their Functions as Physicians say of the Humane body that it must be as to the sane Constitution of it of a due Temperament both ad pondus ad justitiam and so must the Political body 1. Ad Pondus i.e. so as the first qualities or best sort may be brought into such an exact Proportion that no one may domineer it ore the other viz. in Faction or Parties striving for the mastery but so as one may balance another and all be kept together in the orderly exercise of all the Functions of the Body in an equal and good Temperature But 2. Ad justitiam that is so as to keep out evil and corrupt humors from obstructing the use of Functions in the body and this is the Eukracy and Timocracy which all sound Commonwealths have maintained and ours must I might instance in the Lacedemonians Cretians Athenians Corinthians Arcadians Rhodians Chalcedonians and others later The Romans themselves observing this as the Rule to keep out Tarquin and his crew who had a considerable Party in the Commonwealth as Charles Stuart hath in this even amongst Brutus's sons and as like to have repossessed and restored Tarquin untill this distinction was maintained with justice not sparing between the absolute Tarquinians that were unexorable and would never be for the Commonwealth but ever plotting against it and the free-born Citizens or faithful Denisons that did all to maintain it not forfeiting their Liberties and Rights as Livy tells us So for other Commonwealths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I hear that the Mantinians in Arcadia and also the Locrians Cretians Lacedemonians and Athenians had such Laws And in this respect the Grecians were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only Greeks but Vindices Libertatis Great Sticklers for their Liberties But I am afraid lest some consult with the same Oracle that Clement the fifth did to destroy the COMMON-WEALTH Si non licet per Viam justitiae licet saltem per Viam expedientiae by Policy and expediency I mean such as Caiaphas and the Council condemned our Lord Jesus by Joh. 11. 50. and 18. 14. and so may this Cause But justice is a pure intemperate Virgin till she be deflowred by one of the two unchast Suitors viz. NIMIUM or PARUM Both which must be avoided as extreams and the Healing Quest doth it excellently But of M. B. I may say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast lost the sweetness of the Rose and the fragrants of the Cause by thy Adulterating Art and mistaking of it But I have proved says Mr. B. that it is a false and wicked cause Wicked in the Nullity of the Magistrates duty and power but the truth thereof let the Reader judge and the Magistrate himself if he please And a false Cause saith he in giving the people the Natural Soveraignty who have but a power of choosing that men miss-call a Soveraignty The truth is I am from my heart with thousands more as well as Mr. B. saith he is in matter for a Theocratick or a godly COMMONWEALTH of which I had prepared a draught in my imprisonment at Windsor Castle and O! that we could see it with our eyes so both in the Constitution and Administrations of it in these Nations subjective to Jesus Christ that absolute Sovereign Who is 1 Tim. 6. 15. The blessed and only Potentate King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19. 16. For whom all things were created Rev. 4. 11. and 5. 12 13. Col. 1. 16. Whether Thrones DOMINIONS Principalities or POWERS c. 1. Seeing all Nations must be subservient to him under the seventh Trumpet Rev. 11. 15. Whom he will either BOW or BREAK 2. Seeing all these Shakings and Concussions are to that end Hag. 2. 6. Veani Maryish I making them to TREMBLE Ver. 7. Ve hiryashshetti and I will make them TREMBLE with commotions and troubles until Chemeddat Col Haggojim the Desire the Delight the Beauty of all Nations come 3. Seeing the Army have Declared themselves to be upon this very Bottom and Foot of account often but more particularly in Declaration at Muscle-borough Aug. 1. 1650. in these words We have have not only proclaimed Iesus Christ the King of Saints to be our King by Profession but desire to submit to him upon his own terms and admit him to the exercise of his Royal Authority c. Yea 4. seeing we are already so forward in it in this Nation both by the extraordinary Session of this Parliament And 5. by their Declaration on the 7. of May last for our Rights and Liberties both as Men and as Christians i.e. in Civils and in Spirituals◠Also 6. by that Golden Vote of Parliament somewhat like the Golden Réed which the Angel gave John Revel 11. 1. saying Arise and MEASVRE by it viz. That and their late Votes That none be put into Trust but men of Ability fearing God of a Latitude of Love to all the people of God and not to this or that Faction or Party and of Fidelity to the Common-wealth without King Single Person or House of Peers Yea 7. seeing there is such a readiness of consent in the Adherents to the Cause that are not partified nor putrified for a faction nor corruption and Mr. B. himself proposes it from p. 210. to 241. of 's Holy Commonwealth Yea 8. seeing we are as a Rouling Stone never fixed or at Rest till we fall into it do we what we can Psa 83. 12. make them as a Whéel or a ROVLING Globe and are likely to find no settlement without it Ezek. 21. 27 I will overturn overturn overturn till he comes whose Right it is or to whom the JVDGEMENT is given asher lo hammishpat and this can be meant of none but Christ Joh. 5. 22. to whom all Judgement is committed Dan. 7. 9. until his Government be setled in the NATIONS Gnavah Gnavah Gnavah assimenah I will place in them a PERVERSE Perverse PERVERSE spirit or as the Sept. has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until they be subverted and brought to this Settlement of God So that for the matter i.e. A Theocracy I agree with Mr. Baxter in yet notwithstanding I cannot be of M. B's mind for the manner of it as that it consists so well with the interest of God and Christ our absolute Soveraign or with the interest of the People Adherents to this Cause which stand together that a Single Person should exercise the power of a Humane Soveraign over us seeing 1 Sam. 8. 6 7. the thing displeased the Lord and was a great evil in Samuels eyes as the word is vajierang when the People said Give us a KING and on that the Lord said to Samuel They have not rejected thée they have rejected me that I should not reign over them or maasu they have loathed my Government over them wherein I alone was their King or the Single Person Much less can I think that the Natural being of it under
when he cut off his companions HEAD and to keep his Covenant after he had parboiled and fitted it he kept it by him honoured and perfumed it and upon every weighty matter or consultation would set this SKUL by him and tell it what he purposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying That he did not violate his ingagement or break his OATH in the least seeing he did ever take Council with the HEAD of Archonides and did nothing without it That this is the Honour our Patriots should have if they could effect it is as clear as the Sun 5. Mr. P. knows as well as we that the Parliament recalled to their Trust by the Declaration of the Army is expresly denominated that Parliament that sat from Anno 1648. till Anno 1653. viz. the Commonwealth-Parliament whereof they were never members so that he might well have spared his squint-eyed Arguments or unanswerable Reasons as he calls them from p. 34. to p. 40. to prove they are not the House of Commons till they took themselves for such a House but thus poor Mr. P. doth make himself both Adversary and Answerer Mark and Archer in his matter and is either like one Antipho that a Dr. tells us of who through a Disease in his Eye thought he had his own IMAGE ever before him and for THAT he could see nothing else Or like that Souldier who in a foolish Bravado meant to expose himself to such a needless Peril that for want of an Enemy he would find himself to fight with and so doth Mr. P. in the most Parts of his Discourse Indeed he wounds himself severely and I much pity him in those unruly passions which fall with the deadliest blows on himself and on the Bowels of his own Arguments that are torn apieces with very anger for this he knows is by the LAW the Felo de se And thus Mr. P. hath seen his HEIRS apparent as he supposed to the next Revolution and who were accordingly in expectation of possessing utterly disinherited by a gracious Providence and unexpected so that like M. LIVIUS who through his own folly had lost All and said to his own shame he had left nothing to his HEIRS praeter Coelum Coenum but air and mire he may say it I fear that it is AIR and MIRE and nothing else that he bequeaths by his writings to those Gentlemen and I wish it might not have effect like the River Lyncestis of which whosoever drinketh is sure to run Mad. Thus we see also the Caninum appetitum of them that long after the Death of this Commonwealth accounting their only Riches to lye in the Reversions purchas'd at so easie a Rate as a Breath or the Vote of a company of Lawyers for the King Lords and Commons which they were very neer effecting in their last Dissolved Assembly only lost all by over-hast and the Commonwealth is recovered but most strangely Not much unlike to that of a King of Parthia ORADES by name the same that slew Crassus who being desperately ill as our Commonwealth was it proved a temptation to his son Phraates so impatient he was of his Death that himself might succeed to the Throne to dispatch him quick he gave him poyson but the Poyson did not only work out it's self but the Disease with it and was so far from killing him that it perfectly cured him And so it did with this poor Commonwealth a sick Patient when they came together and whose CASE I then opened to them the POYSON that was given to make a quick dispatch of the Commonwealth by the Lawyers and Courtiers c. hath produced a cure And the Lord hath we hope saved us once again Disappointed our Adversaries and raised up this Renowned Parliament as from the Grave to do great things for Christ and his Cause in this Commonwealth or to the Greater shame of them that hinder What Mr. P. hath suggested like a learned Anatomist Mr. B. hath as bravely seconded like a Physitian in 's Preface to the Army Because saith he I find that self-conviction worketh in you and hath brought you already to more confessions then Volumes from me were ever like And when Nature hopefully begins a CVRE it must not be disturbed by VIOLENT Medicines You have already confessed and the Officers of the Army in Scotland confesse Penitent confessions will be some reparation of your honour This much from another would by some have been called a second GANGRENA or a SCANDALUM MAGNATVM And if you be indeed sincerely penitent we are not only in hope but past all doubt that God who hath shewed you the sin of forcing out the last 120. will also shew you the sin of imprisoning and secluding of above 140. at once long before c. How exquisite Mr. B. is in this Art or Science of Physick I know not but with his favour if he follows right Rules in his prescriptions he ought to have told us first what Humors he would have evacuated and so to have proportioned his Dosis and Directions to the quality of the Disease not mistaking or taking them for ACTIVE QUALITIES in the Army which were meerly PASSIVE and under orders nor on the contrary to account them passive qualities which were meerly Arbitrary Active and their own without Orders which the Parliament ought to consider 2. Also with what kinds of medicaments or means consisting with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and State of the Commonwealth as Aristotle when sick said to his Physician What do you think to cure me as if I were a Horse that I must not know what ingredients you do give me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Away away you shall never meddle with me like a Farrier Heardsman or Delver but first go and finde out the cause and nature of my disease and so say we For all Medicines agree not with all men and I presume Mr. B. hath more then one Rule or Remedy for all diseases 3. He should have given us his Reasons also For in methodical cures not only the remedies but the reasons of things ought to be proponderated and as accurately prepared Now although as Mr. B. saith Lenitives be most necessary when nature begins to work so and into such confessions yet when the Humors are hard viscous very tough and tenacious they are not outed with such contrariis blandis so easily as with corrosives duly corrected and with such consideratis considerandis as best suit both with the Patient and Potion And Mr. B. himself tells them of a more violent working exasperating Physick which he hath but he shall forbear to give it at present viz. to set before them the aggravation of their sins terrours of hell and damnation c. and all about the Secluded Members or the last Assembly for which amongst his mild ingredients he gives them this ARGUMENT To resist or depose the best Governours in all
