provoking words on trifling occasions XLIII But all forementioned set together lye not half so heavy on my Soul as my inward Deficience and Omission That having had so many Convictions of the truth of Scripture and the certainty of the Life to come and can scarce think of any thing but death and the future state it is so sure and near and have read and heard and written so much of the Love of God and of Heaven as I have done it shameth it grieveth me it maketh me even abhor and loath my self that I usually reach little higher than pacifick quieting dull Affections and that Faith and Hope and Love do not keep me in more delightful thoughts of God and my Redeemer and in a more joyful longing to be with Christ and all the Blessed and that ever I should have a cold and common thought of God and things so high and holy and that the prospect of my change and the coming of Christ is not a continual Feast to my Soul and setteth me not more above the concerns of this vile and corruptible Flesh and above all impatience of pain and above the fears of Death and Corruption O what a contradiction is there between that Head and Tongue that professeth to believe what I profess of God of Christ of Endless Glory and that Heart that no more rejoiceth in that Belief and Hope but by languor and decay of Nature and doubtless great imperfection of Faith is kept from that joy that such believing in reason should produce and goeth towards Heaven with so many pawses of fear or dulness and so little of that Heavenly delight which I have long been seeking of God and which my low and weak condition needeth Lord all my sins are known to thee let me never be unwilling to know them nor let them be so unknown to me as to invalidate my Repentance or frustrate my hope of pardon through Christ Chap. III. The Reasons why I cannot without known gross Lying profess such Repentance as Dr. Stillingfleet's Anonymus Second and many such others call for or expect § 1. AS it is no less sin to Murder ones self than to Murder another so it is no less to belie ones self than to belie another Yea it is the greater in that it is like to be more against knowledge we being better acquainted with our own thoughts and deeds than with other Mens And it would be the greater sin in me because that the Father of Lies purposely designeth his calumnies to cause hatred in many and to frustrate all my Writings both to the Church and to particular Souls § 2. Why I cannot Repent of my Writings against the Sadduers or Brutists the Antitrinitarians the Somatists the Quakers the Anabaptists the Antinominians the Papists the Separating Dividers and the rest before-mentioned the Books that I have written against them express my Reasons But no Men call me to it by such an agreeing number of voices as the late Protestant Conformists of that fiercer sort who appropriate to themselves the Name of the Episcopal Church of England especially those that are for a Forreign or Universal Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction And no Man hath done it with such virulent malice as the Anonymus Author of the Book called The Second part of the Unreasonableness of Separation as seconding Dr. Stillingfleet Whose Libel I shall now peruse and return the Reasons why I cannot Repent of all that he reciteth by way of Accusation § 3. I. In his Preface That my Opinions and Practices have been condemned by the generality of Christians from the most Primitive and Purest Times of the Church Ans To which I appeal and can get no answer § 4. II. I must first tell the Reader that should I stay to confute all the falsification of my words which he pretendeth to recite it would make an unsavoury tedious unprofitable Volume A word put in or left out or altered will serve our grand Accuser to do much of his Works with the Sons of Ignorance and Malice He seemeth to expect that I should Repent of saying that our Civil War between King and Parliament was begun in England between two Parties of Episcopal Protestants And must I repent that I lived in England And that I know what it was naturally impossible for me not to know Why doth he not also make me a Liar for saying that I then dwelt in England and both sides were English Men and spake English Had I been a Mushroom sprung up as lately as our fiery Tories 〈◊〉 had Malice enough to make me mad I might have needed none of his imposed Repentance I have in another writing named the Commanders of the Army and the Parliaments Lords Lieutenants and all the Major Generals besides the Chaplains and Challenged them to find among all these one Presbyterian or two Independants for ten if not twenty Episcopal Protestants A Wise and Credible Parliament Man yet living hath oft told me that when the War begun he knew but One Presbyterian in all the House of Commons which was worthy Mr. Tate of Northampton it being not then known among them The Earl of Warwick who commanded at Sea I knew to be for Communion with the Patish and Episcopal Churches In the Army let them enquire of the Communion and Religion of the General and all his Commanders and I believe they will find among all the Colonels but two Independants the Lord Say and the Lord Brooke and one moderate Puritane yet living the Lord Wharton and that all the rest were moderate Episcopal Conformists what the old Scots Souldiers Browne and Urrey that turn'd to the King were I know not supposing their pay was their Religion We knew this to be true of the Earl of Essex General the Earl of Bedford General of the Horse is yet living and well known Sir John Merrike Major General Colonel Dolbiere the Earl of Peterborough General of the Ordnance Lionell Copley Scout-Master the Earl of Stampford the Lord Roberts lately President of the Kings Privy Council the Lord Hollis the Lord Kimbolton after Earl of Manchester and Lord Chamberlain that chose the Kings Preachers and constantly heard them the Lord Hastings Earl of Huntington the Lord Rochford after Earl of Dover the Lord Fielding after Earl of Denbigh the Lord St. John Son to the Earl of Bullingbrook kill'd at Edghill Col. Goodwin Col. Lssex Col. Grantham Col. Sir Henry Cholmley Col. Bampfield Sir William Constable after turn'd Independant yea Col. Hampden was no Separatist from the Parish Churches but a sober Protestant I have named the rest elsewhere I heard enough of Col. Sandyes before he was mortally wounded to tell me that he was no Puritane And as for the Major Generals of the several Counties the Lord Ferdinando Fairfax the Lord Willoughby of Parham the Earl of Stampford Sir John Gell Sir Tho. Middleton Col. Mitton Col. Morgan Col. Massey Sir William Waller the Earl of Denbigh Col. Langhorne and Col. Poyer were all
