having a Parliament being banished for many years and the ordinary discourse of the Courtiers then was against Parliaments as injurious to the Kings Prerogative This continued until Firebrands that had been kindling by it were laid together in Scotland and there began first to FLAME about the ears of the Clergy and their Liturgy An. 1637 8 and 9. The King raised an Army against them and notwithstanding the Pacification of 18 June 1639. he resolved to have War with the Scots told some Lords about him Decemb. following he would call a Parliament in England the noyse of which made the People amazed I so long had they been without it and so little expectation had they of it whiles the King sends his bosome and Cabinet-Counsellour Strafford into Ireland to call one there to raise him monies but on the 13th of April it was convened and on the 5th of May dissolved again and some of the Members vizt Sir John Hotham Mr. Crew Mr. Belliesis imprisoned the Lord Brooks Plundred and the King goes on with the War against the Scots until about 20. of the English Earls Lords and Barons Petitioned to him at York to call a Parliament that might continue until Grievances were redressed c. By which means and his unavoidable necessities together he could not help it but summon the Long Parliament who seeing the people so miserably robbed of their Rights drew up a Bill for triennial Parliaments which the King signed 15. Pebr. 1640. Also an Act of Parliament was passed by King Lords and Commons then in being That this Parliament shall not be dissolved without it be by Act of Parliament and the Ground is exprest in it viz. The fears jealoustes and apprehensions that His Majesties Subjects have that this present Parliament may be adjourned prorogued or dissolved before Iustice be executed Grievances redressed c. With what confidence then can Mr. B. put in such an ingredient and so dangerous a one to make up his first Pill or Prop. to purge the Army with and to scour their Consciences To his second Prop. It was not the old Cause for the People to have right to choose a House of Commons to exercise the whole soveraignty c. Answ And who saith it was I pray not the Healing Quest. I am sure neither do the Commonwealths-men say it that the people have any Right to choose any House of Commons at all seeing it is utterly inconsistent with the Free-State and principles of it to have any such House as a House of Commons and more to have them as such exercise the whole Soveraignty of the Nation But here he contends with himself alone As I have seen a Puppy play prettily with his own tail weary himself and lie down when he has done For to what purpose is this Pill of Fumitory unless to fetch away Melancholy Fumes and make us laugh a little at all their weakness and folly To his third Prop. It was none of the old cause to assert the peoples Soveraignty Answ But it was their old cause to assert their Rights I am sure both as men and as Christians and this is one the Healing Quest saith and a natural one which all the Adherents to this Cause against the King have recovered through mercy if they can but keep it viz. to keep the Primary power under God and Jesus Christ or the power of chusing their own Rulers into the Supreme trust And this was we find by a little Retrospection declared for both by Parliment and Army Act of Parl. March 17. 1648. St. Albans Remonstrance in the Scotish Declarations and a many others So that this his salt Pill of poly-podium will serve for nothing but to make a man cough complain or else to choak him quite To his fourth Prop. It was not the Cause to change the constitution of the Commonwealth into any other form of Government then what we found in it Answ What ever was the Cause that was the effect and an inevitable EFFECT of the Wars I am sure though I confess the CAUSE of it lay in my judgement more on the Kings part according to the Parliaments own words of 20. March 1642. That whensoever the King maketh War that it tendeth to the dissolution of his Government So that Sublatâ Causâ tollitur effectus had he not made the War he had not destroyed his Government it is like Nor doth this lay the Guilt of the bloud upon the Parliament as he pretends but upon the King and his evil Counsellours who destroyed him and his posterity as well as that Constitution of Government by it And albeit no one part had authority to destroy the other and set it self in the room of the whole as King to destroy the Commons or Commons the Lords and set it self up as HOUSE of COMMONS yet had they a Power to destroy one another and to kill themselves if they would as the King did and so consequently the Lords and then the House of Commons as the Commons-House which are all dissolved with that CONSTITUTION of GOVERNMENT by a Felo de se indeed 2. Nor is the Platform of King Lords and Commons the Fundamental Constitution but rather