aspect and appearance will be found by any man conversant in Scripture and acquainted with the estate and affairs of the Church notorious falshoods 1. Presbytery hath no divine appointment was not commanded by God never used in the ancient Church hath nothing in it piously morally or poâ—itically good or necessary Epist to the Reader How Sir can you read of the Elders of Ephesus and the Presbyterie that ordained Timothy and say Presbytery was not commanded by God Can you read in the Fathers of the Presbyterie advancing by their own power a primus Presbyter in the antient canons of the essentialitie of the Presbyteries concurrence in all acts of Discipline of the Fathers Epistles to and concerning Presbyteries and yet say Presbytery was never used in the Church Can you consider Presbytery is a Colledge of Gospel Ministers goveâ—ning communi consilio by jâ—ynt advice and yet conclude there is in Presbyterie nothing piously morally or politically good Will not every childe in his double Psalter tell you In the multitude of Councellors there is safety and every School-boy teach you plus vident oculi quam oculus and yet are you so blind as to see no moral political good in Presbyterie but this is but one Doctors opinion the meanest Clerk in your Cathedral would tell you your Grace was at a loss when you thus concluded Nor do you hit the next 2. Presbytery was not conjoyned to Episcopacy if you mean in its first constitution and the order of it which was without and before Bishops afterwards made by its power you begin well nor hath any power or authority unto the governing of the Church is no way necessary to a Bishop otherwise then by advice when called and required and that to be taken or refused at the Bishops pleasure pag. 289. I pray Sir help the Papists and untie that knot whether Peter received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven as a Presbyter or Bishop ordinary Minister or Apostle or prince of the Apostles It is pity John Chrysostom had not you for his Advocate when he was charged as with a crime for ordaining without his Presbyters I hope the correction of the ancient Canons being committed to you you will purge out those that confine the Bishop to his chair to declare and execute the decrees of the Presbyterie and make void the ordinations and censures made without the Presbyterie forget them of the Council of Carthage And Sir there is one passage or two in Scripture worth your notice Let him tell the Church sufficient to such an one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishment inflicted by many You know Sir they are words that imply plurality dignity and authority I pray Sir when your pen is in your hand draw a line through these words in the form of ordering Priests minister the Discipline of the Church to what end should they promise faithful diligence to that which they have nothing to do withal and concerneth them not But to the third 3. To endeavour to advance Presbytery to exercise in the rule and government of the Church is Schisme and Superstition pag. 214 215. How is Church Government an Article of Christian faith and an essential act of Divine Worship Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. your friends at Oxford were of another mind when they charged the Scots supposed say so to look like Schisme and Superstition What fools were Clemens Alexandrinus Augustin and Gregory the great and other Fathers to Father John Gauden they left us this ground of Schisme and Superstition Vnitas Ecclesiae catholicae non consistit in uniformitate disciplinae sed in unitate fidei but our Bishop standeth on their shoulders and can see further then little Mr. Crofton who yet hopes to see as far as little Zacheus in his Sicamore Tree advancing Presbytery as Gods institution and to keep the unty of the spirit in the bâ—nd of peace 4. Bishops are the sole and chief cisterns conservators conduit and derivators of all holy orders discipline and Government the principal Pillars and Fathers of the Church pag. 221 248. I hope Sir you will then make your succession as clear as the sun I would make a journey to Exeter to have the intricacies thereof well unravelled what became of the Churches when in Alexandria per totum Aegyptum the Presbyters did ordain and think you that Denmark demolished the Church when Christian their third King did by publick edict beat down your Pillars your charity is more to the reformed Churches then to condemn or censure them as no Churches pag. 196. but yet you will cut off their pipes cisterns conduits and make them come fetch Waters at your Wells your charity is very rational 5. Episcopal presidency and authority is a Soveraign power and spiritual jurisdiction in ordination confirmation censures rebuking silencing excommunication absolution and other exercise of Ecclesiastical power without above and against Presbyters and people pag. 215 229. Well said D. Gauden I like a man that can speak out Mr. Crofton shall know your meaning anon but your jurisdiction is so spiritual that to him your Sovereign power is invisible it is probable you may make him feel it though he cannot see it but I am confident it must be in his body not in his soul make good this description by Scriptures Fathers Divine principles or good Authors Popish or Protestant and if you make not a full formal Pope I will burn the Covenant renounce my reason and believe as your Church believes for all that I have met with give Presbyters an interest if not the greatest share with and without the Bishops in every of these acts of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction 6. The Episcopacy which England had or the English Hierarchy for its difference from Presbytery in place honour office authority use and honourable support is of universal tradition and observatiâ—n in all ages and places eminent in the judgment and practice of antiquity and the Church from Christ and his Apostles until