we had great plenty of such Fruit at Home sometime with a grudging Conscience I ventured over the Hedge to a Neighbours Fruit. A Sin that Austin himself confesseth V. I was in a School where one or two Lads corrupted many by obscene talk and immodest actions In which I did not sufficiently disown them or rebuke them but oft too much countenanced them in it As also in fighting and abusing the weaker though I was unable thereto my self VI. Though I was bred under many meer Readers and Tipling or Drunken Schoolmasters and Curates and scarcely heard a Sermon in a long time till I was about Fourteen years of Age or then and after none that I felt any profit by I was not troubled at the loss nor at my ignorance and unprofitableness VII When it pleased God by reading some good Books and by my danger of Sickness about Fifteen years of Age to waken my Conscience I was not so obedient to that awakening Call as I should have been But was oft tempted to my old sin of pleasing my Appetite and had almost been drawn away to a covetous love of Gaming at Cards But God quickly check'd it by an unusual Providence VIII I was strongly possest I think by Pride joyned with a Love of Learning to have setled at the University till I had attained some Eminency of Learning and Titles but God in great Mercy by Sickness and other hinderances saved me from that danger and loss of time and bred me up in a more humbling way and gave me some little help of safe and pious Countrey Tutors IX Weakness keeping me in expectation of Death and God then having given me a greater sence of Mans Everlasting state and of the differences between Faith and Hypocrisie Holiness and a worldly state I thirsted to win others to the same sense and state and to that End offered my self to Ordination when I was too low for so high a Work both in Learning and in a methodical knowledge of Theology And though I was naturally inclined to Logical and Metaphysical Accurateness and method I was too ignorant in Languages and Mathematicks and divers parts of Knowledge had I not been a continual Learner by Books while I was a Teacher I had been a dishonour to the Sacred Office and Work and do repent that I made such haste X. I too rashly in this Ignorance took the Judgment of the Countrey Ministers that had been my Helpers and told me of the Lawfulness of Conformity and believed the Books for Conformity which they perswaded me to read for the English frame of Government and Subscriptions before I had read impartially what was against it or heard any speak on the other side or had well studied the case And so I subscribed sinfully because temerariously And though I was so rash that I cannot say that I am sure that I took the Oath of Canonical Obedience it is so long since yet I think I did because else I had not been Ordained Of this I repent and beg forgiveness for the Merits of Christ Though I had never been like to have been a Minister without it but had turned to some other Calling XI Though I know not that ever I broke the Oath of Canonical Obedience or ever disobeyed my Ordinary yet I changed my Judgment of the Canons of which I cannot repent While I lived a year as a Schoolmaster my Ordinary commanded me nothing which I disobeyed When I removed to a Priviledged place Bridgnorth I was only a Lecturer and my Ordinary commanded me nothing which I did not I did read most of the Liturgy and kneel at the Sacrament And my Ordinary himself Baptized without Crossing and never commanded me to use it or the Surplice VVhen I came to Kidderminster Bishop Thornbury died and Bishop Prideaux never gave me any Command or Prohibition I being a meer Lecturer that never had Presentation and the Vicar using the Liturgy and Ceremonies But yet I repent â—â—at I did think worse of that sort of Diocesane Government which puts not down the Parochial Pastors and Churches than I now do and these Forty years have done For I think that a General Episcopacy over many Churches and Bishops is Jure Divino an Order succeeding Apostles and Evangelists in that part of their Office which as Ordinary must continue But I repent not that I renounced that sort of Diocesanes who put or keep down all the Parochial Pastors or Bishops and Churches making them but as Chappels Parts of a Diocess as the lowest Church and taking on them the sole Episcopacy of many score or hundred Churches Nor do I repent of my unanswered Treatise of Episcopacy written against this sort XII Though I ever disliked the Censorious and Separating Spirit that run into Extreams against Conformity yet I Repent that I did no more sharply reprove it But because almost all the people where I came to preach that were not meer VVorldlings but seemed to be seriously Religious were either against Conformity or wish'd it removed for the Divisions which it caused I overmuch valued their Esteem and Love because I loved their serious piety and having sometimes but very seldom spoken against the Corruptions of the Church Government specially the Silencing of Ministers I can scarce tell to this day whether I did well or ill more good by telling Men what to lament and pray against or more hurt by heartening those that were apt overmuch to Censure Government and the Orders of the Church But I beg God to forgive what was amiss XIII Though I desired such a frame of Episcopal Government as Sir Edward Deering offered or as since Archbishop Usher hath described as Primitive yet out of the sense of the evil that Silencers and Persecutors had done I too much rejoiced when the Tidings came that the Prelacy was Voted down not knowing then what would be set up nor well what to desire For neither Presbytery nor Independency had been then debated or were well understood XIV VVhen I heard of the Scots Covenanting and Arming and entering England though I had not so much knowledge of their Cause as should be a just satisfaction in so great a matter yet I was in Heart glad of it for the appearance that it shewed of enabling the Lords and Commons of England to appear more boldly to plead for their Liberties and Laws But I now think that a Suspension of my thoughts as wanting Evidence had been better XV. VVhen I heard of the tumultuous manner of the Apprentices in London petitioning against Bishops I disliked it and the means that encouraged them and the publick reproach that was cast by the Rabble on those called Straffordians such learned men as the Lord Faulkland Lord Digby c. yea and the urging the King so much for his Execution But I too much silenced my dislike XVI VVhen I saw Mr. Burton's Protestation Protested and the forwardness of many Religious unlearned Persons to run toward Extreams
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
not be untaught offered Dr. William Loyd now Bishop of St. Asaph my Chappel for the Parish use And I thank him he accepted it and it is so used by Dr. Tennison to this day 29. In the Country I Preach'd in Rickaursworth Chaferne Amersham Chesham Langley Surraâ— in the Parish Churches to shew that I was not for Separation and went to the beginning of Common-Prayer 30. I was in Law-sence no Nonconformist I think but only in Conscience For I had the Bishop of London's License and I was in no Benefice or Lecture after May 1. 