worth but that they who persecuted them were Orthodox and reformed Christians I cannot grant rather wolves and tygers men void of humanity and much more of Christian Piety But you have such fine acute ways to play sast and loose and to shuffle oft a Charge unless those that were persecuted you grant there was a persecution were such as were trapann'd by Williams if they were indeed learned and godly if any of those suffered with the rest they may thank their fellows but you spared no such men as you except here for those suffered most that were the most pious and of greatest wisdom and learning c. for their eminent parts were the greatest obstacle to your growing designs if any of them stood in your way they must become the objects of your fury who had such tender consciences that rather than fail of your aim the best must suffer with the worst and you spared none though you knew them to be persons of great desert which are onely hypothetically excepted by you Who then I pray you were the Amaziah-like Priests and Tyrants your Presbyters or our Bishops who were men of nobler spirits and scorn'd and abhorr'd such unreasonable and un-christian proceedings But why are you so much displeased with the Lord Bishop Williams a man long since dead and maugre all your envy died peaceably in his own countrey what you speak of his trapanning it is well known it was not used here in England until you trapann'd the whole Nation by your new Covenant but I know where your shoe rings you It is that un-Parliamentary Petition and Protestation so you call it that he had the chiefest hand in and a great many more honest cordial Bishops as well as himself This gallant Person hath obliged all the Clergy of the three Nations by this memorable Act to have a good opinion of his Loyalty to the King had the Bishops then held their peace for fear or favour their silence would have been interpreted consent and I know not what they could have pleaded now in defence of their Baronies and for their restitution into the Upper House of Parliament that we may once more have as it ought to be Lords Spiritual and Temporal I speak not to the honor of that reverend Prelate as if I meant to set forth a Panegyrick of his Gallantry for any favor or benefit I was obliged to him for I may truly say I was never more beholding to him than I was to the rest but I desire to give every man his due character had he not been a Person of great learning and noble parts surely King James so wise a Prince would never have raised him to so great preferment in Church and State How he came to fall into disgrace with some great Persons I cannot say but I believe it was by his too much leaning to that totten Prop of Presbytery hoping thereby to support himself against those who laid violent siege to his honor and preferment and as it is conjectured by some to his life also which fierce dissentions amongst the Bishops themselves and the Clergy that sided with their divisions made such breaches in the Church that the Presbyters entred upon them and had well-nigh routed them all but the best and learnedst men in the world are subject to failings as St. Paul and St. Peter were divided which make them the less able to resist the common enemy I hope it wil be a warning to the reverend Bishops to take care to agree as brethren among themselves IV. Proposition That maugre all this mans calumnies and malicious aspersions the Covenant even as to the point of Hierarchical Episcopacy lately laid aside is to be constantly and conscientiously observed and kept in the right sense thereof by all that have taken it as they will avoid destruction and damnation hereafter It should appear that the Presbyterians finde it best fishing in troubled waters they mean it seems that we shall never be at peace in the Church of England for all those that have taken their Covenant are bound constantly and conscientiously to observe and keep it in the right sense thereof that is as he hath interpreted it all this while to the extirpation of Episcopal Hierarchy as they will avoid destruction here destruction here this smells strongly of some mischief hatching by them against us and damnation hereafter I pray God they do not fall into the pit themselves which they are digging for others but if some must fall into it we shall pray in the words of the Psalmist Let them fall into their own net together and let us ever escape them They that have taken it must you say constantly keep it and what must or will they do that have not taken it do you suppose they will let you domineer over them they have as good reason and better to maintain their former Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy to His Majesty and of Church-men for their obedience to the Bishops you put all into a confusion You say destruction here and damnation hereafter is a hard saying but you will make it out I would fain know how you shall never make it out by your example of the Gibeonires Josh 9.15 you are very much taken with that pattern you repeat so frequently what a lye they told to children of Israel how crafty and wily they were to obtain their purpose how they cheated Joshua and all the Princes I am perswaded you laugh in your sleeves to think you have done so too with the whole Nation but I cannot finde that this makes any thing for that you would conclude from it because your Covenant was made and imposed as I told you before without Joshua and many of the Princes consent It 's true the Gibeonites to save their lives did this in fear but your Covenant was made in subtilty to usurp authority over others to destroy a legal ancient Church-Government and to take away the lives of all that should resist you under pretence of a Vow made to Almighty God which you say you are bound to perform Now if you are pleased to observe the scope of the Text you alledge although the Gibeonites came with their old shooes and ragged garments as your brethren of Scotland some say did at first to gain their ends when you hired them yet there it seems to intimate a secret permission of God that Joshua and the Princes should be deluded by them because they did not first ask counsel from him as men ought to do in all that they go about whose command was to destroy them all I am certain you had no such command to destroy us But God did so highly favor his people Israel that he would have them all free men and none of them to be employed in any servile work wherefore the Gibeonites were suffered by their Covenant to escape that they might be made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the children of Israel I consess your Covenanters