having a Parliament being banished for many years and the ordinary discourse of the Courtiers then was against Parliaments as injurious to the Kings Prerogative This continued until Firebrands that had been kindling by it were laid together in Scotland and there began first to FLAME about the ears of the Clergy and their Liturgy An. 1637 8 and 9. The King raised an Army against them and notwithstanding the Pacification of 18 June 1639. he resolved to have War with the Scots told some Lords about him Decemb. following he would call a Parliament in England the noyse of which made the People amazed I so long had they been without it and so little expectation had they of it whiles the King sends his bosome and Cabinet-Counsellour Strafford into Ireland to call one there to raise him monies but on the 13th of April it was convened and on the 5th of May dissolved again and some of the Members vizt Sir John Hotham Mr. Crew Mr. Belliesis imprisoned the Lord Brooks Plundred and the King goes on with the War against the Scots until about 20. of the English Earls Lords and Barons Petitioned to him at York to call a Parliament that might continue until Grievances were redressed c. By which means and his unavoidable necessities together he could not help it but summon the Long Parliament who seeing the people so miserably robbed of their Rights drew up a Bill for triennial Parliaments which the King signed 15. Pebr. 1640. Also an Act of Parliament was passed by King Lords and Commons then in being That this Parliament shall not be dissolved without it be by Act of Parliament and the Ground is exprest in it viz. The fears jealoustes and apprehensions that His Majesties Subjects have that this present Parliament may be adjourned prorogued or dissolved before Iustice be executed Grievances redressed c. With what confidence then can Mr. B. put in such an ingredient and so dangerous a one to make up his first Pill or Prop. to purge the Army with and to scour their Consciences To his second Prop. It was not the old Cause for the People to have right to choose a House of Commons to exercise the whole soveraignty c. Answ And who saith it was I pray not the Healing Quest. I am sure neither do the Commonwealths-men say it that the people have any Right to choose any House of Commons at all seeing it is utterly inconsistent with the Free-State and principles of it to have any such House as a House of Commons and more to have them as such exercise the whole Soveraignty of the Nation But here he contends with himself alone As I have seen a Puppy play prettily with his own tail weary himself and lie down when he has done For to what purpose is this Pill of Fumitory unless to fetch away Melancholy Fumes and make us laugh a little at all their weakness and folly To his third Prop. It was none of the old cause to assert the peoples Soveraignty Answ But it was their old cause to assert their Rights I am sure both as men and as Christians and this is one the Healing Quest saith and a natural one which all the Adherents to this Cause against the King have recovered through mercy if they can but keep it viz. to keep the Primary power under God and Jesus Christ or the power of chusing their own Rulers into the Supreme trust And this was we find by a little Retrospection declared for both by Parliment and Army Act of Parl. March 17. 1648. St. Albans Remonstrance in the Scotish Declarations and a many others So that this his salt Pill of poly-podium will serve for nothing but to make a man cough complain or else to choak him quite To his fourth Prop. It was not the Cause to change the constitution of the Commonwealth into any other form of Government then what we found in it Answ What ever was the Cause that was the effect and an inevitable EFFECT of the Wars I am sure though I confess the CAUSE of it lay in my judgement more on the Kings part according to the Parliaments own words of 20. March 1642. That whensoever the King maketh War that it tendeth to the dissolution of his Government So that Sublatâ Causâ tollitur effectus had he not made the War he had not destroyed his Government it is like Nor doth this lay the Guilt of the bloud upon the Parliament as he pretends but upon the King and his evil Counsellours who destroyed him and his posterity as well as that Constitution of Government by it And albeit no one part had authority to destroy the other and set it self in the room of the whole as King to destroy the Commons or Commons the Lords and set it self up as HOUSE of COMMONS yet had they a Power to destroy one another and to kill themselves if they would as the King did and so consequently the Lords and then the House of Commons as the Commons-House which are all dissolved with that CONSTITUTION of GOVERNMENT by a Felo de se indeed 2. Nor is the Platform of King Lords and Commons the Fundamental Constitution but rather imposed upon the people as has been often proved by the learned in History And 3. Though this were not the ULTIMATE in our eye yet the Peoples Rights and properties which fell in naturally to them were in their eye ULTIMATELY and intentionally amongst other things of higher concernment viz. the Kingdom of Christ throughout the management of this cause Now where the people have the greatest propriety and interest to out-balance as it was in this cause they must naturally fall into that Balance which is in a Commonwealth and can fix for security and satisfaction in nothing less be it ever so beyond our first intentions or second But for my part I cannot find one word in the Healing Quest that saith it was our cause intentionally to alter that constitution though that effect was given in as a blessing supplement and success unto this cause but that we have a Right to a Civil incorporation and society distinct from that of the old constitution now dissolved by its self and it's inorable adherents So that as the CYNICK ran to the mark for fear the Archer should hit him when he shot at Rovers we may run to the Healing Quest and never fear that he will hit or hurt us or can come neer us for ought I see This is his fourth Pill as bitter as Aegrimony it may serve to make a body sick and to make him stare but not to cure or comfort him in the least His fifth Prop. is of the matter asserting the Parliaments Declaration for the Kings person Priviledges of Parliament c. which is fully answered in Mr. P's Cause stated and stunted p. 5 6 7 8 10 11. to the very same Declarations and
the equality as Galen saies and then let him judge Thirdly Whether This tendeth to vilifie the Magistrate or Mr. B's more to vilifie Christ and his Members the Church Truth and Gospel and consequently to set the MAGISTRATE upon the most conscientious Or Fourthly Whether it be against any Tittle of the Decalogue to keep up each Table Duty and distinct Function of Magistrate and Minister in their proper places and functions which Mr. B. would confound Fifthly Whether this tends to the decay and not to the greatest incouragement of true Grace Faith and Holiness not to whip force or impose upon us in meer Spirituals and matters of Worship Yea Sixthly Whether the Healing Questions sweet Argumentum à Christo Pace or M. B.'s bitter Argumentum à fustibus Face would gratifie the Devil and his Malice most He that would have the Magistrate not to impose his light upon other mens consciences or he that would have it imposed as a Rule or Standard for All Men in the Nation to come or to be cudgel'd up unto as Mr. B. and Mr. Har. likewise would have it so in pag. 27 28 c. of his OCEANA That all men might be subject to the National Conscience Seventhly Whether this or that would let out Tempters and Persecutors too the farthest and with the most loosened Reines of Lust and Cruelty over the Soul to the Danger or Perdition of their own 8. Whether Parents or Masters of Families ought to impose their own Religion or Opinion upon their Children and Servants and not rather to permit them the Free exercise and Liberty of their Consciences in the Worship of GOD consistent with our CAUSE both in Spirituals and Civils Ninthly Whether it tendeth to the destruction of an Army to let every one March not to Mutiny that is his own word and the Healing Q. asserts the Magistrates power in such Cases as are suitable Objects to keep the peace and promote the civil good but to let every one march on in his own Order without justling or molesting of another Joel 2. 7 8. They shall march every one in his wayes and not break their Ranks nor one Thrust another Or to the hurt of Families not to impose or to let their children have liberty to hear GOD's word and worship not to Theft Drunkenness Whoredome as Mr. B. most unworthily states it though in a different manner place time and such like circumstances But for an aliquid amplius I refer to a Treatise I wrote some 2 years since called A reviving Word from the quick and dead c. for Vniting of All the Godly with this Liberty Tenthly Or against the exercise of a Church-power over offenders Mat. 18. 17. Tit. 3. 10 11. 2 Thes 3. 14 15. because a Magistrate ought not impose upon their Consciences Eleventhly Or is it against the Interest of CHRIST who shall be the Desire of all Nations Hag. 2. 7. to indulge any or all of his Members with Equal Liberty Benefit and Safety in the service of GOD without an undue magnifying of any one Form or Faction above or to be a Rule to others consolidating all under one Head JESUS CHRIST Ephes 1. 13. Hos 1. 11. in such sweet Symmetry Order Consistency together as the four Elements have in the humane Body though different asunder yet in Harmony together so as one may not Master but Balance another to the service of the Whole and of every one in their particular places faculties and functions and would not this be for the Interest of our dearest Lord But sayes he It 's an unholy Saint that would have Liberty to reproach his Lord or deny the faith and essential Article of it to speak against his holy worship c. Whereas all the Healing Question propounds for is That the holy Saints that do serve their God sincerely though under different apprehensions that do hold the Faith and Truth in the Essentials of it and that are for his holy worship not against it that these might have equal Liberty and Countenance But so absurdly for many pages together doth this poor man spit the Venom of his Pen upon that Noble and Pious Author without Ground or Matter but of 's own devising to render him such as are the liveliest Assertors of our Cause in the Latitude and Liberties of it contemptible if he could as well as the Cause it self which is the thing they ayme at that I might say to him as once Zeno said to Antigonus whose breath was strong and stomack foul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Get you gone to your Vomit for as Aristides also said we are not of that Number that can spit and vomit stuff so loathsome And as one said when he was hit in the Teeth with his stinking Breath that it was because of the Great trust of SECRETS which his Friends had committed to him which he kept within him until they were ROTTEN he may as Wittily excuse it but not as Worthily if they be Designes for the King or Cavalierish Secrets against the Worthies of Parliament Cause and People of GOD which lie and ROT and export so ill a savour And lastly Let Any judge Whether this Liberty of Conscience for the faithful Adherents to the Cause in matters of Worship onely or that Persecution and Imposition which Mr. B. would put the Magistrate upon be the most apparent Way of introducing Popery and of destroying the Power of Godliness with a Form or whether any one can study more to mischieve the Magistrate then by this means For as Mr. Hooper Martyr said to his Friends Anno 1555. Tyranny Extremity and Enforcing have been the onely Arguments to maintain the POPE And if Mr. B. had not been too forgetful he would have considered That these were the very Arguments of 's own-quoted Jesuite Adam Contzen in 's Directions for Restoring Popery Chap. 17. Lib. 2. To preserve Popery that no other Religion should be permitted and the speedy punishing of the Erroneous cutting them off in their first appearance prohibiting their Books and taking heed of Julian ' s Device destroying of Religion by Liberty for all Sects Thus they do sayes Mr. B. in Spain Italy Austria Bavaria c. i. e. destroy Liberty of Conscience Is this then the Jesuites way by Mr. B.'s own words to let in Popery or to destroy it The Jesuite calls it A destroying of the Religion vizt Popery to give Liberty as he calls it to all Sects Indeed Mr. B. doth put me in minde of one Cacus a great Thief that was wont to pull all the Cattel he stole into his DEN backward or by the Tail to avoid the pursuit of the people that followed the Track and this pretty Knack Mr. B. uses to pull us into Popery as we shall see presently and yet pretends to keep us from it by the Track that whoever follows as he hath made it shall no
