and Confusion in both That the Grindallizers and Half-Conformists threaten little less to the danger and dishonour of the Church than the open and profest Non-conformists that their great familiarity and intimacy with their complying and conniving at and instead of zealous prudent opposition their halting and sneaking to them is that which cannot but work in People a love and liking to their persons and their ways and so by their treachery within the Pale like Moles undermine the Foundation when the other like Wolves and Foxes can but howl and foam without the Mound and Fence of the Church being strong enough against them And that therefore the Eye of Government had need be watchful over these Half-Conformists as well as over the professed Non-conformists That notwithstanding Non-conformists noise about Popery they are far more conformable to Papists than the Conformists are in principle and practice both that in things relating to Monarchy they are meerly be-jesuited and Popishly agent in weakening the Cause and Interest of Protestantism several ways as hath been shewn and that by their extravagant zeal their irregular disloyal and irreligious pretences against Popery they design something more since common History makes evident that Presbytery was never promoted any where but under pretence of pulling down Popery 'T is obvious from the afore-mentioned Instances of their former Reformation how dangerous is all superperfluous Innovations unnecessary alterations and but pretended Reformation in matters of Church and State That so far as the Laws permit they are still hunting upon the same File treading in the same steps as those in Forty one since the pretences and practices of both are so very self-agreeable and since the best of History assures us that Discontent and Ambition Faction and Sedition Libelling and Tumultuating have been the ordinary promoting causes of their Interest and Cause That the Non-conformists will never make good appeals to Scripture their claim and pretensions to Sanctity above others till putting away the Diabolism of their false accusations and slanderings their spiritual pride and malice they become more humble and charitable in their judgments more meek and loyal in their behaviour and discourses submitting themselves to those that have the rule over them bewailing before God and publishing to the World their Repentance for what they have contributed to the present sad Separation as that which hinders the success of a learned orthodox and able Ministry encourages the Papists and multiplies other Sects scandalizes the Weak hardens the Infidel and wicked into a scorn and contempt of Religion it self exasperates Rulers tends to Sedition and Faction weakens the Church and the Kingdom causes such envy and wrath hatred and contentions as the Apostle speaks such biting and devouring one another as is like enough to end in being consumed one of another Since the present state of things is such that either these things must be put upon the score of Religion or that the Non-conformists must take the shame thereof unto themselves and vindicate the honour of Religion by a full and free acknowledgment to the World of their pernicious errours in the present Separation What men fearing God would dare to justifie a Separation which hath so deplorable and dismal tendencies as afore-mentioned Their laying the Separation at our doors and charging it upon the King and ParlJam nt in causing such impositions as they cannot in conscience submit to hath been sufficiently proved to be delusory impudent and false by the testimony of the Reformed Churches beyond Seas as well as by our English Divines as may be seen in the French History of Presbytery in the Letters appendiced to Dr. Stillingfleets Separation c. And if they have any mind to lay down their Schismatical doings to leave the Conventicle and to come into the Pale of the Church bringing their Flocks with them and there behave themselves as the Disciples of Christ and Sons of the Church sound and sincere in their Conformity peaceable and loyal in their behaviour if so behold the sweet severity and prudent goodness of our Rulers to them in chusing this very crisis of time to execute the Laws against them when that which they call the great Mountain in their way is removed viz. the obligation to renounce the Solemn League and Covenant ceases which they cannot but look on as their Rulers gentle driving through that gap which this 28. of March opens to them But if this severity of Rulers will not drive them let the examples of their Predecessors the learnedst of them lead them Beza himself when Archbishop Whitgift in a long and learned Letter laid before him the deplorable rupture which not without his concurrence had been made in the Church of England he justified the Church in her whole proceedings so clearly that Beza confest himself conquered and thence-forward never breathed any thing but Peace to the Church and respect to that Reverend Prelate Cartwright after all his clamours and tumultuous proceedings against Conformity when he saw to what sad ends he brought some of his Followers Barrow Penry c. and with what horrible confusions he had disturbed the Church he was at last content to conform he confessed that there was more Discipline in the Church of England than in any of those Churches beyond the Seas therefore more than in Geneva and other transmarine parts in which he lived where Presbytery was After some time of imprisonment the Archbishop procured his enlargement which he accepted promising never to write preach or act in any thing to the disturbance of the Church either in reference to its Government or Forms of Worship Henderson that greatest Champion for Presbytery in his time was so confuted by King Charles I. in a dispute about Church-Government and so confounded with shame and grief at the Kings Answers to his Cavils that he fell into a desperate melancholy and sickness which soon brought him to his Grave professing says that learned Historian that he died a Convert frequently extolling those great abilities which he declared to be in his Majesty And t'other day Lewis Du-Moulin after he had written his Several advances of the Church of England towards the Church of Rome and done all he could against Conformity at last repents and recants acknowledging his errours And now Mr. Baxter's turn is next if it please God to hear and answer that good Prayer of his for himself in his Cure of Church-division Lord hide not from me my miscarriages and suffer me not to take any sin that I have committed to be my innocency or duty lest I should dare to father sin on God and lest I should live and die without repentance and lest I should be one that continueth judgments and dangers to the Land Amen FINIS Val. Max. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How Presbytery first got footing in England Cambdens Eliz. Aer Red. l. 11. n. 1. Conf. at Hampton-Court p. 85. * August Vincentio Ep. 48. Bonifacio Ep. 68. Ceciliano Ep. 166. Ep. ad Dona. ⸫ Ep. 48. l. 5. August Ep. 166. L. G. Mr. Baxter Crescit indulgens sibi diruâ— hydrops Hor. Plea for Peace Preface * The King forbids none preaching only regulates preaching ⸫ Jam. 1. 8. Jam. 4. 8. Camd. Eliz. Aâ—r. Red. H. Common-wealth Pref. Bellarm de Pontif. l. 3. c. 7. Call before the ParlJam Dec. 25 1644. Pol. Apho. Thes. 358. with 368. Buchan de jure Reg. p. 70. Zion's Plea Serm. at Uxbridge Treaty French Hist. of Presbyt p 88. French Hist. of Presbyt p. 88 89. Mach. Rediv. p. 71. Col. 2. 5. Gal. 5. 12. Pref. to his Serm. §. 17. Pref. to his Serm. §. 18. Pol. Aph. Fuller Seasonable Address to the Parl. p. 8. Cambd. Eliz. Lib. 3. cap. 16. Eph. 4. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 2. Dr. Hammond observes that that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the first Non-conformists the Gnosticks had their names signifies such a knowledge as was the interpreting the mysteries of the Scripture after their own fansie erroneously Annot. on the N. Test. Postscript concerning New-light p. 12. lin 6. preliminary to Matthew * This Translation was made about the time that Cartwright who had a hand in it was denied his Doctors Degree and driven out of Cambridge by Doctor Whitgift then Vicechancellor * Last Chap. Ver. 18. †2 Tim. 3. 16. 1 Chron. 23. 5 6. 2 Chron. 30. 5. V. 17. Sir Richard Baker Chron. p. 359. Instit. l. 4. cap. 10. §. 30. Barkley's Paraenesis ad Scotos l. 1. c. ult Reasons of the Christian Religion Jude 8. 9 11 This description the Apostle gives of the Gnosticks to prove them Seducers Catho Theol. Pref. Ep. 48. Ep. 166. 17◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 27. Calamy Serm. to the House of Lords Marshall * Cartwright the great opposer of Kneeling at the Sacrament died of a Disease that for a considerable time before his death yielded him no rest or ease in any other gesture but upon his Knees who had so bitterly inveighed against those who in that reverend and religious posture received the Sacrament Aer Red. Aër Red. l. 13. * Not that eminently loyal Sandys of Worcestershire but he that within three Weeks after was killed at Worcester fight in Pewick Field The very Heathens made it Treason not onely to assassinate but to offer to punish their Prince but in Effigie Salust Bell. Jugurth What is it then for Christians to God their Saviour in Effigie Serm. before the Parl. 1644. First Plea for Peace * Set forth by Mr. Rob. Ram Minister Cap. 20. First Plea for Peace * Dr. Hammond Annot. on the N. T. pag. preliminary to the Romans Disobedience to an inferiour Authority among the Jews was to be punished with death Deut. 〈◊〉 Obj. Obj. Dr. Hammond's Annot. on 1 Tim. 6. 3. 1 Pet. 2. 26. Gal. 5. 5. Obj. Cath. Theol. Praef. According to their Sol. Leag and Covenant Job 34. 18. I King 21. 10. Deut 17. 12. Aë Red. Alt. Damas. Pref. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5. 15. * March 28. 1682. the renouncing of the Covenant is not injoined See the Act of Uniformity History of Presbytery l. 9. n. 34. History of Presbytery l. 9. n. 30. 33. 35. Hist. of Presbytery p. 77. Dr. Stillingfleet Pres. to the Unreasonableness of Separation P. 251.
