received as gifts of Bounty from any whosoever since I was silenced till after An. 1672. amount not in the whole to 20 l. besides ten Pouud per Annum which I received from Serjeant Fountain till he died and when I was in Prison twenty pieces from Sir Iohn Bernard ten from the Countess of Exeter and five from Alderman Bard and no more which just paid the Lawyers and my Prison Charge but the expences of removing my Habitation was greater And had the Bishop's Family no more than this In sum I told the Bishop that he that cried out so vehemently against schism had got the Spirit of a Sectary and as those that by Prisons and other sufferings were too much exasperated against the Bishops could hardly think or speak well of them so his cross Interests had so notoriously spoiled him of his Charity that he had plainly the same temper with the bitterest of the Sectaries whom he so much reviled Our Doctrinal Discourse I overpass § 236. This May a Book was Printed and cried about describing the horrid Murther of one 〈◊〉 Baxter in New-England by the Anabaptists and how they tore his Flesh and flead him alive and persons and time and place were named And when Mr. Kiffen sensible of the Injury to the Anabaptists searcht it out it proved all a studied Forgery Printed by a Papist and the Book Licensed by Dr. Sam. Paâ—ker the Arch-bishop's Chaplain there were no such Persons in being as the Book mentioned nor any such thing ever done Mr. â—issen accused Dr. Parker to the Kiug and Council The King made him confess his Fault and so it ended § 237. In Iune was the second great Fight with the Dutch where again many were killed on both sides and to this day it is not known which Paâ—ty had the greater Loss § 238. The Parliament grew into great Jealousies of the prevalency of Popery There was an Army raised which lay upon Black-Heath encamped as for Service against the Dutch They said that so many of the Commanders were Papists as made Men fear the design was worse Men feared not to talk openly that the Papists having no hope of getting the Parliament to set up their Religion by Law did design to take down Parliaments and reduce the Government to the French Model and Religion to their State by a standing Army These Thoughts put Men into dismal Expectations and many wish that the Army at any rate might be disbanded The Duke of York was General The Parliament made an Act that no man should be in any office of Trust who would not take the Oaths of Supremacy aud Allegiance and receive the Sacrament according to Order of the Church of England and renounee Transubstanstiation Many supposed Papists received the Sacrament and renounced Transubstantiation and took the Oaths Some that were known sold or laid down their Places The Duke of York and the new Lord Treasurer Clifford laid down all It was said they did it on supposition that the Act left the King impowered to renew their Commissions when they had laid them down But the Lord Chancellor told the King that it was not so and so they were put out by themselves This settled Men in the full belief that the Duke of York and the Lord Clifford were Papists and the Londoners had before a special hatred against the Duke since the burning of London commonly saying that divers were taken casting Fire-balls and brought to his Guards of Soldiers to be secured and he let them go and both secured and concealed them 239. The great Counsellors that were said to do all with the King in all great matters were the Duke of York the Lord Clifford the Duke of Lauderdaile the Lord Arlington the Duke of Buckingham the Lord Chancellor that is Sr. Anthony Ashley-Cooper Earl of Shaftsbury and after them the Earl of Anglesey lately Mr. Annesley Among all these the Lord Chanchellor declared so much Jealosie of Popery and set himself so openly to secure the Protestant Religion that it was wondered how he kept in as he did but whatever were his Principles or Motives it is certain he did very much plead the Protestant Cause § 240. In Iune Mastricht was taken by the French but with much loss where the Duke of Monmouth with the English had great Honour for their Valour § 241. In August four of the Dutch East-India Ships fell into our Hands and we had the third great Sea-fight with them under the Command of Prince Rupert where we again killed each other with equal Loss But the Dutch said they had the Victory now sand before and kept days of Thanksgiving for it Sir Edward Sprag was killed whose death the Papists much lamented hoping to have got the Sea-power into his Hands But Prince Rupert who declared himself openly against Popery and had got great Interest in the Hearts of the Soldiers complained sharply of the French Admiral as deserting him to say no worse And the success of these Fights was such as hindered the Transportation of the Army against the Dutch and greatly divided the Court-Party and discouraged the Grandees and Commanding Papists c. § 242. In September I being out of Town my House was broken by Thieves who broke open my Study-Doors Closets Locks searcht near 40 Tills and Boxes and found them all full of nothing but Papers and miss'd that little Money I had though very near them They took only three small pieces of Plate and medled not considerably with any of my Papers which I would not have lost for many hundred Pounds Which made me sensible of Divine Protection and what a Convenience it is to have such a kind of Treasure as other men have no mind to rob us of or cannot § 343. The Duke of York was now married to the Duke of Modena's Daughter by Proxy the Earl of Peterborough being sent over to that end § 244. The Lady Clinton having a Kinswoman wife to Edward Wray Esq who was a Protestant aâ—d her Husband a Papist throughly studied in all their Controversies and oft provoking his Wife to bring any one to dispute with him desired me to perform that office of Conference They differed about the Education of their Children he had promised her as she said at Marriage that she should have the Education of them all and now would not let her have the Education of one but would make them Papists I desired that either our Conference might be publick to avoid mis-reports or else utterly secret before no one but his Wife that so we might not seem to strive for the Honour of Victory nor by dishonour be exasperated and made less capable of benefit The latter way was chosen but the Lady Clinton and Mr. Goodwin the Lady Worsep's Chaplain prevailed to be present by his consent He began upon the point of Transubstantion and in Veron's Method would have put me to prove the Words of the Article of the Church of England by express Words of
and also how the Plot was laid to Kill the King Thus Oates's Testimony seconded by Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey's Murder and Bedlow and Pranse's Testimonies became to be generally believed Ireland a Jesuit and Two more were Condemned as designing to Kill the King Hill Berry and Green were Condemned for the murder of Godfrey and Executed But Pranse was by a Papist first terrified into a Denyal again of the Plot to Kill the King and took on him to be Distracted But quickly Recanted of this and had no Quiet till he told how he was so Affrighted and Renewed all his Testimony and Confession After this came in one Mr. Dugdale a Papist and confessed the same Plot and especially the Lord Stafford's interest in it And after him more and more Evidence daily was added â—â—â—man the Dutchess of York's Secretary and one of the Papists great Plotters and Disputers being surprized though he made away all his later Papers was hanged by the Old Ones that were remaining and by Oates his Teâ—â—imony But the Parliament kept off all Aspersions from the Duke The Hopes of some and the Fears of others of his Succession prevailed with many § 28. At last the Lord Treasurer Sir Thomas Osborne made Earl of Danby came upon the stage having been before the object of the Parliament and People's jealousy and hard thoughts He being afraid that somewhat would be done against him knowing that Mr. Montague his Kinsman late Ambassadour in France had some Letters of his in his keeping which he thought might endanger him got an order from the King to seize on all Mr. Montagues Letters who suspecting some such usage had conveyed away the chief Letters and telling the Parliament where they were they sent and fetcht them and upon the reading of them were so instigated against the Lord Treasurer they impeached him in the Lords House of High Treason But not long after the King disolved the long Parliament which he had kept up about 17 or 18 years But a new Parliament is promised § 29. Above 40 Scots men of which 3 Preachers were by their Council sentenced to be not only banished but sold as servants called slaves to the American Plantations They were brought by ship to London Divers Citizens offered to pay their ransom The King was petitioned for them I went to the D. of Lauderdale but none of us could prevail for one man At last the Ship-Master was told that by a Statute it was a Capital crime to Transport any of the King's Subjects out of England where now they were without their consent and so he set them on shoar and they all escaped for nothing § 30. A great number of Hungarian Ministers had before been sold for Gally slaves by the Emperour's Agents but were released by the Dutch Admiral 's Request and some of them largely relieved by Collections in London § 31. The long and grievous Parliament that silenced about 2000 Ministers and did many works of such a nature being dissolved as aforesaid on Ian. 25. 1678. A new one was chosen and met on March 6 following And the King refusing their chosen speaker Mr. Segmore raised in them a greater displeasure against the Lord Treasurer thinking him the cause and after some days they chose Serjeant Gregory § 32. The Duke of York a little before removed out of England by the King's Command who yet stands to maintain his Succession § 33. The Parliament first impeached the foresaid Papist Lords for the Plot or Conspiracy the Lord Bellasis Lord Arundel Lord of Powis Lord Scafford and Lord Peter and after them the Lord Treasurer 34. New fires breaking out enrage the People against the Papists A great part of Southwark was before burnt and the Papists strongly suspected the cause Near half the buildings of the Temple were burnt And it was greatly suspected to be done by the Papists One Mr. Bifeild's house in Holbourn and Divers others so fired but quenched as made it very probable to be by their Conspiracy And at last in Fitter-Lane it fell on the house of Mr. Robert Bird a Man employed in Law of great Judgment and Piety who having more wit than many others to search it out found that it was done by a new Servant Maid who confessed it first to him and then to a Justice and after to the Lords that one Nicholas Stubbes a Papist having first made her promise to be a Papist next promised her 5 l. to set fire on her Master's house telling her that many others were to do the like and the Protestant Hereticks to be killed by the middle of Iune and that it was no more sin to do it than to kill a Dog Stubbes was taken and at first vehemently denyed but after confessed all and told them that one Giffard a Priest and his Confessor engaged him in it and Divers others and told them all as aforesaid how the Firing and Plot went on and what hope they had of a French Invasion The House of Commons desired the King to pardon the woman Eliz. Oxley and Stubbes § 35. If the Papists have not Confidence in the French Invasion God leaveth them to utter madness to hasten their ruine They were in full junctness through the Land and the noise of rage was by their design turned against the Nonconformists But their hopes did cast them into such an impatience of delay that they could no longer stay but must presently Reign by rage of blood Had they studied to make themselves odious to the Land they could have found out no more effectual way than by Firing Murder and Plotting to kill the King All London at this day is in such fear of them that they are fain to keep up private Watches in all streets besides the Common ones to save their houses from firing Yea while they find that it increaseth a hatred of them and while many of them are already hanged they still go on which sheweth either their confidence in Foreign Aid or their utter infatuation § 36. Upon Easter day the King dissolved his privy Council and settled it a new consisting of 30 men most of the old ones the Earl of Shaftsbury being President to the great joy of the People then tho since all is changed § 37. On the 27th of April 1679. Tho it was the Lord's Day the Parliament State excited by Stubbes his Confession that the Firing Plot went on and the French were to invade us and the Protestants to be murdered by Iune 28 and they voted that the Duke of York's declaring himself a Papist was the cause of all our dangers by these Plots and sent to the Lords to concur in the same Vote § 38. But the King that week by himself and the Chancellour acquainted them that he should consent to any thing reasonable to secure the Protestant Religion not alienating the Crown from the Line of Succession and Particularly that he would consent that till the Successour should take the Test he should exercise
advantage to violate that which he is forced to and to be avenged on you all for the displeasure you have done him He is ignorant of the Advantages of a King that cannot foresee this These were the Reasons of many that were for pleasing the King But on the other side there were Men of divers tempers Some did not look far before them but did what they thought was best at present whether any designed the subduing of the King and the change of Government at that time I cannot tell For I then heard of no notable Sectary in the House but young Sir Henry Vane whose Testimony was the Death of the Earl of Strafford when other Evidence was wanting and of whom I shall say more anon But the leading and prevailing part of the House were for the Execution of Strafford and for punishing some Delinquents though it did displease the King And their Reasons as their Companions tell us were such as these They said If that be your Principle that the King is not to be displeased or provoked then this Parliament should never have been called which you know he was forced to against his Will and then the Ship-money should have gone on and the Subjects Propriety and Parliaments have been overthrown And then the Church Innovations should not have been controuled nor any stop to the Subverters of our Government and Liberties attempted then no Members should speak freely against any of these in the House for you know that all these are very displeasing And then what do we here Could not the King have pleased himself without us Or do we come to be his Instruments to give away the Peoples Liberties and set up that which was begun Either it is our Duty to reform and to recover our Liberties and relieve our Country and punish Delinquents or it is not If it be not let us go home again If it be let us do it and trust God For if the fears of foreseen Oppositions shall make us betray our Country and Posterity we are perfidious to them and Enemies to our selves and may well be said to be worse than Infidels much rather than they that provide not for their Families when Infidels have not thought their Lives too good to save the Commonwealth And as for a War the danger of it may be avoided It is a thing uncertain and therefore a present certain Ruine and that by our own hand is not to be chosen to avoid it The King may fee the danger of it as well as we and avoid it on better Terms Or if he were willing he may not be able to do any great harm Do you think that the People of England are so mad as to fight against those whom they have chosen to represent them to destroy themselves and the hopes of their Posterity Do they not know that if Parliaments be destroyed their Lives and Estates are meerly at the Will and Mercy of the Conquerour And do not you see that the People are every where for the Parliament And for Revenge what need we fear it when the Parliament may continue till it consent to its Dissolution And sure they will not consent till they see themselves out of the danger of Revenge Such as these were the Reasonings of that Party which prevailed But others told them That those that adhered to the Bishops and were offended at the Parliaments Church Reformations would be many and the King will never want Nobility and Gentry to adhere to him and the Common People will follow their Landlords and be on the stronger side and the intelligent part who understand their own Interests are but few And when you begin a War you know not what you do Thus were Mens minds then in a Division but some unhappy means fell out to unite them so as to cause them to proceed to a War § 39. The things that heightned former Displeasures to a miserable War were such as follow on both Parts On the Parliaments part were principally 1. The Peoples indiscretion that adhered to them 2. The imprudence and violence of some Members of the House who went too high 3. The great Diffidence they had of the King when they had provoked him On the other side it was hastened 1. By the Calling up of the Northern Army 2. By the King 's imposing a Guard upon the House 3. By his entring the House to accuse some Members 4. By the miscarriage of the Lord Digby and other of the King's Adherents 5. But above all by the terrible Massacre in Ireland and the Threatnings of the Rebels to Invade England A little of every one of these § 40. 1. Those that desired the Parliaments Prosperity were of divers sorts Some were calm and temperate and waited for the Fruits of their Endeavours in their season And some were so glad of the hopes of a Reformation and afraid left their Hearts and Hands should fall for want of Encouragement that they too much boasted of them and applauded them which must needs offend the King to see the People rejoyce in others as their Deliverers and as saving them from him and so to see them preferred in Love and Honour before him But some were yet more indiscreet The remnant of the old Separatists and Anabaptists in London was then very small and scarce considerable but they were enough to stir up the younger and unexperienced sort of Religious People to speak too vehemently and intemperately against the Bishops and the Church and Ceremonies and to jeer and deride at the Common Prayer and all that was against their minds For the young and raw sort of Christians are usually prone to this kind of Sin to be self-conceited petulant wilful censorious and injudicious in all their management of their Differences in Religion and in all their Attempts of Reformation scorning and clamouring at that which they think evil they usually judge a warrantable Course And it is hard finding any sort of People in the World where many of the more unexperienced are not indiscreet and proud and passionate These stirr'd up the Apprentices to joyn with them in Petitions and to go in great numbers to Westminster to present them And as they went they met with some of the Bishops in their Coaches going to the House and as is usual with the passionate and indiscreet when they are in great Companies they too much forgot Civility and cried out No Bishops which either put them really into a fear or at least so displeased them as gave them occasion to meet together and draw up a Protestation against any Law which in their Absence should be passed in the Parliament as having themselves a place there and being as they said deferred from coming thither by those Clamours and Tumults This Protestation was so ill taken by the Parliament as that the Subscribers of it were voted Delinquents and sent to Prison as going about to destroy the power of Parliaments and among them even Bishop Hall
in to the King's Standard whereas the Londoners quickly fill'd up a gallant Army for the Earl of Essex and the Citizens abundantly brought in their Money and Plate yea the Women their Rings to Guildhall to pay the Army Hereupon the King sent to the Parliament from Nottingham the Offer of a Treaty with some General Proposals which in my Opinion was the likeliest Opportunity that ever the Parliament had for a full and safe Agreement and the King seemed very serious in it and the lowness of his Condition upon so much Trial of his People was very like to have wrought much with him But the Parliament was perswaded that he did it but to get time to fill up his Army and to hinder their Proceedings and therefore accepted not of his Offer for a Treaty but instead of it sent him Nineteen Proposals of their own viz. That if he would Disband his Army come to his Parliament give up Delinquents to a Legal Course of Justice c. he should find them dutiful c. And the King published an Answer to these Nineteen Propositions in which he affirmeth the Government to be mixt having in it the best of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and that the Legislative Power is in the King Lords and Commons conjunct and that the Lords are a sufficient skreen to hinder the King from wronging the Commons and to keep off Tyranny c. And he adhereth only to the Law which giveth him the power of the Militia Out of this Answer of the King 's to these Nineteen Proposals some one drew up a Political Catechism wherein the Answers of every Question were verbatim the words of the King's Declaration as if therein he had fully justified the Parliaments Cause The great Controversie now was the present power of the Militia The King said that the Supreme Executive Power and particularly the Power of the Militia did belong to him and not to the Parliament and appealed to the Law The Parliament pleaded that as the Execution of Justice against Delinquents did belong to him but this he is bound by Law to do by his Courts of Justice and their Executions are to be in his Name and by a Stat. Edw. 3. if the King by the Little Seal or the Great Seal forbid a Judge in Court to perform his Office he is nevertheless to go on Also that for the Defence of his Kingdoms against their Enemies the Militia is in his power but not at all against his Parliament and People whom Nature it self forbiddeth to use their Swords against themselves And they alledged most the present danger of the Kingdoms Ireland almost lost Scotland disturbed England threatned by the Irish and the Ruine of the Parliament sought by Delinquents whom they said the King through evil Counsel did protect And that they must either secure the Militia or give up the Protestant Religion the Laws and Liberties of the Land and their own Necks to the Will of Papists and Delinquents § 49. And because it is my purpose here not to write a full History of the Calamities and Wars of those Times but only to remember such Generals with the Reasons and Connexion of Things as may best make the state of those Times understood by them that knew it not personally themselves I shall here annex a brief Account of the Country's Case about these Differences not as a Justifier or Detender of the Assertions or Reasons or Actions of either Party which I rehearse but only in faithfulness Historically to relate things as indeed they were And 1. It is of very great moment here to understand the Quality of the Persons which adhered to the King and to the Parliament with their Reasons A great part of the Lords forsook the Parliament and so did many of the House of Commons and came to the King but that was for the most of them after Edghill Fight when the King was at Oxford A very great part of the Knights and Gentlemen of England in the several Counties who were not Parliament Men adhered to the King except in Middlesex Essex Suffolk Norfolk Cambridgeshire c. where the King with his Army never came And could he have got footing there it 's like that it would have been there as it was in other places And most of the Tenants of these Gentlemen and also most of the poorest of the People whom the other called the Rabble did follow the Gentry and were for the King On the Parliaments side were besides themselves the smaller part as some thought of the Gentry in most of the Counties and the greatest part of the Tradesmen and Free-holders and the middle sort of Men especially in those Corporations and Countries which depend on Clothing and such Manufactures If you ask the Reasons of this Difference ask also why in France it is not commonly the Nobility nor the Beggars but the Merchants and middle sort of Men that were Protestants The Reasons which the Party themselves gave was Because say they the Tradesmen have a Correspondency with London and so are grown to be a far more Intelligent sort of Men than the ignorant Peasants that are like Bruits who will follow any that they think the strongest or look to get by And the Freeholders say they were not enslaved to their Landlords as the Tenants are The Gentry say they are wholly by their Estates and Ambition more dependent on the King than their Tenants on them and many of them envied the Honour of the Parliament because they were not chosen Members themselves The other side said That the Reason was because the Gentry who commanded their Tenants did better understand Affairs of State than half-witted Tradesmen and Freeholders do But though it must be confessed That the Publick Safety and Liberty wrought very much with most especially with the Nobility and Gentry who adhered to the Parliament yet was it principally the differences about Religious Matters that filled up the Parliaments Armies and put the Resolution and Valour into their Soldiers which carried them on in another manner than mercenary Soldiers are carried on Not that the Matter of Bishops Or no Bishops was the main thing for Thousands that wished for Good Bishops were on the Parliaments side though many called it Bellum Episcopale And with the Scots that was a greater part of the Controversie But the generality of the People through the Land I say not all or every one who were then called Puritans Precisions Religious Persons that used to talk of God and Heaven and Scripture and Holiness and to follow Sermons and read Books of Devotion and pray in their Families and spend the Lord's Day in Religious Exercises and plead for Mortification and serious Devotion and strict Obedience to God and speak against Swearing Cursing Drunkenness Prophaneness c. I say the main Body of this sort of Men both Preachers and People adhered to the Parliament And on the other side the Gentry that were not so precise and
Reputation of his Word and Cause Major General Skippon fighting valiantly was here dangerously wounded but afterwards recovered The King's Army was utterly lost by the taking of Leicester for by this means it was gone so far from his own Garrisons that his Flying Horse could have no place of Retreat but were utterly scattered and brought to nothing The King himself fled to Lichfield and it is reported that he would have gone to Shrewsbury his Council having never suffered him to know that it was taken till now and so he went to Rayland Caâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 which was a strong Hold and the House of the Marquess of 〈◊〉 a Papist where his Dispute with the Marquess was said to be which Dr. Baâ—ly published and then turned Papist and which Mr. Christopher Cartright continued deâ—ending the King Fairfax's Army pursued to Leicester where the wounded Men and some others stayed with the Garrison in a day or two's time the Town was re-taken And now I am come up to the Passage which I intended of my own going into the Army § 73. Naâ—â—by being not far from Coventry where I was and the noise of the Victory being loud in our Ears and I having two or three that of old had been my intimate Friends in Cromwell's Army whom I had not seen of above two Years I was desirous to go see whether they were dead or alive and so to Naseby Field I went two days after the sight and thence by the Armies Quarters before Leicester to seek my Acquaintance When I found them I stayed with them a Night and I understood the state of the Army much better than ever I had done before We that lived quietly in Coventry did keep to our old Principles and thought all others had done so too except a very few inconsiderable Persons We were unfeignedly for King and Parliament We believed that the War was only to sive the Parliament and Kingdom from Papists and Delinquents and to remove the Dividers that the King might again return to his Parliament and that no Changes might be made in Religion but by the Laws which had his free consent We took the true happiness of King and People Church and State to be our end and so we understood the Covenant engaging both against Papists and Schismaticks And when the Court News-book told the World of the Swarms of Anabaptists in our Armies we thought it had been a meer lye because it was not so with us nor in any of the Garrison or County-Forces about us But when I came to the Army among Cromwell's Soldiers I found a new face of things which I never dreamt of I heard the plotting Heads very hot upon that which intimated their Intention to subvert both Church and State Independency and Anabaptistry were most prevalent Antinomianism and Arminianism were equally distributed and Thomas Moor's Followers a Weaver of Wisbitch and Lyn of excellent Parts had made some shifts to joyn these two Extreams together Abundance of the common Troopers and many of the Officers I found to be honest sober Orthodox Men and others tractable ready to hear the Truth and of upright Intentions But a few proud self-conceited hot-headed Sectaries had got into the highest places and were Cromwell's chief Favourites and by their very heat and activity bore down the rest or carried them along with them and were the Soul of the Army though much fewer in number than the rest being indeed not one to twenty throughout the Army their strength being in the Generals and Whalleys and Rich's Regiments of Horse and in the new placed Officers in many of the rest I perceived that they took the King for a Tyrant and an Enemy and really intended absolutely to master him or to ruine him and that they thought if they might fight against him they might kill or conquer him and if they might conquer they were never more to trust him further than he was in their power and that they thought it folly to irritate him either by Wars or Contradictions in Parliament if so be they must needs take him for their King and trust him with their Lives when they had thus displeased him They said What were the Lords of England but William the Conquerour's Colonels or the Barons but his Majors or the Knights but his Captains They plainly shewed me that they thought God's Providence would cast the Trust of Religion and the Kingdom upon them as Conquerours They made nothing of all the most wise and godly in the Armies and Garrisons that were not of their way Per fas aut nefas by Law or without it they were resolved to take down not only Bishops and Liturgy and Ceremonies but all that did withstand their way They were far from thinking of a moderate Episcopacy or of any healing way between the Episcopal and the Presbyterians They most honoured the Separatists Anabaptists and Antinomians but Cromwell and his Council took on them to joyn themselves to no Party but to be for the Liberty of all Two sorts I perceived they did so commonly and bitterly Speak against that it was done in meer design to make them odious to the Soldiers and to all the Land and that was 1. The Sots and with them all Presbyterians but especially the Ministers whom they call Priests and Priestbyters and Drivines and the Dissemby-men and such like 2. The Committees of the several Countries and all the Soldiers that were under them that were not of their Mind and Way Some orthodox Captains of the Army did partly acquaint me with all this and I heard much of it from the Mouths of the leading Sectaries themselves This struck me to the very Heart and made me Fear that England was lost by those that it had taken for its Chiefest Friends § 74. Upon this I began to blame both other Ministers and my self I saw that it was the Ministers that had lost all by forsaking the Army and betaking themselves to an easier and quieter way of Life When the Earl of Essex went out first each Regiment had an able Preacher but at Edg-hill Fight almost all of them went home and as the Sectaries increased they were the more averse to go into the Army It s true that I believe now they had little Invitation and its true that they must look for little Welcome and great Contempt and Opposition besides all other Difficulties and Dangers But it is as true that their Worth and Labour in a patient self-denying way had been like to have preserved most of the Army and to have defeated the Contrivances of the Sectaries and to have saved the King the Parliament and the Land And if it had brought Reproach upon them from the Malitious who called them Military Levites the Good which they had done would have wiped off that blot much better than the contrary course would do And I reprehended my self also who had before rejected an Invitation from Cromwell When he lay at Cambridge long before with that