with their Bobbins they may bob our ears bravely with a Garrulous Rule and when they lag in their Bone-lace they may lace our bones for Logger-Heads to let them lay down the Distaff and take up the Scepter leave the Spindle and divide the Spoil yea then sit like Meg-Pies at their doors Dumb Saints in their Idols Churches Goats in their Gardens Devils in their houses Angels in the Streets and Syrens at their Windows as they say of the Italians for when they can live no longer by their Work they shall live by their Wits in Mr. Har's Commonwealth that sifts our the best and keeps in the worst to make his Cake with But in Lacedemon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lycurgus the Son of Eunomus willing to endow the Lacedemonians with their dues in Righteousness and Justice took not away any worthy or good Reward from any one And the Thebans to incourage Dignity and keep up the Honour of Magistracie from contempt made a Law Vt nemo habilis esset ad Honores Reipublic suscipiendos nisi Decem Annis à Mercatur â destitisset c. That no man should be accounted qualified for the Honours of the Commonwealth i.e. in Magistracy unless he had first left his Merchandizing ten years Such a care had they to keep out the Joans and Toms which M. H. admits by turns and times as the Rotation boults them into the Government and their Betters out And what was said of Clisthenes an Athenian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might possibly be applied to Mr. H. were their Rogation effected that he was one of the first that introduced this Government by Ostracisme and one of the first that felt it and would have retro-duced it The first that brought it in and the first that it wrought out Therefore let him secure his own Bull before he baites anothers and take his Play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly I would willingly be informed how his New Platforms or Principles Paganish or Popish fetch'd from Athens or from Venice can without cruciating extremities and applications be adequated to our Commonwealth under Christian profession so that Quae semel possidebant Papiste semper possideant Rapiste what the Papists once had Rapists and Ravenous ones would ever have viz. our Rights and Liberties from us Nor could it be acquired I think without greater Advantages to Papists Atheists then to us seeing the very interest of the Son of God and Saints in the Nation the best and noblest Cause on earth in all the integrating Parts thereof and Adherents thereto is not taken Notice of in his Platforme neither in the Balance nor the Wheel in the Ballot nor Rotation or Rogation of it so that Differs curandi tempus in Annum Quicquid delirant Reges Plectuntur Achivi I may conclude with Mr. B. p. 240. That God having already given us the best Fundamental Laws Let us have but good Magistrates and we shall have good Derivative Laws or humane It was a Law amongst the Cretians that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that their children should learn their Laws with Melody that from the MUSICK they might take great pleasure in them and more easily commit them to memory We need no such Law to endear or dulcifie our Cause or the Laws of it in the Commonwealth If the foundation of it be that which the Hand of the Almighty hath laid amongst us both for Church and State from Christian principles rather then from Paganish or meer Morals it will make most excellent Harmony in the ears and Hearts of all men and Christians And the Governours of Judah shall say in their heart The Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my Strength in the Lord of Hosts their God Zach. 12. 5. Thus our Governours thought of them in the days of straits and will again see it one of their best interests to have their Prayers and their God as well as their Purses and Bloud engaged for them and not disoblige them upon jealousies suggested by the enemy who for their virgin-fidelity and untainted adherence to the Cause may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lacedemonians did their wives after their innocency did break out and get above the clouds of suspicion and reproach But if after all they will be planting and founding us again in the spirit of the Nation as if God had owned no Cause or made no signal discrimination or shaken no such foundations of the earth c. which their Lord General pretended as one ground of their interruption which Mr. H. others would hurry them into to the endangering of the Cause and the disobliging the Adherents Then will the Iehovah that keepeth Covenant with his people and not alter the thing that is gone out of his lips Psal 89. 34. Acts 2. 30. and 3. 20 21. raise up others in their stead to carry on this his cause both in the civils and the spirituals and to forme another People for himself to shew forth his praise Isa 43. 21. Then they that Rule over men shall be just ruling in the fear of God and they shall be as the light of the morning when the Sun ariseth A Morning without clouds and as the tender grass that springeth out of the earth by a clear shining after rain 2 Sam. 23. 3 4. which that these may be agrees better with my Prayer then with his Proposals I am sure But thus I leave him whom Mr. B. had Coyted as a stumbling-block before me whom I am not only gotten over but I presume have given a good lift to the removing of him out of others way as to the right foundation of the Common-wealth and stating of the Cause So that from this time forward we need no Luxuriant wit or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him a vomitting as Mr. P's followers Pamphlet it a Commonwealth and others qui sputum lingunt who lick up any thing as haurient and attractive of the stuff as Galaton did picture out Homer in his strains and other Poets a supping up what he so exuberously vomited out Neither need we answer him with much more then the German Min. wrote in his Study when the Devil did disturb him and look over his shoulder But the Son of God came to dissolve all the works of darkness which his enemy no sooner read but vanished Now to conclude with Mr. B. for Mr. H. I met with but in the way with his Mummers and those that ride in post use to take fresh horses for present Service but look no more after them thus does Mr. B. make use of Mr. H. no otherwise I would if he were capable of hearing me for the noise of DRVMS assure him that not a desire to rake into any Mans failings having so many of mine own by which the Lord is pleased to keep me most busie at home under the sence and burthen of them or to pick out the evils without due
that have been most despised are as ready as Any to offer up our Lives and sacrifice our all for the service In the choice of Tribunes the Romans were wont to pitch upon them that could shew the most Marks Scars or Wounds in the service of their Country and some there be yet alive though little look'd upon who can like Veteranus whom Sueton. in Aug. C. tells us of but open their Garments and shew you the GASHES which they gladly received either in suffering or doing for this Cause that had rather a thousand times see the Bloud spin out of their own Veins then drop out of Christ's by another Agony Et totum hujusce rei consilium non periculo meo sed utilitate Reipubl metiar and for my own part I will not measure my business by my danger which is as great as most mens but by the benefit of the Publick 2. A stander by may see more of the Game which the Enemy is playing with Art and with Arms too and the great advantages which our friends may give them in their dealings then they see themselves so that I hope such diligent observers who have ever betted on your side and to the Cause may without offence or the brand of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inform you the best they can of those that are peeping into your hands and do make their Game by it accordingly or endeavour it for the interest of a Single Person or of Charles Stuart It was said of Queen Elizabeth that like an ill House-wife she swept the house and left the dust behinde the door but we hope you will not sweep the door as you did at your first entry to our great rejoycing and now leave the dust within the House to breed Spiders and Cobwebs which will be sure to hang in the highest places And therefore as we do in times of danger and robbery be pleased first to search well within doors and then without in every corner seeing the Enemy may steal in at so many secret and imperceptible ways 3. The grounded jealousies and certain fears that if this Cause should miscarry CHRIST the Gospel and good People of the Commonwealth would all suffer slavery do nib my Pen with the more Promptness and Acuteness in the presence of Him that is higher then the highest to call upon your Prudence and utmost care to preserve it in its Purity Nor am I herein beyond my line whiles in pleading the Cause I plead for Christ the Gospel and his Saints the best support columne and interest in the Whole World 4. The great and growing desires which I have to be serviceable to the Publique ere I die Secundum singulas species Evangelii Christi necnon Reipubl both as a Minister and a Man with the deep resentment of that desperate Design of the Enemies now on foot to the utter extirpation of us and of all whom they call Sectaries as well as perplexing of your Councils if they can effect it set forward from those very Principles that I have opposed and which they had calculated for the total interfection of the Cause interruption of the Parliament and infection of the People from 1. Principles of Falshood 2. Confections of Calumny and 3. Concoctions of Crudity The first in Mr. Prynne's Perditory Anatomy of the Commonwealth which is no more to be followed then the School of Alexandria in Gallen's time who did use to quarter Bodies for their Scholars and not allow them the dissection or discovery of the Whole Body neither doth P. to his Followers onely in this against his will we may commend him for an Artist that he hath found out the most sound solid and untainted parts of the whole Body to shew his SKILL upon i. e. of cutting and calumniating Psal 10. 8. 50. 20. 89. 51. The second in Mr. B's Purgatory Art of curing the Army whose Pinion or Pen is hardned into his own Opinion for the Government of a single Person and recovery of the Kingdom again and not so for a due and equal Temperament of the whole Body by an even Balance and proportion of the four Elements and so Aliments of this Politic. Body conducing to the most concinnate and right use of all the Functions in it as for the Mastery of the One above the other and all the Rest which would be the inevitable Ruine of All at last and all the OPERATION of his Pills is but to cast the Commonwealth out of an Acute into the most Chronick and irrecuperable Diseases But the 3. is in Mr. H's Pulsatory Method which tends more to the maintenance of the Diastole then of the Systole of the Commonwealth i. e. for the promoting then expurging the putrid humors of the Body By the first sort or P's is the Commonwealth considered quatenus immedicabilis and so he cuts it all to pieces as the Levite did his Concubine Judg. 19. 29. and sends them into all Quarters to raise the Rebellion By the second sort or Mr. B's is the Commonmonwealth considered quatenus est Sanabilis or restorable to a Kingdom and so he gives his Pills his Powders and his Portions that by strange operations they might enervate and deforce the Vitals of the Commonwealth but animate and revive the spirits of the Cavaliers and corrupt ones for Kingship in the Nation and accordingly are the humours spirits and armies of the Enemy up By the third sort or Mr. H's is the Commonwealth considered quatenus Mutabilis and so he exhibits new Forms Platforms Orders and Foundations in the first Concoction Heathenish but in the second Concoction Popish which he presumes will be as easie of digestion as the Jusculum or decoction of an old Cock ere he has cook'd it Now although these last have done the least hurt and are our Friends yet the Enemy might presume upon it that we judg'd our State very unsetled to hang by Geometry like Mahomet's Tomb in the Air or by a Charm or without a Foundation which is a great mistaste And by all these have I learned in Politicks that Non minus est corrigere Rem Public jam institutam quam ab initio instituere c. It is nothing less to govern well a Commonwealth when it is instituted then to institute a Commonwealth when it is not as yet governed or as yet a Commonwealth So that your Lessons most Noble Senators are no less difficult which you learn ex post facto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then those that you learn antè post facto wherein we had all need and hope we shall help you all we can with our prayers counsels and endeavours and none to Hinder you in the least nor yet You to Hinder one another And therefore though from a worm and no man I beseech you RIGHT HONOURABLE to admit of a few praevious Considerations for the better Settlement of the Commonwealth to the satisfaction
Jesuites Generation or Regeneration M. Prynn's merciless and unjust JURY excepted against nor is a Butcher or Mangler fit to judge in the Case 1. It 's the Jesuites Designe to render the Commonw odious by making us believe it THEIR'S This being the last shift they have left them Not but that a Godly Jealousie be had and search he made 2. It appears that Mr. P. his Brains have a most Spermatick faculty and Mr. B's Breasts have as Aphrogalaktick a faculty through his Mammarie Vein of maintaining K. Lords Commons and of condemning our Free-state which Vein of his we finde in the Claves as the Anatomists call them but Mr. B. his Clavis or KEY for Cath. 3. Mr. P's hard TRAVEL this 10. years in campanella's design 4. His writings dangerous these times to kindle or blow up Popular discontents All the good women are called to his Labour 5. It is a monstrous thing in Nature to make this a Plot of An. 1605. c. 6. All their Argument lies upon fallacies secundum quid or malae consequentiae or homonymiae Vincent lib. 25. c. 4. The Healing Author of the healing Quest hath taken the Leaves of the Tree of Life for the healing the Nations What is meant by HEALING M. B. quotes the Healing Quest in a Wounding unfaithful manner at first dash Natural Rights may be forfeited and lost The Healing Q. asserts the unforfeited Natural Right M. B's dark Lanthorne hath no lucid Answer to the Healing Quest Caution to the Army how they take Mr. B's tea Pills Mr. B's 1. Prop. Answ Right to Chuse Parl. part of the Cause This the K. kept the people from by his own Prerogative The History of it His 2. Prop. Answ It is granted that the Cause is not a Right to choose a House of Commons A fumitory Pill His 3. Prop. Ans It was the cause to preserve our Rights Exact Col. p. 464. Poly-pody-Pill His 4. Prop. Answ Another form of Government a necessary effect of the King 's waging War with the Parliament and People The King and Lords destroyed themselves and so the House of Commons 2. The old forme of K. L. and Com. an imposed forme 3. This form of Government fell in naturally and unavoidably upon dissolution of Kingly The Healing Quest a mark but he cannot hit it A pill of Aegrimony 5. Prop. Ans This is fully answered elsewhere all the Declar. and Engagements kept in their ends by this cause His 6. Prop. Answ The Author of the Healing Quest abused fallaciously quoted and as falsly accused He pleads especially for the adherents to the Cause but generally for all to