now of late in use and authority in the Church as the Lords day and infant baptisme which to deny is impudence and falsity against the very letter and practice of the new Testament and judgment of all antiquity Pag. 198 220 228 248. How Sir the practice and letter of the new Testament and yet but a tradition you sure will say more of it you do well to paralel it to the Lords day and infant Baptisme for they will be evidently grounded on the practise and letter of the new Testament and so be found more then a tradition but Sir will you stand by it that Episcopacy was an universal observation in all ages and eminent in all places till of late I pray Sir enquire when it came into Scotland and how basely it was driven out of Denmark they are places in the Christian World again was Englands Hierarchy distinct from Presbyters in place office authority honour use and honorable support of universal tradition and practice how am
he one of them guide or guided because he knoweth not how to go into the City which one thus illustrates Nesciunt viam in Vrbem Lava qui a recto tramite aberrant in loca a via adducuntur The Dr having in his Analysis loosed from the Haven of Reason true Religion and the fear of God runs adrift where-ever the wind of his own words can hurry him and leads his Reader into a wilderness where he hears no sound but the shrieks of Satyrs barking and howling of beasts at best raging and rayling of men or wilde and improper discourses that direct to no certain end The Dr having unhappily returned railing unto what seemed rational in his Anatomist according to what is noted as usual with heretiques Haeretici cum perver sitatis suae non possunt reddere rationem in maledicta convertuntur and endeavoured by words and shuffling glosses to darken the plainness and clearness of the truth urged by the Analeptist of whom we must say as Bishop Jewel of the Jesuite Harding in his confutation of him Who so takes upon him to maintain untruth must needs be forced to discourse about with long vagaries to lead his Reader from the purpose and to feed him with words for want of matter Defence of the Apologie of the Church of England Preface to the Reader The truth is the Reverend Dr hath expressed great affection to Episcopacy in his zeal for it fully matching Harding's apprehension of the Papacy and Assertion That the Popes chair or English Prelacy is the very knot of Christian Vnity and so branding with Schism all that say the contrary Nor falls he much short of Pope Boniface having according to the measure of his Prelatical power Anathematized all Presbyters as he did Aurelius and all the Bishops of the Councel of Africa not exempting Augustine himself Aurelius cum collegis suis instigante diabolo superbire caepit contra Romanam Ecclesiam Nor is he much defective in their subtilty whilst visum est utile ut scribatur ad Episcopum Romanum ut consideret res nostras det consilium will more easily signifie the Popes power and be rendred It hath seemed good that we write unto the Bishop of Rome that he visit us and determine our matter by his sentence then I swear with reality sincerity and constancy to endeavour the extirpation of Prelacy that is to say the Government by Arch-bishops Bishops c. can be rendred I do swear to my power to establish and advance Prelacy the Government by Arch-bishops Bishops only I will consent to reform the excessive and defective abuses thereof but the cause cannot be good that must be salved by such strained yea contrary interpretations especially in matters of an Oath with how great ability the Dr hath managed his great affection against his little Antagonist let wise men judge the weight of the cause and some mens doting on the bare say so of a Bishop more then the cogency of the Reply hath produced this following Tract to thy cost and trouble as well as my pains and expence of more precious time into which before I pass thee I must minde thee of these two things pretermitted in the following Animadversion 1. That Dr Gauden seems to gather much strength from the silence or seeming compliances of some to his absurd contradictory interpretations of the Covenant Because I will do him or them on whom he reflects no wrong read his own words viz. I finde no men of learning and ingenuity but are ashamed to appear in such a cause Sober Presbyterians do very loyally piously prudently own yea and profess to the King's Majesty a quiescence under Episcopal Government as no way inconsistent with the Covenant Epist to the Reader This mitigated and just sense of the Covenant some that were and are great masters in our Israel and assertors of the Covenant are now content to owne abating the rigour which somtime possessed some Covenanters against Episcopacy in that sense wherein this and most other Churches ever owned and used Episcopal Government and Authority among and above Presbyters yea many of them begin to cast a favourable eye on Episcopal dignity no less then on Church lands fearing nothing so much as not to have a share of them much congratulating as the King 's happy restauration so the hopes of recovering the pristine Honour and Government with the Revenue and Rights of the Church in point of Episcopacy not in the fallacy of a Presbyterian parity but of a presidential constant eminency of Bishops in authority over Presbyters pag. 72 73. That any have by their silence or seeming compliance given the least occasion to this insultation is matter of grief and scandal to good men who yet have observed the subtile attempts strenuous endeavors of Prelats and their abettors to tempt debauch the consciences of some Zealous Covenanters and cannot but bless God that any have obtained power to withstand such temptations decline such glorious baits which should they and many have admitted I was am resolved through divine grace to sing no song under the sufferings that are threatned against me save only this All this is come upon