himself had made with them in Horeb and mount Sinai punctually prescribed to God to Moses and by Moses as the supream Governor or King imposed upon them but this was not the case of the Church of England nor was there need of such a Covenant or any Moses c. as chief Governor commanding it Here you keep a fearful quoil and whiffle about making a great cry but there is little wooll calling the Doctor Deceiver Reviler and that in his Writings there are falshoods enough and yet shew none First you say it is false that there was no Covenant but of Gods own prescribing and secondly that he prescribed but one I do not finde that the Doctor saith any such thing for ho quoted that spontaneous Vow Numb 30.2 You are still fighting with your own shadow yet you must say something lest the Reader should think you were at a non-plus as Sergeant Green did who would undertake to overthrow all Episcopacy but being worsted by the learned Selden cryed out But Archbishops are no Bishops then said Selden Judges are no Lawyers and Aldermen no Citizens You instance in the Covenant of Moses and the Princes of the Congregation with the cheating Gibeonites as you call them Josh 9.15 But there was Moses the chief whose consent you never had and therefore are less excusable than the Gibeonites were But because you are so much taken with the Gibeonites example and bring it in so often as if it served your turn well I shall say more to it when I meet with it again The chief Covenant indeed was that which God made with his people upon mount Sinai and all lawfull Covenants which man makes with God are but branches of that as when we renew our obedience by serious repentance as the children of Israel and the children of Judah did vowing to keep Gods Commandments But I know not that God gave you any such command to vow against Episcopacy and I doubt you never asked his counsel when you entred into it what ever your heady zeal might suggest to you for it is not a good intention fi we may be so charitable as to think you intended no harm it that makes a good action but you must have sufficient warrant for it from Gods word shew but that and we have done It is false that the Covenant was imposed by Moses or that Moses was supream Governor for Moses was no more supream Governor or King than Samuel You love to move questions Samuel no doubt whilest he was the sole Judge over Israel was their supream Governour until Saul was anointed King But Samuel was never in Scripture called King as Moses was as King in Jesurun The like blustering he keeps who imposed the Covenant of the Law God or Moses Doubtless God principally but ministerially it was done by the hand of Moses this is to amuse his Covenanters and such as will be taken with shadows for what of all this here is great stir to little purpose unless you wil conclude aright as you should do the King in his kingdom is next under God as Moses amongst the Israelites and his subjects must be guided directed by him He blesseth God as one would bless an idol That Apostacy to strange gods was not the Church of Englands case that they should enter into a Covenant Tell me what meant the falling off of several Bishops to too much Popery in doctrine witness all their Arminian Tenents and also their general practice in Cathedrals and elsewhere seiting up Altars Tapers Candles c. devised by mans fancies which last is with many other things in the Queens Injunctions Injunct 3. affirmed to tend to idolatry and superstition c. the like may be said of Church Musick Anthems c. a thing which the judicious Hooker censured and condemned and the late Queen Elizabeth provided against Injunct 49. and if any Hymn were sung care must be taken that it be so done as to be understood and perceived and where this is not so done see the Censure of the Homily of the place and time of Prayer Part 2. To answer to every particular would require a large volumn but you have answered your self and justified the Doctor that Apostacy to strange gods was not the Church of Englands Case You quote judicious Hooker condemning something let him be the Umpire if you please between the Bishops and the Presbyters and you say Queen Elizabeths Injunctions have made provision against such things and the Books of Homilies condemns other things well what would you have then you see there is good provision made against all exorbitancies in Ceremonies and the Doctrine of the Church of England is comprehended in the 39 Articles if any man have transgressed and done more then he can answer he is lyable to be questioned for it and I think so may you for your contempt and covenanting contrary to all former Laws or Examples only what you have labored to procure since for your own security As for Popish families crept into England with swarms of Priests and Jesuites There have more crept in since these civil Wars began with your Covenant than ever were since the Reformation yet you would charge all upon the Bishops The Lawes made against Priests and Jesuits were they put in practice were good enough and had there been as good provision made against your Covenanting it had bin well for the Church of England You are very pettish because the Doctor speaks what others believe to be true that the Covenant was but the petty composition of a few politick men c. Lawyers or Ministers no great Clerks or Statesmen c. adding that their heads rather than their hearts and State-correspondencies more than their Consciences brought it forth we finde a great deal of pretended zeal in it but he that shall use St. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hold it against the Sun shall quickly perceive many flaws and foul spots that it hath and besides the rottenness of their hearts the idleness of their heads that made it by mustering up clean and unclean together making no difference betwixt things lawful and those that are forbidden by the Law of God The Doctor said There is no pattern for any such Covenant in the New Testament nor in all succeeding ages c. no Covenanting Christians until the holy League meaning say you that of the bloody Papists to destrey the Hugonots so they termed the Protestants in France that is but an ill president for you to follow except that of Baptism the new and Evangelical Covenant of all true Christians You answer If there were no Precept nor Pattern in the New Testament it is sufficient if there be any in the Old if not Levitical or meerly typical unless the Doctor be turned An inomian I wish you were as sound in both Testaments as the Doctor is The Evangelical Covenant of Baptism in the New Testament is vastly different indeed from your Scorch Covenant
Christians who understand themselves agree with him 1. He after his scurrilous manner falls upon a discreet Gentleman Sir L. B. as appears by that prudent saying of his to the Doctor That many sober and honest men are by their once taking the Covenant so scared from all complyings with any Church Government under any name of Bishops or notion of Episcopacy never so reformed and regulated that they fear by looking back to the primitive catholick and universal Government of this and all other ancient Churches to be turned into pillars of Apostacy as Lots wife was into a pillar of salt And can you deny this to be true Many honest men who had been sworn to the King could at first hardly be charmed by you to accept of your enchanted Covenant and they strained as much to swallow it down as I have seen some do at a Pill who never took any before Was it not so with many tender conscienc'd men you had much ado to bring them to it but you dealt with them as Farriers do with their horses to put it down their throats with a horn but when they had been caught by you as if they had sworn by the Stygian-lake or drank of the Lethean Cup they forgat all Allegiance to the King and fell down fast bound hand and foot with the fetters of your Covenant nay you still go on to perswade them as you seem to believe your self that it is Apostacy to depart from it and that there is no remission for those that shall break it but they must perish everlastingly yet there were multitudes that cast off the Covenant as a thing of no value after they had been accustomed by you to several Covenants New Engagements Negative Oathes and what not and could easily take as many of them as you will without any remorse of conscience at all 2. He enlargeth his second point against the Doctor who said that the admitting of some Church Government under the name of Bishops reformed and regulated according to the primitive Catholick and Apostolick Institution c. is not against but very consistent c. with the Solemn League and Covenant and the true intention of it c. allowable by God and all good men that rightly understand themselves who thus far concur with the Doctor To this he opposeth the second Article of the Covenant which he saith runs thus You shall sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God endeavor the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellers and Commissaries their Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and other depending on that Hierarchy superstition heresie schism profaneness and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine c. this expresly relates to the Prelacy or Episcopacy then in being or in use in England which was far from apostolick and primitive c. as the Dr. hath confessed c. if there be any other Episcopacy truly apostolick and primitive free from all these evils and agreeable to sound doctrine c. it is far from the sense of this Covenant to extirpate it that it plainly includes a binding of all Covenanters to promote it The Episcopacy you would promote is Presbytery is that truly Apostolick and free from all those evils may not a Presbyter lord it as much in his Parish as a Bishop in his Diocess may not as much pride be coucht under a Presbyterian Cloak as under a Bishops Rocket examine your selves The Doctor and all others that would bring these men to their right understanding do but labor in vain and may as well wash the Blackmoor white I alwayes thought they stood more in need of Hellebore to purge their brains than of reason to convince them Where the Bee gathers honey they Spider-like suck venome they are incorrigble and it is not convenient for sober honest-minded men to go about to convert them every man may do well to spare his pains to undertake to perswade them to come home to their due obedience Solomon said right Proverbs 27.22 Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a morter among wheat with a pestel yet will not his foolishness depart from him But as the Romans gave them over with a conclamatum est who did not revive in seven days we may rather despair of these mens return who have had almost thrice seven years to understand themselves better and yet continue their former obstinacy and become more obdurate and hardned in their opinions by any yieldings or concessions that are made to them by the Episcopal party Henry the Fourth of France whom most knew to be a Protestant in his heart and I wish the Presbyters were but so well opinionated of Episcopacy as he was of the Reformed Churches called an Assembly of Protestants and Papists to see if he could make some reconcilement between them He propounded a question to the Protestants whether a Papist might be saved They in their judgement of charity said that he might Then he demanded of the Papists whether a Protestant might be saved They in their rigid and uncharitable opinion replyed A Papist might but a Protestant might not His determination was Let me have no more Religions within my Dominions than that wherein all Christians may be saved The Popish Priests and Jesuits went away triumphing as if they had got the day and so do the Presbyters by reason of the Doctors sober sense of the Covenant as if they had wan the Goal whereas all discreet men