whom Christ hath given and bought this Liberty M B leaves out a most material significant part of the same sentence What the Healing Quest proposes about the Magistrate that he would not impose upon tender Consciences Mr. B. corrupts and falsifies most shamefully Mr. B. argues not like a Christian with Sir H. Vane 2. Mr. B. argues not like a Logician It is as the Heal. Quest states it out of the Mag. power to impose Mass or any worship and this M. B. ought to prove like a fair opponent by Logick-Law This was in our Cause to keep up this liberty of Conscience in the worship of God His first Charge assoiled that this is not against Gods word but the contrary and his Scripture-examples examined His instance of Asa obviated and enervated That the Mag. hath no such Power in his Commis to impose is proved by abundance of Scriptures And by learned Authors with the Witness of Martyrs To his 2d Charge Of the evil of it That it tends to the Ruine of the Common-wealth but the contrary tendeth unto that * Mr. B's Holy Commonw Preface To his 3d Charge To his 4th Charge To his 5th Charge To his 6th Charge M. B. and Mr. Harrington for a National Rule over the Conscience To his 7th Charge To his 8th Charge To his 9th Charge To his 10th Charge To his 11th Charge Vide Reviving Word for Uniting all in one 12 To his last Charge of introducing Popery That Mr. B. is guilty of this Charge shall appear by the Jesuites of his own Quoting The grounds whereon M. B. is satisfied with the Papists 1. The Harmony or Proximity of Doctrines between them 2. The Condiscipulation and Charity bâ—tween them and thâ— like M. B's Proposals to the Papists 1. For personal Assemblies together 2. To have a Catholick Christian Communion together 3. To take one another for Christians and Churches of Christ 4. To agree together without hatred of one another 2 The power of the Magist in matters of Religion a Controversie of long standing Vid. Hor. li. 2. see Sat. 1. Med. so Drex on school of Patience pt 2 c. 1. s 4. Our hearty affections and readiness to serve the Magist in all his capacities and power and not to deprive him of any right due to him only desire that Christ may have but his right also The ingredients of this Pill are in part Jesuites powder and partly his own desire to persecute Mr. B's 7. Prop. or PILL for the Army Two Extreams wisely declined in the Healing Question 1. The meer Common-wealths-man as M. Har. principle 2. The rigid fifth Mon. man or that goes under that Name his Principle The scope and substance of both in the Healing Quest The equal Temperature of the Common-wealth wherein it doth consist this Rule did keep out Tarquin and must keep out C. Stuart 8. Grounds of hope that we shall have a holy Common-wealth under Christ the head who is the head of every man 1 Cor. 11. 3. as well as of the Church or of every Christian The most excellent VOTE of Parliament for it the Lord keep them to it Theocracy not so well with a Single Persons exercise of the Power of Soveraignty as with Judges as at first and Counsellours as at the beginning Isai 1. â—6 in Israel Christ is the absolute Soveraign but the people under him have a Supremacy That the People have a Supreme Power under Christ in this Government to give to their Deputies in trust so the Government is the Ordinance of Man 1 Pet. 13. 14. but as a Theocratick Governmentâ— or that wherein Magistrates are the Ministers of God for good so it is the Ordinance of God Rom. 13. 2 3. and wherein they are the Ministers of the whole Body for good so the Ordinance of man too Mr. B' s 7. Pill of Assa foetida Mr. B's 8. Prop. or Pill for the Army à scoriâ ferri Ans Conquest gives them the benefit and freedom of their Right 2. Conquest givâ—s them a power over enemies from ruining them 3. Conquest ratifies and fortifies us in our Rights 4. Conquest keeps up a Right of distinction so long as the troubles hold Mr. B. and Mr. Harrington for an unequally Equal Common-wealth Mr. B's 9th Prop. or Pill for the Army The Healing Q. for the Inward Rule of Righteousness
HIS who shall be who must be the desire of all nations But because Mr. Baxter may be heard with many when I may not I shall usher in ALL in his own words that I have to offer for this Christian Commonwealth or Theocratick Government as the CONCAMERATION and upshot of the whole Discourse 2. In the PATHOLOGY of it and therein to consider how the Principal parts might be affected if not infected with the late Morbous estate of the Common-wealth And acted for that time so preternaturally that might render it as unsafe then to follow them as now to fall on them for no MEMBERS humanum est errare sed inhumanum perseverare Cic. Phil. 2. Unless we be of opinion that the only way to cure a disease is to cut off the member or to evacuate an humor is to kill the man So to measure the affections of your old friends who are sound at heart ADHERENTS to the Good old Cause and Commonwealth by any humorous or incomposed resentment of your interruption which was sudden and amazing however they took it may be dangerous and unjust Seeing some that were more troubled fell in with the Apostacy and some that were less fell out with it yea seeing such as were Active in it and made their Advantages by it are indemnified shall such as were Passive in it and pursued nothing by it but the Publique Good be indamaged Can any think that after so many years hard Bonds and Banishment those that were forwardest proclaim'd the Single Person serv'd him or rather themselves therein should be the Men of your Right Hand and not those that have witnessed prayed appeared and Protested against it from the first to the last of it be worthy of your LEFT Or that those who were but FOOLED into an expectation of better things and in that did rejoyce through hope be the onely marks for your enemies to shoot at and such as were KNAVED into into a Perpetration of worser things and in that they did Triumph and boast be the very Quivers of those Arrows that are shot at them As soon as the first sort saw the snare they escaped it with the loss of Liberty Estate and Livelihood a many of them but the last sort saw it kept it and became their enemies that did it not The first sort were more in simplicity and as they intended upon the account of the Cause the Reasons and Grounds in the Declaration An. 1653. pretended were for the better carrying on of the Cause and a more absolute weaning the people from Monarchy and for successive Parliaments c. but the last sort in Subtlety and Design a many of them upon the account of themselves Places Profits The first sort did sink but like Peter and as their feet slipp'd their hands held fast upon Christ but the last sort sunk rather like Pharaoh having no principle to bear them up and nothing to hold fast by only this we see by it that a man may sink and rise and sink and rise again and yet be recovered at the last The first were WITHOUT blinded with Words and knew nothing but what was openly pretended the LAST were WITHIN even in their Cabals and might easily guess at what they secretly intended The first did but stumble but the last did fall and lie in their filth It is a Good horse that never stumbles but it is a Bad one that ever does and that will wallow in it too To stumble once is a common fault but twice at one Stone too is a special one and therefore we humbly think that the first ought not so to be exploded if the last ought so to be applauded and preferred The Orator said Natura me Clementem fecit Respub severum sed neque Natura neque Respubl me Crudelem efficiet Nature hath made me MILDE the Commonwealth hath made me SEVERE but neither one nor the other shall make me CRUEL to any man and the Preacher says Eccles 5. 8. If thou seest violent perverting of justice in a Province marvel not at the matter For he that is HIGHER then the HIGHEST regardeth and is HIGHER then THEY For my own part I need no Apology in the matter who was possest with amazement at the rashness of the Action I was so far from irritating or abetting it as some would suggest that I never mention'd or imagin'd it or to my knowledge heard it of any other till it was performed And then was so unsatisfied with it of which eminent Persons are my Witnesses as might free me both from the suspition and the sin of it Besides it is in print to the World and was then in Press for Posterity to see my opinion of them that were reputed Active in it Yet when that interruption had so candid an Interpretation by Good People who were over-credulous and ignorant of the Design I did write to the then GENERAL and my fourth Propos was hisce Verbis word for word That those who were righteous and spirited for this Government of the WORTHIES of the late i.e. this Parliament that are without just exception may be Owned with Honour i.e. Return'd again to their Trust And these Proposials are the worst that can be said of me by any man wherein I meant as much as I mentioned very honourably of them as of our WORTHIES But if that satisfie not I shall presume with the words of a Scottish EARL Leviston in his Oration to the then Lord Chancellor ex Georg. Buchan Rer. Scotic lib. 11. Junii 27. adhort p. 151. Non me HONORE Spoliatum sed ONERE levatum existimo Privatim si quam accepi injuriam eam Publicae Salutis Causa libenter Condono Si quam feci Bonorum Virorum Arbitratu satisfaciam c. I account not my self rob'd of Honour in your late DEBATE nor exempt of Reason in any former REBATE being arm'd with so much innocency that I can heartily say If I have privately received any Wrong I can freely remit it for the Publick's sake but if I have done Any either to the PUBLICK or to PRIVATE I as heartily refer it to the Arbitrement of Good men and I will make satisfaction if I can for it Neither expect I any thanks to be an Advocate for others but to prevent the injustice of squaring your Affairs and their Affections by so fallible a RULE as that is The Angel's Golden Reed is the Golden Rule to measure the Inward by but the outward Rev. 11. 1 2. may be measured by the best Reason of man rightly fix't for judgement and then I need not shew the danger of Breaking Bones too often in one place lest they fester and Rot and come to Ruine as well as put to pain the Whole Body But to conclude I see you like Men in the Dark up at MIDNIGHT in a confused State ready to Knock your Heads at every Post and to break your Legs at every Block and therefore hope by this Collision of
the FIRST PRINCIPLE for that they are neither found in the Efficient nor yet in the Material Formal nor Final Causes of such a Conjunction either as to Coition or Coalition and so are not capable of a Rejunction as Mr. P. and B. press it till we see a REJUNCTION in them also if the Armies Repentance reach to that And this I say Neither after the first intention of it as we use to say which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and must be the same in nature and in substance with the rest viz. Commonwealths-men All and not Kinglings any unless for Christ which they are not not yet after the second intention called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exprest both in the colligation and obligation of such natural-united and well-disposed Members every one in his proper joynt place fitted and fixed for the service of the WHOLE which those Secluded Members would never take or if they had could never hold viz. to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth c. as it is now established without a King Single Person or House of Peers So that all they propose are real impossibilities both to Reason Art and Nature nor are they able to offer any MEDIVM HOMOGENEVM or sutable expedient to effect it i. e. in the due consistency with the State of the cause being and well-being of the Commonwealth Wherefore if the Lt. G. Fleetwood and the Army were pleased they might Anwer Mr. B. as once the Emperour Adrian did an old Courtier who came unto him for some preferment then void but the Emperour denyed it him within some few days after the Gent. with great Art trimmed himself put on a smooth face as it is now in fashion with a very youthful habit and so applied to the Emperour anew But Sir saith the Emperour not so not so I dare not I must not be so unjust to give that to the SON that I denyed to the FATHER but 3. or 4. days since and so we hope that neither the present Lenity future Acrimony nor deceitful Ideo-pathy or Sympathy of Mr. B's Physick no more then Mr. P's Antopathy or Antipathy can work upon the Army to be so unjust as to give that to those men that are the same though now new-trimmed and with the greatest Art they can too for Kingship which they denied them before fought against and resisted in the Scottish-War more especially when these men were more GRAVE in their fatherhoods and much more reverend a few years since So I leave Mr. P's first Demonstration of the Republicans CAUSE as he calls it in his two last Anatomy Lectures His second is as groundless as the first wherein from p. 40. to 69. of Narr he gives his first Lecture upon the living which only concerns the dead Anatomy As if the JESUITES formative faculty and designs which they had afoot in the days of the King and Kingdom had laid the Prolifick Project of this Government and so throughout his Anatomy of the Republicans Cause from p. 4. he would make us believe if we could be so besotted that the Commonwealth is a BASTARD of the Jesuites begetting Mr. B. seconds him we need not question telling us stories of Campanella Parsons WATSON c. and of their designs against King James and the Nation then about An. 1604. or 1605. So that the child lay longer in the Womb then that which â—o Albosâ—us tells us of that lay in the mothers Womb 28. years and then too it was turn'd into STONE Now with how little Weight of Reason or Judgement this is charged I shall refer to the Reader that hath any skill