characters of a deed only in the manner heroick and which any person in that Congregation acting from the same sincere zeal of God might without any particular warrant have performed with equall acceptance let all ingenuous men judge 2. I say that whatever capacity may be attribute to Phineas as the son of Eleazar then high priest which indeed is all we find in Scripture concerning him preceeding this time or upon the ground of any other conjecture yet the samine doth no wayes make out that this deed was an Act of ordinary administration and consequently deprives not Naphtali of its pertinent application in as much as it is evident that Phineas did not do this deed either by vertue and using the power of any Authority wherewith possibly he might have been vested or yet by Moses his order or command but simply from the motive of that sincere and high measure of zeal whereby without waiting the command of the superior Magistrat or observing a legal procedure he was suddenly acted in such a flagrant and openly provoking wickednesse immediatly to interpose and execute judgment and therefore we see that as nather by Moses his command nor by the judges there obedience in slaying every one his men that were guiltie the fierce anger of the Lord was turned away so it was only by Phineas his fact as being of another nature and his eminent zeal appearing prompting him in such a manner that the Lord was appeased the plague stayed And really when I observe that it is in the readinesse and fervor of Phineas his zeal transporting him as it were to the omission of the ordinary solemnities of judgment for the punishing of such a manifest and provoking villany that the Spirit of the Lord seemeth to place the high and singular praise of this action I cannot but equally admire how that any person should either attribute it to an extraordinary command or account it an Act of common obedience to Moses or yet of ordinary jurisdiction 3. I say that although in certain particular cases such as Abraham his stretching out his hand to slay his Son the Israelits there borrowing to the spoiling of the Egyptians and Samsons killing of himself with the Philistines all obviously interfering with the general commands contained in the law where an express warrant is not recorded the samine may and ought to be supposed yet where the deed is in substance agreeable to the precept and the apparent singularity of any circumstance remitigated by another extraordinary occurrent and where the performance is expressly ascribed to the actors zeal or fortitude and not the least mention made of any special command there to recurre to tacite warrants is altogether groundless If this the author of the Survey had adverted to he could not in the pursuance of his alledgeance that the soveraigne God can cross ordinary rules and appoint some to execute his judgments extraordinarily wherein they are not to be followed without the same special commission a truth which we do not controvert have thereto subjoined examples so widely different as Moses his killing the Egyptian which having vengeance admixed over and above the quality of the Israelits defence is by Scripture referred to an express warrant Act. 7. 24 25. Ehud's killing of Eglon which on the other hand was without all question lawful to any Israelite against such an oppressor Elias his destroying of the fifties with fire from heaven which no doubt doth not more upon the matter require then by its extraordinary manner it is witnessed to have had an special command his killing of Baal's Priests which on the other part I do nothing question to have been only a noble act of executing Gods judgment which a wretched uxorious Prince fearing to do the people themselves might lawfully have done Abraham going to kill Issac which is plainly and particularly commanded David's ingaging in duell with Goliah as I judge which any in the camp of Israel might laudably with the same permission have undertaken and lastly Samson's killing not murthering as he inadvertently speaks of the Philistines with himself which for the reason above assigned did certainly proceed upon a particular license But the Surveyer's design in this so inconsistent a mixture is evident viz. that having premised so many part pertinent part impertinent examples to his position he might with the lesse observation adde the Lords stirring up of Phineas as a suteable instance whereas it is obvious that the same is not more unlike to the cases of Abraham Moses Samson Elias with the fifties then it justly quadrats to that other of Elias against Baal's Priests both this these of Ehud David are nothing referable to the ground he layeth down but do plainly proceed by vertue only of general rules taking place in there respective exigences without the necessity what ever message Ehud de facto had of any special commission 4. I say that Phineas his fact was indeed a stretch beyond the line of his ordinary vocation but so far from importing upon this ground the necessity of a special warrant that as the Scripture doth clearly impute this his transport to the rare measure of his zeal inflaming him in a manner to the present execution of a just vengeance upon such a detestable abomination so it doth no lesse evidently hold forth how that particular and extraordinary exigences de facto occurring the very common principles of duty may without a special extraordinary warrant carrie to singular performances And