imposed upon the people as has been often proved by the learned in History And 3. Though this were not the ULTIMATE in our eye yet the Peoples Rights and properties which fell in naturally to them were in their eye ULTIMATELY and intentionally amongst other things of higher concernment viz. the Kingdom of Christ throughout the management of this cause Now where the people have the greatest propriety and interest to out-balance as it was in this cause they must naturally fall into that Balance which is in a Commonwealth and can fix for security and satisfaction in nothing less be it ever so beyond our first intentions or second But for my part I cannot find one word in the Healing Quest that saith it was our cause intentionally to alter that constitution though that effect was given in as a blessing supplement and success unto this cause but that we have a Right to a Civil incorporation and society distinct from that of the old constitution now dissolved by its self and it's inorable adherents So that as the CYNICK ran to the mark for fear the Archer should hit him when he shot at Rovers we may run to the Healing Quest and never fear that he will hit or hurt us or can come neer us for ought I see This is his fourth Pill as bitter as Aegrimony it may serve to make a body sick and to make him stare but not to cure or comfort him in the least His fifth Prop. is of the matter asserting the Parliaments Declaration for the Kings person Priviledges of Parliament c. which is fully answered in Mr. P's Cause stated and stunted p. 5 6 7 8 10 11. to the very same Declarations and
HIS who shall be who must be the desire of all nations But because Mr. Baxter may be heard with many when I may not I shall usher in ALL in his own words that I have to offer for this Christian Commonwealth or Theocratick Government as the CONCAMERATION and upshot of the whole Discourse 2. In the PATHOLOGY of it and therein to consider how the Principal parts might be affected if not infected with the late Morbous estate of the Common-wealth And acted for that time so preternaturally that might render it as unsafe then to follow them as now to fall on them for no MEMBERS humanum est errare sed inhumanum perseverare Cic. Phil. 2. Unless we be of opinion that the only way to cure a disease is to cut off the member or to evacuate an humor is to kill the man So to measure the affections of your old friends who are sound at heart ADHERENTS to the Good old Cause and Commonwealth by any humorous or incomposed resentment of your interruption which was sudden and amazing however they took it may be dangerous and unjust Seeing some that were more troubled fell in with the Apostacy and some that were less fell out with it yea seeing such as were Active in it and made their Advantages by it are indemnified shall such as were Passive in it and pursued nothing by it but the Publique Good be indamaged Can any think that after so many years hard Bonds and Banishment those that were forwardest proclaim'd the Single Person serv'd him or rather themselves therein should be the Men of your Right Hand and not those that have witnessed prayed appeared and Protested against it from the first to the last of it be worthy of your LEFT Or that those who were but FOOLED into an expectation of better things and in that did rejoyce through hope be the onely marks for your enemies to shoot at and such as were KNAVED into into a Perpetration of worser things and in that they did Triumph and boast be the very Quivers of those Arrows that are shot at them As soon as the first sort saw the snare they escaped it with the loss of Liberty Estate and Livelihood a many of them but the last sort saw it kept it and became their enemies that did it not The first sort were more in simplicity and as they intended upon the account of the Cause the Reasons and Grounds in the Declaration An. 1653. pretended were for the better carrying on of the Cause and a more absolute weaning the people from Monarchy and for successive Parliaments c. but the last sort in Subtlety and Design a many of them upon the account of themselves Places Profits The first sort did sink but like Peter and as their feet slipp'd their hands held fast upon Christ but the last sort sunk rather like Pharaoh having no principle to bear them up and nothing to hold fast by only this we see by it that a man may sink and rise and sink and rise again and yet be recovered at the last The first were WITHOUT blinded with Words and knew nothing but what was openly pretended the LAST were WITHIN even in their Cabals and might easily guess at what they secretly intended The first did but stumble but the last did fall and lie in their filth It is a Good horse that never stumbles but it is a Bad one that ever does and that will wallow in it too To stumble once is a common fault but twice at one Stone too is a special one and therefore we humbly think that the first ought not so to be exploded if the last ought so to be applauded and preferred The Orator said Natura me Clementem fecit Respub severum sed neque Natura neque Respubl me Crudelem efficiet Nature hath made me MILDE the Commonwealth hath made me SEVERE but neither one nor the other shall make me CRUEL to any man and the Preacher says Eccles 5. 