must confess it is more his Christian charity than their desert He repeats what the Doctor said of Mr. Marshal and others who had a great hand in pennning and promoting the Covenant and they own'd it to some foreign Divines that the Covenant was levelled at the despoticum Tyranicum Regimen mis-government not the Government by Episcopacy I am of opinion that Mr. Marshal that penned and promoted the Covenant Badger-like kept one hole open for himself to pass forth at this exposition of it was but a reserve for him and its probable he would never have said so much against Bishops if he might have been one or rather the chief amongst them But how moderate and meek a Bishop he would have been and free from tyranny over his brethren let those that have seen his proceedings all these turbulent times judge In the next place he undertakes to disprove what Dr. Gauden saith in these words That it was the sense of those who with himself had as much right to sit among them that is in the Assembly I know not whether this gloss be true or not as any others but were not permitted either by popular Faction or cumults or by other shufflings and reasons of State who took care to exclude all the excellent Bishops of the Church and the most able Episcopal Divines c. He that can have a face of brass to deny this and to call it a very great slander which almost every man can justifie
commen sacion Who acted most in reintroducing the secluded Members in procuring a free Parliament ara in bringing home His present Majesty whom God bless and preserve and let all the people say Ameny but Covenanters But was this the fruit of your Covenane we know what effect it had upon his so mer Majesty Charles the I. can the same fountain bâ—ing forth bitter water and sweet We know God drawes light out of darkness and makes use or contrary means sometimes to bring about his purposes By accident the Covenant hath made many deluded men more sensible of their duty but I cannot finde that it wrought any thing directly to the Kings preservation and establishment more then the Jewes murthering our blessed Savior obliged all men to be thankful to them for mans Redemption where then is the Blasphemy to be abhorred of all sober Christians in saying the Covenant is contradictory to former oaths Touching the Oaths of Canonical Obedience to Bishops they took upon them to impose such a tyrannical yoke upon many of their brethren sed quo jure and how far were such Oathes obl gatory The Bishops took no more upon them in this than they had authority from the Kings and Parliaments whatsoever you say to the contrary and that is right enough it will be too long to fearch Antiquities for Oathes Canonical used in the primitive times and to compare them with this and therefore such Oathes are as obligatory as other Oathes are and had your Covenant been so established what would you have said for it then that say so much for it now that all other Oathes must give place to it The Oath of obedience to the Diocesan which many of you in Orders have taken is wilfully broken by you why do you not renounce your Orders to which you received from the Bishops and be ordained again after your new model You think to lick your selves clean with such pitiful shifts as these pretending your Covenant to be sacred and obligatory as if it were another Palladium the image that fell from Juniter your great Diana of the Ephesians that you like Demetrius plead so strongly for seeing your Craft is in danger to be set at nought and your Diana to be destroyed whose magnificence you would have to be worshipped by the Christian world Yet I know not why you should quarrel with the Bishops Oath which you grant requires obedience onely in licitis honestis you say is needless because the Laws tye men to things lawful and honest By this reason all Oaths are needless for no Oaths ought to be made but for to binde mens obedience in things lawful and honest Had your Covenant been onely so we would not have made a question about it You say the Doctor hath furnished you with an Argument strong enough to retort upon himself by which he argues the needlesness of the Covenant and so do you the unwarranted Oath of Canonical Obedience you band it upon him and it flies back in your own face If this Oath should be extended to obey such Bishops as Wren and Pieroe as you unreverently style them without their due honor you owe unto them and others in all they late enjoyned what have you to say against those reverend Prelates and others not one word as I finde here but a flourish of your own as if you had some greater matters against them and then inferre that because of them you have more cause your Covenant be extended to extirpation of all Episcopacy and so farewel such an Oath nay rather farewel such a Covenant that there is more reason for it to be abolished for ever Touching the Kings Oath there is nothing obliging him further than to preserve that Government so far as it is agreeable to and warranted by the holy Scripture and primitive Institution so far he condescended at the Isle of Wight and who requires more We say so too who requireth more so far do all the Episcopal party condescend with him and you are forced to yield to it wherefore let me tell you and I hope His Majesty that now is will not be offended if I speak my conscience in it that it is neither honourable safe nor lawful for Him to break this Oath of His Coronation nor indeed can it be disanulled but there must follow a wonderful and dangerous metamorphosis in the whole frame of the Government of England I shall give you my reasons for all this when you can pretend any thing that hath but the shew of Reason Law or Religion against it Though you say this also may be changed by His Royal Assent to the counsel and desire of the two Houses of Parliament as this Doctor doth more then tacitely admit How more then tacitely doth the Doctor admit it I believe it is no more but your own fancy But we hope the two Houses will never counsel nor desire any such thing and if they should you know that King Charles the First would never yield His Royal Assent and I know not why you should look for more from King Charles