discharged me from speaking to them any more and God I think discharged me at present I saw nothing more to be attempted but with the other whose duty for Concord and Christian Love after many years silence I opened in a Treatise called The Cure of Church-Divisions But yet would not publish it without an Addition of the Duty of those Pastors that most complain against separation lest I should exasperate their minds against those that I instructed and should tempt them to overlook their own miscarriages But more of this then I there adjoyned it could not be expected that the Licenser should pass The only man that rose up against this Writing with furious indignation was Mr. Edw. Bagshaw a man that had before written against Bishop Morley's Letter published against me and lain in prison many years And gave the world a notable proof of one of the chief passages displeasing to them in my Book viz. That there is a marvellous affinity between the spirit of Persecution and of sinful SEPARATION though several opinions or capacities cause them to operate several wayes By this time I discerned the guilty from the innocent by the Cry which signified their smart I had seen so much of the workings of that spirit that I expected not to escape their sharpest censure And verily I expected neither preferment nor so much as Liberty to preach as a reward from the other side instead of the favour of those that I knew I was to lose Nor yet had I such a contempt of them or a desire to be bitterly censured and reviled as to invite men to it as the Circumcellians importuned men to kill them I foresaw that some interessed men would be angry as supposing that I would hinder their alienating work though they could not deny but that I spake the truth I foresaw that many that look but to the present day and place would say It was unseasonable and served the Prelates design not considering that their design is not to bad but that some things which seem their design do also seem the design of Christ and his Churches good and mens salvation I foreknew those that make uncharitable Divisions their very Religion would make it a part of their religious dutys to call me as bad as their distempers do incline them These things I prognosticated in my Preface As Tertullian saith of the Christians martyrdome It is more the choice of our own will than the effect of your power i. e. We dye because we will dye rather than not do our duty by the omission of which we could escape so I say I could easily have kept as large an interest in the favour and applause of all the parties that ever railed at me as most men of my profession as their own words have told me What did it gain me in the world to do what I have done to lose the favour of the Papists the Ithacian Prelatists the Anabaptists the Separatists the Quakers the seekers c. But I saw whither the temptations of this age did tend And this was a work that some body must do or else woe to the Ministry that in their very sufferings would be so unfaithful And I thought my reputation with the Uncurable as fit to be cast away and my self as fit to bear their slanders as most of my brethrens who had more use for an interest in them than I had And I remembred that ill-gotten goods must be restored and without restitution no remission Though I can truly say that I disliked and decryed this spirit from my beginnings yet when I preached first the favour and loud applause of some good people tainted a little with this disease did tempt me to please them too often by exclaiming too smartly against the corruptions of the Church Though I said nothing but what I was confident was true yet I think I did not well to cherish their inorâ—inate censoriousness in such matters And having gotten sometime a great stock of estimation with such angry persons by means which I dare not wholly justifie though it made me the more capable to do them good I did voluntarily surrender it to them again before they took it from me and I did yield to serve God at the rate of so small a part of self-denial rather than be silent at such a time as this I have long ago preached to Drunkards and other ungodly people till they openly rose against me in tumults in the streets and sought my life And shall I forbear to speak that truth to Ignorant-proud Dividers which is necessary to heal the Church and them and all for fear lest their passion and partiality should shew their guilt by their calling me what they are themselves They call out for Valiantness in suffering themselves And shall I be so cowardly as to fear their false reports They cry out against the fear of man And shall I fear their impotent revilings They will be my witnesses that it is a duty to deny our selves and to forsake all for the Cause of Christ And I am as certain that Love and Unity are his Cause as I am that he is the Christ And shall I think the good thoughts and words of some of his froward Children too