which is the main end of all civil Goverment it cannot truly be supposed to be prejudicious to either the Piety Honour and Safety of that Nation to alter its establisht Lawes for the sake of those few which for Conscience meerly cannot conform in meer outward matters And so the case is here for as that People that are most truly tender of keeping the truth and peace which are the party that though they least deserve it yet suffer most alwayes and for the most part only under those Laws that are made to force the Conscience in case of Religion cannot be forced to do against their Faith and so with more Pitty Piety Prudence Peace Safety and Honour every way may be let alone to live a quiet Life under all civil Governments in all Godliness and Honesty the disturbing them under the pretence of their being Disturbers being the true Cause of most Disturbance in most Nations So the generallity of the ruder sort that make no such Conscience about Religion as the upright ones do can without scruple change their Worship if men will have them and as people did by the lump worship that Image which was set up on pain of ruine if they bowed not to it eccepting three that did dissent for whose sake they found good cause soon after to change the Edict can conform quietly to and fro without scruple or controul as they did in Edward's Maryes and Elizabeth's Dayes to what Forms of Worship shall be required of them and so a Toleration by Law to the rest at least that cannot cannot be so far from a Nations Piety Prudence Honour and Safety as this Bp. Imagines and cannot but be most tending to its Security for those Nations which weave the Spiders Webb which catches and hampers the small harmless Gnats and Flies while Hornets and venemous Creatures that have strong stings and great strength that know how to foot it thorow every form and suite their peace to every Profession crawl over them without being caught or tangled do draw down upon themselves that Vengeance from the Lord which he will as assuredly recompence on them in due time as ever he foretold it by his Prophet who said Isai. 59. 4 5 6 7 8. None calleth for Iustice nor any pleadeth for truth they trust in Vanity and speak Lies they conceive Mischief and bring forth Iniquity they hatch Cockatrice Eggs and weave the Spiders Webb He thâ—… eateth of their Eggs dieth and that which is crushed breaketh out into a Viper Their Webbs shall not become Garments neither shall they cover themselves with their Workes Their Works are Works of Iniquity and the Act of Violence is in their hands Their Feet run to evil and hey make hast to shed Innocent Blood their thoughts are the thoughts of iniquity wasting and destruction are in their pathes The way of peace they know not and there is no judgement in their goings they have made them crooked pathes whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Lastly Though indeed it is not consistent with the Piety Prudence Honour and Safety of the true Church to alter its Laws and Constitutions for the sake of such as are not of it because Christ himself is their Law-giver who hath not put it into her power to make her own Laws much lesse to impose her Laws under outward penalties with carnal weapons on the consciences of other people and by his Law allowes a latitude as to outward observations in whicih his Kingdom stands not to do as every one is by him perswaded and required in his own mind so be that he who observes or observes not dayes or outward things does and does it not unto the Lord neither need the â—…asse-Church change her Orders for the sakes of such as dissent from it and are not of it as the Quakers are not either of the Bishops or the Popes each of which if they please themselves shall not disprease us in their Acts and Orders for superfluous Ceremonies so be they let us alone with whom as being not of their Church they have nought to do de jure as with Members of it yet so far is it from being against the Piety Prudence Honour and Safety of any Nation or earthly Kingdom to repeal such Laws as they have made by their Priests Direction to bind men to conform to Religions contrary to their Consciences that if any happen to err aster that sort of Priests which do direct them and the Bishop without the Light which we call all men to and which he opposes is no more infallible but as fallible to the full as the Pope and Presbyter yea none of the three do so much as pretend to infallibility save the Pope then it 's neither Godly Prudent Honourable nor so much as safe for any Nation not to change its establisht Lawes for the sake of Dissenters from its Error sith in not changing them God himself is rebelled against in such a case whether those lawes be made for Swearing or against true Worship which are the two things only aimed at in the Act against the Quakers about one of which there 's the self same reason as about the other and in proof of this we have the authority of the Bishops own true Testimony to the one which is as true when given forth in a way of evidence to the other whose Words concerning Swearing which with the Bishops consent to it mans Law now commands pag. 23. are as followes If it do appear that all Swearing is absolutely by our Lord Christ forbidden to his Disciples God forbid we should not obey his Word and rather change the lawes of man than violate his Commands to whom we Christians owe the highest love loyalty and obedience but if it appear as say we it doth not by any thing said in the Bishops Book or any where else to religious reason that the words of Christ do not import an absolute forbidding of all Swearing we must not be so much slaves to the Letter as to leade Truth and Reason captive or to deprive our selves of that religious Liberty which is left us and so not only lawful for Christians to use but in some cases prudentially necessary as to the expediences of mens Iealousies Lives Liberties Estates and good Names even in private much more in the dispensations of Iustice to the publick Peace and general Satisfaction of whole Polities and Communities wherein men live sociably under Law and Government To which Words of the Bishops concerning Swearing mutatis mutandis we subjoyn concerning our meeting together to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth which with the Bishops consent thereunto mans Law now forbids viz. if it do appear that all meeting together in Christ's name of above five of his Disciples at one time to Worship him in Spirit and in Truth in any one place except in some such Churches or Chappels as are of mans and for the most part of the Popes Consecrating of old for