8. If thou seest violent perverting of justice in a Province marvel not at the matter For he that is HIGHER then the HIGHEST regardeth and is HIGHER then THEY For my own part I need no Apology in the matter who was possest with amazement at the rashness of the Action I was so far from irritating or abetting it as some would suggest that I never mention'd or imagin'd it or to my knowledge heard it of any other till it was performed And then was so unsatisfied with it of which eminent Persons are my Witnesses as might free me both from the suspition and the sin of it Besides it is in print to the World and was then in Press for Posterity to see my opinion of them that were reputed Active in it Yet when that interruption had so candid an Interpretation by Good People who were over-credulous and ignorant of the Design I did write to the then GENERAL and my fourth Propos was hisce Verbis word for word That those who were righteous and spirited for this Government of the WORTHIES of the late i.e. this Parliament that are without just exception may be Owned with Honour i.e. Return'd again to their Trust And these Proposials are the worst that can be said of me by any man wherein I meant as much as I mentioned very honourably of them as of our WORTHIES But if that satisfie not I shall presume with the words of a Scottish EARL Leviston in his Oration to the then Lord Chancellor ex Georg. Buchan Rer. Scotic lib. 11. Junii 27. adhort p. 151. Non me HONORE Spoliatum sed ONERE levatum existimo Privatim si quam accepi injuriam eam Publicae Salutis Causa libenter Condono Si quam feci Bonorum Virorum Arbitratu satisfaciam c. I account not my self rob'd of Honour in your late DEBATE nor exempt of Reason in any former REBATE being arm'd with so much innocency that I can heartily say If I have privately received any Wrong I can freely remit it for the Publick's sake but if I have done Any either to the PUBLICK or to PRIVATE I as heartily refer it to the Arbitrement of Good men and I will make satisfaction if I can for it Neither expect I any thanks to be an Advocate for others but to prevent the injustice of squaring your Affairs and their Affections by so fallible a RULE as that is The Angel's Golden Reed is the Golden Rule to measure the Inward by but the outward Rev. 11. 1 2. may be measured by the best Reason of man rightly fix't for judgement and then I need not shew the danger of Breaking Bones too often in one place lest they fester and Rot and come to Ruine as well as put to pain the Whole Body But to conclude I see you like Men in the Dark up at MIDNIGHT in a confused State ready to Knock your Heads at every Post and to break your Legs at every Block and therefore hope by this Collision of
when he cut off his companions HEAD and to keep his Covenant after he had parboiled and fitted it he kept it by him honoured and perfumed it and upon every weighty matter or consultation would set this SKUL by him and tell it what he purposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying That he did not violate his ingagement or break his OATH in the least seeing he did ever take Council with the HEAD of Archonides and did nothing without it That this is the Honour our Patriots should have if they could effect it is as clear as the Sun 5. Mr. P. knows as well as we that the Parliament recalled to their Trust by the Declaration of the Army is expresly denominated that Parliament that sat from Anno 1648. till Anno 1653. viz. the Commonwealth-Parliament whereof they were never members so that he might well have spared his squint-eyed Arguments or unanswerable Reasons as he calls them from p. 34. to p. 40. to prove they are not the House of Commons till they took themselves for such a House but thus poor Mr. P. doth make himself both Adversary and Answerer Mark and Archer in his matter and is either like one Antipho that a Dr. tells us of who through a Disease in his Eye thought he had his own IMAGE ever before him and for THAT he could see nothing else Or like that Souldier who in a foolish Bravado meant to expose himself to such a needless Peril that for want of an Enemy he would find himself to fight with and so doth Mr. P. in the most Parts of his Discourse Indeed he wounds himself severely and I much pity him in those unruly passions which fall with the deadliest blows on himself and on the Bowels of his own Arguments that are torn apieces with very anger for this he knows is by the LAW the Felo de se And thus Mr. P. hath seen