conformable to Episcopacy and Parochial Worship and some of them so Zealous for the Liturgy and Diocesanes that they would not hear a Man as a Minister that had not Episcopal Ordination The Archbishop of York Williams was one of them and was not he for Episcopacy § 5. But the Accuser confuteth all this by telling us that it began in King James days between the Regians and the Republicans between Prerogative and Priviledge by a Party that would have perswaded the King to War for the Palatinate c. And why began he it not in Queen Elizabeth's Reign who more overtopt Parliaments than King James did I perceive by this Man that none must pass for Conformable and Episcopal that are not of Sibthorp and Mainwaring's Mind and renounce not Parliamentary Priviledges and give not up Property and Liberty to the meer will of the King called Prerogative And so all our Parliaments till the Dividing and Tearing Long one were not of the Church of England And what then was that Church Was it a Christian Kingdom and yet was the Kingdom Representative no part of it Are none but Leeches Sangutsugi's Men of Blood that must have all lye and die in Goals among Rogues that will not Swear and Subscribe and Declare and Covenant and Practise all that they impose of the Church of England What a Reproach is this to such a Church If I must Repent that I take not all the old Parliaments and all the Bishops in Queen Elizabeths days to be no Church Protestants if I must Repent for taking Jewel Bishop Bilson Ri. Hooker and his Friend Sir Edwin Sandyes for Church Protestants and Repent for believing all Rushworth's Collections all Whitlock's Memoirs all Sir Simon Dewes and Dr. Fuller's Church History and the Volumes of M. S. Parliament Speeches if I must take this King and Parliament and all the Bishops and Clergy that Conform to them to be no Protestants of the Church of England because they have made a Law declaring it to be the Rights and Liberties of the people to be governed by Law and not by Arbitrary Prerogative and have asserted what the old Parliaments claimed I must then heinously dishonour the Church of England and Repent that I am a Man § 6. He falsly feigneth me to say that the Bishops began the War because I said it began between the two Episcopal Parties those that were of Archbishop Abbot's and the old Reformers way and those that were for Land's Innovations and Persecutions And I should justly be noted for vain and tedious if I would stand to answer all his talk about the Provocations He that will read Whitlock may have full satisfaction and particularly find that the Parliament voted a Diocesane in every County when they began to reform And were they not then for Episcopacy § 7. Page 10. He saith From the year 1660 it hath been my chief work to pour out the like contempt malice and violence as was begun 1640. Ans Not a word proved or true till I was silenced 1662 Aug. 24. I was never accused for any word then preached writ and published Which was not for want of Enemies or Power Of many years after I neither preach'd nor printed And what I printed since the world may be judge of § 8. Page 12. He saith that the numerous fry of Sectaries agree to own me as their Champion Ans When the Grand Accuser can hope to make such stuff as this believed and that in a Land City and Time where the clean contrary is more commonly known than I am what can be devised so impudently false which he may not by his stamp make current as truth Are not above Sixty Books of Sectaries written more or less against me an evidence to prove that they take me not for their Champion Are not above Sixscore Books of my own writing many at large and all in part against Sectaries and Errors a visible Evidence of this Mans falshood Is not the common Cry of City and Countrey a sufficient witness that the Sectaries take me not for their Champion but their Adversary Indeed they have shewed it but by words it being but the two Master Sects Papists and Tory Prelatists that shew it by Fining Silencing Prison and taking all for their prey § 9. The Accuser tells me that it is no new thing for Hereticks to have many admirers and to pretend to purity that they may deceive Ans Which is very true and I will add that which is far worse It is no new thing even for them that do not so much as seem to have either Purity Conscience or common Honesty no nor to scruple the grossest Lying and Perjury to have more Followers than Christ himself had while he was on Earth notwithstanding his Purity and all his Miracles Such Men find corrupted nature as disposed to believe and follow them as a Dunghil to breed Weeds or a Carcase Maggots Even those that openly militate under Satan as deadly Enemies to serious Godliness if they will but cloak their malignity with the Name of a Sacred Function and call Piety and Conscience by their own Titles Hypocrisie and Schism shall convert more Souls to Diabolism in a little time than all the Preachers that they silence could have converted to Piety and serious Christianity And the French Prelacy and Dragoon Discipline will cleanse a Nation quickly from Protestant Heresie and Schism We hope not for the honour of having more Followers than such Men. This Man and his Sect would comfort me if I were in fear of that threatening of Christ Mat. 5. Woe to you when all Men speak well of you § 10. Ibid. He saith That under a form of Godliness I would destroy the power of it Ans Hem What is the Power of Godliness with this Sect of Men If it be the Power of Silencing the most Godly and Practical and Blameless Preachers and of Beggering and Murdering by long Imprisonment in common Goals both Preachers and Hearers that will not give over all publick Worship of God like Atheists till they dare venture to Lie and be Perjured and own all that such Men bid them say is faultless If it be the power of Godliness to have an ignorant worldly scandalous Priest who driveth Men from him by his naughtiness to hate threaten and ruine them if they will hear any but him or use any trustier Pastor for their Souls and that would turn Churches into Prisons and Sacraments into forced Drenches to be given by him that can get a Patent for the Trade which some Patrons and Prelates chosen by a Papist King can easily help him to then I am against the power of Godliness Where Gain is Godliness I have long been against the power of it § 11. Page 13. He saith Our Nation would be less in danger of new Flames if all my Books Practical and Polemical were consumed to Ashes Ans How came I to escape till now my self Not at all by your Clemency Your
at the Governours House Col. John Barker where I was offered to be Chaplain to the Garrison Regiment which I refused but undertook to preach once a Week to the Soldiers but without pay In which place God shewed me for about two years so great Mercy as I can never be sufficiently thankful for In a quiet and safe Habitation in the midst of a Kingdom torn by War and in pious converse with a great number of Excellent Learned Ministers that retired thither for safety from the rage of Soldiers and the Company of as pious understanding Gentlemen of the Committee as I knew living Sir Rich. Sheffington Mr. George Abbot Godfrey Bossevile and many more But because it was here that I declared my self for the Parliament I am here put to open the Case as it stood with me in order to my request to them that think I sinned yet better to help me by their Counsel and Prayers that God would convince me if I erred and pardon my known and unknown Sin SECTION 3. 1. I Did and do believe that the Legislative Power is the chief Flower of the summa potestas or true Soveraignty In this Bishop Morley himself fully confirmeth me 2. I did believe that the Legislative Power was by the Constitution of this Kingdom in the King and Parliament and not in the King alone This I believed because the words of the Laws say that they are made by the Consent and Authority of the Parliament And the King granted it in his Answer to the 19 Propositions in sence And not only Hooker and Bilson but all the old Bishops and the old Parliaments Judges and Lawyers commonly held it And I was not wiser in Law than all they I know few but Bishop Morley that deny that the Parliament have part in the power of Legislation And even he granteth that they are Authors of the matter to which the King puts the form And so he makes the Controversie like that of Aristotle and Galen about Generation whether the form be only à semine maâ—is vel utriusque As if the very Matter cum dispositione receptiva were not an Essential constitutive part But now King and Parliament have by a Law of the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects determined the Case 3. I did and do believe that it is commonly agreed that Parliaments have five Eminent Relations 1. They are part of the I egislative power by the Constitution of the Kingdoms 2. They are the Kings Supream Council 3. They are the Kings Supream Court of Judicature by the Lords 4. They Represent the Nation as subject to the King 