considering these two things I. That their correspondency of Principles and Practices with the Church of Rome so far as they are erroneous and dangerous is so very apparent to any that understand Popery Ex. gr 1. Both equally deny the King's Supremacy The Papist saith not the King but the Pope is Supream the Presbyter saith not the King but the ParlJam nt Prove saith Mr. Baxter that the King is the higher Power and I 'le offer my head to Justice as a Rebel And Calvin in his Comment upon Amos cap. 7. v. 13. calls them inconsiderate men that had conferred the Supremacy on King Henry VIII 2. The Pope saith an Heretical i. e. a Protestant King is to be deposed The Presbyterian says 't is lawful and commendable to fight against the King for Religion to depose him says Baxter And Martin Mar-Prelate in his second Book advises the ParlJam nt to put down the Bishops whether the Queen would or no. 3. Papists say Heretical i. e. Protestant Kings may be not onely deposed but killed by their Subjects Presbyterians say the same Ministers may excommunicate Princes and after a King is by Excommunication cast into Hell he is unworthy to live upon Earth says Buchanan Guignard the Jesuit hath it France is sick and they must cut the basilick vein to heal her The Presbyter hath the same words concerning King Charles the First Wound that Hazael under the fifth rib you must strike the basilick vein none but it can heal the Plurisie of State And Mr. Love O that our State Physicians would imitate God in cutting off from the Land those that have distempered it meaning the King as his next words shew praestat unus pereat quam unitas And accordingly they have practised as will be shewn in its proper place 4. They both proceed in the same method The Pope first Excommunicates then Deposes then Murders The Presbyter first Deposes the King then Murders Charles Stuart 5. They agree in so much as time The Jesuit i. e. the bloudy Papist and the Presbyter are both of an age the year 1535. is remarkable for the Geneva Discipline and the spawning of the Jesuits Order 6. Papists teach That Truce is not to be kept with Hereticks i. e. Protestants Presbyterians teach That Promise is not to be kept when the preaching of the truth i. e. Presbytery is hindered See their Marg. Not. on Matth. 2. 12. 7. Both will reproach and slander plunder and sequester kill and slay for the Churches good though the Apostle says We must not do evil that good may come thereby 8. Both agree in that Principle that Dominion is founded in Grace 9. 'T is the business of them both in Protestant Kingdoms by ill interpreting their Princes actions by slandering libelling and the like means to draw Subjects from their Allegiance 10. The Jesuits call themselves the Saintly Brotherhood the Church of Rome the onely true Church and all Hereticks beside themselves The Presbyterians call'd themselves formerly the Godly Party and all others Malignants Now the People of God the Zealous Protestants and all others Carnal Superstitious Formalists Popishly affected c. 11. The Papists formerly Plot Rebell and Massacre by entering into a Covenant called the Holy League as in the Massacre at Paris and Rebellion against King Henry the Third The Presbyterian did the same by entering into a Covenant called the Solemn League as in England and Scotland against King Charles the First 12. Papists warring against King Henry the Third of France in performance of their Holy League have frequent Fastings doubled devotions to persuade weak Consciences that they aimed at nothing but the setting up of Christ's Kingdom and to instruct them to cut their Kings throat as for the love of God and the gaining of Paradise Presbyters in warring against King Charles in performance of their Solemn League had frequent days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving for success in fighting against the King The Papists Holy League and the Presbyters Solemn League were both entered upon a groundless jealousie of the King's Religion In both there is a League with Strangers and Armies raised in the Kingdom against their natural Sovereign who gave them no occasion of the War but the too much gentleness and condescensions of them both In both the Fire of Civil War was blown about by seditious Preachers 13. Papists and Presbyterians both in their distinct Parties do still combine against the Government 14. Both for many years have been the great disturbers of the Peace of all Christendom Tell me says a late Gentile Writer of any Massacre or bloudy Wars or Stratagems against the Magistrate of any Treason or Rebellion whatever within the memory of man but what was carried on by one of these two Parties Papists or Presbyterians and I 'le be content to undergo the bloudy Inquisition of the one and the fate of the two Archbishops Canterbury and St. Andrews murdered by the other Now if they will go no further from the Church of Rome than she hath gone from the Truth let them shew if they can half so many parallels between the Church of England and of Rome 'T is true indeed the Churches of England retain some things that are in use in the Church of Rome but must we disbelieve and difuse every thing as Popish that the Papists believe and use then must we not believe that Christ is the Messias then must we renounce the Word Sacraments and Prayer because the Papists believe and use them But if we will depart no further from the Church in Reformation than she departs from the Truth in Corruption let the Non-conformists shew if they can wherein the Church of England agrees with that of Rome in half so many erroneous Principles and dangerous Practices as the Non-conformist doth What reason then have they so to curse a Church which the Lord hath blessed Her Sisters the Reformed Churches all calling her blessed and joying to behold her order and stedfastness in Christ so to stigmatize with the brand of Popish all that are not peevish and turbulent like themselves II. What Reason have they for it considering what great things the Episcopal Divines have done and suffered above them all along from the beginning of the Reformation to this day in detestation of Popery and attestation of the Reformed Religion as now professed in the Church of England some laying down their lives to testifie against Popery as Cranmer Ridley Latimer c. others standing in the Gap upon all occasions to oppose the return of it with most eminent abilities and greatest zeal above what Non-conformists can pretend to In the beginning of the Reformation when Calvin sent to Cranmer and after that to the Protector Seymour to offer his assistance they rejected him utterly so that neither he nor any of the Consistorian Principle had any hand in the first Reformation in England or have any of them ever since done any
Love Popery will grow says he out of our divisions thousands have been drawn to and confirmed in it by this means I am persuaded says he that all the arguments in Bellarmine and other Books have not done so much to make Papists in England as our Divisions and multiplied Sects And afterward who sees not how fair a game the Papists have to play by our divisions Archbishop Whitgist in his Letter to the Lord Treasurer and Dr. Oats in his Narrative and others speak it as upon their own personal knowledge that the Dissenters have been animated to Non-conformity by the Jesuits It hath been lately made out by a Peer of this Realm that their making a Court-party and a Country-party and fomenting fears and jealousies between both was an expedient agreed upon in France and sent over into England for the promoting of Popish Interests And in Queen Elizabeths time as soon as ever the Puritan had made the Schism over came Sanders and Harding into England and practised in that sort as proselyted many to the Church of Rome 4. They promote Popery by vilifying the Church and Church-men of England when in Queen Elizabeths time they traduced Archbishop Whitgift that great and pious Prelate calling him Beelzebub of Canterbury Pope of Lambeth bloudy opposer of Gods Saints Esau Antichristian Beast c. and the rest of the Bishops as Petty-Popes the Ordinance of the Devil paultry Prelates pestilent Usurpers in the Convocation they called them Clergy-masters of the Confocation-house Monsters of the Conspiration-house the Convocation house of Devils and Beelzebub of Canterbury the chief and when they called the inferiour Clergy Dolts and Drunkards Hogs and Dogs Wolves and Foxes Simoniacks and Usurpers c. See what advantage the Papists made of this Parsons in his Book of Three Conversions reports these Slanders and Calumnies for undoubted Truths Martin Mar-Prelate is said by Sir Edwin Sandys to pass in those days for unquestioned Credit in the Court of Rome and his authority much insisted on to disgrace the Protestant Religion Kellison a later one doth build as