me yet have I not dealt falsly in thy Covenant but charity bids me conclude that the Dr reckons without his host and that the boasting clamour is a base calumny He professeth the reason of the so late appearance of this elaborate wilderness was an expectation of what others would say in the cause and yet he runs so fast as not to heed the Covenanters Plea which would have told him some men no way short in learning and ingenuity of Dr Gauden did appear in such a cause moreover many may and do appear in it that appear not to write for it Pen and Pulpit are different capacities multitudes of books need not let the Dr judiciously not judicially confute one of his Antagonists I dare assure him more will take up the quarrel and defend it I could if he call on me shew the letters of many faithful Covenanters out of many Counties in England joyntly and singly owning the same cause of the Covenant with Mr Cr. and are neither afraid nor ashamed to own it I know not what any particular Presbyter might profess to his Majesty I hope such on whom the Dr reflecteth will in due season vindicate themselves I have cause to think the Dr reports this as faithfully as he did Mr Baxter's discourse about the Liturgie I well know that those who had immediate conference with his Majesty professed in private debates with their Brethren another judgement of the Covenant and Episcopacy then what is now reported of them I am sure at a general meeting of the Covenant Presbyters in and about the City of London the cause of the Covenant was debated generally owned in its opposition to Episcopacy and other things returned amongst us and by joynt consent it was agreed to petition his Majesty and
see and say this was not from the beginning You do indeed profess to the first six hundred years but I dare say the last three hundred of them are those you would chiefly cleave to And what do you mean by Ecclesiastical Laws where are these recorded and by what authority were they composed When you have given me a plain clear and distinct resolution to these if I mistake your meaning let me be blamed till then blame me not I love not the Rhetorick which contrary to its end proposeth objects with that obscurity that they cannot be with certainty determined and that under a profession to clear and convince the conscience Yet Sir to do you right When I observe you page 114. eat your own words and offer as if your Brethren Prelates had brought you now into Cassanders School and charged you to make an Apology for your over-friendly proposal to Presbyterians which you pursue by telling us All Presbyterians do hug Bishop Ushers Reduction of Episcopacy which in your Analysis you assured us did reduce Episcopacy to an efficacious conjunction with Presbytery and on which Mr. Cr. concluded that sence which you say he seemed in a sober mood to own An Episcopacy consistent with the Covenant pag. 191. but now say will reduce Bishops to primitive poverty the estate which attended and enforced their piety and therefore tell us That humble learned and pious Lord Primate propounded that reduction not in order to binde the hands of or limit Bishops in England and Scotand but as a condescention and expedient at present to disarm and binde the hands of Presbyters and people Sir who told you that this was the politick stratagem of that pious Bishop did not Bishop Wren Sure I am he came not down from heaven to authorize you in your Book to call him hypocrite and to tell all the world he had in Machiavillian policy by his grave and judicious authority affirmed That it was apparent out of the Word of God and practice of the primitive times that Presbyters had an intrinsecal power unto all Jurisdiction and order in the Church and by after Vsurpation were thrust out and therefore he proposed an expedient prudendentially to restore them to their just authority but never intended it to be believed as a truth or ever be put in practice as a duty but to only be jingled in the ears of crying children Are you not ashamed to cast such a blot on the precious name of him who I know was by some Cassandrian Prelates judged Puritan whilst alive Do you measure every man by your own temporizing principles and think they are onely in a good mood till they have opportunity to be bad and base do not you blush to offer this reduction in one book and call it in in another But whilst I see you thus play fast and loose I know how to trust to you and am holpen the better to understand what you mean by Episcopal Government and when I observe the soveraign power by which Mr. Crofton you say and that truly is not willing to be ruled pag. 216. Coordination with Kings as cheif Governours by Divine appointment pag. 205. Honourable fatherhood and government p. 203. The legal constitution by the Laws of England to which our Episcopacy doth pretend the continued practice and exercise of it in this Nation the superiority above and authority apart and distinct from Presbyters whose advice may be good and useful but not necessary as that which would make every Presbyter suffragan Bishop and the Bishop without his Presbyters a meer â—â—pher All which I finde predicated up and down your tedious discourse of that Episcopacy you would advance and which you say is not so obscure as Mr. Crofton would pretend but in express terms you tell us is That Church polity honour order and government which our Bishops had and now have and that we must not by an equivocal and levelling fence confound Bishops and Presbyters by a silly â—â—gomacâ—ie or cavil of names distinguished by a real rational difference of place honor office authority and use in the Church of Christ which you say no learned man can doubt of or deny but sure you mean affirm when I consider these things I must confess I should mistake you and do my self wrong by suspending yea stifling my judgement if I should not see clearly the Episcopacy which you pretend to reconcile to the