Peace on these Terms how easily and safely might you grant them without any wrong to your Consciences or the Church Yea to its exceeding benefit How lowd do our Miseries cry for such a Cure How long hath it been neglected If there be any more than what is here granted by us that you think necessary for us to yield to on our parts we shall gladly revive your Demands and yield for Peace as far as is possible without forsaking our Consciences And what shall be agreed on we shall promise faithfully to endeavour in our places that the Magistrate may consent to it The inclosing Paper signified a readiness to yield to an Agreement on the primitive Simplicity of Doctrine Discipline and Worship as Dr. Heylin also doth We are agreed and yet never the nearer an Agreement O that you would stand to this in the Particulars We crave no more Q. 1. Did the â—â—imitive Church require Subscription to all in our 39 Articles or to any more than the words of Scripture and the Ancient Creeds in order to Mens Church-Communion and Liberty Were such Volumes as our Homiliâ—s then to be subscribed to Q. 2. Were any required as necessary to their Ministry in the Primitive Times to Subscribe to the Divine Right of Diocesan Prelacy and promise or swear Obedience to such Or to Subscribe to all that is contained in our Book of Ordination Q. 3. Were all most or any Bishops of the first Age of the lowest rank now distinguished from Archbishopâ— the fixed Pastors of many particular Churches or of more Souls than one of our ordinary or greater Parishes Much less of so many as are in a Diocess Let us but have no more Souls or Congregations under the lowest rank of Bishops now than were in the first Age or second either ordinarily and we shall soon agree I think in all the Substance of Government Q. 4. Was our Common Prayer used and necessary to a Pastor's Liberty in the first or second Age Or all that is in it Or will you leave out all that you cannot prove to have been then used and that as necessary as now it is supposed Q. 5. Were the Cross Surplice and Restriction to kneeling in receiving the Eâ—charist enjoyned by Peter or Paul or any in the first Age or second either or many after If you say that some Form of Prayer was used though not ours I answer 1. Prove it used and imposed as necessary to the Exercise of the Ministry and that any was enjoyned to Subscribe to it and use it on pain of Deprivation or Excommunication 2. If the first supposed Book of Prayers was necessary in Specie for continuance we must have it and cast away this thatâ—s pleaded for If it were not then why may you not as well dispense with this and change it seeing you cannot plead it more immutable than the supposed Apostolical or Primitive Prayer Book 3. When Forms of Liturgy came up had they not divers in the same Empire and also changed them in particular Churches as the Controversie between Basil and the Church of Neocaesarea shews c. And why then may not as much be granted now in England at least to procure Unity and Peace in other things after so long uncharitable Alienations and doleful Effects of them in the Church and State N. B. That the foresaid Exceptions against imposing the Subscription of the 39 Articles are urged ad hominem because though the Doctrinal Part of those Articles be such as the generality of the Presbyterians would Subscribe to yet I see not how the Reverend Brethren on the other side can possibly Subscribe them as reconcileable to the Principles published by many of them § 67. Shortly after this when Sir George Booth's Rising failed Major General Monk in Scotland with his Army grew so sensible of the Infolencies of Vane and Lambert and the Fanaticks in England and Ireland who set up and pull'd down Governments as boldly as if they were making a Lord of a Maygame and were grasping all the Power into their own Hands so that he presently secured the Anabaptists of his Army and agreed with the rest to resist these Usurpers who would have England the Scorn of all the World At first when he drew near to England he declared for a Free Commonwealth When he came in Lambert marched against him but his Soldiers forsaking him and Sir Arthur Haselrigge getting Portsmouth and Col. Morley strengthning him and Major General Berry's Regiment which went to block it up revolting to them the Clouds rose every where at once and Lambert could make no resistance but instead of fighting they were fain to treat And while Monk held them Treating his Reputation increased and theirs abated and their Hearts failed them and their Soldiers fell off and General Monk consulted with his Friends what to do Many Countreys sent Letters of Thanks and Encouragement to him Mr. Tho. Bampfield was sent by the Gentlemen of the West and other Countreys did the like so that Monk came on but still declared for a Commonwealth against Monarchy Till at last when he saw all ripened thereto he declared for the King The chief Men as far as I can learn that turned his Resolution to bring in the King were Mr. Clarges and Sir William Morrice his Kinsman and the Petitions and Affections of the City of London principally moved by Mr. Calamy and Mr. Ash two ancient leading able Ministers with Dr. Bates Dr. Manten Dr. Iacomb and other Ministers of London who concurred And these were encouraged by the Earl of Manchester the Lord Hollis the late Earl of Anglesey and many of the then Council of State And the Members of the Old Parliament that had been formerly ejected being recalled did Dissolve themselves and appoint the Calling of a Parliament which might Re-call the King When General Monk first came into England most Men rejected in hope to be delivered from the Usurpation of the Fanaticks Anabaptists Seekers c. And I was myâ—self so much affected with the strange Providence of God that I procured the Ministers to agree upon a Publick Thanksgiving to God And I think all the Victories which that Army obtained were not more wonderful than their Fall was when Pride and Errour had prepared them for it It seemed wonderful to me that an Army that had got so many great and marvellous Victories and thought themselves unconquerable and talkt of nothing but Dominion at home and marching up to the Walls of Rome should all be broken and brought into Subjection and finally Disbanded without one blow stricken or one drop of Blood shed and that by so small a power as Monk's Army in the â—â—â—ginning was So Eminent was the Hand of God in all this Change § 68. Yet were there many prudent pious Men that feared greatly the return of the Prelates an exasperated Party that had been before subdued and as they saw that the Fanaticks would bring all to Confusion under
whom we have to do that our Business is to request you of the Clergy not to provoke the Law-givers to make any Law against this That it may not become a Crime to Men to pray together and provoke one another to Love and to good Works when it is no Crime to talk and play and drink and feast together And that it may be no Crime to repeat a Sermon together unless you resolve that they shall hear none which is worth their repeating and remembring And whereas you speak of opening a Gap to Sectaries for private Conventicles and the evil Consequents to the State we only desire you to avoid also the cherishing of Ignorance and Prophaneness and suppress all Sectaries and spare not in a way that will not suppress the means of Knowledge and Godliness As you will not forbid all praying or preaching lest we should have Sectarian Prayers or Sermons so let not all the People of the Land be prohibited such Assistance to each others Souls as Nature and Scripture oblige them to and all for fear of the Meetings of Sectaries We thought the Cautions in our Petition were sufficient when we confined it Subjectively to those of our Flocks and Objectively to their Duties of exhorting and provoking one another to Love and to good Works and of building up one another in their most holy Faith And only by religious peaceable means of furthering each other in the ways of eternal Life And for the Order They being not opposite to Church-Assemblies but subordinate nor refusing the Guidance and Inspection of their Pastors who may be sometime with them and prescribe them their Work and Way and direct their Actions and being responsible for what they do or say their Doors being open there will not want Witnesses against them if they do amiss And is not all this enough to secure you against the Fear of Sectaries unless all such Helps and mutual Comforts be forbidden to all that are no Sectaries This is but as the Papists do in another Case when they deny People Liberty to read the Scriptures lest they make Men Hereticks or Sectaries And for the Danger of the State cannot Men plot against it in Ale-houses or Taverns or Fields or under Pretence of Horse-Races Hunting Bowles or other Occasions but only under pretence of Worshipping God If they may why are not all Men forbidden to feast or bowl or hunt c. lest Sectaries make advantage of such Meetings as well as to fast and pray God and wise Men know that there is something more in all such Jealousies of Religious Duties § 4. Do you really desire that every Congregation may have an able godly Minister Then cast not out those many Hundreds or Thousands that are approved such for want of Re-ordination or for doubting whether Diocesans with their Chancellors c. may be subscribed to and set not up ignorant ungodly ones in their Places Otherwise the poor undone Churches of Christ will no more believe you in such Professions than we believed that those Men intended the King's just Power and Greatness who took away his Life But you know not what we mean by Residence nor how far we will extend that Word The Word is so plain that it 's easily understood by those that are willing But he that would not know cannot understand as King Charles told Mr. Henderson I doubt the People will quickly find that you did not understand us And yet I more fear lest many a Parish will be glad of Non-residence even if Priest and Curate and all were far enough from them through whose Fault I say not § 5. Two Remedies you give us instead of what we desired for the Reformation of Church-Communion 1. You say Confirmation if rightly and solemnly performed will alone be sufficient as to the point of Instruction Answ. But what we desired was necessary to the right and solemn Performance of it Doth not any Man that knoweth what hath been done in England and what People dwell there know that there are not more ignorant People in this Land than such as have had and such as desire Episcopal Confirmation Is it Sufficient in point of Instruction for a Bishop to come among a company of little Children and other People whom he he never saw before and of whom he never heard a Word and of whom he never asketh a Question which may inform him of their Knowledge or Life and presently to lay his Hands on them in order and hastily say over a few Lines of Prayer and so dismiss them I was confirmed by honest Bishop Morton with a multitude more who all went to it as a May-game and kneeled down and he dispatched us with that short Prayer so fast that I scarce understood one word he said much less did he receive any Certificate concerning us or ask us any thing which might tell him whether we were Christians and I never saw nor heard of much more done by any English Bishop in his course of Confirmation If you say that more is required in the Rubrick I say then it is no Crime for us to desire it 2. And for your Provision in the other Rubrick again scandalous Communicants it enableth not the Minister to put away any one of them all save only the malicious that will not just then be reconciled Be not angry with us if in sorrow of Heart we pray to God that his Churches may have experienced Pastors who have spent much time in serious dealing with every one of their Parishes personally and know what they are and what they need instead of Men that have conversed only with Books and the Houses of great Men or when they do sometimes stoop to speak to the ignorant do but talk to them of the Market or the Weather or ask them what is their Name § 6. To your Answer we reply Those Laws may be well made stricter They hindred not the Imposition of a Book to be read by all Ministers in the Churches for the Peoples Liberty for Dancing and other such Sports on the Lord's Day and this in the King's Name to the ejecting or suspending of those Ministers that durst not read it And those Laws which we have may be more carefully executed If you are ignorant how commonly the Lord's Day is prophaned in England by Sporting Drinking Revelling and Idleness you are sad Pastors that no better know the Flock If you know it and desire not the Reformation of it you are yet worse Religion never prospered any where so much as where the Lord's Days have been most carefully spent in holy Exercises Concerning Church-Government § 7. Had you well read but Gersom Bucer Didoclavius Parker Baynes Salmasius Blondell c. yea of the few Lines in Bishop Usher's Reduction which we have offered you or what I have written of it in Disp. 1. of Church-Government you would have seen just Reason given for our Dissent from the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy as stated in England and have known
said than never to hear it and also that it was said That this Baker was one that he had elected to be a Bishop This greatly troubled the King and he called for the Book that had the Catalogue of the Bishops which Secretary Nicholas brought and said there was no such Name But the King presently spied the Name and said There it was and charged that he should be enquired after The next day we learned that it was another Baker of the same Name with the Bishop And though we also learned that the Bishop himself was a Good-fellow yet because it was not the same Man I went the next day to Mr. Secretary Morrice and intreated him to certifie the King that it was another Baker that so the Bishop might receive no wrong by it which he promised to do Yet was it given out that we were Lyers and â—anderers that maliciously came to defame the Clergy And shortly after the Bishop put it into the News-Book That some Presbyterians had maliciously defamed him and that it was not he but another of his Name So that though the Fact was never questioned or denied yet was it a heinouser matter in us to say that it was reported to be an elect Bishop when it was as ancient a Priest of the same name than for the Man to preach and pray in his Drunkenness I never heard that he was rebuked for it but we heard enough of it § 147. Upon this Fact when we met and dined one day at the Lord Chamberlains among other talk of this Business I said That if I wished their hurt at one of their Enemies I should wish they were more such that their shame might cast them down Mr. Horton a young Man that was Chaplain to the Lord Chamberlain and then intended to conform answered That we must not wish evil that good may come of it To which I replyed There is no doubt of it far is it from me to say that I wish it but if I were their Enemy I could scarce wish them greater hurt and injury to their Cause than to set up such Men and that those are their Enemies whoever they be that perswade them to cast out learned godly Ministers and set up such in their room as these Yet did this Mr. Horton in his complying weakness to please that Party tell Dr. Bolton That I wished that they were all such And Dr. Bolton told it from Table to Table and published it in the Pulpit And when he was questioned for it alledged Mr. Horton as his Author When I went to Mr. Horton he excused it and said That he thought I hâ—d said so and when I told him of the additional words by which then I disclaimed such a sence he could not remember them and that was all the remedy I had though none of the Brethren present remembred any such words as he reported But when the Lord Chamberlain knew of it he was so much offended that I was fain to intercede for Mr. Horton that it might not prove any hurt to him And by this following Letter he exprest his distast For my esteemed Friend Mr. Baxter These SIR I Have just Cause to intreat your Excuse for so abrupt a breaking from you I confess I was under very great trouble for the folly of my Chaplain and could not forbear to express it to him I am concerned with a very true resentment for so imprudent a Carriage Let me intreat you that it may not reflect upon me but that you will believe that I have so great a value of you and am so tender of your Credit as I cannot easily pass by my Chaplain's indiscretion Yet I shall endeavour to clear you from any untrue Aspersions and shall approve my self Your assured Friend Ed. Manchester § 148. I shall next insert some account of the Business which I had so often with the Lord Chancellour at this time Because it was most done in the inter-space between the passing of the King's Declaration and the Debates about the Liturgy In the time of Cromwell's Government Mr. Iohn Elliot with some Assistant in new-New-England having learnt the Natives Language and Converted many Souls among them not to be baptized and forget their Names as well as Creed as it is among the Spaniards Converts at Mexico Peru c. but to serious Godliness it was found that the great hinderance of the progress of that Work was the Poverty and Barbarousness of the People which made many to live dispersed like wild Beasts in Wildernesses so that having neither Towns nor Food nor Entertainment fit for English Bodies few of them could be got together to be spoken to nor could the English go far or stay long among them Wherefore to build them Houses and draw them together and maintain the Preachers that went among them and pay School-masters to teach their Children and keep their Children at School c. Cromwell caused a Collection to be made in England in every Parish and People did contribute very largely And with the Money beside some left in stock was bought 7 or 800 l. per Annum of Lands and a Corporation chosen to dispose of the Rents for the furthering of the Works among the Indians This Land was almost all bought for the worth of it of one Colonel Beddingfield a Papist an Officer in the King's Army When the King came in Beddingfield seizeth on the Lands again and keepeth them and refuseth either to surrender them or to repay the Money because all that was done in Cromwell's time being now judged void as being without Law that Corporation was now null and so could have no right to Money or Lands And he pretended that he sold it under the worth in expectation of the recovery of it upon the King's return The President of the Corporation was the Lord Steele a Judge a worthy Man The Treasurer was Mr. Henry Ashurst and the Members were such sober godly Men as were best affected to New-Englands Work Mr. Ashurst being the most exemplary Person for eminent Sóbriety Self-denial Piety and Charity that London could glory of as far as publick Observation and Fame and his most intimate Friends Reports could testifie did make this and all other Publick Good which he could do his Business He called the Old Corporation together and desired me to meet them where we all agreed that such as had incurred the King's Displeasure by being Members of any Courts of Justice in Cromwell's days should quietly recede and we should try if we could get the Corporation restored and the rest continued and more fit Men added that the Land might be recovered And because of our other Business I had ready access to the Lord Chancellour they desired me to solicit him about it so Mr. Ashurst and I did follow the Business The Lord Chancelloor at the very first was ready to further us approving of the Work as that which could not be for any Faction or Evil end but honourable to
inconveniences he asked me whether I thought the inconveniences of Extemporary Prayer were not rather to be avoided than those of imposed Forms I told him that we should do our best to avoid the evils or abuse of both He asked me how that should be I answered him not by disclaiming the use of Forms or of conceived Prayer but using both in their proper seasons And as I was going on the Company fell into a laughter at me as if I had spoken for some foolish thing when I spoke but for that which the Ministers of England have used ever since the Reformation and most that have any Zeal do use by their allowance to this day praying Extempore in the Pulpit § 200. I oft made it my earnest request to them but that we might have our proper turns in speaking and that we might not interrupt one another but stay the end but I could never prevail especially with Bishop Morley who when any thing was spoken which he would not have to be spoken out would presently interrupt me and go on in his way I told them that if they took this Course I judged all our Conference fruitless to the hearers for my Speeches were not incoherent but the end and middle must be joyned to the beginning to make up the sence and that as the End is first in the intention but last in execution so I usually reserved the chief part of what I had to say to the last to which the beginning was but preparatory And therefore I had rather they forbad me to speak any more◠than let me begin and then not suffer me to go on any further The Bishop answered that I spake so long and had so many things that their memories could not retain them all and should lose the first if they stayed till the last and that I spake more than any other I told him that as to my speaking more than others it was my duty yea to speak as much as all the rest except when my Brethren saved me that labour If they thought I spake too much they would tell me so And for others one side was to speak as oft as the other side If we had consented that they should fill the room when we were but Three and then every one in the Room should speak as much as one of us we had made a fair bout of it I cared not how many of them spake if they were but willing to be answered But if five of them must speak and but one of them be answered they would say that all the rest were unanswerable And for my length I told him that we consented that one of themselves should be always in the Chair as they had been and whenever the Chair-man interrupted me and told me I had spoken long enough I was willing to be silent but that was never done or let us turn the Quarter-Glass and see that one speak no longer than the other And for the weakness of their memories I supposed they were on equal Terms It was as hard for us to remember what they said and if we could not we would either take Notes or ask another or pass by what we forgot rather than overthrow all Order in Discourse and speak in Confusion like People in a Fair. And for my part I thought that a continued Speech without vain words doth best spare time seeing that when I may thus set all the parts of my sence together when the broken parcels signifie nothing I can better make known my meaning in a Speech of half a quarter of an hour than in two days rambling Discourses where Interruptions and Interlocutions toss us up and down from thing to thing and never let us see the sence and reason of each others in that Connexion and Harmony which is its Light and Strength But all these words were cast away and they had seldom Patience to forbear an Interruption § 201. One learned Doctor behind me that was no Commissioner desired to be heard as if he had some unanswerable Argument And it was a Question Whether all that scrupled Conformity whom we pleaded for were not such as had been against the King I answered him 1. That the King himself had given sufficient Testimony of many of them 2. That there is not one Minister of twenty that we plead for that had ever any thing to do in the Wars or against the King most of them being then Boys at School or in the University 3. That Men on both sides had been against the King Hereupon Bishop Morley asked me whether ever I knew a conformable Man for the Parliament against the King Yes my Lord quoth I many a one Name one quoth some of them Yes a Bishop yea an Archbishop quoth I At which they all hearkened as at a wonder Do you not know quoth I that the Archbishop of York Dr. Williams sometime Lord Keeper of England was a Commander of the Forces for the Parliament in Wales At which they were silent and that Argument was at an end § 202. When I told them that if they cast out all the Non-conformits there would not be tolerable Ministers enow to supply the Congregations Bishop Morley answered that so it was in the late Times and that some Places had no Ministers at all through all those Times of Usurpation and named Aylesbury which he knew to have had none upon his own knowledge I told him that I never knew any such and therefore I knew there were not many such in England And if it were so I hoped that he would not plead for such a Mischief by the Example of the Usurpers But since I have enquired of the Inhabitants about Aylesbury and they unamously professed that it was notoriously false and named me the Ministers that had been there successively and usually two at once § 203. Also the said Bishop when I talkt of silencing Ministers for things indifferent told me That we should remember how we did by them and that we talkt not then as now we do I answered him That I was confident there was no Man there present that had ever a hand in silencing any of them For my own parts I had been in Judgment for casting out the utterly Insufficient and notoriously Scandalous indifferently of what Opinion or Side foever but I had publickly written against the silencing or displacing any worthy Man for being against the Parliament And if it had been otherwise he should take warning by others Faults and not imitate them and do evil because Cromwell did so § 204. Upon this Dr. Walton Bishop of Chester said Indeed Mr. Baxter did write against the Casting of us out But Mr. Baxter did not you say That if our Churches had no more than bare Liberty as others had without the compulsion of the Sword that none but Drunkards would joyn in them I answered No my Lord I did not I only said that as they had been ordered if they had but
against him 3. Lest they encourage Usurpers in these insolent Novelties and Corruptions which the ancient Churches never knew and came not into the Church till the Roman Papacy grew to some degree of Impudency in their Usurpations § 398. Yet these two things the Non-conformists are contented readily to do 1. To obey the Bishops Chancellors c. by meer Submission without an Oath in all things lawful To appear at their Courts and answer them with due reverence For they think that Subjection and Submission towards Usurpers greatly differ and that as in the late Cromwellian Usurpation in England many submitted as they would have done to a Robber whom they could not resist who yet would not swear Subjection nor do any thing which seemed to justifie his Usurpation or Title So here though they dare not state themselves by an Oath in the relation of Subjects to the Prelates yet they can obey them materially in lawful things 2. And they are willing to swear Obedience to them as they are the King's Officers commissioned by him to exercise such Coercive Power as belongeth to the Magistrate about Church Matters But not as they exercise the Power of the Keys in Absolving Excommunicating c. § 399. Object 1. It is but in licitis honestis that you swear to obey them And who will refuse things lawful and honest Answ. 1. But it is in the relation of our lawful Ordinaries that we are required to swear this Obedience to them It may be lawful and honest to do the things commanded when it is neither lawful nor honest to subject my self to the Commander as his Subject The most just Authority that is can command us nothing but licita honesta And if Cromwell or the Engaging piece of the Parliament had required me to swear Obedience to them in licitis honestis I think to have done it had been a subjecting my self to them as my Governours which had neither been licitum nor honestum If a Rebel now should usurp Authority against the King's will for the Government of Ireland or Scotland he that would go swear Obedience to him in licitis honestis I think would be disloyal 2. And it is Obedience according to the Canon which is their in licitis honestis And this is to Lay-Chancellors Exercise of the Keys and many other things which are supposed licita honesta but not yet proved to be so § 400. Object 2. What a Man may do he may swear to do But licita honesta a Man may do Ergo Answ. 1. I deny the Major as universally taken There is many a thing that may be done which may not be sworn Else you might swear to speak every word before you speak it and to do every trivial Action that you do 2. Some time the Oath reacheth further than the Act to be done even to the Relation in which it is done and the reason for which and this is the Case here So that here is a feigning of a false state of the Question which is not Whether we may swear to do licita honesta but whether we may swear to obey them as our lawful Ordinaries in licitis honestis 3. The Conclusion therefore might be granted without any Decision of the Controversie For the Question is not Whether we may swear to do such things but whether we may swear to obey those Men in that relation and to do those things sub formali ratione obedientiae Which their Loyalty to Christ their King they think prohibiteth What if you lived in a Popish Country would you swear to obey the Pope in licitis honestis If not you may see our Reasons while you give your own § 401. Object 3. The Scripture commandeth all Men to subject themselves one to another Answ. There is an Equivocation in the word subject The Text speaketh only of private submission and yielding to others voluntarily carrying our selves with that lowliness as Subjects do to their Rulers But this is nothing to publick relative stated subjection of which the Controversie is He would be but an ill Subject to the King or an ill Member of the Church who would make every man his King or his Pastor on this pretence that we must all subject our selves to each other § 402. Object 4. You are to swear Obedience to them only as Church-Magistrates appointed by the King Answ. That cannot be true because it is as our Ordinaries who have the power of Ordination Excommunication and Absolution and in the exercise of this power But the power of the Keys is not Magistratical § 403. V. The fifth Controversie is about Re-ordination Now in this the Nonconformists are the more shie 1. Because in our most Publick Meetings before the King and the Lords and the Bishops some of them as Dr. Gunning oft have openly declared that the Ordination which hath been in England without Bishops is null and those that were so Ordained without them are no Ministers but Lay-men And his Majesty himself hath signified openly his own Judgment accordingly that he would no more take the Sacrament from such then from Lay-men So that it being thus openly declared to be their sence and no one of their Bishops or Doctors contradicting it we have reason to think that by submitting to be Re-ordained Men do interpretatively confess the nullity of their former Ordination 2. And it is a new thing contrary to the Judgment and Practice of all the Reformed Churches 3. And there is a Canon among those called the Apostles which is express against it commanding the Deposition of the Ordainers and Ordained 4. I have fully proved in my Disputation of Church Government That the said Ordination without Diocesans is valid and better than the Prelates and was performed by such Bishops as were in Ignatius's days viz. City-Pastors who had Presbyters under them And no Man hath attempted to answer what I have there said 5. And at best to be Re-ordained seemeth but a taking of God's Name in vain and a solemn praying to God for that which they have already and a pretending de novo to receive that Authority which they had before And to come as upon a Stage thus ludicrously to play with holy Things to fulfil the Humours and confirm the claim of Usurpers is somewhat hard § 404. VI. The sixth Controversie is about the first Declaration I do here declare my unfeigned Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book entituled c. Here the Non-conformists have to do with two sorts the willing and the unwilling Conformists The first say that this Declaration may be lawfully made in its proper sence The Non-conformists refer you for the Answer of this to all their foregoing Exceptions against the Book besides what they have said against our Order of Diocesans and so against the Book of Ordination which asserteth three Orders as of Divine Institution And besides