much on the credit of these Libellers to defame the Reformed Religion as if they had been inspired by some infallible Spirit And Mason tells it as a serious thing Appellant Episcopum Cantuariensem Pseudo-episcopum Principem Daemoniorum Caiapham Esaum Monstrosum c. Alios autem Episcopos Angliae degeneres perniciosos Usurpatores Lupos Episcopos Diaboli c. Now upon these considerations judge who will what reason these men have to charge the Church or Church-men of England as fautoring of Popery to amuse the People with fears and jealousies concerning it and to arrogate to themselves the reputation of the most zealous opposers of it and yet by exerting their zeal these three ways they have strengthened their Faction and promoted their interest in Church and State 4. Their Veneration to the Scriptures pretended above others Another way by which they increase their Party and Interest is the great veneration which they above others pretend to have for the Holy Scriptures their confident appeals to Scripture as Judge of their Controversie and constant retreat to it for defence of their Cause teaching their Followers even in matters of indifferency which the Scriptures are silent in and leave to humane prudence to swagger with the demand Where do you find in Scripture such precept or example And this to the more unwary and less knowing Professors is one thousand Arguments and as apt to take with them as any thing Now there are three things among others which do much liable this pretence to hypocrisie and delusion 1. Their gross perverting and misinterpreting of Scripture beyond what the Papists themselves do 2. The impracticableness and errour of demanding a Scripture-Text for the very externals of Gods worship 3. Their disregard and slâ—ght of those Scriptures though speaking never so plainly which contradict their errours and practices 1. Their perverting and misinterpreting of Scripture when Fathers and Councils Reason Antiquity and Scripture fail them then a good Gloss must serve for a Text vexing and urging the Holy Writ which the Apostle calls emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. cogging the Die to make it speak what they list and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. crafty deceitful applying and expounding it Thus by Babylon they understand Episcopacy by beggarly Elements they mean Church-Ceremonies they justifie their out-rages against the late King and Nobility with a Bind your Kings with chains and your Nobles with fetters of iron they have commented Rebellion out of the very thirteenth of the Romans which enjoins Subjection and Loyalty upon pain of damnation and have fetcht Presbytery out of the first of Titus ver 5. which plainly exhibits the very essentials of Episcopacy The Murder of the late King they have out of Daniel's Dream and from the Beast and the little Horn in the Revelations and because the Apostle says Moses was faithful in all the house of God therefore there must be nothing in the externals of God's Worship but what you have a Text for for the like reason that that ignorant Popish Priest urged out of the Psalms Paveant illi non paveam ego to prove his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Look in the Geneva Bibles their Note on Rev. 9. 3. you will find that by the Locusts which came out of the Smoak they say is meant false Teachers worldly subtle Prelates Monks Friers Cardinals Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops Doctors Batchelors Masters to which is subjoined which forsake Christ to maintain false Doctrine where they bring all Archbishops Bishops and all that take University Degrees under the name of Locusts and rank them with Monks and Friars whom they beheld as no other than the limbs of Antichrist One would think that that Curse at the end of the Revelations should make them afraid so to wrack Scripture-Texts those God-breathed Oracles to make them obstetricate to their Impieties and confess such abominable falsities But thus it was ab origine The Donatists justified their separation with that 1 Cant. 7. Tell us where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at Noon Meridiem versus the French Translation is towards the South therefore they being Southern confine the Church of God to themselves and separate from the Orthodox Christian Churches And we know who it was that first practised this Art by the manner of his urging our Saviour with a Scriptum est in all his temptations Matth. 4. 2. A second thing that liables their pretended veneration for the Scriptures above other men to the suspicion of seducing is their frequent use of demanding Scripture-Texts for every thing in the Discipline and Orders of the Church denying Church-rulers the power of appointing Ceremonies Before I come to speak of the delusion of this pretence I would premise something concerning its errour which did not the constant practice of the Seduced require it were a shame
the pretence of standing for the Subjects Property the preservation of the true Religion against Popery c. they grew strong in ParlJam nts weakened the Prerogative Royal aspersed with the name of Papists all Anti-Presbyterians and by this means grew so strong in both Kingdoms that they wanted now nothing but occasion to break out into open War Now their last advance to all this beginning at the discovery of the Gun-powder Treason the Faction having that opportunity for their revival 't is hard to say whether did most promote their designs their taking this opportunity to arrogate to themselves the reputation of the greatest Anti-Papists or the King 's loosing the Reins and letting them grow headstrong by imploying all his care in the discovery of the hellish Popish Plot and punishment of the Plotters but certain it is that upon the Kings remitting his former severities and increasing their Liberty they soon grew headstrong beyond the power of his Son King Charles the First ever to suppress And 't is known beyond the reach of scruple that that martyred King did meerly comply himself into nothing by his Tolerations and Indulgences towards that Party and delivered him himself into their bloody hands by his meer condescension and compliances with them and that as he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 5. it was his suffering them to get to the Pinacle of the Temple that so tempted them to cast him down headlong And 't was undoubtedly the sound and smart experience of the evil of Toleration that made the wisest of our Ancestors so decry it St. Augustine wrote several whole Epistles of the evil of tolerating Dissenters In his Epistle to Vincentius he expresseth at large his great joy de correctione Donatistarum for the punishing or suppressing of the Non-Conformists of his time adding in the same Epistle that he was once for Toleration but that that opinion of his was overcome non contradicentium verbis sed demonstrantium exemplis And he tells us in his Epistle to Donatus Ep. 166. that after Constantine had made strict Laws against the Donatists i. e. the then Nonconformists Julian the Apostate one of his successors gave toleration to the Donatists for their Schismatical Meetings suffered their sacrilegious dissensions as he calls them as the expedient whereby he thought the Christian Religion most likely to perish out of the World in these words Julianus Christi desertor inimicus libertatem parti Donati permisit eo modo putans Christianum nomen posse perire de terris si sacrilegas dissensiones liberas esse permitteret And accordingly Constantine the first Christian Emperour dealt with the Non-conformists of his time saying Pestium illarum audacia mea executione coercebitur And Archb. Whitgift declared it impossible to defend the Religion and Rites of the Church of England to appease the Schisms and Sects therein to reduce the Ministers thereof to Uniformity and due obedience if after a long risk of Liberty Dissenters had any countenance shewed them adding That if way were given to their clamours and surmises it would cause that confusion which hereafter the State would be sorry for But hark what the grand Church-Barreter himself saith in his Treatise of Self-denial Ep. Ded. to the then honourable Colonel James Berry one of the Council of State now reduced to Beggary In his Epistle to this great Belizarius he calls Toleration Englands misery a liberty for drawing men to Hell a wicked damning liberty a strengthening the Party tolerated a making way for their Power a giving away our own Power a preparing Faggots for our own Martyrdom he speaks of the Magistrates tolerating as of a sort of men that rule as though they were uncertain whether there were a Heaven or Hell c. Such a sin was Toleration in the times of Usurpation and after this manner did he call for fire down from Heaven to consume all that gave any toleration to the Episcopal Loyalists that now upon the least touch of restraining Non-conformists cries out of Gaols Starvings Ruine bloudy Persecution c. 