Covenant is no other then that very frame and fabrick of government which Smectymnuus tells us was of humane invention and diabolical occasion by which the man of sin was made manifest and did advance himself in the Temple of God innovated by Austin the Monck so exercised that it appeared papatum alterius mundi which my Analepsis told you I was jealous you meant in your Analysis I have Sir with tiring difficultie discovered the ratio formalis objecti which you profess to reconcile to the Covenant and make consistent with it and in my eyes it doth seem to be the very same with that which in terminis was covenanted to be extirpated viz. Prelacy that is to say the government by Archbishops Bishops their Commissaries Chancellors Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons c. depending on that Hierarchy But let us see how you answer the third part of Mr. Croftons Analepsis and acquit your self from the imbecillity of argumentation charged on you And sir you seem to me to take a very preposterous and strange course to commend the strength of your reason by a tedious and long confused discourse of rage enmitie and opposition at the Covenant or by a general hypothesis that it must bind to what is good pious just lawful and not against reason religion justice pietie morallitie duty to God and man whereas you ought to remember that generalia non pungunt these may be all admitted and Episcopacy never the nearer reconciled to the Covenant whereas you ought to have given us a grammatical construction logical resolution genuine interpretation of that Article which seemeth cross to your Episcopacy and by a clear acceptation and vulgar apprehension or general scope of its words make it appear that the words will without straining admit such a sence and signification but it may be the simplicitie which becomes an oath of the terms extirpation or reformation being incompetible except in a fools fancie might strike you off this But them you should Sir have given a point blank charge against that Article which clasheth with your Hierarchy as binding to injury injustice immorality irreligion against the duty we owe to God and man and pursued that closely by clear and convincing demonstrations then had the Bishop shewed himself a workman who needed not to be ashamed but let little Mr. Crofton be never so great a Dictator he must finde è quovis ligno non fit Mercurius every tongue well hung cannot be well tuned nor will natural fluencie be easily kept to rules of art or under the command of
determineth that Parliaments Kings Lords and Commons have no prudent moral religious and lawful authority to change the antient universal and excellent government by Bishops for Christian Kings and their Parliaments are obliged to the Laws of God and rules of Christian piety and policy too of which the whole Church in its primitive example and constant custome is the best interpreter No legislative power is empowred by Gods law to bring in heresie error or schisme into the Church or take away the essentials of sound Doctrine and Christian Communion ever owned and maintained in the Church of Christ pag. 196. well said Doctor aut Caesar aut Nullus No Bishop no King must now be a Scripture maxime and article of faith if Smectymnuus his stirr up to the papacy be not now held Salmasius his Apparatus ad papatum asserted and Beza his Episcopi papam pepererunt verified by the Bishop of Exeter I am much mistaken but Sir have you not stretched too far and stept into a premunire little Mr. Crofton should fear to be made less by the head as guilty of Treason sedition at the least should he thus confront King and Parliaments in what all their Statutes declare to be their own creature and constitution changeable at their pleasure even from the statutes of Carlile and 25. of Edward the 3. Declaring against the Pope that holy Church was founded in prelacy by their own donation power and authority Where is Sir the Kings Prerogative over all persons in all causes Ecclesiastical What is become of your Oath of Supremacy can you make this peremptory determination as your self calls it consist with it any more then with your Covenant hath a gracious King lately advanced you to debase nay dethrone him and his Parliament too I know no better confutation of this errour then the hundred eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty pounds payd by the Bishops to Henry 8. to redeem the premunire into which this perswasion had betrayed them with the Petition and Statute of the submission of the Clergy which in my apprehension runs direct counter to Dr. Gaudens peremptory conclusion It hath been observed to be the fatal chance of the Deputies of Ireland to lose their heads and the Bishops of England to run themselves into a Premunire which when his Majestie affected with their bold encroachment doth exact will make them feel and it may be deal with them as did the King of Denmark provoked by the same peremptorie determinations These Sir are your errors in matters Ecclesiastical which you must give little Mr. Crofton leave to tell you are more obvious notorius and abominable heresies then was that charged upon Aerius though an undeniable uniuersal truth by Epiphanius nor doth he fear to be contradicted by any sober or judicious Prelate resolved to keep Episcopacy one peep short of Papacy unto which I shall make bold to oppose these few conclusions of undoubted verity and universally confessed by all Antiquitie which that little Mr. Crofton may not appear too great a dictatour let Dr. Gauden owning sacred or Ecclesiastick story deny it if he can 1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Shepheard and Bishop of our souls the great good chief and onely one to whom all must be gathered by whom all must be ruled that will be saved and from whom all must be authorized that will feed his flock 2. The Lord Jesus executeth this pastoral charge and Episcopal function by the