thus we are arrived at the main point whereunto this example of Phineas is by Naphtali applyed and about which both the Surveyer and you do raise such a noise and yet in effect the matter doth contain no greater difficulty in thesi then that which is fully satisfied and removed by the most common and ordinary distinction of a mans calling unto that which is proper and particular whereunto in the ordinary course of things he is regularly and commonly confined and unto that which is general which not being circumscribed by any particular rule doth from the common obligation of the end for which all particular stations are institute in the clear exigence of an extraordinary incident according to the general rules of righteousnesse bind to an agreeable practice I know Naphtali in his tenderness to offend for preventing of mistakes insinuates severall distinctions and subdistinctions whereby an action heroick and a call thereto may be discerned from that which properly and strictly is termed extraordinary and its call and that the Surveyer in his rambling way by proponing the distinction of acts heroical and extraordinary to consist in this viz. that acts heroical do not deviat from the common rules of vertue but differ only from its common acts quoad modum perfectiorem whereas acts extraordinary go beyond ordinary rules and are founded upon special warrant goes about to impugne Naphtali in that wherein they both agree But seeing that all the difficulty of
Who would think that this were the accusation of Non-conformists who from the very beginning of Reformation have been continually vexed by your impositions and not rather conceive the objection to be made by them against your violent pressing of Crosse Surplice Service-book Book of Canons and other â—rash wherewith the Lords people have been uncessantly urged as the main yea only things of Religion But I cannot stand upon every one of your calumnies the Lord deliver you from this perverse spirit Only if by the driving objected you do understand our causing the people of the Land to stand stedfast and adhere to the Lords Covenant whereby they were formerly obliged it is already fully answered But that which you say is of greatest weight is that we are guilty of the waxing cold in Love to which our Saviour knits the abounding of Iniquity And this challenge you qualify by our judging you in Matters which are doubtful disputations spreading tattlesâ— of you as you call them carrying sowrly toward you and casting odious aspersions upon you as Apostates and the like with petulant railings and this you adde is a greater persecution then any little suffering of ours in the World Sir though I cannot sooth you as you do your felf by the mouth of your N. C. whose tongue you teach to speak lyes in your smooth words of deceit by telling you that too much of what you speak is true Yet I heartily wish there were more Charity on all sides but where you accuse us of waxing cold in Love and thence would inferre our accession to the present abounding iniquity I would first have you to read the text aright which runeth thus And because iniquity shall aboâ—nd the love of many shall wax cold which is a plain inversion of your causality 2. Admitting your ground to be good I seriously wish without vanity that the waxing cold in love both toward God and your Neighbour were not more your sin then ours then had we not been scorched into a blacknesse and consumed almost into ashes by these fiery trials kindled blown and kept into a flame by the Grandees of your way pourtrey them as you please whose heat speaks them to be set on fire against the Work People and Interests of God 3. To call the causes of our Differences matters which are doubtfull Disputations when both by Scripture Reason and Solemne Engagements and many sad experiences they are so fully determined is indeed to put false glosses upon things and to pretend to be a good Christian and to acclaime the charity and kindnesse of others in an avoued persistence in open Perjury Opposition to the Cause of God and persecution of his People is it not to wipe your mouth and say you have done no wickednesse But you say it is from the spirit of the Devil to fasten the brand of Apostasie upon the leaving of a partie and that to grow wiser is not to play the changling nor is a consciencious obedience to standing Laws time-serving Sir as I love neither to irritate nor prejudicate by hard words so I approve not either your or your N. C. tattles but if to leave God and not a Partie be Apostasie if to forsake the way and Truth of God be to play the changling and if to obey and conforme to mischief framed by a Law be time-serving I am sadly apprehensive that what you account to be but the Malice of the spirit of the Devil shall one day be found the Verdict of the Spirit of God Whether it be thus or not in our controverted differences let the things themselves and the issue of our discourse declare What you tell us of the primitive application of the word Apostasie is no restriction of its proper acceptation And for your other petty conceits in this place with your mock-complaint of the persecution of a just but disdained censure they are not of that moment to stop my procedour to that part of your conference which concerns Episcopacie This head you say falls asunder in two the one a general consideration of that Government the other supposing it were amisse how far it ought to be separated from