bishops now blame the Laws If Laws be made engines of Schism and Persecution let them justifie them that can and that love them David saith Shall the Throne of Iniquity have Fellowship with thee that frameth mischief by a Law How many German Divines blamed the Interim imposed by the Emperor as for Peace § 93. Accus LXXVI He next reciteth Bishop Morley's Accusations in his printed Letter Ans Which I have proved to abound with falshood in a full Answer which for want of printing hath lain by me these six and twenty years Mr. Baldwin is yet living who was present when he forbad me to preach And Dr. William Bates is yet living who joyned with me in the Savoy Disputation which he misreported § 94. Accus LXXVII He accuseth my Book called The Cure of Church Divisions and yet saith It is the only Book that Mr. B. hath written that hath any thing of moderation Ans Must the World have a confutation of so gross a Liar after the visibility of above Sixscore Books that are an evidence against him and after the testimony that the Lord Chancellor Hide and Morley gave of me producing one of these Books before the King Lords and Drs. at Worcester-House If I understand them above a hundred Books have been written by me with a special design for Moderation Unity and Concord § 95. Accus LXXVIII Page 101. He is not ashamed to be a procurer of the Indulgence for Popery 1. Because I said I would have Papists used like Men. 2. I would have no Man put to death for being a Priest 3. I would have no writ de Excommunicato capiendo or any Law to compel them to our Communion and Sacraments Ans This Man is for Moderation Do you think he or I is more for Popery or hath written more against it Would he not have them used like Men nor suffered to live And must they be cast out of a Church that they were never in It seems he would receive them all to his Sacramental Communion if they will but chuse his Church before the Goal § 96. Accus LXXIX Page 102. Because I hold that If a Bishop or their Church Party would lay us in Goal for our Duty to God it is lawful to accept deliverance from a Papist that is in Authority He feigneth that If they will not come to us I would go to them And if a Protestant did Hang this Man himself would he take it for Popery or Sin to consent that a Papist cut the Rope You see what kind of crimes we Nonconformists are guilty of A willingness to live out of Goals against the Churchmens will Nay it is yet more our Crime is that we will not damn our selves by Subscribing or Swearing falsly and breaking our Ordination Vow by giving over our Ministry The proof that these Men are against Popery is that they would have the Nonconformists die in Goals and have no Papist seek to deliver them § 97. Accus LXXX Accusing my Book against Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry he asketh me Why I Baptize not nor Administer the Lords Supper and so seem to desert Christianity Ans Because I was called to preach and not to Baptize and Administer the Lords Supper by the Necessities of the people where I lived There were in Martins Parish about 60000 more than could come into the Church to hear But they had Curates enough to Baptize and they were compelled to the Lords Supper or might have come and neither Minister nor People desired my help And if these Men believe it not I do That we may and must preach to many that yet are not capable of Sacraments And to many whose Pastors and Judges herein we are not Shall every Minister that preacheth occasionally for him presume to Congregate his Flock and give them the Sacrament Or is he displeased that I gathered not a separated Church § 98. Accus LXXXI As to his Accusation of the Book I leave it to the Readers Judgment that will impartially peruse it But I am not yet convinced by him that it is a Crime to name the heinous sins that have torn this poor Nation and no Crime to commit them Most of his Accusations are that I tell them of their sin and perswade them to repent § 99. Accus LXXXII He accuseth my Plea for Peace and my Book called The true and only way of the Churches Concord as being utterly against Peace Ans Read them and Judge § 100. Accus LXXXIII He accuseth my History of turbulent Bishops and Councils and their Anathematizing as if it were false and almost all was done by Presbyters Ans Let him that hath read it and the proof I cite freely judge who is the falsifier As to his talk about Nestorius had he read David Derodon and what I have said in my Reply to the Defender of Dr. Stillingfleet Mr. Morrice it might have acquainted him with more than he seemeth to know about the Nestorians Eutychians and Monothelites As to his talk against the Arrians I am as much against them as he but not so much against Peace Dr. Henry More a Learned Conformist saith that those after the Council of Nice were to be numbered with the Catholicks and not with the Antichristians Though a Presbyter began their Sect it was Bishops and Persecuting Emperors that upheld it As to my words of many Writers mistakes therein before the Council of Nice he may find them with abundance more in Petavius de Trinitate As to his words of the Controversies and Councils de tribus Capitulis he that excuses the said Councils and Bishops as faultless as to all the doleful Divisions that followed hath not a due love to peace and prudence The same I say of the Monothelites § 101. Accus LXXXIV His great Accusation Page 126. is that If I had any fear of God or reverence of Man I would not reproach the