Ministry of men successively sent and commissioned by his immediate authority and in his name without which they may not Minister to or be received by his flock 3. That the mission and commission of Jesus Christ is directed and given to two onely officers in his Church Bishops or Elders and Deacons the one to look after the bodies outward necessities and condition of his sheep to serve Tables the other to manage all the pastoral charge and Episcopal office as it immediately concerneth the soul of his people 4. That all Ministers are equally invested with and do intrinsecally possess authority from Christ for administration of all acts of feeding or ruling the flock of Christ without any difference of order place charge name office or dignity and therefore are joyned in the same general commission called by the same name Bishop or Presbyter chosen by the same characters conseerated after the same order charged with the same duty feeding or overseeing and challenge the same dignity esteem obedience and double honour from and among the sheep 4. That for some time in the pure and primitive time and estate of the Church the Presbyters did by and among themselves govern the Church communi consilio without any over them as Episcopus episcoporum or Pastor pastorum as having from Christ a different order and function yea without any gradual priority or preheminence of any particular Presbyter above the rest 6. That in process of time the Presbyters neglecting the course and care of Christian mortification by which they ought to have subdued their ambition and passions and so silenced their schism did by the working of the man of sin and permission of God devise a politique way or remedy thereof and advancing among themselves a Primus Presbyter ad schismatis remedium who was after dignified with the title Bishop and was by Canons honoris causa placed in Cities who was before in any poor village This giveth just ground for Smectymnuus note that Episcopacy above Presbytery was an humane invention on Diabolical occasion 7. That all jurisdiction and ruling power was yet acknowledged to abide originally intrinsecally and properly in the Presbyterie whose creature the Bishop was to act pronounce and execute their decrees and therefore when Bishops began to encroach and invade the Presbyters libertie and authoritie to usurp and ingross their power and function and make them subject and servile to them Canons were made to limit confine and subject the Bishop maintain and preserve the Presbyters power in Ordination Excommunication and Absolution not to be done without the Presbyters So that Presbyterie was ever known in the Church as Christs and his Apostles institution and Bishops apart and in preheminence to them the Churches Canonical constitution and Presbyters creation to the formality of whose advancement consensus clericorum was essential 8. That by this political preferment of a primus Presbyter the man of sin did work and exist in the Church engrossing the power of the Presbyterie and advancing himself above them he assumed by degrees a Principality to which he made the Presbyters sworn vassals by which became the subject of Princes indulgence and benevolence until capable of universal influence and extention through the Christian world he assumed an universal Papacie which he executed by subordinate Bishops heads of Diocesses and Provinces contracted universalities throughout the Church thus Beza well notes Episcopi papam pepererunt and Salmasius discovers the apparatus ad papatum â—nd many judicious men see nothing but a
gradual difference between Englands Prelacie and Romes Papacie this being in specie the same with that and so a formal papatus alterius mundi 9. Under this usurpation Presbyterie sensible of its intrinsecal power did resist and often complain and when it was by force acted by fraud restrained yet made and continued its contests and its paritie in order and authority and hath ever been dogmatically asserted and polemically debated by not only the enemies but friends of the Papacie by Canonists Schoolmen Commentators and open discourses in Councils where the Pope durst never admit a free dispute not so much as in the Councel of Trent and as the Reformation of the Church proceeded Presbyterie not only pleaded but reassumed its own proper power and authority and managed the affairs of the Church as against the Pope so without Bishops and England it self though through the policie which too much attended and acted its reformation it retained an Episcopacie yet did dethrone its spiritual jurisdiction and resolve it into a meer humane and civil constitution acting circa ecclesiam and most plainly avowed the intrinsecal power of Presbyters in the act of the submission of the Clergie and other Statutes disavowing any ecclesiastical or scriptural constitution of Prelacie and baring them from all juridical acts otherwise then by the Kings commission and in his name And all our English Divines have openly asserted and polemically defended the power and authority of the Presbyters in their contests against Papists concurrence with and defence of the reformed Churches and their Presbyterial acts and at length our late learned Primate of Armagh in his grave Reduction affirmed it to be the Presbyters right to rule and govern the Church and propounded an expedient in order to the restitution thereof too long held from them the which being in its natural tendency desperata causa papatus as Voetius hath well termed his defence of the Presbyterated reformed Churches the man of sin doth under a Cassandrian accommodation withstand and endeavour to stifle it in which however he succeed to oppose he shall not prevail Presbyterie being Christs own ordinance and the primitive constitution of the Church and mediate discharge of his pastoral and Episcopal office whilst this is a plain humane constitution conform to the course of the world and contrary to the charge of our great Shepherd Matth. 