in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Anatomy to judge upon their own Histories and grounds In Campanella 1. For CAMPANELLA the Italian Frier in his Monarch Hisp his Project was to promote an interest for the King of Spain against Q. Elizabeth and K. James and all his Politicks were calculated and suited to the state of the Nation at that time and in those days far different from what it was or is in ours which was not made for the interest of Spain but our own 2. Upon far different Grounds too viz. to make such discord amongst the English as might admit them no leasure to disturbe the Spanish to perswade the Parliament of the Kingdom in Q. Elizabeth days to cast her off and so fall into the form of a Commonwealth by this means to sow the seeds of an inexplicable and in expiable WAR between England and Scotland that if England should be turned into the forme of a Commonwealth the Kingdom of SCOTLAND might keep up continual Wars with the Commonwealth of England for it was never laid for BOTH to be a Commonwealth and so to manage all affairs so slowly as not to hurt the Spaniard if not to give him advantage and if a Commonwealth could not be effected then to make it an Elective Kingdom c. Now are these the grounds or the effects of our Free-State let any judge seeing the Friers plot was laid so as to keep up Scotland a Kingdom and distinct from England as well as England a Commonwealth or else it answered not the Popish design neither to incapacitate England from disturbing the Spaniard or defending our selves against them but in this Commonwealth it is no such matter we are Both one and in a far better capacity both for PRESERVATION and INCREASE to deal with an Enemy then under the King 3. The Friers ENDS were such as did as well correspond with a Kingdom Elective or any thing so that Q. Elizabeth King James and that Family were but routed or totally amoved but our ends in this Commonwealth are not such as can consist with or be answered in a Single Person or a Kingdom Elective and therefore cannot be the same which the Jesuites plotted if they plotted any for us But that is the thing which these Gent. must prove viz. that This this is The Commonwealth which Campanella plotted and not to ensnare us with a Homonymy or so to accuse the Commonwealth as the woman did Eustatius the Bishop for Whoredom with her being hired unto it by the Arrians and thereby had him banished until she was tormented with a judgement and then confess'd it was another Eustatius and not THIS 4. Though Campanella and the Papists would have been glad at their hearts at any Alteration either for Commonwealth or Kingdom Elective yet their 's proved an Abortment a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and came to nothing or had any of their's by a Superfaetation or a new procreation came to maturity amongst us it must have been upon Grounds and Ends as far different from our's as West from East or North from South But Lastly Campanella and the Papists never intended a Common-wealth as the ULTIMATE but upon a design and to turn it back to a Single Person his own words are Tandem in Democratiam
the Protestants with Mr. P. Sectaries 9. Q. Whether it had not been wisdom to have kept out the company of gabling Geese or Scriblers that noise it so in Mr. P's Chamber during the time of his Travel hard labour and unprofitable pains to be deliver'd of Campanella's Bastard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or head-long And whether they had not better have perswaded Mr. P. to have kept his Terms still then to have fallen in with such filthy interests to commit sin with or conceive séed from for the trouble of the Nation or so to sell himself to the next KING that comes for so little profit and for less credit 10. Q. Whether in all this Mr. P. and Mr. B. have not made a more exquisite and Artificial Section or discovery of themselves their party parts and principles then of the true Cause or of the Commonwealth through all the Meanders intricate and abstruse notions and designs to obtrude or exalt the interest of the Stuarts and debase our Cause Let the Reader judge for in Publicos Hostes Omnis Homo Miles saith Tertul. Apol. c. 2. It is every mans case and all the Country will up when wild beasts are broken loose to that I leave them and their followers I have been the longer upon these things they being the very hinges or the Axle-trées of all their Polemick Disceptations against the present Government in four books which for substance are answered and their fallacies discovered to the Readers only Mr. B's wounding Answer which is truly his own to the Healing Question comes under our present consideration his Politick Aphorisms if occasion serve for future which he adds in the Preface of ' s Holy Commonwealth to the Army that they may not be kept up in impenitency i. e. from returning to King Lords and Commons I would say this for the Healing Question and its honourable Authour that is of such a Healing Spirit and Frame whiles Mr. B. is professedly of a Wounding That the Almighty God hath made it and him so great a Means of Blessing towards the Recovering and Healing of this poor ISLAND as our Children after us may live to reap remember and bless GOD for indeed I do think there is in that little Treatise such Apples of Gold if well considered as were taken from the Lord Jesus that Tree of Life Prov. 3. 18. whose Leaves are for the Healing of the Nations Rev. 22. 1 2. And to speak rationally It was as properly called a HEALING Question as his Antagonist would call it a WOUNDING Answer after Gallens understanding of Healing in a Physical Consideration in the beginning of Lib. de Ossibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. All things that concern the Action of HEALING have that for their scope and direction to it that agrees best with the Nature and Constitution of the body or part which must be HEALED i. e. the Commonwealth Now whether Mr. B. by 's WOUNDING or Sir H. V. by his HEALING comes neerest to the nature and constitution of the Commonwealth or Free-State let us diligently enquire and duely preponderate without respect to persons but to principles and to the matter The healing Question saith he placeth the cause in two things pag. 3 4 5 6. 1. In a Freedom by way of dutiful compliance and condescention from all parts and members of this Society to set up meet persons in the place of Supreme Judicature and Authority amongst you Enlarged pag. 10 11. 2. Freedom in matters of Religion that concern the service and worship of God enlarged pag. 5 6 7. The PERSONS that he supposes have this Soveraign power sayes he are sometimes said to be the Whole Body of Adherents to the CAUSE p. 3. to which they have a double Right 1. Natural 2. Conquer'd and Recover'd and sometimes the whole BODY OF THE PEOPLE pag. 4. But here Mr. B. begins already to deal unfaithfully and dis-ingenuously with the Healing Question and its Author for pag. 4. it tell us of the natural right and Freedom due to the whole Body of the People for whose safety and good Government its self is ordained which the Norman by Lust and force of Arms kept them from This is their natural Right indeed not but that they may forfeit it and lose it as a man may forfeit his Liberty and his Life which he hath a natural right unto by Theft Treason Rebellion Murther or the breach of good and equal Laws But when he treats of the Goodness and the Nature of the Cause p. 3 4. then it is that he tells us the unforfeited and undoubted Power of chusing c. lies in the body of Adherents to the CAUSE who have contributed their counsels purses pains affections prayers and united strength unto it And these have not onely their foresaid natural Right but through Gods blessing their conquered and restored Right unto it Which others have not that fought against the CAUSE the PARLIAMENT to destroy both it and us These that have forfeited it are not said to have the Soveraign Power of chusing persons fit for Supreme Trust by this two-fold Right that the Adherents to the Cause have And therefore the Healing Question pag. 3. speaks of Restoring This THIS whole Body to it's just Rights in Civils and in Spirituals But Mr. B. would jumble them both like a jusculum of Hodg-podg or Galleymaufrey into our mindes by a fallaciâ compositionis taking them together as he in his Wounding and not as the Author in 's Healing Question states and exhibits them Also it is observable that in lieu of any lucid or clear Replication he would have the Reader subjugate his Reason to his Dark Lanthorn or abstruse implication in some ten PROPOSITIONS which he offers as his Purging-Pills or Troches to the Armies Consciences but let them first examine the INGREDIENTS of them and the hand that gives them if he have skill and if there be no danger in receiving of them His 1. Prop. is That it was none of the Old Cause which we contended for in the Wars viz. the free choice of Parliaments Answ We shall then appeal to all Records living and dead yea to Mr. P. himself whether Priviledges of Parliament and peoples Rights were none of the Old Cause contended for 1. saies he the King granted it but at the first he denied it And what if he did by word acknowledge it if he by force hindred them the benefit of it which is the thing the Heal. Quest. sayes But for B's satisfaction he may see it recorded in History That in the very first four yeers of his Reign he dissolved three Parliaments one after another and by Proclamation forbid the people to speak of any more Parliaments after that so that in the Intervals they were miserably enslaved oppressed both in Consciences and Estates taxed fleeced with Monopolies and illegal sufferings had no visible Remedy left them All thoughts of ever
Arguments wherein is proved that in Sensu Composito every tittle and Punctilio of all those Declarations and Protest is kept in this Cause of the Commonwealth so far as it comprehends all in the sence end and equity thereof wherein the Letter or forme was incapable or incompatible besides the very words of the Covenant are for the person of the King in and no otherwise but in the defence of the true Religion and liberties of the people Now so far as any of these or all these can or could possibly consist together viz. in the liberties of the people they are conserved to this very day Therefore this Pill being the same with the other though it be a little bigger will work but little better and so I leave it His sixth Prop. which is the main That it was none of the old Cause that the people should have Liberty and the Magistrate have no power in all matters of Gods worship faith and Conscience And here I cannot but observe how unworthily or like the false witness M. B. deals with this honourable Author again after a superficial complement which he would never give before nor nothing like it in 's Key for Cath. saith he Without any exception restriction or limitation that I can find he expresly extendeth the Case to matters of Religion or that concern the worship of God p. 5. and to matters of faith and Conscience p. 6. yea all matters and that the Magistrates must fear and forbear intermedling with whereas he knows and saith it but a little before that the persons spoken of are the whole body of honest men adherents to this Cause and is that no restriction I believe Mr. B. thinks it one and a close one too to him for the truth is the Author of the Healing Quest is pleading for them especially that have adhered to the cause and for their Rights and Freedom of Conscience under different apprehensions and opinions yet in the general for that natural right freedom and liberty which Christ hath purchased by his bloud and may not that be admitted who dares hinder it does he say any more then so But to see how like a SOPHIST his Antagonist quotes him as if he had a mind to imitate the Grand accuser of the Brethren Mat. 4. 6. who left out IN ALL HIS WAYS Mr. B. leaves out the most significant and considerable Clause even of the SAME sentence to spoil the sence or play the Tempter with For the Healing Quest saith That all Magistrates are to fear and forbear intermedling with here M. B. skews out of the way now as if he were scared or feared that his FOLLY would appear to all men to proceed with the same sentence which he most rudely abruptly and ungrammatically Lacerates at the very preposition without the Case that follows it with giving rule or imposing in those matters Therefore nail up this counterfeit Reader upon the next Post lest it pass for CURRANT and then consider does this discharge the Magistrate of his duty or don 't he rather charge him with what is not his duty that would have the Magistrate to impose upon us in the worship of God and matters of Conscience that are out of a Civil consideration and meerly spiritual so that all the Healing Quest. offers p. 7. is The Magistrates forbearing to put forth the power of Rule and Coertion in things that God hath exempted out of his Commission This is all and these are the very words And is this so wicked a Cause as Mr. B. calls it or which deserves such a scarifying or Cauterizing brand and denomination of wickedness and falshood as he puts upon it But if I may give him the Brand for falsifying so for the Question is saith he whether the Magistrate may restrain them from propagating a false faith or Infidelity and drawing others into it But stay Sir Whose Question is it do you think to catch old Birds AUCUPIIS or with your chaff 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with empty words abusive nothings for who I pray makes this the Question but your self not the Healing Quest I can affirm for that which he saith is only about the Magistrates not compelling or imposing in the matters of God not about this restraining of Papists or Infidels though some there be that question the extent of his power meerly for their faith or worship yet it is not so much as mentioned by the Healing Quest. Upon this the poor man to finde himself work enough with his own pretty Paralogisms and Sophisms and so to make sport for our money lest we take him for a Pick-pocket he spends at one clap 6. or 7. pages very generously to prove what none denies that it was neither the Cause nor the good Cause to Countenance POPERY Mahumetism c. Notwithstanding it never entered into the Question and so his Answers are shot in the Air or at himself all the way being in nothing adequated or adapted to the Case But saith Mr. B. He hath not excepted Popery c. and if worship be out of the Magistrates reach then so is Mass Under due correction and with due respect to his gravity and the Ministry he Reasons neither like a Christian nor like a Logician 1. It is not like a Christian to traduce Sir H. V. so as if Popery c. were not excepted in the Healing Quest when the Case it's self is and the whole discussion both for matter and forme to the Body of ADHERENTS to the Cause most proximately exclusive of Popery infidelity and unchristianity in worship as fully as ever it was in the times of the Wars with the King and highest attempts or contests with the Biships before But Psal 50. 