his HEIRS apparent as he supposed to the next Revolution and who were accordingly in expectation of possessing utterly disinherited by a gracious Providence and unexpected so that like M. LIVIUS who through his own folly had lost All and said to his own shame he had left nothing to his HEIRS praeter Coelum Coenum but air and mire he may say it I fear that it is AIR and MIRE and nothing else that he bequeaths by his writings to those Gentlemen and I wish it might not have effect like the River Lyncestis of which whosoever drinketh is sure to run Mad. Thus we see also the Caninum appetitum of them that long after the Death of this Commonwealth accounting their only Riches to lye in the Reversions purchas'd at so easie a Rate as a Breath or the Vote of a company of Lawyers for the King Lords and Commons which they were very neer effecting in their last Dissolved Assembly only lost all by over-hast and the Commonwealth is recovered but most strangely Not much unlike to that of a King of Parthia ORADES by name the same that slew Crassus who being desperately ill as our Commonwealth was it proved a temptation to his son Phraates so impatient he was of his Death that himself might succeed to the Throne to dispatch him quick he gave him poyson but the Poyson did not only work out it's self but the Disease with it and was so far from killing him that it perfectly cured him And so it did with this poor Commonwealth a sick Patient when they came together and whose CASE I then opened to them the POYSON that was given to make a quick dispatch of the Commonwealth by the Lawyers and Courtiers c. hath produced a cure And the Lord hath we hope saved us once again Disappointed our Adversaries and raised up this Renowned Parliament as from the Grave to do great things for Christ and his Cause in this Commonwealth or to the Greater shame of them that hinder What Mr. P. hath suggested like a learned Anatomist Mr. B. hath as bravely seconded like a Physitian in 's Preface to the Army Because saith he I find that self-conviction worketh in you and hath brought you already to more confessions then Volumes from me were ever like And when Nature hopefully begins a CVRE it must not be disturbed by VIOLENT Medicines You have already confessed and the Officers of the Army in Scotland confesse Penitent confessions will be some reparation of your honour This much from another would by some have been called a second GANGRENA or a SCANDALUM MAGNATVM And if you be indeed sincerely penitent we are not only in hope but past all doubt that God who hath shewed you the sin of forcing out the last 120. will also shew you the sin of imprisoning and secluding of above 140. at once long before c. How exquisite Mr. B. is in this Art or Science of Physick I know not but with his favour if he follows right Rules in his prescriptions he ought to have told us first what Humors he would have evacuated and so to have proportioned his Dosis and Directions to the quality of the Disease not mistaking or taking them for ACTIVE QUALITIES in the Army which were meerly PASSIVE and under orders nor on the contrary to account them passive qualities which were meerly Arbitrary Active and their own without Orders which the Parliament ought to consider 2. Also with what kinds of medicaments or means consisting with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and State of the Commonwealth as Aristotle when sick said to his Physician What do you think to cure me as if I were a Horse that I must not know what ingredients you do give me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Away away you shall never meddle with me like a Farrier Heardsman or Delver but first go and finde out the cause and nature of my disease and so say we For all Medicines agree not with all men and I presume Mr. B. hath more then one Rule or Remedy for all diseases 3. He should have given us his Reasons also For in methodical cures not only the remedies but the reasons of things ought to be proponderated and as accurately prepared Now although as Mr. B. saith Lenitives be most necessary when nature begins to work so and into such confessions yet when the Humors are hard viscous very tough and tenacious they are not outed with such contrariis blandis so easily as with corrosives duly corrected and with such consideratis considerandis as best suit both with the Patient and Potion And Mr. B. himself tells them of a more violent working exasperating Physick which he hath but he shall forbear to give it at present viz. to set before them the aggravation of their sins terrours of hell and damnation c. and all about the Secluded Members or the last Assembly for which amongst his mild ingredients he gives them this ARGUMENT To resist or depose the best Governours in all