ever and is at this day a thousand fold more disturbed and that true Religion that was long since establisht by Christ himself and his Apostles upon the true Foundation which the Quakers stand on at this day more palpably affronted and Equity it self which is the End * of all Law subverted and so truly all right Iudiciall proceedings obstructed and even mans Laws as well as Gods more apparently disobeyed by hunting them up and down and haling them out of their own private houses as well as out of open meeting-places without Warrants into Prisons as the experience of those Hurli-burlies that are seen in this City at this day do evidently declare then ever they would have been or could possibly be if the Quakers were let alone to declare the Truth and to worship God in Spirit and Truth and to live a peaceable and quiet life as they would do under the King in all godliness and honesty Neither is it possible that the Quakers should be otherwise Opinioned or acted then they are or the Nation in Peace setled or your own if it were as truely as ye suppose it to be right Religion Established till these rigid inflictions have an end And to this the Bishop himself witnesseth in the very next words which are thus viz. in this particular Case of the Quakers who refuse all Legall Oathes upon scruples of Conscience no sober man can think by meer Penalties to reduce them to the Conformity with our Laws or to stop the spreading of their Opinions until it be plainly shewed and that say we still never will be unless more be done then ever yet hath been done by the Bishops Book in order to it that it is not true Religion but onely Sâ—…perstition in them a fear where no fear is a being Righteous over much a mistake of Christs meaning a wresting of Scripture by their own unlearnedness and unstableness to their own Dectruction as well as to the Publick parturbation Yea sad experience saith another Author hath clearly and plainly shewn us that forcing of Conscience and persecuting about Religion is not onely in vain but a direct contrary means and a cause of Sects and disturbances and of many evils as the Chronicles of Germany France and the Low Countrys do abundautly testifie The States of Holland also affirmed that it was not possible to find out means of any good and certain Peace otherwise then by Tollerating more Religions then one Some say indeed that People of different Opinions cannot live together in a Kingdom without continuall contention and therefore say they must that be prevented with Fire and Sword But what though there be Vertue and filthiness in a Kingdom good and bad men which are one contrary to the other one must not therefore saith a wise man to prevent it bring a whole Kingdom or Land into confusion by stirring up the People one against another Moreover it is evident that in Dutchland Poland and in the Low Countries more Religions then one are suffered and yet there are not continual uproars and Tumults as some imagine such Toleration would occasion in a Kingdom Therefore may we conclude that it is not the Tolleration of more Religons then one which produceth uproar in a Kingdom but rather the untowardness and perversness of them that seek to obstruct this Tolleration Moreover it was the saying of Calvin in his Iust If any one reprove or rebuke mens evils and teach any thing contrary to what they teach then they account that to be the cause of uproars when they themselves are the tumultuous and if they themselves did not stir up the mighty to shed blood there would never arise so many uproars among the People And it was Luthers mind also however both the Luthâ—…rans and Calvinists so called growing numerous and Potent have since Degenerated from the first professed Principles of those after whom they are respectively denominated that those who stirred up the Princes to persecute about Religion they still raised the uproars Neither is it such a means as Bishop Gauden accounts it to preserve the Religion Established from affronts by the Quakers for as for them they do not so affront it or endeavour to unsettle it but that it may stand long enough for them among such as can own it to be true if it can stand on its own legs without the Interposition of any Extrinsical or Foraneous force to uphold it but if like Dagon it fall of it self before the Ark of Gods Testament what reason is there to the contrary but that it should lie there as not the true one as Dagon did as no true God unless it can help it self up again by its own Intrinsical Power without the outward Heterogeneous assistance or help of men making Lawes and Penalties to impose it Furthermore how ineffectual utterly and of dangerous Consequence to any Nation the Practice of Violence and Persecution is is to be seen not onely by the Testimony of well nigh innumerable famous men of all Sorts and Capacities in their Several Generations whose unanimous perswasion in this particular is to be understood by their respective sayings comprized together in one Book Entituled The Testimony of a Cloud of Witnesses c. but also by sundry more of the Prudential sayings of King Charles the first besides those forecited out of his Book called EIKON BASILIKE as namely pag. 70. Nor is it so proper to hew out Religious Reformations by the Sword as to polish them by fair and equal disputations among those that are most concerned in the differences whom not force but reason ought to convince sure in matters of Religion those truthes gain most upon mens Iudgements which are least urged by secular Violence which weakens Truth with prejudices p. 115. It being an office not onely of Humanity rather to use reason then force but also of Christianity to seek Peace and ensue it pag. 92. In point of true Conscientiousness and Tenderness I have often declared how little I desire my Lawes and Scepter should intreâ—…ch on Gods Soveraignity which is the onely King of mens Consciences And pag. 123. Nor do I desire any man should be further subject unto me then all of us may be subject unto God Pag. 76. The enjoyning Oathes upon People must needs in things doubtful be dangerous as in things unlawful damnable And in pag. 105. In his advice to his Son Charles the second now Raigning My Counsell and charge to you is that you seriously consider the real and objected miscarriages which might occasion my trouble that you might avoid them beware of exasperating any Faction by the rashness and asperity of some mens passions humors and private opinions imployed by them grounded onely upon Religion where a Charitable Connâ—…vance and Christian Toleration often dissipates their strength where rougher opposition fortifies and puts the despised and oppressed party into such a combination as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they
outward Penalties to punish and Persecute the Saints who to themselves who are not of the Light and Day but Night and Darkness seem Sinners then they are Condemned in themselves as men not faithful trusty or honest to their yet Erring Consciences about those Lawes of men against Christs Disciples in the Execution of which they dinily Divine they do God service but if they do act according to their own thoughts whilst they think in their Conscience as Paul once did they do God good service when they kill his Servants then they can never flee from that Wrath which is to come upon all the ungodly and Children of Disobedience who are found Rebelling against the Light and revelling in the ruines of its Children which Wrath is no other then the Condemnation of Hell it self the Lake of Fire the due Portion of all the abominable ones which is the Second Death Rev. 21. Rev. 22. The best way to escape this Snare is for all men to take heed which must be by following the Light within of that Spirit of Truth it self which by degrees leadeth all that faithfully follow it into all Truth that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Iudgement of their Conscience be according to Truth first and then as B. G. sayes truly indeed to act accordingly for while men say they have fellowship with God and do him service yet walk in Darkness besides the Light of God in themselves in which God himself is manifesting his own minde more or less in each mans Conscience they lie and do not the Truth 1. Iohn 1. howbeit there is the most hopes of them that when in the same Zeal as Saul of old they Persecute the true Church of God do it yet ignorantly and in