'T is true indeed in some of the fore-cited places 't is against tolerating of Popery he speaks but what 's that 'T is well known that Pope ry and Episcopacy were then made termini convertibiles and that the English Hierarchy was the Popery then opposed as uncapable of the least degree of Toleration 'T is a good observation of Mr. Baxter in his Examination of Mr. Tombs ' s Praecursor Sect. 13. p. 390. being an Appendix to his Infant-Church-membership That 't is from Separation that so many in so many parts of the Land have turned Ranters Blasphemers and commonly unclean that seemed religious yea some down-right Infidels so that not onely the Racovian Catechism but the most hellish Books that ever was written called the Three Grand Impostors labouring to prove Christ a Deceiver was Printed in London Such Enthusiasm there was that Women ran naked into the Assemblies and men went about the Streets saying they were Christ that this their wickedness spread far and near I cannot hear says Mr. Baxter of one among a multitude that comes to this fearful pass by any other way than first turning to Anabaptistry and Separation and then to vilifie the Ministry and then who knows whither Thus Mr. Baxter On the like consideration it was undoubtedly that St. Augustine taught That there was scarce any thing so bad as Schism Ep. contra Parm. not Idolatry says Dionys. ap Eus. l. 6. not Sacriledge says Optatus l. 1. 't is the Original of Evils says Ignat. Ep. ad Smyrn a heap of Evils says Mr. Baxter of Church-divisions Cure Pref. And in consideration of all this what State-Physician but will judge the coërcive means as salutary to the Body Politick in case of such State-Convulsions as the present Separation causeth as dismembring is to the Body Natural in cases of Gangrenes And 't is observed that of late years while the Oxford Act and other poenal Laws were put in execution 't is notoriously known how quiet they were 'T is true they would please themselves with their Gloriola's concerning Persecution as they called their just punishment would congratulate to one another their sufferings as for Christs sake though it were for disobedience to Christ's Precept and Example as well pleased with that love and pity which the noise of Persecution gains to their persons and persuasions but all this while they were quiet desiring nothing but the exercise and liberty of the Conventicle And no sooner had they gain'd this point but by degrees as their liberty increased their number increased and their interest increased and their insolence increased which hath now at last improved its self into such libellings and licentious discoursings as can be interpreted little less than praeludes of Rebellion So that what Bishop Jewell said of Cartwright the Father of the Non-conformists may fitly be said of these his childish Followers Folly is bound up in
their froward hearts and 't is the Rod of Correction must fetch it out The Non-conformity-Faction being always observed to have this Hydropical humour of increasing by being indulg'd which makes them just as fit to be indulg'd as a desperate Dropsie which is exasperated by mitigations But the unreasonableness of Non-conformists Plea for Toleration and complaints of Sufferings in being restrained will sufficiently appear by considering distinctly the Persons suffering and the Things suffered The Persons suffering are 1. Such who at the same time revile the Government reproach and expose their Governours managing their pretence of Conscience in such an invective way as makes their complaints and clamours more like matter of superiority than of scruple 2. They are such as have kept days of Prayer and Thanksgiving for Victories over the King have preached the People into Rebellion against him have preached from him his Arms and Money Laws and Credit Liberty and Life and in the most solemn manner have Justified all when they have done and after this endeavoured all they could to keep this present King out of his Throne That Mr. Baxter's Holy Commonwealth was wrote to that very end and purpose will appear to any that compares the time of his publishing it which his Book was wrote as he says 〈◊〉 to satisfie the demands and doubts of which was the Year 1659. when the grand point in doubt was whether the King should be restored or no. He that compares this with those three Theseses 145 146 147. where he hints that the King was justly dispossessed as by a lawful War that being conquered by the People they were not obliged to restore him nay though he had been dispossessed unjustly yet it was not the duty of Subjects to seek his restitution I say these things compared with that vital circumstance viz. the time of writing it make it evident that the design of it was only this to keep out the King But 2. The Unreasonableness of Non-conformists Plea for Toleration and complaint of Sufferings will further appear by considering the things suffered Consider it in the Comparison and in it self 1. In comparison of what the Conforming Clergy suffered under them Their sufferings in the Usurpation times will appear to be little less than those of the Spanish Inquisition or the Marian Persecution to any that reads but 1. the Bill of Mortality of the Clergy of London wherein we have account of 115 turned out of their Livings Plundered of their Goods their Wives and Children sent a begging whereof above 40 were Doctors in Divinity 20 imprisoned in London and the Ships 25 fled to escape imprisonment 22 died with grief in Prisons and remote places The Protestants Remonstrance recounts many more alike sufferers in the Country both which together shew that there were more suffered by Ejecting Sequestring and barbarous plundering by the Presbyterians in three Years time then did by the Papists in all Queen Maries Reign But 2. Consider what their suffering is in it self and it will appear to be little else but a self-silencing meerly because they cannot get priviledge above the peaceable and loyal Sons of the Church I call it a self-silencing because all that the Law doth is to hold forth one common rule indifferently to all every man hath the conditions of his Freedom tendered him which are such as themselves have for the most part acquitted from all intrinsick turpitude or sin and he that will not comply with these conditions siilences himself beside 't is not the Man that is silenced neither but onely this or that irregular Practice or Opinion which the Magistrate seeing insuperable necessity for hath authority from God to regulate and restrain Moreover their Plea in this matter is no more than what Dissenters of all sorts may use so that if Rulers may be judge they are to be suppressed if the People must be judge then Papists Quakers c. must be tolerated also And such Liberty saith Mr. Baxter in matters of Worship and Faith is the way to set up Popery in the Land But let Non-Conformists Scruples be what they will if it seem good to our Rulers to put the restraint upon them I humbly recommend to them that good advice of Mr. Baxter See to this my Brethren saith he that none of you suffer as an evil-doer or as a busie-body in other mens matters as a resister of the commands of lawful Authority as ungrateful to those that have been instruments of our good as evil speakers against dignities as opposers of the discipline and ordinances of Christ as scornful revilers of your Christian Brethren as reproachers of a laborious and judicious Ministry Saints Rest. p. 131. examining well whether the grounds and reasons of their sufferings be not the same as that of Popish Priests and Jesuites viz. not their religious Principle but their seditious Practice encouraging People to tumultuate and rebel by rendering the Government and Governours odious by teaching as Mr. Baxter doth in his Plea for Peace that 't is not in the power of Princes to forbid Ministers preaching as much as to say 't is lawful to resist the King's Authority in defence of the Conventicle 2. Grindallizing A second thing that promotes the interest and increase of Separation is Grindallizing By Grindallizers I mean the Conforming Non-conformists or rather such as are Conformists in their Profession Half-Conformists in their practice Non-conformists in their judgment like the old Gnostick-Separatists which the Apostle calls double minded men or like the Sinner in Eccl. 2. 13. that looks two manner of ways or like the Haven in Creet Acts 27. 12. that bows and bends to the South and to the North to the Church of England and to the Kirk of Scotland as interest and opportunity shall incline These are they which down with all Oaths and Subscriptions required though what they swallow whole in their Subscriptions they mince and mangle in their practice they conform to all seemingly but hypocritically mangle the Common-Prayer handle the Surplice gently plow socunningly with their Ox and Ass together carry it so cunningly that they can scarce be known but per modum opinionis by their open compliances with the Enemies of the Church by their Gallionism in defending the Orders and Ceremonies of the Church and other matters of Conformity which require their proportion of Zeal and Resolution by their hearing with patience and unconcernedness the interest honour and peace of the Church run down by swaggering Sectaries by their talking Conformity and Nonconformity with such compassionate and serious innuendo's as may sufficiently signifie their favourable opinion of if not good will to their Cause by their defending the popular Election of Bishops by ambiguously representing the separation as if it were no Schism by their writing fraudulent Pleas for the Non-conformists by endeavouring to acquit the Presbyterians and Independents of the King's Murder and in statu quo by their Votes in chusing ParlJam nts