the II. who will doubtless make use of his pious Fathers Advice to Him in His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it were not Christian like for you to attempt to divert him from it But where hath His Majesty and His two Houses been these many years to do it the way you propound to change it was not to be had and I believe never should have been if you could have helpt it you had a shorter cut by your Covenant to effect it without the Royal Assent and Upper-House for you would have none and I cannot tell how you like it now Cannot the Legislative Power change Government by Bishops as well as abrogate other Laws This is to charge some with perjury whom he dares not name to fright others with men of clouts and to condemn all the Churches of Christ which have laid Episcopacy aside Hath the Legislative Power such Authoritie and yet may not abrogate your Covenant but it must be like the Laws of the Medes and Persians that alter not No Royal Assent nor two Houses must meddle with that but you scare all with bug-bears and men of clouts pretending that God will revenge the breach of that and yet you break the rest and fear no revenge as if your Covenant were another Pope that can absolve you from them all We know it is proper for Parliaments to abrogate and alter such Lawes as are not good and useful Who I pray doth this charge with per-jury that the Doctor should fear to name But Episcopacie is not to be numbred amongst things unlawful or useless that it should be abrogated to bring in your Presbytery in the place which is ten times worse The errors and evils Episcopacy lieth open to are not more not greater than Presbytery hath and the benefits of it are infinitely beyond yours Lot the Presbyters draw up a List of all they can object against Episcopal
Government and back what they say by Scripture good Authority by Reason and Examples and we shall draw the parallel against Presbytery and then let every man be judge which of the two hath most cause to be covenanted against and if they please to enumerate the Benefits of their Presbyterial Government we shall do the like for Bishops the work would be large and worth the while to be undertaken to reconcile the Differences in Church Discipline and to give better satisfaction to the Christian world I shall now to avoid prolixtry speak a word or two only of the benefits of Episcopacy for the faults it is obnoxious to are not essential to the Government but meerly accidental First then it is more orderly regular and uniform and by consequence more free from schisms sects heresies and whatsoever mischief may gather to a head for want of good order 2. It is more decent graceful and more consistent with Monarchy a poor creeping Clergy is not comely in Christian Princes Courts who will seem always to upbraid them to their faces as if they were not willing to be at any cost for the preaching of the Gospel whereas the best Kings and Emperors as Constantine Theodosius and others sought still how with rich endowments to beautifie and adorn them Moses and Aaron must be together the King and the Priest the Crown and the Miter the Princes Scepter and the Bishops Crosier or else the Scepter will be soon made to stoop to the Presbyterian Ferula 3. It is greater encouragement to Learning and Religion Take away the reward of Vertue and you do what you can to take away Goodness itself Pramia si tollas tollitur virtus but I must not let my pen run to a volumn 4. Consider that many Reformed Churches are in misery and ready to be swallowed up continually by Popish and cruel Adversaries what can the Presbyterian party do to afford them any help surely little or none whereas when our Church flourishen under the Bishops the Protestants abroad in all places lived in more repose and quiet and found continual assistance from them insomuch that their foes did hardly dare to make any head against them and I doubt not but they will conress how sensible they have been since these troubles of the great loss they have of Prelacy in England by whose wariness and continual care of them as well as of their charge at home they were always fostered and preserved since the Reformation What horrid persecutions have fallen upon them since the expelling of our Bishops here let the Waldenses and the Albigenses and the poor Protestants living about the Valleys of Piedmont whom the Duke of Savoy and others endeavored with all their might to take away from the earth speak The like cruelties were used lately upon the Reformed Cantons in Switzerland also in Poland and Germany and the French Protestants fearing daily to be rooted out and what remedy could they sinde with you I will not speak too bad of the great Collections made by you here for them and how they were employed for their relief Also of the monstrous blasphemies damned heresies shameful adulteries and many other villanies which have sprung up since Presbytery bore the sway the names whereof were scarcely known when Episcopacy ruled Let some more able pen proceed And however some Churches of Christ expelling Popery in heat of zeal have thereby laid lawful Episcopacy aside that is have not had since the opportunity to restore it to its primitive Institution yet many of them desire to conform to the plat-form of the Church of England which they suppose to come the nearest of any to the Apostolick form His next quarrel is If the Covenant abjure all Episcopacy it runs upon a rock of novelty and schism and dasheth us in opinion and practice against the judgement and custom of the Catholick Church in all Ages and places till of latter years from the Apostles days You call this a Magisterial and traditional way Surely such traditions as these are not to be under-valued the Histories and Monuments of the Church are a great light to us in many things especially such as are circumstancial and without them we should wander in the dark But once prove that your abol shed Episcopacy was of so ancient and universal observation Abolished we praise God you cannot say but that you did your best to abolish it the antiquity of it hath been often proved to your shame Whoever shall read the Judgement of Dr. John