And for the Government in place of all these weighty and unanswerable objections viz. the want of our Lords Warrant 2. Repugnancie to his and his Apostles Precepts and practice of restless labour simplicity equality humility and contempt of the world c. 3. Disconformity to the first and purer times of the Primitive Church 4. The pride avarice usurpation and cruelty to which it naturally tends and hath been depraved And lastly these evil and bitter fruits of profanity ignorance and superstition that it hath ever in its prevalencie produced which have been charged upon and made out against it by many of the Lords faithfull Witnesses you make your N. C. faintly and poorly to aledge I cannot think that Church-men should be called Lords and be great Persons that this is a desingenuous prevarication is obviously manifest Yet such is the weaknesse of your cause that the meanest argument you could put in your N. C. mouth is stronger then your answere wherein you tell us That this belongs not to the thing it self but is an addition of the Christian Magistrat But I must remember you first that Church-men and Ministers are not capable of every addition Civil offices and administrations are very lawfully bestowed by the Magistrat upon fit Recipients but as for Ministers they are not only an intolerable distraction many degrees above that charitable imployment which the Apostles could not bear but so inconsistent with the nature manner and end of their Ministrie that even our Lord while in this capacitie doth bruskly decline to be so much as an amicable trister And therefore to justify Bishops titles from this ground that they are extrinsick additions or from their civil place and voice in Parliament is no wayes concludent 2. Though this were not yet I am confident that who ever considers the received use and import of this title of Lord amongst us will find it an addition as full of fastuous vanity for Ministers as the title of Rabbi even admitting that its excess did lye another way therefore excepted against and prohibited by our Lord was unlawfull for the Apostles but 3. This title is not an addition flowing from the Christian Magistrat as you pretend but the very product of that pride and usurpation that at first exalted Prelacie which as as first it was assumed by the connivence of if not rather forced from the Civil Magistrat so now by the Bishops it is only derived from him in consequence of that Supremacie which both falsly against our Lord Jesus Christ and traiterously to the Pope in this respect their proper head they have for their own conveniencie transferred upon him But you add that we consider not that Sir and Lord Gentleman and Nobleman differ but in degree since therefore a Minister by Office â—hes the temporall â—onour of
and Covenant of Baptisme as to Infants so your appropriating the administration thereof to the Bishop objected by your N. C. in his next demand doth yet more discover its vanity and evill design To the arguments therefore which you bring for it and 1. to its Antiquity I answere that the simplicity and purity of the first Ages of the Church knew it not 2. As it s very first beginnings cannot be calculate beyond the times of the Churches declination so it is most certain that from an arbitrarie well-meaning institution it hath since been depraved to such an abuse as may sufficiently justify the total removal of its use 2. As for your Scripture probability from the laying on of hands so notourly known to have been then only used in the conferring of the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit or in the Ordination or Mission of Ministers neither it nor your alleaged assent of most Reformers do merite any answere Next you tell us in defence of Private Baptisme That for us to confine the Sacramental actions to the walls of a Church is gross Superstition But who would have thought when you clamour so much upon our Non-conforming Meetings you would have stumbled into such a mistake Our exception against Privat Baptisme is therefore not the want of a dedicated House as you do vainly alleage but because our Lord having by his commission annexed it to the preaching of the word whereof it is the seal and it being the Sacrament of our initiation into the Church its performance doth evidently appear to be most agreeable to the ordinary Church assemblies where-ever held beside that peoples mindes prone to superstition may by the practice of Private Baptisme be readily inclined both to apprehend the Popish absolute necessity of Baptisme and thence to regard the exterior action more then the spiritual signification and efficacie is confirmed by undeniable experience both in your and the Roman Churches For the inconveniency which you poorly exaggerate from the distance of many Churches the badness of seasons and tenderness of Infants as unto this day it was never made the ground of a reall complaint so you should understand that the dispensations of Gods Providence do not alter the dispositions of his holy will From Baptisme you pass to plead for the private administration of the Communion to Persons on death-bed and this you think the seasonablenes of its use and the propriety of its ends to such a case do abundantly perswade To which I answere 1. That though at no time Faith and Love need more to be quickened the Death of Christ more to be remembred nor communion with the Church to be declared then in the approach of the last pangs