King by it only pardoned the corporal Punishment but the Church had not nor ought not to forgive the Scandal till honourable amends were made her by Confession and Recantation Where by speaking of the Church as distinct from the State I mean in point of Coercive Jurisdiction the Bishop would make us believe that after His Majesty and the Parliament have forgiven men their Civil Crimes there is still another Power which he calls the Church unto which they are still accountable even so far as to make a Publick Recantation Here I wish the Bishop would have spoken out of the Clouds and plainly told us what he meant by the Church For iâ—â— it bâ—â— a Congregation of the Faithful met together for the Worship of God as tâ—â— Definâ—â—ion of Scripture and of the Church of England is in the 39. Artiâ—â—les this will not at all advantage him since such a Church hath no Coercive or Imposing Power But if he means the Hierarchy or Ecclesiastical State by Arch-Bishops Bishops c. There can be nothing more False or more dishonourable unto our Civil Government than to affirm that it lies in their power not only to Punish but likewise to exact a Recantation for those Faults which the King and Parliament have not only pardoned but under severe Penalties commanded should never more be remembred And therefore I doubt not but they will resent this Malicious and Ill-grounded Fancy And since the Bishop is so over-zealous for the very Letter of the Law when it imposes Ceremonies give me leave a little to wonder that one of his Profession and Place in the Church should so unchristianly go against it when it enjoyns Moderation and Forgiveness as to Civil Injuries Such as he who make the Law instead of being a Buckler to protect Converts a Sword only to cut off all such as were once Offenders labour what they can to make men Desperate and thereby render the Peace of the Nation and in that the prosperity and Welfare of His Majesty very Insecure and Hazardous For what can more enrage Men to take Wild and Forbidden Courses than to see even Preachers of the Gospel strive to widen their Wounds and contrary to their own former Professions to pull off that Plaister which the Wisdom of our State Physicians had provided to heal our Distempers Fifthly It is Bold and Impious I know not how to express it more mildly what he affirms that If to command an Act which by accident may prove an occasion of sin be sinful then God himself cannot command any thing For though as I said before I will by no means own that Assertion yet a thing which by accident may become sinful may be Unlawful in another to command for want of sufficient Authority whereas Gods Soveraign power doth without dispute or controversy make all his Commands to be just and therefore his Name ought not to be mentioned in our trivial disputes because every such vain Use of it is nothing but a diminution and lessening of his Greatness Sixthly That an Offence to which a disproportionable Penalty is annexed is not to be measured by the Quality of the Act considered in it self but by the mischievous consequences it may produce whâ—â—ther this ought to hold good in Civil Laws becomes neither the Bishop nor me to dispute but in Divinity nothing can be more False and Dangerous For to impose in the Worship of God as necessary circumstances of it things confessedly trivial and needless and upon the forbearance of them to debar any from the benefits first of Christian and then of Civil Communion is a thing which hath not the least pretence of Scripture or Primitive practice to justifie it For our Saviour tells us That whoever were not against him were for him and the Apostle bids us to receive our weak Brother and not to judge much less to burden his Conscience Unto which Sacred Canon nothing can be more directly contrary than what the Bishop most Incompassionately tells us That the Laws do well to punish even with non-admission to the Sacrament such as will not or perhaps dare not kneel And the Reason he gives is equally Apocrypha Because saith he it becomes not the Law-givers to endanger the Churches peace for their sake As if first It did not much more become all Law-givers in the things of God to observe the Law of Christ which is a Law of Love and Liberty Secondly As if the Churches peace would not be much more endangered by the pressing of things doubtful than by the forbearance of them For since by the enforcing of such things as God hath no where commanded our Christian liberty is entringed from hence it follows that if we ought not yet we lawfully may refuse to submit unto such Impositions as our Saviour did in not washing his hands before Meat and the Apostle Paul in the case of Circumcision Seventhly As for the chain of Consequences which the Bishop links and ties together As that from Diversity in external Rites ariseth Dislike from Dislike Enmity from Enmity Opposition thence Schism in the Church and Sedition in the State For proof of which he doth very virulently instance in our Unhappy times To prevent which he tells us That the State cannot be safe without the Church nor the Church without the Unity nor Unity without Uniformity nor Uniformity without a strict and rigorous Imposition To all this I answer that it is a meer Rope of Sand and the Parts of his Chain do as little harg together as Sampsons Foxes did before they were tied by the Tails which course the Bishop hath imitated not forgetting to put in even the Firebrand it self to make up the comparison For 1. Nothing is more clear than that there hath been nay ought to be Diversity in external Forms without any Dislike at all as to