Expressions And this Expedient I gather from my Lord Cook who hath providently as it were against such a season laid in this observation The â—orm of the Subscription set down in the Canons ratified by King James was not expressed in the Act of the 13th of Elizabeth Instit. p. 4. c. 74. And Consequently if the Clergy injoyed this freedom untill then in reference to the particulars therein contained what hinders why they might not have the same restored in reference also to others It is true that it may seem hard to many in the Parliament to undo any thing themselves have done But tho this be no Rule for Christians who are sometimes to repent as well as believe if they be loth to repent any thing what if they shall only Interpret or Explain Let us suppose then some Clause in this Bill or some new Act for Explanations If anâ— Nonconformist cannot come up to the full meaning and intent of these Injunctions rightly Explained let him remain in statu quo under the state only of Indulgence without benefit of Comprehension for so long as those who are not Comprehended may yet injoy that ease as to be indulged in some equal measure answerable to his Majestie 's Declaration whether Comprehension be large or narrow such Terms as we obtain are pure Advantage and such as we obtain not are no loss But if any does and can honestly agree to the whole sense the Parliament intends in such Impositions why should there be any Obstruction for such a Man tho he delivers himself in his own words to be received into the Established order with others Unless men will look on these Injunctions only to be contrived for â—â—gines of Battery to destroy the Nonconfromist And not as Instruments of Vnity to edify the Church of God I will not leave our Congregational Brethren neither so long as I have something more that may be said for them not ordinarily considered by any It is this that tho indeed they are not and cannot seek to be of our Churches as they are Parochial under the Diocess or Superintendency of the Bishops yet do they not refuse but seek to be comprehended within the Church as National under his Majesty I will explain my self The Church may be considered as Vniversal and so Christ alone is the head of it and we receive our Laws from him Or as Particular and so the Pastors are Heads Guides or Bishops over their respective flocks who are commanded therefore to obey them in the Lord Or as National which is an accidental and external respect to the Church of God wherein the King is to be acknowledged the supreme Head of it and as I judge no otherwise For thus also runs the statute That our Sovereign Lord shall be taken and reputed the only supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England called Ecclesia Anglicana Now if it should please the King and Parliament to allow and approve these Separate Meetings and Stated Places for Worship by a Law as His Majesty did by his Declaration I must profess that as such Assemblies by this means must be constituted immediately integral parts of the Church as National no less than our Parish Cougregations So would the Congregate Churches at least those that understand themselves own the King for Head over them in the same sense as we own him Head over ours that is as much as to say for the supreme coercive Governour of all in this accidental regard both to keep every several Congregation to that Gospel-order themselves profess and to supervise their Constitutions in things indifferent that nothing be done but in subordination to the peace of the Kingdom Well Let us suppose then a liberty for these separate Assemblies under the visitation of his Majesty and his Justices and not the Bishops I would fain know that were the Evil you can find in them If it lie in any thing it must be in that you call Schism Separation then let us know in it self simply considered is nothing neither good nor Evil. There may be reason to divide or separate some Christians from others out of prudence as the Cathechumens of old from the fully instructed for their greater Edification and as a Chappel or two is added to a Parish-Church when the people else were too big a Congregation It is not all Division then or Separation that is Schism but sinful Division Now the supreme Authority as National Head having appointed the Parochial Meetings and required all the Subjects of the Land to frequent them and them alone for the Acknowledging Glorifying or National serving and worshiping the only true God and his Son whom we have generally received And this Worship or Service in the nature of it being intrinsecally good and the external Order such as that of time and place and the like Circumstances being properly under his Jurisdiction it hath seemed to me hitherto that unless there was something in that order or way prescribed which is sinful and that required too as a Condition of that Communion there is no Man could refuse his attendance on these Parochial Assemblies without the sin of Disobedience and consequently his separation thereby becoming sinful proves Schism But if the Scene be altered and these separate Assemblies made Legal the Schism in reference to the National Church upon the same account does vanish Schism is a separation from that Church whereof we ought or are bound to be Members if the supreme Authority then loose our obligation to the Parish-Meeting so that we are bound no longer the iniquity I say upon this account is not to be found and the Schism gone Lo here a way opened for the Parliament if they please to rid the Trouble and Scruple of Schism at once out of the Land If they please not yet is there something to be thought on for the Separatist in a way of forbearance that the innocent Christian at least as it was in the time of Trajan may not be sought out unto Punishment Especially when such a toleration only is desired as is consistent with the Articles of Faith a Good Life and the Government of the Nation And now I turn me to the Houses My Lords and Gentlemen I will suppose you honest persons that would do as you would be done unto that would not wrong any or if you did would make them recompence There hath been very hard Acts passed which when the Bills were brought in might haply look smooth and fair to you but you saw not the Covert Art secret Machination and purposely contrived snares against one whole Party If such a form of words would not another should do their business By this means you in the first place your selves some of you were overstript Multitudes dispossest of their Livings The Vineyard Let out to others The Lord Jesus the Master of it deprived of many of his faithful Labourers And the poor sheep what had they done bereft of their accumstomed spiritual
against Scandalous Ministers he shews how by that means he came to be settled in the Town of Kidderminster as Lecturer to a scandalous Incumbent against whom a Petition had been presented to that Committee had â—e not consented to his Settlement under him p. 18 c. a sort of a Prediction of his in a Funeral Sermon preacht afterwards at Bridgnorth p. 20. His Temptations to Infidelity and to question the Truth of the Scriptures c. with the means of his being extricated out of them p. 21 c. a remarkable story of a false Accusation of one Mr. Cross a pious Minister in the Neighbourhood of Kidderminster as if he attempted to ravish a Woman with its detection p. 24. A return to the Proceedings of the Parliament and Account of the springs and rise of the Civil War to p. 29. The Case of the Country stated about the Civil Differences between King and Parliament and the Ecclesiastical Differences between the Prelatical and the Antiprelatical Party from p. 30. to p. 38. His own sense of and 〈◊〉 about this matter p. 39. Here he returns to the series of his own Life and relates a remarkable story of his preservation from the fury of the rabble at Kidderminster who were enrag'd upon the Churchwardens going to remove a Crucifix according to order of Parliament p. 40. upon the Peoples tumultuousness he retired to Gloucester where he first met with some of the Anabaptists p. 40 41. then he returns to Kidderminster where a little after some of Essexes Army quarter'd but they retiring before a part of the Kings Army and he finding the Rabble furious thought not his stay sase and so went with the Essexians to Worcester p. 42. October the 23 d 1640. the day of Edge-hill Fight he preacht at Alcester and the next day went to see the place of Battel p. 43. after this he went to Coventry where he continued a year preaching to the Town and Garrison p. 44. he went with some Country Gentlemen to Weâ—m and other places designing to leave Coventry but soon return'd thither again and stâ—y'd there another year having much trouble from Separatists Anabaptists and Antinomians p. 45. Of the laying the Earl of Essex aside and the new modelling the Army p. 47. Of the Scotch Covenant How far Prelacy was abjur'd in it as it was explain'd by the Assembly of Divines p. 48. of Cromwell's Interest in the new modell'd Army and the change of the old Cause p. 49. the Fight at Naseby and its Consequences p. 50. an Account of his first coming into the Army presently after that Fight the Principles and Temper he then found prevail amongst them p. 50 51. How he became a Chaplain to Col. Whalley's Regiment and upon what grounds and considerations p. 52. how strenuously he set himself to oppose the Sectaries in the Army p. 53. An Account of the several Marches and most remarkable Actions of the Army while he continued in it from p. 54. to p. 58. An Account of a Dispute he maintain'd for an whole day together with some of the Sectaries of the Army in the Church at Agmondesham in Buckinghamshire p. 56. His sickness forc't him to withdraw from the Army retiring from which he after several removes returns to Kidderminster p. 58. A further Account of the Proceedings of the Sectaries after he left the Army and of Oliver's intreagues p. 59. An Account of the King's treatment after his delivering himself to the Scots till he was forc't to fly to the Isle of Wight p. 60 61. of the Treaty that was on foot with the King while he was confin'd there and the Dispute between the Kings and Parliaments Divines concerning the Point of Episcopacy and his Iudgment about it p. 62. What follow'd afterwards till the King's Tryal and Execution p. 63. Of the Engagement his Iudgment of it and Preaching against it p. 64. What hindred Cromwell's advancement after the taking off the King p. 65. of King Charles the Second his being forc't by the Scots to take the Covenant before they would admit him to the Succession and his Iudgment thereupon p. 66. Of the Order of the Rump for all Ministers upon pain of Sequestration to pray to God for success for the Army advancing against the Scots and to return Thanks for their Victories and his Practice about it p. 66. Of the trouble of the Presbyterian Ministers in London on account of their adherence to the King and Mr. Love's Tryal p. 67. of Cromwell's march into Scotland and his Victory there the King's march into England and the Fight at Worcester p. 68 69. of what follow'd after till Cromwell became Protectour and the Iudgment of the generality of the Ministers as to the point of Submission to him p. 70 71. of the Triers of Ministers chosen by Cromwell p. 72. of the Assembly at Westminster p. 73. Of the several Sects which sprang up in these times Of the Vanists Sir Henry Vane's Character p. 74 75. Of the Seekers and Ranters p. 76. of the Quakers and Behmenists p. 77. of other Sect-Masters as Dr. Gell Mr. Parker Dr. Gibbon c. p. 78. From publick he then passes to his own personal Affairs And gives a full Account of the Sequestration of the Living of Kidderminster p. 79. An Account of his illness after his return thither and of several Answers of Prayer with reference thereto as also with reference to others p. 80 81 82. A particular account of his laborious work and diligent improvement of his time to the best advantage in his Masters service while at Kidderminster p. 83. the great success of his Ministerial Labours amongst that People p. 84 85. His great advantages in order to and in all this service p. 86 87 88 89 90. The Church Discipline kept up there p. 91 c. the difference that arose between him and Mr. Tombs and their publick Dispute at Bewdley p. 96. Cromwell's Death and Character p. 89. Of the setting up and deposing of Richard Cromwell with a Censure upon it p. 100 101. on which occasion a general Account is given of the Sectarian Party then grown rampant p. 102 c. Of Monk's coming to restore the King p. 105 c. A large account of his several Books and Writings The occasions of them and the opposition made against them from p. 106. to p. 124. A general Censure of his own Works p. 124. a Comparison between his younger and his riper years An account of his Sentiments about Controversial Writings His Temptations and Difficulties most considerable improvements and remaining defects from p. 124. to p. 136. a penitent Confession of his Faults p. 137. PART II. Written in 1665. HE begins with the Differences and Debates about Church Government in the late timesâ— and gives his Iudgment about the several Principles of the Erastians Prelatists Presbyterians Independants and Anabaptists shows what he approv'd and dislik'd in each mentions the many impediments on all â—ands to charitable
poor Plowmen understood but little of these Matters but a little would stir up their Discontent when Money was demanded But it was the more intelligent part of the Nation that were the great Complainers Insomuch that some of them denied to pay the Ship-money and put the Sheriffs to distrain the Sheriffs though afraid of a future Parliament yet did it in obedience to the King Mr. Hampden and the Lord Say brought it to a Suit where Mr. Oliver St. Iohn and other â—Lawyers boldly pleaded the Peoples Cause The King had before called all the Judges to give their Opinions Whether in a Case of need he might impose such a Tax or not And all of them gave their Opinion for the Affirmative except Judge Hatton and Judge Crook The Judgment passed for the King against Mr. Hampden But this made the Matter much more talk of throughout the Land and considered of by those that thought not much of the Importance of it before § 25. Some suspected that many of the Nobility of England did secretly Consederate with the Scots so far as to encourage them to come into England thinking that there was no other way to cause the Calling of a Parliament which was the thing that now they bent their minds to as the Remedy of these things The Earl of Essex the Earl of Warwick the Earl of Bedford the Earl of Clare the Earl of Bullingbrook the Earl of Mulgrave the Earl of Holland the Lord Say the Lord Brook and I know not how many more were said to be of this Conâ—ederacy But Heylin himself hath more truly given you the History of this That the Scots after they came in did perswade these Men of their own danger in England if Arbitrary Government went on and so they petitioned the King for a Parliament which was all their Consederacy and this was after their second Coming into England The Scots came with an Army and the King's Army met them near Newcastle but the Scots came on till an Agreement was made and a Parliament called and the Scots went home again But shortly after this Parliament so displeased the King that he Dissolved it and the War against the Scots was again undertaken to which besides others the Papists by the Queens means did voluntarily contribute whereupon the Scots complain of evil Counsels and Papists as the cause of their renewed dangers and again raise an Army and come into England And the English at York petition the King for a Parliament and once more it is resolved on and an Agreement made but neither the Scottish or English Army disbanded And thus began the Long Parliament as it was after called § 26. The Et caetera Oath was the first thing that threatned me at Bridgenorth and the second was the passage of the Earl of Bridgwater Lord President of the Marches of Wales through the Town in his Journey from Ludlow to the King in the North For his coming being on Saturday Evening the most malicious persons of the Town went to him and told him that Mr. Madestard and I did not sign with the Cross nor wear the Surplice nor pray against the Scots who were then upon their Entrance into England and for which we had no Command from the King but a printed Form of Prayer from the Bishops The Lord President told them That he would himself come to Church on the morrow and see whether we would do these things or not Mr. Madestard went away and left Mr. Swain the Reader and my self in the danger But after he had spoken for his Dinner and was ready to go to Church the Lord President suddenly changed his purpose and went away on the Lord's Day as far as Lichfield requiring the Accusers and the Bailiffs to send after him to inform him what we did On the Lord's Day at Evening they sent after him to Lichfield to tell him that we did not conform but though they boasted of no less than the hanging of us they received no other Answer from him but that he had not the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and therefore could not meddle with us but if he had he should take such order in the business as were fit And the Bailiffs and Accusers had no more wit than to read his Letter to me that I might know how they were baffled Thus I continued in my Liberty of preaching the Gospel at Bridgenorth about a year and three quarters where I took my Liberty though with very little Maintenance to be a very great mercy to me in those troublesome times § 27. The Parliament being sate did presently fall on that which they accounted Reformation of Church and State and which greatly displeased the King as well as the Bishops They made many long and vehement Speeches against the Ship-money and against the Judges that gave their Judgment for it and against the Et caetera Oath and the Bishops and Convocation that were the formers of it but especially against the Lord Thomas Wentworth Lord Deputy of Ireland and Dr. Laud Archbishop of Canterbury as the evil Counsellers who were said to be the Cause of all These Speeches were many of them printed and greedily bought up throughout the Land especially the Lord Falklands the Lord Digbies Mr. Grimstones Mr. Pims Mr. Nath. Fiennes c. which greatly increased the Peoples Apprehension of their Danger and inclined them to think hardly of the King's Proceedings but especially of the Bishops Particular Articles of Accusation were brought in against the Lord Deputy the Archbishop the Judges Bishop Wren Bishop Pierce and divers others The Concord of this Parliament consisted not in the Unanimity of the Persons for they were of several Tempers as to Matters of Religion but in the Complication of the Interest of those Causes which they severally did most concern themselves in For as the King had at once imposed the Ship-money on the Common-wealth and permitted the Bishops to impose upon the Church their displeasing Articles and bowing towards the Altar and the Book for Dancing on the Lord's Day and the Liturgy on Scotland c. and to Suspend or Silence abundance of Ministers that were conformable for want of this Super-canonical Conformity so accordingly the Parliament consisted of two sorts of Men who by the Conjunction of these Causes were united in their Votes and Endeavours for a Reformation One Party made no great matter of these Alterations in the Church but they said That if Parliaments were once down and our Propriety gone and Arbitrary Government set up and Law subjected to the Prince's Will we were then all Slaves and this they made a thing intolerable for the remedying of which they said every true English Man could think no price to dear These the People called Good Commonwealth's Men. The other sort were the more Religious Men who were also sensible of all these things but were much more sensible of the Interest of Religion and these most inveyed against the Innovations in the
and Formalists were not now broad enough nor of sufficient force The King's Party as their Serious Word called the Parliaments Party Rebels and as their common ludiâ—rous Name The Round-heads the original of which is not certainly known Some say it was because the Puritans then commonly wore short Hair and the King's Party long Hair Some sâ—y it was because the Queen at Strafford's Tryal asked who that Round-headed Man was meaning Mr. Pym because he spake so strongly The Parliaments Party called the other side commonly by the Name of Malignants as supposing that the generality of the Enemies of serious Godliness went that way in a desire to destroy the Religious out of the Land And the Parliament put that Name into their Mouths and the Souldiers they called Cavaliers because they took that Name to themselves and afterwards they called them Damme's because God Damn me was become a common Curse and as a By-word among them The King professed to sight for the Subjects Liberties the Laws of the Land and the Protestant Religion The Parliament profest the same and all their Commissions were granted as for King and Parliament for the Parliament professed that the Separation of the King from the Parliament could not be without a Destruction of the Government and that the Dividers were the Destroyers and Enemies to the State and if the Soldiers askt each other at any Surprize or Meeting who are you for those on the King's side said for the King and the others said for King and Parliament the King disowned their Service as a Scorn that they should say they fought for King and Parliament when their Armies were ready to charge him in the Field They said to this 1. That they fought to redeem him from them that took him a voluntary Captive and would separate him from his Parliament 2. That they fought against his Will only but not against his Person which they desired to rescue and preserve nor against his Authority which was for them 3. That as all the Courts of Justice do execute their Sentences in the King's Name and this by his own Law and therefore by his Authority so much more might his Parliament do § 52. But now we come to the main matter What satisfied so many of the intelligent part of the Countrey to side with the Parliament when the War began What inclined their Affections I have before shewed and it is not to be doubted but their Approbation of the Parliament in the cause of Reformation made them the easilier believe the lawfulness of their War But yet there were some Dissenters which put the matter to debates among themselves In Warwickshire Sir Francis Nethersole a religious Knight was against the Parliaments War and Covenant though not for the Justness of the War against them In Glocestershire Mr. Geree an old eminent Nonconformist and Mr. Copell a learned Minister who put out himself to prevent being put out for the Book of Recreations and some others with them were against the lawfulness of the War so was Mr. Lyford of Sherborn in Dorcetshire and Mr. Francis Bampfield his Successor and some other Godly Ministers in other Countries And many resolved to meddle on no side Those that were against the Parliaments War were of three Minds or Parties One Part thought that no King might be resisted but these I shall not take any more notice of The other thought that our King might not be at all resisted because he is our Sovereign and we have sworn to his Supremacy and if he be Supreme he hath neither Superior nor Equal And Oaths are to be interpreted in the strictest Sense The third sort granted that in some Cases the King might be resisted as Bilson and other Bishops hold but not in this Case 1. Because the Law giveth him the Militia which was contended for and the Law is the measure of Power 2. Because say they the Parliament began the War by permitting Tumults to deprive the Members of their Liberty and affront and dishonour the King 3. Because the Members themselves are Subjects and took the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and therefore have no Authority to resist 4. It is not lawful for Subjects to defend Reformation or Religion by Force against 〈◊〉 Soveraigns no such good Ends will warrant evil Means 5. It is contrary to the Doctrine of Protestants and the ancient Christians and Scripture it selfe which condemneth all that resist the higher Powers and as for the Primitive Christiansâ— it is well known they were acquainted with no other lawful Weapons against them but Prayers and Tears 6. It importeth a false Accusation of the King as if he were about to destroy Religion Liberties or Parliaments all which he is resolved to defend as in all his Declarations doth appear 7. It justifieth the Papists Doctrine and Practices of Rebellion and taketh the Odium from them unto our selves and layeth a Reproach upon the Protestant Cause 8. It proceedeth from Impatience and Distrust of God which causeth Men to fly to unlawful means Religion may be preserved better by patient Sufferings These were their Reasons who were against the Parliaments War which may be seen more at large in Mr. Dudly Digs his Book and Mr. Welden's and Mr. Michael Hudson's and Sir Francis Nethersole's § 53. As for those on the Parliaments side I will first tell you what they said to these Eight Reasons and next what Reasons moved them to take the other side 1. To the First Reason they said as before that for the Law to give the King the â—â—â—â—itia signifieth no more but that the People in Parliament consented to obey him in Matter of Wars and to fight for him and under his Conduct For the Law is nothing but the Consent of King and Parliament and the Militia is nothing but the Peoples own Swords and Strength And that this Consent of theirs should be supposed to be meant against themselves as if they consented to destroy themselves whenever he commanded it is an Exposition against Nature Sense and Reason and the common Sentiments of Mankind And they said that the same Law required Sheriffs to exercise the Militia in Obedience to the Decrees of his Courts of Justice and this against the King's Personal Commands and in the King's Name Because King and Parliament have by Law setled those Courts and Methods of Execution a Command of the King alone can no more prevail against them than it can abrogate a Law And the Law said they is above the King because King and Parliament are more than the King alone And they pretend also Presidents for their Resistance 2. To the Second they said that when 200000 Protestants were murdered in Ireland and their Friends so bold in England and the Parliaments Destruction so industruously endeavoured it was no time for them to rebuke their Friends upon terms of Civility and good Manners though their Zeal was mixt with Indiscretion and that if the Londoners had not shewed that Zeal
for them it might have emboldned their Enemies against them and that if the permitting of Petitioners to crowd to them too boldly and speak too unmannerly can be called the raising of a War when they fought with none but were assaulted themselves then the calling up of the Army from the North was much more so and so they were not the Beginners Or had they been the Beginners it had been lawful being but to bring Delinquents to Justice as the Sheriff himself may in Obedience to a Court of Justice But the Irish Flames which threatned them were kindled before all these 3. To the third they said that the Parliament are Subjects limitedly and not simply as the King is not an absolute but a limited King viz. limited by the Laws and Constitutions of the Government they are Subjects to him according to Law but not subject to Arbitrary Government against Law Their Propriety is excepted in their Subjection and they have certain Liberties which are not subject to the Will of the King And also they said That as the Sheriff is a Subject and a Court of Justice Subjects and yet may resist the King's Letters even under the Broad-Seal and his Messengers or armed Men that act illegally because the Law which hath his Authority and the Parliament's enable them so to do so also may the Parliament which is his highest Court of Justice And they said that as they have a part in the Legislative Power they have part in the Summa Potesâ—â—as and so far are not Subjects And they said that the bare Title of Supreme is no Argument against the Constitution of a Kingdom though it be expressed in an Oath For the King is stiled the Supreme Governor of France and yet the Oath of Supremacy doth not bind us to believe that no French Man may lawfully â—ear Arms against him 4. They say to the fourth That they wholly grant it that though Religion may be the end of a lawful War yet not of a Rebellion nor may any Reformations be performed by any Actions which belong not to the Places and Callings of the Performers But where the means are Lawful Religion and Reformation are lawful Ends. 5. To the fifth they said That they agree with all good Christians and Protestants that true Authority may not be resisted by any Subject But all Protestants or most agree with them that a limited Governor which hath not Authority to do what he lists may perform an Act of Will which is no Act of Authority and that the Parliament was the highest Judicature and that it was Rebellion in them that resisted the Parliament in their legal prosecution of Delinquents and Defence of the Land and themselves and that Paul Rom. 13. determineth not at all whether the Emperors or the Senate was the higher Power and that the Resisters of the Parliament are the condemned Breakers of that Order and Command 6. To the sixth they said that they Charge nothing on the King but what their Eyes behold viz. That he hath forsaken his Parliament and raiseth Arms against them and protecteth Delinquents And this they mention but as Matter of Fact for the culpability they charge upon his evil Counsellors and Instruments For the King being no Subject is liable to no Accusations in any of his 〈…〉 Irish the Papist and those guilty Persons who would ruine all to 〈…〉 Justice whom they accuse and not the King And whateve◠〈…〉 King 's Declarations say Ship-money hath been imposed the Judges have been 〈◊〉 the German Horse were to have been brought in the Northern Army 〈◊〉 have been brought up against the Parliament the House was invaded and 〈◊〉 Members demanded a Guard was set upon them and their Destruction 〈◊〉 Enemies was powerfully endeavoured 7. 〈◊〉 the seventh they said That for the supreme legislative Authority to defend 〈◊〉 and the Land and for the King's Courts of Justice to prosecute Delinâ—◠〈◊〉 though against the King's Will is no dishonour to the Protestant Religion 〈◊〉 any thing like the Papists Doctrine and Practices of Rebellion nor any Justification of them If it were then the very Constitution of our ancient Government or Kingdom would it self be a dishonour to our Religion 8. To the last they say That Patience is our Duty so far as we are called to Sufferings and God is â—o be trusted in the way which he hath appointed us But if the Irish Rebels had foretold the Parliament and Justices of their Insurrection and then exhorted them to Patience and Non-resistance and trusting God or if a Thief that would rob us to exhort us to be patient and not resist he doth but exhort us to be guilty of his Sin 〈◊〉 Protestants Patience was that which pleased the Irish or if a King must be brought in as a Party the French Mens Patience in the Parisian Massacre pleased Charles IX and the Executioners And if in all Countries the Protestants would let the Papists cut their Throats and die in the Honour of Patience it would satisfie those bloody Adversaries who had rather we died in such Honour than lived without it But if such Patience would be a poor Excuse for a Father that sought not to preserve his Children much less for the Paliament that stand still while Papists and Delinquents subvert both Church and State These were their Answers to their Accusers in those Points § 54. The Sum of those Reasons which satisfied many that adhered to the Parliament were these which I will but briefly name 1. As to the Danger of the State the Matters of Fact did make it seem undeniable to them Ship-money they judged not of according to the Sum but they thoughtâ— Propriety was thereby destroyed and Parliaments cast aside and made unnecessary And they saw that this Parliament was called upon the Scots and then called Discontented Lords importunity after many Parliaments had been dissolved in displeasure and after they had been long forborn And the calling up of the Northern Army and the demanding of the Members made Multitudes think that the ruine of the Parliament was the great Design and their ungrateful beginning and proceedings made this seem credible so that I met with few of that sort that doubted of it But above all the Two hundred thousand kill'd in Ireland affrighted the Parliament and all the Land And whereas it is said that the King hated that as well as they They answered that though he did his hating it would neither make all those alive again nor preserve England from their threatned Assault as long as Men of the like malignity were protected and could not be kept out of Arms nor brought to Justice 2. The End of the War did much prevail with them For they thought that to master and destroy the Parliament was to leave the People hopeless as to any Security of their Propriety or Liberties or any Remedy against meer Will For there is no other Power that may relieve them And if Parliaments
made haste and were upon them before they were well resolved what to do and the hearts of the Citizens failed them and were divided and they submitted to the Army and let them enter the City in triumph Whereupon Massey and Hollis and others of the accused Members fled into France of whom Sir Philip Stapleton died of the Plague near Calice and now the Army promised themselves an obedient Parliament but yet they were not to their mind § 89. Here I must look back to the Course and Affairs of the King who at the Siege of Oxford having no Army left and knowing that the Scots had more Loyalty and Stability in their Principles than the Sectaries resolved to cast himself upon them and so escaped to their Army in the North. The Scots were very much troubled at this Honour that was cast upon them for they knew not what to do with the King To send him back to the English Parliament seemed unfaithfulness when he had cast himself upon them To keep him they knew would divide the Kingdoms and draw a War upon themselves from England whom now they knew themselves unable to resist They kept him awhile among them with honourable Entertainment till the Parliament sent for him and they saw that the Sectaries and the Army were glad of it as an occasion to make them odious and to invade their Land And so the terrour of the Conquering Army made them deliver him to the Parliaments Commissioners upon two Conditions 1. That they should promise to preserve his Person in Safety and Honour according to the Duty which they owed him by their Allegiance 2. That they should presently pay the Scots Army one half the Pay which was due to them for their Service which had been long unpaid to make them odious to the Country where they quartered Hereupon the King being delivered to the Parliament they appointed Colonel Richard Greaves Major General Richard Brown with others to be his Attendants and desired him to abide awhile at Homeby-House in Northamptonshire While he was here the Army was hatching their Conspiracy And on the sudden one Cornet Ioyce with a party of Soldiers fetcht away the King notwithstanding the Parliaments Order for his Security And this was done as if it had been against Cromwell's Will and without any Order or Consent of theirs But so far was he from losing his Head for such a Treason that it proved the means of his Preâ—erment And so far was Cromwell and his Soldiers from returning the King in Safety that they detained him among them and kept him with them till they came to Hampton Court and there they lodged him under the Guard of Col. Whalley the Army quarterring all about him While he was here the mutable Hypocrites first pretended an extraordinary Care of the King's Honour Liberty Safety and Conscience They blamed the Austerity of the Parliament who had denied him the Attendance of his own Chaplains and of his Friends in whom he took most pleasure They gave Liberty for his Friends and Chaplains to come to him They pretended that they would save him from the Incivilities of the Parliament and Presbyterians Whether this were while they tried what Terms they could make with him for themselves or while they acted any other part it is certain that the King 's old Adherents began to extol the Army and to speak against the Presbyterians more distastfully than before When the Parliament offered the King Propositions for Concord which Vane's Faction made as high and unreasonable as they could that they might come to nothing the Army forsooth offer him Proposals of their own which the King liked better But which of them to treat with he did not know At last on the sudden the Judgment of the Army changed and they began to cry for Iustice against the King and with vile Hypocrisie to publish their Repentance and cry God Mercy for their Kindness to the King and confess that they were under a Temptation But in all this Cromwell and Ireton and the rest of the Council of War appeared not The Instruments of all this Work must be the Common Soldiers Two of the most violent Sectaries in each Regiment are chosen by the Common Soldiers by the Name of Agitators to represent the rest in these great Affairs All these together made a Council of which Col. Iames Berry was the President that they might be used ruled and dissolved at pleasure No man that knew them will doubt whether this was done by Cromwell's and Ireton's Direction This Council of Agitators take not only the Parliaments Work upon themselves but much more They draw up a Paper called The Agreement of the People as the Model or Form of a New Commonwealth They have their own Printer and publish abundance of wild Pamphlets as changeable as the Moon the thing contrived was an Heretical Democracy When Cromwell had awhile permitted them thus to play themselves partly to please them and confirm them to him and chiefly to use them in his demolishing Work at last he seemeth to be so much for Order and Government as to blame them for their Disorder Presumption and Headiness as if they had done it without his Consent This emboldeneth the Parliament not to Censure them as Rebels but to rebuke them and prohibit them and claim their own Superiority And while the Parliament and the Agitators are contending a Letter is secretly sent to Col. Whalley to intimate that the Agitators had a design suddenly to surprize and murder the King Some think that this was sent from a real Friend but most think it was contrived by Cromwell to affright the King out of the Land or into some desperate Course which might give them Advantage against him Collonel Whalley sheweth the Letter to the King which put him into much fear of such ill governed Hands so that he secretly got Horses and slipt away towards the Sea with two of his Confidents only who coming to the Sea near Southampton found that they were disappointed of the Vessel expected to transport them and so were fain to pass over into the Isle of Wight and there to commit his Majesty to the Trust of Collonel Robert Hammond who was Governor of a Castle there A Day or two all were amazed to think what was become of the King and then a Letter from the King to the House acquainted them that he was fain to fly thither from the Cruelty of the Agitators who as he was informed thought to murder him and urging them to treat about the ending all these Troubles But here Cromwell had the King in a Pinfold and was more secure of him than before § 90. The Parliament and the Scots and all that were loyal and soberminded abhorred these traiterous Proceedings of Cromwell and the sectarian Army but saw it a Matter of great difficulty to resist them but the Conscience of their Oath of Allegiance and Covenant told them that they were bound to hazard their