Reynolds concerning Episcopacy expressed in a Letter to Sir Francis Knolls and Dr. Ushers Reduction will finde this mans bold assertion c. I have not means nor opportunity to see that Letter nor any of his Quotations but I remember when I was a Scholar in Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford whereof some years before Doctor John Reynolds had been President I was told he was once much given to be a Roman Catholick and that his brother a Protestant converted him whom I knew in Glocester-Hall but he fell shortly after himself to the Church of Rome wherein he died now though Doctor Reynolds was a very learned and pious man who by a kinde of Antiperistasis because of his brothers fall might be more violent against the Discipline of our Church than perhaps otherwise he would have been yet he met with as pious and learned men as himself at the Conference at Hampton Court 2 King James that maintained it and carried it against him and all that were of his judgement The same cause that provoked Dr. Reynolds may be prevailed with an eminent person in this Land to favour your Covenanters so much at first because his brother was revolted to Popery But this was not the Bishops fault it had been more honorable for them both to have followed the example of their Reverend Uncle James Lord Bishop of Winchester Prelate of the Garter and my most honored Patron during my minority who knew better how to direct in Church affairs than they ever did but for want of his Compass they ran a great hazard to fall upon those two dangerous Rocks that lay on either hand of Popery and Presbytery As for Dr. Ushers Reduction if that be the meaning of it we grant it is not held fit that the Bishops should keep too great a distance and estrange themselves too much from their brethren it is acknowledged to have been a fault in some of them and it is proper it should be amended But pray give me leave to referre you to Dr. Downhams Defence of Episcopacy and when you can answer him I shall say that you have answered the Doctor Under colour of propounding the loy land religious sense of it he dasheth it with unlawfulness to be taken at all because not imposed by due Authority This hath been so often repeated that it is crambe saepius cocta and needs no answer Dr. The Jews sometimes solemnly renewed their Covenant with God c. which God
that hath made such a rent in the Church for the devil and all his works to enter by against which we covenanted in Baptism and being you can finde no shelter for it in the New Testament you have recourse to the Old and there you are in as bad a case for unless you will make use of Korah and his Conspiracy I know not what precept or pattern you finde for it for you produce none onely you make a question Is there no precept nor pattern for covenanting against our English Episcopacy and you make your own answer There is not any for it I say nor is it much material that he hath found none against it for we can finde no such Episcopacy in the New Testament nor warranted by it But we can finde patterns of Episcopacy both in the Old and New Testament that were not barely typical but an excellent form of Church-Government by High Priests Priests and Levites by the apostles extraordinary in whose room our ordinary Bishops succeeded under whom were the 70. the Presbyters in a large sense sometimes called Bishops also and under them the Deacons This is as clear from the New Testament as noon day in the Acts of the Apostles St. Paul to Titus and Timothy c. and he must wilfully shut his eyes that sees not the distinction of these Offices in the Church which continued from the primitive times until this late Covenanting way pat the Church of God into a confusion and sought to destroy all order and uniformity and I think they are no little proud of it that without either Precept or Pattern were the first inventers of it and would fain propagate it to future times but I hope they will be deceived for it hath cost men so dear already that it is probable they will take warning and learn to be wiser hereafter We have shewed you ground enough for establishing Episcopacy shew us as much if you can for your Piesb terial Government The Covenant is not onely against his adored Episcopacy but in the full latitude extended against Popery heresie schism c. how chance then you break it by being so schismatical profaneness and whatsoever is contrary to sound doctrine c. and for Preservation and Reformation of Religion c. It s well you put Preservation first and we wish you had done so for where you begin to resorm you destroy all witness your information of the Liturgy casting it quite out of doors You say it was not made onely against Episcopacy but it was principally as if that were worse then Popery for you must it seemes stretch it in its full latitude to take in Popery heresie or any thing else and had it not been that Episcopacy stood in your way which you knew not how to remove your Covenant had never been made against any of the rest or else surely you would as there was always cause enough have entred into it long before but Popery heresie schism and all that you were pleased to make to depend upon Episcopacy in the Covenant were onely added to perswade the people who understood no better that Episcopacy was the foundation of them all You have put in also many sweet ingredients to make it go down the better to maintain true Religion You have maintained it fairly Defence of His Majesties person And did you not well defend him Ad populum phaleras And why are you so offended with the Doctor to throw off and abominate the Covenant meerly for onely one single Clause for extirpating the late Hierarchy if so intended You did intend it sure enough and therefore is that single Clause sufficient were it not safer to throw the Covenant away than to take it when the poison lies close in it is discovered Speak I pray you or else let some men of more reason and religion answer for you For the Doctor to desor be particularly what Episcopacy he would have retroduced I think you understand his meaning or let me tell you such as it was before your Covenant drove it out onely with this limitation