1662. And hereupon Sir Edmond Sanders Lord Chief Justice and Sir Henry Polixfen now Lord Chief Justice gave it me under their hands that my License was still valid and gave me Authority to Preach occasional Sermons in London Diocess Yet did I never use that Power in any Parish here to avoid offence 31. I sent my License with these Lawyers Judgment to the present Bishop Dr. Compton craving his consent to use it in the Country Of which he being unwilling I forbore though the Law allowed it 32. An Irish Informer Keting a Gold-worker thought to set up that Trade for Gain But was cross'd and long waited at my Door to ask me forgiveness And I being loth to trust him he wrote to me his Repentance and shortly after being Imprisoned for Debt saying that God never after prospered him I got him some Money and help'd him out 33. Three or Four more Informers setting up the Trade accused me to Sir Tho Davis Lord Mayor I could not make him believe that he was Judge of my faults but that the Informers were the Judges and that he must execute what they sware against me Nor could I prevail with him to let me see any one of them nor hear their Accusations nor examine or consute them And when I was fined unheard shortly after the chief of the Informers met me in the Street confest his Fault askt me Forgiveness and left his Trade 34. Dr. Manton and I were invited by the Lord Keeper Bridgman with Dr. Bates after to accept the Kings offer for a Comprehension for us and a Toleration for others Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Hez Burton were appointed to treat with us of the terms we came to an Agreement to a word we gave it Judge Hale to draw up in form of an Act to be offered to the Parliament And was that like to be so wicked an Agreement as to be worse than all our Divisions which such Wise and Excellent Men as Judge Hale and Bishop Wilkins and Dr. Burton approved But we refused to meddle with the Toleration leaving his own work to the King and the concerned And so the Parliament was taught to reject all 35. After this at another Session many being set on our Concord Dr. Tillotson and Dr. Stillingfleet were moved by Morley and some Lords to treat with us for Union I got many excellent peaceable Ministers together and we drew in one Sheet a form of Concord The two Drs. seemed to consent so be it the Bishops liked it But Morley purposely seemed to be for the End that he might frustrate the means and so we never heard more of it 36. All this while to this day I never gathered a Church nor was Pastor or Teacher of a Church nor took any Salary but preach'd without pay as an occasional helper to another lest I should seem to be for Separation I thank God that left me not to Necessities 37. I perswaded the people to hear the Parish Ministers and Communicate with them and not to come to us without the want of needful helps at home and I gave the Sacrament to none of them till lately to a few in my own House for a short time which the Liturgy alloweth 38. I was suddenly assaulted by violence on my Doors by two or three Informers Hilton and Bucke and Rutland a Vintner Constable and other Officers by a Warrant from Sir James Butler sent him by Sir James Smith to be Executed who had judged me to be distrained on for 90 l. or more for five Sermons as preached by me against Law and I never to this day was summon'd to answer nor heard who were my Accusers or Witnesses or what proof But they seized on all my Goods Bed Cloaths Library and praised it and sold it I got a Friend to buy it and paid him When had I been heard I had shewed them Sir Edm. Saâ—â—rs Hand that they ought not to Imprison me unsummoned and unheard and I had shewed them my valid Licence and proved that I did nothing contrary to Law And that I was twenty Miles off at the pretended time of one of the Sermons But I never sought remedy nor noised any Accusation against these Justices 39. At the same time they brought a Warrant from Justice Parry and Lame Philips to have sent me Six Months to Goal for dwelling in London But as I was going towards them some stopt me till the King suspended it and said Let him die in his Bed 40. Upon this to avoid this Imprisonment I was forced to abscond in poor strange Houses in languor and constant pain while I paid also great Rent for my own empty House Which I bore without complaining noise 41. The Independants and Separatists said that I was justly used and had drawn more to the publick Churches than all the Ministers in London And some of them said I had done more harm by it than ever I did good 42. I wrote many Books against Schism and Separation against Bagshaw Danvers Mr. Lob and many others to prove the Lay Communion Lawful 43. Roger Le Strange traduced me in his Observations most bitterly and causlesly to foretel me what was purposed against me Even my Book of Patience and my Paraphrase he virulently reviled 44. When I was designed for the Goal before King Charles died the Duke of York foretold it And to secure me till they could find matter of Accusation they bound me to the good behaviour under deep Bonds of me and my Sureties Openly declaring That they took me for innocent and had nothing against me and did it not as a penalty but for prevention intimating that the Court required it or Jefferies 45. When they were prepared Jefferies accused my Paraphrase as aforesaid and sent me to Prison Coming out by a Habeas Corpus I was fain to abscond in the Countrey in constant pain till the Term. Then my oft waitings at the Bar when I could not stand and there to be ragingly reviled by Jefferies and Withins and called Rogue and Knave and not suffered to speak one word of answer for my self and my Council reviled that offered to speak for me was far harder than my Imprisonment And when going from the Bar I only said That his Predecessor thought otherwise of me He said There was not an honest Man in England that took me not for a Knave not excepting the King that had given me another testimony
to this day § 32. Accus XIX He was acquainted Forty years ago with many Aged Nonconforming Ministers and probably Confederate with them c. Ans Yes in the Baptismal Covenant renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil I repent not of that Nor take it for a sin to have known them § 33. Accus XX. Prejudices against Conformity possest him from his Youth Ans Not unless Cainism be Conformity or twenty four years old be my Youth such as your Writings and Doings are an ill cure of prejudice § 34. Accus XXI Is that I broke my Oaths to the King and Ecclesiastical Superiors whom I was bound to obey Ans I thought verily that I broke neither I Swore not to obey the Convocation much less against the Parliament in unlawful Canons and imposed Oaths never yet Authorized I took the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and thought that defending the Land against Armed Delinquents and Irish and Papists Insurrections had been no breach of it If I was mistaken the Lord convince me and forgive me But your way is unapt to it Let the Reader peruse but Sir Edward Deering's Speeches in Parliament proving that this Et caetera Oath was sinfully imposed without Authority by them that were neither a Convocation a Synod or Commissioners the same Man that spake so much for Liturgy and Episcopacy against Presbytery and Independency And I doubt not but it was flat Perjury that by it we were required to Swear viz. That the described Et caetera Government of the Church ought so to stand And was I perjured for refusing Perjury As a summary Confutation of a multitude of his Lies I at once tell the Reader that I neither was nor am for the way called Presbytery Independency or the English Diocesane way But for the mixture described excellently by Grotius de Imper. Sum. Pot. and Bishop Usher and Sir Edward Deering whose Counsel I wish'd that the Parliament had followed And that I was and am far from defending the irregular Actions of the Parliament or any Members of it Tho' they thought that the Delinquents had put a necessity on them to overgo their own Judgments to please the Scots and the Indiscreet and Schismatical part of the Nonconformists I doubt not but they did ill herein and should have trusted God in the use of none but lawful means I believe that a few Men by Craft and unwearied Industry over-reach'd many that knew not what they did Sir Edward Deering nameth some of them especially Sir H. V. Sir A. H. and O. C. that over-reach'd