Lives in the attempt The three Commanders for the Parliament in Pembrookshire raised an Army against them viz. Major General Langhorn Collonel Powel and Collonel Poyer The Scots raised a great Army under the Command of the Duke of Hamilton The Kentish Men rose under the Command of the Lord Goring and others and the Essex Men under Sir Charles Lucas But God's time was not come and the Spirit of Pride and Schism must be known to the World by its Effects Duke Hamilton's Army was easily routed in Lancashire and he taken and the scattered Parts pursued till they came to nothing Langhorn with the Pembrookshire Men was totally routed by Collonel Horton and all the chief Commanders being taken Prisoners it fell to Collonel Poyer's Lot to be shot to Death The Kentish Men were driven out of Kent into Essex being foiled at Maidstone And in Colchester they endured a long and grievous Siege and yielding at last Sir Charles Lucas and another or two were shot to Death and thus all the Succors of the King were defeated § 91. Never to this time when Cromwell had taught his Agitators to govern and could not easily unteach it them again there arose a Party who adhered to the Principles of their agreement of the People which suited not with his Designs And to make them odious he denominated them Levellers as if they intended to level Men of all Qualities and Estates while he discountenanced them he discontented them and being discontented they endeavoured to discontent the Army and at last appointed a Randezvouz at Burford to make Head against him But Cromwell whose Diligence and Dispatch was a great Cause of his Successes had presently his Brother Desborough and some other Regiments ready to surprise them there in their Quarters before they could get their Numbers together So that about 1500 being scattered and taken and some slain the Levellers War was crusht in the Egg and Thompson one of Captain Pitchford's Corporals aforementioned who became their chief Leader was pursued near Wielingborough in Northamptonshire and there slain while he defended himself § 92. As I have past over many Battles Sieges and great Actions of the Wars as not belonging to my purpose so I have passed over Cromwell's March into Scotland to help the Covenanters when Montross was too strong for them and I shall pass over his Transportation into Ireland and his speedy Conquest of the remaining Forces and Fortresses of that Kingdom his taking the Isles of Man of Iersey Garnsey and Scilly and such other of his Successes and speak only in brief of what he did to the change of the Government and to the exalting of himself and of his Confidents And I will pass over the Londoners Petitions for the King and their Carriage towards the House which looked like a force and exasperated them so that the Speakers of both Houses the Earl of Manchester and Mr. Lenthall did with the greater part of the present Members go forth to Cromwell and make some kind of Confederacy with the Army and took them for their Protectors against the Citizens Also their votings and unvoting in these Cases c. § 93. The King being at the Isle of Wight the Parliament sent him some Propositions to be consented to in order to his Restoration The King granted many of them and some he granted not The Scottish Commissioners thought the Conditions more dishonourable to the King than was consistant with their Covenant and Duty and protested against them for which the Parliament blamed them as hinderers of the desired Peace The chiefest thing which the King stuck at was the utter abolishing of Episcopacy and alienating theirs and the Dean and Chapters Lands Hereupon with the Commissioners certain Divines were sent down to satisfie the King viz. Mr. Steph. Marshall Mr. Rich. Vines Dr. Lazarus Seaman c. who were met by many of the King 's Divines Archbishop Usher Dr. Hammond Dr. Sheldon c. The Debates here being in Writing were published and each Party thought they had the better and the Parliaments Divines came off with great Honour But for my part I confess these two things against them though Persons whom I highly honoured 1. That they seem not to me to have answered satisfactorily to the main Argument fetcht from the Apostles own Government with which Saravia had inclined me to some Episcopacy before though Miracles and Infallibility were Apostolical temporary Priviledges yet Church Government is an ordinary thing to be continued And therefore as the Apostles had Successors as they were Preachers I see not but that they must have Successors as Church Governors And it seemeth unlikely to me that Christ should settle a Form of Government in his Church which was to continue but for one Age and then to be transformed into another Species Could I be sure what was the Government in the Days of the Apostles themselves I should be satisfied what should be the Government now 2. They seem not to me to have taken the Course which should have setled these distracted Churches Instead of disputing against all Episcopacy they should have changed Diocesan Prelacy into such an Episcopacy as the Conscience of the King might have admitted and as was agreeable to that which the Church had in the two or three first Ages I confess Mr. Vines wrote to me as their excuse in this and other Matters of the Assembly that the Parliament tied them up from treating or disputing of any thing at all but what they appointed or proposed to them But I think plain dealing with such Leaders had been best and to have told them this is our Iudgment and in the matters of God and his Church we will serve you according to our Judgment or not at all But indeed if they were not of one Mind among themselves this could not be expected Archbishop Usher there took the rightest course who offered the King his Reduction of Episcopacy to the form of Presbytery And he told me himself that before the King had refused it but at the Isle of Wight he accepted it and as he would not when others would so others would not when he would And when our present King Charles II. came in we tendered it for Union to him and then he would not And thus the true moderate healing terms are always rejected by them that stand on the higher Ground though accepted by them that are lower and cannot have what they will From whence it is easy to perceive whether Prosperity or Adversity the Highest or the Lowest be ordinarily the greater Hinderer of the Churches Unity and Peace I know that if the Divines and Parliament had agreed for a moderate Episcopacy with the King some Presbyterians of Scotland would have been against it and many Independants of England and the Army would have made i◠the matter of odious Accusations and Clamours But all this had been of no great regard to remove foreseeing judicious Men from those healing Counsels which must
from their Houses and more such Penalties which I remember not so short Lived a Commonwealth deserved no long Remembrance Mr. Vines and Dr. Rainbow and many more were hereupon put out of their Headships in the Universities and Mr. Sidrach Sympson and Mr. Io. Sadler and such others put in yea such a Man as Mr. Dell the Chaplain of the Army who I think neither understood himself nor was understood by others any farther than to be one who took Reason Sound Doctrine Order and Concord to be the intollerable Maladies of Church and State because they were the greatest Strangers to his Mind But poor Dr. Edward Reignolds had the hardest Measure for when he refused to take the Engagement his Place was forfeited and afterwards they drew him to take it in hopes to keep his Place which was no less than the Deanarie of Christ's-Church and then turned him out of all and offered his Place to Mr. Ios. Caryll but he refusing it it was conferred on Dr. Owen to whom it was continued from year to year And because the Presbyterians still urged the Covenant against killing the King and pulling down the Parliament and setting up a Commonwealth and taking the Engagement some of the Independent Brethren maintained that its Obligation ceased because it was a League and the Occasion of it ceased And some of the Rump said it was like an Almanack out of date and some of the Souldiers said they never took it and others of them railed at it as a Scottish Snare So that when their Interest would not suffer them to keep so solemn a Vow their Wills would not suffer their Judgments to confess it to be Obligatory at least as to the part which they must violate § 100. For my own part though I kept the Town and Parish of Kiderminster from taking the Covenant and seeing how it might become a Snare to their Consciences yea and most of Worcestershire besides by keeping the Ministers from offering it in any of the Congregations to the People except in Worcester City where I had no great Interest and know not what they did yet I could not judge it seemly for him that believed there is a God to play fast and loose with a dreadful Oath as if the Bonds of National and Personal Vows were as easily shak'd off as Sampson's Cords Therefore I spake and preach'd against the Engagement and dissuaded Men from taking it The first hour that I heard of it being in Company with some Gentlemen of Worcestershire I presently wrote down above twenty Queries against it intending as many more almost against the Obligation as those were about the Sense and Circumstances And one that was present got the Copy of them and shortly after I met with them verbatim in a Book of Mr. Henry Hall's as his own one that was long imprisoned for writing against Cromwell Some Episcopal Divines that were not so scrupulous it seems as we did write for it private Manuscripts which I have seen and plead the irresistability of the Imposers and they found starting holes in the Terms viz. That by the Common-wealth they will mean the present Commonwealth in genere and by Established they will mean only de facto and not de jure and by without a King c. they mean not quatenus but Etsi and that only de facto pro tempore q. d. I will be true to the Government of England though at the present the King and House of Lords are put out of the Exercise of their power These were the Expositions of many Episcopal Men and others that took it But I endeavoured to evince that this is meer jugling and jesting with Matters too great to be jested with And that as they might easily know that the Imposers had another sense so as easily might they know that the words in their own obvious usual sense among men must be taken as the Promise or Engagement of a Subject as such to a Form of Government now pretended to be established And that the Subjects Allegiance or Fidelity to his Rulers can be acknowledged and given in no plainer words And that by such Interpretations and Stretchings of Conscience any Treasonable Oath or Promise may be taken and no Bonds of Society can signifie much with such Interpreters § 101. England and Ireland being thus Conquered by Cromwell by deluding well-meaning Men into his Service and covering his Ambition with the Lord Fairfax's Generalship the Parliament being imprisoned and cast out the King cut off and the Rump established as a new Commonwealth those great and solid Men Pim Hampden c. being long before dead and rid out of his way who else had been like to have prevailed against the Plots of Vane in the Parliament you would think there were nothing now standing in his way to hinder him from laying hands upon the Crown But four Impediments yet stood before him 1. The numerous Cavaliers or Royalists ready for new Enterprizes against him 2. The Scots who resolved to stick to the Covenant and the King 3. The Army which must be untaught all the Principles which he is now permitting them to learn For those Principles which must bring him to the Crown are the worst in the World for him when once he is there 4. The Ministers of England and Scotland and all the sober People who regarded them The first of these he most easily though not without strugling overcame making his advantage by all their Enterprizes The second put him harder to it but he overcame them at last The third proved yet a greater difficulty but he seemed absolutely to overcome it yet leaving still some Life in the root The fourth strove against him more calmly and prudently with invincible Weapons and though they were quiet were never overcome but at last revived the spark of Life which was left in the third and thereby gave a Resurrection to the first and second and so recovered all at last not to the state of their own Interest or to that Condition of Church Affairs which they desired but to that Civil State of Royal Government to which they were engaged and from which the Nation seemed to have fallen These are the true Contents of the following parts that were acted in these Lands The Rump I might mention as another of his Impediments but as they now were doing his work so I conjoyn the Relicts of them which then disturbed him with the Army who were the strength by which they did it § 102. The King being dead his Son was by right immediately King and from that time he dateth his Reign The Scots send Messengers to him to come over to them and take the Crown But they treat with him first for his taking of the Covenant and renouncing the Wars and the Blood that was shed in them by his Fathers Party By which I perceive that the Scots understood the Clause in the Covenant of Defending the King's Person and Authority in the Defence
of the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdom otherwise than we did For as they extended the word true Religion further than we did including the Form of Church Government in Scotland so they seem to understand it Conjunctione inseparabili and to prefer the Defence of Religion before the Defence of the King whereas we understood it Conjunctione seperabili and though in meer estimation we preferred Religion before King or Kingdom yet in regard of the Duty of Defence we thought the King must be restored and defended though legally he would have brought in worse than Prelacy Though we did not think that he might do it illegally and therefore that he could not govern Arbitrarily nor take away the Peoples fore-prized Propriety or Liberty nor change the Form of the Government of the Commonwealth But those that thought otherwise said That there is no power but from God and therefore none against him or above him and therefore none against or above his Laws which how true soever seemeth not at all to decide our Case For though it follow never so much that such Acts against God are not Acts of Authority yet the same Person that hath not Authority to do this may have Authority in other matters and may be our rightful Governour and therefore must be obeyed in all things lawful though not in this and his Person defended And therefore how they could refuse to receive the King till he consented to take the Covenant I know not unless the taking of the Covenant had been a Condition on which he was to receive his Crown by the Laws or Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom which none pretendeth Nor know I by what power they can add any thing to the Coronation Oath or Covenant which by his Ancestors was to be taken without his own Consent But in their Zeal for the Church the Scots did cause the King when he was come over to them not only mutat is mutandis to take the Covenant but also to publish a Declaration to the World that he did it voluntarily and heartily and that he lamented the Sins of his Father's House acknowledging the Guilt of the Blood of the late Wars c. In all which it seemed to me and many others that they miscarried divers ways 1. In imposing Laws upon their King for which they had no Authority 2. In forcing him to dishonour the Memory of his Father by such Consessions 3. In tempting him to speak and publish that which they might easily know was contrary to his heart and so to take God's Name in vain 4. And in giving Cromwell occasion to charge them all with dissimulation § 103. What Transactions there were between the King and the Scots for the Expediting of his Coronation and what Preparations were made for an Army to defend him and what Differences among the Parties hereabouts I shall not describe there being enow of them that were upon the place who can do it better But to return to England as soon as they understood what the Scots had done the Sectaries in England reproached them as Fools and Hypocrites that by such a Pageantry mockt themselves and would make the People believe that the King was turned Presbyterian and was a Cordial Covenanter when they had forced him to say and do that which they might well know he did abhor And they presently resolve to invade the Scots to keep them from invading England and not to stay till they came in upon this Land as heretofore So that Cromwell is in Scotland with his Army before they were well setled in their Affairs This much increased the alienation of the Peoples hearts from the Cromwellians for though they might suppose that the Scots intended to bring the King into England yet few believed that he might begin with them by an Invasion it being too much to have resisted them at home § 104. When the Soldiers were going against the King and Scots I wrote Letters to some of them to tell them of their Sin and desired them at last to begin to know themselves it being those same men that have so much boasted of Love to all the Godly and pleaded for tender dealing with them and condemned those that persecuted them or restrained their Liberty who are now ready to imbrue their Swords in the Blood of such as they acknowledge to be Godly and all because they dare not be perjured or disloyal as they are Some of them were startled at these Letters and O blindness thought me an uncharitable Censurer that would say that they could kill the Godly even when they were on their march to do it For how bad soever they spake of the Cavaliers and not without too much desert as to their Morals they confessed that abundance of the Scots were godly Men. And afterward those that I wrote to better understood me § 105. At the same time the Rump or Commonwealth who so much abhorred Persecution and were for Liberty of Conscience made an Order that all Ministers should keep their days of Humiliation to fast and pray for their Success in Scotland and that we should keep their Days of Thanksgiving for their Victories and this upon pain of Sequestration so that we all expected to be turned out but they did not execute it upon any save one in our parts For my part instead of praying and preaching for them when any of the Committee or Soldiers were my hearers I laboured to help them to understand what a Crime it was to force men to pray for the Success of those that were violating their Covenant and Loyalty and going in such a Cause to kill their Brethren And what it was to force Men to give God thanks for all their Bloodshed and to make God's Ministers and Ordinances vile and serviceable to such Crimes by forcing Men to run to God on such Errands of Blood and Ruine And what it is to be such Hypocrites as to persecute and cast out those that preach the Gospel while they pretend the advancement of the Gospel and the liberty of tender Consciences And what a means it was to debauch all Consciences and leave neither tenderness nor honesty in the World when the Guides of the Flocks and Preachers of the Gospel shall be noted to swallow down such heinous Sins My own Hearers were all satisfied with my Doctrine but the Committee Men look sowre but let me alone And the Soldiers said I was so like to Love that I would not be right till I was shorter by the Head Yet none of them ever medled with me farther than by the Tongue nor was I ever by any of them in those times forbidden or hindered to preach one Sermon except only one Assize-Sermon which the High Sheriff had desired me to preach and afterward sent me word to â—orbear as from the Committee saying That by Mr. Moor's means the Independent Preacher at the Colledge the Committee told him that they desired me to forbear and not
to preach before the Judges because I preached against the State But afterward they excused it as done meerly in kindness to me to keep me from running my self into danger and trouble § 106. Not far from this time the London Ministers were called Traitors by the Rump and Soldiers for plotting for the King a strange kind of Treason because they had some Meetings to contrive how to raise some small Sum of Money for Massey's relief who was then in Scotland And some false Brother discovered them and eight of them were sent to the Tower Mr. Arthur Iackson Dr. Drake Mr. Watson Mr. Love Mr. Ienkins c. and Mr. Nalson and Mr. Caughton fled into Holland where one died but the other returned and lived to suffer more by them he suffered for Mr. Love was tried at a Court of Justice where Edm. Prideaux a Member and Sollicitor for the Commonwealth did think his Place allowed him to plead against the Life and Blood of the Innocent Mr. Love was condemned and beheaded dying neither timerously nor proudly in any desperate Bravado but with as great alacrity and fearless quietness and freedom of Speech as if he had but gone to Bed and had been as little concerned as the standers by An honest Gentleman was beheaded with him for the same Cause And at the time of their Execution or very near it on that day there was the dreadfullest Thunder and Lightning and Tempest that was heard or seen of a long time before This Blow sunk deeper towards the Root of the New Commonwealth than will easily be believed and made them grow odious to almost the Religious Party in the Land except the Sectaries Though some malicious Cavaliers said it was good enough for him and laught at it as good News for now the People would not believe that they sought the promoting of the Gospel who killed the Ministers for the Interest of their Faction And there is as Sir Walter Rawleigh noteth of Learned Men such as Demosthenes Cicero c. so much more in Divines of famous Learning and Piety enough to put an everlasting odium upon those whom they suffer by though the Cause of the Sufferers were not justifiable Men count him a vile and detestable Creature who in his passion or for his interest or any such low account shall deprive the World of such Lights and Ornaments and cut off so much excellency at a blow and be the Persecutors of such worthy and renowned Men. Though the rest of the Ministers were released upon Mr. Ienkins's Recantation and Confession that God had now convinced him that he ought to submit to the present Government Yet after this the most of the Ministers and good People of the Land did look upon the New Commonwealth as Tyranny and were more alienated from them than before § 107. The Lord Fairfax now laid down his Commission and would have no more of the Honour of being Cromwell's Instrument or Mask when he saw that he must buy it at so dear a rate And so Cromwell with applause received a Commission and entered upon his place And into Scotland he hasteneth and there he maketh his way near Edinburgh where the Scots Army lay But after long skirmishing and expectations when he could neither draw the Scots out of their Trenches to a fight nor yet pass forward his Soldiers contracted Sicknesses and were impatient of the Poverty of the Country and so with a weakned ragged Army he drew off to return to England and had the Scots but let him go or cautelously followed him they had kept their Peace and broken his Honour But they drew out and followed him and overtaking him near Dunbarr did force him to a Fight by engaging his Rere in which Fight being not of equal Fortitude they were totally rowted their Foot taken and their Horse pursued to Edinburgh § 108. Ten thousand Prisoners of the Foot were brought to Newcastle where the greatness of the Number and the baseness of the Country with their Poverty and the cruel Negligence of the Army caused them to be almost all famished For being shut up in a Cabbage-Garden and having no Food they cast themselves into a Flux and other Diseases with eating the raw Cabbages so that few of them survived and those few were little better used The Colours that were taken were hanged up as Trophies in Westminster-Hall and never taken down till the King's Restoration § 109. Cromwell being thus called back to Edinburgh driveth the Scots to Sterling beyond the River where they fortifie themselves He besiegeth the impregnable Castle of Edinburgh and winneth it the Governor Coll. William Dunglasse laying the blame on his Souldiers that else would have delivered It and him but his Superiors condemned him for the Cowardly Surrender After this Cromwell passeth some of his Men over the River and after them most of the rest The King with the Scots Army being unable to give him Battle after such Discouragements takes the Opportunity to haste away with what Force they had towards England thinking that Cromwell being cast now some Days March behind them by Reason of his passing the River they might be before him in England and there be abundantly increased by the coming in both of the Cavaliers and the rest of the People to him And doubtless all the Land would Suddenly have flockt in to him but for these two Causes 1. The Success of Cromwell at Dumbarre and afterwards had put a Fear upon all Men and the manner of the Scots coming away persuaded all Men that Necessity forced them and they were look'd upon rather as flying than as marching into England and few Men will put themselves into a flying Army which is pursued by the conquering Enemy 2. The implacable Cavaliers had made no Preparation of the Peoples Mind by any Significations of Reconciliation or of probable future Peace And the Prelatical Divines instead of drawing nearer those they differed from for Peace had gone farther from them by Dr. Hammond's new way than their Predecessors were before them and the very Cause which they contended for being not Concord and Neighbourhood but Domination they had given the dissenting Clergy and People no hopes of finding favourable Lords or any Abatement of their former Burdens so little did their Task-Masters relent But contrariwise they saw Reason enough to expect that their little Fingers would be heavier than their Predecessors Loyns And it is hard to bring Men readily to venture their Lives to bring themselves into a Prison or Beggary or Banishment These were the true Causes that no more came in to the King The first kept off the Royalists and the rest the second kept off the rest alone Yet the Earl of Darby the Lord Talbott and many Gentlemen did come in to him and some that had been Souldiers for the Parliament as Capt. Benbow from Shrewsbury with Cornet Kinnersly and a Party of Horse and some few more The King's Army of Scots was
excellently well governed in comparison of what his Father 's was wont to be Not a Souldier durst wrong any Man of the worth of a Penny which much drew the Affections of the People towards them The Presence of Collonel Rich. Graves and Collonel Massy with them was the great Inducement to the Parliamentarians to come in But another great Impediment kept them off which was Cromwell's exceeding speedy Pursuit of them so that People had not time to resolve themselves considerately and most were willing to see what Cromwell's Assault would do before they cast themselves into the Danger Soldiers may most easily be had when there is least need of them The King came by the way of Lancoshire and summoned Shrewsbury in vain as he passed by through Shropshire And when all the Country thought that he was hastening to London where all Men supposed he would have attained his Ends increased his Strength and had no Resistance he turned to Worcester and there stayed to refresh his Army Cromwell's Forces being within a few days March of him § 110. The Army passed most by Kiderminster a Fields Breadth off and the rest through it Collonel Graves sent two or three Messages to me as from the King to come to him and after when he was at Worcester some others were sent But I was at that time under so great an Affliction of sore Eyes that I was not scarce able to see the Light nor fit to stir out of Doors And being not much doubtful of the Issue which followed I thought if I had been able it would have been no Service at all to the King it being so little on such a sudden that I could add to his Assistance When the King had stayed a few Days at Worcester Cromwell came with his Army to the East side of the City and after that made a Bridge of Boats over Severn to hinder them from Forage on the other side but because so great an Army could not long endure to be pent up the King resolved to charge Cromwell's Men and a while the Scots Foot did charge very gallantly and some chief Persons among the Horse The Marquis Hamilton late Earl of Lanerick being slain But at last the hope of Security so near their Backs encouraged the King's Army to retreat into the City and Cromwell's Souldiers followed them so close at the Heels that Major Swallow of Whalley's Regiment first and others after him entered Sidbury-Gate with them and so the whole Army fled through the City quite away many being trodden down and slain in the Streets so that the King was faign to fly with them Northward the Lord Willâ—â—ot the Earl of Lauderdaile and many others of his Lords and Commanders with him Kiderminster being but eleven Miles from Worcester the flying Army past some of them through the Town and some by it I was newly gone to Bed when the Noise of the flying Horse acquainted us of the Overthrow and a piece of one of Cromwell's Troops that Guarded Bewdley-Bridge having tidings of it came into our Streets and stood in the open Market-place before my Door to surprise those that past by And so when many hundreds of the flying Army came together when the 30 Troopers cryed stand and fired at them they either hasted away or cryed Quarter not knowing in the Dark what Number it was that charged them And so as many were taken there as so few Men could lay hold on And till Midnight the Bullets flying towards my Door and Windows and the sorrowful Fugitives hasting by for their Lives did tell me the Calamitousness of War The King parted at last from most of his Lords and went to Boscobell by the white Ladies where he was hid in an Oak in manner sufficiently declared to the World and thence to Mosely and so with Mrs. Lane away as a Traveller and escaped all the Searchers Hands till he came safe beyond Sea as is published at large by divers The City of Worcester was much plundered by Cromwell's Souldiers and a Party only sent out after the King 's Fugitives for an Army I will call them no more the Earl of Derby was taken and Capt. Benbow of Shrewsbury and were both put to Death the Sentence of Coll. Mackworth dispatched Benbow because he had been a Souldier under him The Earl of Lauderdaile and the Earl of Craford were sent Prisoners to Windsor-Castle where they were detained till the Restoration of the King Coll. Graves at last being released by Cromwell lived quietly at his House which made him ill thought of and kept from Preferment afterwards when the King came in And thus Cromwell's next Impediment was over § 111. The Scots Army being utterly dispatched in England and many of the Prisoners of Foot sent to the Barbado's c. part of Cromwell's Army was sent to prosecute the Victory in Scotland where briefly all their Garrisons at last were taken and the Earl of Glencarne and that learned religious excellent Person the Earl of Balcarres who kept up the last Forces there for the King were fain to fly to the King beyond Sea And Major General Monk was there left with some Forces to keep the Country in Subjection § 112. Cromwell having thus far seemed to be a Servant to the Parliament and work for his Masters the Rump or Commonwealth doth next begin to shew whom he served and take that Impediment also out of the way To which End he first doth by them as he did by the Presbyterians make them odious by hard Speeches of them throughout his Army as if they intended to perpetuate themselves and would not be accountable for the Money of the Commonwealth c. and he treateth privately with many of them to appoint a time when they would dissolve themselves that another free Parliament might be chosen But they perceived the Danger and were rather for the filling up of their Number by New Elections which he was utterly against His greatest Advantage to strengthen himself against them by the Sectaries was their owning the publick Ministry and their Maintenance for though Vane and his party set themselves to make the Ministers odious by reproachful Titles and to take them down yet still the greater part of the House did carry it for a sober Ministry and competent Maintenance And when the Quakers and others did openly reproach the Ministry and the Souldiers favour them I drew up a Petition for the Ministry and got many thousand Hands to it in Worcestershire and Mr. Tho. Fâ—ley and Coll. Iohn Bridgis presented it and the House gave a kind and promising Answer to it which increased the Sectaries Dipleasure against them And when a certain Quaker wrote a reviling Censure of this Petition I wrote a Defence of it and caused one of them to be given each parliament Man at the Door and within one day after they were dissolved For Cromwell impatient of any more delay suddenly took Harrison and some Souldiers with him as if God