tearing the Church and extirpating serious Piety is against them So do the Papists accuse them that blame their Murders and Inquisitions § 41. Accus XXVIII Because I said The War was begun in our Streets by the ungodly drunken Rabble seeking our Lives he saith In plain English Mr. B. with other Reformers put themselves into Arms seizing on the Kings Forts and making them Garrisons against the King and this before King or Parliament had any Armies Ans In plain English this Lie is shameless Unless a poor hired Chamber was the Kings Fort I seized on none The first time the drunken Rabble rose up against me was for preaching Original Sin They said that I slandered their Children The next was for Reading the Parliaments Order to deface the Pictures of the Trinity The third was by bringing in Souldiers that drove me away And it was long after this ere I had a private Lodging in Coventry § 42. Accus XXIX Page 26. He maketh the repetition of his Forgery a proof that I was guilty of Perjury 1. Because I was prejudiced against the Bishops at Nineteen and yet at Ordination took the Oath to obey my Ordinary in Licitis Honestis Ans 1. I did not Swear an approbation of Persecution I was not then prejudiced against Episcopacy but against the sin of Bishops May not a Man disown such shameless Liars as some Ministers are without disowning the Ministry 2. I was prejudiced against Bishop Morton at Fourteen Ans Utterly false I honoured him to his death But when I came to better understanding I disliked turning Confirmation to a meer Ceremony For the right use of which I have written a Treatise agreeing to Dr. Hammond 3. He nameth my omitting the Cross and Surplice Ans I never Sware nor Promised to use them being in no station that obliged me to it And was under an Ordinary that required it not And I have confest my sin in rath subscribing to their lawfulness § 43. Accus XXX Page 27. He tragically reciteth the reasons I alledged why I was for the Parliament But his confutation is only by an Exclamation how bad I was as worse than Cook and Bradshaw as if I had been for the death of the King When he knoweth that the Parliament was broken up by Cromwell for being for the Kings Restoration and their Union And that a Faction called the Rump did this as Cromwell's Confederates I believe I did more against that Faction than many such as he § 44. Accus XXXI Page 27 28. With what Heart could he be an Eye-witness of the Inhumane Butcheries that had been made in almost every Fight from the beginning of the Wars Ans A Lie so gross that it feigneth me to see far off where I never was I have answered it before I was an Eye-witness of many of Gods provident disposals and an Ear-witness of more I saw the Field where they fought near Worcester and Edgehill and Nantwich and I saw many Garrisons Wem Leicester Shrewsbury Exeter Sherburne Bristol Winchester that had been taken But I saw not the Fights at any one of these But that at Langport that ended the Field War I saw afar off but saw none kill'd for they fled I think before a Man was kill'd § 45. Accus XXXII I repent not of saying that I was rescued from many dangers Nor that I had many tedious Nights and Days in that Army which after Naseby Fight I hazarded my Life and spent my Labour to have undeceived and had many doleful sights and tidings I saw the Graves and some of the Corps in Ditches near Edgehill of the Parliaments Souldiers there kill'd and many that lay unburied When after I lived in peace at Coventry how oft were Souldiers of that Garrison brought home Mortally wounded and many slain Few Weeks past in which we heard not of Fights in Fields or Garrisons Which I thought it lawful to call doleful tidings § 46. Accus XXXIII Because I named the doleful Fights at Worcester Edgehill Newberry Nantwich Montgomery Horncastle Naseby York Langport c. he addeth It seems he was present in these Fights Ans Not at any one of them save Langport I said My Eyes shalt no more see the Earth covered with the Carkasses of the slain Which was at Edgehill the next day after where I had no more to do than any other that would see the place § 47. Accus XXXIV He had travelled over the most of England to pursue the War Ans It was much and not most and it was to have prevented the Change of Government and not to pursue the War that I went § 48. Accus XXXV Page 29. He feigneth me accordingly to see many Noble Lords and Gentry perish in their integrity some perhaps by his own Hand Ans All meer Forgery I never saw any such hurt nor ever hurt any But at Coventrey I did encourage the Garrison and at Wem § 49. Accus XXXVI His next is a common Accusation of me by his Party that I speak of Brook Prin Hambden and White as of Men in Heaven Ans I think so still Prin and White were never Souldiers Our Creed containeth not any Article that decideth Controversies about the various forms of Government Christ never told us how much of the Supremacy was in Caesar and how much in the Senate and People and which of them had the Legislative Power Nor whether England be an Absolute or a Limited Monarchy nor whether the Parliament have part of the Legislative and Self-defending Power And those that best knew these Men especially Hambden and White took them for Men in all other respects of Great Wisdom Piety and Honesty If among the old Romans all the Civil Wars between the Senate and the Emperors and one Emperor and another when of Forty scarce Ten died a Natural Death but were Murdered had inferred the Destruction and Damnation of all that were against the Censuring side how few would have escaped When setting up Emperors and killing them was so common that Souldiers set the Crown to Sale I never heard that Brutus or Cato or Cicero or Seneca or Lucan and such others might not have their Virtues praised and that above their Enemies though they died as esteemed Rebels I am sure these Men that reproach me for this Charity have a Law to turn me and all Nonconformists out of the Ministry if we were to bury such a Man and would not profess our Hope of his Salvation For they bind us to do it of every individual person buried in the Land except the Unbaptized Excommunicate and Self-Murderers And exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis And because the Sum of his Accusations is the War the War I will once more give him a Summary Answer If he mean the War before the new modelled Army and new Commission which left out for the King after Naseby Fight I did more against that new Cause and War than he and perhaps many such as he If he mean the first