That God hath witnessed his displeasure against the sharp dealings of Authority by manifold Judgments he instances in burning Ships burning London c. But first Is he sure that this Government is worse then all Governments because England suffered such great things Christ says I tell you nay but they say Yea or nothing Luke 13. 1 2. Secondly Solomon thinks a man cannot know good or evil by what happens under the Sun but these know the Government evil by these Accidents Thirdly Did that Authour's familiar that he speaks of p. 86. give him a dark notice of the Interpretation of these Providences Fourthly Do not these men turn Polypus's and servire scenae having formerly told us Afflictions were a note of God's people are they now a note of the Devil's Well let them hear the Poet's curse Careat successibus opto c. 'T is a brave thought of Lucan Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni Sure a man may justifie God without condemning poor Abel for his misery Job's Piety should not be condemned because of his Misery Let him reade Eccl. 7. 10. and he must acknowledge it a foolish Argument 2. The second Reason common to them all is that Toleration must be granted to unite us and make us strong in War For answer first A combined Interest reconciles all men of Estates so far as to prosecute a just War in defence of life and estate and to secure themselves from forein Oppression Secondly Crouching to Male-contents at home disspirits Authority and hinders forein Conquests Thirdly Advancing dissenting Sectaries is a civil War where Ring-leaders are Generals Preachers Captains Congregations Camps and words at length proceed to blows Fourthly Toleration would increase both Papists and Fanaticks and being let loose and both increasing who can assure us they will not fall on both King and Parliament sooner then on any forein adversary especially while they smell so strong of Hacket's Principles to destroy Authority to make way for the Fifth Monarchy Fifthly All sober Protestants are reconciled already in the Act of Uniformity if other mens Consciences keep them from Obedience what will keep them from Disobedience but Laws duly executed Sixthly 'T is insolent for Subjects to stand on terms of Accommodations with Sovereigns especially the meanest of Subjects with the best of Princes No language so well becomes their mouths as Submission 3. The third Reason is There is no hurt in Conventiclers P. p. 10. Non-conformers are serious and painfull men D. P. p. 87. They are like Christ P. p. 69 70. Yea Christ 's brethren P. p. 71. Therefore grant them Liberty For answer first I hold my self excused from meddling with this Argument because these mens too late crimes have proclaimed a confutation to the world already Nor am I willing to rake into so stinking a dunghill being much more delighted in Charientisms then Sarcasms Onely I take leave to vindicate my Saviour from these foul aspersions Let these Authours shew me where or when Christ murthered his even tyrannicall Superiours Against what Authority did he take arms where did he teach Christians to turn from Prayers and tears to Sword and buckler when did he preach Subjects into the field against Sovereigns upon pain of Damnation cursing Meroz for being backward to set out c. as most of these Ministers here resembled to Christ did What incouragement did Christ ever give to Factions amongst those that professed Christianity My just zeal demands a blush from that Authour for belying our Saviour and saying he was like these Sectaries Besides Conventicling against Law is a sin of it self if they sinned not in their Conventicles For 't is a transgression of the Law of God mediately of man immediately The Civil Conscience is obliged by the Civil Law as well as the Spiritual by the Divine Law Nor is this a fansying two Consciences but one distinguished by its several Objects about which 't is exercised for the Conscience is mixta persona as well as the King and must be judge in all causes If you object that if Conscience be so bound to the Laws they must be just I answer first Untill they are clearly proved otherwise praesumptio est pro authoritate imponentis Secondly They that see them unjust presume themselves to have more wit then the Authority of the Nation that made them which cannot be said without pride D. P. p. 85. says well An Act passed on a thing doubted unlawfull makes it not presently lawfull yet sure the judgment of so many grave men may be a glorious Taper to illuminate and a strong Cable to bind the scrupling Conscience Thirdly The Laws are most probably just when the generality of good men practise them who have Inspection to discern Consciences to scruple Courage to oppose if they see cause and Curiosity enough to examine them The Scruplers therefore must esteem their Notions either Inspirations from God or Demonstrations quibus non potest subesse falsum or else must judge themselves infallible otherwise 't is notorious Insolence to prefer their own opinions of a Law before the Law it self and the common judgment of man especially since