5. They are the Nations Representatives so far as they are Free For had they not Liberties and Properties they were meer Slaves 1. As Subjects they are to obey 2. As Supream Council they are to be the chief Advisers 3. As the Supream Court the King is finally to exercise Judicature by them 4. As they represent the people as far as they are Freemen and not Slaves they are to secure their reserved and natural Liberties and Properties in their Lives Limbs Wives Children and Acquisitions which are not to be taken from them but by Consent or Forseiture 5. Their Legislative power they have not as Hooker and many others think by Nature but by that Fundamental Contract which made the form of Government For though Government be of God in the Genus and as empowered and obliged primarily to promote obedience to Gods own Laws yet it is of Man by Contract that the Persons or Families or Number and Order of Rulers be constituted and restraint put on the Invasion of Propriety 4. I did and do believe Grotius Lawson and other Writers of Politicks who agree that the bare Title of Supream given to a King is no proof that the whole Soveraignty summa potestas or Legislation in particular is in him alone and not at all in the Senate or Parliament for it is for Unity sake Honourary not excluding but implying the Parliaments part and also that he is to exercise his Judicatures by the Legal way of his Courts Judges and Magistrates 5. I did and do believe that the King is singulis universis subditis major quoad Fus regendi and that the people quâ talis have no power of publick Government but that he is not Universis melior And that meliority maketh the final Cause And that salus populi or bonum publicum is the Essentiating End or terminus of Humane Government And it is no Government save equivocally which is destructive of this End 6. I believe that the same God that Instituted Political Government did also make 1. Self-Government 2. Paternal Government 3. Marital Government 4. And Pastoral Church Government And that no King hath any Right to null any of these or alter them in Essentials or Integrals but only to over rule them 7. I believe that all Power is of God and no King hath any but what God hath given him And that God hath given none against himself or any of his own Laws And all Laws are nullities that are against them And are not Acts of Authority but Usurpation as Hooker saith 8. But yet he that acteth in one thing without and against Authority is to be obeyed in other things where he hath Authority and not resisted by Arms in every Usurpation yea the Honour of his Office and true Power is to be preserved while we refuse obedience to his sinful Usurpation 9. Grotius and common reason convinced me that where the summa potestas is in King and Senate each part hath right to defend its own true Part therein It can be no part in Soveraignty which is meerly at the Will and Mercy of the other part 10. I did and do believe that the Constitution fixing the chief power in King and Parliament united as one Politick Person it supposeth that they must not be divided And that neither part hath power against the other as such The King hath power over them as Subjects but not as Legislators or exempted Proprietors So that separating them by fixed opposition is dissolving the Constitution As separating Soul and Body Husband and Wife dissolve Man and Matrimony 11. Therefore I did and do believe that neither King nor Parliament had any right to raise an Offensive War against each other None but unavoidably defensive could be lawful Therefore the first assailant was the culpable beginner 12. I did believe that neither the King nor the Parliament as such are questionable by Law having no superior Judicature to try them And that the person of the King is inviolable there being no Power or Law to punish him and therefore the Law saith The King can do no wrong but it layeth all the blame on the Subjects who are responsible for their actions 13. I did and do believe that as every Man hath a power of private Self-defence against a Murderer or Thief so every Kingdom hath a power or right of
Bonum Publicum the common Safety and the Constitution 2. And between a Case controvertible and a Case clear and certain And so I answer 1. If a Parliament wrong the King we must not joyn with them in wronging him nor own their wrong nor defend the Persons from legal Justice He might have dissolved them and called another had he not past a Law to the contrary He may Impeach any Members at their own Bar But at what Judicature shall he try the highest Judicature it self 2. And if the Representative would treacherously destroy the Constitution and yield to enslave them or to give up the Kingdom to the Pope or any Foreign Power the Case being past Controversie the People have not thereby lost the natural Power of Self-defence But may as lawfully choose more trusty Representatives and fight for Self defence against such Traitors as against a Tyrant 3. But the species of the Constitution in King and Parliament must still be maintained and the Salus Populi without respect to which there is no Government And no personal Faults can forfeit that 32. Therefore I ever thought as it was a dissolution of the Constitution for the King to put down Parliaments and pretend as Bishop Morley blindly pleadeth to the sole Power of Legislation so it is Treason for a Parliament to put down Monarchy and to assume the sole Legislative Power As the Rump did when they pretended to settle a Government without a King or House of Lords If either King or Parliament personal should forfeit their Power the Kingdom doth not thereby forfeit their right in the constituted Form of Government by a King and Parliament SECTION 4. I Have interposed this account of the Principles on which I acted I will next add an account of my Actions hereupon and then return to the Confession of my own Sins as far as I know them 1. Refusing a Chaplain's Commission I continued about two Years or more in Coventry as a Lecturer to the Garison and City in quietness save that we daily heard of all the dismal Wars abroad Only twice I went out with them 1. To take in Tamworth Castle that cost no Blood 2. And to besiege Banbury Castle whose Soldiers rob'd Warwickshire and the Travellers and Carriers on London Road. But thence we were raised and driven home with some loss Also for two or three Months the care of my Native Countrey and of my Father drew me into Shropshire with some that went to settle a Garison at Wem There and at Longford House I staid till my Father was delivered from Imprisonment by Exchange for a short time 2. All that ever I converst with did all this while protess to own the King and only to separate him from an Army of Delinquents and to reunite him and his Parliament And we thought all the Armies had intended no worse But when Naseby Fight was past having heard that the King was left out of the New Commissions I went to see the Field where the Fight was and the Army And there accosted me some sober honest Captains and told me that their Army was corrupted by the fault of the Ministers that had all forsaken them being weary of the Labour and impatient of the Sectaries in the Army and so they were all left to the Preaching of their own Officers and Souldiers and a few Chaplains of their own Mind and Choice And that the bold Leaders began already to say that God hath committed the safety of the Nation to their trust And what were the Lords and Knights in William the Conqueror's time but his Colonels and Captains In a word I understood by them that they had a purpose to set up themselves and to overturn the Government of Church and 〈◊〉 This so surprized me that whereas these Captains intreated 〈◊〉 among them and got Col. Whalley who then seemed of their 〈◊〉 to invite me to his Regiment I took but one days time to answer them And I opened the sad Case that we were all like to be in to an Assembly of Ministers in Coventry whom I gathered to counsel me and told them what I found and that the Land was now like to fall into their hands and that though I thought it was too late I was inclined to venture my life among them in seeking to reclaim them The Ministers Dr. Bryan Dr. Grew Mr. King Mr. Brumskill Mr. Morton and others seeing my inclination gave their consent But the Committee after consent refusing I was forced to tell them what I saw and heard in the Army and what Danger the Kingdom was in and so to go away against their will But Col. W. Puresoy a Confident of Cromwell's threatened me for such words and I imagine sent Cromwell word that Night For the next Morning I was met with scorn and I suppose all known to Cromwell that I had said and Cromwell would never after allow me any opportunity beyond the Regiment that I joyned to And there I spent near two years in Labours and Disputings against well-meaning perverted Sectaries if it had been possible to have turned them from what they after did But my capacity was narrow though there I prevailed with most And I got Mr. Cook since of