20.25 The Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority over them but it shall not be so among you Sir consider well this Climax I will assure you it is to me so obvious and apparent in Ecclesiastical story that he that will not see must turn Sceptique and must say Non persuaseris etiamsi persuaseris and how much soever Presbyterie be sleighted and represented to the world with the insignificant odious charge of Schism and superstition Christs kingly Office in and over his Church is bottomed in it and the recovery of its full liberty to the exercise of its just authority is not only justice but duty that may that which must be pursued pleaded for unto bonds yea death it self and therefore to match your number I upon these undeniable premises make these conclusions which if you will turn your Rhetorick into Reason and with a calm and composed spirit debate it I will be bound logically and theologically to defend against you Hierarchia Anglicana non est ecclesia nec ad ecclesiae entitatem aut gubernationem necessaria adeo ut ejus extirpatio estimetus schisma Hierarchia Anglicana est nullo modo divina aut ecclesiastica sed mere humana civilis cujus abolitio extirpatio sit licita sub juramento faederanda Englands Hierarchy is not the Church nor necessary to the being or government thereof so as that the extirpation thereof should be accounted schism Englands Hierarchy is neither divine or ecclesiastical but meerly civil and humane whose abolition and extirpation may be lawfully sworn and covenanted Until Sir these be confuted you who blame others do your self build upon a plain petitio pincipii Dr. Gauden being well considered will be found no less erroneous in his Politiques then in his Ecclesiastiques running away with certain general notions as if universally granted and undoubtedly true and agreed upon by all whilst indeed they are openly and generally denied I shall gather them together as the former and leave the Reader to take notice of them as he reads his book they running as a line through his book some of them being obvious in every page where his passion would give him leave to speak like a reasonable creature As that 1. The Hierarchy or Episcopacy is established by the Laws of England which I have in my Analepsis Analepthe denyed and the Covenanters plea hath more fully and judiciously expostulated and contradicted in Cap. 6. pag. 22 23 24. I do aver that the English Laws finding Episcopacy conversant about the Church doth restrain its exorbitancies and direct its administrations but neither Canon nor common law doth establish it and in terminis declare and authorize it to be the Government of the Church of England 2. No Oath may be fully sworn which shall bind to an endeavour to extirpate what is established by law and therefore although sworn by the legislative authority and command or by the sharers in the legislation it is ipso facto void and yet endeavour of alteration is to every man sui juris no way inconsistent with that passive obedience which we owe to laws in force and all Laws lye vailed and at the legislators feet to take up or refuse and void and an Oath is the most positive authentique repeal of a law vailed and at the least binding the sharers in the legislation and such as shall succeed into their capacity to repeal those laws which establish the thing which they have sworn to extirpate 3. There is no legislative power de facto operating and exerted binding the subject to any action or obedience unless all things concur which may constitute a full and formal statute law and so all Votes Orders and Ordinances Resolves and Judgment of any the Estates of Parliament are of no force power or authority during their session Which all Lawyers acquainted with Englands constitution will deny unless their Oracles of divinity have at the Temple taught them new notions of law which the constant practice of Lords and Commons and subjection and obedience of those whom they represent doth ordinarily contradict 4. That Lords nor Commons severally nor both conjunct can impose on themselves or others whom they represent any Oath without the knowledge consent and command of the King and if they do it is ipso facto void therefore you suggest that the protestation which is apparently sworn by Parliament and Kingdome without the King to be precarious whilst there is nothing of petition in it but much of legislation and that manifest by the subjects obedience even to your
expurgation of the other commending the Physitian but the Reader cannot without high content unto open laughter observe the apt similies which boyled out of our Doctors codled brain who must not be angry if Mr. Crofton adhaere to his conclusion who is ready to meet the Doctor unto a fair dispute about his Episcopacy and hopes until he have thereby convinced him he will restrain his rods of Iron Pag. 201. and severity of power which he imprecates and give us leave to live in Old England without the logick of their high commission for he shall find little Mr. Crofton who cannot be vanquished by a flood of words will easily fall under the power of reason though he with plainness out of conscience have declared his judgement not as the Doctor fancyeth on a presumption of his Majesties indulgence whose judgment expressed and declared for Episcopacy may be a reason for submission negative by non resistance not of conviction or sinful suspension or silencing of his judgment in his place as with the modesty and moderation so the confidence of a Minister for I fear God but to proceed The Doctor tells us having strapped the sweetness of Mr. Crofton after which for its reason and sobriety truth and seriousness give me leave to say Dr. Gauden needs not be ashamed to lick his lips he proceeds to his ninth reflection the Covenant of Israel the ten Commandements to which Mr. Crofton took exceptions in his Analepsis