unbelief that all such as have now any hand in Persecuting and spoiling us who excepting that new-nick name of Quakers by reason of which we are not yet known so to be are in truth the self same Church and sort of Christians as were of old Persecuted by Saul and others and in Imprisoning and Impoverishing us through simple ignorance may obtain the same Mercy that Paul did is the hearty wish and true desire of our Souls who can say of such as Christ also did Father forgive them for they know not what they do and with Stephen while they were stoning him Lord lay not this their sin to their Charge But if there be any that believe we are the People of God and yet Persecute us out of meer malice against his Image which they hate having by long Custome and exercise of themselves in murderous and bloody wayes contracted so compleatly to themselves that Image of their Father the Devil who hath begotten them from God and Goodness to the doing of his own will who was a Murderer and a Lyar from the beginning so that now they cannot but contradict the known Truth and blaspheme against the Holy Spirit of it through what Vessel soever it utters it self the Sin of such being evidently unto Death we are not bid to pray for that it having forgiveness neither in this World nor in that to come yet we leave them to stand or fall to their own Master Having in part discovered the Pittifulness of some of those Pious and specious pretences of Pitty and Christian Charity to the Quakers which Bish Gauden makes and under which as under a Vizard he seeks to hide the severity of his Visage we shall proceed to unmask him further by some observation of some other Passages much what to the same purpose in both his Book and his Epistle Bish. He saith in his Epistle pag. 4. Thus the Cudgol Sword Prisons and Banishments Plundring and Sequestrations were the Late Cruel and Flagellant Methods of our most Tyrannous Times which had nothing of Reason Law or Religion to support them but these are not in my Iudgement either the first or the fittest means to Confute the falsities of mens Private Opinions or to rectifie the obliquities of their inconform but Innocent Actions flowing from them upon the account of Conscience and Plea of Religion Answ. By these words Bish. Gauden seems to give his Countrymen and fellow Christians to understand that as the Times are changed so in his Opinion ought to be also the Method of proceeding against the Quakers and other dissenters from themselves and that as we were dealt with then but very unjustly by the Cudgel Sword Prison Banishment Plundrings and Sequestrations proceeding from the Tyrannousness of those Times from men void of Reason Law and Religion so now it ought to be onely by good life and sound Doctrine from such as have true Reason Law and Religion intimating also that the Case is not so desperate as to need any such sharp inflictions seeing it is but to Confute the falsities of mens Private Opinions and to rectifie the obliquities of their inconform yet Innocent Actions unto which saith he there must be more tender and softer applications accounting it no less then even unreasonable and unchristian to follow the Example of Tyrants in such proceedings so that hereby one would think there were some good ground to judge that this Bishop and Father of the Church so called would prove a Tender Nursing Father indeed that did with no small disdain decline all kinds of Cruelty and Persecution yet notwithstanding behold how in the very next words he unsaith in effect all that again in this wise Viz. Bish. It may be as just as necessary to represse by Legal Coerciâ—…ns and Penalties those Petulant obstinacies which do resist all safter applications and endanger the Publick Tranquility by giving Affroâ—…ts to setled Religion or obstructions to the proceeding of Iustice by Established Lawes By which words he not onely gives us to discern as Ex pedâ—… Herculem ex unque Leonem what is his rigid resolution and harsh disposition towards tender Consciences notwithstanding his desire to be counted of a Contrary Complexion but also like an unskilful builder plueks down with one hand what he built up newly with the other for howbeit these words of his are not de sure applicable to us who are called Quakers we having never been found in any Petulant obstinacies nor resisted in any sence all softer applications nor ever yet endangered the Publick Tranquility by affronts yet the Bishop writing the said words with reference to them and falsely applying them de facto to the Quakers whom throughout his Book as well as here he seeds with a Bit and a Knock makes void as well to the Contradicting of himself as to the Interdicting of that Liberty he would â—…ain be believed to allow the Quakers what he himself had said immediatly before so ministreth to us just occasion of Iealousie that by those words of his viz. resist affronts obstructions c. he intends no other then our denyal of Obedience the Bishops meere minds and wills and bare non-submission to such Lawes of men as without wounding and
may labour in the Fire of their own fierce Wrath and Fury to hold up all their own Forms respectively yet weary themselves for very Vanity and to as little purpose as those who have that endless task in hand of striving to make a dead Carcass stand which howbeit it hath all the outward Proportion Shape Parts Limbs and Leggs of a Living man can never possibly stand longer than it 's held up on every side by some External Props or other because as one said deest aliquid intus there wants the main Wheel the master Piece of all viz. the Spring of that powerful Principle of the Life within Bish. But I confess saith he I would not have this Legal and avowed Religion of the Nation so Rigorous Sharpe and Severe as Sarah to Hagar by the suddain overawing or violent overlaying of all other different Perswasions in Peaceable men as not to let them breath in the same common air or not to enjoy their Lives civil Liberties and Estates with their dissenting Consciences in all modest Privacy and Safety I abhorr as much as I dread all Racks and Tortures of mens Souls or those cruel no less than curious Scrutinies of mens Consciences which covet first like God to search Mens hearts and then like the Devil delight to torment them in their Estates and Liberties only because they are not so wise as themselves but as honest perhaps and sincere in the sight of God Answ. Hence we may take notice of sundry things But first by the way whereas the Bishop stiles the avowed Religion of the Nation Legal how legal it is in one sense we matter not much for enquiring but we grant how little Evangellical soever it is it is Legal enough if not too much in another for it seems to us by the Pompe and Pay of its Priesthood who talk for Tithes and a number more of its Levitical Ceremonious Services to smell much more of the Law than of the Gospel Secondly It is very observable here that the Bishop would seem to be against not only the Killing but also the Banishing of Tender Consoientious Dissenters in that he saith he would have them have their lives and to breath also in the same common air and not only so but also against both the Fining and Imprisoning them for saith he I would have them have their civil Liberties and Estates Notwithstanding all which this Bishop with whom Confusion is as frequent as contradiction to himself intimateth page 2. how he gives his consent to the passing of that very Bill which inflicteth on them both Fines Imprisonments and Banishments