Chester that suffered much for the King and after by the King a great Enemy to Sects and Sedition to come and help me but they wearied him away And besides Mr. Bowles I know none but perverse Sectaries part Arminians but most Antinomians or worse left to be their Teachers I told the Parliament Men what the Army would do and warned them to prepare But it was too late Cromwell and his Confederates did all and made a Stale of Fairfax's Name and Vane and Haslerigge and their Friends in Parliament disbanded all the sober Souldiers in Garisons and Bragades that would have resisted them and so put the Power of King Parliament and Kingdom into their hands and some of them repented when it was too late In Feb. 1656 7. they began their Conspiracy against the Parliament in a Meeting at Nottingham and that very day God separated me from them by Bleeding 120 Ounces at the Nose at Milborne in Derbyshire when else I had in vain hazarded my life against them at Triploe Heath by drawing from them as many as I could But Sir Edward Hatley and other Officers that did it and drew off about Five thousand did but strengthen them For Cromwell fill'd up their places with Sectaries and Soldiers that had served the King before and was stronger than before as having none to distrust To tell what they did after against the Eleven Members and then against the Majority of the Parliament and then against the King and then against the Rump and then against the Ministry and how Cromwell contrived himself into the Supremacy would be to write the History of that time and to Epitomize Whitlock This much I thought necessary to premise to my own review of my actions and for them that
I never wrote a word to justifie his Death but only once told the Papists that they were unmeet Accusers as being guilty of more 2. I preach'd against it 3. I wrote against it over and over 4. It cost me the dear Labour and Sufferings of almost two years in the Army to have kept them in Loyal Obedience 4. I called them oft and long to Repentance Whence then did this Man find matter or occasion for such a shameless forgery As for the Notion of Martyrdom I leave Canonizing to the Righteous Judge § 19. Accus VI. Who more opposed the Return of our present Soveraign Ans Mendac VI. 1. Ask for his proof of this 2. The King testified the contrary 3. See my Sermon before the Parliament the day before he was Voted Home 4. And my Sermon to the City on their Thanksgiving called Right Rejoicing 5. Would the King have made such an Enemy his Chaplain and a Bishop The Truth is this There were two Seasons that called to me for my Endeavours for the King The first was at Worcester Fight and at Sir George Booth's Fight At that time I openly declared the Army to be in a state of Rebellion in which none should own them But I durst not meddle on either side Not for the Cromwellians their Cause being sinful Not to restore the King because I foresaw all the Divisions Silencings Persecutions and Calamity to the Kingdom which his Bishops and other revengeful Instruments would bring in Nor was I deceived in expecting most that hath befallen us of twenty nine years since save that I thought that Popery and Cruelty would have made a speedier progress than they did Not knowing by what methods God would stop them And I durst not hasten Gods Judgments on the Land till I knew that he required it 2. But afterward when I saw that the Army cast all into utter confusion and that Gods Providence had resolved the doubt how much I did towards a due subjection to the King is not a thing that wanteth evidence I cannot Repent that I was not one that brought into England that Tribe of Revengeful destructive Prelates and their Agents that corrupted and divided the Church of England § 20. Accus VII Or hath been as active in making the Government uneasie Ans 1. Uneasie To whom To the King I have his Testimony to the contrary He sent D. Lauderdale to me purposely to invite me to receive the Testification of his Favour and Acceptance Read his Character of us in his Gracious Declaration Read Mr. Gaches Letter to me for the King translated and published by the means of Duke Lauderdale I know nothing that I did to make his Government uneasie unless all my labour to have united his Subjects made it uneasie Or unless his Confessor Huddleston was in the right that he was before for the Roman Religion and it was uneasie to him to be stopt in promoting it Of which confess I was oft guilty But if he mean the Prelates Government I believe I did much to make it uneasie to them I laboured by such reasons to have prevented their ejecting 2000 Godly Ministers at once and all the Cruelties and Miseries that have followed that it must needs be uneasie to their Consciences and Credit while they could make no answer to the proof of their iniquity I gave such reasons against their Lay Excommunicaters and their Cursing Canons and their causless and obstinate dividing of the National Church by their frivolous tearing Impositions as must make Cruelty the more uneasie But if I be not blind and mad the Government of Church and State had been more easie if they would have heard our pacificatory Requests § 21. Accus VIII Or who hath or can do more than Mr. B. to renew all our troubles and confusions Ans By what By studying praying preaching writing and speaking and exemplary living for Unity and Peace which God knoweth hath been my chief or second study and labour these Forty four years valuing the supernal Wisdom which is first Pure and then Peaceable But methinks I hear the Legion that are his Army who was a Liar and Murderer from the beginning say What have we to do with thee Art thou come to torment us before the time But they have had leave to enter into the Swine And O that their suffocation in the Sea of confusion occasion not Christ to be driven out of our Coasts by them that love their Swine better than Christ § 22. Accus IX So that I could not devise to give a better Epitome of the late Rebellion and Schism than this account of Mr. B's Actions and Writings which is an Abstract of the rise and progress of both in whom they yet both live and with whom I wish they may both die Ans To the same purpose saith Morley of me Ex uno disce omnes And though I unfeignedly think my self worse than the most Nonconforming Ministers that I know yet I intreat all Forreigners and Natives of future Ages to think no worse of the Parliament and Nonconformists than this Accusation alloweth them to do They were at least no worse than I which I say because the Accusers seem to allow you this much And all the rest have not wrote above Sixscore Books to make themselves known as I have done and so by me you may know the worst of them ex uno omnes The Sum of my wickedness is the Wars But 1. What 's this to all the rest of the Ejected Silenced Ministers of whom I think there is not living one of fifty or a hundred that ever medled with the Wars though one Archbishop did and many that Conform And why would they never grant my earnest request that they would Silence only me and all others that had any hand in the War except the Conformists and no more 2. I thought I had been a Rebel if I had been against the Parliament the Representative Kingdom and the salus populi or bonum publicum and I thought the Legislative power was the Supream and that this power was in King and Parliament conjunct and that neither of them had power against the other but that their Union was the constituted summa potestas which I was bound to endeavour and their division was the dissolution of the Government And I thought that all Subjects were under the Law and that the King might not protect them from his Courts of Judicature 3. I knew that Points of Humane Policy and Laws are not in our Creed nor such Controversies so clearly decided in Scripture as that Salvation should lye on them Though Rich. Hooker's Opinion was for more popular power than mine I find not that our Clergy place him in Hell for it or call him the most Bloody Instrument of Rebellion 4. I have elsewhere shewed that the chief stream of the Writers of Policy Laws History Heathens and Christians Papists and Protestants Lawyers and Divines doth give so much more power to the people