man commendeth or that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth And the Lord justifies who shall condemn Isai 50. 8 9. Rom. 8. 33 34. Yet I think there be but few that are so malicious as to hate this Gentleman for his own sake but many indeed that are envious at him for our sakes and the Commonwealths In whose Memory and Posterity I nothing doubt but that his indefatigable endeavours and deserts from the Publick will out-live the most irrefragable anger of all his enemies or rather ours Justum Tenacem propositi Non civium ardor prava jubentium Non vultus instantis Tyranni Mente quatit solida neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae was the song of the Heathen which I mention to our shame and not with much delight in reading Heathen Authors that we should be so ungrateful as not to commemorate in our minds at least the worth of such men as neither Turns nor Times Tyrants nor Tempests Troubles nor Thunderbolts that have rent the heavens crackt the clouds and split the very foundations could ever remove or slacken in their constancy to the cause and Commonwealth Now that Mr. B. who of any hath so little knowledge of this so honourable a person must be the man to abuse him or us rather with such black reports of him to the world and at such a TIME too wherein he was and is wholly taken up with that which he prefers above his daily food or I think his life viz. the service of the PUBLICK is an Argument sufficient that he went to the Philistimes to make and to whet his TOOLS because he could finde no SMITHS in Israel that could make such a KEY or a Key with such wretched Wards in it as I fear if the Lord prevent not will let more into Hell then into Heaven or happiness And whether some that were ingaged for the King or against the Cause Commonwealth and this Parliament did not prompt him to it or were the bellows of his forge to blow up the sparks of his discontent into such open flames and luculent firebrands of malignity is to me a Question almost out of Question if I look but into his Preface and see in the Margin of it how highly he extols the E. of Lauderdale as his helper in it Yea whether it were not designed and TIMED on purpose to perplex this person of honour as well as others in Parliament or to give them a Diversion from the PUBLICK into a private vindication of themselves and of their unblemished names had they thought it worthy and thereby to have left the House whiles the Adversaries should have carried all therein more without opposition for the interest of a single Person and against the Commonwealth or otherwise that these ulcerous defamations might pass uncontrouled spread further and further amongst the credulous vulgar upon their silence and want of leasure to rescue their reputations from such horrid impeachment But these Gentlemen perferring their Christian names above their Sir-names have left their innocence to the omniscience of God and the testimony of it to the Multiscience of us who know them without the least vacillation of their restored lustre whose wonderful constancy is a most worthy Antidote to the poison of the Pens and Parts of their enemies I am not for my own Part of any party sect nor faction nor am I of that number Mr. B. charges or covers with his blackest clouds of contumely Neither have I any mans person in admiration nor am I put on by any but the Lord and I hope his own Spirit for love of the truth and of the PUBLICK lest that should suffer by it to ward off such Cowards blows as come behind them so unworthily and bite them so unwarily whiles they are swallowed up in the insuperable necessities and inseparable affairs of the Publick Weale so as that without palpable injury thereunto they have neither leasure to minde nor make answer if they would without it be with the blessed Patience of Christ who opened not his mouth Isai 53. 7. in Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he So opens not his mouth Who when he was reviled he reviled not again but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2. 23. and with the commendable Patience of Pericles that could not be provoked by an Enemy but when one went railing upon him to his very door in the night he bid his man to light him home with his own TORCH and of another that said O! that these men could rule their tongues as well as we our ears their pens as we our spirits Now that it may appear to Mr. B. that he had need to be forgiven his traducing of them and his seducing of others as well as be redeemed from the great evils and temptations of BOTH I hope it will not be imputed presumption or unkindness if I present him for the present with a little tast from his own words of the notorious wrong that he hath done to that wise and worthy Knight with others And 1. from his own description of a Protestant though I think it a very Lame and defective one and not plena pari ratione saith he p. 130. It is a title that accrewed to our Religion from the PROTESTING AGAINST