great a matter to forsake and lose They themselves think that we should rather suffer a prison or death then joyn with the holiest Minister and people in the use of the Common Prayer And should I that know the difference think that LOVE and CONCORD are not matters more worthy to be suffered for When first the City and Countrey had sounded with abundance of untruths about my Book while it was yet but in the Press at last the man that openly assaulted it when it came forth did use the same instruments which himself decryed and filled his Libel with as many untruths as ever I saw heaped up in so small a room except once in such another piece that was about eight years elder And the Cause it self he shamefully slip'd over as if his spirit and interest had directed him to no other means but only to attempt to asperse the person that was against him I wondred that no soberer a man rose up to defend Dividing-Principles And I was glad that in an age of such Temptations he had no more approvers among the Ministers When I had answered that Libel he sent forth another which instead of professing repentance did double the number of his Vntruths and cast out more of his bilious excrements but pretended also to say somewhat for his Separating Principles and Cause When I had replyed to that and Admonished him to repent of his false Doctrines and Crimes and above fourscore visible Vntruths he hath vented a third Libel of which I am now to give you a more particular account CHAP. II. I Must needs again remember the Readers 1. That the design of my Book was not particular to reconcile men only to the Parish Churches but universal against
those Principles in mens minds which cause Divisions in all other Churches as well as that and will never suffer Christians to Unite and Agree where they prevail 2. That I was so far from perswading any Minister to the present Conformity that I perswaded not the Readers 1. Either to use the Ceremonies 2. or to communicate with any Persecutors 3. or to own Diocesans 4. nor to communicate with or own a Diocesan Church 5. nor to communicate with or own any Parish Minister that is intolerable through Insufficiency Heresie or Wickedness 6. nor to speak one false word nor to do one sinful action to obtain Communion with the best Church in the world 7. nor to prefer Communion with a worse Church and Minister before Communion with a better where it may be had without greater loss than benefit 8. nor to forbear any lawful endeavours in private for each others good 9. nor to forsake a lawful faithful Pastor merely because he is cast out of the Tythes and Temple 10. nor to take a man for your Pastor merely because he hath possession of the Tythes and Temple 11. nor that a lawful faithful Minister should give over his Ministerial work or not perform it to the best Edificacation of the Church whoever is displeased by it or whatever it cost him which I take to be downright Perfidiousness against his Ordination and Sacrilege as being the alienation of a devoted consecrated person yea greater Sacrilege than alienating Church Lands 12. Nor did I perswade any Minister that instead of flying to another City as Christ once commanded he must needs fly from all Cities For the Diocesans that think Cities only were the seats of Churches and Bishops might inferr that if it be lawful to desert the souls of all in Cities and Corporations it is but a little step farther to dâ—sert the Villages also 13. Nor did I ever perswade any Minister to go to a Parish Church in City or Corporation who is by Law forbidden to come within five miles of it and who by appearing there doth put himself into prison for six months in the common Jayl 14. Nor did I ever perswade any to hear the common Prayer or go to the Parish Churches merely for fear of punishment and to save themselves None of all these were the matters I that medled with 3. But the things that I perswaded men to were these 1. To disclaim the foresaid Love-killing and Church-dividing Principles 2. Particularly to joyn with a Parish Church that hath a good Minister and that ordinarily in case you can enjoy no better without more loss than the benefit is like to be 3. And extraordinarily to joyn sometimes with such a Parish even when you have a better to shew by what Principles you walk unless when some apparent hurt forbid it which for that time is like to be greater than the good Pardon this Repetition of the state of my Case for without it I cannot be understood and his repeated untruths require it And now to his third Libel called the Review Sect. 1. The Title Page speaks of All my immodest calumnies confuted when 1. He neither proveth one Calumny in my Book nor confuteth one detection of his Untruths Sect. 2. He cunningly tells you in an Advertisement that ten or eleven have read his present citations of my words As if that justified fourscore falshoods before written Sect. 3. Pag. 1. He confesseth it is foolish