Bishop Usher had before occasionally spoken of him in my hearing as a Socinian which caused me to hear him with suspicion but I heard none suspect him of Popery though I found that it was that which was the end of his Design This Jugler hath this Twenty years and more gone up and down thus secretly and also thrust himself into places of Publick Debate as when the Bishops and Divines disputed before the King at the Isle of Wight c. And when we were lately offering our Proposals for Concord to the King he thrust in among us till I was sain plainly to detect him before some of the Lords which enraged him and he denied the words which in secret he had spoken to me And many Men of Parts and Learning are perverted by him § 61. In this time of my abode at the Lord Broghill's fell out all the Acquaintance I had with the most Reverend Learned Humble and Pious Primate of Ireland Archbishop Usher then living at the Earl of Peterborough's House in Martin's-Lane Sometimes he came to me and oft I went to him And Dr. Kendal who had wrote pettishly against me about Universal Redemption and the Specification of Saving Grace desired me when I had answered one of his Invectives and had written part of the Answer to the other to meet him at Bishop Usher's Lodgings and refer the matter to him for our Reconciliation and future Silence which I willingly did and when the Bishop had declared his Judgment for that Doctrine of Universal Redemption which I afferted and gloried that he was the Man that brought Bishop Davenant and Dr. Preston to it he perswaded us who were both willing to Silence for the time to come § 62. In this time I opened to Bishop Usher the motions of Concord which I had made with the Episcopal Divines and desired his Judgment of my Terms which were these 1. That every Pastor be the Governour as well as the Teacher of his Flock 2. In those Parishes that have more Presbyters than one that one be the stated President 3. That in every Market Town or some such meet Divisions there be frequent Assemblies of Parochial Pastors associated for Concord and mutual Assistance in their Work and that in these Meetings one be a stated not a temporary President 4. That in every Country or Diocess there be every year or half year or quarter an Assembly of all the Ministers of the County or Diocess and that they also have their fixed President and that in Ordination nothing be done without the President nor in matters of common or publick concernment 5. That the coercive Power or Sword be medled with by none but Magistrates To this Sense were my Proposals which he told me might suffice for Peace and Unity among moderate Men But when he had offered the like to the King intemperate Men were displeased with him and they were then rejected but afterward would have been accepted And such Success I was like to have I had heard of his Predictions that Popery would be restored again in England for a short time and then fall for ever And asking him of it he pretended to me no prophetical Revelation for it to himself but only his Judgment of the Sense of the Apocalyps § 63. I asked him also his Judgment about the validity of Presbyters Ordination which he asserted and told me that the King asked him at the Isle of Wight whereever he found in Antiquity that Presbyters alone ordained any and that he answered I can shew your Majesty more even where Presbyters alone successively ordained Bishops and instanced in Hierom's Words Epist. ad Evagrium of the Presbyters of Alexandria chusing and making their own Bishops from the Days of Mark till Heraclus and Dionysius I asked him also whether the Paper be his that is called A Reduction of Episcopacy to the Form of Synodical Government which he owned and Dr. Bernard after witnessed to be his § 64. And of his own Accord he told me considently That Synods are not properly for Government but for Agreement among the Pastors and a Synod of Bishops are not the Governors of any one Bishop there present Though no doubt but every Pastor out of the Synod being a Ruler of his Flock a Synod of such Pastors may there exercise Acts of Government over their Flocks though they be but Acts of Agreement or Contract for Concord one towards another Quere If the whole Synod have no governing Power over its Members hath the President of that Synod any qua talis § 65. When Oliver Cromwel was dead and his Son almost as soon pull'd down as set up or upon their Tumults voluntarily resigned their Places the Anabaptists grew insolent in England and Ireland and joining with their Brethren in the Army were every where put in Power and those of them that before lived in some seeming Friendliness near me at Bewdley began now to shew that they remembred all their former Provocations by my publick Disputation with Mr. Tombes and writing against them and hindring their increase in those parts And though they were not much above twenty Men and Women near us they talk'd as it they had been Lords of the World And when Sir Henry Vine was in Power and forming his Draught of a not Free but Fanatick Common-wealth and Sir George Booth's Rising was near and the look't for Opposition they laid wait upon the Road for my Letters and intercepting one written to Major Beake of Coventr◠they sent it up to Sir Henry Vane to London who found it so warily written thought himself was mentioned in it that he could have nothing against it yet sent he for Major Beake to London and put him to answer it at the Committee where by examination they sought to have made something of it but after many Threatnings they dismissed him This was the Anabaptists Fidelity § 66. The People then were so apprehensive of approaching Misery and Consusion while the Fanaticks were Lords and Vane ruled in the State and Lambert in the Army and Fifth Monarchy Men as they called the Millenaries and Seekers and Anabaptists were their chief Strength that the King 's old Party called then the Cavaliers and the Parliaments Party called the Presbyterians did secretly combine in many parts of the Land to rise all at once and suppress these insolent Usurpers and bring in the King Sir Ralph Clare of Kiderminister acquainted me with the intended Rising the Issue of which was that the Cavaliers failing except a few at Salisbury who were suddenly disperst or taken Sir George Booth and Sir Tho. Middleton two old Commanders for the Parliament drew together an Army of about 5000 Men and took Chester and there being no other to divert him Lambert came against them and some Independants and Anabaptists of the Country joining with him his old Souldiers quickly routed them all and Sir George Booth was afterwards taken and imprisoned I told Sir R. Clare that if the
yield to us for Concord that seeing both together we might see what probability of success we had And the King promised that it should be so § 95. Hereupon we departed and appointed to meet from day to day at Sion Colledge and to consult there openly with any of our Brethren that would please to join with us that none might say they were excluded Some City Ministers came among us and some came not and Divers country Ministers who were in the City came also to us as Dr. Worth since a Bishop in Ireland Mr. Fulwood since Archdeacon of Totnes c. But Mr. Matth. Newcomen was most constant in assisting us § 96. In these Debates we found the great inconvenience of too many Actors though there cannot be too many Consenters to what is well done For that which seemed the most convenient Expression to one seemed inconvenient to another and that we that all agreed in Matter had much ado to agree in Words But after about two or three Weeks time we drew up the following Paper of Proposals which with Archbishop Usher's Form of Government called his Reduction c. we should offer to the King Mr. Calamy drew up most with Dr. Reynolds Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Worth drew up that which is against the Ceremonies I only prevailed with them to premise the four first Particulars for the countenancing Godliness the Ministry Personal Profession and the Lord's Day They were backward because they were not the Points in Controversy but yielded at last on the Reasons offered them About Discipline we designedly adhered to Bishop Usher's Model without a Word of alteration that so they might have less to say against our Offers as being our own and that the World might see that it was Episcopacy it self which they refused and that they contended against the Archbishop as well as against us and that we pleaded not at all with them for Presbytery unless a Moderate Episcopacy be Presbytery Yet was there a Faction that called this Offer of Bishop Usher's Episcopacy by the Name of the Presbyterians impudent Expectations I also prevailed with our Brethren to offer an Abstract of our larger Papers lest the reading of the larger should seem tedious to the King which Abstract verbatim as followeth at their Desire I drew up and have here after adjoined The first Address and Proposals of the Ministers May it please Your most excellent Majesty WE your Majesty's most Loyal Subjects cannot but acknowledge it as a very great Mercy of God that immediately after your so wonderful and peaceable Restoration unto your Throne and Government for which we â—less his Name he hath stirred up your Royal Heart as to a zealous Testimony against all Prophaneness in the People so to endeavour an happy composing of the Differences and healing of the sad Breaches which are in the Church And we shall according to our bounden Duty become humble Suitors at the Throne of Grace that the God of Peace who hath put such a thing as this into your Majesty's Heart will by his heavenly Wisdom and holy Spirit to assist you therein and bring your Resolutions unto so perfect an Effect and Issue that all the good People of these Kingdoms may have abundant Cause to rise up and bless you and to bless God who hath delighted in you to make you his Instrument in so happy a Work That as your glorious Progenitor Henry VII was happy in uniting the Houses of York and Lancaster and your Grandfather King Iames of blessed Memory in uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland so this Honour may be reserved for your Majesty as a Radiant Jewel in your Crown that by your Princely Wisdom and Christian Moderation the Hearts of all your People may be united and the unhappy Differences and Misunderstandings amongst Brethren in matters Ecclesiastial so composed that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the midst of your Dominions In an humble Conformity to this your Majesty's Christian Design we taking it for granted that there is a firm Agreement between our Brethren and us in the Doctrinal Truths of the reformed Religion and in the substantial parts of Divine Worship and that the Differences are only in some various Conceptions about the ancient Form of Church-Government and some particulars about Liturgy and Ceremonies do in all humble Obedience to your Majesty represent That in as much as the ultimate end of Church-Government and Ministry is that Holiness of Life and Salvation of Souls may be Effectually promoted we humbly desire in the first place that we may be secured of those things in Practice of which we seem to be agreed in Principles 1. That those of our Flocks who are serious and diligent about the matters of their Salvation may not by Words of Scorn or any abusive Usages be suffered to be reproachfully handled but have Liberty and Encouragement in those Christian Duties of exhorting and provoking one another unto Love and good Works of building up one another in their most holy Faith and by all religious and peaceable means of furthering one another in the ways of eternal Life they being not therein opposite to Church-Assemblies nor refusing the guidance and due Inspection of their Pastors and being responsible for what they do or say 2. That each Congregation may have a learned orthodox and godly Pastor residing amongst them to the end that the People might be publickly instructed and edified by preaching every Lord's Day by Catechising and frequent Administration of the Lord's Supper and of Baptism and other Ministerial Acts as the Occacasions and the Necessity of the People may require both in Health and Sickness and that effectual Provision of Law be made that such as are Insufficient Negligent or Scandalous may not be admitted to or permitted in so Sacred a Function and Imployment 3. That none may be admitted to the Lord's Supper till they competently understand the Principles of Christian Religion and do personally and publickly own their baptismal Covenant by a credible Profession of Faith and Obedience not contradicting the same by a contrary Profession or by a Scandalous Life And that unto such only Confirmation if continued in the Church may be administred And that the Approbation of the Pastors to whom the catechising and instructing of those under their Charge do appertain may be produced before any Person receive Confirmation which Course we humbly conceive will much conduce to the quieting of those sad Disputes and Divisions which have greatly troubled the Church of God amongst us touching Church-Members and Communicants 4. That an effectual Course be taken for the Sanctification of the Lord's Day appropriating the same to holy Exercises both in publick and private without unnecessary Divertisements it being certain and by long Experience found that the Observation thereof is a special means of preserving and promoting the Power of God liness and obviating Prophaneness Then for the Matters in Difference viz. Church-Government
the things granted should be reverst which God forbid I must profess to your Lordship that I am utterly against accepting of a Bishoprick as because I am conscious that it will over-match my sufficiency and afright me with the remembrance of my Account for so great an Undertaking c. so specially because it will very much disable me from an effectual promoting of the Churches Peace As Men will question all my Argumentations and Persuasives when they see me in the Dignity which I plead for but will take me to speak my Conscience impartially when I am but as one of them so I must profess to your Lordship that it will stop my own Mouth so that I cannot for Shame speak half so freely as now I can and will if God enable me for Obedience and Peace while I know that the Hearers will be thinking I am pleading for my self Therefore I humbly crave 1. That your Lordship will put some able Man of our perswasion into the place which you intend me Though I now think that Dr. Reignolds and Mr. Calamy may better accept of a Bishoprick than I which I hope your Lordship will promote I shall presume to offer some Choice to your Consideration Dr. Francis Roberts of Wrington in Somersetshire known by his Works Mr. Froyzal of Clun in Shropshire and Hereford Drocess a Man of great worth and good interest Mr. Daniel Cawdrey of Biiling in Northamptonshire Mr. Anthony Burgess of Sutton-Coldfield in Warwickshire all known by their printed Works Mr. John Trap of Glocestershire Mr. Ford of Exeter Mr. Hughes of Plymouth Mr. Bampfield of Sherborne Mr. Woodbridge of Newbury Dr. Chambers Dr. Bryan and Dr. Grew both of Coventry Mr. Brinsley of Yarmouth Mr. Porter of Whitchurch in Shropshire Mr. Gilpin of Cumberland Mr. Bowles of Your Dr. Temple of Brampston in Warwickshire I need name no more 2. That you will believe that I as thankfully acknowledge your Lordship's Favour as if I were by it possessed of a Bishoprick And if your Lordship continue in those Intentions I shall thankfully accept it in any other state or relation that may further my Service to the Church and to his Majesty But I desire for the forementioned Reasons that it may be no Cathedral Relation And whereas the Vicar of the Parish where I have lived will not resign but accept me only as his Curate if your Lordship would procure him some Prehendary or other place of Competent Profit for I dare not motion him to any Pastoral Charge or Place that requireth preaching that so he might resign that Vicaridge to me without his Loss according to the late Act before December for the sake of that Town of Kidderminster I should take it as a very great favour But if there be any great Inconvenience or Difficulties in the way I can well be content to be his Curate I crave your Lordship's pardon of this trouble which your own Condescension hath drawn upon you and remain Your Lordships much obliged Servant Rich. Baxter Nov. 1. 1660. I have presumed to tender you the inclosed List of desired Members of the Indian Corporation supposing your Lordship will Name what Persons of higher Quality you see meet And also the French Project with this of London for a Corporation for the Poor that by such Generals you may be prepared to receive the Londoner's Petition when it is offered § 124. Mr. Calamy blamed me for giving in my Denial alone before we had resolved together what to do But I told him the truth that being upon other necessary Business with the Lord Chancellour he put me to it on the sudden so that I could not conveniently delay my Answer § 125. And Dr. Regnolds almost as suddenly accepted it saying That some Friend had taken out the Conge d'eslier for him without his knowledge But he read to me a Profession directed to the King which he had written wherein he professed that he took a Bishop and Presbyter to differ not ordine but gradu and that a Bishop was but the Chief Presbyter and that he was not to Ordain or Govern but with his Presbyter's Assistance and Consent and that thus he accepted of the place and as described in the King's Declaration and not as it stood before in England and that he would no longer hold or exercise it than he could do it on these terms To this sence it was and he told me that he would offer it the King when he accepted of the place but whether he did or not I cannot tell He dy'd in the Bishoprick of Norwich An. 1676. § 126. On Friday Novemb. 2. being All-Souls-day the Queen came in And there were that day on the Thames three Tydes in about Twelve hours to the common admiration of the People § 127. Mr. Calamy long suspended his Answer so that that Bishoprick was long undisposed of till he saw the issue of all our Treaty which easily resolved him And Dr. Manton was offered the Deanery of Rochester and Dr. Bates the Deanery of Coventry and Lichfield which they both after some time refused And as I heard Mr. Edward Bowles was offered the Deanery of York at least which he refused and not long after died of the stone § 128. When the King's Declaration was passed we had a Meeting with the Ministers of London called Presbyterian that is all that were neither Prelatical nor of any other Sect to consult with them about their returning Thanks to the King for his gracious Declaration that so it might appear that those that were not with us were thankful for it as well as we At the first Meeting the City Ministers first voted their Thanks to be given to us for our Labours in procuring it Nemine contradicente But old Mr. Arthur Iackson a very worthy Man and Mr. Crofton spake against returning Thanks to the King Not that they were not truly thankful but because their Thanks would signifie an approbation of Bishops and Archbishops which they had covenanted against This I undertook to confute by proving that the Bishops and Archbishops in the King's Declaration are not ejusdem speciei with what they were before And that there is the same Name but not the same Thing and withal by proving that the Covenant did not meddle against all Bishops and Archbishops but only those of the English Diocesan Species And that there was a Specifical Difference I proved in that by the King's Declaration the Essentials at least of Church-Government is restored to the Pastors whereas before the Pastors had no Government and this altereth all the Frame as much as if you let the Foundation Walls and Roof of your House stand and all that is visible without but within you pull down the Partitions and turn it into a Church For before every Bishop was the lowest and sole Governour with his Court and Consistory of many hundred Churches and now every Pastor is the lowest Governour of his Flock and the Bishop is but the Superiour
Milkstreet for which they allowed me 40 l. per Annum which I continued near a year till we were all Silenced And at the same time I preached once every Lord's Day at Blackfryars where Mr. Gibbons a judicious Man was Minister In Milkstreet I took Money because it came not from the Parishioners but Strangers and so was no wrong to the Minister Mr. Vincent a very holy blameless Man But at Blackfryars I never took a Penny because it was the Parishioners who called me who would else be less able and ready to help their worthy Pastor who went to God by a Consumption a little after he was silenced and put out At these two Churches I ended the Course of my Publick Ministry unless God cause an undeserved Resurrection § 165. Here also my Accusations followed me as maliciously and falsly as before and I was fain to clear my self by printing some of my Sermons in a little Book called Now or Never and in part of another called a Saint or a Bruit § 166. Before this I resolved to go to the Archbishop of Canterbury then Bishop of London to ask him for his License to preach in his Diocess Some Brethren blamed me for it as being an owning of Prelatical Usurpation I told them that the King had given him a power to suffer or hinder me and if he had no power at all I might lawfully desire any Man not to hinder me in my Duty much more having power as the Church-Magistrate or Officer of the King And though I was under no necessity I would not refuse a lawful thing when Authority required it The Archibishop received me with very great expression of Respects and offered me his License and would let his Secretary take no Money of me But he offered me the Book to Subscribe in I told him that he knew that the King's Declaration exempted us from Subscription He bid me write what I would I told him that what I resolved to do and I thought meet for him to expect I would do of choice though I might forbear And so in Latin I subscribed my promise not to preach against the Doctrine of the Church or the Ceremonies established by Law in his Diocess while I used his License And I told him how grievous it was to me to be daily haunted with such general Accusations behind my back and asked him why I was never accused of any Particulars And he confessed to me That if they had got any Particulars that would have deserved it I should have heard particularly from him I scarce think that I ever preached a Sermon without a Spy to give them his report of it § 167. But my last Sermon that ever I preached in Publick being at Blackfryars was defamed with this particular Accusation That I told them that the Gospel was now departing from them Insomuch as the Lady Balcarres told me That even the old Queen of Bobemia told her she wondered that I was so impudent as to say the Gospel was going away because that I and such as I were silenced while others were put into our places But all this was the breath of Mis-reporters without any colour of ground from any thing that I had said as may be seen in the printed Sermons § 168. For when the Ministers were all silenced some covetous Booksellers got Copies of the last Sermons of many of them from the Scribes that took them from their Mouths Some of them were taken word by word which I heard my self but some of us were much abused by it and especially my self for they stiled it A Farewel Sermon and mangled so both Matter and Style that I could not own it besides the printing it to the offense of Governours So that afterwards I writ out the Sermon more at large my self on Col. 2. 6 7. with another Discourse and offered them to the Press but could not get them Licensed for Reasons afterwards to me mentioned § 169. On April 23. was his Majesty's Coronation Day the Day being very serene and fair till suddenly in the Afternoon as they were returning from Westminster-hall there was very terrible Thunders when none expected it Which made me remember his Father's Coronation on which being a Boy at School and having leave to play for the Solemnity an Earthquake about two a Clock in the Afternoon did affright the Boys and all the Neighbourhood I intend no Commentary on these but only to relate the Matter of Fact § 170. To return at last to our Treaty with the Bishops If you observe the King's Declaration you will find that though Matters of Government seemed to be determined yet the Liturgy was to be reviewed and reformed and new Forms drawn up in Scripture phrase suiâ—ed to the several parts of Worship that Men might use which of them they pleased as already there were some such variety of Forms in some Offices of that Book This was yet to be done and till this were done we were uncertain of the Issue of all our Treaty but if that were done and all setled by Law our Divisions were at an end Therefore being often with the Lord Chancellour on the forementioned occasions I humbly intreated him to hasten the finishing of that Work that we might rejoyce in our desired Concord At last Dr. Reignolds and Mr. Calamy were authorized to name the Persons on that side to manage the Treaty and a Commission was granted under the Broad Seal to the Persons nominated on both sides I intreated Mr. Calamy and Dr. Reignolds to leave me out for though I much desired the Expedition of the Work I found that the last Debates had made me unacceptable with my Superiours and this would much more increase it and other Men might be fitter who were less distasted But I could not prevail with them unless I would have peremptorily refused it to Excuse me So they named as Commissioners Dr. Tuckney Dr. Conant Dr. Spurstow Dr. Manton Dr. Wallis Mr. Calamy and my self Mr. Iackson Mr. Case Mr. Clark and Mr. Newcomen besides Dr. Reignolds then Bishop of Norwich And for Assistants being the other Party had Assistants Dr. Horton Dr. Iacomb Dr. Bates Mr. Rawlinson Mr. Cooper Dr. Lightfoot Dr. Collins Mr. Woodbridge and Dr. Drake According to the King's Commission we were to meet and manage our Conference in order to the Ends therein expressed The Commission is as followeth CHARLES the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To our trusty and well-beloved the most Reverend Father in God accepted Archbishop of York the Right Reverend Father in God Gilbert Bishop of London Iohn Bishop of Durham Iohn Bishop of Rochester Henry Bishop of Chichester Humphrey Bishop of Sarum George Bishop of Worcester Robert Bishop of Lincoln Benjamin Bishop of Peterburgh Bryan Bishop of Chester Richard Bishop of Carlisle Iohn Bishop of Exeter Edward Bishop of Norwich and to our trusty and well-beloved the Reverend
for my fear that he symbolized with the Papists was abated now I perceived that he knew not what they held And Dr. Gunning answered against him and said that the Papists do so use the Word I went on and told him That I also granted that a Man for a certainspace might he without any Act of Sin end as I was proceeding here Bishop Morley interrupted me according to his manner with vehemency crying out what can any Man be for any time without Sin And he founded out his Aggravations of this Doctrine and then cryed to Dr. Bates what say you Dr. Bates is this your Opinion Saith Dr. Bates I believe that we are all Sinners but I pray my Lord give him leave to speak I began to go on to the rest of my Sentence where I lest to shew the Sense and Truth of my Words and the Bishop whether in Passion or Design I know not interrupted me again and mouthed out the odiousness of my Doctrine again and again I attempted to speak and still he interrupted me in the same manner Upon that I sat down and told him that this was neither agreeable to our Commission nor the common Laws of Disputation nor the Civil Usage of Men in common Converse and that if he prohibited me to speak I desired him to do it plainly and I would â—â—sist and not by that way of interruption He told me I had speaking enough if that were good for I spake more than any one in the Company And thus he kept me so long from uttering the rest of my Sentence that I sat down and gave over and told him I took it for his Prohibition At last I let him talk and spake to those nearer me which would hear me and told them that this was it that I was going to say That I granted Bishop Lany that it was possible to be free from acting Sin for a certain time that so he might have no matter of Objection against me and that the Instances of my Concession were these 1. In the time of absolute Infancy 2. In the time of total Fatuity or Madness as natural Ideots that never had the use of Reason 3. In the time of a Lethargy Carus or Apoplexy or Epilepsie 4. In the time of lawful sleep when a Man doth not so much as dream amiss And whether any other Instances might be given I determined not But as I talked thus Bishop Morley went on talking louder than I and would neither hear me nor willingly have had me to have been heard Behind me at the lower end of the Table stood Dr. Crowther and he would consute me and I defended Dr. Lany in that Ieroboam made Israel to Sin What gather you thence quoth I that they had no Sin but that or never sumed before He answered yes and with a little Nonsence would defend it that Israel sinned not till then When I had proved the contrary to him in the general Acceptation of the Word Sin I told him that if he took the Word Figuratively the Genus for a Species I granted him that they sinned not that Species of Sin which Ieroboam taught them which is in the Text emphatically called Sin If he meant that they sinned no Sin of Idolatry or no National Sin till then It was not true and if it were it was nothing to our Question which was about Sin in the General or indefinitely He told me they Sinned no National Sin till then I asked him whether the Idolatry the Unbelief the Murmuring c. by which all the Nation save Caleb and Ioshua fell in the Wilderness and the Idolatry for which in the time of the Judges the Nation was conquered and captivated were none of them National Sins I give the Reader the Instance if this Odious kind of Talk to shew him what kind of Men we talkt with and what a kind of Task we had § 196. And a little further touch of it I shall give you When I beg'd their Compassion on the Souls of their Brethren and that they would not unnecessarily cast so many out of the Ministry and their Communion Bishop Cosins told me that we threatned them with Numbers and for his part he thought the King should do well to make us name them all A charitable and wise Motion To name all the Thousands of England that dissented from them and that had sworn the Covenant and whom they would after Persecute § 197. When I read in the Preface to our Exceptions against the Liturgy That after twenty years Calamity they would not yield to that which several Bishops voluntarily offered twenty Years before meaning the Corrections of the Liturgy offered by Archbishop Usher Archbishop Williams Bishop Morton Dr. Prideaux and many others Bishop Cosins answered me That we threatned them with a new War and it was time for the King to look to us I had no shelter from the Fury of the Bishop but to name Dr. Hammond and tell him that I remembred Dr. Hammond insisted on the same Argument that twenty Years Calamity should have taught Men more Charity and brought them to repentance and Brotherly Love and that it is an Aggravation of their Sin to be unmerciful after so long and heavy Warnings from God's Hand He told me if that were our meaning it was all well And these were the most logical Discourses of that Bishop § 198. Among all the Bishops there was none who had so promising a Face as Dr. Sterne the Bishop of Carlisle He look'd so honestly and gravely and soberly that I scarce thought such a Face could have deceived me and when I was intreating them not to cast out so many of their Brethren through the Nation as scrupeled a Ceremony which they confess'd indifferent he turn'd to the rest of the Reverend Bishops and noted me for saying in the Nation He will not say in the Kingdom saith he lest he own a King This was all that ever I heard that worthy Prelate say But with grief I told him that half the Charity which became so grave a Bishop might have sufficed to have helpt him to a better Exposition of the Word Nation from the Mouths of such who have to lately taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and sworn Fidelity to the King as his Chaplains and had such Testimonies from him as we have had and that our case was sad if we could plead by the King's Commission for Accommodation upon no no better Terms than to be noted as Traytors every time we used such a Word as the Nation which all monarchical Writers use § 199. Bishop Morley earnestly pleaded my own Book with me my fifth Disput. as he had done before the King And I still told him I went not from any thing in it He vehemently aggravated the mischiefs of Conceived Prayer in the Church and when I told him that all the Action of Men would be imperfect while Men were imperfect and that the other side also had its
Lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all Opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever And that we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many Sins and Provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present Distresses and Dangers the Fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own Sins and for the Sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our lives which are the Causes of other Sins and Transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to God and Man to amend our Lives and each one to go before another in the Example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his Wrath and heavy Indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great Day when the Secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for this end and to bless our Desires and Proceedings with such Success as may be Deliverance and Safety to his People and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of the Yoke of Antichristian Tyranny to ioyn in the same or like Association and Covenant to the Glory of God the Inlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the Peace and Tranquility of Christian Kingdoms and Common-wealths The Oath and Declaration imposed upon the Lay-Conformists in the Corporation Act the Vestry Act c. are as followeth The Oath to be taken I. A. B. do declare and believe That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him So help me God The Declaration to be Subscribed I. A. B. do declare That I hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any ot her Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom All Vestry Men to make and Subscribe the Declaration following I. A. B. do declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissioned by him And that I will Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established And I do declare That I do hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to indeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom The Declaration thus Prefaced in the Act of Uniformity Every Minister after such reading thereof shall openly and publickly before the Congregation there assembled declare his unfeigned Assent and Consent to the use of all things in the said Book contained and prescribed in these words and no other I. A. B. do here declare my unfeigned Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book Instituted The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the Forms or Manner of Making Ordaining and Consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons The Declaration to be Subscribed I. A. B. d◠declare That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King and that I abhor that Trayterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him and that I will Conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England as it is now by Law established And I do declare that I do hold there lyes no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called The Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State and that the same was in it self a◠unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom The Oath of Canonical Obedience EGo A. B. Iuro quod praestabo Veram Canonicam Obedientiam Episcopo Londinens◠ejusque Successoribus in omnibus licitis honestis § 302. II. The Nonconformists who take not this Declaration Oath Subscription c. are of divers sorts some being further distant from Conformity than others some thinking that some of the forementioned things are lawful and some that none of them are lawful and all have not the same Reasons for their dissent But all are agreed that it is not lawful to do all that is required and therefore they are all cast out of the Exercise of the Sacred Ministry and forbidden to preach the Word of God § 303. The Reasons commonly given by them are either 1. Against the Imposing of the things forementioned or 2. Against the Using of them being imposed Those of the former sort were given into the King and Bishops before the Passing of the Act of Uniformity and are laid down in the beginning of this Book and the Opportunity being now past the Nonconformists now meddle not with that part of the Cause it having seemed good to their Superiours to go against their Reasons But this is worthy the noting by the way that all that I can speak with of the Conforming Party do now justifie only the Using and Obeying and not the Imposing of these things with the Penalty by which they are Imposed From whence it is evident that most of their own Party do now justifie our Cause which we maintained at the Savoy which was against this Imposition whilst it might have been prevented and for which such an intemperate Fury hath
the Lay-Judge And if he have power as a Presbyter why do the Bishop appropriate it to themselves If one that is no Bishop may exercise it when a Bishop bids him then is it not a thing appropriate to the Bishop's Office Besides these there are Arch-Deacons who by themselves or their Officials hold some kind of Inferiour Court which dealeth in lesser Matters Some Diocesses have one Arch-Deacon some two some few three or four The Bishops should go visit once a year and the Arch-Deacon oftner When they visit they go to some chief Town in the County and call all the Ministers to meet them where they hear a Sermon and Dine together usually They yearly compile a Book of Articles which Churchwardens are sworn to enquire after and to present the Names of the Offenders accordingly to the Bishop's Court. In brief this is the Frame of our Diocesan Government To which I only add That Fees and Money for Commutation of Penance are much of their Officers Maintenance and that such as they Excommunicate in most Cases are by a Writ De Excommunicato Capiendo to be laid in the Jail till upon their Repentance they have made their Peace and are absolved § 313. Having told you what our Government is let me tell you what the Execution of it is The Books of Articles are fitted somewhat to the Canon by those Bishops that are most moderate and cauâ—elous and therefore by the English Canons they may be known some of them usually are against Drunkards and Fornicators but the main bent of them is against those that wear not the Surplice that Baptize without the Cross that omit the Common Prayer that refuse to Baptize any Infant or that deliver the Lord's Supper to any that kneel not in receiving it or that so receive it without kneeling that stand noâ— up at the Gospel that bow not at the Name Iesus though they may sit when the same words are read in the Chapter and are not required to how at the Name Christ God c. Also about the Repair of the Church the Surplice the Books that none piss up to the Church-wall c. with many such things It is a rare thing for the Churchwardens to present any except Nonconformists that use not Ceremonies c. Swearers Drunkards and Whoremongers are seldom presented lest Neighbours be displeased but Puritans have some one or other that is more eager in looking after them When any Scandalous Person is presented he hath no other Spiritual Conviction or Exhoration to Repentance tending to Convert his Soul than at any Civil Court But telling them that he is Sorry and paying his Fees or Commutation Money he comes home But when Conscientious Nonconformists are before them whose Consciences will not let them say that they are Sorry vizâ— for praying or exhorting others in their Houses for giving the Sacrament to them that stand or sit c. they are usually Excommunicated I have been in most parts of England and in Fifty years time I never saw one do Penance or confess his Sin in publick for any Scandalous Crime nor ever heard but of two in the Country where I lived that stood in a White sheet for Adultery except in the space when Bishops were down and then I have heard many that have penitently confessed their Sin and begged the Prayers of the Congregation and been prayed for In a word their Courts are meerly as Civil Courts for Terrour but not at all to convince Men of Sin and bring them to Repentance and Salvation further than such Terrour is â—it to do it And note here That the Discipline of the Church is not to be judged of by the King's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs which was never executed before it was void in these respects Nor yet by some of our Reformers or Chroniclers who tell you how it was exercised quickly after the Reformation in King Edward's or Queen Elizabeth's days As Hollingshead e. g. who telleth you of many Suffragans and of the Piety and Diligence of their Courts and of Exercises called Prophesying held up at the Arch-Deacons Visitations against the Subverters of which he thundereth But as it is in England at this day and hath been this Sixty or Seventy years by-past § 314. Now concerning this Diocesan Frame of Government the Non-Subscribers called Puritans by many do judge that it is sinful and contrary to the Word of God both in the Constitution and in the Administration of it And they lay upon it these heavy Charges the least of which if proved is of intolerable weight § 315. 1. They say That quantum in se it destroyeth the Pastoral Office which is of Divine Institution and was known in the Primitive Church for it doth deprive the Presbyters of the third essential part of their Office for it is clear in Scripture that Christ appointed no Presbyters that were not subservient to him in all the three parts of his Office as Prophet Priest and King to stand between the People and him in Teaching Worshipping and Governing And though the Actual Exercise of any one part may be Suspended without the Destruction of the Office yet to the Office it self which is nothing but Power and Obiligation to exercise one part is as essential as the other so then they say that That which destroyeth an essential part of the Pastors or Presbyters Office destroyeth the Office as instituted by Christ But the Diocesan state of Government destroyeth c. Ergo The Major will not be denied The Minor hath two parts 1. That governing Power and Obligation over the Flock is essential to the Office of a Pastor or Presbyter as instituted by Christ. Which they prove thus 1. The very Name of Presbyter and Pastor denoteth the Governing Power and was then used in that sence as Dr. Hâ—mmond hath well proved 2. There is no such thing found in all the New Testament as a Presbyter that had not the Power of Governing his Flock as well as Teaching it He that can find it let him Dr. Hammond hath gone over all the Texts in proving it 3. The Church long after knew no such Presbyters as had not the Spiritual Government of the Flock 4. The Papists confess that they have the Power of the Keys in foro interiori to this day which is the Spiritual Government 2. The second part of the Minor That the Diocesan Form denieth this Governing Power to the Presbyters appeareth 1. By their own Confessions â— 2. By the Actual Constitution disabling them and placing the Power elsewhere 3. By the instance of the â—orementioned Particulars and many more They have not the power of judging who shall be taken into their Churhes as Members by Baptism or Confirmed or who shall Communicate or who is to be publickly Admonished Censured Excommunicated Absolved buried as a Brother dying in Christ c. no nor what Chapter to read in the Church nor what Garment to wear nor what words of Prayer
Name of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Government And so by the Name they seduce Mens minds to think that this is indeed the use of the Keys which God hath put into the Churches Hands 3. Hereby they greatly encourage the Usurpation of the Pope and his Clergy who set up such Courts for probate of Wills and Causes of Matrimony and rule the Church in a Secular manner though many of them confess that directly the Church hath no forcing Power And this they call the Churches Power and Spiritual Government and Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and say that it belongeth not to Kings and that no King can in Conscience restrain them of it but must protect them in it And so they set up Imperium in Imperio and as Bishop Bedle said of Ireland The Pope hath a Kingdom there in the Kingdom greater than the Kings Against which Ludov. Molinaeus hath written at large in two or three Treatises So that when the Papal Power in England was cast down and their Courts subjected to the King and the Oath of Supremacy formed it was under the Name of Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Power that it was acknowledged to be in the King who yet claimeth no proper Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power so greatly were these Terms abused and so are they still as applied to our Bishops Courts so that the King is said by us to be Chief Governour in all Causes Ecclesiastical because Coercive Power in Church Matters which is proper to the Magistrate was possessed and claimed by the Clergy And in all Popish Kingdoms the Kings are but half Kings through these Usurpations of the Clergy And for us to Exercise the same kind of Power mixt with the Exercise of the Keys and that by the same Name is greatly to countenance the Usurpers § 352. If it be said That the Church claimeth no Coercive Power but as granted them by the King or that it is the Magistrate that annexeth Mulcts and Penalties and not the Church I answer 1. They perswade the Magistrate that he ought to do so 2. Force is not a meer Accident but confessed by them to be the very Life of their Government It is that which bringeth People to their Courts and enforceth all their Precepts and causeth Obedience to them so that it is part of the very Constitution of their Government And as to Fees and Commutation of Penance Pecuniary Mulcts are thus imposed by themselves 3. Their very Courts and Officers are of a Secular Form 4. The Magistrate is but the Executioner of their Sentence He must grant out a Writ and imprison a Man quatenus excommunicate without sitting in Judgment upon the Cause himself and trying the Person according to his Accusation And what a dishonour do these Men put on Magistrates that make them their Executioners to imprison those whom they condemn inuudita causa at a venture be it right or wrong So much of the Nonconformists Charges against the English Prelacy § 353. By this you may see what they Answer to the Reasons of the Conformists As 1. To the willing Conformists who plead a Iur Divinum they say That if all that Gersom Bucer Didoclavius Blondell Salmasius Parker Baines c. have said against Episcopacy it self were certainly confuted yet it is quite another thing that is called Episcopacy by them that plead it Iure Divino If 1. Bishops of single Churches with a Presbytery under them 2. and General Bishops over these Bishops were both proved Iure Divine yet our Diocesans are proved to be contra jus Divinum 2. To the Latitudinarians and involuntary Conformists who plead that no Church-Government as to the form is of Divine Institution they answer 1. This is to condemn themselves and say Because no Form is of God's Institution therefore I will declare that the Episcopal Form is of Divine Institution for this is part of their Subscription or Declaration when they Profess Assent and Confent to all things in the Book of Common Prayer and Ordination And one thing in it is in these words with which the Book beginneth It is evident to all Men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church Bishops Priests and Deacons which Offices were evermore had in such reverend estimation c. So that here they declare that Bishops and Priests are not only distinct Degrees but distinct Orders and Offices and that since the Apostles time as evident by Scripture c. when yet many of the very Papists Schoolmen do deny it And the Collect in the Ordering of Priests runs thus Almighty God giver of all good things who by the holy Spirit hath appointed divers Orders of Ministers in the Church So that in plain English they declare That Episcopacy even as a distinct Order Office and Function for all these words are there is appointed by the Spirit of God because they believe that no Form is so appointed 2. That which Mr. Stillingfleet calleth A Form is none of the Substance of the Government it self nor the Offices in the Church He granteth that 1. Worshipping Assemblies are of Divine appointment 2. That every one of these must have one or more Pastors who have power in their Order to teach them and go before them in Worship and spiritually guide or govern them But 1. Whether a Church shall have one Pastor or more 2. Whether one of them shall be in some things subject to another 3. Whether constant Synods shall be held for concord of Associated Churches 4. Whether in these Synods one shall be Moderator and how long and with what Authority not unreasonable these he thinks are left undetermined And I am of his mind supposing General Rules to guide them by as he doth But the Matter and Manner of Church-Discipline being of God's appointment and the Nature and Ends of a particular Church and the Office of Pastors as well as the Form of the Church Universal it is past doubt that nothing which subverteth any of these is lawful And indeed if properly no Form of Government be instituted by God then no Form of a Church neither for the Form of Government is the Form of a Church considered in sensu politico and not as a meer Community And then the Church of England is not of God's making Quest. Who then made it Either another Church made this Church and then what was that Church and who made its Form and so ad Originem or no Church made it If no Church made the Church of England quo jure or what is its Authority and Honour If the King made it was he a Member of a Church or not If yea 1. There was then a Church-Form before the Church of England And who made that Church usque ad Originem If the King that made it was no Member of a Church then he that is no Member of a Church may institute a Church Form but quo jure and with what
In the best sence which hath Evidence of Truth Charity requireth us to take all the words of others But the question is first Which is the true sence and not which is the best And if it can be proved that another is either certainly or probably the true meaning of any words we must not feign a better sence because it is better In the Case in hand the Law-makers have plainly declared their own sence by their Speeches and Votes and deliberate plain Expressions and by another Act for Corporations If I might take all Oaths and Statutes in the best sence which possibly those words may be used to express than I could take almost any Oath in the World and disobey any Law in the World under pretence of obeying it and tell any Lie under the pretence of telling Truth and Jesuitical Equivocation would be but the common Duty of the Charitable But Charity is not blind nor will it prove a fit Cover for a Lie He that knoweth the Parliament and is but willing to know their sence may know the mistakes of this pretended Charity And especially Laws and Oaths are to be taken in the sence which is plainest in the words § 391. Besides all that is already said I shall end this Subject with this question on the Non-subscribers part Whether an Oath doth not bind Men in the sence of the Takers though they be bound to take it in the sence of the Imposers if they know it As if I had been commanded to swear Allegiance to the King and he that commandeth it should mean Cromwell or some Usurper and I thought he had meant my rightful King Am I not bound hereby to the King indeed And if so Query further Whether any Man so well know the sence of every Man and Woman in England Scotland and Ireland as to be able to say that it was so bad that they are not obliged to it And in what Age it was that all Ministers were forbidden to Preach the Gospel of Christ till they knew the Hearts of all the People in three Kingdoms so far as to justifie them before God from the Obligations of such Vows and Oaths § 392. And though I heartily wish that the Prelates would have been intreated to have chosen another course of proceeding with their Brethren and not have tempted any to Repinings or Complaints for endeavouring which I lost their love yet I would admonish all my Brethren to take heed of aggravating this Difference so far as to bring the present Ministry into Contempt and hinder the Efficacy of their Labours I did my best to have prevailed beforehand that we might not have had any occasion of Divisions but if we must needs be divided that it might have been upon some lower Points than the Obligation of Oaths and Vows It had been better for the Prelates that the Non-subscribers had seemed to be scrupulous Persons that refused only some tolerable Ceremonies than that the fear of so great a Crime as justifying three Kingdoms from the Bond of an Oath and the guilt of Perjury should be the occasion of their Ejection and the Matter of this Publick Controversie But seeing this could not by us be prevented let us not be so partial as to wrong the Church by making them odious to justifie our selves It was sad when the Names of Formalists and Puritans and afterwards of Malignants and Rebels and Cavaliers and Roundheads distinguished the divided Parties But it is now grown worse when they are called PER-fidious jured secutors and PURITANS For the most odious Names do most potently tend to the extinguishing of Charity and the increase of the Difference between them § 393. III. The next Controversie is Political That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King or as is after said against any Commissionated by him In this the Lawyers are divided yea and Parliament themselves one Parliament saying one thing and another another thing And the poor ejected Ministers of England are commonly so little studied in the Law that in these Controversies they must say as they are bidden or say nothing And they think it hard that when Lawyers and Parliaments cannot agree every poor ignorant Preacher must be forced to decide the Controversie and say and subscribe which of them is in the right upon pain of being cast out of their Office and silenced which they think as hard as if they were required to decide a Controversie between Navigators or Pope Zachary and Boniface's Case about the Antipodes or else be silenced We are ready to Subscribe That King Charles the Second is our lawful King and that we owe him Obedience in all his lawful Commands and that we are bound to defend his Person Dignity Authority and Honour with our Lives and Estates against all his Enemies and that neither Parliaments nor any other at home or abroad have any power to judge or hurt his Person or depose him or diminish any of his Power and that it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to conspire against him or â—stir up the People to Sedition or to take up Arms against either his Authority or his Person or against any lawfully Commissioned by him or any at all Commissioned by him except he himself by a contrary Commission or by his Law do enable us or not forbid us or when the Law of Nature doth oblige us In all these Cases we are ready to Subscribe And one would think this much might procure our Peace But that which is scrupled by the Non-subscribers is as followeth The words on any pretence whatsoever studiously put into a Form of Declaration by a Parliament are so universal as to allow no Latitudinarian Evasions or Limitations or Exceptions by any Man that is sincere and plain-hearted and doth not Equivocate with God and his Governours Now 1. Though the King's Authority or Person may not be resisted by Arms they are not certain that his Will may not in any Case be resisted 2. Though none Authorized that is Legally Commissioned by him may be resisted yet they are not certain that all that are Commissioned by him are Authorized or Legally Commissioned 3. Either this Declaration requireth us to suppose that the King never will Commission any illegally or else that though he do yet such may on no pretence whatsoever be resisted by Arms. If the former be the sence then either it is because no King will do it or only because no King of England will do it The former all Historians Politicians Lawyers and Divines are against And the latter hath no Evidence of Certainty to us But yet if that had been the sence we should have consented that on supposition the King commission Men legally they are not to be resisted But this no Man will say is to be supposed as an Event certainly and universally future But if the worst that is possible might be supposed possible then in these several Cases
went away to another place And this especially with the great discontents of the people for their manifold payments and of Cities and Corporations for the great decay of Trade and the breaking and impoverishing of many Thousands by the burning of the City together with the lamentable weakness and badness of great Numbers of the Ministers that were put into the Nonconformist's places did turn the hearts of the most of the Common people in all parts against the Bps. and their ways and enclined them to the Nonconformists tho fear restrained men from speaking what they thought especially the richer fort § 59. Here Ralph Wallis a Cobler of Glocester published a book containing the Names and particular histories of a great Number of Conformable Ministers in several Parishes of England that had been notoriously scandalous and named their scandals to the great displeasure of the Clergy And I fear to the great temptation of many of the Nonconformists to be glad of other Mens sin as that which by accident might diminish the interest of the Prelatists § 60. The Lord Mohune a young man gave out some words which caused a Common Scandal in Court and City against the Bp. of Rochester as guilty of most obscure Actions with the said Lord the reproach whereof was long the talk of many sorts of persons who then took liberty to speak freely of the Bishops § 61. About this time Ian. 1668. the news came of the Change in Portugal where by no means of the Queen the King who was a debanched person and Charged by her of insufficiency or frigidity was put out of his Government tho not his Title and his brother by the consent of Nobles was made Regent and marryed the Queen after a Declaration of Nullity or a divorce and the King was sent as a Prisoner into an Island where he yet remaineth Which News had but an ill sound in England as things went at that time § 62. In Ian. 1668. I received a Letter from Dr. Manton that Sir Iohn Barber told him that it was the Lord Keeper's desire to speak with him and me about a Comprehension and Toleration Whereupon coming to London Sir Iohn Barber told me that the Lord keeper spake to him to bring us to him for the aforesaid end and that he had certain proposals to offer us and that many great Courtiers were our friends in the business but that to speak plainly if we would carry it we must make use of such as were for a Toleration of the Papists also And he demanded how we would answer the Common Question What will satisfie you I answered him That other Mens Judgments and Actions about the Toleration of Papists we had nothing to do with at this time though it was no work for us to meddle in But to this question we were not so ignorant whom we had to do with as to expect full satisfaction of our desires as to Church-Affairs But the Answer must be suited to the Sense of his Question And if we knew their Ends what degree of satisfaction they were minded to grant we would tell them what means are necessary to attain them There are degrees of satisfaction as to the Number of Persons to be satisfied and there are divers degrees of satisfying the same Person 1. If they will take in all Orthodox Peaceable Worthy Ministers the Terms must be the larger 2. If they will take in but the greater part somewhat less and harder Terms may do it 3. If but a few yet less may serve for we are not so vain as to pretend that all Nonconformists are in every particular of one mind And as to the Presbyterians now so called whose Case alone we were called to consider 1. If they would satisfie the far greatest part of them in an high degree so as they should think the Churches setled in a good condition the granting of what was desired by them in 1660. would do it which is the setling of Church-Government according to that of A. Bp. Vsher's Model and the granting of the Indulgences mentioned in his Majestie 's Declaration about Eccles. Affairs 2. But if they would not give so high satisfaction the Alterations granted in his Majestie 's Declaration alone would so far satisfie them as to make them very thankful to his Majesty and not only to exercise their Office with Chearfulness but also to rejoice in the Kingdom 's happiness whose Union would by this be much promoted 3. But if this may not be granted at least the taking off all such impositions which make us uncapable of Exercising our Ministry would be a mercy for which we hope we should not be unthankful to God or the King § 63. When we came to the Lord Keeper we resolved to tell him That Sir Iohn Barber told us his Lordship desired to speak with us left it should be after said that we intruded or were the movers of it or left it had been Sir Iohn Barber's Forwardness that had been the Cause He told us why he sent for us to think of a way of our Restoration to which end he had some Proposals to offer to us which were for a Comprehension for the Presbyterians and an Indulgence for the Independents and the rest We askt him Whether it was his Lordship's pleasure that we should offer him our Opinion of the means or only receive what he offered to us He told us That he had somewhat to offer to us but we might also offer our own to him I told him That I did think we could offer such Terms no way injurious to the welfare of any which might take in both Presbyterians and Independents and all found Christians into the Publick Established Ministry He answered That that was a thing that he would not have but only a Toleration for the rest Which being none of our business to debate we desired him to consult such persons about it as were concerned in it And so it was agreed that we should meddle with the Comprehension only And a few Days after he sent us his Proposals § 64. When we saw the Proposals we perceived that the business of the Lord Keeper and his way would make it unfit for us to debate such Cases with himself And therefore we wrote to him requesting that he would nominate Two Learned peaceable Divines to treat with us till we agreed on the fittest Terms and that Dr. Bates might be added to us He nominated Dr. Wilkins who we then found was the Author of the Proposals and of the whole business and his Chaplain Mr. Burton And when we met we tendered them some Proposals of our own and some Alterations which we desired in their Proposals for they presently rejected ours and would hear no more of them so that we were fain to treat upon theirs alone § 65. The Copy of what we offered them is as followeth I. That the Credenda and Agenda in Religion being distinguished no Profession of Assent be required but
Voice of the multitude is seldom intelligible Let the shorter confession and the general Prayer offered by the Commissioners 1660. be inserted as alias'es with the Confession and Litany and liberty granted some time to use them All things in the Canon contrary to any thing in this Act to be void and null And all things repeated in any former Law that is contrary to this Act. § 73. We inserted these Rubricks and Orders because they gave us more hope that the Alterations of the Liturgy would be granted than the rest And therefore we thought best to get that way as much as we could And yet we insisted most on the other part because therein it was desired that till the Liturgy was satisfactorily reformed we should not be constrained to read it but only sometimes the greater part of it Which words I offered my self lest else the whole should have been frustrate and because the very words of the Scripture the Psalms Sentences Hymns Chapters Epistles Gospels c. are the far greater part of the Liturgy so that by this we should not have been forced to use any more or any thing scrupled § 74. Before we concluded any thing it was desired that seeing the Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain had been our closest Friend we should not conclude without his notice And so at a Meeting at his House these Two more Articles or Proposals were agreed to be added Viz. I. Whereas the Sentence of Excommunication may be passed upon very light Occasions it is humbly desired that no Minister shall be compelled to pronounce such sentence against his conscience but that some other be thereunto appointed by the Bishop or the Court. II. That no person shall be punished for not repairing to his own Parish-church who goeth to any other Parish-church or Chappel within the Diocess For by the Bishop's Doctrine it is the Diocesan Church that is the lowest Political Church and the Parishes are but parts of a Church For there is no Bishop below the Diocesan Therefore we go not from our own Church if we go not out of the Diocess § 75. When these Proposals were offered to Dr. Wilkins and the Reasons of them 1. He would not consent to the clause in the first Propos. Provided that those who desire it have leave to give in their Profession that they renounce not their Ordination c. Where was our greatest stop and disagreement 2. He would not have had subscription to the Scriptures put in because the same is in the Articles to which we subscribe I answer'd that we subscribed to the Articles because they were materially contained in the Scripture and not to the Scriptures because they were not in the Articles I thought it needful for Order sake and for the right description of our Religion that we subscribe to the Scriptures first And to this at last he consented 3. He refused the last part of the fifth for Appeals to Civil Courts saying there was a way of Appeals already and the other would not be endured 4. The two next the 6th and 7th he was not forward to but at last agreed to them leaving out the Clause in the 6th for Registring Names 5. The two last added Articles also were excepted against But in the end it was agreed as they said by the the Lord keeper's Consent that Sir Matthew Hale Lord chief Baron of the Exchequer should draw up what we agreed on into the form of an Act to be offered to the Parliament And therefore Dr. Wilkins and I were to bring our Papers to him and to advise farther with him for the wordingof it because of his eminent Wisdom and Sincerity § 76. Accordingly we went to him and on Consultation with him our proposals were accepted with the alterations following 1. Instead of the Liberty to declare the validity of our ordination which would not be endured it was agreed that the terms of Collation should be these Take thou Legal Authority to preach the Word of God and administer the Holy Sacraments in â—y Congregation of England where thou shalt be lawfully appointed thereunto That so the word Legal might shew that it was only a general License from the King that we received by what Minister soever he pleased to deliver it And if it were 〈◊〉 a Bishop we declared that we should take it from him but as from the King's Minister For the Paper which I gave in against Re-ordination convinced Judge Hales and Dr. Wilkins that the renunciation of former Ordination in England was by ho means to be exacted or done 2. Our Form of Subscription remained unaltered 3. The Clause of Appeals we left out 4. The Fourth Fifth and Seventh passed leaving out the Clause of Registring Names 5. The first of the added Articles they thought reasonable but put it out only leâ—t by overdoing we should clog the rest and frustrate all with those that we were to deal with 6. The other added Article they laid by for the same reason and also lest it should be a shelter to Recusant Papists And thus it was agreed That the Papers should be all delivered to the Lord Chief Baron to draw them up into an Act. And because I lived near him he was pleased to shew me the Copy of his Draught which was done according to all our Sense but secretly lest the noise of a prepared Act should be displeasing to the Parliament But it was never more called for and so I believe he burnt it § 77. Because they objected That by the last Article we should befriend the Papist and especially by a Clause that we offered to be inserted in the Rubrick of the Liturgy That the Sacrament is to be given to none that are unwilling of it and I stood very much upon that with them that we must not corrupt Christ's Sacrament and all our Churches and Discipline and injure many hundred thousand Souls only to have the better advantage against Papists and that there were fairer and better means to be used against them Upon their Enquiry what means might be substituted I told them that besides some others a subscription for all the Tolerated Congregation or Ministers distinct from that of the Established Ministry as followeth might discover them § 78. The Subscription of the Established Ministry I do hereby profess and declare my unfeigned belief of the Holy Canonical Scriptures as the infallible intire and perfect Rule of Divine Faith and Holy Living supposing the Laws of Nature and also my belief of all the Articles of the Creed and of the 36 Articles of the Doctrine and Sacraments of the Church of England Or else the Subscription before agreed on though this be much better supposing the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy also be taken The Subscription of all that have Toleration I A. B. do hereby profess and declare without equivocation and deceit That I believe Iesus Christ to be the only Governing Head of the Vniversal Church and the Holy Canonical