the Romish Innovations and corruptions If those that have protested against the Romish Innovations and corruptions be Protestants then these who in his vain eye and foolish fansie of Boys-play are called Vani are Protestants having protested as far as any Protestants that Mr. B. accounts Orthodox have done Yea further then ever Mr. Baxter himself did against Romish innovations which makes him so offended and therefore to use his own words in p. 393. Scarce a man that crosseth or displeaseth i. e. dissenteth from and disobeyeth the uncharitable Clergy but he is stigmatized for an Heretick and charged with almost as much wickedness as their mouths are wide enough to utter and the ears of other men to hear These out of his own Book whereby no man can absolve him of self-condemnation in the justification of this honourable person by his own pen. 2. From his Description of a Papist in p. 392. As soon as ever any man hath received this opinion of the necessity of an universal Visible Head of the whole Church he is either a Papist or of an opinion equivalent so a little after This Errour about the necessity of an universal visible head is the very thing that turneth most to Popery Now those that he calls SEEKERS and in a Satyrical Vane VANISTS Anabaptists Sectaries c. hold no universal visible head nor any other over the Church but Jesus Christ And therefore are not within the compass of his description of a Papist Nay are further off with his leave
their Functions as Physicians say of the Humane body that it must be as to the sane Constitution of it of a due Temperament both ad pondus ad justitiam and so must the Political body 1. Ad Pondus i.e. so as the first qualities or best sort may be brought into such an exact Proportion that no one may domineer it ore the other viz. in Faction or Parties striving for the mastery but so as one may balance another and all be kept together in the orderly exercise of all the Functions of the Body in an equal and good Temperature But 2. Ad justitiam that is so as to keep out evil and corrupt humors from obstructing the use of Functions in the body and this is the Eukracy and Timocracy which all sound Commonwealths have maintained and ours must I might instance in the Lacedemonians Cretians Athenians Corinthians Arcadians Rhodians Chalcedonians and others later The Romans themselves observing this as the Rule to keep out Tarquin and his crew who had a considerable Party in the Commonwealth as Charles Stuart hath in this even amongst Brutus's sons and as like to have repossessed and restored Tarquin untill this distinction was maintained with justice not sparing between the absolute Tarquinians that were unexorable and would never be for the Commonwealth but ever plotting against it and the free-born Citizens or faithful Denisons that did all to maintain it not forfeiting their Liberties and Rights as Livy tells us So for other Commonwealths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I hear that the Mantinians in Arcadia and also the Locrians Cretians Lacedemonians and Athenians had such Laws And in this respect the Grecians were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only Greeks but Vindices Libertatis Great Sticklers for their Liberties But I am afraid lest some consult with the same Oracle that Clement the fifth did to destroy the COMMON-WEALTH Si non licet per Viam justitiae licet saltem per Viam expedientiae by Policy and expediency I mean such as Caiaphas and the Council condemned our Lord Jesus by Joh. 11. 50. and 18. 14. and so may this Cause But justice is a pure intemperate Virgin till she be deflowred by one of the two unchast Suitors viz. NIMIUM or PARUM Both which must be avoided as extreams and the Healing Quest doth it excellently But of M. B. I may say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast lost the sweetness of the Rose and the fragrants of the Cause by thy Adulterating Art and mistaking of it But I have proved says Mr. B. that it is a false and wicked cause Wicked in the Nullity of the Magistrates duty and power but the truth thereof let the Reader judge and the Magistrate himself if he please And a false Cause saith he in giving the people the Natural Soveraignty who have but a power of choosing that men miss-call a Soveraignty The truth is I am from my heart with thousands more as well as Mr. B. saith he is in matter for a Theocratick or a godly COMMONWEALTH of which I had prepared a draught in my imprisonment at Windsor Castle and O! that we could see it with our eyes so both in the Constitution and Administrations of it in these Nations subjective to Jesus Christ that absolute Sovereign Who is 1 Tim. 6. 15. The blessed and only Potentate King of Kings and Lord of Lords Rev. 19. 16. For whom all things were created Rev. 4. 11. and 5. 12 13. Col. 1. 