and Convocations by their being à secretis with profest Non-conformists by their Self-designing compliances with them under pretence of Moderation similibus whereby they contribute as much to the encouragement of Dissenters as the professed Encouragers themselves like King Charles's Presbyterian Murderers who had the Villany to manage the contrivance but the Cunning to disappear in the Execution These Half-Conformists are the veriest Church-Moles that by their blind Principles and undermining Practices contribute little less to the increase and interest of Non-conformity to the danger and dishonour of the Church than the open Enemy whether Popish or Peevish And of this we have frequent instances particularly in Archbishop Grindal whose indulgence to that Party gave them the first revival in England by his conniving at the Half-Conformists of Yorkshire by his complying first with Beza in procuring a French Church setled in London on the Geneva Principle And afterwards with those who upon their return from Geneva Franckford and other places where they lived during the Marian Persecution were preferred in the Church where they lived for some time Half-Conformists as Cartwright Minister in Warwick Whittingham Dean of Durham Sampson Dean of Christ Church afterwards turned out for Non-conformity with great numbers preferred to Cures in City and Country where they were not wanting to prepare the People for such Innovations as were in after-time to be brought into the Church and by the profest Non-conformists As soon as safety and impunity permitted they broke out into open Schism and still when the Laws just severity frighted them they crept within the Pale of the Church seeming to conform that they might have the Laws protection to shelter their contempt of Authority and under the wing of Episcopacy to breed up their Presbytery When Archbishop Whitgift's zeal and industry had reduced them to that that in all probability their ruptures were crumbling to nothing their then refuge was as Beza advised in his Letter to Cartwright to unite themselves again to the main body of the Church there to be nurtured into contempt of the Churches Government under the indulgence of its Governours And of this kind of Half-Conformists are those who at this very day by outward Conformity have opportunity and by masked Non-conformity want not will through sneaking compliance to betray the Church into her Enemies hands and themselves though they know it not into the veriest contempt and slavery so that in this contemplation we might as the Church of old did by the Waters of Babylon sit down and weep when we remember Zion Zion saith the Prophet tearing her self with her own hands Or as the Tree in the Apologue that was rent and splint and torn asunder by Wedges that came out of its own sides Therefore as we would not hypocritize and dissemble with God and Man as we would not be found Church-Traytors that have espoused a Cause which we are afraid to defend and ashamed to own as we would not be found in conspiracy against our selves and in breach of those solemn Oaths took at our entrance into the Ministry by a dastardly compliance with our own and the Churches Enemies Let us every man to his Tents O Israel with resolution and courage in gain-saying Seducers in daring to look Faction in the Face and opposing it though never so insolent and domineering according to the advice of Mr. Calvin to Bucer that he should take care to avoid moderate counsels in matters of Religion intimating the intense zeal that is required in Ministers in order to the interest and honour of the Church remembring that of the Wise man Eccl. 2. 13. Wo unto them that have a fearful heart and to the faint hands and to the sinner that goeth two manner of ways 3. Their Zeal against Popery a third Expedient So odious is Popery now in England blessed be God for it that even Children will spit at the very naming of it so that a better pretence could never be for the setting up of Presbytery than a shew of the greatest Zeal against Popery and therefore hath it been always accounted the most necessary Tool in the framing of Innovations When the Earl of Bothwel having a mind to the Crown of Scotland could not bring to pass the murder of the King by his dealing with the Witch of Keith nor by his assaulting him first at Haly-rood and afterward at Falkland his last expedient was to join himself with the Presbyterians and act hand in hand with them zealously against Popery and under that holy guise attempted openly to assassinate the King 'T is well known how the very force of this Word Popishly affected blew up three Kingdoms but t'other day hurrying People from the fear of Popery to the prostitution of Christianity it self when to palliate their hellish out-rages against the King they feared not to tax even him of Popery who had said and done as much to satisfie the World of his detestation of Popery and true zeal for the Reformed Religion as the wit of man could devise or the malice of man demand as doth abundantly appear by his Royal Declaration or Manifesto sent from Oxford in 1644. And at this day a fiery zeal against Popery is the best expedient they have 't is that single pretext that supports their Cause to accuse Governours or Government of Popery is an expedient that in England never yet failed to render them odious to the multitude Now that the design of these groundless out-cries against Popery is not so much to keep down Popery as to promote Presbytery will appear very probable to any that shall but examine the way and manner of their exercising this Zeal which is threefold 1. Branding with the Name of Papist or Popishly affected every one that is not of or at least that sets himself against their Principle and Practice Archbishop Whitgift a Prelate of the greatest Piety and Learning eminent for his zeal against Popery yet because against Presbytery also they stiled him Beelzebub of Canterbury Pope of Lambeth a monstruous Antichristianism Pope c. and but the other day in Smith's Protestant Intelligence the King's Council is called Popish of the 26 Bishops four are called Protestant and all the rest Popish To that pass are things now brought that whoever will not side vote and petition as they would have them whoever speaks reverently of the Orthodox Clergy of the Order and Discipline of the Churches of England in vindication of loyal Episcopacy against a confused and factious Presbytery is presently a Tory and Popishly affected and why all this but for a Blind or Stratagem to blend and confound Popery and Prelacy that People may not distinguish but destroy one under the name and pretence of the other I shall not insist upon the Malice and Diabolism of these slanderous imputations it will somewhat discover their design if we do but take notice what little reason they have thus to traduce our Church and Church Rulers