his own upholders and all the rest I believe they did ill to excite and encourage disorder and tumults on pretence of Petitioning and of scurrilous defamations of such Men as the Lord Falkland the Lord Digby Sir Edward Dering and some other worthy Men and so many good Bishops as they abused And yet that I durst not for these miscarriages consent to give up the Kingdoms Parliamentary Security for its present and future Safety and Liberties I still think is consonant to the most common Principles of Lawyers Politick Writers Historians Divines Protestants Papists and Heathens Even the late great Lord Chancellor Hide sat Chairman of the Committee of Parliament that received the Petitions against Episcopacy Root and Branch and made such Speeches against the Delinquents as I dare not justifie But he forsook them when they quite over-went him If the King of England had a War with the French and I knew that his Cause were bad I would not defend his bad Cause but I would in his Army defend the Kingdom against those that would Captivate it by Conquest For the Kingdom doth not forfeit its safety by the Kings misdoing And if any say Then the King shall be defended in all his injuries how bad soever I would answer That is by accident it is the Kingdom that I defend and Him as a means to defend the Kingdom and not to justifie his sin I leave that to God What a case is a Kingdom in if it must Fight against it self and its representing security as oft as its Representatives miscarry by any sinister means And that all that are to be judged by the chief Judicature shall Fight to Conquer them if the King do but bid them If the safety of this Kingdom be once put into the Trust of the King alone the Constitution is changed and all Enslaved § 35. Accus XXII He saith that in 1640. I entred into a War against the King Ans Whereas the War in England began not till 1642. And I never medled in War but as aforementioned long after § 36. Accus XXIII He saith by the Treatise of Diocesane Episcopacy meditated 1640. I broached Faction in the Church my Pen disdaining to be less active than my Sword Ans 1. I never struck with a Sword in War or Peace 2. Did Meditating broach a Book that was not published nor written till thirty years after 3. Is it Faction to give reasons why I Swore not to Faction even that Antiepiscopal sort of Diocesanes that put down many hundred Churches and Bishops to set up the Name and Image of one 4. Why is not that Book answered to this day when so many Nonconformists have Challenged Called and Beg'd for an Answer to it Will a Lying Scorn satisfie any Conscionable Nonconformist 5. That Book owneth so much of Bishops and Diocesanes and Archbishops which Sir Edward Dering condemned that these Men now shew that it is not such as I only but such as Grotius Spalatensis Usher Hall yea most of the great Writers for Episcopacy of whose Judgment I have there given a particular account whom he condemneth for Faction and Enmity to the Church I have written against the Pope too And is not that as bad I am sure many Papists write more against Episcopacy than I. § 37. Accus XXIV It 's probable his Church History had its conception at the same time Ans About Forty years after 1640. Forty years breaks no square with this sort of Men I would this lort of History were not too common with them § 38. Accus XXV Page 23 He feigneth me in my Church History to commend all the Hereticks and omit what is good of the Fathers and Martyrs and write only their faults Ans It seems he thought that without reading the Book that disproveth him his Faction would take his word that he saith true § 39 Accus XXVI The like he saith of my reproaching Councils because I shew the miscarriages of many and our Bishops that plead for a Forreign Jurisdiction dare yet own but six or eight General Councils § 40. Accus XXVII Page 25. He reciteth my mention of the former courses of undoing Men for hearing a Sermon of a Godly Conformist at the next Parish when they had none at home and for Fasting and Praying c. And he taketh it for my crime to call these ungodly Persecutions crimes So that he that is not for them while they are
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
Independants § 65. Accus LII Page 47. Having told what a few Rumpers said to Monk he saith And because they did this and might justifie it by Mr. B's Theses in his Holy Commonwealth they are the Supream Power the best Governours in all the World Ans How pregnant is malice of falshood 1. It is false that the Parliament in question did what he saith which was done by their Adversaries Such as Scot Robinson and Haseldrigge that flattered Monk till he had them in his Net 2. It is false that my Thâ—ses justifie them which are written against them 3 It is false that it was for this that I call them the Supream Power or the best Governours It 's King and Parliament that I call Supream It was King Parliament the Rump and Richard that the Men whom I wrote against pull'd down And I only tell them that if the Errours of all these Rulers will justifie an Army for Deposing them there is no Power on Earth that might not be so Deposed there being none better than all these Deposed by them § 66. Once more I tell this Accuser and the World that I am so far from justifying King or Parliament from the beginning progress or ending of this War that I think both sides deeply guilty of very heinous sin And I cannot tell whether I know a Man living that hateth War more than I hate it While I medled in it it was far a more sad and hateful Life to me than my abode in Prison was when the Church Defenders laid me there with an unsolvable Fine The truth is both sides began they knew not what I knew not a Man but Sir Francis Nethersole that knew what War was or foresaw what was like to come of it Both sides thought it would be prevented by the Countreys forsaking the other side or that one Fight would end it And no Man can tell just where and when and by whom it was begun No more than just when a Chronical Disease begins in Man Only I am sure that Virtually and Dispositively it began in that division of Minds Hearts and Lives which is common in the World between them that Love a Life of Serious Godliness and cannot Love Wickedness and them that Hate a Godly Life because it 's against their Lust and Carnal Interest Not that every Adversary to the Parliament was a Cainite but that through the Land an Enmity between the Seriously Godly and the Prophane encouraged by Pharisaical Ceremonious Formalists was a War in our Bowels ready to break forth upon the first advantages And the Religious Party as in all former Ages had many young ignorant Novices that by Pride ran into Extreams being self-conceited and unruly and ready by Schism or petulant Censoriousness to vilifie all that be not of their Sects and to pretend Fanatick Inspirations for their Errours As the contrary Party was prone to be so Jealous of their beloved Dominion Wealth and Ease and Honour as to take such for intolerable Enemies that flattered them not in their Worldly Pomp. Long did heart-burnings continue between these discordant Parties one side blaming and the other side ruining those that were against them Till Laud's attempts for Innovation stirred up such opposition in Scotland and distaste in England as I cannot justifie The Parliament encouraged by the Scots went higher in provoking the King than they ought And the King too much occasioned their Jealousie that he