16. with 19 20. What hast thou to do to count up my statutes Thou givest thy mouth to evil thy tongue joyneth with deceit thou sittest and speakest against thy brother thou titten dophi givest a double mouth of thy mothers son 2. Nor like a Logician in his rambling from the verity of the matter and very principles of demonstration for that Propositions ought to be true de omni and the Predicate to agree with the Subject in every thing but to help the Reader a little out of the snare of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fallacie which lies in the Ambiguity of the PROP. viz. If worship be out of the Magistrates reach then so is Mass to speak ad Rhombum and not to ramble from what the Healing Quest affirms it is out of the Magistrates reach of imposing or compelling us to Mass For all that honourable person saith is that the Magistrate might forbear Coertion in the worship of God Neither doth he say as Mr. B. by his fallacie would insinuate that Magistrates have nothing to do but that this they ought not to do viz. impel or impose in the worship of God upon our Consciences and so Mass Mahumetism and all false Religion is
out of the Magistrates reach indeed viz. of imposing it upon our Consciences and of forcing us to that or any other Religion Now that the Magistrate may force us to MASSE or to any false or true Religion is the Thing that Mr. B. hath to prove or he doth nothing but puzzle himself and perplex his Reader with a company of fallacies and falshoods Now was not this a great and essential part of the Cause and quarrel at the first between the Bishops Popish Arminian Imposers and the Puritans Brownists and Sectaries so call'd to keep up this their Liberty of Conscience from all such destroyers and invaders of it as is to be seen in Husbands his Exact Coll. p. 20 21 22. c. in the several Declar. and Remonstrances of Parliament and Army And in the very Covenant it self to maintain Religion according to the word of God in the liberty and purity thereof And in the history of the Wars with Scotland occasioned by imposing upon them the Book of Liturgy Anno 1637. being forceably and by command of the King and Magistrates read in Edinborough without the peoples consent which the poor people could not bear but a Woman threw her stool at the Bishops pate and so began the hurly-burly the Wars and the Alterations to this day for freedom in both kinds viz. in Spirituals and in Civils from being imposed upon and herein both the nature and the goodness of the cause will appear do what he can Now let Mr. B. deal but honestly as the Healing Quest states the case which were he a fair and allowable Opponent he ought without diminishing or adding to what he saith and then prove if he can That this due liberty for godly believers and adherents to the Good old Cause for he speaks of such in matters of Gods worship under their different perswasions Be First against the word of God or express Scriptures as he pretends flying for proof to Moses and them that were Types of Christ under the Law who did in extraordinary cases and for extraordinary ends exercise both swords sometimes and so not only Moses and the Kings of Israel did meddle with the external matters of worship but even Priests and Prophets did sometimes execute in civil matters too as Phinehas on Zimri and Cozbi Numb 25. Eliah upon the 400. 1. King 18. and Samuel on Agag 1 Sam. 15. but alas the one is no more a Rule for Magistrates in these days then the other is for Ministers And besides it is most evident even in the Old Testament if he keeps us all to THAT for he must never come at New Testament that Powers over any in the worship and service of God or Eccles Powers so called were ordinarily distinguished all along from the Civil or Magistratical Power as Moses and Aaron Rulers and Priests c. kept in their distinct Orbs and Places Now for his instance of Asa his days 2 Chron. 15. 12. it was a voluntary Covenant which the people entred into spontaneously and not compulsorily neither did the Magistrates impose it upon them so that it is Nihil ad Rhombum again after his wonted manner of rambling But on the Contrary All those Scriptures that call for willing obedience faith and perswasions of a willing People to the Lord Exod. 35. 5 22. 2 Chron. 29. 5 6 7. Nehem. 4. 6. Cant. 4. 12. Psal 110. 3. Isa 2. 2 3. Jer. 50. 4 5 Micah 4. 12. Zach. 2. 11. 8. 22 23. Prov. 23. 26. Mat. 11. 27. Joh. 6. 35 37 44. Luke 9. 23. Act. 2. 37. 2 Cor. 8. 3 5. John 4. 23. Rom. 14. 5 10 14. Joh. 16. 8 c. and all those that limit the Magistrates Civil Power to Civil Objects as to give to Caesar the things that are Caesars c. and Rom. 13. 3 4. Psal 83. 11 12 13. 2 Sam. 23. 3 4. that ruleth over MEN in external and humane matters 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. And all those Scriptures that make Christ alone the Head of the Church and the onely Law-giver in positive matters of Worship and his Laws sufficient which he hath left for that purpose Isa 9. 7. 22. 21 22. 33. 22. Zach. 6. 12 23. 9. 9. Cant. 3. 11. Psal 2. 12. Col. 1. 18. 2. 19. Mat. 28. 18. 18. 17. Eph. 1. 22. 5. 23. 1 Tim. 1. 20. 1 Cor. 5. 4 5. Iam. 4. 12. Heb. 3. 6. Besides Martyrs Learned Authors as Ambrose Epist 13. ad Imp. Valentin Bernard Epist ad P. Eugen. Luther Epist ad Fred. Jo. D. Sax. Tom. 7. fol. 209. Epist ad Carol. Duc. Subaud fol. 483. Epist ad Erphard Tom. 7. Zuinglius in Respons libel Strothionis Tom. 2. fol. 302. Chamier de Oecumen Pontif. Marlorat in Luc. 9. 25. Marlinus and the Martyrs Jo. Huss A. Askew Hooper Bradford and a cloud of Witnesses Books and Arguments of the ablest holy Writers that ever used a Pen or a Pulpit for above these thousand years are unâ Voce for the Healing Question against the Imposting power of the Magistrate in matters of Conscience and of Gods Worship and were it not that I must be concise and consulere brevitati for the benefit of the Readers I would have written at large their very Words and References Also secondly Let any that have the exercise of Reason free consider upon his second charge whether this Non-imposing-Power of the Magistrate in the Matters of Religion and Worship of God or indulging of a Tender Conscience tendeth to the Ruine of the Commonwealth or whether an Imposing in such Cases doth not clearly put the People upon all the means of Freedom they can come at as it did in Scotland because of the Liturgy and in England because of the Bishops Canons Courts and Impositions of their Hierarchy on Conscience nay let Mr. B. himself umpire it if he please when it comes to be his own case in his Preface to the Army thus I wish you to be tender of your BRETHRENS Consciences So Let not men be too hastily forced to engage to a Power Vngodly men of seared consciences will engage to any thing for wordly ends So Be not too forward with your Impositions c. Thus was the Philosopher convinc'd of his Errour which he held against Motion when his Arm came to be put out of joynt and it became his own Case he went to Hirophilus to set it in again sure saies this Chirurgeon it cannot be if your opinion hold your Arm would hold for if there be no Motion there is no Dislocation Therefore as Portius Cato was said to be so exactly just to all men that he would chuse the veriest enemies he had such as Tiberius Gracchus to judge his Cause and condemn him if he could so will we in this let him but remember us as well as himself and equal with himself for in the Conformation of parts the beauty lies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in
discourage and punish Rom. 13. 3 4. and so saith the Healing Quest upon these reasons p. 7. That it is not good for the people to be brought up in a biting devouring wrathful spirit one against the other or be found to do that to another which we would not have them do to us were we in their condition Now this is the Golden Rule indeed were it but answered with Silver Practices and so no Consciences could be imposed upon in the worship of God Besides for himself and that party Mr. B. urgeth a necessity of liberty of Conscience as we heard when it comes to his own Case in his Preface to the Army which puts me in mind of Opimius a Covetous Citizen of Rome in a desperate Lethargy out of which no pinching cupping nor cuffing could keep him awake till his Physitian commanded store of money to be poured out and told on a Table hard by him at the noise whereof and at the Doctors loud cry Opimius Opimius look to thine own it is thine own he awakes and was CURED was cured and so may Mr. B. of this Errour But to proceed Mr. Burroughs also in his Vindic. against Edwards's Gangrene saith he Hainous actions and turbulent carriages do come within the Magistrates Cognizance indeed but they are not fit Judges of Religion or matters of faith And therefore the Magistrates we hope do and will understand us That we are as tender of their Honour interest and Place and as ready to serve them with our Lives as any men alive are as active for them and would not for a World be without them or not give them their due in all their civil capacities and commands all we can as to a most precious Ordinance of God that we can be no more without then the Sun to Rule by day and the Moon by night but onely in these things that are more promixely and immediately under Christs Government and Jurisdiction in the matters of Gods holy worship we dare not and therefore would not willingly be imposed upon And this is all that Mr. B. makes so much noise about in this his Prop. traducing this prudent and most pious Asserter of our Liberties for that he takes the goodness of our cause to give us this Christian liberty The Army now may see the ingredients of this purging pill partly consisting of the Iesuites-powder and partly of Mr. B's own sine quibus esse nolo compounded on purpose to work out the mixed humors of the Army and to work in those simple down-right inimical spirits in stead thereof as would produce the utter destruction not only of the body but indeed of the very soul and vttals of this Commonwealth It was a bloudy Papist whose ENMITY was so great to the poor Protestants that he would make them first abjure the reformed Religion and immediately upon it massacre them saying O noble revenge that did reach as well to the killing of their souls as of their bodies And some are much of the Orators opinion Pythea an Athenian who thought he never did evil but when he did the worst sort of evil as if to suggest a false witness or to calumniate were a little matter and venial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is not only an evil to do an injury but to imagine or design it His 7. Prop. is That it is not the PARTY that hath owned and now owneth the fore-described cause that have the right nor is any man to be devested of that right for not owning it Answ The fallacy lies 1. In that PLEONASM of his own invention viz. fore-described cause as he hath described it we grant but as the Healing Quest. describes it we deny his Prop. There be two Extreams men have a mighty propension to in their stating of the cause both which are wisely avoided by the Healing Quest. 1. That wherein men do give up our Cause to meerly Natural right without respect at all to the forfeitures of them that have warred fought against it betrayed it and given up their Interest in it to the King or a Single person putting all into a like capacity viz. The Cavaliers Common-enemies to this right and the faithful Adherents to the Cause the Conquered and the Conquerours upon such Grounds too are very dangerous and destructive to the Cause Mr. Harrington and others go that way 2. That wherein upon the single account of our Conquests others go to the challenging of their Rights and Liberties and staring of the Cause without any consideration at all of the Natural Rights and Freedom which people have to choose their Representatives in the Commonwealth this way Mr. Feake and others go The first fix it upon a meer humane Foot and the last upon a meer Religious in 's Beam of Light But both these Extreams are very excellently waved and yet the substance of both as admirably and amiably comprehended in the Healing Quest. wherein the Cause is set upon both it's feet 1. Both to men as men And 2. to Christians as such upon the twofold Right 1. of Nature and 2. of Conquest pag. 3. or rather their Natural right to freedom in CIVILS and in SPIRITUALS which we are restored unto and fortified in under God by success of Arms. And in this state of the Question we may close with Mr. B's words That it is impious and injurious to set up a party for the whole but not as he states it Wherein no distinction must be put between Commonwealth Traytors and True men or between the Conquered and the Conquering between Kinglings and the faithfullest friends of the cause It is as just and honest to call up Thieves and Murtherers at the Bar that have forfeited their Natural Rights and Liberties to sit upon the Bench and there to judge in their own Cause their Accusers and the Witnesses as it is for those Men who have forfeited their Liberties c. betrayed their Country robb'd plunder'd and destroyed the People in the Kings quarrel to be invested or possess'd with the Power or Priviledges of the Commonwealth equally with others of untainted and spotless integrity The truth of this I find confirmed in all the Commonwealths that I have met with and most in the most eminent where as Arist tells us in 3. lib. Polit. c. 7. Bonos aequos dominari oportet autoritatemque habere omnium So a little after speaking of the exercise power and priviledges of the Republick he saith Quos si Boni semper habeant necessarium est alios excludi ab honoribus Rei-publicae The good just and faithful ought to Govern and others to be excluded that are insane and unsutable to the Weale of the Publick For it must be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for all without distinction but for them to Govern that are the best Tempered with justice and mercy to do right to all in the exercise of