Res judicata pro veritate accipitur is a necessary Rule in all Laws and surely to erre with Authority is to erre on the safer side Fourthly Admit the Law were unjust yet it binds for it binds not as just but as a Law it binds to suffering if not to doing Oaths may be Perjuries yet the Judge passes sentence upon them without scruple so that the Magistrate's Conscience is secured in the execution of the Laws upon Offenders resigning his judgment of the justice of those Laws to the Legislative power Fifthly Nor are Laws in a politick consideration such trifling things as these men fansie Petilius found a Book in Numa's grave expounding the Roman Superstitions but because by the Praetor's Oath they were found contrary to the present Establishment the Senate adjudged the Book to the flames so carefull were they to uphold the reverence of their Laws Demosth. orat in Aristog tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and therefore not lightly to be contemned Du Moulin tells the ingenious Balsac though something in Laws be unjust 't is just to obey them for some States have thriven in obeying unjust Laws others in not obeying just have perished I wish these men of Aurelius the Emperour's modesty who reasonably resolves AEquius est me tot talium amicorum consilium quà m tot tales meam unius voluntatem sequi But how then shall these men answer S. Jude's description of Separatists v. 8. that they are despisers of Dominion and speak evil of Dignities 'T was once said Turpis est pars quae cum toto non convenit but now 't is the highest pitch of Piety to oppose Authority But secondly Is there no hurt in Conventicling Are they not the Trojan horses whence armed men issued forth to sack great Priam's Territories Are they not like
thinks very honestly that the Church must judge if so they have judged already and so we may end this Dispute in a friendly agreement Having thus discharged the General cry of this deep-mouthed Pack come we to consider the Particulars Let them but enumerate what they would have and be their own Carvers and 't will amount to no less then the Good old Cause or rather more for they desire a Positive Law for Toleration as P. p. 69 70. L. C. A. p. 11. D. R. p. 8. c. while a general Praeterition served before And certainly that great Roman Orator was right Non enim idem est ferre si quid ferendum est probare si quid probandum non est Cic. fam Ep. l. 9. ep 6. Nor is this all but one of them would have all things taken away for which the people rebelled P. p. 65. judging it more reasonable that the Sovereign should conform to the Subject then the Subject to the Sovereign Which produces that Libyan Serpent Pareas Luc. Phars 1. 10. that leads with the Tail That Authour quarrells with the Age for striving to root out people's ill Principles rather then Princes ill practices God knows what the people may call ill Practices but we know a Roman sued at Law for not takâ—â— a Dagger deep enough into his Bowels with which his adversary strived to stab him It may in time be laid to the Prince and Parliament's charge that they buried not the Murther of the late King in honour and silence as well as now 't is that the Covenant was not so buried I will pursue this no farther lest it whet the Sword of justice too keen against this kind of Pleaders Now pray hear them branch their desires with some confusion into these ensuing Heads 1. They would have Tithes taken away or at least altered Israel was chidden for robbing God of Tithes and Offerings if these be Israelites let them apply it to themselves 'T is strange that hypocriticall Pharisees should boast of paying them and these strive against them Surely these mens Consciences grow in their Purse or Field that scruple at payments and so the Poet was right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. How likes Cornelius Burges these Presbyterians that strive to baffle his whole Divine right with one Act of Parliament 'T was hard for a man to commit Sacrilege before according to Burges's notion but if these mens motions take place it will be impossible for the future so wise are these Pleaders to prevent sin Euseb. l. 4. praep and Dion Halic l. 1. tell us that the Pelasgi the Offspring of Phaleg as Bochartus well proves being under great Judgments sent to inquire of the Oracles whether they would be pacified with the Tenths of Men The Oracles answered they would But these men think to remove our Judgments by taking away the Tenths of Goods from God Where the Conscience scruples payments 't is a sign 't is tender of Profit rather then Piety and that People aim at saving their Purses rather then their Souls But this is the old complaint and Tithes are like the Chaldaeans in Rome alwaies proscribed yet alwaies there Thus Dogs of Scyrum alwaies bark against the Moon yet it still abides Tithes like the Church they sustain semper concussae nunquam excussae Yet let it be confessed that Tithes and Landlords Rents are the two great Grievances of this Nation 2. To prosecute the Good old Cause in Rank with Tithes are servile Tenures called