pag. 20. and tells us that Mr. Crofton runs a calmer but not clearer stream then the Libeller and so the Doctor sets up his own shadow to fight withal and desires a demonstration to prove Pag. 257. that one compleat and grand Covenant given of God to the Jews was the onely rule and dictate of what matter they should Covenant to which he insultingly answers as indeed to a frivolous question he may as well look for a demonstration to prove there is but one God one true Religion and one Sun in the firnament judiciously fought Doctor must you not be hum'd is Mr. Crofton so little you cannot see or distinguish him from your Umbra I pray you where doth Mr. Crofton desire this in his Analepsis which onely you encounter he did determine and agree to this your grave eyes are dim and Episcopal spectacles made at Rome dusty otherwise you would have read true English Mr. Crofton his desire to the Doctor was to demonstrate that the law of Moses Analep p. 20. or Covenant in Horeb was NOT ONELY the RULE and DICTATE of what MATTER can you see it Sir they should Covenant but the EXPRESSE COVENANT or did consist in the EXACT RECITAL and REPETITION of the law or ten Commandements so as that they never VARIED or ALTERED Sir I would help your eye sight the same Do not these words much agree with that you have falsely fathered on Mr. Crofton his desire is this the praxis of your profound notion by which you would save the credit of your liturgy from beginning its Rubrick with a lye defending the sameness of the words by a supposed soundness of the sense But what say you yet to Mr. Crofton his demand were the Jews tied to those words on no occasion to vary them that these did rule and limit their matter is agreed but you dare not affirm they were tied to the order and number of words yet on this score you quarrel with the Covenant and by a childish fancy cast the words into 666 as if that number was as fatal to every thing as it is to Papal Prelatical Hierarchy and will needs suppose to live according to the word of God and laws of the land to be a sufficient form for all Oaths or Covenants on any occasion but who made Dr. Gauden the Dictator of the words which should be the same in all Covenants these are not the words of Moses or Covenant in Horeb. I may sir come into your Diocess and need your license and I will covenant with you to live according to the word of God and laws of the land I hope you will require no other canonical oath or subscription Sir declare this and stand to it and you shall be the best Bishop and have your Diocesses stored with the best Ministers in England The Doctor having thus solidly defended his profound notion of the one Covenant in the Old Testament he proceeds to establish his one baptismal covenant in the New the man professeth much to unity and fondly dreams of nothing but unites even of words and humane expressions as if tens or hundreds or thousands in a covenant were utterly Antiarithmetical and Antichristian against the rule of Nature and Scripture Herein having sufficiently scolded his Anatomist he courts Mr. Crofton with such justice and civility as â—he can afford which is comparatively very much and tells us Mr. Cr. instead of proving the Covenant to be ratified by any precept in the New Testament or examples of any Christians in succeeding ages flieth to justifie it by the dictates and discoveries of the Old Testament by politick arts befitting any people or Church National But the Doctor should have been so just and civil as to have observed Mr. Croftons distinctions between the matter and circumstances of the Covenant how he concluded in his Analepsis that the New Testament directeth us as Christians but in Acts that pertain to us as a Kingdom or Church national it leaveth us to the dictates of Nature and the discoveries of the Old Testament Although the Doctor hath unjustly couched the one he doth not he dares not contradict the other but inferreth truly on the same grounds that so much by him and others decried oath he intends with c. in it which excluded Popery and confirmed the already legal and settled Episcopacy of the Church of England had been as lawful and sacred as this Covenant and in some respect more allowable because it disseised no man of his free-hold or Estate But sure the Doctor runs too fast and now reckons without his host and by an after reckoning will find his mistake in these three things First The Episcopacy of the Church of England was legal and already settled which we have before charged as his error and by a petitio principii he all along builds upon it but must go to the Temple and beg some help of the Lawyers to prove Id quod erat demonstrandum Secondly Admitting the dictates of Nature and discoveries of the Old Testament to direct the circumstances of an Oath that the Oath with c. in it will be found as lawful and sacred as the Covenant is a meer non sequitur For the dictates of nature do authorize any person to vow in his place calling and capacity to endeavour the extirpation of what he conceiveth or experienceth evil but that Oath bindeth against the giving consent to alter what on after conviction may appear not only alâ—erable at the pleasure of the superiour to