and wicked to publish fourscore Vntruths in five or six sheets of Paper And yet thinks not himself obliged it seems any farther to vindicate himself by one considerable word but as it were by hoping his Readers will not believe that he was so foolish and wicked Doth Church-discipline require no better defence nor no more repentance for above fourscore published Untruths than this Sect. 4. Instead of Repentance he inviteth his Readers to usurp Gods prerogative as he doth and to judge my Heart that it was never truly humbled and that my Repentance is hypocritical Sect. 5. Thus lying down impenitently under all the crimes false doctrines and untruths which he published he now puts them off as Bye-matters and taketh on him to return to the Question which he saith was first designedly handled between us which he saith is Whether Conformity at this day upon conscientious grounds can be defended by any or at least with any kind of honesty be contended for by you Thus he will play small game no more nor write Untruths by parcels but let you know that it is not one untruth shall be the substance of his discourse If telling the Church be a duty it is not Railing to name the sin I therefore desire the Church to consider whether it be easie among the parties that he separateth from or worse than they to meet with so great Impudency in forgeries I know by equivocation almost any words may be verified But when there is no explication adjoyned the rule of humane speech is that Analogum per se positum stat prosignificato famosiore that is Analogous or equivocal words put alone without an ex exposition are to be taken in the most common or famous sense Now the word Conformity in its old and usual sense doth signifie that Conformity by Subscriptions Oaths and Ceremonies which distinguish the people called Non-conformists from the Conformists who yet were notoriously distinguished from the Separatists It 's true that it may be called Conformity if we are baptized if we profess Christianity if we read the Scriptures if we use the common Translation if we go to hear a Sermon in publick if we use the Lords Prayer c. in all this we do as the Church of England doth But this is not it that is notified by the common use of this name Now do but note the front of the man 1. The world knoweth that I never Conformed as the Law obligeth Ministers to do that I lose my whole Ministerial maintenance much more than ever he did all things considered and which is a thousand times more the liberty of my Ministry in publick because I do not conform 2. He knoweth that I have professed in all the three Books which he writeth against that I neither am for Conformity nor ever wrote for it He knoweth how distinctly I excluded that from the Question and stated the Question far otherwise which I meddle with Yet dare this man make this false profession of our difference 3. Yea when it is separation in plain words and not mere Non-conformity which he undertakes to defend on his very Title Page 4. And that I have oft professed to plead for the same cause that Dod Hildersham Cartwright Paget Bradshaw Brightman Ball Gifford and the other Nonconformists defended against the Separatists of those times â—â—d will you believe him if he say that they pleaded for Confâ—rmity Sect. 6. He again repeateth his most palpable untruth in comparing me in the warrs with any one whomsoever passing over my answers
10. Ib. But he professeth that he dealeth thus in Zeal to the Glory of God Love to the Cause of Christ and Non-conformity which I have deserted Where 1. It is a repeated falshood that I have deserted the Cause of Non-conformity I challenge him openly to name even one point of it in which I have changed my judgment these 31 yeares which I speak not as my praise who in those things have grown no wiser except in knowing the same things better to this day 2. What sin will you call it to father all these falshoods on the Glory of God and the Cause of Christ Doth his Cause and Glory need mens Lies How many hundreds thus in a few more Libels may you publish if Satan bless them as hitherto he hath done with an Increase and Multiply Sect. 11. pag. 5. He reciteth many words of my Disputations of Church Government and laboureth whether by gross Ignorance or malice I know not to perswade the Reader that I retract or contradict them and saith We stand amazed you should so soon and so much forget all that you have said This is not a single falshood but maketh up no small part of his Book Reader do but hear and judge whether any thing except his Amareduci can excuse such horrid deliberate untruths 1. I never retracted any of that book setting aside the Dedication 2. I do still profess that I am of the same judgment which that book expresseth 3. I have in the greatest audience told the Bishops that I stand to it and provoked them to answer it 4. There is not a word of contradiction to that Book in my Cure of