the Person of another For the Apostles that preached to the Circumcision gave the right hand of Fellowship unto the Apostles of the Gentiles although their Outward Rites in publick Worship were far more different than those which by any of the most distant perswasions are now practised in England 2. The State may be preserved without the least reference to the Church unless it turns Persecuter of it as is evident in those 300 years before Constantines time in which there was no Church at all legally countenanced and for some scores of years after both the Christians and Gentiles were equally advanced and favoured 3. Unity I mean such as Christ came to establish which is an Unity in heart and spirit doth not in the least depend upon Uniformity but upon Charity i. e. a Christian and a Candid forbearance of one another in things Circumstantial when we agree in the Essentials of Worship which is a thing that meer Civility would teach though Religion were silent in it And whereas the Bishop thinks he hath got some advantage by reviving the memory of our late Civil Wars which were he either
Christian or Man enough he would wish were eternally buried in silence I must to use his own Phrase tell him in his ear that our Wars did not arise from the separation of Conscientious Dissentors but from the violence and Fury of Unconscionable Imposers Who would not allow their Brethren who desired nothing more than to live peaceably by them that sober Liberty which the Law of God commanded and no Law of Man could justly deprive them of And whether the publick maintaining of the very same Positions and Practises may not in time beget the same Feuds and Animosities although this Bishop cares not yet I doubt not but His Majesty as he now doth so will alwayes graciously consider Eighthly Whether as to the matter of Fact the French Protestants do enjoyn standing at the Sacrament and the Dutch kneeling I will labour to inform my self of some more Unâ—â—yassed witness than this Bishop for in the Ecclesiastical Laws of those Churches which I have carefully perused I can find no such matter But if they did so this would not at all justifie the Imposition of Kneeling because 1. The Question is de Jure whether it be lawful to prescribe any one such certain Posture without submiting to which it shall not be lawful to admit any to the Sacrament and till the Affirmative of this be proved by Scriptures Examples and Instances from the Practice of men will not satisfie a doubting conscience 2. Neither of those fore-mentioned Postures are so much to exception as Kneeling because this last is manifestly more superstitious for 1. It varies most of any from the First Pattern 2. It hath been monstrously abused by the Papists to Idolatry which alone renders it most Unsafe to be practised most Unwarrantable to be imposed Especially till it be again explained as in the very first Liturgy of all it was which I particularly mention to shew how little our Reformation since Edw. 6th time hath been improved Lastly As it was Needlesly so was it likewise Uncharitably done to revile the whole Body of Presbyterians for the Faults of Mr. Baxter upon supposition that either he is a Presbyterian or so culpable as the Bishop would make him For since every man is to bear his own Burden what Bible did the Bishop find it in that he might without scruple asperse a whole order of Men for the pretended miscarrige of one who by the Bishop's own Confession was not of so Amicable and comâ—â—iâ—â—t a Temper as the rest And therefore certainly they ought not to be brought in as Parties iâ—â— that â—â—râ—â—e of Unpeaceableness from which the Bishop just before had absolved them but cholâ—â— spoils the Memory and sâ—â—e his Brethren the Bishops would not take it well of a Presbyterian should he cry out Crimine ab uno disce omnes See what manner of Spirit these Bishops are of and judge them all by the Bishop of Worcester ' s example Truly Sir I am a little angry when I confider how much this one mans Indiscretion hath exposed all of the same Order to Censure For were they all like him which I do not nor dare not think I should not scruple to pray heartily what the Bishop doth in scorn concerning the Preachers Lord deliver us from such Bishops And let all the People say Amen Thus Sir you see how willing I am to serve you in proposing my Exceptions the fuller prosecution of which I must leave to some other Pen more able both in Divinity and Policy who may convince both the Bishop and the World that it is not yet time to sow such Tares This Age is a little too knowing to be gull'd with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to take every thing for Oracle which a Bishops Passion dictates But before I ease you of your Trouble in reading this I will crave leave to give you a Taste of the Reverend Father's deep wisdom in two or three particulars 1. In that he declaims so fiercely as if he would crack his Girdle against all those who force all Communicants to come unto them and be particularly examined before they admit them to the Sacrament Indeed Sir this was an Imposition as no way Justifiable so for ought I can here no where practised The Custom being that men were only once for all examined at their first coming to the Sacrament which the Bishop himself allows under other Names of being Catechised and Instructed It was therefore wisely done of the Bishop this cold weather to set up a Man of straw and then get himself heat by threshing it 2. It is methinks very Politickly done to Exclaim against the poor Covenant and in great zeal to wish all the Books which defend it were