by Mr. Cr. in his Analepsis Analephthe Sect. 3. pag. 35. and avoid it if he can onely take notice it is the honesty of the Covenant not all Covenanters that Mr. Crofton pleads with confidence he confesseth many cups may be found in his brethrens sacks but not in any Article of the Covenant and Dr. Gaudens multiplyed reiterated Ifs do make me confident of Benjamins innocency and apt to think things unknown are thrust upon them but not from so pious a principle and to so charitable an end as Joseph acted from and aimed at but truely Doctor it is a Sophistical evasion to confound things and persons in a dispute but this the learned Doctor doth decline as to the name office degree order and Authority of a Bishop in Scripture Sir do you not now appear a greater dictatour then little Mr. Crofton Pag. 249. who rationally urged his exception and is no way affraid or unwilling in this case to try a turn with Dr. John Gauden on the questions before propounded who yet will hold to his ingenuous agnition which so much pleaseth you viz. that the Covenant is not levelled against any real excellency in the Bishops which is all that Mr. Crofton agnifed Analep Pag. 25. though you according to your usual falshood do add authority estate and honour which Mr. Cr. noted to be unwarrantable neither to be assumed by them nor attributed to them and Sir I must tell you ruine and extirpation of the frame of the English Hierarchy doth no way interfere with the preservation and esteem of any real excellency in Bishops but that Mr. Crofton may be ready and bound if in a capacity to vail that pompous worldly State and wicked superiority which Church Governours had obtained a note or instance of which he gave in Lawn sleeves no more puerile or scurrilous nor unbeseeming a Scholar or Gentleman then the baseness and contemptible inferiority of Presbyters was by you marked out in a black coat to which that was opposed is below the sobriety of a man the humility of a Primus Presbyter and reverence of a Christian to the poorest meanest Minister of Christ and speaks your prelatical Pride much more then your Rochet and Chymer sets out your pomp which my baptisme binds against and will engage the Boanergesses of God to thunder out terrour against Covenant breaking which you account a weak Womanish flash Pag. 249 251. yet will not be quenched by your first demonstrations or this reply by your judicious self proclaimed rational and conscientious though to all men beside proud prophane ridiculous weak and wicked whilst Mr. Crofton seeketh not to strain the â—ovenant beyond its own just and ingenuous resolution Pag 251. sence operation influence and obligation consenting to and rejoycing in its limitation to the Word of God and dutys of our places and callings by which Mr. Crofton is resolved he will be judged and is in himself assured that King and Kingdome accordingly keeping their Covenant the controverted Episcopacy will be at an end and the commission of our present Prelate Justices expired and useless covenanters by their good behaviour proving the solemn League and Covenant to be as indeed it is Berith Anti-Baall which Dr. Gauden blasphemously denominateth Baal Berith and Mr. Crofton is nor shall no way be shye of retrospection how or by whom to what or in what sence it binds and the rationality of its obligation all which he hath seriously considered in an opposition to the Oxford Reasons to which the Doctor so often retireth as he may see in my Analepsis Anelephthe pag. 265. We have seen the Doctors strength in the defence of his indirect answer and consideration of the Covenant which being done he proceeds to reinforce his direct answer and Goliah like being encouraged by the stature of little Mr. Crofton not taking notice of his stone and sling he triumphantly enters and tauntingly crieth Mr. Croftons fear good man is lest Dr. Gaudens down right blows may quite break in sunder Pag. 273 274. whatever may be of sacred bond in the Covenant the Reader that well regardeth the strength of his book cannot but with Laughter say there was great cause of fear but the best is it was but a fear and so on past for in the next assault Mr. Crofton is victor Mr. Croftons note that the paucity of the Covenanters doth not discharge its obligation is true had not Mr. Crofton much cause of fear and trouble I but in making Dr. Gauden one of the number Mr. Crofton reckoned without his host when that appears Mr. Crofton will cry true but the Doctor doth not dare not deny he sware it which if he should Mr. Crofton can tell who heard him preanh upon the Covenant acd saw him in the Pulpit at Bocking lift up his hand and swear it He doth indeed like a shifting runnegado labour to darken the act which retorts on his conscience in his now estate and tell us he never took an oath but those appointed by Law he might reckon the Covenant to be of this nature for the Authority of Parliament is by the Petition of Right the legal appointment of an Oath He tells us a large story how he did sense the Covenant and with what nonsense he did approve it understanding Extirpation to signifie Reformation and so by general salvoes and restrictions he cheated others and himself which Mr. Crofton hath detected in his Review of Reordination pag. 35. but may as soon acquit his soul from the bond as make the words of the Covenant bear his sence let him â—now equivocation in an Oath is no way short of Ananias and Saphira's lie unto the Holy Ghost it is much patience that the punishment hath not yet proclaimed it The Lord grant it may lead unto repentance He proceeds Mr. Crofton is apt to think the Covenant national not as in a Presbyterian illegal caetera sence which the Doctor adds but will not alter the case the sence being no way considerable to the Nationalty of it but in any sence signifies as little as other mens thoughts to the contrary But good Sir weigh the Reasons brought by Mr. Crofton and his answer to what you have objected as to the troubles of the Houses absence of some members or the like in Analepsis Anelepthe sect 6. which had you read would have saved or encreased your labour in your Reply Mr. Crofton must not shufle that into this book and therefore shall make bold to tell you His sacred Majesty and the Kingdom must submit to the plain and literal sence thereof though it seem as sowre grapes unless we will by Gods wrath set our own and childrens teeth on edge for the capacity of the Covenanters doth extend the obligation But The Doctor judgeth an oath extorted by fear to a mans private damage doth binde Pag 279. sure he means a proper damage for I cannot think he will in cool blood deny the Parents oath