Church-Divisions which he writes against And am I not as like to understand my own writings as this man is 5. That very Book pleadeth as much and much more for a moderate Episcopacy the lawfulness of a Liturgy and those circumstances or ceremonies which I judge lawful as kneeling at the Sacrament than my later Books have done 6. It was to me a considerable Providence which drew me when the Sectaries were at the very highest to write that Book which had I written since the King returned they would have imputed to temporizing or a change 7. The very same men that now rail so loud against me said nothing that ever I could hear of against that book that contained more than Now I have written for But then it passed uncontradicted by them that now rail at half as much So Is it not a strange fate which that poor Book incurreth that the men of both sides plead it as for them and commend it whilst they condemn the Author as if he were himself against it The Reverend Bishop whom Mr. Bagshaw wrote against alledged it in the greatest audience before his Majesty Dukes Lords and Bishops with no less commendation than these words No man hath spoken better of this than Mr. Baxter And now Mr. Bagshaw citeth it with applause Reader who is in such a case as I The Bishop is for my Book Mr. Bagshaw is for it And I am the man that am against my self whilst I openly tell them both that I still stand to it as my judgment only not owning any words that any party shall justly find to be too sharp Surely they labour to bring me to that reputation among these contenders as Plato was among the Philosophers whom every Sect took to be the second or next the best Sect. 12. But pag. 6. he thinks that he talketh like a man of brains when he inferreth that if they be such kind of persons as I have represented them they ought immediately to be forsaken and forborn as to any acts of Church-communion Answ. But 1. I never said of them that they printed besides false Doctrines fourscore untruths in two small Libels as you have done and give the world neither vindication nor repentance And yet you or your disciples will not inferr thus against your self 2. Deceitful man Did I ever lay the charge you mention against all the honest conformable Pastors of the Parish Churches in the Land who have no hand in any thing that you can call an imposition or a persecution Nay that own not as they think the Diocesan Prelacy as such but only Episcopacy in general and Diocesans as the Kings Officers Did I ever lay that charge against all the Christians in the Parish Churches No nor against all the Bishops neither 3. And must all the Churches in a Kingdome be excommunicated or forsaken for the cause of a few men whom few of them ever knew or saw This is like the Popes interdicting Kingdomes 4. And if you separated but from the individual offenders should it not be done in a regular way Why go you about to blind the ignorant with such palpable fallacies as these Is it truth that men must be thus cheated into with errours Sect. 13. pag. 6. From what I said the Episcopal Churches would then have been if they had but had a meer toleration in the times that openly discountenanced them when the countenanced parties should set up by themselves he inferreth as if I had called them such now when no other are tolerated and that in all those Parishes where are good Ministers and no other Churches Thus palpable falshood is the very life of all his Libel Sect. 14. Ib. The self-contradicting man professeth to follow the Light which I once had in this and yet that my present Light is nothing else but confusion of darkness when I said the same then in that very Book that now I do and now own that book which I wrote then And all to carry on a cheating falshood as if in this I had changed my judgment Sect. 15. I had almost pass'd over a shameless falshood pag. 4. And that you may know I do not speak at randome particularly when at Gloucester you preached upon Curse ye Meroz and now you say you do repent do you expect ever to be believed again which is a mere composition of Vntruths 1. I never preached on Curse ye Meroz in my life if he mean that text or those words I never was at Gloucester but about one month before the Wars in which I preached thrice or four times of which one on a Fast had respect to the times which was on Ezek. 37. 3. Son of man Can these bones live And my business was to shew the Difficulty of the reparation and reformation of a sinful lapsed Church In which I mentioned many things and sorts of people that would hinder it but neither my Notes which I yet have by me or memory have any thing at all that tended unto War or resistance of Authority Yet if any other Sermon there did touch the times which I remember not I am sure it was not on that Text which I never preached on 2. And he as falsly insinuateth that I say I repent of what I preached at Gloucester so hard is it to him to speak that which is not