burnt by the Authors to save the Hangman a labour For here let his Adversary do what he can the Bishop will be too hard for him For if he takes no notice of the Covenant the Bishop clearly gains the Cause if he ventures to assert it he shall presently be confuted with a Confiscation So that under the shelter of this Unanswerable Dilemma I leave him lest I should be gored with the Horns of it And this I speak Sir as one that though I never took but always opposed the Covenant yet I have a very good opinion of many that did and withal a great Tenderness for the lawful Part of an Oath after it is once solemnly taken I will only adde this That since that Oath hath been so generally taken even by those that were most Active in His Majesties Service and several times ventured their Lives to signalize their Loyalty I think the Ashes of it since it was burnt by Publick Authority had much better have been suffered to rest quietly than thus to be blown up and scattered abrbad by the Bishop's furious breath when no occasion was given him so much as to mention it Lastly I can never enough commend the Bishops wisdom in resolving so angrily never to write again for he is Old and hath Travelled far and knows that it is much easier to speak rash and unjustifiable things than to defend them And therefore he deals with those that he hath provoked as witty School-boyes do with their Companions first he hits them a box on the Ear and then very discreetly retreats and fairly runs away But if Goliah who took upon him to defie the Host of Israel should as soon as ever he had dope have sneaked out of the Field and thought he had done manfully enough in making a bold Challenge and in shewing his Teeth at them I believe the Philistines would hardly have thanked him for that Empty shew of Valour whereby he could not Conquer but only Enrage the Enemy And whether the Bishops will not have the same opinion of this over-forward and unwary Champion of theirs I hope Sir you will neither enquire your self nor desire that I should For I have already done enough to shew how much I am Jan 21. SIR Your most humble
doe it or command it Yea or not to hinder it in any such case when Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet Yea though going to Gods publike worship be of it self so far from being a sin as that it is a duty yet I think it is a sin to command it to all in time of a raging pestilence or when they should be defending the City against the assault of an enemy It may rather be then a duty to prohibite it I think Paul spake not any thing inconsistent with the Government of God or Man when he bid both the Rulers and people of the Church not to destroy him with their meat for whom Christ dyed and when he saith that he hath not his Power to destruction but to Edification Yea there are Evil Accidents of a thing not evil of it self that are caused by the Commander and it is my opinion that they may prove his command unlawful But what need I use any other Instances then that which was the matter of our dispute Suppose it never so lawful of it self to kneel in the Reception of the Sacrament if it be imposed by a penalty that is incomparably beyond the proportion of the offence that penalty is an Accident of the command and maketh it by accident sinful in the Commander If a Prince should have Subjects so weak as that all of them thought it a sin against the example of Christ and the Canons of the general Councils and many hundred years practice of the Church to kneel in the act of Receiving on the Lords day if he should make a Law that all should be put to death that would not kneel when he foreknew that their consciences would command them all or most of them to die rather than obey would any man deny this command to be unlawful by this accident Whether the penalty of ejecting Ministers that dare not put away all that kneel and of casting out all the people that scruple it from the Church be too great for such a circumstance and so in the rest and whether this with the lamentable state of many Congregations and the divisions that will follow being all foreseen do prove the Impositions unlawful which were then in question is a case that I had then a clearer call to speak to then I have now Only I may say that the ejection of the servants of Christ from the Communion of the Church and of his faithful Ministers from their sacred work when too many Congregations have none but insufficient or scandalous teachers or no preaching Ministers at all will appear a matter of very great moment in the day of our Accounts and such as should not be done upon any but a Necessary cause where the benefit is greater then this hurt and all the rest amounts to Having given you to whom I owe it this account of the cause for which I am forbidden the exercise of my Ministry in that Countrey I now direct these Sermons to your hands that seeing I cannot teach you as I would I may teach you as I can And if I much longer enjoy such liberty as this it will be much above my expectation My dearly beloved stand fast in the Lord And fear ye not the reproach of men neither be afraid of their revilings For the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wooll but the righteousnesse of the Lord shall be for ever and his salvation from generation to generation Isa. 51. 