which still more destroy it as any thing of long time hath been published It is true that in many things they were real weaknesses which he detected and that he knew more himself than most of those whom he exposed to scorn And it is true that many of them by their censoriousness of the Conformists did too much instigate such Men But it is as true that while Christ's Flock consisteth of weak ones in their Earthly State of Imperfection and while his Church is an Hospital and he the Physician of Souls it ill becometh a Preacher of the Gospel to teach the Enemies of Christ and Holiness to cast all the reproach of the Diseases upon the nature of Health or on the Physician or to expose Christ's Family to scorn for that weakness which he pittieth them for and is about to cure if he had first told us where we we might find a better sort of Men than these faulty Christians or could prove them better who meddle with God and Heaven and Holiness but formally and complimentally on the by he had done something And it is certain that nothing scarce hardened the faulty persons more in their Way and weaknesses than his way of reprehending them For my part I speak not out of partiality for he was pleased to single me out for his Commendations and to exempt me from the Accusations But it made my Heart to grieve to perceive how the Devil only was the gainer whilst Truth and Godliness was not only pretended by both parties but really intended § 89. Yea it would have grieved the heart of any sober Christian to observe how dangerously each party of the Extremes did tempt the other to impenitenitency and further Sin Even when the Land was all on a Flame and we were all in apparent danger of our ruin by our Sins and Enmities the unhappy prelates began the Game and cruelly cast out 1800 Ministers and the people thâ—â—eupon esteeming them Wolves and malignant prosecutors fled from them â—s the Sheep will do from Wolves not considering that notwithstanding their Personal Sin they still outwardly professed the same Protestant Religion and when any Prelatist told the Sectaries of their former Sin Rebellions or Divisions they heard it as the words of an Enemy and were more hardened in it against Repentance than before yea were ready to take that for a Vertue which such Men reproached them for when as before they had begun from Experience to repent And on the other side when the Prelatists saw what Crimes the Army-party of the Sectaries had before committed which they aggravated from their own Interest they noted also all the weaknesses of Judgment and Expression in Prayer which they met with not only in the weaker sort of Ministers but of the very Women and unlearned People also and turned all this not only to the reproach of all the Sectaries but as their Passion Interest and Faction led them of all the Non-conformists also of whom the far greatest part were much more innocent than themselves § 90. And so subtil is Satan in using his Instruments that by their wicked folly crying out maliciously for repentance he hindered almost all open Confession and Profession of repentance on both â—ides For these self Exalters did make their own interest and Opinions to pass with them for the sure Expositor of the Law of God and Man And they that never truly understood the old Difference between the King and Parliament did state the Crime according to their own shallow passionate conceits and then in every book cryed out Repent Repent Repent of all your Rebellions from first to last you Presbyterians began the War and brought the King's head to the 〈…〉 cut it off And as they put in Lies among some truths so the people thought they put in their Duties among their sins when they called them to repent And if a man had professed repentance for the one without the other and had not mentioned all that they expected and made his Confessions according to their prescripts they would have cryed out Traytors Traytors and have pressed every word to be the Proclamation of another War So that all their calling for repentance was but an Ambuscade and Snare and most effectually prohibited all open repentance because it would have been Treason if it had not come up to their most unjust measures And all men thought silence safer with such men than Confession of fin And the sectaries were the more persuaded that their sin was no sin And this occasioned the greater obduration of their Enemies who cryed out None of them all repenteth and therefore they are ready to do the same again And so they justifyed themselves in all the Silencings Conâ—inings Imprisonments c. Which they inflicted on them and all the odious representations of them § 91. But that great Lie that the Presbyterians in the English Parliament began the War is such as doth as much tempt men that know it to question all the History that ever was written in the World as any thing that ever I heard spoken Reader I will tell it thee to thy admiration When the War was first raised there was but one Presbyterian known in all the Parliament There was not one Presbyterian known among all the Lord Lieutenants whom the Parliament Committed the Militia to There was not one Presbyterian known among all the General Officers of the Earl of Essex Army nor one among all the English Colonels Majors or Captains that ever I could hear of There were two or three swearing Scots of whom Vrrey turned to the King What their opinion was I know not nor is it considerable The truth is Presbytery was not then known in England except among a few studious Scholars nor well by them But it was the moderate Conformists and Episcopal Protestants who had been long in Parliaments crying out of Innovations Arminianism Popery but specially of Monopolies illegal taxes and the danger of Arbitrary Government who now raised the War against the rest whom they took to be guilty of all these things And a few Independents were among them but no considerable Number And yet these Conformists never cry out Repent ye Episcopal Conformists for it was you that began the War Much less Repent ye Arminian Grotian innoveling prelates who were reducing us so near Rome as Heylin in the Life of Laud describeth for it was you that kindled the Fire and that set your own party thus against you and made them wish for an Episcopacy doubly reformed 1 with better Bishops 2 with less secular power and smaller Diocesses § 92. Some moderate worthy men did excellently well answer this Book of Dr. Patrick's so as would have stated matters rightly but the danger of the Times made them suppress them and so they were never printed But Mr. Rowles late Minister at Thistleworth printed an Answer which sufficiently opened the faultiness of what he wrote against but wanting the Masculine strength and cautelousness
for that way now which most suiteth with the Inclination of the People who most esteem them which is to go far enough from the Conformists or too far but the rest who are less followed by the People are generally more for Peace and Moderation § 163. This Year the Act against Conventicles was renewed and made more severe than ever And as all that ever I spake with of it supposed with an Eye upon my Case they put in divers Clauses As that the fault of the Mittimus should not disable it that all doubtful Clauses in the Act should be interpreted as would most favour the suppression of Conventicles that they that fled or removed their Dwelling into another County should be pursued by Execution to this Sense What a strait is a Man in among People of such Extremes One side pursueth us with implacable Wrath while we are charged with nothing but Preaching Christ's Gospel in the most peaceable manner we can And the other censureth us as Compliers with Persecutors and Enemies to Piety because we desire to live peaceable with all Men and to separate from them no further than they separate from God § 164. Their own Laws against Conventicles hinder us from doing their own Wills They write and clamour against me for not perswading the People to Conformity And when I would draw them but to that Communion which I had within my self the Law disableth me to Communicate a Letter to them seeing no more than four must meet together which way among many hundred or thousand Dissenters would make many Years work of Communicating that one part of my Advice Thus do our Shepherds use the Flocks § 165. At this time Mr. Giles Firmin a worthy Minister that had lived in New-England writing against some Errors of Mr. Hooker Mr. Shepherd Mr. Daniel Rogers and Mr. Perkins gave me also also a gentle reproof for tying Men too strictly to Meditation whereto I wrote a short answer called A Review of the Doctrine of Meditation § 166. A worthy Lady was perverted from the Lord's Day to the Saturday-Sabbath desiring my Judgment and Mr. Francis Bamfield a Minster who hath lain about seven Years in Dorchester-Goal the Brother of Sir Iohn Bamfield deceased being gone to the same Opinion and many following them I wrote by the Perswasion of some Friends a small Tractate also on that Subject to prove the divine appointment of the Lord's Day and the cessation of the Iewish Sabbath § 167. Dr. Manton though he had the greatest Friends and promise of Favour of any of the Presbyterians vvas sent Prisoner to the Gatehouse for Preaching the Gospel in his own House in the Parish vvhere he had been called formerly to the Ministery and for not taking the Oxford-Oath and coming within five Miles of a Corporation where he continued six Months but it proved convenient to his â—ase because those six Months were spent in London in a hot pursuit of such private Preaching by Bands of Soldiers to the terrour of many and the death of some § 168. Madam the King's Sister dyed in France when she returned from visiting His Majesty in England to his very great grief § 169. Sir Iohn Babor talk'd to the Lord Arlington of our late Treaty upon the Lord Keeper's Invitation with Bishop Wilkins whereupon Dr. Manton sent to me as from him to Communicate the Terms and Papers But they were at Acton from whence they had driven me and I had medled enough in such Matters only to my cost So that though he said the King was to see them I could not then answer his desire and I heard no more of it § 170. Upon the Publication of my Book against Divisions and the Rumour of my Conforming the Earl of Lauder dale invited me to speak with him Where he opened to me the purpose of taking off the Oath of Canonical Obedience and all Impositions of Conformity in Scotland save only that it should be necessary to sit in Presbyteries and Synods with the Bishops and Moderators there being already no Liturgy Ceremonies or Subscription save only to the Doctrine of the Church Hereupon he expressed his great Kindness to me and told me he had the King's Consent to speak with me and being going into Scotland he offered me what place in Scotland I would choose either a Church or a Colledge in the University or a Bishoprick And shortly after as he went thither at Barnet he sent for me and I gave him the Answer following in these Papers besides what I gave him by word to the same purpose But when he came thither such Acts against Conventicles were presently made as are very well worthy the Reader 's serious Persual who would know the true Complexion of this Age. § 171. My Lord BEing deeply sensible of your Lordship's Favours and in special of your Liberal Offers for my Entertainment in Scotland I humbly return you my very hearty Thanks But these Considerations forbid me to entertain any hopes or further thoughts of such a remove 1. The Experience of my great Weakness and decay of Strength and particularly of this last Winter's Pain and how much worse I am in Winter than in Summer doth fully persuade me That I shall live but a little while in Scotland and that in a disabled useless Condition rather keeping my Bed than the Pulpit 2. I am engaged in Writing a Book which if I could hope to live to finish is almost all the Service that I expect to do God and his Church more in the World A Latin Methodus Theologiae And I can hardly hope to live so long it requiring yet near a Years labour more Now if I should go spend that one half Year or Year which should finish that Work in Travel and the trouble of such a Removal and then having intended Work undone it would disappoint me of the ends of my Life For I live only for Work and therefore should remove only for Work and not for Wealth and Honour if ever I remove 3. If I were there all that I could hope for were liberty to Preach the Gospel of Salvation and especially in some Vniversity among young Scholars But I hear that you have enough already for this Work that are like to do it better than I can 4. I have a Family and in it a Mother-in-Law of 80 Years of Age of Honourable Extract and great Worth whom I must not neglect and who cannot Travel And it is to such a one as I so great a business to remove a Family and all our Goods and Books so far as deterreth me to think of it having paid so dear for Removals these 8 Years as I have done and being but yesterday settled in a House which I have newly taken and that with great trouble and loss of time And if I should find Scotland disagree with me which I fully conclude of to remove all back again All this concurreth to deprive me of this Benefit of your Lordship's Favour But
required but I think it should be the Congregation's And what if the Elders dissent Shall that hinder the Relation or not 93. The number of chosen Ministers in National Synods will be inconsiderable as to the rest 96. The use of a National Synod where all Bishops and Moderators are chosen by the King and the Commissioner ruleth being before-hand resolved to be to Compile a Liturgy and Rules for all Points of Divine Worship with the Methods Circumstances and Rites to be observed therein Many knowing what Liturgy Subscriptions Declarations and Rites are pleasing to Authority in England will imagine them in fierâ— if not virtually set up already in Scotland when these Rules are set up 107. Publick Pennance And why not and Suspension from Communion till penitent Confession be made But I know not why Compensations should serve instead of Confession and Promise of Reformation without which Money will not make a Man a Christian nor fit for Church-Communion But for any other Pennance besides one penitent Confession and Promise of Amendment and desire of the Churches Prayers for Pardon I know nothing of it and therefore meddle not with it 132. No Act Order nor Constitution may be Expounded to reach to Scripture Constitutions and Orders and the proper Acts of the Ministerial Office if not better explained 133. The Word Ecclesiastical Meeting may be interpreted of particular Synaxes or Congregations of a Parish for Worship if not limited which Convocating of the People is part of the Pastor's proper Office and for a thousand Years was so accounted by the Catholick Church And if in case of Discord or Heresie a few Neighbour Ministers meet for a Friendly Conference to cure it it seemeth hard to charge them with Sedition 140. If the Parties be able to come 143. Many of these Faults should be Corrected by Mulcts before Men be forbidden to Preach the Gospel If every Man be Suspended which I suppose is prohibiting him to Preach and Endeavour Mens Salvation who useth unsound Speeches Flattery or Lightness I doubt so many will talk themselves into Silence that a sharp Prosecution will leave many Churches desolate 145. But what if there be no Preachers to be had May not the Suspended Preach 146. Disobedience to some of the small Ecclesiastical Rules may be punished with Mulcts without absolute Silencing especially when able Preachers are wanting Shall the instructing of the Peoples Souls so much depend on every Word in all these Canons But oh that you would make that good in Practice that Labouring to get Ecclesiastical Preferment should be punished if it were with less than Deposition It would be a happy Canon 147. But shall the Synod or Presbytery carry by Vote or not 149. If every Church-Session have this power of Suspension with power but to say We declare you unfit for Communion of this particular Church till you repent it would give me great Satisfaction were I in Scotland For to speak freely I take these two Things to be of Divine Appointment 1. That each particular Church have its proper Pastor who have the Ministerial Power of Teaching Worship Sacraments Prayer Praise and Discipline and I desire no more Discipline than you here grant that is Suspension from Communion in that particular Church if also the Person may be declared unfit for it till he Repent 2. That these Pastors hold such Correspondency as is necessary to the Union of the Churches in Faith and Love And 3. For all the rest I take them to be Circumstances of such prudential Determination that I would easily submit to the Magistrates determination of them so they be not destructive to the Ends and would not have Ministers take too much of the trouble of them upon themselves without necessity 152. But then you seem here to retract the particular Churches Power again For if a Man may be debarred the Communion for once sinning by Fornication Drunkenness c. why not much more for doing again after Repentance I differ more from this than all the rest Is it not enough that the Party may Appeal to the Presbytery And that the Sessions or Pastor be responsible for Male-Administration or Injury if proved This one Canon would drive me out of the Ministry in Scotland I would never be a Pastor where I must after the first Crime ever after give the Sacrament to every flagitioâ—s Offender till the Presbytery suspend him unless they do it very quickly which perhaps they may never do 153 154. No doubt but Iure Divino every true particular Church hath the Power of Excommunicating its own Members out of that particular Church-Communion Delivering up to Satan is a doubtful Phrase which I shall not stand on But an Excommunication which shall bind many Churches to avoid the Sinner must be done or Consented to by those many Churches Therefore Excommunication should be distinguished 156. Sure some few Ecclesiastical Rules and Proceedings may be so low as that a Contempt of them may be easilyer punished than with this terrible Excommunication Impenitency must be joyned with Scandalous Sins or else they make not the Person Excommunicable as is implyed in what followeth 162. No doubt but every Church may absolve its own Members from that sort of Excommunication which it self may pass And so may a Presbytery But if the Magistrate will have a more formidable Diocesane or National Excommunication and an answerable Absolution those Circumstances are to be left to his Prudence so be it he deprive not each particular Pastor and Church of their proper Power and Priviledge plainly found in Scripture and used many hundred Years through the Catholick Church Honourable Sir The Copy which you sent me goeth no further than to the Visitation of the Sick viz. to Can. 176. And so much according as I was desired I have freely and faithfully Animadverted And in general here are many excellent Canons though of many things I cannot Judge and those few Exceptions I humbly offer to your Consideration craving your Pardon for this boldness which I should not have been guilty of if the worthy Messenger had not told me that it was your desire Sir I rest Your Humble Servant Rich. Baxter Iuly 22. 1670. § 173. I had forgotten one passage in the former War of great remark which put me into an amazemeut The Duke of Ormond and Council had the cause of the Marquess of Antrim before them who had been one of the Irish Rebels in the beginning of that War when in the horrid Massacre two hundred thousand Protestants were murthered His Estate being sequestred he sought his restitution of it when King Charles II. was restored Ormond and the Council judged against him as one of the Rebels He brought his cause over to the King and affirmed that what he did was by his Father's Consent and Authority The King referred it to some very worthy Members of his Privy-Council to examine what he had to shew Upon Examination they reported that they found that he had
Persecution and hoped ere long to stand on his own Legs and then they should see how much he was against it By this means many score Nonconformable Ministers in London kept up Preaching in private Houses Some 50 some 100 many 300 and many 1000 or 2000 at a Meeting by which for the present the City's Necessities were much supplied For very few burnt Churches were yet built up again about 3 or 4 in the City which yet never moved the Bishops to relent and give any Favour to the Preaching of Nonconformists And though the best of England of the Conformists for the most part were got up to London alas they were but few And the most of the Religious People were more and more alienated from the Prelates and their Churches § 192. Those that from the beginning thought they saw plainly what was doing lamented all this They thought that it was not without great Wit that seeing only a Parliament was trusted before the King with the People's Liberties and could raise a War against him Interest ruling the World it was contrived that this Parliament should make the severest Laws against the Nonconformists to grind them to dust and that the King should allay the Execution at his pleasure and become their Protector against Parliaments and they that would not consent to this should suffer And indeed the Ministers themselves seemed to make little doubt of this But they thought 1. That if Papists shall have liberty it is as good for them also to take theirs as to be shut out 2. And that it is not lawful for them to refuse their present Liberty though they were sure that Evil were design'd in granting it 3. And that before Men's desigâ—s can come to ripeness God hath many ways to frustrate them and by drawing one Pin can let fall the best contrived Fabrick But still remember that all Attempts to get any Comprehension as it was then called or abatement of the Rigour of the Laws or Legal Liberty and Union were most effectually made void § 193. At this time there was Printed in Holland the Thesis or Exercise Performed at the Commencement for the Degree of Dr. of Law by one of the King's Subjects a Scots-Man Rob. Hamilton In which he largely proveth the Necessity of a standing Treasury in a Kingdom and the power of the King to raise it and impose Tributes without the People's Consent and Dedicating it to the King and largely applying it to England he sheweth that Parliaments have no Legislative Power but what the King giveth them who may take it from them when He seeth Cause and put them down and raise Taxes according to his own Discretion without them And that Parliaments and Mâ—gna Charta are no impediments to him but Toys and that what Charter the former Kings did grant could be no Band on their Successors forgetting that so he would also disoblige the People from the Agreements made by their Predecessors as e. g. that this Family successively shall rule them c. with much more Whom Fame made to be the Animater of this Tractate I pass by § 194. There was this Year a Man much talk'd of for his Enterprises one Major Blood an English-man of Ireland This Man had been a Soldier in the old King's Army against the Parliament and seeing the Cause lost he betook himself towards Ireland to live upon his own Estate In his way he fell in Company with the Lancashire Ministers who were then Writing against the Army and against all violence to King or Parliament Blood being of an extraordinary Wit falls acquainted with them and not thinking that the Presbyterians had been so true to the King he is made the more capable of their Counsel so that in short he became a Convert and married the Daughter of an honest Parliament Man of that Countrey And after this in Ireland he was a Justice of Peace and Famous for his great Parts and upright Life and success in turning many from Popery When the King was Restored and he saw the old Ministers Silenced in the Three Kingdoms and those that had Surprized Dublin-Castle for the King from the Anabaptists cast aside and all things go contrary to his Judgment and Expectation being of a most bold and resolute Spirit he was one that plotted the Surprizing of the D. of Ormond and of Dublin Castle But being deâ—ected and prevented he fled into England There he lived disguised practising Physick called Dr. Clarke at Rumford When some Prisoners were carried to be put to Death at York for a Plot he followed and Rescued them and set them free At last it was found to be He with his Son and three or four more that attempted to Surprize the D. of Ormond and to have carried him to Holland where he had a Bank of Money and to have made him there to pay his Arrears Missing of that Exploit he made a bolder Attempt even to fetch the King's Crown and Jewels out of the Tower where pretending Friendship to the Keeper of it He with two more his Son and one Perrot suddenly Gagg'd the old Man and when he cryed out he struck him on the Head but would not kill him and so went away with the Crown But as soon as ever they were gone the Keeper's Son cometh in and finds his Father and heareth the Cafe and runs out after them and Blood and his Son and Perrot were taken Blood was brought to the King and expected Death but he spake so boldly that all admired him telling the King How many of his Subjects were disobliged and that he was one that took himself to be in a State of Hostility and that he took not the Crown as a Thief but an Enemy thinking that lawful which was lawful in a War and that he could many a time have had the King in his power but that he thought his Life was better for them than his Death lest a worse succeed him and that the number of Resolute Men disobliged were so great as that if his Life were taken away it would be revenged That he intended no hurt to the Person of the D. of Ormond but because he had taken his Estate from him he would have forced him to restore the value in Money and that he never Robb'd nor shed Blood which if he would have done he could easily have kill'd Ormond and easily have carried away the Crown In a word he so behaved himself that the King did not only release and pardon him but admit him frequently to his presence Some say because his Gallantry took much with the King having been a Soldier of his Father's Most say That he put the King in fear of his Life and came off upon Condition that he would endeavour to keep the discontented Party quiet § 195. Mr. Bagshaw in his rash and ignorant Zeal thinking it a Sin to hear a Conformist and that the way to deal with the Persecutors was to draw all the People as far from
Constitutive Essential Part of the Kingdom But we are not willing accordingly to Swear Subscribe or Covenant to every petty Officer in the Kingdom nor to approve of every Law Custom or Exercise of Government in it tho we would live peaceably under what we approve not And if a Law were made that he shall be Banished as an Overthrower or Vnderminer of the Government who would not so Covenant or Subscribe Houses and Lands would be cheaper than they are and the King have fewer Subjects than he hath For I am not acquainted with one Conscionable Man that I think would Subscribe it And why should all the King's Subjects be bound more strictly to the Human Part of Church Government than of State or Civil Government and to approve of Lay-Chancellours than of Civil Officers Or of the matter of Canons than of Civil and Common and Statute Laws 3. If it be a Crime to know it is a Crime to Iudge or to use our Reason and Observation If it be not it is no Crime for us to know that Clergy-Pride imposing a multitude of things small and doubtful on the Churches as the Conditions of Ministry and Communion and forcing Magistrates Ministers and People to consent to many unnecessary things in their Humane part of Government Liturgies and Ceremonies hath been so great an Engin of Schism and Blood and Confusions in the Roman Church as assureth us that it is no desirable thing that by us any thing like it should be consented to 4. And it is no Crime in us to be sure that if Subscribing to all the present Church-Government Liturgy and Ceremonies be the thing that shall be necessary to our Ministry and Union and Communion our present Dissentions and Divisions will not be healed unless by Killing or Banishing the Dissenters and as Tertullian speaketh Making solitude and calling it Peace 1. Prop. His Majesty's Subjects Legal Commission any other of his Subjects Stic c Deleatur Answ. 1. We did not think that it had been your meaning that we must make our selves Judges of the Case not only of all his Majestie 's Subjects but of all others in the World If the Judges will give it us under their Hands that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever for the Subjects of any Prince on Earth to take Arms against any King of England or any Commissioned by him or that it is not possible for any War against us in any Age on any pretense whatever to be Lawful or else that they are sure that all the Kingdoms on Earth are so Constituted as that no where any Subjects may on any pretence take Arms against their Kings we shall accordingly submit to their Judgment But seeing Papists and Protestants Lawyers and Divines even Monarchical and Conformable say the contrary it were not modesty in us that are ignorant of Matters of Law to say that they are all mistaken till we are instructed to know it to be so For our parts we must profess our selves not acquainted with the Constitution of every Kingdom in the World 2. If Legal must be obliterated we shall our selves quietly submit to the Exercise accordingly and suffer from any one that saith he is Commissioned to hurt us if it be required of us But we are not skill'd in Law and thefore cannot say that all others are bound to do the like To deal plainly seeing Legal must be obliterated we understand not what the word Commission meaneth Whether it must have the King 's Broad-seal or the Lesser-seal or his Name only Whether the Commission and Seal must be shewed to those that are not to resist or proved to be Currant and how But that which causeth us to forbear subscribing is 1. We have taken the Oath of Allegiance and think that the King's Subjects are bound to defend his Life Crown and Dignity And we fear left by this the Lord Chancellour if not others may have power at his Pleasure to Depose the King that is to Seal Commissions to Confederates to take Possession of all his Navy Forts Garrisons Arms if not his House and Person and no man must resist them 2. We are not certain that a Commission can Repeal all that Law of Nature who obligeth a Man to preserve the Life of his Parents or Children or Neighbour We have not indeed any reason to fear that our King should grant such a Commission But who can deny but that it 's possible for some King or other to do it And seeing we know not when a Commission is counterfeit if two or three men come to my House and say they have a Commission to Kill my Father Mother Wife and Children and my self and shew it or if they Assault me and my Company on the High-way and shew a Commission to take our Purses and Kill us we are not sure that God will excuse us from the Duty of defending the Lives of our Parents Children and Friends Or if half a dozen should come to the Parliament and shew a Commission presently to kill them all or Burn the City and Kill all the Citizens or Kingdom we are not wise enough to know that neither Parliament City nor Kingdom may resist them And we find Parliaments so conceited that they have Propriety in Life and Goods and that none may at pleasure take them away and lay Taxes without their consent and that we fear if we should plainly say that whatever Taxes are laid or Estates or Goods or Persons seiz'd on or Decrees of Judges rejected by such Execution it were unlawful for the Sheriff or any others to resist they would trouble us for so saying And if an Admiral General or Lieutenant should be made by Act of Parliament Durante Vita and Authorized to resist any that would dispossess him we are not so Wise as to know whether he may not resist one to whom the Chancellour Sealeth a Commission to dispossess him And though we are confident that the Person of the King is inviolable yet if King Iohn did deliver up his Kingdom to the Pope we are not sure that the Kingdom might not have resisted any of the Pope's or any Foreign Prince's Agents if they had been Commissioned by the King to seize upon the Kingdom Or that no Subjects of any Foreign Prince may be resisted if they should come against us by such a Commission Had we the Judgment of the Judges in this Case we should submit as far as any reason could require us But tho we justify not Barclay Grotius Bishop Bilson and others of the contrary mind we must confess our selves not wise enough to Condemn them 1. Prop. Nor by any other unlawful means to endeavour Reformation Stric d Deleatur Vnlawful Ans. 1. Here we may see how many minds the Conformists are of or how unjustly all that I have debated the Case of Subscription with do affirm That by not endeavouring any Alteration is meant only not endeavouring by unlawful meanst which is here contradicted by a