it will not thence follow that therefore the Communion may then be privatly administrat for since not the seasonableness of the fruits but the warrant and Rule given unto us is first to be heeded in the going about of holy administrations nay since that without this regard duely adhibit the blessing and fruits are but in vain expected it is evident that barely from the exigence of the fruits to conclude in any case the lawfulness of the celebration is preposterous Religion and worse Reason Now 2. That the rule set down to us in this Sacrament doth reprobate this your observance is evident not only from that connexion that there is and ought to be observed betwixt the word and Sacraments But 1. From our Lords own pattern in the institution keeping this solemnity with the company of his Disciples making as it were a little Christian Church 2. Because the Apostle in his regulation of this Sacrament according and with respect to his Masters pattern doth suppose the Churches coming together into one place and consequently the ordinary Church Assemblies as a necessary requisite in the free and peaceable times of the Church 3. Because the very Mysterie of the Lords Supper representing the union of Believers with and their communion in Iesus Christ their Head and the name that it hath thence obtained 1 Cor. 10. v. 16 17. is not well consistent with this private administration 'T is true the Authors of your Articles not being able to decline the convincing evidence of this reason do among other preparations require that there be three or four free of lawful impediments present with the sick person to communicate with him but as such a packt Conventicle beside other inconveniences hath no just resemblance of the Church her ordinary Assemblies much less can communicating with hand-weal'd companions be a signe of that free equable and comprehensive communion signified by this Sacrament so it is manifest that the forementioned requisite is only a colourable evasion manifestly acknowledging the force of our argument in fraudem Legis salvis verbis sententiam ejus circumveniens But 3. This your Private Communion is to be reprobate because as the decumbents faith love and other graces in that hour of his need are only best excited by the means at that time allowed and competent and the sanctified remembrance and improvement of other privileges and ordinances formerly enjoyed so it is certain that this observance hath not only been abused by the Papists unto the abomination of their private Maâ—â— but is also rejected by the Reformed Churches not Lutheran as found to be inductive of vain Superstition whereever it is used and for this I need not go farre in search of confirmations for you your self in telling us That your practice was very early in the Church subjoin that Iustin Martyr sayes they sent of the Eucharist to them that were absent and that the story of Serapion shews how necessary Christians then thought it to be guarded by this holy viaticum which two instances whether true or false being generally held to be an excess both inclining to and introductive of vain Superstition and therefore reckoned among the first Naevi appearing in the face of the Primitive Church and now generally disused by all the Churches of Christ as they are by you adduced do too evidently demonstrate how much both your spirit and customes do bend to a relapse in these evils In the next place your N. C. asks you What you say for Kneeling in receiving sure this looks like Superstition and Idolatrie And in return you confess that it is the Article of them all which you have least fondness for And this indeed is very fitly expressed in as much as it is evident it can be no rational or solid liking which inclineth you to any of them but since even your fondness as to this Article is defective how farre must you be from doing the thing in faith And how much more sound and Christian would it be for you here to subsist and say since for want of the warrant of Faith this Kneeling cannot possibly please God let it be removed from his Holy Ordinance But you proceed and tell us That since the kneelers do declare that they neither believe Christ to
thoughts they appear to be but extrinseck and of little moment so pray Sir whence did they proceed And what have they produced Certainly if either serious reflections upon all the Ages of Christianity especially upon these alterations that have happened amongst us since the Reformation or a just consideration of the present condition and state of affaires could have place as the pride and avarice of corrupt Church-men and consequently of the worst of men assisted since the rejection of the Pope with the same irreligious spirit and practices observed in former times of an aspiring Supremacie moving under the specious pretexts of order and peace will appear to be the only spring and cause so ignorance profanity violence and distraction will be found the woful fruits of these innovations But it is of the Lord for the punishment of our iniquities especially our not receiving and walking worthy of the glorious Gospel that judgement is farre from us neither doth justice overtake us we wait for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness We look for judgement but there is none for salvation but it is farre from us The Lord see to it and let his Arme bring salvation and his name be glorified As for the concluding complement of affection which you do