7 8. If I have taught you my doctrine of error or impiety of disobedience to your Governours in lawful things of schism or uncharit blenesse unlearn them all and renounce them with penitent detestation But if otherwise I beseech you mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them For they are such as serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 17. If any shall speak against Truth or Godlinesse remember what you have received and how little any adversary could say that ever made such assaults upon you and that it is easie for any man to talk confidently when no man must contradict him I denyed no man liberty upon equal terms to have said his worst against any doctrine that ever I taught you And how they succeeded I need not tell you your own stability tells the world As you have maintained true Catholicism and never followed any sect so I beseech you still maintain the ancient faith the Love of every member of Christ and common charity to all your Loyalty to your King your peace with all men And let none draw you from Catholick Unity to faction though the declaiming against Faction and Schism should be the device by which they would accomplish it And as the world is nothing and God is all to all that are sincere believers so let no worldly interest seem regardable to you when it stands in any opposition to Christ but account all loss and dung for him Phil. 3. 8. And if you shall hear that I yet suffer more then I have done let it not be your discouragement or grief For I doubt not but it will be my crown and joy I have found no small consolation that I have not suffered for sinfull or for small and indifferent things And if my pleading against the ejection of the Ministers of Christ and the excommunicating of his member for a ceremony and the divisions of his Church the destruction of Charity shall be the cause of my suffering be it never so great it shall as much rejoyce me to be a suffering witnesse for CHARITY and UNITY as if I were a Martyr for the Faith I participate with Paul in an expectation and hope that Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or death and as to live will be Christ so to die will be gain Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ that whether I ever see you more or be absent till the joyfull day I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel and in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God if to you it shall be given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake Phil. 1. 10 21 27 28 29. But let no injury from inferiors provoke you to dishonour the Governors that God himself hath set over you Be meek and patient the Lord is at hand Honour all men Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King For so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2. 15 17. It is soon enough for you and me to
be justified at the bar of Christ by himself that hath undertaken it against all the Calumnies of malicious men Till then let it seem no greater a matter then indeed it is to be slandered vilified or abused by the world Keep close to him that never faileth you and maintain your integrity that he may maintain the joys that none can take from you Farewell my dear brethren who are my glory and joy in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming 1 Thes. 1. 18 19. Your faithful though unworthy Pastor Rich. Baxter Nov. 11. 1661. The Bishop of Worcester's Letter to a Friend for Vindication of himself from Mr. Baxter's Calumny SIR I Have received that Letter of yours whereby you inform me that Mr. Bazter hath lately written and printed something with such a reflection upon me that I am obliged to take notice of it I thank you for your care of my Reputation which next to Conscience ought to be the dearest of all things to all men especially to men of my Profession and Order who the more they are vilified whether justly or unjustly the less good they will be able to doe especially amongst those that have industriously been prepossessed with prejudice either against their Persons or their Functions This was St. Pauls Case when there were some that did what they could to make the Corinthians to undervalue his person that thereby they might discredit his Doctrine and weaken his Authority whom therefore he thinks he may without breach of Charity call False Apostles and Deceitful Workers Nay this was our Saviours own Case who whilest he lived here upon the Earth was ever and anon traduced and slandred by the Scribes and Pharisees those proud Hypocrites who were the greatest Pretenders to holinesse and yet the greatest Seducers of the people and the grossest falsifyers of Gods Word that ever were in the world until these our times which have brought forth a generation of men St. John Baptist would have called them a Generation of Vipers who in the Art of holy jugling and malicious slandring have out done the Pharisees themselves and all that went before them witnesse their so often wresting and perverting the Scripture in their Sermons to stir up the people to Sedition and their as often Libelling the King in their Prayers in order to the making of his Subjects first to hate him then to fight against him and at last to take away his Crown and his Life from him And is it any wonder that those that are such Enemies to Kings should not be friends to Bishops or that one who hath done what he could to make the late King odious unto his people should do what he can likewise to make the Pastor odious unto his Flock to this Flock I say for it is the bishop of Worcester and not Mr. Baxter that is Pastor of Kidderminster as well as of all other Parochiall Churches in that Diocess neither did I or any other Bishop of Worcester ever commit the care of Souls in that or any other Parish of that Diocess to Mr. Baxter though by that Preface of his to those of Kidderminster he would make the world believe that they were his Flock and