the King's Quarters and never were drawn the other way as Dr. Conant lately one of them and others in Oxford and so in other parts XI Some of the Non-conformists were in the King's Army Poor Martin of Weeden lost an Arm in his Army and yet the other Arm lay long with him in Warwick Jail for Preaching XII Almost all the Non-conformists of my acquaintance in England save Independents and Sectaries refused the Engagement and took Cromwell and the Common-wealth-Parliament for Usurpers and never approved what they did nor ever kept their daies of Fasting or Thanksgiving To tell you of the London Ministers prinâ—ed Declarations against the intended Death of the King you will say is unsatisfactory because too late XIII Most of the Non-conformable Ministers of my acquaintance were either boys at School or in the University in the Wars or never medled with it so that I must profess that setting them altogether I do not think that one in ten throughout the Kingdom can be proved to have done any of these things that you name against the King XIV We have oft with great men put it to this trial Let them give leave but to so many to Preach the Gospel as cannot be proved ever to have had any hand in the Wars against the King and we will thankfully acquiesce and bear the Silence of the rest make but this Match for us and we will joyfully give you thanks XV. Who knoweth not that the greatest Prelatists were the Masters of the Principles that the War was raised on Bilson Iewel c. and Hooker quite beyond them all XVI But because all proof must be of individuals I intreat you as to our own Countrey where you were acquainted tell me if you can I say it seriously if you can what ever was done or said against the King by Mr. Ambrose Sparre Mr. Kimberley Mr. Lovell Mr. Cowper Mr. Reignalds Mr. Hickman Mr. Trusham Mr. Baldwin senior Mr. Baldwin junior Mr. Sergeant Mr. Waldern dead Mr. Ios. Baker dead Mr. Wilsby Mr. Brain Mr. Stephen Baxter Mr. Badland Mr. Bulcher Mr. Eccleshall Mr. Read Mr. Rock Mr. Fincher of Wedbury Mr. Wills of Bremisham Mr. Paston c. I pass by many more And in Shropshire by old Mr. Sam. Hildersham old Mr. Sam. Fisher Mr. Talents Mr. Brain of Shreusbury Mr. Barnet Mr. Keeling Mr. Berry Mr. Malden of Newport Mr. Tho. Wright dead Mr. Taylor c. These were your Neighbours and mine I never heard to my remembrance of any one of them that had any thing to do with Wars against the King It is true except Mr. Fisher and some few they were not ejected but enjoyed their places And did not you as well as they If I can name you so many of your Neighbours that were innocent will you tell the King and Parliament and the Papists and Posterity that all the Non-conformists without any exception had their hands stained with the Royal blood What! Mr. Cooke of Chester and Mr. Birch c. that were imprisoned and persecuted for the King What! Mr. Geery that died at the news of the King's Dearh What! Sir Francis Nethersole and Mr. Bell his Pastor who wrote so much against the Parliament and was their prisoner at 〈◊〉 Castle almost all the Wars What may we expect from others when Dr. Good shall do thus I put not in any Excuse for my self among all these It may be you know not that an Assembly of Divines twice met at Coventree of whom two Doctors and some others are yet living first sent me into the Army to hazard my life after Nasby Fight against the Course which we then first perceived to be designed against the King and Kingdom nor what I went through there two years in opposing it and drawing the Soldiers off Nor how oft I Preached against Cromwel the Rump the Engagement but specially their Wars and Fasts and Thanksgivings Nor what I said to Cromwel for the King never but twice speaking with him of which a Great Privy Counselloâ—r told me but lately that being an Ear-witness of it he had told his Majesty But yet while I thought they went on Bilsone's Principles I was then on their side and the Observator Parker almost tempted me to Hooker's Principles but I quickly saw those Reasons against them which I have since published His Principles were known by the first Book before the last came out And I have a friend that had his last in M.S. But I am willing unfeignedly to to be one of those that shall contiue Silenced if you can but procure leave to Preach Christ's Gospel only for those that are no more guilty of the King's blood than your self and that no longer than there is real need of their Ministerial Labour Reverend Sir If you will but so long put your self as in our Case I shall hope that with patience you will read these Lines and pardon the necessary freedom of Your truly Loving friend and obliged Servant Rich. Baxter London Feb. 10. 1673. § 270. Taking it to be my duty to preach while Toleration doth continue I removed the last Spring to London where my Diseases increasing this Winter a flatulent constant Headach added to the rest and continuing strong for about half a year constrained me to cease my Fryday's Lecture and an Afternoon Sermon on the Lord's daies in my house to my grief and to Preach only one Sermon a week at St. Iames's Market-house where some had hired an inconvenient Place But I had great encouragement to labour there 1. Because of the notorious Necessity of the people for it was noted for the habitation of the most ignorant Atheistical and Popish about London and the greatness of the Parish of St. Martins made it impossible for the tenth perhaps the twentieth person in the Parish to hear in the Parish-Church And the next Parishes St. Giles and Clement Daines were almost in the like case Besides that the Parson of our own Parish St. Giles where I lived Preached not having been about three years suspended by the Bishop ab Officio but not a beneficio upon a particular Quarrel And to leave ten or twenty for one untaught in the Parish while most of the City Churches also are burnt down and unbuilt one would think should not be justified by Christians 2. Because beyond my expectation the people generally proved exceeding willing and attentive and tractable and gave me great hopes of much success § 271. Yet at this time did some of the most Learned Conformists assault me with sharp accusations of Schism meerly because I ceased not to Preach the Gospel of Christ to people in such necessity They confess that I ought not to take their Oaths and make their imposed Covenants Declarations and Subscriptions against my Conscience but my Preaching is my sin which I must forbear though they accuse me not of one word that I say They confess the foresaid Matters of fact that not one of a multitude can possibly hear in
the King to remove him from all publick Enployment and Trust His chief accusing Witness was Mr. Burnet late Publick-Professor of Theologie at Glascow who said That he askt him whether the Scots Army would come into England and said What if the Dissenting Scots should Rise an Irish Army should cut their Throats c. But because Mr. Burnet had lately magnified the said Duke in an Epistle before a published book many thought his witness now to be more unfavoury and revengefull Every one judging as they were affected But the King sent them Answer That the words were spoken before his late Act of pardon which if he should Violate it might cause jelousies in his Subjects that he might do so also by the Act of Indemnity § 294. Their next Assault was against the Lord Treasurer who found more Friends in the House of Commons who at last acquitted him § 295. But the great work was in the House of Lords where an Act was brought in to impose such an Oath on Lords Commons and Magistrates as is Imposed by the Oxford-Act of Confinement on Ministers and like the Corporation-Oath of which more anon It was now supposed that the bringing the Parliament under this Oath and Test was the great work which the House was to perform The Summ was That none Commissioned by the King may be by Arms resisted and that they would never endeavour any alteration of the Government of Church or State Many Lords spake vehemently against it as destructive to the Privileges of their House which was to Vote freely and not to be preobliged by an Oath to the Prelates The Lord Treasurer the Lord Keeper with Bishop Morley and Bishop Ward were the great Speakers for it And the Earl of Shaftsbury Lord Hollis the Lord Hallifax the D. of Buckingham the Earl of Salisbury the chief Speakers against it They that were for it being the Major part many of the rest Entered their Protestation against it The Protesters the first time for they protested thrice more afterward were the Duke of Buckingham the Marquess of Winchester the Earls of Salisbury Bristol Barkshire § 296. The Protesting Lords having many days striven against the Test and being overvoted attempted to joyn to it an Oath for Honesty and Conscience in these words I do swear that I will never by threats injunctions promises or invitations by or from any person whatsoever nor from the hopes or prospects of any gift place office or trust whatever give my vote other than according to my opinion and conscience as I shall be truly and really perswaded upon the debate of any business in Parliament But the Bishops on their side did cry it down and cast it out § 297. The Debating of this Text did more weaken the Interest and Reputation of the Bishops with the Nobles than any thing that ever befel them since the King came in so much doth unquiet overdoing tend to undoing The Lords that would not have heard a Nonconformist say half so much when it came to be their own case did long and vehemently plead against that Oath and Declaration as imposed on them which they with the Commons had before imposed on others And they exercised so much liberty for many days together in opposing the Bishops and free and bold speeches against their Test as greatly turned to the Bishops Disparagement especially the Earl of Shaftsbury the Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Bristol the Marquess of Winchester the Earl of Salisbury the Lord Hollis the Lord Hallifax and the Lord of Alesbury Which set the Tongues of Men at so much liberty that the common talk was against the Bishops And they said that upon Trial there were so few found among all the Bishops that were able to speak to purpose Bishop Morley of Winchester and Bishop Ward of Salisbury being their chief Speakers that they grew very low also as to the Reputation of their parts § 298. At last though the Test was carried by the Majority yet those that were against it with others prevailed to make so great an alteration of it as made it quite another thing and turned it to the greatest disadvantage of the Bishops and the greatest accommodation of the Cause of the Nonconformists of any thing that this Parliament hath done For they reduced it to these words of a Declaration and an Oath I A. B. do declare That it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against the King And that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by His Authority against His Person or against those that are Commissioned by him according to Law in time of Rebellion and War in acting in pursuance of such Commission I A. B. do Swear that I will not endeavour an Alteration of the Protestant Religion now established by Law in the Church of England nor will I endeavour any Alteration in the Government of this Kingdom in Church or State as it is by Law Established § 299. This Declaration and Oath thus altered was such as the Nonconformists would have taken if it had been offered them in stead of the Oxford-Oath the Subscription for Uniformity the Corporation and Vestry Declaration But the Kingdom must be Twelve years rackt to Distraction and 1800 Ministers forbidden to Preach Christ's Gospel upon pain of utter ruin and Cities and Corporations all New-Modelled and Changed by other kind of Oaths and Covenants and when the Lords find the like obtruded on themselves they reject it as intolerable And when it past they got in this Proviso That it should be no hinderance to their Free-Speaking and Voting in the Parliament Many worthy Ministers have lost their Lives by Imprisonments and many Hundred their Maintenance and Liberty and that opportunity to serve God in their Callings which was much of the comfort of their Lives and mostly for refusing what the Lords themselves at last refuse with such another Declaration But though Experience teach some that will no otherwise learn it is sad with the World when their Rulers must learn to Govern them at so dear a rate and Countreys Cities Churches and the Souls of Men must pay so dear for their Governours Experience § 300. The following Explication will tell you That there is nothing in this Oath and Declaration to be refused 1. I do declare That it is not lawful can mean no more but that I think so and not that I pretend to Infallible certainly therein 2. To take Arms against the King That is either against his Formal Authority as King or against His Person Life or Liberty or against any of His Rights and Dignity And doubtless the Person of the King is inviâ—â—able and so are His Authority and Rights not only by the Laws but by the very Constitution of the Kingdom For every Common-wealth being essentially constituted of the Pars Imperans and pars subdita materially the Union of these is the Form of it and the Dissolution is the Death of it And
Hostility is Disunion and Dissolution Therefore no Head or Soveraign hath power to destroy or sight against his Kingdom nor any Common-wealth or Kingdom against their King or Soveraign Rulers unless in any case the Law of Nature and Nations which is above all Humane Positive Laws should make the dissolution of the Republick to become a Duty As if some Republick should cast off the Essential Principles of Society By Law neither King nor Kingdom may destroy or hurt each other For the Governing Laws suppose their Union as the Constitution and the Common good with the due Welfare of the Soveraign is the end of Government which none have power against But it must be noted that the words are against the King and not against the King's Will for if his Will be against his Welfare his Kingdom or his Laws though that Will be signified by his Commissioners the Declaration disclaimeth not the resisting of such a Will by Arms. 3. And if there be any that assert that the King's Authority giveth them right to take up Arms against his Person or Lawful Commissions it must needs be a False and Traiterous Assertion For if his Person may be Hostilely fought against the Common-wealth may be dissolved which the Law cannot suppose for all Laws die with the Common-wealth And it is a contradiction to be authorized by him to resist by Arms his Commissions which are according to Law For the Authority pretended to be his must be his Laws or Commissions and to be Authorized by his Laws or Commissions to resist his Laws must signifie that his Laws are contradictory when by one we must resist another But so far as they are contradictory both cannot be Laws or Lawful Commissions For one of them must needs nullifie the other either by Fundamental Priority or by Posteriority signifying a Repeal of the other And it must be noted that yet the Trayterous Position medleth not with the Question of taking Arms against the King's Person or Commissioners by the Law of God of Nature or of Nations but only of doing it by his own Authority 4. And that it is not lawful to take Arms against any Commissioned by him according to Law in time of Rebellion and War in pursuance of such Commission is a Truth so evident that no sober Persons can deny it The Long Parliament that had the War did vehemently assert it and therefore gave out their Commissions to the Earl of Essex and his Soldiers to fight against Delinquent Subjects for the King and Parliament 5. And the Oath containeth no more than our not endeavouring to Alter the Protestant Religion established or the King's Government or Monarchy It cannot with any true reason be supposed to tie us at all to the Bishops-much less to the English Disease or Corruption of Episcopacy or to Lay-Chancel lours c. but only to the King as Supreme in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil so far as they fall under Coercive Government This is thus proved past denyal 1. The word Protestant Religion as estalished in the Church of England cannot include the Prelacy For 1. The Protestant Religion is essentially nothing but the Christian Religion as such with the disclaiming of Popery aud so our Divines have still professed But our Prelacy is no part of the Christian Religion 2. The Protestant Religion is common to us with many Countreys which have no Prelacy And it is the same Religion with us and them 3. The words of the Oath distinguish the Religion of the Church of England from the Church of England it self and from Government 4. If Episcopacy in general were proved part of the Protestant Religion the English Accidents and Corruptions are not so They that say that Episcopacy is Iure Divino and unalterable do yet say that National and Provincial Churches are Iure Humano and that so is a Diocesane as it is distinct from Parochial containing many Parishes in it And if the King should set up a Bishop in every Market-Town yea every Parish and put down Diocesanes it is no more than what he may do And if by the Protestant Religion established should be meant every alterable mode or circumstance then King-James changed it when he made a new Translation of the Bible and both he and our late Convocation and King and Parliament by their Advice did change it when they added new Forms of Prayer And then this Oath bindeth all from endeavouring to make any alteration in the Liturgie or mend the Translation or the Metre of the Psalms c. or to take the keys of Excommunication and Absolution out of the hands of the Lay-Chancellour's c. which none can reasonably suppose 2. And that our Prelacy is not at all included in the word Government of the Kingdom in Church and State but only the King 's Supreme Government in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil is most evident 1. Because it is expressly said The Government of the Kingdom which is all one with the Government of the King For a Bishop or a Justice or a Mayor is no Governour of the Kingdom but only in the Kingdom of a Particular Church City Corporation or Division The summa potestas only is the Government of the Kingdom as a Kingdom And because forma denominat we cannot take the Kingdom to signifie only a Church or City 2. Because else it would change the very constitution of the Kingdom by making all the inferiour Officers unalterable and so to be essential constitutive parts Whereas only the pars Imperans and pars Subdita are constitutive parts of every Kingdom or Republick and the Constitutive pars Imperans is only the summa potestas except where the mixture and fundamental Contract is such as that Inferiour Officers are woven so into the Constitution as that they may not be changed without it's Dissolution which is hardly to be supposed even at Venice Tbe Oaths between the summa potestas and the Subject are the bonds of the Commonwealth their Union being the form that must not be dissolved But to make Oaths of Allegiance or Unchangeableness â—each to the Inferiour Magistrates or Officers is to change the Government or Constitution 3. And so it destroyeth the Regal power in one of it's chief properties or prerogatives which is to alter inferiour Officers who all receive their power from the Supreme and are alterable by him even by the Majestas which hath the Legislative powers And this would take away all the King's power to alter so much as a Mayor Justice or Constable For mark that Government of the Kingdom in Church and State are set equally together without any note of difference as to alteration If therefore it extend to any but the Supreme even to inferiour Officers it were to extend to them as Governing the State even to the lowest as well as the Church But this is a supposition to be Contemned 4. And if the Distinction should be meant de personis Imperantibus and should
intend only Bishops and King by Church and State 1. It would suppose that King and Parliament do take Bishops and King for two coordinate Heads in governing the Kingdom 2. And that they set the Bishops before the King which is not to be supposed 5. And to put all out of question the Oath is but Conform to former Statutes Oaths Articles of Religion and Canons 1. The Statutes which declare the King to be only Supreme Governour of the Church I need not cite 2. The Oath of Supremacy is well known of all 3. The very first Canon is that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all Bishops c. shall faithfully keep and observe all the Laws for the King's Supremacy over the Church of England in causes Ecclesiastical And the 2d Canon is to condemn the dangers of it And the 36. Canon obligeth all Ministers to subscribe that the King's Majesty under God is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all spiritual and Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal And as the Parliament are called the Representative of the People or Kingdom as distinct from the Head so the 139. Canon excommunicateth all them that affirm that the Sacred Synod of this Nation in the Name of Christ and by the King's Authority Aslembled is not the true Church of England by Representation So that they claim to be but the Representative of the Church as it is the Body distinct from the Head Christ aud the King as their chief Governour 4. And all that are Ordained are likewise to take the Oath of Supremacy I do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal 5. And It is also inserted in the Articles of Religion Art 35. And it is added expositorily Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the Chief Government by which title we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the Ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments but that only prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastcal or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the Stubborn and evil Doers Here it is to be noted that though no doubt but the Keys of Excommunication and absolution belong to the Pastors and to the Civil Magistrate yet the Law and this Article by the word Government mean only Coercive Government by the Sword and do include the power of the Keys under the title of Ministring the Word and Sacraments Church Guidance being indeed nothing else but the Explication and Application of God's word to Cases and Consciences and administring the Sacraments accordingly So that as in the very Article of Religion Supreme Government appropriated to the King only is contradistinguish'd from Ministring the Word and Sacraments which is not called Government there so are we to understand this Law and Oath And many Learned Men think that Guidance is a fitter name than Government for the Pastor's Office And therefore Grotius de Imper. Sum. Pot. would rather have the Name Canons or Rulers used than Laws as to their Determinations Though no doubt but the name Government may be well applyed to the Pastor's Part so we distinguish as Bilston and other judicious men use to do calling one Government by God's Word upon the Conscience and the other Government by the sword as seconding Precepts with enforcing penalties and Mulcts § 301. While this Test was carrying on in the house of Lords and 500 pounds Voted to be the penalty of the Refusers before it could come to the Commons a difference fell between the Lords and Commons about their priviledges by occasion of two Suits that were brought before the Lords in which two Members of the Commons were parties which occasioned the Commons to send to the Tower Sir Iohn Fagg one of their Members for appearing at the Lords Bar without their consent and four Counsellours Sir Iohn Churchill Sergeant Pemberton Sergeant Pecke and another for pleading there And the Lords Voted it Illegal and that they should be released Sir Iohn Robinson Lieutenant of the Tower obeyed the Commons for which the Lords Voted him a Delinquent And so far went they in daily Voting at each other that the King was fain to Prorogue the Parliament Iune 9. till October 13. there appearing no hope of Reconciling them Which rejoiced many that they rose without doing any further harm § 302. Iune 9. Keting the Informer being commonly detested for prosecuting me was cast in Gaol for Debt and wrote to me to endeavour his Deliverance which I did and in his Letters saith Sir I assure you I do verily believe that God hath bestowed all this affliction on me because I was so vile a wretch as to trouble you And I assure you I never did a thing in my Life that hath so much troubled my self as that did I pray God forgive me And truly I do not think of any that went that way to work that ever God would favour him with his mercy And truly without a great deal of mercy from God I do not think that ever I shall thrive or prosper And I hope you will be pleased to pray to God for me c. § 303. A while before another of the chief Informers of the City and my Accuser Marishall died in the Counter where his Creditors laid him to keep him from doing more harm Yet did not the Bishops change or cease Two more Informers were set on work who first assaulted Mr. Case's Meeting and next got in as hearers into Mr. Read's Meeting where I was Preaching And when they would have gone out to fetch Justices for they were known the doors were lockt to keep them in till I had done and one of them supposed to be sent from Fullum stayed weeping Yet went they straight to the Justices and the week following heard me again as Informers at my Lectures but I have not yet heard of their Accusation § 304. But this week Iune 9. Sir Thamas Davis notwithstanding all his foresaid Warnings and Confessions sent his Warrants to a Justice of the Division where I dwell to distrein on me upon two Judgments for 50 pounds for Preaching my Lecture in New-street Some Conformists are paid to the value of 20 pounds a Sermon for their Preaching and I must pay 20 pounds and 40 pounds a Sermon for Preaching for nothing O what Pastors hath the Church of England who think it worth all their unwearied Labours and all the odium which they contract from the People to keep such as I am from Preaching the Gospel of Christ and to undo us for it as far as they are able though these many years they do not for they cannot
be Schismaticks with them that unite not in their Center or at least be not tyed to union by their ligaments So he is a Schismatick to a Papist that Centers not in the Pope as the Principium unitatis and visible Head of the Church and in the Roman Church as the Heart of the Church Catholick denominating the whole He is a SchismatiÌ„ck with some others that owns not every Order or Ceremony which they maintain For my part I should think that he that 〈◊〉 in â—hrâ—â—t and â—â—â—deth the sound and wholsome Doctrine contained in the Creeds of the Church and maintaineth love and unity with all Christians to the utmost extent of his natural capacity even with all that he is capable of holding Communion with is no Schismatick nor his attempts for that end Schismatical Combinations If there were a Bishop in this Diocess and he should go one way suppose he command that all Church Assemblies be at such a time and all worship in such a form and all the Presbyters and People go another way whether they do well or ill so the thing itself be tollerable and will not meet at the time nor worship God in the form which he prescribeth I should think I were guilty of Schism if I separated from all these Churches and guilty of ungodliness if I wholly forsook and forbore all publick worship of God because I could have none according to the Bishops commanding Much more if there were no Bishop in the Diocess at all This seems to be our case in respect of both Worship and Discipline at least for the most part Is that man guilty of no Schisme nor Impiety who will rather have no Discipline exercised at all on the profane and scandalous but all Vice go without controul and the rage of Mens sins provoke Heaven yet more against us who will rather have no Ministerial Worship of God in Prayer or Praise no Sacraments no Solemn Assemblies to this end no Ministerial Teaching of the people but have all Mens Souls given over to perdition the bread of life taken from their mouths and God deprived of all his Worship then any of this should be done without Bishops That had rather the Church doors were shut up and we lived like Heathens than we should Worship God without a Bishops Commands and that when we have none to command us 3. We distinguish of the necessity of Bishops either it is a necessity ad bene esse for the right ordering of the Church when it may be had or it is a necessity ad esse to the very being of a Church or of Gods Worship without which we may not offer God any publick Service or have any Communion with any Congregation that so doth The former we leave as not fit for our determination and therefore we do not contradict you in it nor seek to draw you to own any Declaration against it The latter we do deny there is no such necessity of Bishops as that God can have no Church without them and that we must rather separate from all our Assemblies and never offer God any publick Worship then do it without them remembring still that we speak of those Bishops whom we are charged with rejecting and not the Pastors of particular Congregations And in this distinction of necessity and in this conclusion I have the consent of the generality of the Protestant Bishops so far as I know to a Man as far as their Writings declare to us their Minds and therefore Episcopal Divines may consent Except to Sect. 2. 1. Whether in this Worcestershire Association whoever will enter into it doth not therein oblige himself to acknowledge those for Presbyters and Pastors of Churches who profess themselves to have been made such in a Church where there are and were Bishops that never denyed them Orders without the Hands Consent or Knowladge of the Bishop yea in a time when Bishops were without any accusation before any Ecclesiastical Superiour Synod or other unheard ejected laid by by their own sheep and Presbyters that owed them obedience Reply to Sect. 2. To your first Question I answer 1. You must distinguish of punishing and ejecting Bishops that deserve it and casting out their Order 2. Between casting out the appurtenances and corruptions which made up the English sort of Prelacie as differing from the Primitive and casting out the Order and Office of Bishops simply in itself 3. Between those Men that do cast them out and those that do not 4. Between a Church that hath Bishops and one that hath none 5. Between them that can have Ordination by them and those that cannot 6. Between those Ministers of this Association that were Ordained by Bishops and those that were not 7. Between the Irregularity and sinfulness or Ordination and the nullity thereof and so between a Minister regularly Ordained and a Minister Irregularly Ordained who is a Minister still Hereupon I answer further in these conclusions 1. That too many of the Bishops lately ejected did deserve it is beyond dispute 2. Whether the Parliament in the state that they were in had not power to punish them by Imprisonment or Ejection as Solemon did Abiathar without an Ecclesiastical Superior or whether the Clergy be exempted from such punishment by the Secular power till they are delivered up to them by the Ecclesiastical Head hath been voluminously disputed in the world already Sutcliffe Bilson Iewel and a multitude more have proved that Kings have power in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and that the Pope hath no power of Jurisdiction in England let the Oath of Supremacy judge and if the Metropolitan of Canterbury or the highest Ecclesiastical Power miscarry who shall restrain or eject them but the Civil Power unless we go to the Pope for more acceptable witnesses I commend to you Spalatensis Grotius and Saravia yea Fr. de Victoria and several Parisians The two former one de Republ. Eccles. the other de Imperio summarum potestatum will never be well answered If it be said the King did it not I answer I think the Authority by whom that much was done that we now speak of will be acknowledged sufficient by most that were against the fact and that fought against the Parliament that understood the Laws It was long before the King withdrew 3. Many of those that approved of the Ejection of those unworthy men yet approved not of the dissolution of the Office and such may be many and for ought you know most or all of the Ministers here Associated Though I suppose rather it is otherwise yet while Men do for peace silence their opinions who knows what they are And sure I am many among us had no hand in the downfall of the Bishops and whether any at all be lyable in this to your Charge besides my self whereof more anon I know not most of our Association were in the Universities in the Wars and the rest were some I