16. Whether Thrones DOMINIONS Principalities or POWERS c. 1. Seeing all Nations must be subservient to him under the seventh Trumpet Rev. 11. 15. Whom he will either BOW or BREAK 2. Seeing all these Shakings and Concussions are to that end Hag. 2. 6. Veani Maryish I making them to TREMBLE Ver. 7. Ve hiryashshetti and I will make them TREMBLE with commotions and troubles until Chemeddat Col Haggojim the Desire the Delight the Beauty of all Nations come 3. Seeing the Army have Declared themselves to be upon this very Bottom and Foot of account often but more particularly in Declaration at Muscle-borough Aug. 1. 1650. in these words We have have not only proclaimed Iesus Christ the King of Saints to be our King by Profession but desire to submit to him upon his own terms and admit him to the exercise of his Royal Authority c. Yea 4. seeing we are already so forward in it in this Nation both by the extraordinary Session of this Parliament And 5. by their Declaration on the 7. of May last for our Rights and Liberties both as Men and as Christians i.e. in Civils and in Spirituals◠Also 6. by that Golden Vote of Parliament somewhat like the Golden Réed which the Angel gave John Revel 11. 1. saying Arise and MEASVRE by it viz. That and their late Votes That none be put into Trust but men of Ability fearing God of a Latitude of Love to all the people of God and not to this or that Faction or Party and of Fidelity to the Common-wealth without King Single Person or House of Peers Yea 7. seeing there is such a readiness of consent in the Adherents to the Cause that are not partified nor putrified for a faction nor corruption and Mr. B. himself proposes it from p. 210. to 241. of 's Holy Commonwealth Yea 8. seeing we are as a Rouling Stone never fixed or at Rest till we fall into it do we what we can Psa 83. 12. make them as a Whéel or a ROVLING Globe and are likely to find no settlement without it Ezek. 21. 27 I will overturn overturn overturn till he comes whose Right it is or to whom the JVDGEMENT is given asher lo hammishpat and this can be meant of none but Christ Joh. 5. 22. to whom all Judgement is committed Dan. 7. 9. until his Government be setled in the NATIONS Gnavah Gnavah Gnavah assimenah I will place in them a PERVERSE Perverse PERVERSE spirit or as the Sept. has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until they be subverted and brought to this Settlement of God So that for the matter i.e. A Theocracy I agree with Mr. Baxter in yet notwithstanding I cannot be of M. B's mind for the manner of it as that it consists so well with the interest of God and Christ our absolute Soveraign or with the interest of the People Adherents to this Cause which stand together that a Single Person should exercise the power of a Humane Soveraign over us seeing 1 Sam. 8. 6 7. the thing displeased the Lord and was a great evil in Samuels eyes as the word is vajierang when the People said Give us a KING and on that the Lord said to Samuel They have not rejected thée they have rejected me that I should not reign over them or maasu they have loathed my Government over them wherein I alone was their King or the Single Person Much less can I think that the Natural being of it under
according to the Rule of former Laws and constitutions as to be justified by them any longer then they had the Law of outward Success and of inward Justice and Righteousness to incourage them So that without tawing or stretching his lines like Leather into what length or shape he please they amount but to this 1. That the Adherents to the Cause were not without an inward Rule of Righteousness as well as outward But 2. when the outward failed or that they were not justified by the Letter of the Law they had an inward line of Righteousness and Justice to measure their Actions by which the Most High blessed and accepted and that was a RULE far more perfect and straight then the letter alone of the old Laws which were made most of them for the interest of a single Person nor was this to the Violation but to the Vindication of the equity sence and meaning of all good Laws not to the Resisting but Recovering of all true Authority from the Griffen-Gripes and Talons of all Tyranny the Usurpation and violence of the Norman Race or of any other Family or Interest whatsoever innoculated into such a Stock or Stump 2. Is this any more then what the PARLIAMENT when it consisted of King Lords and Commons as Mr. B. would have it did justifie to be good and consonant with the CAUSE then in that very action of taking away the Militia from the King which being contrary to the letter of the Law they resolved it thus There is in Laws an Equitable and a Literal sence when there is a grounded suspition the letter of the Law shall be improved against the Equity of it i. e. the Publick Good it gives liberty to obey the Equity of it and to disobey the Letter Now where was the Rule of Righteousness was it in