War stated by the Parliament Commissions for the King and Parliament I was in it and for it Because 1. He that is for the Highest Power in a Civil War is of the righter side caeteris paribus than he that is against it but they that were for King and Parliament were for the Highest Power in our Civil War Proved They that were for them that have the Legislative Power were for them that had the Highest Power as Morley confesseth and almost all others But they that were for King and Parliament were for them that had the Legislative Power Ergo c. Obj. What Hypocrisie is it to shoot at the King and say you fight for him Ans 1. The King protested to be for the Parilament as his Shrewsbury Half Crowns shew while he fought against their Armies and Persons Ergo the Parliament might more clearly be for the King while they fought against his Army and not his Person though in the Field 2. They knew that the King had discretion enough to keep his Person out of the reach of Danger And so he did At Edgehill he stood on the Hill as I heard and look'd down on the Fight in the Field At Naseby where he was nearest he was safe but that was after the first Cause and War I never heard else that he came near 3. Else any Traytor that could possess the Kings Person and carry him about as they did Henry VI. should be for the King and all against him that would rescue him Obj. He was willingly with his Army Ans He may fight for the King that doth it against his Will while he doth it not to hurt his Person Prerogative or Rights We Sware not to be for all the Will of the King If in a Passion he would kill Himself his Son his Lords his Parliament yea or would but Ravish a Woman he may be held and resisted Arg. 2. They that were to bring King and Parliament again to Union fought for the King and Kingdom and the Highest Power for it is the Constitution But the first Wars Commissions were to bring the King and Parliament to Unity Ergo c. Arg. 3. They that were really for the Common Safety and Salus Populi and the very Constituted Form of Government in a case of notorious danger and only against an Army of Subjects that fled from the Justice of the Supream Judicature were righter than those that were against their Wars But c. Ergo c. Arg. 4. They that were for a Defensive War according to Law and Constitution were righter than they that raised War against them contrary to Law and Constitution But c. Ergo c. The Parliament to the last were against all violence to the Person of the King and were cast out by Cromwell for Voting to receive him As it was easie for Bradshaw and â—ook to Charge all the Bloodshed on the King so is it fo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accuser to Charge it according to his Judgment But all of us must be willing of Conviction and deep Repentance so far as we shall be proved guilty Arg 5. The present King and Parliament have by Practice and by Law declared the right of more than Arming and Resisting a King in several Cases Arg. 6. In a doubtful Case under God there is no Judge that hath a deciding power above the Supream Judicature § 50. Accus XXXVII He next accuseth me as falsly Charging the peaceable Reign of King Charles the First with Persecution wherein there was no such thing but Peace save against the Seditious And he appealeth to the Canons Ans 1. See the Preface to my Book called Cain and Abel for an answer to this 2. We appeal to the Canons too and to the Bishops Visitation Articles and to the experience of all England that delight not in the Destruction of the true Servants of Christ 3. But alas how far are Leeches from feeling the smart of the Persons whose Blood they feast upon The Papists say none were punished in Queen Mary's days but the Hereticks and Seditious So saith the King of France And so said the Irish when they Murdered 200000. 4. Q. 1. Was there nothing but Amiable Peace when Laud and others wrote for a Forreign Jurisdiction under the Name of our obeying the Pretorian Power of Forreign Councils Q. 2. Was it Sedition not to Read the Book for Sunday Sports and Dancing which exempted Children and Servants from the Government of their Parents and Masters For which many Ministers suffered Q. 3. Was it Sedition for Religious people to go hear a Conformable Preacher at the next Parish when they had no Preaching at Home Q. 4. Was it Sedition for Religious people to pray with their Sick Friends and Fast and Humble themselves to God without Travelling to the Bishop for a License Q. 5. Was it Sedition for a Man Vowed to the Ministry by Episcopal Ordination to Preach or Expound any matter in the Church or elsewhere without a new License from the Bishop Q. 6. Was it Sedition for any Man Noble or Ignoble to affirm that any thing was repugnant to the Word of God in the Ceremonies Liturgy Ordinations or the Et caetera Government of the Church Q. 7. Was it Sedition to refuse the false Et caetera Oath of 1640 Q. 8. Was it Sedition to say that other Societies in England were true Churches besides the Episcopal Churches At least the French and Dutch Q. 9 Was it for Sedition that Men were punished for not Receiving the Sacrament when the Conscience of their ignorance and unfitness deterred them Q. 10. Were the many thousand Families that were put to fly the Land to Holland and America punished for nothing but Sedition Were New England and Barmudas planted without any Persecution Or was it no punishment to be driven from House Land Goods Kindred and Native Countrey into an unplanted Wilderness among VVoods and wild Men and Beasts Q. 11. Was it no Persecution to be Excommunicate ipso facto by Canons 6 7 8 c. without being admonished or heard Q. 12. Was it nothing but Amiable Peace that laid all the Ten sorts of the Excommunicate named in the Statute in the common Goal during Life depriving them there of their Estates unless they Lied by a feigned Repentance Q. 13. Yea was it only harmless that made Seriousness in Religion such a common Scorn as the word Puritane then signified if Mr. Robert Bolton Bishop Abbot Bishop Downame and other Conformists may be believed But say these Accusers All this was but justice and was well done But the casting out of two hundred accused on Oath for gross scandal and utter insufficiency by the Parliament was Persecution and was not well done § 51. Accus XXXVIII Next I am accused because other Men exploded the Lords Prayer Ans 1. And what is that to me that constantly used it 2. And who may not see that the use of it was prescribed in the Directory 3. And the Presbyterian
not like to live And the Sequestration put into the hands of divers of the Inhabitants to maintain one to Officiate They offered it me and I refused it And told them that I would take neither Sequestration nor Pastoral Cure but my former Lecture but if they would get a competent Pastor let them take care to pay him For I would have out of the Vicaridge but the 60 l. that the Vicar was bound to pay And because I refused a Living of 400 l. or 500 l. to be with them I would try other ways to make my Stipend 100 l. by getting for Mitton Chappel which had but ten pound a year an Augmentation of forty pound from the Parliament aliunde and in sum while I was there the maintenance of the Vicaridge was thus paid viz. forty pound a year to Mr. Dance about twenty pound to the Crown and Poor and Taxes ten pound to the old Curate of Mitton which was all he had before sixty pound to me and the rest to a truly faithful Minister that preached once a day at Kiderminster and once at Mitton and did the rest of the Offices And the Augmentation added from the Parliament made up my sixty pound to be eighty pound and the Rent of a few Rooms in the top of another Mans old House And I had no more Nor did ever set my foot in the Vicaridge House much less offer to put out Mr. Dance nor had we any disagreement And when he was restored he freely gave me a full discharge for all between him and me But the Sequestrators had notice that another was like to be put in against their will if I were not And thereupon without me they got the Committee to pass an Order as to me and they kept this Order for their own indempnity till King Charles the Second's Army came to Worcester and then they brought it me and desired me if I were put to it not to disclaim it And to make all sure when I came to them after my return from the Army I got all the Magistrates and chief of the Town to Subscribe their Names that they received me only as their Lecturer that refused the Pastoral Charge and Sequestration § 61. Accus XLVIII To aggravate the Rebellion of Cromwell's Army I wrote that they had pull'd down the best Governours that they could name in the World and therefore to pretend their faults for their Rebellion was to profess that they would be subject to none Here he saith I meant the Parliament I answer It was both King and Parliament that they put down And he hath nothing but my own words to accuse me of 2. Why did he not venture to Name better than they put down I know not what Nation then had better notwithstanding all that both Cromwell and this Accuser hath said against them § 62. Accus XLIX He next accuseth me for praising Richard Cromwell's Government Ans I spake nothing but Truth He was never in any War The Royalists reported that he would restore the King He was not for Sectaries but for uniting pious Counsels He presently gave up his Government because it should cost no Mans Blood And this was enough to aggravate their sin that had set him up when he sought it not and then cast him out to their own destruction § 63. Accus L. He saith That I never so much complained of Arbitrary Government and Persecution as since the King and Church were restored Ans Notoriously false My Political Aphorisms witness my complaints then and let him tell if he can where or when I complained of Arbitrary Government since King Charles the Second came in I knew he did what was done against us by Parliaments I knew the Bishops got Laws for their purpose But if I complain more of Persecution it is because I think it no sin to feel nor a Duty to love the Silencing of Faithful Ministers and laying them in Goals for nothing but preaching the Gospel nor was I of the mind that undoing thousands of sincere godly Christians was no Persecution I dare not rail at Christ's Judgment Matth. 