thing comparable to what the Episcopal Divines have against Popery 'T is true Mr. Baxter Pool and two or three more of them have done their parts but what to those many of the Church of England Usher Hall Morton Reignolds Chillingworth Laud Abbot Jewel Bramhall Barlow all Bishops beside Hammond White Buckeridge Sutcliff Stillingfleet Tillotson and many others of our Churches education of as great Learning and Judgment in Religion as holy Lives and as comfortable Consciences as any the World affords which one would think enough to make Malice it self ashamed to charge the Church or Church-men of England with any thing like Popery or Popishly affected Add to this III. If the Church or Church-men be any thing Popishly affected how comes it to pass that the twisted strength and subtlety of Papists with all their hellish malice is engaged chiefly against them as their mortal enemies as though nothing stood in their way but the Church of England that hath the countenance of Laws and Reason Antiquity and Decency to support it never regarding Quakers or Non-conformists as though it were below the wit of a Jesuit to encounter a Non-conformist as one that 's doing the Popes business yet will not be made believe it Now these three things considered judge who will what reason dissenting Protestants have to brand with the name of Popish or Popishly affected the Church or Church-men of England And if so whether it be not probable that by their factious and extravagant zeal against Popery they design not onely the overthrow of Popery but the increase of their Party and the promotion of their Interest also But once more IV. If there be any Church of England men Popishly affected I heartily wish in the Apostles words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were utterly cut off from among us and here will every true Church of England man say heartily Amen A Second way that they have of exerting their zeal against Popery whereby they increase their Party and promote their Interest is to amuse the People with the Fears and Jealousies of a Popish Revolution I confess this being purely politicae considerationis is beyond my Province but with humble deference to Superiours suppose we the worst even that of a Popish Successor yet have we many good allays to the extravagance of that Jealousie viz. all Offices and Power being in the hands of Anti-Papists there being so many strict Laws in force against Popery and the King's offer and readiness to concur in making more or any other thing that is lawful just and honest to secure us against it To instance in the revolution of Queen Maries reign is vain for there being now in the two Kingdoms so universal a detestation and loathing of Popery which was not then what Prince in the World would offer to set up that Religion so much against his own interest so utter inconsistent with his quiet and safety and which will so certainly involve him into continual fears and troubles most desperate dangers and inconveniences as that which next to Hell is most formidable and abominable to almost all his Subjects and that which they will scarce ever be brought to submit to Upon these and many the like considerations wise men think it not adviseable to forward a Popish revolution by exasperating the Heir to the Crown with the factious and unnecessary fears of a Popish succession and to abandon our quiet and security for meer future possibilities to make our selves certainly miserable before-hand for fear of being miserable hereafter Like Gundamore the Spanish Ambassadour who procured a valiant English Knight to be put to death as he said not for any hurt he had done but for fear of doing hurt 3. A third way they have of exerting their zeal against Popery whereby they increase their Interest and Party is by appropriating to themselves the reputation of the zealous Protestants and greatest opposers of Popery which will appear as impudent a cheat as it is a falshood if by zeal and opposing we mean not factious but onely such as is of regular and religious tendency to the overthrow of it when 't is considered 1. How abundantly the Episcopal Divines have out-done them in opposing and keeping out Popery as hath been noted before to which I add that of Dr. Saunderson That all along frâ—m the beginning of the Reformation our Biâ—â—ops with others of the Prelatick Party were the Principal if not the only Champions to maintain the cause of Religion against Popery and in these latter times none have slept in the Gap more readily nor championed the cause of Religion agaâ—nst Popery with more dexterity zeal and gallantry than the Episcopal Divines by whose endeavours some that have been bred Papists have been gained to our Church others that began to waver were confirmed and setled in the Protestant Religion but I profess says he as in the presence of Almighty God and before the World that I have not known or at least caâ—not call to remembrance so much as one single example of any of this done by any of our Anti-ceremonian Brethren whether Presbyterian or Independent But 2. These Non-conformists are so far from being the truly zealous opposers of Popery that as the same Dr. Saunderson observes they are really and eventually though not intentionally the great Promoters of the Roman Interest among us and that several ways 1. By putting to their helping hand to the pulling down of Episcopacy the main Bulwark against Popery as having the support of Laws Reason Scripture and Antiquity against it 'T is well known says he what rejoicing that Vote against Episcopacy brought to the Romish Party how in Rome they sang their Io Paeans upon the tidings thereof saying triumphantly now the day is ours now the fatal blow is given to the protestant Religion in England they could not but foresee that if the old Government of England a main pillar in the Building were once dissolved the whole Fabrick would be sore shaken if not presently shattered and ruined that things would presently run into confusion distractions and divisions as the event soon shewed 2. They promote the Interest of Rome says that learned Author by opposing it with more violence than reason in opposing Popery he observes the Episcopal Divines have done it by dint of Argument the Non-conformists by opprobrious clamours revilings c. so that it hath been obsâ—rved says he that in Lancashire and other places where there are most and most rigid Presbyterians there are the most and most zealous Papists Thus that judicious and learned Prelate 3. Non-conformists promote Popery by causing those divisions in the Church which Jesuits have endeavoured among us as more conducible to Popery than all their strength of Argument as is said to be determined at Rome in their concilium de propaganda fide And as Mr. Baxter observes in his Collections out of Contzen the Jesuite and in his Defence of the Principles of
is one of their wiles whereby to seduce the People and increase their Party 5. Their pretence to Reformation Purity of Religion Tenderness of Conscience c. Mr. Baxter hath well observed that the appearance of more spirituality and strictness was that which drew Tertullian to the Montanists and which promoted a great part of the Heresies which have torn the Churches of Christ. This kept up the Donatists whom St. Austin calls Impios fastidiosos pertinaces superbos separatores and their Separation he calls Sacrilegious Heretical and Seditious yet these kept up their reputation and separation from the Orthodox Christians Assemblies by this very means the pretence and shew of greater purity and sanctity than others This kept up the cause of the Priscilianists and Manichees this kept up the Novatians long in great reputation this was the strength of the Anabaptists in Germany and the Low-Countries this is the strength of the Quakers and he might have added of the Non-conformists and their Party at this very day And the truth is Piety and Holiness command such an universal love and veneration that the very shew and counterfeit of it hath deluded thousands into erroneous ways and hath ever been accounted the most usefull Tool in the framing of seditious and schismatical Innovations Lycurgus could never have ingratiated his Laws so effectually had he not pretended conference with his goddess Nor could the Factious of our late Times have carried on their designs have gained to themselves such strength of number and height of reputation but by the specious disguise of a pretended Reformation and shew of Sanctity above others Those late Usurpers never wanted a religious pretext for their most hellish undertakings As King James told his Son King Charles that under the pretence of Religion he should find from that sort of People as he soon did the most barbarous and bloudy Villanies in the World And King Charles the First to his Son King Charles the Second I have observed says he that the Devil of Rebellion doth commonly transform himself into an Angel of Reformation and when mens consciences accuse them of Sedition or Faction they stop its mouth with the name and noise of Religion and Zeal And accordingly the Non-conformity-men of his time in their Sermons before the ParlJam nt 1643. taught That 't was commendable to fight against the King for Peace and Reformation that the War was God's Cause and it should at last prevail they called fighting for the ParlJam nt a following the Lamb and a fighting for the Lamb against the Beast c. And at this very day when Uniformity in God's Worship is called Superstition Decency called Idolatry and Loyalty Popery Grindallizing compliances with the Enemies of the Church perjurious omissions in Church-ministration is called Moderation Discretion Prudence c. Sitting at the Sacrament a Custom