intended to have Invaded Property and Liberty and to subdue them by force if they restrained or punished the Executioners of his Illegal Will But this brake out by such degrees that no Man can name the beginning As a small breach in a Pond of Water groweth wider till it let out the whole And as Personal Duels begin in a word or a suspicion and proceed to wrath and then to reproach and thence to revenge When Division was the Death of the Constituted Form of Government both sides should have hated and feared it more than either did But the Parliament thought the King would soon return as deserted And the Devil among us all was as if he had cast among Boys red hot pieces of Brass or Iron and they scrambled for it thinking by the Colour that it was Gold till it stuck to their Fingers and burnt them to the Bone And the dread of 200000 Murdered in Ireland put such a pannick fear in the Antipapists in England as darkened their Wits And yet if the Captain and Mariners fall out by folly the Ship may be preserved by the innocent If the Citizens could not agree about quenching the Fire in 1666. the Inhabitants may endeavour it and pull down Houses to that end without the guilt of injury to the Owners I think that King and Parliament grievously sinned but not equally in doing so much to cause and no more to prevent a Civil War I would they had hearkened to Whitlock's Speech and other Mens healing motions 1641. But who in the beginning fore-knows the end And when once the breach is made usually there is no hope left of any better end than one of the two Parties ruin True is the old saying He that draweth his Sword against his King must throw away the Scabbard When all mutual Trust is gone all hope of Reconciliation is gone The present state of England is a lively Exposition of the beginning of that miserable War We were thus in fear of Popery and Slavery here of late The Murder of 200000 in Ireland and the Papists coming in to the King in England was as loud an Alarm as King James his Liberty of Conscience here The Archbishop and Bishops and the Lay Church Lords and Patrons here had Sworn or Promised against taking Arms against the King on any pretence what soever They did not all own King William's Title to the Crown Yet they thought it lawful to save the Kingdom from a misgoverning King and the Kings own Kindred Lords Army and Clergy forsook him and joyned with him that came in against him They meant it not as owning then the Invaders Right to the Crown nor as disowning King James but to save the Kingdom and it proved contrary to their expectation that without Blood the turn of the Nation turned the Government Just so the first beginners of the resistance of King Charles the First his Army intended no change of the Government and they thought that the War would have been as soon almost ended as begun as King William's was here but when it was once begun reconciliation became impossible And one or others must be ruined Yet we that owned not the miscarriages of either side but thought King and Parliament greatly sinful thought it an absolute Duty to do our best to save the Kingdom from the most threatning danger And we thought that the Massacre of Ireland the Papists in England the malignity of most of the Kings Adherents and the prospect of such an Army of Delinquents Conquering a Parliament and putting
all the Land into the Sole power of the King who was himself in the power of Papists and Delinquents did clearly tell us where the present danger of the Kingdom lay But future Changes we could not foresee 〈…〉 part I was a young Novice and knew not what War was 〈…〉 considerable interest in any to have prevented it But 〈…〉 that I more repent of than that I feared it so little and that I did not speak more earnestly for the preventing of it by mutual pacificatory means and that I said any thing towards unpeaceable irritations Who could have forethought that all those doleful Events would follow which make up Whitlock's impartial Memorials § 67. Yet I must truely say though it displease the guilty that the effects were quite different on the Land from what the Malignants commonly report They would falsly perswade the World that all ancient Piety was despised the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue and all sober Ministers cast out and Tub preachers set up to vent their Nonsence The truth is among 10000 of the Clergy about 300 or more were turn'd out as Ignorant and Scandalous and with them unjustly some for being for the King against the Parliament The number I know not but conjecture that there might be an hundred such at least In the places of these the most seriously Religious young Men that the Universities would afford with some few old Nonconformists and but few such as the Parishioners chose were set up Most of these young Men were such as had no hand in the Wars but were Lads or young Students while the War continued It pleased God that very many of them became such fervent able Preachers that a great change followed among their Hearers and multitudes of the Ignorant Debauch'd and Worldlings became Serious Godly Christians And the younger sort grew up accordingly For instance in the County of Worcester where I lived where before there was one Family that minded Piety or the Life to come or Prayed or Read the Scripture there were many after that did it In the Town where I lived where there was before one or two Houses in a Street that worshipped God by Prayer in their Families and avoided Profaneness and minded the Concerns of their Souls at last there was scarce more than two Houses on a Street-side that did not learn the Catechism read the Scripture pray and live soberly and this in great love and peace and humility towards others commonly disowning the Cromwellians and Sectarians Disloyalties Rebellions and Schisins But indeed when the Sectaries got dominion many Anabaptists and Self conceited Novices set up themselves for Preachers where they could get Hearers but the sober godly people kept so much Concord and Integrity that these others were but here and there and that as a disgraced broken Sect as the Quakers be among us now But Harrison took the advantage of the ignorance and badness of the Parish Ministers in Wales to set up Itinerant Anabaptists and Separatists in many places This is the truth of the Consequents about Religion And it fell out that the Cromwellians and Anabaptists professing more Zeal for Godliness than ordinary did much of their work by suppressing sin and profaneness and countenancing Godliness Which hath taught us to wish that of two Evils rather Hypocrisie than Malignity may be in power It 's better Godliness be promoted for evil Ends than hated and persecuted 68. Whereas therefore the Diocesane Church of England exclusive of all Nonconformists and such as these Men accuse is so oft called The best Church in the World It must mean that it is best in Constitution and Laws or in the Men that are Ministers and Members If the first be their meaning 1. The best Laws without the best Men never make the best Church 2. Is one sole Bishop over a Thousand or many Hundred Parishes without any Bishop or Pastoral Church under him a better Form of Government than the contrary that was continued for many hundred years and described by Archbishop Usher and others 2. Is a Church Governed by Lay Civilians decretive use of the Keys so much better than that which is Governed by the Keys in the hands of the