not mine and that therefore he hath the more reason to complain of my defamation of him as he calls it in that place and before that people whereas the truth is that Mr. Baxter was never either Parson Vicar or Curate there or any where else in my Diocess for he never came in by the Door that is by any legal right or lawful admission into that sheepfold but climbed up some other way namely by violence and intrusion and therefore by Christs own inference he was a Thief and a Robber and indeed he did Rob him that was then and is now again the lawful Vicar of that Church he Robbed him I say first of his Reputation amongst his Flock and then of his means and maintenance by taking away the Fleece as well as the Flock from him though as Mr. Baxter himself hath confessed to me He be a man of an unblameable life and conversation though not of such parts said Mr. Baxter as are fit to qualifie him for the Cure of so great a Congregation which whether it were so or no I am sure Mr. Baxter was not to be Judge but in that case the Bishop that was then living should and would have provided him a Coadjutor as I have done since and such an one as I hope will feed that flock with much more wholsome Doctrine then Mr. Baxter did when he sowed the seed of Schism and Sedition and blew the Trumpet of Rebellion amongst them For which cause I thought it my Duty as being the Pastor in Chief not only to forbid Mr. Baxter to Preach there any more which by the way he had done without any License but likewise to Preach there my self and to do what I could to undeceive that poor seduced and miserably deluded people which was not to be done as long as they had the person of their Seducer in so great admiration and therefore by the example of St. Paul who in order to the same end did take the same course with Alexander the Copper-smith with Demas Philetus and Hymenous as likewise by the example of Christ himself who in order to the same end did take the same course with the Scribes and Pharisees I thought it necessary to let them know that one that was of great authority amongst them meaning indeed though not naming Mr. Baxter was not the man they took him for that he had not dealt faithfully with them nor preached the Word of God sincerely to them when he made them believe it was lawfull for them to take up Arms against the King nor in suffering if not making them to scruple at these things as unlawfull which he he himself confesses to be lawfull and afterwards making use of those scruples of theirs which he himself had infused into them or not endeavoured to take from them as the only argument why those things they did so scruple at should not be enjoyn'd by lawful Authority though lawful in themselves because forsooth the enjoyning of things lawful by lawful Authority if they may by accident be the occasion of sin is sinful which assertion of his as then I said and must still maintain is destructive of humane society in taking away the Authority of commanding and the obligation of obeying together with the whole Legislative power Civil as well as Ecclesiastical and Divine as well as Humane And thus much as Mr. Baxter himself saith I told him before in mine own house neither did he then deny the assertion or endeavour to disprove what I inferr'd from it by any of those distinctions or instances he now useth And that this is true the Reverend Dr. Warmstry now Dean of Worcester will witness for me whom I desired to be by whilest I conferr'd with Mr. Baxter foreseeing what mis-report a
of the Lord or as if the Church must needs sink and perish if it wanted such Pillars as they are to uphold it But thanks be to GOD for it the CHURCH of England is not yet notwithstamding all their endeavours to that purpose reduced to so very ill a condition that she cannot subsist without them as long as they can continue to be what they have been the sowers and fomenters of Schism in the Church and sedition in the State and as long as they continue to do as they have done in humouring and hardning and confirming the people in their obstinate standing out against the lawful commands of their Superiours which they would never have done at all if these men had not at first infused into them these scruples And therefore as God asked Adam and Eve How came you to know that you are naked so if I should ask those poor souls whom those sly and subtle Serpents have beguiled and seduced How came you to know that you shall sin against God if you obey the Orders of the Church in Generall or particularly how came you to know That it is against the Canons of the Generall Councels and many hundred years practise of the Church to Kneel in the Act of receiving Did you or can you your selves read those General Councels Did you or can you examine so many hundred years practise of the Church as Mr. Baxter speaks of What answer can they make to these demands but that which Eve made unto God The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat Mr. Baxter or some such Godly and Learned men as Mr. Baxter is did tell us so and we believed them But what if Mr. Baxter do not believe that himself which he would have you believe For first he would have you believe that there is great reverence and respect to be given as indeed there is to the Canons of Generall Gouncels and to the Catholick practise of the Primitive Church but doth he himself believe this if he do why did he so furiously oppose that which all General Councels approve of and confirm I mean the Government of the Church by Bishops in the sense wherein it is asserted and practised in one Church Or why did he perswade Subjects