Christ ought not to be in the whole body of the people Adherents to the Cause which from all it 's Integrantia Membra must and may set up persons to execute exercise it for the benefit of the whole Hence in Dan. 7. 27. it is that the Kingdom Authority shaltana in Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under every part of heaven is to be given leyam kaddishe to the People of the Saints or of the Holy ones of the Most High not immediately to the Saints as if all Saints or none but Saints should be in Power but that their People Deputies and Representatives shall be in Power and rule for their interests in the Cause and concernments of them and of the whole People that adhere to the Cause and go on with them joyntly for a Godly Commonwealth Now this whole People cannot give what they never had if they have not a Humane Soveraignty or Supreme Power under Christ they cannot give it to their Deputies or Representatives But the Argument is if they can give it derivatively then they have it But they can give a Humane Supreme Power or trust and Soveraignty under Christ to their Deputies and therefore they have it in themselves We might further Argue that where the lawful power of choosing and rejecting Rulers lies there the Supremacy or Humane Soveraignty under Christ lies but in this body of the people Sane and well-affected the lawful power of chusing and rejecting lies And this Mr. B. admits that they have the Vim eligendi or of chusing And by the same reason or law of Nature they have the Vim rejiciendi Ejiciendi of putting by and out as well as of putting in or of setting up in the whole Body We speak of Government as it is with Gods approbation the ordinance of man amongst us so the peoples but as it is the Ordinance of God amongst us so Christs It is a Rule in Natural Philosophy Cum aliqua virtus Duobus inest Uni essentialiter Alteri Accidentaliter or Contingentèr minùs principaliter Where a power is in two it is in one more principally and essentially in the other less and more contingently Thus it is between the people and the Parliament in the first the same power which the Parliament have viz. the visible Supreme or natural Soveraignty under Jesus Christ is more principally and essentially as to the being of it viz. in the People collectively but in the other secondarily accidentally derivatively or but contingently and pro tempore And therefore it cannot be the false Cause or that which subverteth the foundation of Government as Mr. B. saith in this 7. Prop. A Pill prepared of Assa foetida for the Warming of their stomacks to swallow down the better those secluded members and all such as have not owned but are enemies to the CAUSE and Commonwealth His 8. Prop. That Conquest neither gives them any Soveraignty nor right to deprive them of their liberty that disown that Cause Answ It is true that Conquest did not give them the Right because they had it before as their Right but it gives them the freedom of their Right which was denied them and obstructed As the Healing Quest. told him p. 3. and 5. Their just natural Right which they never forfeited as others have done restored unto them by success of Arms so that they need not run to Conquest to prove their Right but to preserve their Rights and to claim their Liberties in exerting and exercising of their just Rights 2. Some kinde of Soveraignty is obtained by Conquest viz. over enemies conquered and captivated ones at least to keep them from ruling over us or ruining of us who are Enemies to us Therefore this Prop. is false to say it gives not any Soveraignty at all For a Sword-soveraignty or a Law of Force and aw over the unexorable and inexuperable enemies of the Commonwealth is obtained thereby and the Lords blessing it together But that we affirm is 3. That Conquest hath fortified and ratified us in our natural Rights and in the expectation of our spiritual too and helps us to hold them the faster by far both in civils and spirituals so as that we might rather expect the enlargement of our Borders then the confinement of our Liberties either in the worship of God or immunities and benefits of the Commonwealth 4. Conquest with his favour doth keep up in us a right of distinction between friends and foes between well and ill-affected between them that owned and them that never owned or rather that ever disowned and appeared against the Cause which both as men and as Christians we are concern'd to keep up with the most lively Remembrance of those distinguishing mercies Answers of prayers and Appeals and Victories which the Lord hath given us almost miraculously as in the days of Egypt Exod. 8. 23. and 11. 17. and 15. 1. Judg. 11. 27. Micah 7. 15. And shall we most unthankfully loose or confound the sence of such discriminating appearances of God with us in Pihahiroth or mouth of our greatest dangers in the days of our greatest distress and this we shall certainly do if these two last Prop. were true or Mr. Harringtons and such mens designs should take effect viz. To put all back again into the spirit of the Nation upon the single account of bare natural right without any respect at all had to this Right of distinction which God hath so miraculously given us in to the bargain by the late Wars and Conquests of them that have adhered to the Cause If this be an equal Commonwealth or tends ad sanam constitutionem Rei-publicae to the Sanity or Sanctity of the Body is worthy the consideration of the wisest Physicians And if they please they may feel the pulse of Oceana as well as of Mr. B. with what Vibrate Motions that beats upon the Arteries of our Cause and then tell us whether it had not better beat as it does though it be not well yet with less sign of danger viz. EQUALLY inequal then so inequally equal as he would have it But thus far for Mr. B's Prop. or Pill composed è Scoriâ ferri to work upon the Spleen His ninth Prop. They that pretend the inward Warrant of Righteousness as the Healing Quest speaks he sayes p. 9. the inward Reason and Spirit of Government for the violation of Laws Constitutions and resisting of Authority as being above the Letter c. do reject the Government of the LORD and become their own But must Mr. B. still be traducing and Tenterhooking the words of the Healing Quest which p. 9. saith no such matter as he makes up his Prop. with viz. for violation of Laws Constitutions and resisting of Authority But thus speaking of the Capacities wherein the faithful Adherents to the Cause have acted he saies Sometimes in one Form and sometimes in another and very seldome in all points
into an equal capacity for present and into an under-capacity for future or by unavoidable consequence through over-balance of Number with their enemies who so shall be sure to swallow all up at once And Strada calls this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ungodly Rule But because Mr. H. thinks us all bare-wall'd Ideots and illiterate in Republi that run not his way as if we were not able to lay down the difference between a Wood-cock and a Wag-tail although I have read divers others beside Aristotle upon this subject I shall leave him to commence Master of that Art and Doctor of that Conceit and conclude with Cicero's words Dolebam dolebam P. C. Rempubl vestris quondam meisque Consiliis conservatam brevi Tempore esse perituram Neque verò eram tam indoctus ignarusque rerum ut frangerer animo propter vitae cupiditatem quae me manens conficeret Angoribus dimissa molestiis omnibus liberasset It troubles me it grieves me O renowned Fathers that the Commonwealth kept formerly by your and our care and Counsel should perish in so short a time neither was I nor am I so unlearned or ignorant of affairs that I should break my heart through any greedy desire after life which remaining in me would fill me with Anxieties but leaving of me would free me from all my Troubles And there I leave the first Part. 2. The other part of the Petition respects that Integral of our Cause which asserts our Religious freedom and Aequilibrity at the worship of God which the Petition would intrench upon p. 9. proposing to the Magistrate a National-worship or Religion saith M. H. suitable to the National Conscience which when the Powers that are have defined resolved and ordained They offer in the same Petition two things 1. That all who shall profess the said Religion which succeeding Parliaments shall appoint though of different perswasions in the said Religion be equally protected 2. That no Religion contrary to Christianity it being left to them to define and to defend what they mean by that be tolerated or allowed If this do not endanger or leave us exposed to Popery Prelacy the old Hierarchy Common-prayer or any thing that they shall call Christianity in case it be committed to Parliaments chosen by the Spirit of the Nation I submit to the judgement of the Reader upon what I have said before in Answ to M. B's 6. Prop. and do find my fears raised by the Libanius-like or Julianick scorn and contempt some of them put upon the Lords servants that assert Christs interest in the Nations that they would not leave us a Pent-house to stand under when the storm comes The two Expedients p. 10 11. to secure the Cause and keep the People from betraying their Liberties if any yet remain when the life of our Cause is fled to the Antipodes for quarters if any can be found are 1. That it may be I reason for any member of either Assembly or any person whatsoever to move or propose in either of the said Assemblies the Restitution of Kingly Government or Single Person or against the equal freedom and protection of Religious persons of different perswasions But 1. they never tell us who must make that Law-Paramount for if they say this Parliament hath the Legislation in that they must acknowledge it in other things too and why not in all 2. Will the People stand to it when it is done or what Vse or previous signification will such a Law have before the convention of the whole body of the People whom they suppose to be above Law and what can bind them or the two Assemblies met and till there be their own Spontanean consent before which time the King will be entered and the Scene be altered 3. And how not speak against the equal freedom of Religious persons when the freedom of them is far from being equal or indeed Religious That it is not equal is evident in their own words viz. That those who fall in with the National worship be maintained but others accounted Sectaries must only be protected from bodily violence or tolerated and is this equal or to all alike 4. They would have nothing else made Treason p. 11. for no other matter or cause whatsoever so that all risings rebellions and other preparations for the King may go scot-free 5. And this is only for them too that shall propose it in either of the Assemblies so that in any other part of the Nation else or in any Market Town they may do that and more too without Treason or Reason There be many other things of less weight which will admit of just exception as p. 8. in the Order of their Rotation That a Third Part of the Peoples Representatives and no more do sit at once but how that can be the Representative Collectanean of the whole Body I understand not Also as to Time why with such inequality that a Third part be but for one year another Third for two years and the Next for three years why none be he ever so able may be chosen again to serve his Country till some considerable Interval or Vacation albeit he have a more excellent Anointing then others and a Testimony like to Job's Chap. 29. 11 12 13 14 15 c. for Righteousness Merit and Works of of Mercy I cannot conceive for the Publike Advantage seeing that his own Oracle tells him In optimâ Republicâ si Quis excellat Virtute quid de eo faciendum Non dicendum est ut Talis Vir sit pellendus atqui neque Gubernationi Aliorum Talis Vir erit Subjiciendus That Such a one is not to be cast off or put away neither to be subjected to others who is so fit to Rule over others And whether this way be not of any the most liable to an Ostracisme let any judge by discouraging laying aside or driving out of the Land the most publickly Spirited Worthies that are in it Men of the greatest Ability Gallantry and Fidelity by which means a many brave Governments have been utterly destroyed As the Athenians Argives Thebans Rhodians and others It is said in Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Hippias plaid the Tyrant and he brought forth the Law of Ostracisme but others were cast into exile by it such as Xantippus Aristides c. Nor can we but fore-see how fast the Wheel of their Rotation would Boult or fling out the best and ablest in the Commonwealth for Bran leaving the worst behinde In of all others And yet of this must his Cake be made which after it is baked he would have divided by silly Girls A pretty sport for the Mummers indeed or those nimble-witted House-Wives that with Vice can out-vie the Vertues of the best to learn so lightly the whole Mystery of a Commonwealth and most abstruse Intrigues or Cabals of State pag. 13 Oceana That when these Joans are weary