from their native Country and so from breathing in the same common Air with other People But in very deed what kind of Liberty and Enjoyment it is that in his Pitty and Christian Charity to the Quakers he would have granted to them we have shewed somewhat of before though himself seeking of sweeten all his foure sayings and to sugar over all his bitter Pills with the fair Speeches of Love and Lenity is loath to speak it out plainly however it here very plainly appears either that this Bishop hath assent 〈◊〉 with all his heart to what he sayes he would not have but dissentâ—… from and desires the contrary to with all his heart or else that he heartily dissents for so he seems to do by his wishes here from that which he as heartily assented to when he passed his yea to the late Bill while it passed against us Utrum horum mavis accipe Thirdly Whether the Bishops wishings and wouldings here to have it otherwise be true or counterfeit yea or nay we shall not take upon us to determine but this we are well assured of that notwithstanding his express desires to the contrary there is executed at this day but it is from the Seed of Hagar towards the Seed of Sarah such a suddain overawing and violent overlaying of the different Perswasions from that more Legal than Evangelical yet avowed Religion of this Nation in those most peaceable men called Quakers as not to let them breath quietly in the same English common Air nor scatcely to enjoy their Lives without hazard of loosing them not onely by the Pistols and naked Swords of rude Souldiers from whom though Iohn the Bapist taught them to do violence to no man no less than Violenoe is acted but by the hands also of some called Iustices of the Peace who by Kicking and Smiting the Quakers with their own Feet and Fists break the Peace more then the Quakers who cannot strike and as much perhaps as the worst of men that are brought before them much less to enjoy their Civil Liberty and Estates Witness the present filling of the Prisons with them throughout this City of London in order to the Fining of them in their Estases and all this extempore without the praeuious use of any of those rational and religious courses to them or resistance on their parts of the softer Applications the Bishop seems so much to plead for unless by softer Applications he means summoning to their spiritual Courts spoiling of their Goods Imprisoning of their Persons under which also they have never yet resisted for if by softer Applications he intends any Gentle Christian addresses excepting his own invective Book which came out of due season to convince them of any Error he believes they hold of this sort they have received none as yet from the Bishops though Discourses have been as often desired by them and by others for them as it 's here once for all seriously again desired by themselves who are alwayes ready as well publickly as privately to render an account of what they believe and practise and to prostrate themselves at the feet of right Reason and true Religion Howbeit the guilt of that suddain overawing and violent overlaying aforesaid cannot be in any common ingenuity by us made immediately at least imputable to this Bishop or his Brethren who are supream more directive than corrective and for whom it 's enough to determine what is Truth and direct the civil Ministers of Iustice what is to be inflicted on such as err against it and too much to be the Executioners also of their own Conceptions and Appointments but we rather impure it to the Haaâ—…nitish humour of some few haughty Spirits in subordinate Power who while all prudent and patient Men look well before they leap having not that more expected then deserved homage of the Hat an Honour the denyal of which the King himself so express is his humility in that particular takes not so much notice of aâ—… some Sub-subs do from the Seed of the Iewes run on on a suddain with as great hast as little speed to the overawing of the Quakers who stand more in awe of God than in awe of them and to such a violent overlaying of the different Perswasions of those peaceable honest men as whereby they overcharge and overset themselves through eagerness so
is the World and the Civil States and several Nations thereof which howbeit the Bishop takes Nations for Churches by whole-sale here as if the words Church and Nation were Synonima's yet qua Nations are not Churches to grow together with the Wheat until the harvest or end of the World and that with this Caveat least men in the midst of their Busslings and busie minds mistaking should under a pretence of plucking up the Tares root out the Wheat it self also which what Kingdom or People soever doth Bishop Gaudens Counsel and Caveat to the contrary notwithstanding who sayes he is not for such a â—…ame permission of Tares to be among the Wheat least that good seed of Religion which is sown by the Publick Ministry by which he means no other then their own and fenced by Legal Authority should be â—…hoaked had better busie it self wholly about other and meer secular matters of wrong and wicked Lewdness which reason wills they should be Totally taken up with in the exercise of their Civil Power those being the things which not onely properly but indeed alone appertain to them to be exercised in or take Congnizance of For if the Wheat which are indeed those true worshippers only who worship the Father of Spirits who is a Spirit and seeketh such onely to worship him in Spirit and in Truth in reference unto whom all other outside worshippers are as nothing for what is the Chaff to the wheat saith the Lord and which onely must go into the garner when all chaffy Formalists must in this day wherein the Lord is sifting out the house of Israel from among the Nations or several Sorts of Professions as Corn is sifted in a Sieve fall to the ground be driven away with the Wind and burnt up with the unquenchable Fire of that great day of the Lord which now burns as a Oven against all Flesh and fleshly Christianities if we say the foresaid true worshippers be of God then they cannot be withstood in a way of Safety to it self by any Nation Sith to withstandâ—… them is not onely to resist that People which are the Chariots and Horsmen thereof but also to be found fighters against God himself against whom and his People it is as impossible finally to prevail as it was for Egypt to prevail against Israel which when God arose to Redeem them from their bondage increased upon them so much the more by how much the more they were opressed and intended to be for ever suppressed by them God himself taking part with his own chosen against the other who hath said he will give Kingdoms for their ransome and Nations for their Life rather then his own Seed shall go unredeemed We say that this were the way to setle all in Peace to change all setled Lawes that are for Persecution into a Law for the Tolleration of all Religions much more of that one which though it be struck at both by and before all the rest will be found at last to be the onely true one which yet must unavoidably suffer Violence in some place or other while that Principle of Persecution hath place in Peoples hearts for as all Nations are not of one and the same but of many respectively so all men are not of one and the same Religion in any one Nation whereupon in case it happen that any Nation by Law Establish that Religion which is not Truth that Nation suppressing by outward Violence all Religions besides its own whether that be Heathenish Turkish Iewish