to take up Arms against their Soveraign which he knows to be contrary to the Doctrine and practise of the Primitive Christians for many hundred years more then he speaks of Secondly Mr. Baxter would have you believe that Kneeling at the receiving of the Sacrament is forbidden by Generall Councels and contrary to the custome and practise of the Antient Church which I am afraid he doth not belive himself I am sure there is no convincing reason to make him believe it for it is not the Ancient Churches injunction to stand when they prayed betwixt Easter and Whitsontide that will prove they were forbidden to Kneel when they received especially if the Presbyterian opinion be true that we are not to be in the Act of praying when we are in the Act of receiving but if we may pray as no doubt we may and ought to pray in the Act of Receiving then supposing the Ancient Injunction of the Church to stand at Prayer upon Sundaies betwixt Easter and Whitsontide to be still in force yet all the rest of the year we are to kneel when we Pray and consequently when we Receive though there were no particular command of our own Church for it Besides Mr. Baxter knows not the aforesaid Injunction of the Church was but Temporary till the people were sufficiently confirmed in the Doctrine and Belief of the Resurrection for if it had been of perpetual obligation and were still in force Mr. Baxter must needs condemn the whole present Church of God for kneeling when they pray betwixt Easter and Whitsontide and particularly he must most of all condemn himself and the Presbyterians of England for not standing when they receive if at least that Injunction be to be understood of Receiving as well as Praying which if it be not then it is urged by Mr. Baxter against us to no purpose as indeed it is And therefore no doubt Mr. Baxter doth not believe himselfe what he would have others believe when he presseth that occasional temporary injunction of the Church for standing against kneeling which if it be of force must needs condemn his own practice of sitting as well as ours of kneeling The like may be said of Christs example alledged by him also for would he or would he not have his Disciples believe that they are obliged to doe as Christ did if he would not have them believe so why doth he presse them with Christs example if he would have them believe so I demand again whether he doth believe it himself or no if he do not it is plain he is a seducer of the peeple but if he do believe it he must needs condemn the French Presbyterians for standing as well as the English Protestants for kneeling nay he must needs condemn himself and all other Christians in the world for not doing as Christ did in point of time I mean for not giving and receiving the Sacrament in the Evening as Christ did as well as he condemns us for not doing as Christ did in point of gesture unless he can prove which I think he cannot that we are of necessity to follow Christs example in one circumstance of the same action and not in another and in that circumstance which is lesse but not in that which is more material for certainly that circumstance which denominates the action as the circumstance of time doth the Lords supper is most material and yet that circumstance by the consent of all Christendome is altered from the Evening to the Morning and so was the gesture or posture of receiving also and that upon most just and weighty reasons till those that delight in change would needs have it otherwise and that perhaps for no other reason but because they found it setled in the Church This is not to follow Christs example who in things indifferent in their own nature conform'd his practise to that of the Church in which he lived though varying in some circumstances from the Primitive Institution and particularly in this very action from which they press us with Christs example For it is certain that Christ and his Disciples sate at the Passeover though it be uncertain whether he or they sate at the giving and receiving the Sacrament or no for it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after he had supped saith the Text Luke 22. 20. Howsoever it is certain I say that Christ and his Disciples sate when they eat the Passeover and this no doubt was according to the custome of the Jewish Church at that time but it is as certain that this was not the manner according to the first institution of it which was to eat it standing as you may read Exod. 12. 11. So that to urge Christs example against us is
averre that He could not otherwise uphold and maintain it than by preserving the Undue and as some think Antichristian Dignity and Prelation of His inferiour Officers 3. Bishops are so little useful to support the Regal Dignity which is founded upon a distinct Basis of its own that upon enquiry it will be found how none have been greater Enemies to the True and Undoubted Soveraignty of Princes than some Bishops themselves For by their Officious and scarce warrantable intermedling in Civil Affairs by their Absurd and Insignificant distinguishing between Civil and Ecclesiastical Causes of which last they have alwayes made themselves sole Judges they mangle the Kings Authority and as to Church-matters which may be extended as far as they please they leave the King nothing of Supremacy but the Name The Pope of Rome therefore who is the great Father of all such Bishops hath improved this Notion and Distinction so far that in ordine ad spiritualia he hath laboured to subject all Civil Empires unto his sole Jurisdiction So that if the Bishop of Worcester's Rule hold good of Crimine ab uno