here give your Non-conformist and make him to repay at our cost with the confession of his former unmeasured fury it is but too palpably the wantonnesse of your own extravagant fancie wherein to looke for more truth then you do shew constancie in your resolution to put a point to these matters controverted and never to resume them againe were great weaknesse You add in words Let us provoke therefore one another to charity and good works and yet we know your practice to be to press your trifling conformity and provoke the Powers against such as cannot comply We have indeed a blessed exercise for our tongues even with them to bless God the Father but since you do persist in your maligning the wayes work and people of God your mouth must and shall be stopt if the small endeavours by me used might make you minde the pursuance of truth more then the study of your so often repeated Temper my satisfaction would be little inferior to your advantage but seing both your words and works do shew that thou art neither cold nor hot but lukewarm I counsel the in the words of the great Counseller To be Zealous therefore and repent behold he standeth at the door and knocketh if any man hear his voice and open the door he will come in to him and sup with him and he with him To him that overcometh will he grant to sit with him in his throne even as he also overcame and is set down with his Father in his throne And thus passing your preposterous postscript and your Icarian Pindarick I proceed to your Continuation The Continuation OR The seventh DIALOGUE Answered SIR Beginning this your seventh Dialogue with your ordinary insinuations whereof the slender artifice obvious to the first view needeth no further discovery I only take notice that where your preface affirmeth that the true reason of your consenting to the publishing of the former Dialogues was That since yow had allayed a great deall of the heat you met with in your N. C. upon these matters you presumed it might produce the like good effect in others It is an alledgeance too serious to be groundless and beyond what the license of the fictitious form of your conferences will allow and therefore since any excess of heat that appeares in your N. C. is not ours but purely your own invention your pretense of having allayed it doth both bewray your vanity and shew this to be indeed the true cause of the publication As for the advantages yow reckon upon yow reckon before your Host reckon again and then boast of your Reason But you would also be accouâ—ted a Droll forsooth though you say you have only adhibite somwhat of that not out of humour but for sweetening the transitions according to the manner of all Dialogues certainly you Latitudinarians are all brave comprehensive spirits Masters of all good qualities whether you possesse them or not and yet I dare affirm that a pleasant humorist will laugh more at this passage of your conceitedness then all the drolries that hitherto you have vented But now begins your half-proselited N. C. and without connexion tells you that some charge you with Socinianisme others with Poprie others with Arminianisme and others with Quakerisme though as it seems to him upon very slender grounds Sir what may have moved you after what we have heard in your sixt Dialogue again in this place to resume these things to so small purpose I do not conceive You shew as if you were extremly picked by such reproaches and tell us that you know the arts of such who will tell their people that you are unsound and heteredox and back ther hard words with grave nods and ivry faces Poor man your passion is stirred and I am sorry to find you so impotent as again to relapse in such a childish reflection whereas to have used it once before was too much and unworthy of your gravity Buâ— sure who ever are your accusers who really to me are unknown they have too visible an advantage in this your weakness and if many men be not mistaken no less ground of retortion in your own scenical gesticulations and affected grimaces The thing I am concerned to notice is why being so sharp in your resentment are you so scant in your purgation You ask if they do understand things who charge him with Socinianisme who believeth that Christ is the eternal Son of God and hopes for salvation only through his blood And I grant that these things being truely understood and believed as I hope you do are indeed the truth opposite to the Socinian errors But seeing you know that some Socinians do also very easily admit and acknowledge the same form of words and that the cardinal point of this Controversie is whether or not Iesus Christ the Son of God be indeed essentially naturâ Deus according to that Scripture And we are in him that is true even in his Son Iesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life I wish you had chosen the same positive assertion for your vindication As for your clearing your self of Poprie in the matter of Justification because forsooth that you ascribe all we receive in this life and in that to come to the love and grace of God thorough Iesus Christ. It is so far from being a sufficient test of your orthodoxy that I am confident there is scarce one understanding Papist who would not say it were a calumny to charge them with the contrary Nay you your self in your sexth Dialogue do plainly say that they hold the foundation Jesus Christ and expressly wave their opinion of Justification in the enumeration of