Copy-holds O rare Saturnalia Lords must cease to be Lords that Tenants may be Free-holders Their ancient Rights must be parted withall not for Coyn but Clamour In other cases Causes make Complaints but here Complaints make Causes They hope to get Free-holds as Children do Rattles by crying for them Unjust men like not to continue their Lands on the Conditions they came by them Time that makes all things worse must make their Tenures better I may say of this Cause as Cicero did of Caesar's 't is causa sine causa The business is Jack will be a Gentleman as if a man could make a silk Purse of a Sow's ear 'T is pity these Saints throw not up their Estates as their Ministers their Livings because being Christ's free-men 't is against their Conscience to hold their Lands on humane Constitutions and servile Conditions 3. The third branch of the Good old Cause that the Proposition requires is the Register of Estates A thing often attempted but never effected the onely single thing that looks like just of all they plead for in which I wish them success Yet wants it not its Inconveniences that may make it unpassable Tacitus prefaces his Annals with a Story that the world was first oppressed with Tyrants at length with Laws A Court of Record in every County newly erected would increase Lawyers and Fees good store but whether Honesty would be increased time must shew This way leaves little room for Charity and cuts the sinews of Commerce which is Credit In a word humane Affairs are the Game Dealers are Gamesters and the design of Registring is to let the adversary over-see one's hand which spoils the Play I look on the design as hopeless because four hundred men will scarcely ever be found so intire but some will halt on that sore and can no more consent then proclaim themselves bankrupt 4. The fourth thing pleaded for by them is the damning all Pluralities that is silencing those Laws that stint Chaplains to Kings Dukes Earls Bishops c. in shovelling up as they phrase it Church-Livings I confess I believe the Clergie get more envy then profit by it besides that it doth much narrow their Interest Yet let it be considered that these Laws must be silenced to make a Non-conformist speak P. p. 54. Laws are such trifling things with them that they are as easie repealed as scribbled against These men think it no oppression to out men of a legal possession without their personal consent But why do these things now trouble Can't they remember their own practice but a while since Were not all the taking Preachers about London Pluralists that could procure entertainment Did not Mr. Vines spread his branches from Laurence Jury to Watton in Hertfordshire till he went off on a golden Bridge How much was Mr. Case noted for heaping Church-Living together Mr. R. V. held seldome fewer then S. Olave's Southwark and S. Edmond's Lombardstreet Mr. Jenkins Black-Friers and Christ-church Mr. Mayhew Kingston upon Thames and White-Chappel Mr. Griffith a modest man held the Charter-house and S. Bartholomew's behind the old Exchange But see the subtilty of these men to avoid the imputation of Pluralists they called themselves Lecturers as if that employment were neither a Cure of Souls nor a catering for the Purse 'T is well their Conscience and Credit both can be salved with a new word But Turpe est Doctori cum culpa c. The English Church brought not in
Pluralities for before the Reformation no Pluralities were admitted nisi dispensatione Apostolicâ v. Lyndwood and since none were induced but by Act of Parliament And what forbids the Legislative Power to wit King Lords and Commons to allow the King Dukes Earls Chaplains c. more then one Living for the better managing that part they are to act about their Master's affairs and for the state of the Kingdome especially where the Lay-Gentry are so plentifully instated in Church-Livings for the upholding their Greatness Is a man onely therefore uncapable of more Church-Preferments because a Clergy-man But else the Non-conformers cannot find Livings Are they sure the present Occupiers being disseised that the Patrons will pin them on their backs Are not the Universities full of deserving men and must they be put by till God knows when or must they turn Non-conformers to get a Living 'T is pity such vast numbers of Expectants who may doe well should be slighted for those that have done ill 5. The fifth thing desired is that all may be allowed to preach and officiate that are in any Orders Here is a door opened to the Enthusiast whom the Spirit orders to the Quaker whom George Fox orders to the Independent whom the people order durante placito to the Presbyterian whom Aerius orders c. Here Nadir and Zenith are made to shake hands the two terms of Contradiction are here reconciled to wit potestas à Christo descendendo and à plebe ascendendo England must have a publick Ministry with private Orders or onely fansied ones Then must the Church prove a Poly-cephalist more dreadfull then the Stygian Cerberus 'T was judged malice in Sergius the third to re-ordain those that Formosus had