Popish Prelatical Presby erian or any other must necessarily ex officio in point of duty Persecute and tread down the Truth it self for if the Civil Magistracy as such ought de jure to root out all Religions but that which it judges to be Righteous and convenient then even those that are heathen Magistrates who would be no more as to that capacity of Magistrates then now they are if they should turn Christians must root out quoad posse all that 's Christian and every Magistrate being a Magistrate as well as any one the notion of Christian adding nothing to mens Power as Civil Governors according to that rule of quatenus ipsum which includes de omni what ever belongs to any thing as so belongs also to every thing that is so not onely those Nations which happen to be of the true Religion must Persecute all those that are found in false ones but each Nation that is found in any false Religion must seek the utter ruine not only of all the rest but even of those also which are Established in the Truth But this is the way which the Bishop in no wise approves of for any Nation or at least for this to renounce the unsound Principle of forcing under Penalties all Dissenters to conformity in Religion unto it self because saith he it is not consistent with the Piety Prudence Honour or Safety of a Nation and Church when it judgeth its Constitutions to be Religious Righteous and Convenient But what a contrary conclusion is this not only to all Scripture Reason as is shewed above but also to all common Experience in this our Nation in which it hath been seen in the dayes both of Edward the sixth Elizabeth and Iames his times neither can it be denyed by the Bishops themselves unless they will deny themselves to be conscientious Dissenters from that Popery which stood here of old how much it was for the piety prudence honour and Safety of the Nation which did before generally judge those Popish constitutions it was then establisht in to be Religious Righteous and Convenient and yet upon further and more mature deliberation saw good ground for the sake of that small yet more enlightned Protestant Party that dissented to change the then and long before establisht Lawes concerning their Mass and many other matters as the Statutes themselves declare at large The Bishop therefore by this reasonless Reason both condemns that course of all the Protestant Princes of England that changed the Popish Laws before establisht for the sake of tender Protestant Dissenters as not savouring of piety prudence nor yet either safe honourable or convenient for the Nation but also secondly justifies the Pope himself and all Popish Princes in Persecuting such Protestants against him as are found within these Precincts and Dominions and in not changing their establisht Laws against the Truth for their sakes sith as the Bishops judge the English Constitutions so to be whereby they stand So other Nations judge their own Constitutions to be Religious Righteous and Convenient and thirdly makes a fence against the spreading of all sorts of Protestanism not that only which is so at large but of that which is Christianity so truly called Moreover where ever the alteration of any suppressive Lawes for the sake of a few Dissenters tends to the encrease of Love and Amity Peace and Unity which is a better thing than Uniformity in a Nation the preservation of
count their Persecutors And p. 164. Your Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in remitting rather then exacting the rigor of the Lawes there being nothing worse then Legal Tyranny But we need not go so far abroad to fetch in Testimonies of others to the truth of this seeing we have the Bishops own Testimony herein siding with us neerer home whose words in that 7. 8. pages of his Epistle are these In point of State Policy or Methods of true Government I do conceive that meer Plagiary Counsels and Punitive courses are never likely to obtain the main end which is to stop the contagion of Errors and to extirpate those depraved opinions which are justly thought to be the spawn of dangerous Actions for unless the generality of credulous people who are Spectators of those that differ and suffer for their Opinions and Consciences do also see so much Light of Reason and clâ—…er Religion as may justifie the severity of the Lawes Executed upon those offenders who profess Conscience for their disobedience and Scripture for their Consciences it is most certain that the Spectators of their sufferings will very much soften to a compassion for them and by Sympathizing with their persons in affliction they will by degrees Symbolize with their Opinions easily runing as metal that is melted into the fame mould At length the Popuâ—…acy if not fortified by Pregnant Demonstrations of Truth against those spreading Errors and their Pseudo-Martyrs will mightily cry up their Piety admire their courage and magnifie their constancy At last they will conclude those sufferers to have some special support or Diviner Spirit above ordinary men because they seem to be so much above the ordinary passions of fear and hope self-love and preservation which prospect of Patience Justine Martyr tells us was the first occasion of his examining the Doctrine of Christians that he might see on what ground so fixed a constancy grew which shewed a Divine security midst humane infirmity By such popular pitty and applause not onely sufferers will be confirmed in their pertinacy but their Spectators also will dayly increase and multiply as the shoot's of Trees do by the lopping of their Branches especially iâ—… the lives and actions of such dissenters and sufferers be morrally just and civilly honest And pag. 9. where harmlesness of life sets a gloss on Opinions and Errours thereby grow more lusty and rank there meer robust Power or punitive severity can no more pull them up then a strong arm doth Thorns and Bushes when they are deeply rooted breaking of the stemme or top of them but leaving the roots still in the ground which will spring again and spread farther All this the Bishop writes in pursuit of the proof of that truth we affirm in justification of the above said Indulgence and Tolleration and in condemnation of the rashness of them who hastily run into Rigor Severity and Persecution as such as make more hast then good speed to the end they aim at and are more mischievous and Injurious then successful to themselves in their own undertakings Only with this difference from us which we may not passe by without some notice viz. that whereas we look upon such conscientious dissenters as are morally Righteous civilly innocent and of harmless lives and are also sufferers meerly for their Consciences under what dark Form soever because for want of conviction only they cannot conform to another Form that is false and darker as true Martyrs whether Papists suffering for not turning Turks and Iewes or Protestants not turning Papists as in the Marian dayes those that owned not the real presence or any People more reformed in matter of Form for non-conformityâ—…o â—…o those that remain behind more Superstitious unreformed The Bp. mean while looks on all such kind of suffering dissenters though never so morally honest just civilly innocent and harmlesâ—… in their lives as contagious dangerous disobedient offenders spreaders of Errors and Pseudo-Martyrs In confutation of which Episcopal Error and mistake in that particular we need go no further than this self same Section of the Bishops sayings in which he is found confounding himself