the Capitol and in his Orations against Catiline his Philippicks against M. Antony And de Lege Agrariâ against P. Servilius Rullus the Tribune and others to all which we might add Brutus's practice to prevent the Lapse by obliging the Romans in an Abjuration of KINGS and so they disposed of all the Crown-Lands to the Publick sale and tore down Tarquin's statues The like did the Hollanders by an Oath of Abjuration and the like did you before the late Apostacy but alas alas though this shews your care yet somewhat more must go to shew your skill before you perfectly cure us of this disease or of the danger of it which in the judgement of some of your mourning friends can never be by Mr. P's B's or H's Advice nor so long as the very same Humors and some of the most dangerous remains of the late Apostacy are so far from being evacuated and expulsed that they are returned again into their former Places and Capacities yea seated about in several and some in the eminentest parts of the whole body which are shrewd Symptomes of our returning again to folly if the Lord prevent not for in a course of Reason what will the aforesaid outward means signifie if these inward causes shall remain Corruptioni conservatio est contraria saith Arist. Not that the Parliament ought to use the utmost rigor or severity in all cases of mal-administration or the like This Austerity in the Gracchi's Livy tells us did keep up the deadly feud between the People and the Senators of Rome till the Rupture of a down-right War And indeed Cleon's Oration for the utmost severity upon the Apostates from the Commonwealth of Athens viz. the Mitylenaeans after they were brought under Vt omnes Mitylenaei Puberes capitis supplicio afficerentur Venderentur pro Mancipiis conjuges liberi that the very flower and Cavalry of them be wholly cut off their wives and children sold for slaves c. was as quickly revoked by others for the utmost lenity and clemency they could shew them that did consist with the safety and tranquillity of the Commonwealth when they saw the inconvenience of extremity on either part in another Oration At nos nunc contriarium faciemus si liberos homines qui indomiti repetiverunt libertatem rursus oppressos crudeliter puniamus Oportebat autèm non post Defectionem in homines liberos saevitiam exercere sed ante eos valdè custodire cavere ne consilia talia instituant post recuperationem quam minime eis hoc delictum exprobare But now let us do the contrary if they who were so unruly have repented and re-petitioned or desired their liberties as frée-men in the Commonwealth we may let them have them and if they offend again may punish them the more severely But it did not so much behove us after their defection or Apostacy to be cruel to them that are free-men but before rather to beware and watch lest such Counsels should establish them in their way then after their recovery to upbraid them with their Apostacy And the like Counsel was given about others whom the Athenians decreed should loose a finger or a thumb of their right hands for their defection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they might be disabled from using a spear against them yet able to work or Row with their Oares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but the Mitylenians were worse used and their youth slain So that such severity we abhor but withall we wish that the Parliament would be wary if not weary of them that yet do and will do what they can retain the same spirit of malignancy and Malevolence to the Cause and suffering servants of God that they had before so as to eye them diligently lest they settle and involve a Lapse to the Commonwealth either by revuision or reversion For what Physician to this body Polit. that sees not these the very signs of a Lapse into the late or like disease or Apostacy which arose up in this very manner from the same seat of black choler and shall we ever forget by what steps their late General mounted to the top of temptation and slept upon the top of a Mast Prov. 23. 34. when he had procured that Act of Indempnity and gotten an interest in that Party and is not this this over-iudulgence of vitious corrupt and inimical spirits in the body that which hath shortned the lives of many excellent Commonwealths was not the Roman Republick in continual fluctuations motions and a thousand hazards daily of being destroyed by the Tarquinian Parties keeping up an interest in the Commonwealth opposite to the interest of the Commonwealths and of all Governments they are most alterable and unstable Arist lib. 5. c. 12. that nourish such spirits and humors as are all for a Single Person and Ran-counter the true state of the Commonwealth to effect it So in Corinth it is true Cypselus was the longer up through his interest and favour which he had with the People as a Popular man and Periandrus his son after him being he was a brave Souldier and kept the Sword girt about him but Pisistratus who succeeded him was twice driven out of his Government and the People restless till they had secured themselves from the like attempts of a Single Person So among the Syracusans some had a mind to keep up the interest of a Single Person which the Commonwealth could not endure and until secured from such attempts was never without commotions particularly by Hieron and Gelon the last of whom got in for seven years and the first for ten years and all that ever after that attempted it brevi tempore duraverunt saith the Historian were but shot-lived How many instances might I give besides to secure us from the Lapse by a rout of those malevolent humors Heterogenean spirits and inward causes which endanger the Commonwealth and are inconsistent with it at least from PLACES most considerable or neer the heart of the Commonwealth until which no outward means will or can be a Preservative sufficient And as in Politicks so in Theocracy it is a sure Rule and requires the highest diligence industry and insight that can be Josh 24. 22 23 24. 2. Chron. 15. 2. and the promise is Dan. 2. 44. His kingdom shall never be destroyed nor left to other people Because Prov. 17. 15. He that justifies the wicked and condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Besides the saddest Tragedies we might tell you amongst men have had their rise from an over-indulging I mean nourishing and impowering inimical spirits in the Commonwealth as of Brutus's sons for his fathers sake Maelius and Manlius and so Sylla and Marius and a many others in the Roman Republick besides Agathocles in Sicily Cosmos and Savaranola in Florence Castrucio in Luca and of late years it is observable how the Jesuites served the King of France Hen.
4. who to gratifie the Pope and the People recalled the Jesuites that were before exiled and a monument of it set up for posterity into that Nation again by the Parliament of Paris but to his own cost for they stabb'd him quickly so dangerous is a Lapse or a Revocation of them again into trust that are or ought to be evacuated the Body Wherefore a Commonwealth in aequali must first be considered ex quali as to the quality of them that rule and are intrusted in it and not first ex quanto as Mr. H. and others would if ever we mean to keep it stable sound and immovable in it's foundation and constitution 5. Consideration That all extremities be wisely avoided and particularly this of falling into an Ochlocraty by flying out of an Oligarchy pretended As this Rule of Mediocrity is requisite in the Anatomist to make a curious and compleat Section so in the Physician as to every Potion he gives the Patient so corrected and composed as may at once both kill the Disease and keep up the spirits So in Politicks it is the Golden Rule and that which saith Arist Polit. lib. 4. c. 12. hath ever been the Cause of the long continuance of a Commonwealth Mediocritate quadam durationis causa fuit and it is observable all the time that Corinth flourished it was said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to administer a most righteous and Moderate Government as Ovid saith Medio tutissimus ibis Now it is very often that a sickly or distempered bodie doth fall out of one extremity into another out of one passion humour or danger into another Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charibdim so to shun the Sands OCEANA would cast us upon the Rocks in his Platforme or for fear a few should Rule us he would to run wide enough flinch us quite out of the way and put it into the hands of the meer Multitude or Confusion together without discrimination of friends and enemies Whereas an Oligarchy indeed is not meant the Rule of a few as p. 76. but the Tyranny of a few as in the Triumvirs and Decemvirs of Rome whom Livy describes lib. 2. to have been rather Butchers then Rulers Tormentors then Magistrates keeping up a Monarchick-interest and spirit repugnant and repudiant to a Free-state so that Mr. H. and those friends so afraid of Oligarchy would do well to tell us if such a thing rightly defined be in being or no amongst us Such were the thirty Tyrants or Oligarchy in Athens rising from the corruption of a Free-state who to use the Historians own words Non solum Improbos ac Seditiosos è medio repellerent sed etiam bones maximè ditiores aut necarent aut ex urbe repellerent were so cruel and unjust that not only wicked and seditions but good men and the best were cut off or banish'd which made Socrates complain so to Antisthenes of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When he saw so many men of repute and worth rich and of great esteem in the Commonwealth to be made away insnared or cruelly slain by the ill Government of the thirty Tyrants he said to Antisthenes Now brother let it not trouble us that we have hunted after nothing great or considerable in our kind of life seeing such Tragedies are daily perpetrated and bleeding before our eyes Such a Government of a few or Tyranny rather was an Oligarchy indeed which MALICE it's self cannot say of this Parliament or of any now in Power This was that which Theramenes one of the thirty a wise and prudent man did oppose very elegantly and gallantly hortari collegas suos caepit ut moderate non insolenter concessâ sibi potestate uterentur sed eam ob causam à Critia apud collegas reliquos accusatus fuit quasi perfide ageret 30. Tyrannorum proderet causam partes populi tueretur ideoque puaiendus è medio tollendus esset c. and began to exhort his colleagues that they would use the power granted them moderately and not so imperiously but for this cause was the good man accused by Critia to the rest as if he had done perfidiously betrayed the cause of the thirty Tyrants or Oligarchy in defending the Peoples Rights and Liberties and therefore would have had him punished and put to death But his Oration and Theramenes his defence though worth our reading I think not fit to commend to writing but refer to lib. 2. Xenoph. Junii orat 3. pt p. 29 30 31 32 33. The main Argument being taken from the example of the Lacedem Ephors By all which we finde an Oligarchy far different from what good people are apt to take it and so through mistake to hazard us with a meer confusion or Ochlocraty i. e. the Tyrannical and unruly spirit of the Multitude which hath no more mercy nor bounds in it then the Sea when broken loose And this the sad experience of old Rome hath left upon Record the people in the days of the Decemviri to avoid that Oligarchy ran into it like mad committing the most flagitious outrages of any that they might be revenged upon them of the Oligarchy And in the State of Florence one Soderino and some others kept themselves up in a Monarchick spirit of Oligarchy over the people which to avoid they ran into Tumults and fell at last like the Flounder out of the dish into the fire into a remedy as bad or worse then the disease by calling in the Spaniards It is out of doubt that an Ochlocraty is little better then a daily Massacre of the most eminent Worthies that the Commonwealth has and it saddens my Spirits to see how eager upon Mr. H. his Principles some are to put it on under a pretended danger of an Oligarchy In Theocracy there is nothing more obvious obnoxious or liable to disturb the Peace and order of the Commonwealth and it occasion'd that notorious Rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16. 2 3. who with two hundred and fifty others in anger like the Secluded Members of the chief rose up against Moses and Aaron c. as against an Oligarchy saying Ye take too much upon you seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them So that they fell into such an Ochlocraty as cost not only the two hundred and fifty dear but the lives of 14700. in the tumult by the hand of the Lord against them so little pleasure hath he in such extremities and under the colour of flying from an Oligarchy to involve us in a worse 6. Consideration That you be exceeding wary how far you relie upon that broken reed of REASON of STATE or trust to that deceitful BOW either against your enemies or for the Cause and Adherents thereof seeing it has destroyed so many that have gone before you We mean not here the Publick Reason or right reason Reason it 's