Clergy only 3. Is a Church Governed by Canons that ipso facto Excommunicate all that affirm any of their Offices Ceremonies or Forms to have any thing sinful better than those that unite in things necessary and bear with such as these 4. Are Bishops and Deans chosen by Kings perhaps Papists and Incumbents chosen by any that can buy a Presentation better than those that are chosen by the Clergy and People and Invested by the Prince and Patron 5. Is a Church where the ignorant sinful and unwilling are forced to Communicate unless they will lye Beggar'd in Goals better than those that receive none to Communion but the Desirers 2. But if it be the best Church in the World for Men they should let others praise them rather than their own Mouths Are they so much better Men than the Nonconformists Do their Lives shew it Doth credible fame speak it Though Mr. White was blamed for publishing the Names of such as by credible Oaths were ejected for Drunkenness or other Scandal this was no proof that they were the best Men in the World Nor yet that of 10000 that Conformed 8000 of them had Conformed before to the Directory and Declared their Assent and Consent to the altered Common Prayer Book before ever they saw it as I have proved Whereas I remember not that ever I heard of one Nonconformist these twenty eight years that was accused and punished for any such crime unless preaching Christs Gospel be a crime even when Power and Malice watcht for advantages against them and crouded them into Goals for preaching and praying Nor do I remember more than two single instances of Im norality by credible accusations of fame which was of Fornication lamented in all these years But alas how different is the common fame of too many of the publick Clergy And are these the best Men in all the World § 69. You may partly judge by their Works their Writings and their Lives Compare the Writings and Ministerial Labours of the Conformists and Nonconformists these thirty years or since the New Impositions Some pious Conformists have done extraordinarily well Especially Dr. Barrow Dr. Tillotson Dr. Patrick Dr. Stillingfleet Dr. Tennison c. And is there not the same Spirit of Wisdom Piety and Peace in the Writings of Anthony Burgesse Mr. Charnock Dr. Manton Dr. Bates Mr Hâ—w Richard Alleine Joseph Alleine Tho. Gouge Mr. Swinnock Dr Gâ—lpin many Volumes of the Morning Lectures Mr. Flavel's Mr. Steel's Mr. Ambrose's and many more such This Man singleth out me for one of the worst Men living and Bishop Morley bid Men judge of all the rest by me ab uno disce omnes And he was accounted one of the most Eminent of the Clergy for Parts and Orthodoxness One Book
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
this be a Character of the best Church in the World to have such Ministers But if there be no Obligation from that Vow to the things aforesaid 1. Dr. Sanderson and most sober Casuists are mistaken who say That though a Vow be unlawfully imposed and unlawfully taken and part of the Matter be unlawful to be kept it bindeth us nevertheless to keep the necessary part And what am I that I should swear or say that I am wiser than all these Doctors and sure that they are mistaken 2 And then I must swear or say that neither King nor Lords nor any one took it in a lawful sense which else would oblige them And must I become a Voucher for Thousands whom I never knew 3 And then I must swear or say that the King was brought in by Errour and Deceit Monk's Presbyterian Army and the Presbyterian Gentry and Ministry of England brought in the King as bound to it by this Covenant as they declared And must I say it did not bind them to it But our Accusers are no Self-accusers but God will difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an Oath and dare not take God's Name in vain § 76 Accus LIX He dipped his Pen not in Gall and Vinegar but in the very poyson of Asps to keep open the wounds of the expiring Church To which end he endeavours to draw his Neighbour-Ministers into an Association and procures the Worcestershire Agreement the design of which you may see in his Gildas Salvianus Ans I have here some help to understand Christ They that kill you shall think they do God service What Duty so great that some will not say is a Crime that deserveth death The Agreement accused is printed in a Book called Christian Concord The terms of it were that Episcopal and Presbyterians and Independents should agree in the practice of so much of the Ministry and Church-Discipline as they were agreed about in their Judgments or Principles and be left in the rest to their several Liberties Was this a Crime Is an Attempt of voluntary Concord and Peace the poyson of Asps Or is not the poyson of Asps under their lips that are haters of it and have not known the way of peace I have had thanks from Helvetia and other parts of Germany for that Gildas Salvianus and that pacificatory Attempt which is to these Men the poyson of Asps § 77. Accus LX. But there was then a Petition that scandalous and insufficient Ministers might not administer Sacraments on which the Loyal Party were restrained Ans And is it a Crime to be against a scandalous insufficient Ministry and a Duty to be for them that we may be the best Church in the World Reader the truth is this There was a Petition by some that those of what side soever for King or Parliament whose Insufficiency and Scandal was so great as to render them utterly uncapable of Ministry might not be allowed it And I petitioned withal that no Man might be cast out or restrained for being for the King against the Parliament and their Cause Is this so poysonous Doth not this Man more disgrace his Church than me that taketh it for the poyson of Asps to cast out only the uncapable and keep in the rest § 78. Accus LXI He accuseth me for telling the World truly how the English Prelates had encouraged the Enemies of serious Godliness in the Land and at how much cheaper a rate a Man might be a Swearer a Drunkard a Whoremonger an open Scorner of Godliness than to fast and pray or to hear a Conformist in the next Parish when there was no Sermon at home Ans What doth the Man mean by rendering this odious If he mean that all this was well done and that as in Armies he hath most Honour that killeth most so in their Church he is the best Man that doth most against serious Piety this is to profess themselves the Devil's Militia But if he mean that I mis-report the matter of fact and this was not so he may as well persuade us that we lived not then in England or that we knew not our Neighbours or that Men spake not English Can we chuse but know that which every Corner in all the Land did speak Doth he say a word to confute all this And it was a meritorious work to silence and imprison with Rogues all that obeyed not their ungodly Canons but it must go for a heinous Crime to feel their Malice or blame their Cruelty § 79. Accus LXII Pag 66 c. He accuseth me as accusing King Charles the First of too much favouring the Grotian design of Union with the Papists But 1. Doth he say a word so much as to deny his Letter to the Pope to venture Crown and all for Union 2. Or to deny his sworn Articles for Toleration mentioned in Rushworth's Collections and others 3. Or to deny the Papists Murders in Ireland and their power in the King's Armies in England 4. Or that he set up such Bishops as Laud Bromhall and others But if accusing these Men be my Crime when I would have saved England from them Reader peruse but a full Treatise which I have long ago written and hope to get speedily printed with the very words of Laud Bromhall Gunning Saywell Thorndike Heylin Pierce Parker Sparrow Beveridge c. for our Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is sworn against and then judge whether I accuse them wrongfully Must we be brought under Aristocratical Popery or French Church-Government merely by saying It is not Popery And must the Land so tamely be perjured and enslaved § 80 Accus LXIII Pag. 67. He hath been made use of as one of the most keen and Catholick Tools that ever the Papacy did employ Ans 1. 