that particular mens errors should not be imputed to the Government which allows them not but declaims against them You say you might leave it to all sober Christians how little your Covenant differs from the Covenant of Baptism c. wherein every man stipulateth to deny all ungodliness and to live soberly c. If you will leave it so I am certain you will be condemned by them for it for they were no sober Christians that penned the Covenant but hot-spurs and fiery zealots who will force all men to be guided by what they please to set up as Nebuchadaezar did his golden image that every man must fall down and worship it do you say how little your Covenant differs from the sacred Covenant of Baptism You gave that Epithere Sacred to your Covenant before and do you thâ—nk they are so much of a kinde because of that they differ toto coelo they are no more like as the Proverb is than chalk and cheese and I believe I may safely call it blasphemy to compare the factious Contrivances of seditious men to Gods sacred Ordinances And what you insist upon concerning the Baptismal Covenant to strengthen yours is but vain babling for it signifies nothing to any understanding man Do true Christians truly entred in o the Baptismal Covenant break it by wilful and presumptuous sins Because the Doctor said we break our Covenant in Baptism by wilful and presumptuous sins did you never sin wilfully since you were baptized is all weaknesses with you who I might say have wilfully and maliciously contrary to Gods Law fallen away from your due obedience to your Governors and erected a Covenant a Calf in Horeb to make your selves famous amongst the congregation and to exalt your selves above your Superiors you take too much upon you ye sons of Levi. You say you have insisted upon this the longer because of the Doctors words That by repentance we renew our Covenant in Baptism surely say you no more then it renews the remission of our sins which no repentance but Christ in Baptism hath bestowed upon us once for all Thus you trifle away the time by sinister interpretations of what will admit a very safe and Orthodox construction for without Christs merits all Baptism and Repentance is of none effect yet you have a very acute nose that you can smell here a strong savour of Arminianism and Popery I shall make amends by brevity in the rest You need not have croubled us with so much idle discourse as you have done Whereas the Doctor saith That there is neither Law of God or man requiring or comprobating any such Covenant at the best it is but a matter of Will-worship of human private invention c. an Engine framed of purpose to batter down Episcopacy to seize their Estates and the Church-patrimony to the great enrichment of some sacrilegious Protestants to the great joy of
as you do onely mention it and no more but for any Covenants they entred into without their Princes consent if you knew of any you should have mentioned that or else hold your peace but it is clear you could finde none which is sufficient to shew your falshood and folly and blasphemy in the close who dare compare your Covenant with our sacred Covenant made with God in Baptism wherein we are sprinkled with the blood of Christ and spiritually washed from the guilt of original sin Give me leave to make a short digression if it be any to shew how hurtful it is to binde the King and his Subjects to stand to the Covenant We honor our Kings here as Christs Vice-gerents upon earth and although they are compassed with human infirmities and are restrained by good Laws from doing wrong because of the largeness of their power yet they ought not to be bound with Saint Peters bonds or hindred from doing any good they can You know that God hath given to the Kings of England a miraculous Gift of Healing most scroffulous Tumors called The Kings Evil for every good gift comes from God and that many hundreds have been healed by His Majesties touching of them since His happy Return who could finde no remedy before from Chyrurgions or Physicians and divers perished for want of help and if the Christian Kings of France can do the like it is but a farther Confirmation of the certainty and lawfulness of it now when they perform these Cures some worthy Bishop or Episcopal Divine waiteth on them repeating the Promise of our blessed Saviour to his Church over which the King is held by us to be Supream in his Dominions They shall lay their hand upon the sick and they shall recover Mark 16.18 If your Covenant will not allow this to be done by them but that poor people must perish for want of Cure when God hath so graciously provided it for them how do you think it possible the people will endure such a Covenant I have been told that some sons of Belial should speak evil of it who would speak no better of Saint Pauls Napkins or of the shadow of Saint Peter passing by I do not finde that this way of healing was practised here at least so frequently before Edward the Confessor's dayes who is well represented on the Royal Exchange under a double capacity of King and Priest with a Crown on his head and a Bible in his hand and from him it descended to his Successors yet if I forget not I have read something of King Lucius to this purpose who was the first Christian King here when Joseph of Arimathea lived in this Island But should any man ask a reason why the King doth not cure all Diseases as well as that or why it was not practised so often at least in former days it would be to tedious to discourse of Sympathies and Antipathies of Thora and Antithora or of such providential wayes wherewith our good God doth always supply mankinde with helps against all defects and inconveniences where we stand in need One may as well forbid the use of the Mariners Compass as if it were performed by sorcery or inchantments because we cannot give a certain reason why the Loadstone should attract iron as it doth or the Needle should point alwayes to the North. I shall onely assign two reasons of His Majesties curing the Evil. The first shall be that it is very probable that this Evil is more frequent and increaseth more now than it did of old by reason of change of Diet or from what cause