while he sayes that same prospect of Patience which is found among meer modern Sufferers and is at this day and thereby many like Lyons are become as Lambs to them seen among the Quakers of all others whom yet with others the Bishop seems to conclude as disobedient Offenders Spreaders of Errors and Pseudo-Martyrs was seen among the Primitive Christians and was the first occasion of Iust. Mart. examining the Christian Doctrin that he might see on what ground so fixed a constancy grew and which shewed a Divine Security midst of humane Infirmity For if it be the same Patience Piety Courage and Constancy as was in the primitive Christians that now appears in the Quakers by which they are kept above the ordinary passions of Fear Self-Love and Preservation as himself saith it was then Bishop Gauden must either prove that all those vertues in those Christians by which Iust. Mart. as by the occasion of it was convinced was no true ground whereupon to conclude them to be true Christians but that all those things notwithstanding they might be Erroneous Contagious Dangerous Depraved Disobedient Offenders Spreaders of Errors and Pseudo-Martyrs or else upon the same groâ—…nd and Prospect of their Patient Sufferings must he conclude and acknowledge that the Quakers are proved to be true Christians and neither contagious nor dangerous â—…or deproved in their oppinions or actions nor Offenders nor Spreaders of errors nor Pseudo-martyrs And in prosecution of the proof of the point afore spoken to viz. how not only ineffectual but also dangerous and disturbing it is to Nations to Persecute and not tolerate Dissenters from the Religion establisht The Bishop saith moreover in the 13th page of his Epistle thus I am not for heavy Mulcts and rigorous Eâ—…actions which shall Imprison Banish Impoverish or Destroy modest Dissenters and their Families onely for the variety of their Iudgment when their Civil Actions are otherwise moral just and inoffensive this Severity would in some Countries and possibly now in England be not only destructive to many thousands but very disadvantagious to the King and Kingdom to the Trade and commerce of the Nation by opening a little Wicket of Royal Clemency only to some and shuting the Great Gate to many whose tender and unsatisfied or Scrupulous Consciences do as much need and deserve it as those that have it in petty matters while all other Scruples are driven to discontent and dispair by denyal of all indulgence to them in greater Scruples Thus far the Bishop goes along hand in hand with the Quakers in his pleas for Liberty of scrupulous Consciences impleading tooth and nail the Principle of Non-toleration and Persecution as if he were most earnestly desirous to impede the parctice of it from the consideration of its dangerousness to the King and Kingdom as well as its
succeslesness to its own end and likeliness much rather to encrease and support then either to diminish or suppress the modest dissenters from the establisht Religion and to gender to tumultuousness and commotions yea he even fears destruction if they be not let alone and others also and if there be not only the opening of a little Wicket of Clemency to indulge some but of the great Gate also to let in many other dissenting Parties into a participation of the same Indulgence and Toleration Yet behold by and by again as if he were Magor-Misabib Fear round about and a kind of Terror to himself and one that between two wat 's not well which is best and most desireable he seems to side with another sort against the Quakers even with those Some men as he calls them whereof no doubt himself is one that fear the toleration of the Quakers whom he seems elsewhere to recommend as the modestest among the Dissenters may be unsafe and so insinuates somewhat â—…taeitly towards the exasperation again of the Powers against them as followeth Bish. Some men I find look upon these Quakers with an eye of publick fear and jealousie least the leaven of their Opinions and Practises spreading far among the meaner sort of People to whose humour that Rude and Confident way is very agreeable while in a moment all their defects of Reason Learning Education Religion Loyalty Civility are made up by a presumed Spirit and Light within them should after the manner of other Sects both later and elder give occasion and confidence to common People to run to Tumults and Commotions under prâ—…tence of setting up God and Christ and the Spirit by way of new Powers new Lights and new Models in Church and State of which rare Fancies we have had of late so many Tragical Experiments in England under other names Notions and Pretensions Certainly it will become the publick care and Wisdom as not easily to permit the rise and spreading of any novel humours and wayes contrary to the good constitutions and well tryed Laws of this Church and Kingdom so never to trust them though never so soft and seemingly innocent at the first And pag. 6. speaking of the Quakers as a people that may be pittied as wrapped up in a kind of Clownish Garb and Ignorant Plainnessâ—…y but not trusted I should forfeit my prudence saith he much to trust their hands c. Answ. Some men are more afraid then hurt in some Cases whilst they are more hurt than they are either afraid or well aware of in some others and so is the Bishop here and those some men he speaks of who look upon the Quakers with his that is with an evil and jealous Eye And this as was said before is that dangerous Dilemma and Snare of the Devil which the Children of Darkness fall into who hate the Light He who is the Light of the World and the Door of Salvation to the Sons of men hath set before his People within their own hearts where his Light shineth an open Door whereby to enter into his heavenly Kingdom which Door no man can shut against them which Light no man can blow out though many seek to do it any more than he can forbid the Sun from Rising and shining forth in its Season Nay it seems so dangerous and destructive to some men as to their at least Ecclesiastical Intrests to attempt it that they are afraid on the one hand to be found too forward to shut that door or suppress the shining of that Light which opens and makes manifest the Dens and Deeds of Darkness whereupon they some times plead at least seemingly an allowance of it And yet on the other hand if they let it alone to shine forth to open and display it self without seeking to put a slop to it and Ecclipse it then they see the day dawns out which darkens the Glory of their life-less Forms and invented Worships and that morning appearing which to the Adulterer that 's gone a Whoring from God's Counsel and Christ's own Commands into mans vain Institutions and Traditions is as the Shadow of Death in which they cannot walk without dread and terrour at they scarce know well what themselves in which they are surprized with many dangerless Fears as well as with many fearless Dangers What Tragical Experiments have been of late from the Fancies of other men in England under other Names Notions and Pretensions we have as nothing to do with as we were as little accessary to them as the Bishop himself who would if not father yet fain fasten some of the fault of them on the Quakers Some men lookt upon Christ himself and his Apostles with an eye of publick fear and jealousie least the Leaven of their Opinions and Practices spreading far among the meaner sort of people who were they that commonly received Truth when High Priests Scribes and Pharisees mostly rejected it should