'T is an unrighteous Honour to Popery to call it Catholick while they are a Sect contrary to Catholicism But why then do not these Men love and cherish me while they are striving for a Foreign Jurisdiction if I be so much for them § 81. Accus LXIV Pag. 68. That I am for a mixture of Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent Government Ans And what harm is that I am for that which is good in all and for the Faults of none But these Men must needs be faultless and curse all others that they may bless themselves But am I Episcopal and yet the greatest Enemy to Episcopacy Are they for Episcopacy that put down hundreds to set up one in their stead § 82. Accus LXV The next Accusation is That my five Disputations of Church-Government came out to keep out Episcopacy and justifie our Ordination Ans 1. It was to bring in a threefold Episcopacy which our Diocesans kept out viz. Episcopos Gregis Episcopos Praesides and Archbishops over these 2. Chancellor Hide and Morley produced that Book before the King Lords and Bishops at the great Meeting at Worcester-house and Morley said No Man hath written better
And is governing a Family or my self governing all the World And is governing a Parish-Church under an Archbishop the governing of many hundred Parishes that are no Churches but parts of a Diocesan Church I mentioned Mr. Stanley Gower's words to me of Archbishop Usher that he told him that a Bishop and Presbyter differed not Ordine but Gradu and that he took his Primacy and Lordship not as his Church-Office but as a Collateral Dignity given by the King and one would think no Man that believes the Scripture should think otherwise But this Accuser saith that he will not believe Mr. Stanley as he calls him or me But must we therefore both disbelieve our own Ears For he thinks the Bishop should then act against his Judgment and Conscience What Act may that be And he citeth Dr. Bernard's Testimony as against my Report whereas the very cited words of Dr. Bernard say the same that a Bishop hath Superiority in Degree above a Presbyter And the Accuser putteth these words that are against himself in Capital Letters it seemeth not knowing what he did or what Ordo and Gradus signifie § 87. Accus LXX He saith I injuriously mention King Charles the First his Answer to the Nineteen Propositions because he there gave away his Right for Peace Ans I mention only his own description of the Constitution by King Lords and Commons and their several Powers And would he persuade Men that the King falsly described it or that his Historical Description was his Guilt And he falsly saith that I am a Dissenter from Bishop Usher ' s Judgment about the King's Tribute in Ireland His Uuntruths come so thick that I am weary of naming them As pag. 88. 1. That I was for the Extirpation of Episcopacy Root and Branch 2. And yet that the Archbishop's Model which we desired preserveth that Species of Diocesan Bishops which Mr. B. would destroy Would we destroy that which we desired 3. And That under which Mr. B. maketh Christ's true Discipline unpraecticable Ans Palpably false For therefore we desired it because it maketh that Discipline practicable by the help of Parish-Pastors which without them is impossible 4. That no Government will please me as long as the Liturgy is established When he should have said that professing Assent and Consent to all in it will not please me till I can do it without lying 5. He saith Conformity is to me impossible as long as any of those which I account heinous Sins are retained Ans Yes if Lying be Conformity to me one Lye is unlawful 6. That I was always opposing the Party that was uppermost Ans If that were true it seemeth I sought not for Preferment 7. That I would have the new Liturgy or nothing Ans And yet we offered to use the Old if amended so we might not profess it less liable to Exception than our Translation of the Scripture it self and left it to the Bishops to joyn so much of the Additional Forms as they saw good but the Book was never debated by them § 88. Accus LXXI I have heard it credibly reported by some Reverend Persons there present that that Treaty might have had the desired effect of Concord had not Mr. B. so obstinately resisted Ans That is either those Reverend Persons would have amended their Impositions if I had not Petitioned them to do it and told them the necessity of it or else that all the rest of the Commissioned Nonconformists would have Conformed to all the old faults which they protested that they judged sinful and to all the worse that should after be added if I had not been against it These Reverend Persons were as Credible and Reverend as you are as our present state in England tells us Then he tells us what the Bishop of Chester told Mr. Walton Morley's Steward what Bishop Sanderson said against me which is half false Bishop Sanderson taking the Chair I being by a multitude of Arguments from the words of the Text proving against Dr. Gunning that Paul in Rom. 14 and 15. requireth us to receive to Communion such as differed in as great matters as those do that scruple kneeling at the Sacrament which I told them I scruple not I once told Dr. Gunning that he did petere principium in a case wherein Dr. Sanderson said that word was not in the common Logical sence applicable to his words And the old Learned peevish Man added that I was perverse for saying it And this was the heavy Charge And he addeth what Bishop Morley said of my eagerness to dispute when my Prethren were unwilling Ans Bishop Morley's words of me were much what as credible as yours or Roger Le Strange's Why then did they consent if they were unwilling And if neither Reasoning nor Petitioning them might be used what were we Commissioned for The truth is many of our Brethren when the Bishops told them they would say nothing to us till we brought in writing to them all the faults that we found with the Liturgy and also all the Forms in terminis which we desired as amendments or additions did say It was not this but an amicable consulation that the King Commissioned us for and seeing that this was a meer fraudulent pretence for our frustration they motioned our departing as being denied all that we were called to But I told them that the Bishops would report behind our Backs where we could not be heard that we had nothing to say against their Impositions nor any other terms to offer thinking we would never have agreed on any other Therefore I satisfied divers of them that though we were prejudged it were better let the World see our Cause stated in Writing than leave them to accuse us so when we should never have leave to declare the truth and deny their misreports § 89. Accus LXXII Page 91. He saith His Petition for Peace then was like his Pleas now meer Threatening and Reviling Take heed saith he how you drive Men by penalties on that which they judge would tend to their Damnation The denial of these Desires would renew all our Troubles Ans And indeed is both Damnation and the renewing of our Troubles and Divisions a matter of jest or so indifferent as that it is threatening and reviling humbly to petition Drs to take heed of them They rejected this Reviling Petition And hath England or Hell gained more by their rejection Doth it not tend to Mens Damnation to Swear Subscribe Profess or Practise all those words and things as good and lawful which they think sinful and the Imposers only call Indifferent Have not the Divisions been these thirty years a trouble to this Land which these Men might have prevented and cost them nothing He addeth They tell the Bishops of unmerciful Impositions Ans And is it Mercy to drive Men to Sin and Hell or a crime to beg for so cheap Mercy for the Souls of Men even of Bishops He that doubteth is condemned