soever it may proceed wherein we differ from the Ancients and therefore God hath furnisht us with this remedy against it And secondly Christianity waxing cold and men being more subjoct to rebel against the Supream Magistrate than of elder times for so Saint Paul writes to Timothy That in the last dayes perillous times should come that men should be Traytors heady high-minded c. 2 Tim. 3.4 And Saint Peter saith 2 Pet. 3 3. There shall come in the last dayes scoffers walking after the rown lusts such as despise Government chap. 2.8 presumptuous not being afraid to speak evil of Dignities and therefore 1 Pet chap. 2.13 he commands all Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man to the King as Supream and verse 17. Fear God honour the King Now that Subjects might live more peaceably in obedience to the King this may be none of the least occasions God having hereby discovered unto us that he hath bestowed upon the King this divine Vertue of Healing some of the most general and spreading Diseases amongst the people more than he hath given to any other men I would we knew the extent of your Covenant if we must obey it I do not see but most degrees of Honor the Nobles as well as of the Clergy must be levelled by it It may be the Order of the Garter will be allowed for no better than an old Popish Ceremony fit to be abolished if you may tanquam ex cathreda interpret the sense of your Covenant which you hold to be as infallible as Rome doth her Church all must believe it under pain of damnation call but your Covenanters the Church and I find no difference But to return to Episcopacy methinks it is high time Bishops should be restored with more power than formerly which will be but moderate Episcopacy in regard of the great increase of Schisms and Heresies and the dangerous times we are fallen into But whom do you call your dear Mother of the Church of England Pray what is she Here according to your scurrilous way of jeering you proceed to speak non-sense it seems you are but an ungracious disobedient son your Mother is grown poor by many of your plunderings and sequestrings and now you will not know her Doth not St. Paul call himself the Father of those Churches he had begotten in Christ and why then cannot the Church of England spiritually and metaphorically be called our Mother whose breasts we suck in the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist The Scripture saith That Kings shall be the Churches Nursing Fathers and Queens Nursing Mothers Are you such a Critick and understand not that or will you quarrel with the Scripture for it As for your Post-script of Doctor Vshers Model of Reformed Episcopacy the Learned Doctor Bernard being now living is able to give the best account of that but I hope I have given you a good account of all the rest POST-SCRIPT THe Reader may if he please for his own better satisfaction compare the Arguments of Anonymus with those of Mr. Zachary Crofton who is reported to be the Goliath of the Covenanters in London and he shall finde them to be birds of a feather having little more to say for themselves Qui utrumvis recte noverit ambos immo omnes noverit answer one and answer them all I would counsel them if they will take my advice to live peaceably and not to disturb the Church of God whereof they are members considering how dangerous Schisms are to let in Popery Judaism Turkism Paganism and all manner of impiety to the subversion if it were possible of the Christian Faith we are all as brethren travelling to the Heavenly Canaan Let us remember that Charge Joseph gave to his brethren going to their earthly Canaan See that you fall not out by the way God grant us all a right understanding in all things There are others since Zach Crofton that plead for a Reformation of our Church in Doctrine Worship and Discipline let them by strength of Argument prove the necessity the pretend and let us have the same liberty in an amiable way to defend it and I doubt not of a good issue always with this proviso That the Covenanters shall not when they are at a loss run back to shelter themselves under their Covenant as they use to do We know what Ajax said of Vlysses Et quaerre censciui Arma they need not blaze it about so much to perswade the people things are so extream bad in the Church of England their best way will be if they mean peaceably to make their Addresses to the reverend Bishops and by their advice if there be any thing that will not agree with these mens queezy stomachs something may be more fully explained to give them satisfaction which I believe for my part is impossible for any men to do they are so inconstant in their judgements and resolutions and that it would not please them long if they were suffered to make the Alteration themselves they will stand to nothing unless their Dalilah the Covenant may be allowed to be Supream Governor and that is the main reason of the great noise they make for want of Reformation which if there were such necessity for it as they would make the world believe there is nothing hinders more than their Solemn League and Covenant for to what end should the wisest men upon the earth alledge Scripture Councels Fathers to confirm any Truth if when all is done it will not square with their Lesbian Rule their leaden Covenant which will bend every way and which alone they will admit to be the measure of it it shall be held by them for no Reformation at all Wherefore all that are dis-satisfied with our Church in Doctrine or Discipline must renounce the Covenant if they expect any thing to be amended and which is the readiest way to set things to rights rest in the wise and pious determination of our Ancestors who setled Episcopal Government here the livelyest pattern this day in all the world whereby all erronious and heterodox Opinions may be kept down and Religion setled and continued according to the true Rule which is the word of God My Coronis shall be an Hexastick of Sir John Sucklings never to be forgotten IF I were of your Covenant Then you would call me John of Gant Or one of high renown But now I am John for the King You will call me a poor Suckling And so you 'l cry me down FINIS