brought first into England by John Alasco from among the Arrians of Poland who used it in denial of Christ's Divinity This sitting at the Sacrament and many the like peevish contumacies in Non-conformity are all put upon the Score of Tenderness of Conscience Purity of Religion c. and indeed so venerable is right Reformation in Religion so great a blessing and so gracious a fruit of the Spirit of God is tenderness of Conscience that 't is no marvel if the meer pretence and shew thereof so influenceth a Faction and captivates the credulous and unwary populace and therefore for the better discovery of that sort of men consider we distinctly 1. Their pretence to Reformation 2. To tenderness of Conscience and that without making our selves Judges of their Consciences any further than the Law of God allows and the evidence of things compels I. In their pretence to Reformation we consider the Method and Manner of their Reforming and the Object or matter to be reformed 1. The Manner of their Reforming was for the most part by savage and sacrilegious depredations Such savage depredations never were committed by the Goths in the Sack of Rome as were by these Reformation-men in the Cathedral Churches particularly Winchester and Westminster Exeter and Chichester Canterbury and Rochester with many others where their manner of reforming was by breaking down the Organs throwing down the Communion-Table and Rails and in some places burning them in an Ale-house turning the costly Pulpit-cloths Cushions Gowns Surplices and Plate into ready money A golden Chalice belonging to Westminster which is said to be worth three hundred pounds was sold to one Allen a decayed Goldsmith but then a Member of the House of Commons for threescore pounds When the Depredators of Hazlerigs conduct were desired in the Cathedral Church of Chichester to leave but one Chalice for the use of the Sacrament they refused with these profane words A wooden Dish may serve turn They violated the Tombs and Monuments of the Dead finding in Winchester Church two brazen Statues of King James and King Charles the First they broke off the two Swords placed by their sides and with their own mangled the Crown of King Charles swearing in scorn that they would bring him to his ParlJam nt There being in this Church several leaden Chests containing the dust and bones of some Saxon Kings and other Bishops they overthrew the Chests scattered the dust of their Bodies about the Pavement and threw their Bones at that part of the Glass Windows which they could not reach with their Pikes to batter down The like they did in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury by those under the Conduct of Colonel Sandys In this Church as lately upon the Royal Effigies in Guild-hall they strangely exercised their reforming Madness upon the Arras Hangings in the Quire representing the Hist. of our Savior some of them swore that they would stab him others that they would rip up his bowels which accordingly they did so far as those Figures of him in the Arras Hangings were capable of it Finding another Statue of Christ in the Frontispiece of the South-gate they discharged their Muskets at it triumphing greatly when they hit him in the head or Face In the Cathedrals of Exeter and Westminster horresco referens to these horrid outrages they added such prodigious irreverences as have not been heard of turning the Church into a Jakes and leaving their Excrements on and about the Communion Table after they had sate about it with their Ale and Tobacco Thus did they go about to reform the State with ruine and to sweep the Church with desolation taking the same method in Reforming which Pelias's daughters took to make their old Father young again viz. by cutting his throat to let out his old bloud which when they had done knew not where to get new bloud nor how to put it in him Consider who will the hideous spectacle of their ruining Ministers abolishing of Government devastation of Church and desolation of State profanation of God's Worship and depravation of
Religion the violation of Duty Conscience Peace Order Laws Justice c. and compare it with the Persecution of the Greek Churches and he shall find that all the ravages of the Turks since the taking of Constantinople hath not so disfigured them in two hundred years as these Reformers did in six or seven years in their own native Country Such abomination of desolation is Presbyterian Reformation which Mr. Case says Armies fought for ParlJam nts consult for Ministers pray for and all good People long for And let no body pretend in this as Mr. Baxter doth about the Regicidy that it was a rude conquering Army For read who will their Souldiers Catechism their Zions Plea Christ on his Throne as also their Ordinance on August 28. 1643. and he shall see that all this was done by Authority from the Houses of ParlJam nt and in the fear of God by the advice of the Assembly of Divines 2. The extravagancy of their Reformation will further appear by considering the matter of it or the things to be reformed which are chiefly Episcopacy and the Liturgy 1. Episcopacy an Order which hath been proved abundantly to be founded on no other than Scripture and Apostolick practice Antiquity and Necessity necessary as woful experience hath verified to the support of the English Monarchy according to those words of King Charles the Martyr That he could scarce ever boast of one days felicity after he had once consented to the taking away the Bishops Votes in ParlJam nt Which I take notice of the rather since in a place of note in this Kingdom at the last Election of ParlJam nt in the year 1681. the Rabble of the Faction cried it No Bishops No Bishops the very same words and with the same kind of violence as Dr. Burgess's Myrmidons did before the ParlJam nt House doors in 1641. 2. The other thing to be reformed is the Liturgy whose Reformation from Popery was sealed by the bloud of Martyrs When it was first composed and used the People of England received it as a heavenly treasure sent down by God's great mercy to them All moderate men beyond Seas applauded the felicity of the Church of England in fashioning such an excellent Form for God's publick Worship And the Act of ParlJam nt that first confirmed the same declared it to be done by the special aid of the Holy Ghost as the words of the Act are and Mr. Fox the Author of the Book of Martyrs fears not to say that it was indicted by the Holy Ghost Yet this is that Liturgy which the peevish Professors of these stirring Times would have laid aside for Reformation sake that so as King Charles observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministers may be left to their liberty and private abilities in God's publick Service where no man can tell to what he may say Amen or what adventure he may make of seeming at least to consent to whatever errours and ridiculous indecencies bold and ignorant men list to vent in their Prayers and other Offices But 't is enough to satisfie any unprejudiced and judicious Reader of the unreasonableness of scrupling the Liturgy that will but consider well those frivolous flaws and exceptions which the great Non-conformity-Champion hath made against it as the best he could devise after the twenty years study he speaks of II. The second thing to be considered in their pretensions above other men in their greater Sanctimony and tenderness of Conscience which were it real as it is pretended I should tremble to think of charging them with the counterfeit and pretence of it onely But that which liables it to the suspicion of Counterfeit lies in these two things 1. The erroneousness of it which is so gross as to call the Design of overturning the Government no Treason the taking up Arms against the King no Rebellion dividing from the Communion of the Church no Schism appropriating to private uses the Church-plate and Revenues no Sacrilege and using the name of God to all this no Hypocrisie How can such thickness of errour consist with true Sanctity and tenderness of Conscience especially if we take tenderness of Conscience as that Party doth in the same latitude with a good Conscience for such a tenderness as to be afraid of sin and to decline the temptations occasions and appearances of evil 2. Their pretended tenderness of Conscience above others is to be suspected upon the account of its great partiality and defect wanting that uniformity which is required to its sincerity When a man shall scruple a Ceremony and yet neglect an Institution of Christ not dare to kneel at the Sacrament yet wholly neglect the Communion boggle at the use of a Ceremony yet openly avow the blackest of Crimes backbitings slanderings schism and sedition is this true tenderness of Conscience or is it not rather as one says a conscience of making no conscience at all But more particularly