25. that reckoneth that as done for or against him that is done for or against the least of those whom he calleth Brethren while Pharisees call them Accursed Till Cruel Persecution be Sanctity it will be no sin to hate it § 64. Accus LI. But that which followeth is a most notorious out-facing the most publick notice of the Land Page 47. Did not the Secluded Members upon their readmission reinforce the Engagement to be true and faithful to the Common-wealth without a King or House or Lords Ans So far were they from this that they were cast out immediately for Voting the satisfactoriness of the Kings Commissions and his return to London And upon their readmission they voted their own dissolution that a free Parliament might be called and were never for the Engagement but abhorred it though the Royalists at their Compositions ordinarily took it when I wrote against it But he asketh Did not some of them provide an Oath of Abjuration c. Ans We can better tell what Parliaments do than what some of them do How know I what odd or secret Act of any particular Persons this Man might know of But I suspect this some was some one or more of the excluded Rump But had he no pretence for this notorious Lie against the Secluded Members None visible but that which hath filled his Book with falshood wrath and blind prejudice and inconsiderate haste That which was done by the restored Rump he falsly saith was done by the Secluded Members when it was done before their restoring But they justified their first War against the Delinquent Army You may find him punctually confuted in Whitlock's Memorials When things so notoriously false are thus confidently vented which the publick notice of the Kingdom confuteth what credit doth his Accusation deserve of me and my unknown actions and my thoughts whom I suppose he never saw if the Author be Long of Exeter as fame reporteth Indeed when Cromwell's proud rebellious Army came and mastered Parliament and City and about 150 of their Members forbore coming to the House they past divers slavish Votes among which was that of No more Addresses to the King when he refused their four Acts But they recalled that Vote and were cast out for recalling it and Voting Consent to the Kings Concession And when after Richard's Government the Army had confounded themselves they were forced to call the Excluded Members of the Long Parliament again But what Members were they Only the Rump or Party that cut off the King and put down the House of Lords expresly confining it to them that staid in till April 20. 1653. the day that Cromwell cast out the last So that the first Excluded Members were never restored till Monk and his Presbyterian Army restored them They abhorr'd the Common-wealth Engagement And so did all the Ministers of my Acquaintance save
against me called his Letter is most shameless for untruths in publick matters of Fact His last and greatest is to prove against me that the Parliament hath no part in Legislative Power nor the whole Kingdoms any right of self defence against any Commissioned by the King on any pretence whatsoever This Accuser is an Eminent Member of the best Church in the World Is this bundle of his gross untruths a proof that he is one of the best Men in the World He saith that the Good that I wrote was for mischievous Ends. And what should move a Man in pain and expectation of speedy death to write above Sixscore Books great and small that are contrary to the bent of his own Heart And for that which he mischievously would overthrow To spend his Life against his own Affections § 70. Accus LIII His next charge is that I was employed in assisting the Commissioners for Sequestration Ans. A downright Lie I never had any thing to do for them or with them Another sort called Commissioners for Approbation that were to judge of Men for Institution upon Presentations would have had me to assist them and I utterly refused it But at last they got a trick that when a Man was presented that they would not approve and yet would not incur the blame of rejecting him they named three Countrey Ministers near him and said If those approved him they would accept him Three or four times they named me and I refused to meddle in it Till three Ministers that were Episcopal and Royalists against the Parliament told me They should lose their Livings if I refused them and only for them did I deny my self to do this Office And now this Man makes it my crime to help his Party to Benefices I never put out or rejected one of his Party He dealeth with me just as Dr. Pearce did When I desired to reconcile the Religious sort to the Ignorant multitude whom the Conformists had made their Church I was still met with the objection that they had nothing but the name and accidents of Christians that they scarce ever spake of God or Christ or the Life to come unless in jest or at the saying of their Service that they never prayed in their Families that multitudes of them were common Swearers Lyars Drunkards c. To keep them from censuring the Conformists and their Churches over-much and separating groundlesly I told them how some foul Sins that have got advantage by Custom may stand with some degrees of Grace And what doth this Doctor but turn this to my own reproach as if I was for vicious Looseness and had described not theirs but my own Communicants whenas without this charitable Lenitive I doubt it is above half the Conformable Laity that we must have turned from the Sacrament and so have maimed the Church of England Just so doth this Man accuse me for keeping in three Prelatists § 71. Accus LIV. He maketh a long Accusation again of my taking the Sequestration full of gross Falshoods Principally That the Augmentation came out of the Tythes of the Vicaridge A Lye merely forged by him without the least appearance of Proof It was granted aliunde I know not whence by the Parliament and paid by them 2. That the Vicar then had little and he talks of desolate Wives and Children Whereas the Vicar had no Child and had 40 l. a Year for doing nothing His debauch'd sottish Curate at Mitton had all his old Pay without any Abatement and was connived at by us to read Common Prayer once a day and the other half of the day they had a worthy Preacher 3. And as for the 60 l. before and after paid me as Lecturer the Vicar's Bond for it was procured by his own Friends importunity before the Wars Oh What a rate do these Accusers set on Souls that would leave so many to two such Men whom many Plow-men and Weavers in that Congregation farther excelled in Knowledge and the Exercise of it than I will now express § 72. Accus LV. He saith that I think my self wronged that I had not the fifth part still paid me and expected to have it offered as my due Ans A mere Lye 'T is capable of no better Name and Answer § 73. Accus LVI Because I said that the Papists Doctrine of deposing and destroying Kings was worse or had less excuse than their act that here had fought against him while I published my abhorrence of both sorts of Regicides he feigneth me to plead for them and that more than others § 74. Accus LVII Pag. 57. He saith It is Men of my persuasion that say that the Representatives of the People in Parliament have the supream Power and whatever is enacted and declared for Law by the Commons in Parliament hath the form of a Law Ans Impudently false Whereas in my Christian Directory I have fully confuted this and such like in Ri. Hooker the Man of their persuasion that they boast of Had he said that I hold that they have part of the Supream Legislative Power he had said true § 75. Accus LVIII After a deal of impertinent talk of the Army 's ill usage of the King which 't is like I did more against than many such as he he saith That I plead for the Obligation of the Solemn Covenant contumaciously against the Authority of the whole Nation Ans If the Reader will find truth in this Man's Writings he must first separate it from all the Chaff of Untruths that covereth it I distinguish between 1. The Imposing of that Covenant 2. And the Taking of it 3. And the Keeping of the unlawful parts of it 4. And the Keeping of the lawful and necessary parts The three first I speak against the fourth is all the matter of our dispute That Covenant is also a Vow to God Therein Men vowed to be against Popery Profaneness Heresie and Schism and all that is against sound Doctrine and Godliness and to repent of Sin and amend and to defend the Person and Rights of the King King Charles the Second took this Covenant and so did his Lords and Knights and others at their Composition and many that imposed and took it were then and some are yet alive The Question is Whether I. and all England can and must be certain that this Vow bindeth neither King Parliament-men or any one living to renounce Popery Schism and Profaneness and to repent of Sin and to defend the King All the Corporations of England are constituted by a new Oath that there is NO OBLIGATION from this Covenant on ME OR ANY OTHER PERSON I gave the Reasons why I durst not swear this leaving other Men's Consciences to their Judge Now either there is some such Obligation or there is not If there is and I should venture by an Oath or a Subscription to justifie King Parliament and all the Corporations in England in publick national Perjury What greater Wickedness could I commit Would