the Letter of the Laws which gave away all the Militia to the King or was there such a thing as an inward Warrant of Justice to do that Action for the publike Good Thereby Defending and not Deflowering the Equity of it 3. Yet the Spirit Reason and inward Rule of Righteousness is to be preferred with his leave before the written Rule or letter as more inerrable inalterable radical where the one is repugnant to the other as the Orator Cicero hath it Non SCRIPTA sed NATA Lex against Tarquin si Regnante Tarquinio Nulla erat Scripta Lex de Stupris c. Tamen vera Lex est Recta Ratio Naturae Congruens diffusa in omnes Constans Sempiterna c. it is not a Written but an innate Rule which is as Chrysostome Rhetorically tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The self-Disciplining or Fundamental Law that is planted in the very Being of Mankinde and from thence it buds blossoms fructifies and dilates into the fairest BRANCHES of Morality So that if there were no Law written sayes the Orator during the Reign of Tarquin to check his Lust yet Right Reason is a sufficient Law of an Excellent Complection and Congruity with Nature and of as admirable a Latitude diffusion and extent to the Good of all and which never fails nor fades PHILO as elegantly gives his Testimony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Right Reason is the certain and unshaken Law not written in corrupt PAPER or on a Lifeless stone like a dead Letter by the greatest Art or greatest Industry of any creature but ingraved in the most retentive and living understanding of Man as with the finger of God himself or of an eternal or immortal Spirit Plutarch tells us as much tooa s a Moralist can tell of any Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The LAW it's self is not shut up in Paper or Writings or limitted to any outward Letter or expression of it in Tables of Stone or the like but living and situating like the soul in the body in a Rational Being or in Reason its Self Hence came that ancient Adage Inter Bruta silent Leges Amongst Brutish and Irrational Creatures Laws are mute muzzel'd and unintelligible why because they have not this inward Rule Reason and Spirit of the Laws The Formality and Letter of our Laws did indeed flow from the Interest or Power of some particular men but the strength and life of humane Laws must be found and founded under GOD in Reason and Natural Right which when the Letter or written Rules oppose they become no longer Laws but Flaws in a Commonwealth lose their vigor and are but as a dead letter 4. Both together so long as they can consist together and are in their vigor vizt the Inward and outward wee make a Rule for Righteous Actions between Man and man and not the Inward warrant as sufficient without the outward in such a case viz. where they agree together nor yet the Outward as Mr. B. would have it without the Inward Reason and Spirit of it which the other indeed is deducted from and is more Radicaliter in intellectu So that this Mr. B. might have better said That where the Outward is deficient inconsistent or corrupted Not to use the Inward Warrant or Rule of Reason and Righteousness is to reject the Government of the Lord and to become our own Murtherers and Tame-Slaves Brutified to the Lusts and interests of Men rather then beautified for the Common Good as Hos 5. 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in Judgement because he WILLINGLY walked after the Commandments of men Thus far for his 9th Pill and a pitiful dry one to drink up the Radical Moisture with under pretence of a Pill Lucis Majoris to evacuate the humour of the head with His tenth Prop. hath little in it onely a fallacious conclusion from what the Healing Q. predicates in p. 10. That to the wisdom of the Laws and Orders of the Supreme Judicature the sword must become subservient Therefore sayes he your sword should have been so to the Parliament that was violated the late Parliament But the Healing Q. speaks not a word of a Parliament consisting of King Lords and Commons which Mr. B. means he speaks of the Representatives of the Commonwealth chosen by this Body of the Sound and well-affected to the CAUSE So that Mr. B. contrary to all Catholick Laws of Reasoning Eartheth or Roots his disceptation in an Homonymy and thence concludes it for the late Parliament that was dissolved Telling the ARMY that no small fruits would be procured upon their CONVICTION by these reasons to a repentance i e. of returning to the secluded Members and old constitution of King Lords and Commons So that this is the Nature of his Diacatholicon or tenth purging PILL if it operates as he and those of his mind would have it they would bring them first by Lenitives Anodines and Emollients to the Stool of Repentance And then to ply them with more asperity till they make them like Arrius purge out their very bowels and all