doth not the partiality and defect of their conscientiousness appear in their notorious uncharitableness and censoriousness rash censuring and condemning slandering and defaming all that differ from them especially Ministers But above all those that oppose their way if subtlety and malice can do it shall be sure to be rendred odious but the partiality and defect of their conscientiousness is most apparent in their old Gnostick Principle of disobedience to Magistrates Will any man believe that Practice to be conscientious or that Religion to be of God which so dishonours God and Christianity that so confronts God's Vicegerent and those in Authority under him which God commands obedience to upon pain of damnation and which as though foreseeing the pretence of Conscience for their disobedience doth so indispensably urge you must needs obey and for Conscience sake and that even Heathen Governours whereas the Governours i. e. the ParlJam nt in part that our Dissenters are to obey are of their own chusing and so the Laws are partly Laws of their own making as made by their own Representatives What they urge for their disobedience is so ludicrous and of so frequent and obvious confutation that 't is a shame to insist upon them But just to mention them as 1. That 't is better to obey God than Man which in the form of an Objection is nothing else but a factious slander intimating as though our Rulers enjoined any thing in disobedience to God 2. A second thing urged for their disobedience is that of Christian Liberty The same that the Gnosticks urged for their revolt from Christianity and which was used among the Jews as a Passport for fugitive Servants and a praetext to all Outrages and Rebellions and which the Gnosticks used to justifie their disobedience to Magistrates Whereas indeed this Christian liberty is a quite contrary thing viz. a discharge from the necessity of observing the Mosaical Law and Rites of Judaism and a power in utramque to do or leave undone things
not determined in the Scriptures but in obedience to the commands of our Rulers as the ends of Society shall require 3. Another thing they urge is Passive obedience an obsolete self-contradiction which they have taught the Rabble to vapour with but themselves are ashamed to own as being no other kind of Plea than what Papists Thieves Murderers may use with the same reason as they the vilest Malefactors are passively obedient So that since so leading a man as Mr. Baxter hath said it that the Priscilianists Donatists Novatians Anabaptists Quakers and other Sects were kept up meerly by a pretence to more spirituality Reformation tenderness of Conscience c. let the present Non-conformists exempt themselves by improving their religious pretences into religious realities loyalty charity meekness and the like and our animosities and divisions will be quickly at an end But notwithstanding these pretences to Reformation Religion and tenderness of Conscience yet are 6. Sedition Rebellion and Murders real Promoters of Presbytery Of these I may truly say in relation to Presbytery as the Aenigmatist said of Ice and Water Mater me genuit eadem mox gignitur ex me Rebellion hath all along nurs'd up Presbytery and Presbytery hath tolerated and taught Rebellion All History doth assure us that for this last hundred years there hath been no Sedition nor Rebellion no Tumult Treason or Massacre in all Europe but what hath been acted wholly or in part by Papist or Presbyterian as a means and for the sake of propagating their Religion 1. This hath been their frequent Doctrine 2. Their constant Practice 1. Their frequent Doctrine ab origine Calvin in his Institutions l. 4. cap. 10. If there be any popular Magistrate ordained to moderate the licentiousness of Kings so far am I from hindering them in restraining those Kings as their Office binds them that I conceive them rather to be guilty of a perfidious dissimulation if they connive at Kings if they play the Tyrants and wantonly insult over the common People i. e. if the People do but judge their Kings to do so And after him Beza in his Epistle to the Outlandish Church in England Ep. 24. Si quis c. If any man being lawfully invested with the Supreme Magistracy shall unjustly spoil or deprive his Subjects of their Rights and Priviledges of which he makes the People Judge then the ordinary and inferiour Officers are to oppose themselves against him c. It was the frequent Doctrine of Knox Buchanan Willock and the rest of Scotland as may be seen in their Writings that if the King refuse to reform Religion i. e. to set up Presbytery then the Nobles may and if they refuse the common People must The present Non conformists of England have taught that if the King raise War against the ParlJam nt the King may not onely be resisted but he ceases to be King and much more to the same purpose Mr. Baxter's Political Aphor. Thes. 358. 368. 147. 136. 151. passim When King James in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pref. advises his Son King Charles to take heed of those People called Puritans as the very Pest of the Church and Common-wealth whom no deserts can oblige nor oaths bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations the square of their Consciences protesting before the great God that he should not find in any Highlander greater ingratitude more lies and viler perjuries than among those fanatical Spirits We find the ground and reason of these words of the King to be his observation of their frequent use in their very Sermons to preach that all Kings and Princes were naturally enemies to the liberty of the Church and could never patiently bear the Yoke of Christ thus seditiously endeavouring to steal away the hearts of the People from their Soveraign And in Queen Elizabeths time when Burchet stabb'd Hawkins a Sea-Captain thinking it had been the Lord Chancellour Hatton because a zealous opposer of Presbytery he declared as the old Non-conformists the Donatists did before him that it was lawful to assassinate any man that opposed their religious Principle or Practice And as this was their Doctrine so 2. It was their constant Practice At the very first starting of Presbytery in the Year 1535. when the Bishop of Geneva would not admit of such alterations as Viret and Farellus with their Followers would have had they presently tumultuated drove the Bishop and Clergy out of the Town set up Calvin altered the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil disclaimed all allegiance to their Duke and Bishop and standing on their liberty as a Free State governed the City by a Common-council of two hundred men out of which they chose four as Supreme whom they called Syndicks And Presbytery having thus been first setled in Geneva by Rebellion was presently sent over into France where the Abettors of it supported by the Earl of Tholouse made its way by murdering Trincannel the Viscount and chief Governor of the City Beziers and dashing out the Bishops teeth They set it up in the Low-Countries beginning at the City Embden the principal City of the E. of Friesland by renouncing all allegiance to their Prince taking up Arms against him and setting themselves inform of a Commonwealth Poltrot who being set on by Beza murdered the Duke of Guise when he was upon the Rack confest that he was promised great rewards by the Admiral and was assured by Beza that by taking out of the World such a persecuter of the Gospel he could not but exceedingly merit at the hands of God In Scotland under pretence of removing the Popish Lords and promoting the Presbyterian Discipline the Earl of Bothwel and his Complices raised Forces to depose and murder the King And after that by the insinuation of fears and jealousies of the Kings aversness to the Gospel his inclination to Popery and of subverting the Presbyterian Discipline the Gowries conspire to kill King James which Plot was so approved of by the Presbyterian Ministers of Edenburgh that they refused to give thanks for the King's deliverance when commanded by his Proclamation so to do The murder of King Charles I. was first attempted by Poison and Pistol by Captain Rolph set on by the ParlJam nt Army before they proceeded in those more gentle methods of disburthening him of his large Revenues easing him of the charge of Royal House-keeping clearing him of his stately Palaces putting him out of care of repairing his Armories Arms Ammunition and Artillery taking him off the charge of keeping his Wife Children and most trusty Servants easing him of a multitude of his best Subjects and Friends by charitable famishing and brotherly banishing liberal or free imprisoning and ParlJam nt-plundering by friendly throat-cutting and unlawful beheading and hanging utterly ruinating as many as could be caught of those that loved served and honoured him and at last making