advanced to holy Orders because he was Episcopus Portuensis and onely deprived of his Bishoprick by John the ninth not of his Episcopal Function But the Church in her great Synod judged the Presbyters of Colythus making in the Church of Alexandria to be no Presbyters and the Ordination a nullitie as is instanced in the case of Ischiras because he was no Bishop though he pretended himself to be one as also do these Non-conformers So likewise for the same cause were those Presbyters ordained by Maximus pronounced no Presbyters by all the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople And 't were high temerity to establish that for good by a Law that hath been so often condemned by Law But here is nihil ad rhombum still for what peace can be expected from contrary Orders Is it not listing the Clergy in several battalia's one against another And what satisfaction will that give to the Scruple-house where five Parties are still forced to scruple at one Do not the whole Episcopal Church account Ordination by Presbyters or people or vain pretensions to the Spirit or by a Se-ordainer utterly uncanonicall And can their Conscience chuse but take offence at the allowance of it Or are they thought so tame that being offended they will make no noise about it 'T is pity they should fare the worse for their peaceableness Again Is the Presbyterian satisfied in Conscience to hear a Gifted Brother officiate that pretends to a Plebeian Ordination Do not both send a Quo Warranto after a wandring Star that says he was lighted by the Holy ghost Nor will this please the wild Sectarie who esteems Episcopal and Presbyterian Ordination in Simpson's language the greasie Palm of Antichrist and fansies a Priest in Orders the English Edition of the Pope Yet Luther in Com. in Galat. tells us men without Ordination quanquam quaedam salutaria afferunt nihil tamen aedificant for laborem eorum nunquam fortunat Deus And S. Cyp. unit Eccles. tells us that by the Sacraments of unordained men non tam purgantur quà m fordidantur i. e. the water of Baptizing fouls and the Bloud of the Supper stains I dread to think what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Church our Mother will shed when more then a Jacob and Esau shall be permitted to struggle in her womb D. P. p. 36. hath found an expedient here consenting that the Bishops should impose hands on the Presbyterians already ordained to commend them non ad ministerium sed ad exercitium ministerii in any Parish to which they shall have a Title I conceive the missive words in Ordination may be so formed as to admit to Orders in the Episcopal sense and yet onely to emit in this Authour's sense but then first This provides but for a few Ministers and so is scarce worth the trouble Secondly 'T is very probable though the Non-conformers agree in this they will quarrell in something else Let me therefore remember them that Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury being sent by Vitalian to King Egbert about the year 668 and finding Ceadda not lawfully Ordained the good man understanding the errour said Si me nôsti Episcopatum non ritè suscepisse libenter ab officio recedo upon which Submission bene tandem consecratus in sedem Dorovernensem provehitur Bed Hist. Eccl. l. 4. c. 2. An excellent example of true Christian meekness 6. Their sixth Plea is for Liberty of Conscience a principal branch of the Good old Cause and intended to open the door of legal Restraint to those Legions of Devils that inhabit the fanatick Soul To effect which all these Authours strive eminus cominus trying every key in the bunch of their subtilties Not all of them so ingeniously as Bellius Clebergius or Sir H. Vane have done before them yet no less earnestly for aequa tentant iniqua they try by hook or by crook to break the door open And why not tentantes ad Trojam tandem pervenere Graeci He that never speaks never speeds They therefore bring a whole troup of Arguments to make room for it If you would know what this Liberty of Conscience is L. C. A. who most discreetly handles it tells you 't is A freedom to doe or omit as Conscience shall direct p. 11. so that his Question to be debated is How far men may be obliged to doe what they say is against their Conscience and How far men may be suffered to doe what they say their Conscience obligeth them to doe id ib. Now the granting this freedom by the Magistrate is called Toleration which D. R. p. 8. defines to be A permission of different waies of Religion without the line of the approved way So that in this latitude Liberty of Conscience looks like Hobbs his Leviathan a masterless Monster This one Law would make the world lawless and doe what is right in their own sight not in God's nor the Magistrate's therefore its Advocates shackle and trammel this wild beast some more some less First To save the King's life L. C. A. p. 14. conceives the Magistrate not bound to tolerate any thing destructive to his being But that if the Magistrate shall believe Toleration it self will destroy him The Authour of the Proposition plainly