if he eat saith Paul England yet feeleth such Mens Mercy There is I think but one of their Commissioners now surviving nor on our side but few even Dr. Tho. Pierce Dean of Salisbury And he moved for leave by Disputation there to prove that it is a work of mercy to all that think it unlawful to receive the Sacrament kneeling to deny it them and the Communion of the Church though the prohibition of all kneeling in Adoration on any Lords Day was one of the Ancient Ceremonies of the Church setled also at the great Council of Nice and continued near a Thousand years saith Dr. Heylin But Morley had the wit to take him off that dispute § 90. Accus LXXIII Page 96. After other Harangues he alledgeth false Causes of my refusing a Bishoprick I satisfied the Lord Chancellor Hide by a Letter with truer Reasons too long here to repeat § 91. Accus LXXIV He next accuseth my Moral Prognostication Ans Let it answer for it self to the Impartial Reader § 92. Accus LXXV He threateneth me for blaming the Laws Ans And do not many Bishops now blame the Laws If Laws be made engines of Schism and Persecution let them justifie them that can and that love them David saith Shall the Throne of Iniquity have Fellowship with thee that frameth mischief by a Law How many German Divines blamed the Interim imposed by the Emperor as for Peace § 93. Accus LXXVI He next reciteth Bishop Morley's Accusations in his printed Letter Ans Which I have proved to abound with falshood in a full Answer which for want of printing hath lain by me these six and twenty years Mr. Baldwin is yet living who was present when he forbad me to preach And Dr. William Bates is yet living who joyned with me in the Savoy Disputation which he misreported § 94. Accus LXXVII He accuseth my Book called The Cure of Church Divisions and yet saith It is the only Book that Mr. B. hath written that hath any thing of moderation Ans Must the World have a confutation of so gross a Liar after the visibility of above Sixscore Books that are an evidence against him and after the testimony that the Lord Chancellor Hide and Morley gave of me producing one of these Books before the King Lords and Drs. at Worcester-House If I understand them above a hundred Books have been written by me with a special design for Moderation Unity and Concord § 95. Accus LXXVIII Page 101. He is not ashamed to be a procurer of the Indulgence for Popery 1. Because I said I would have Papists used like Men. 2. I would have no Man put to death for being a Priest 3. I would have no writ de Excommunicato capiendo or any Law to compel them to our Communion and Sacraments Ans This Man is for Moderation Do you think he or I is more for Popery or hath written more against it Would he not have them used like Men nor suffered to live And must they be cast out of a Church that they were never in It seems he would receive them all to his Sacramental Communion if they will but chuse his Church before the Goal § 96. Accus LXXIX Page 102. Because I hold that If a Bishop or their Church Party would lay us in Goal for our Duty to God it is lawful to accept deliverance from a Papist that is in Authority He feigneth that If they will not come to us I would go to them And if a Protestant did Hang this Man himself would he take it for Popery or Sin to consent that a Papist cut the Rope You see what kind of crimes we Nonconformists are guilty of A willingness to live out of Goals against the Churchmens will Nay it is yet more our Crime is that we will not damn our selves by Subscribing or Swearing falsly and breaking our Ordination Vow by giving over our Ministry The proof that these Men are against Popery is that they would have the Nonconformists die in Goals and have no Papist seek to deliver them § 97. Accus LXXX Accusing my Book against Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry he asketh me Why I Baptize not nor Administer the Lords Supper and so seem to desert Christianity Ans Because I was called to preach and not to Baptize and Administer the Lords Supper by the Necessities of the people where I lived There were in Martins Parish about 60000 more than could come into the Church to hear But they had Curates enough to Baptize and they were compelled to the Lords Supper or might have come and neither Minister nor People desired my help And if these Men believe it not I do That we may and must preach to many that yet are not capable of Sacraments And to many whose Pastors and Judges herein we are not Shall every Minister that preacheth occasionally for him presume to Congregate his Flock and give them the Sacrament Or is he displeased that I gathered not a separated Church § 98. Accus LXXXI As to his Accusation of the Book I leave it to the Readers Judgment that will impartially peruse it But I am not yet convinced by him that it is a Crime to name the heinous sins that have torn this poor Nation and no Crime to commit them Most of his Accusations are that I tell them of their sin and perswade them to repent § 99. Accus LXXXII He accuseth my Plea for Peace and my Book called The true and only way of the Churches Concord as being utterly against Peace Ans Read them and Judge § 100. Accus LXXXIII He accuseth my History of turbulent Bishops and Councils and their Anathematizing as if it were false and almost all was done by Presbyters Ans Let him that hath read it and the proof I cite freely judge who is the falsifier As to his talk about Nestorius had he read David Derodon and what I have said in my Reply to the Defender of Dr. Stillingfleet Mr. Morrice it might have acquainted him with more than he seemeth to know about the Nestorians Eutychians and Monothelites As to his talk against the Arrians I am as much against them as he but not so much against Peace Dr. Henry More a Learned Conformist saith that those after the Council of Nice were to be numbered with the Catholicks and not with the Antichristians Though a Presbyter began their Sect it was Bishops and Persecuting Emperors that upheld it As to my words of many Writers mistakes therein before the Council of Nice he may find them with abundance more in Petavius de Trinitate As to his words of the Controversies and Councils de tribus Capitulis he that excuses the said Councils and Bishops as faultless as to all the doleful Divisions that followed hath not a due love to peace and prudence The same I say of the Monothelites § 101. Accus LXXXIV His great Accusation Page 126. is that If I had any fear of God or reverence of Man I would not reproach the