after the pattern of other Sects as Theudas and Iudas of Gallilee occasion Tumults and Commotions under pretence of setting up God Christ the Spirit c. And on such an account as this when Christ's Birth was enquired after by Wise Men from the East that came to enquire after him Herod himself was troubled and all Ierusalem with him and when Christ came into Ierusalem all the City was in an uproar and so was it at the Preachings of Peter Iohn Stephen c. and also the Cities of Corinth Ephesus and others at Pauls Preaching the Gospel of Peace which never caused but ever occasioned and was ever accompanied with the tumultuousness of Rude people that attended it but what then Was Christ therefore not the Christ his Gospel no Gospel of Peace because tumults as Paul speaks 2 Cor. 6. attended the Ministers of it Was the Truth ever the less the Truth or ever the less to be testified to because its Testimony troubled the deceitful and truthless Nations if so how had Truth been propagated downward through all times of turbulent Oppositions against it to this day And were they therefore ever the more excusable who with threatnings charged Christs Ministers to Preach no more in the Name of Iesus And had Christ's Ministers done well had they as they did the contrary forborn it and obeyed man forbiding rather than God commanding them to Preach yet more in that Name And did they do well who took crafty Counsel to suppress them and their Meetings by Pains and Penalties or those rather who counselled as Gamaliel did Acts 4. to let them alone lest haply they should be found fighters against God and would not meddle with them at their Iudgements Seats as Gallio the Governour of Achaia would not Acts 18. Seeing no matter of wrong or wicked lewdness was charged upon them but only matters about Religion and Gods Law which he confessed himself to be no competent Iudge of we appeal to God and all sober minded Christians to Judge between the Bishop and our selves
do not doubt of the lawfulness of swearing lawfully among the Jews not only as permitted but commanded but Quid hoc ad Rhombum we have this at least to say which all men have not against himself and alâ—… those that are impositive of Oaths upon them which himself says the primitive Christians and Disciples of had viz. Christiani sumus We are Christians to the silencing of them from exaction and himself without any more adoe from further troubling himself toward their conviction for the Question is not concerning the use legulity or necessity of Oaths to end strife among inâ—…urious contentious people that love and yet live in strife and other works of the flesh and so not under the teachings and power of that Gospel of the grace of God that leads out of strife and all other ungodliness and worldly lusts but under the power of that evil spirit in them that lusts to envy strife hatred variance deceit and every other evill and so under the law which hath dominion over a man so long as the old man with his deeds liveth in him and he lies yet in his trespasses and sins how far forth Iudicial swearing may be of a legal necessary use among evil unconscionable men that make no conscience of any thing swallow every thing and strein at nothing to tye them to speak the truth is not our business to contest with any about we are willing to let that alone to men nor need we dispute against the thing if we be against it since the Bishop to the confuting of himself who pleads for it says thus much against it to the invalidating his own plea for at least that asserted necessity of it viz. That no more credit can be given then to a Lyar to a Prophane purson that fears not God though he swear never so solemnly in judicial proceedings which if so then what use need or necessity there is of those mens Oaeths in judicial proceedings whose most solemn swearing even there is of no credit and nothing worth we see not nor any else whose eyes are open let the Bishop seem to himself to see what he pleases Yet for quietness sake to avoid all jangling about jurations so be they let us alone to live peaceably out of strife in truth it self and so beyond that so necessary medium as they count it of Oaths and from whom men need no more when we are called to give our witness then the very veracity of our bare words since Christiani sumus we can freely leave them to swear and exact and take Oaths as much as they will who can't believe one another out of a mutual jealousie that they are all lyars and yet can give credit one to another no more than to a lyar neither though swearing never so solemnly in Iudicial proceedings An Oath being as the Bish. urges out of Heb. 6. among not Saints not Christians but among men a means to end strife whether they judge one another worthy to be believ'd by each other when they swear yea or nay that 's little to us let those men who are in strife make use of Oaths to end them if they will or can we should be glad to see all men to agree and to live in peace as 't is our desire to do with all and in that love that works no ill to the Neighbour but believes all things and bears all things and so carries beyond Strife and Oaths also But if they cannot they may swear on for us in Courts and Iudicatures as they ought not to exact swearing of us so we should not were it in our power force them to a forbearance of it in Courts in order to end their strifes against their though yet clouded and erring Consciences Nay rather how best we own Oaths to be of no other than of a Iewish and Legal and not of any immediate Christian or Evangelical consideration yet as to the whole world which lyes in wickedness and stands though under some form or other of Religion still in strife under the dominion of sin and not of Grace as the Iews did they may stand if they will for us as they did under those legal institutions which were added because of their transgressions and in order to end their strifes for if the Law in any of the Ordinances of it be yet remaining in any force power or dominion it is among those that are not yet come out of sin and deceit to that everlasting righteousness and truth of the Gospel which Christ who puts an end to sin brings in among his Disciples who seek his Kingdom and the Righteousness of it but not among the Saints that obtain by participation of Christ's power Spirit and righteousness to a dominion over sin and so over the Law for where sin hath not dominion over men as it had before there men are no more under the law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. such over whom the Law had dominion while they lived and were in the flesh and under the prevalent workings of the motions of sin in their members to bring forth the evil fruits of strife variance c. unto death and bondage are then delivered from the Law being deatd to that in which they were once held they bring forth fruits of the Spirit unto God love peace meckness without envy hatrâ—…d strife and serve in the â—…wness of the Spirit and not in that legal oldness of the Letter Rom. 7. wherein those walk who notwithstanding all their profession of Religion and Christianity in words yet bite and devour one another till at last they be consumed one of another with their lying deceit bitter envying and strife for all their Oaths yea Gal. 5. 18. 23. if men be led of the Spirit they are not under the law and those that bring forth the fruits of the Spirit against such there is no law So though the Law is good if men could tell how to use it lawfully yet we know as Paul did 1. Tim. 1. 8 9 10. that the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and prophaue for murderers of fathers and mothers men-slayers whoremongers them that defile themselves for men-stealers for lyars for persured persons and any other thing that is contrary to the sound Doctrine of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God which is witnessed among the Quakers to be the power of God to the salvation of them from those unrighteousnesses for whom therefore neither the Law nor the curbs and cures provided in it as remedies against mens diseases 〈◊〉 justly applicable or to be imposed But now the Bish. beats all besides the Iron upon the Anvil disputes besides the Question and makes it his main drift to prove the necessary use of Oaths either among the Iews among whom the Quakers deny it not to have been lawful to which purpose he troubles himself to no purpose because without need