Government and defame their Laws as if they were a strange Parliament that made so many Laws that a Man fearing God cannot obey Ans 1. And must we go on such suppositions that our Law-makers must not be said to make sinful Laws Where and in what Ages doth this Principle hold Not in Jeroboam's days nor in Ahab's nor in any Age after Christ till Constantine and Athanasius had exceptions then Not in the days of Constantius or of Valens no nor of Theodosius the Second Zeno Basiliscus Anastasius Philippicus or of few Christian Emperors Nor now in Rome Spain France Poland Portugal Germany c. The Lutherans under Calvinists believe it not nor the Calvinists under Lutherans nor the Prelatists under Presbyterians Nor those English Bishops and Clergy that now here refuse the Oath to King William imposed by the Parliament If this Man think that we have not fully shamed that worse than brutish conceit that we must not plead Conscience against Mens Laws though as good men as any Rulers we know he should have said more to confute us than that we fear not God because we fear him more than man This easie Disputant confuteth my many Volumes of Reasons against obeying their Impositions of Oaths Subscriptions Professions and Practices by telling men that I may be ashamed to call them Reasons A short and cheap Confutation Cannot the French say as much for Dragooning the Protestants And that the Laws were made upon deliberation and for our peace That is for the peaceable success of Silencers and Persecutors of Gods Faithful Servants And were not the Six Articles in Henry the Eighth's days made on deliberation And the French Edicts against the Protestants He referreth us to a Book of Church Unity written in Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet And I refer him to my Answer to that Book which was never answered and confuteth much of this Mans charge As to his talk That Men of Blood may be no Bishops I answer 1. I never drew a drop of Blood 2. I refused their Bishoprick 3. I preach'd for the defence of Kings and the Nation against Men of Blood Irish Papists and Delinquents 4. Were not the Military Clergy Men of Blood who complain of the Parliament for ejecting them for promoting the War against them Was not Dr. Mew now Bishop of Winchester Dr. Crofts now Bishop of Hereford Dr. Compton now Bishop of London Men of War when they went as Chaplains or Officers in the Kings Army and yet are Bishops § 102. Page 127. He nameth The Act for Uniformity As if naming it were a Defence of it for Silencing 2000 Ministers for not Lying and Sinning He nameth Renouncing the Covenant And is that a Justification against Perjury to them that own not the Imposing or Taking it nor obligation to keep any but the Moral Necessary parts He nameth the Declaration that it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against any Commissioned by the King And is that a Confutation of Bilson and other Bishops and doth he not make his own Church and Party now perjured who have taken Arms against King James or those that were Commissioned by him and have set up another King If King James Commission a French and Irish Army to Invade England are all bound not to resist them § 103. Accus LXXXV He chargeth me with a Scandalum Magnatum for saying The Parliament was drawn by the Clergy to make those Acts. Ans And did any Man doubt of it that then lived with his Reason awake If it were not good why did they do it and why do you justifie it If it were good why is it a Scandalum magnatum to say you did it Is your Merit and Praise a Scandal § 104. Accus LXXXVI Because I tell how Hypocrites tempted Christ about paying Tribute to Caesar he feigneth that I make Christ do what he never intended or really approved and complied with Hypocrites and saith It is near to Blasphemy Ans I find too little in this Accuser that is near to Truth How easily by such Fictions may he turn much of the Gospel into Blasphemies § 105. Accus LXXXVII He addeth And who can wonder if he that speaks thus of the Master should not stick to revile his Disciples making the Conformists so many deliberately perjured Persons Ans 1. Must we not refuse Perjury for fear of your supposition that we accuse you We professed not to accuse you but to prove that it would be Perjury in us 2. But if you are guilty is not that more to be feared by you than our saying why we dare not imitate you § 106. Accus LXXXVIII He addeth And which is Mendacium magnum that about Six Thousand Persons that had gone the other way did declare their Assent and Consent to a Book which they never saw Ans Oh what a mortal Wound do this sort of Men give to the Credit of all History of the proud factious worldly part of the Clergy when this Man dare call this a Lye in the same Land and Age in which 1. It is known that there are near Ten Thousand Parish-Churches besides Hundreds of Chapels and Curacies and Chaplains 2. The Land knoweth that these were in possession 1662. 3. The Land knoweth that the Generality of them that were in 1659. conformed to the Directory or else the Prelatists belye the Usurpers that they say turned out all that did not 4. The Land knoweth or at least it is here commonly known that the new altered Liturgy came not out of the Press till about Bartholomew Even 5. The Land knoweth that all were by the Law to be turned out that declared not Assent and Consent to all things contained in and prescribed by that Book by Bartholomew Day 6. The World knoweth that all over England the Books could not be sent down and seen in a Day 7. The Conformists confess the Matter of fact save to a few in London that could go to the Press 8. The Land knoweth that it was but about Two Thousand that conformed not Must there not be then far more than Six Thousand that declared Assent c. to the Book that they saw not Some of them now say that in Universities and the Chaplains and all set together there are about Thirty Thousand Ordained Ministers in England And what are Two Thousand to such a Clergy § 107. Accus LXXXIX He noteth that I say that before I was turned out I could keep no Man-Servant nor any but one old Woman in a hired Room and yet in St. Martin ' s I could build a Tabernacle for Worship From whence he gathereth 1. That I hoped to gain the Centurion's Reputation among the Factious 2. That I had got well by Nonconformity that could lay out so much Ans Is there any thing pious or charitable that these Men cannot turn into odious Crimes by malignant Calumny 1. Was it Faction to offer to teach freely in a Parish where were Fifty Thousand that could not come
ways delayed their Relief Though he offered to go over himself the Parliament fearing he would go to Head the Irish 24. The King had before assaulted the Parliament-House in Person with Armed Men to have surprized Five Members and the Lord Kimbolton whom he accused And after frustration confest it a Breach of their Privileges 25. The Money sent Dolbier to buy German Horses and other actions and the Confessions of Sir Jacob Astley Sir John Conniers Sir Fulke Haukes my Mother-in-laws Brother Chidley and the other Commanders of the English Army that were to have been drawn up to London together with the King 's putting a Guarding Regiment on them did put me past all doubt that they were devoted to violence had they not defended themselves And no vain Talk to the contrary can make me doubt of it to this day So that though I think they had done more prudently to avoid War had they spared Strafford and Laud to please the King yet I am fully satisfied that afterward they were necessitated to save themselves from designed Force 26. I am certain that two things filled the Parliaments Armies And both of grand Importance 1. That all over the Kingdom save here and there a sober Gentleman and a formal Clergyman the Religious Party and all that loved them were generally for the Parliament alienated from the Persecutors and Silencers And the Profane Party in all Countries Debaucht Gentlemen Malignant Haters of Piety the Rabble of Drunkards Blasphemers were generally against the Parliament And religious People were loth to herd with such And could hardly believe that in so great a Cause God would reveal the Truth to all his Enemies the sensual Rabble and hide it from the generality of them that fear