Disce omnes i. e. That all men who are of a Party may be judged of by the miscarriages of one then I must leave it to You to judge what all those Bishops that are of the Bishop of Worcester's complexion do really drive at by the fatal example of that one Bishops Usurpation For Secondly That Assertion That the Bishop of Worcester and consequently every other Bishop is the sole Pastor of all the Congregations in his Diocesse if it be at all defensible I am sure can be defended only by those Arguments which are commonly alledged to maintain the Popes Supremacy over all Churches whatever For since a Bishop can no otherwise discharge his duty herein than by providing Substitutes what hinders but the Bishop of Rome may as well oversee a million of Churches as the Bishop of Worcester five hundred Since if Deputation be lawful more or less compass and circuit of ground doth not at all alter the case I forbear to urge how contrary this Practise is to the Doctrine of the Apostles both Paul and Peter I hope the Bishop will not take it ill that I do not call them Saints for these Holy men do not need any stile of Honour out of the Popes Kalender When Paul had sent for the Elders of the Church at Ephesus he bids them to feed the Church of God over which not he himself by his sole Authority as Bishop of the Diocesse but the Spirit of God had made them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Overseers or to use the proper stile Bishops And Peter commands his Fellow-Elders for so doth that Apostle condescend to call himself to feed the Flock which was among them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Overseeing or Acting the Bishops not like the Bishop of Worcester as Lording it over Gods Heritage but as Patterns of the Flock From which places we learn not only that those two so much controverted Names of Bishop and Presbyter are without distinction ascribed to the same Persons but likewise that whoever feed the Flock are under Christ whom the Apostle there stiles the Chief-Shepherd the next and immediate Pastors of the Flock And to extend the Pastoral Power beyond the actual care of Feeding is a Notion altogether unscriptural and likewise leaves us no bounds where to fix till we come to center upon some one Universal Pastor who may claim this Power over the whole World by the same parity of reason that a Bishop doth over one Diocesse Thirdly It seems to be a Light and to say no more unseemly trifling with sacred Scripture to affirm that those words of our Saviour concerning such as come not in by the Door and therefore are Thieves and Robbers ought to be understood of such Ministers as preach to Congregations without the Bishops License Which thing the Bishop in great Heat and Earnestnesse as if he had done very well in it tells us more than once that it was the Principal reason why he silenced Mr. Baxter Truly if this practise be justifiable and those who design themselves to preach the Gospel must besides their Ordination procure a License from a Bishop to do that which a Woe is denounced against if they offer to omit Then 1. I see not what Ordination signifies since the Power that then is given no Authority from Man can take away any more than dissolve the Contract of a Marriage much less impeach and hinder the free use of it except for Moral and notoriously vicious Misdemeanours 2. For one Minister of the Gospel for certainly a Bishop is no more to Silence another and that for no better Reason than because his Fellow-Minister is desirous to preach the Gospel without a new License this is an abuse of Dominion which as our Saviour doth no where countenance so the first Ages of the Church were altogether unacquainted with For the Bishops instance of our Saviours putting to silence the Scribes and Pharisees is both Impertinent and False because our Saviour did only silence them by Argument which the Bishop may do when ever he is able but what is that to an Authoritative and Imperious commanding men to be Silent Besides even then when our Saviour was most strict in pronouncing Woes against the Pharisees in that very Chapter he is so far from forbidding the Pharisees to preach that he commands his Disciples both to Hear and to Obey their Doctrine So that since the Bishop will needs have the Presbyterians to be Pharisees let him but allow them the same Liberty of Teaching the People as our Saviour did the other and I believe they will not at least were I a Presbyterian I should not envy his Lordship either his Title or Maintenance how undue and unmeriâ—â—ed soever they â—â—oth be And though the Bishop is pleased to say that the Presbyterians preach nothing but Sedition and Treason which is most false as being directly contrary to their declared Principles yet the Pharisees taught something worse and that was Blasphemy Yet our Saviour who sure had more power and withall more care of his Church than the Bishop of Worcester did not go about by Force to prohibit them I wish therefore thâ—â— this bishop and the rest of his Brethren if any are Cholerick and Testy enough to be of his mind would consider that as by silencing their Fellow-Ministers for such frivolous and slight pretences they usurp a Power which Christ never gave so at the last day he will not thank them for the Exercise of it Fourthly How consistent with the Civil Peace for as to Christian Charity the whole thing is but a Letter of defiance against it the Bishops Distinction is about the Act of Indempnity and the so much forgotten Act of Oblivion I hope His Majesty and the Parliament will in due time consider For he is so hardy as to tell us That the