carry the Cause and brings no more out of the New Testament not because he was not capable to have found them had they been there but because they were not there to be found no more in demonstration of the lawful use of Oaths among Christians in judicial proceedings but the fore-nam'd places that speak of Christ's saying Verily verily and of Panl's charging protesting and calling God to witness which we have o're and o're and o're again being anew put to it prov'd to be no oaths nor adjuarations and the Angels swearing Rev. 10. whose example the Bishop says indeed p. 39. justifies the lawfulness of some swearing which we have shewed also if it could be to any men yet could not be to us any President who are under the Gospel of the Son that is greater then the Angels by the dispensation of whom the Law for Oaths Tithes and many other legal Rites and Rud ments was given which Son also all the Angels of God are bid to worship And lastly that of Heb. 6. where the Apostle speaking of an Oath among men not medling there to shew de jure that it should be so among Saints who as concerning strife the occasion of swearing and consequentially concerning swearing should not walk as men 1 Cor. 2. 1 2 3. says de facto only that it is an end of strife not heeding that when men once in strife come once into Christ and to be in him new Creatures Christians and to walk no more as carnal nor as men but as spiritual and as true saints and Christians they come both out of strife and out of swearing And as for those two Texts Mat. 5. Iam. 5. to which the Bish. sayes he would alledge other Texts that should give light he might as well have said he would light a Candle to see the Sun by for they of themselves give such clear undeniable evidence to the Truth that 's maintained by us and against the lawfulness of swearing among Christians that as the bright shining of the Sun gives light to all the Stars and causes them to shine out and be seen in their proper lustre so these two to all other Texts in the New-Testament which may be truly said from these as from two Cardinal and Capital ones to borrow all that evidence they have whether one way or other as to this point And the Bish is so far from darkening the Testimony against all swearing which in answer to others we have already held sorth therefrom that save that p. 7. he passes in gross a gross censure upon our writingâ—… private or publick as savouring of much silliness never well catechised ignorance and folly one would think he had never so much as seen any such matter as any publick appearances of ours in that Cause as from these two Scriptures insomuch that as the Bish. makes such quick dispatch in in his business that for hast he hath well-nigh left it all behind him So we might without much prejudice to the Cause in controversie among some wise men referring him to what 's written take as little notice of that little or nothing which is done by the Bish. in disproof thereof as he seems to take of our proofs from thence about the unlawfulness of swearing Nevertheless because some are apt to judge that nothing can be said if nothing be said Something and no more than needs may be said to what notions the Bishop offers in proof of his conjectures and conceptions why Christ and his Apostles words Matth. 5. Iam. 5. are not intended as an absolute universal prohibition of all swearing and so draw on to our Conclusion 1. At preparative to the delivery of his sence upon the places the Bishop who makes a long Harvest of a little Corn before he comes plainly and positively to speak out his mind in the Negative as in opposition to us as he does briefly in p. 35. spends about or above thirty pages in Preambles long popular passages and plausible pretences of sundry prudentials as he calls them p. 13. that we must observe in searching the mind and taking the true meaning of the Scripture many things in some Scriptures being expressed darkly metaphorically figuratively parabolically comparatively by way of allusions in metonymies synechdoches Ironies hyperbolies extraordinary commands in universalities which are limited to the subject intended c. Lest erronious minds like glasses of refraction or false mediums pervert them from the simplicity to their own destruction as St. Peter speaks it being endless saith he to enumerate those places of Scripture which have something or other in their meaning and design more than the Letter seems to hold forth in the bare words of it Which swelling sayings of the Bish. may have a shew of Wisdom among an implicit-faith't people but alas â—…ll that sound is but like a cask full of emptiness with the great noise whereof many that are ever learning never knowing Truth may be sâ—…un'd from more than establish't in the Truth neither hath it more plenty of words than little pertinency of matter to the purpose for if it should be so as the Bish. says it is that innumerable Scriptures should speak one thing and mean another which yet is little less than to make the Spirit in the Penman who used all plainnesse of speech like to such deceivers and seducers as those unlearned and unstable ones which unlearned Peter speaks of that with the abundance of their Ambages and circumlocutions lead people about to the losing of them from the simplicity of Truth in the Wilderness of their own Wisdom must those Texts therefore be a mockery of men and needs mean some other thing than they express And what if some Texts have so must therefore these two have in them dark sayings metaphors figures parables comparisons allusions metonymies synechdoches hyperbolies extaordinary commands limited universalities c. Which both are so plain that he must be either noâ—… able or not willing to see the Sun when it shines in his face that feeâ—… any such thing in them Though then the Bish. to the amazing of their minds leads men about in a Wood of Wonderments for so many leaves together that had his Discourse been a Sermon preach't on either of those Verses by word of mouth and stinted by a Glass it would have run out before he had come at his Text yet taking the counsel of him who said Ne immittas pecus tuuns in pratum ubi noâ—… est sepes passing by the boundless preambulations and superfluity of superstitious fears of this and that danger of perverting them to our destruction we shall come to the Texts which have enough in them to clear themselves and Christ's meaning in them without such a deal of do as we see Divines make about Christ's Doctrine which hath not so much difficulty in it but that his Disciples who learn of him and are willing to be led by him in a cross to their own wills into the