him And especially that in most Countries the Malignants forced away the Religious and either rose against them themselves or set the King's Soldiers to Plunder and Destroy them My own Father living 18 Miles from me was Plundered by the King's Soldiers though he never scrupled Conformity nor ever medled against the King and was thrice laid in Prison and had still lain there had not Sir Fulke Haukes his Brother in Law been by Prince Rupert made Governour of Shrewsbury and this for nothing And after laid in again till the Town was taken This last was only because when they made him Collector for the King he refused to distrein of those that paid not fearing lest he should be put to repay it And almost all the Religious People of Kederminster were forced to fly and leave their Houses and Trades to their undoing to save their Lives though they had never medled with Wars And the men that had no maintenance of their own were forced to become Garison-Soldiers in Coventry to avoid Famine The second thing and the main that drove men to the Parliament Garisons and Armies was the Irish Murders with the Papists Power with the King They thought that it must be an unusual War that should Kill Two hundred Thousand As dreadful as it was I do believe that all the Wars of England Kill'd not Fifty thousand nor near it And though Fear which is a Tyrant overcame partly their Discretion yet this joyned with the Experience of that which forced them from home was too strong a tryal for most to overcome And it confirmed their Suspition when the Queen brought in a Popish Army under General King and the Earl of Newcastle's Army had so great a number of Papists and after the Earl of Glamorgan was authorized to have brought over an Army of Irish Papists and the English Regiments that fought there against them had been called hither to fight against the Parliament and were routed at Nantwich No wonder if men thought that England would have been made too like to Ireland whether the King would or not had such Armies Conquered 27. The Parliament Protested to be for the King and not against his Person or Legal Power or Prerogative but only against his Illegal Will to defend themselves and the Kingdom from an unlawful Army and to bring Delinquents to Legal Tryal and Punishment And they accordingly gave out all their Commissions till the Cause was changed by fairfax's Commission that left out the King And the Soldiers of the Garison where I was commonly believed this to be their Obligation and the true Case of the War viz. Offensive against armed Delinquents as the Sheriff may raise the Posse Comitatus and Defensive against the Kings illegal Will and Way 28. I did believe that if the King by such an Army as he had should Conquer the Parliament the Legal and all Probable Security of the Nation for Life Property Liberty and Religion was in all likelihood gone If it should lye on the King's Will only thereby it were gone For what then were our Constitution or Parliaments for and what differ we from Slaves And were he willing and those with him that meant well he would not be able to Master such an Army 29. I did believe that if the Parliament were certainly more faulty than they were the Kingdoms Security was not therefore to be forsaken by the Subjects nor all Parliaments and Government to be left to the Will of the King who had for so many years interrupted Parliaments and dissolved them still in Displeasure and had raised Taxes called Ship-money by himself without them and on the same account might command all the rest Therefore I owned not any of the discerned Miscarriages of the Parliament but only thought I was bound to defend the common Good and Safety as it was the End of Government My judgment yet is That if the King of England wrongfully begin a War against France the Subjects ought by Arms to help him not owning his wrong Cause but to save the Kingdom which would be lost and enslaved if he were Conquered So the fault of the Parliament could not disoblige the People from labouring to secure the Constitution of the Kingdom and therein their Posterities Properties Liberties and Safety And the bare Promise of a King is no such Security 30. I did believe that if there were a Controversie in these Cases the Supream Council and Judicature of the Kingdom had the most satisfying Power of Determination to particular Persons As the Judgment of a General Council is preferable to any lower Judges and the Judgment of the College of Physicions is more authoritative than of a single Dr. And the Judgment of the University is more than of the Vice-Chancellors or one Man And tho yet it may fall out that the Dissenter may be in the right the unlearned that cannot confidently judge are more excuseable for not resisting the higher Judges 31. Obj. By this Rule whatever wrong a Parliament shall do to the King we must all take their part against him And if they betray their Trust we must bear them out in their Treachery Ans 1. Distinguish between a wrong to the King and the betraying of the
than I do that I have been put oft to confute them Yet how is Hooker extolled by them while I that have confuted his popular Principles am a Rebel King Charles II. verbally by a Declaration diso ned his Fathers Wars he honoured many Generals and Colonels of the Parliaments Army with the highest Offices One of them General Monk by a Parliament Presbyterian Army restored him yet I that never was a Commander or Soldier nor ever stroke or hurt Man or drew a drop of Blood in War am the great instance of the Rebellion Who did what I did to avoid the guilt of Rebellion and to save England from being made like Ireland where I thought it was Rebellion that Murdered two hundred thousand And we were then so ignorant of War that we commonly thought that one Battel would have ended all and setled peace As for the Charge of Schism I verily think that the Irish may as modestly transfer on the Protestants the charge of Rebellion as King Charles II. his Prelates can lay on such as I the charge of Schism which they have so powerfully caused and continued He that will read my Search for the Schismatick needeth no further proof And he that will not may keep his beloved Errour § 23. Accus X. Answered I said that I was bred up under eight Reading School masters of whom divers were beggar'd by drinking Must I repent of that Or of disliking such Churchmen O I should have said nothing ill of the dead No nor of their living Successors for hence is the rage O how intolerable to these Men is reproof and repentance in comparison of Sin I must repent for telling that one of my Reading Masters that only officiated in the Church never preach'd but once and that with the notorious signs of being Drunk in Eyes and Tongue on that terrible Text Mat. 25. Go ye cursed c. What enmity to the Church is it to complain of such Men But we were so often whipt when he came in Drunk that made us as weary of him as the Fined and Imprisoned Ministers are of the Persecuting Bishops § 24 Page 17. Accus XI At Nineteen years of Age he had a distaste against Bishops as Persecutors Ans But not as Bishops I cannot repent of distasting Persecutors It was Born in me and New born May not one be a Christian that loveth not Persecution § 25. Accus XII Whether Mr. B. made his Father a Rebel or his Father him he tells us his Father was twice a Prisoner Ans By this proof all the Imprisoned Nonconformists are Rebels How easily can such Prelates and their Agents make thousands of Rebels My Father lived in the Kings Quarters and never was Nonconformist nor medled with Wars But being plundered was made Collector of the Kings Taxes and brought in all that was paid but would not distrain and for that was Imprisoned And at last fled for safety to Worcester a Garrison of the Kings Who can escape the charge of Rebellion from such Accusers § 26. Accus XIII His first adventure was to Seize the Person of a Neighbour in exchange for his Father but Quo Warranto I find not Ans By the Law of God in Nature and the Fifth Commandment and â—ege Talionis the Party being obnoxious and suffering no hurt nor loss by it Yet from these false Conjectures about my Father he saith You see how early Mr. B's Spirit was fermented with Principles of Faction and Sedition Ans Readers you see what Faction and Sedition signifie in this Mans Mouth § 27. Accus XIV Here accusing me for telling how Bishop Morton Confirmed me and many more saying a short Collect without a word of Examination or Instruction he heapeth up divers falshoods 1. That my Master was a Minister I think is false 2. He querieth Did not your Master Examine you Ans He was the best of all my Masters and heard us say the Catechism but never told us any thing of the sence nor ever examined whether we understood any of it 3. He asketh How know you but your Master certified of you Ans If he certified that I understood what Baptismal Covenantings or Confirmation was or much of the rest or what Consent I gave to that Covenant I doubt he certified too much And I being the Head Scholar all the rest were liker to be ignorant than I Except Richard Allestree who though two or three years younger had been diligently Catechized by a Nonconforming Minister He saith This was Mr. B's fault not the Bishops Ans I confess I was faulty in not understanding as much at Fourteen years as I understood many years after I cannot say that a Child of Seven years old is sinless in not understanding all the Articles of Faith But though it be the fault of the Ordained if they seek it unqualified in gross Ignorance or Wickedness the Ordainers will not long believe such Deceivers that it is not their fault to Ordain such He that believeth Dr. Hammond and Mr. Eldersfield two the Learnedst Conformists of this Age of the grand importance of the solemn understanding and serious owning of the Baptismal Covenant in Confirmation when young Men pass into the rank of Communicants should shed streams of Tears to think how contrary common practice is hereto and how this Ordinance is not only frustrate but turned to a deluding Ceremony § 28. Accus XV. He was a Controuler of Bishops at Fourteen Ans A meer Forgery I liked the sport It was too long after that I disliked it § 29. Accus XVI Page 19. I am reproached that the Grave Neighbour Conforming Ministers that kept me from Nonconformity were such as had rather have had the Church rid of such dividing Things whence he slanderously concludeth that they waited an opportunity to be active in Ruining the Church Because when Conformity was forbidden by the Parliament they forsook not their Flock What can escape Satanical reproach when a great part of the County had scarce any able and pious Ministers but four or five such as these and they shall be falsly branded by such as never knew them § 30. Accus XVII His charge of my ignorant Subscribing at my Ordination I confess and lament and beg of God to forgive But the report of raining Manna at Bridgnorth at my coming thither is the Forgery of his Trade A Grain like dryed Rie rained there almost a year before my coming thither which I kept some of long and the like at Shrewsbury about two years ago And he forgeth that there were six Parishes at Bridgnorth because I said there were six under the Ordinaries Power § 31. Accus XVIII He accuseth me for being against the Et caetera Oath and Canons and yet saith not a word to prove it lawful but through me condemneth not only the Parliament that condemned it before the Division but even the long Parliament that made all their cruel Laws that never would own that Oath or authorize those Canons nor any Parliament
within the Church 2. Did he know my Heart that I did it for Reputation And may he not say the like by any Man that doth good 3. Did I gain by Nonconformity that from the Day that I was silenced had never taken a Groat for Preaching nor ever had a Church to maintain me and had commonly refused even Friends Gratuities save 10l from one Man that I could not refuse for many Years after this and save from few to this day Who by refusing a Bishoprick and other Emoluments have lost I think above Twenty Thousand Pounds by Nonconformity What Answer do these Men deserve And I preached but one Sermon in that Chapel When I had built it to have preached freely And when they persecuted me away I resigned it to the Parish-Minister for their publick Worship which is used there to this Day near Sixteen Years But must I tell this Man how I got the Money that did it How much others gave towards it and how much I borrowed or else be so guilty as this Spirit maketh me If it were a Crime to be rich Fame reporteth him extraordinarily guilty But if it be Building Chapels that is the Crime I never heard of his Guilt § 108. Accus XC He saith I am guilty of Pride Malice and Uncharitableness for telling Men that the Wheel is turning and bidding them remember which side will be down at last whether I mean of a Change by Providence or of the Day of Judgment Ans Alas poor Men How soon will you know that such Counsel once signified better than Pride Malice and Uncharitableness unless all Preaching be such § 109. Accus XCI He accuseth me for saying in Mr. Corbet's Funeral-Sermon How sad a Prognostick the Death of such Men was Ans Had this Man known the great Wisdom sincere Piety eminent Charity and Peaceableness of that excellent Man as well as I did or as Glocester Chichester and London did and his Writings testifie he would not have turned my Lamentation into a Reproach nor seemed to intimate his contrary Disposition § 110. Accus XCII Because some other Men say that the Time of the Episcopal Persecution will be but short he gathers that we are engaged in some Plot against the Government Ans Who he meaneth I know not but if the time of Life and this World be short certainly Persecution will be short Every one that saith Your Life is short is not in a Plot to murder you All save one Man that were commissioned as against us in 1661. have found already by Death that their time of Revenge and Wrath was short His talk of Dr. Owen and his surmizing that some would have had a Toleration for Popery is like the rest when our main fears have been lest this sort of Men were studying from the time of Laud a Coalition with the French Papists and so many of them have written for a Foreign Jurisdiction But if we would not be ruined silenced and dye in Goals by them they will say we are for Popery § 111. Accus XCIII He accuseth me as most unchristian in my Answer to Mr. Cheyny for what I say of his Books and accounting him melancholy Mr. Cheyny is a Man better known to me than to him and I think much better loved by me He calls himself a Nonconforming Conformist and a Conforming Nonconformist I have motioned him to Friends for publick Employment for his serious Piety But these Men that seem now to be for him have depressed him and driven him up and down and disown his Books I think more than I do But any one that will allow them to use his Name for them shall be so far praised while they cannot well endure him But he glorieth of Mr. Cheyny's Success in pleading the Direction in some dubious Cases to go to the Bishop for Resolution in the Preface to the Liturgy And I wonder not at their valuing of that Clause for it is worth to many some Hundreds a Year and 't is hard to imagine what else could quiet many Men's Consciences But if I should say This is a frivolous â—alliate though I prove it he will say I am criminal or confuted by so denominating it But 1. The Words limit the Decision of the Bishop only to that which is not contrary to any thing in the Book and I am very tractable in such a Case But it is none of the Cases that I am concerned in 2. If it were in the Bishop's power to put what Sense he please on all the Words he were the Law maker for the Sense is the Law 3. I have gone to divers Bishops and asked their Sense and found it as unsatisfactory as the Book it self For instance I asked the Bishops at the Savoy-Debate If I have two in my Parish that declare they believe not in Christ but are Deists and yet will send their Child to be baptized with Godfathers and Godmothers of their own Fraternity who declare that whatever they say they never mean to own or educate the Child what Right that Child hath both to Baptism and certain Salvation And Dr. Sanderson in the Chair answered That as long as he brought such Godfathers as the Church of England requireth I must not doubt of his Right I long after asked Bishop Cunning What proof he had from God's Word of the certain undoubted Salvation of all such baptized Infants if the Parents were Heathens or Jews or Atheists and resolved to educate their own Children And he answered that As any one had Right to take up an exposed Child in the Street and take him in Charity into his House so any one had power as an Act of Charity to take up any Heathen's or Infidel's Child and being him to Baptism and then it was certain by the Word of God that he was in a present State of Salvation These Bishops Judgments are not that undoubted Word of God which they boast of but will not shew us And other Bishops think otherwise And so under several Bishops we must be of several Religions § 112. Accus XCIV He accuseth me for speaking of the Tediousness of Mr. R. Hooker's Argumentation when their Bishop Sam. Parler speaketh much more and the Case is undeniable And that I say If Hooker Bilson and Usher were alive they would be Nonconformises Ans Have I not fully proved it They were honest Men and would not subscribe and practise contrary to their own Writings but their Writings are downright against much of Conformity How large is Hooker for the Popular Legislative Power and that the King useth not Power but Usurpation when he useth more than the Law giveth him How large is bishop Bilson for Resisting the King in divers Cases Doth not Conformity renounce and forswear this Mark the renowned Bilson in this Honest Men would not go against their Judgments § 113. Accus XCV Pag. 134 135. He maketh it my shameful heinous Sin to beg of the Bishops not to be guilty of one of the most