BEAVFRONS OR A New-DISCOVERY of TREASON UNDER The FAIR-FACE and MASK OF RELIGION AND OF LIBERTY of CONSCIENCE In an ANSWER to the Protestant Reconciler In which is PROVED That the Protestant-Reconciler Encouraged the New Discovered Plot by his giving out unto the People That the King and Governours were and are the Betrayers of their Liberties And therefore Deserve Death By One of HIS MAJESTIE' 's Chaplains LONDON Printed for Charles Morden Bookseller in Cambridge MDCLXXXIII REVERENDO Admodum in Christo Patri Doctissimóque Antistiti ac DOMINO D. SETHO EPISCOPO SARISBVRIENSI Nec-non NOBILISSIMI ORDINIS à Periscelide Dicti Cancellario Tractatum Hunc In Summae Observantiae Symbolum Humillimè Dicat Dedicátque Ecclesiae verè Anglicanae Filius Observantissimus TO THE READER COURTEOUS SIR IT is humbly conceived that this TREATISE small in its Bulk but great in its Weight will be Acceptable unto all who Love their King and Church Because it so Seasonably Discovers the Plots and Designs of the Enemies to Both. And although the Authour was fully Satisfied That the Dissenters Principles were Treasonable and inconsistent with the Safety of our English Monarchy and of our Churches Welfare Yet he little thought They would so soon have given the World a Proof thereof as they have done in their NEW PLOT against the King's Most Sacred Person and against His Royal Highness the Duke of York which by Divine Providence is so happily discovered and we hope Totally Prevented Stephen Colledge's and their Treason detected fully Answers the Reconciler and proves sufficiently That no Condescention can safely be Granted unto the Dissenting Brethren untill they have openly Renounced their Traiterous Principles and have given some Better Signs of their Loyalty For as this TREATISE Foretold so now their New Treason Discovered has proved it to be a Truth that they are and will be as Dangerous if not more than the Papists And this Plot together with the Popish Plot does clearly evidence farther this Truth also That our King and Governours have no true Friends to trust unto but onely the True Episcopal-Church-Men of England For the Principles of all other Parties lead them into Faction and Rebellion from which Good Lord Deliver Vs July 2d 1683. THE Contents CHAP. I. THE True Notion of a Protestant p. 1. CHAP. II. The Presbyterians no Protestants p. 8. CHAP. III. The Independents no Protestants p. 17. CHAP. IV. The Ànabaptists no Protestants p. 29. CHAP. V. The Quakers no Protestants p. 36. CHAP. VI. The Reconciler's Design as pretended proved to be Impossible p. 40. CHAP. VII The Reconciler's Design proved to be as Managed Malitious and Treasonable towards the King and Governours both of Church and State p. 60. SECT I. The Reconciler gives out to the People That our King and Governours are the Authours of our Present Schisms and Factions p. 61. SECT II. According to the Reconciler Our King and Governours are Proud Men and The Plagues of the Earth For Imposing things Indifferent p. 67. SECT III. According to the Reconciler Our King and Governours Deserve Death For Imposing on the People things Indifferent p. 68. SECT IV. The King and Governours according to the Reconciler are Traytours to the Common-wealth and Betrayers of the Peoples Liberties for Imposing upon them things Indifferent And that therefore the People ought not to yield to their Impositions But ought to Rebell and vindicate their Christian Liberty p. 70. SECT V. The Reconciler scandalously affirms That the King and Governours want Piety and Prudence And that therefore it is they Impose upon the People Things Indifferent p. 74. SECT VI. According to the Reconciler The King and Governours are the Destroyers of the Work of God and are the Murtherers of Myriads of Souls for Imposing things Indifferent p. 77. SECT VII According to the Reconciler The King Commands Men to Sin when he Commands their Obedience as to things Indifferent p. 79. SECT VIII The Reconciler's Rule for the King and Governours to observe in case any Evil Consequents should happen through the Dissenters Disobedience after a Condescention granted to them to wit To leave the Event to God p. 81. CHAP. VIII The Reconciler's Proposition to wit That considering the Circumstances our Church and State at present are in Things Indifferent ought not to be Imposed by the Legislators as Conditions of church-Church-Communion This Proposition if taken absolutely and simply in it self is proved to be false p. 84. Secondly It is proved to be false and unseasonably Propounded if taken Relatively in Reference to the Circumstances our Church and State are in at present p. 96. CHAP. I. The true Notion of a PROTESTANT NEver was the Christian World more abus'd with any Word under the Pretence of Religion than with this of Protestant And especially in this Our Factious and Disloyal Age and Country In which this Word has been and still is made odious and a very Covert for all Religious-Male-Contents in Church and State For All Parties and Sects that would not be deemed Papists have Christened and Styled themselves Protestants Although they have been and still are the most erroneous vitious and dissolute Persons in the World both as to Principles and Practices And for as much as a Late Authour Entitles himself and his Book THE PROTESTANT RECONCILER But has not told his Reader Who are the Persons he understands by Protestants We therefore entreat the said Reconciler to inform the World What he means by A Protestant For if by Protestants the Reconciler understands All those men who disown and Protest against the Name of Papist Then in truth the Turks and Jews may as deservedly be called Protestants But if he says that by Protestants he means All Christians who Renounce Popery Then he would doe well 1. To define what is Popery 2. To let us know who are the Persons that renounce Popery so defined For by Popery the Church of Rome means the Pope's Supremacy and whoever denies that is no Papist at Rome Let his other Opinions be never so Canonical And by Protestantism the Church of England understands the Pious Doctrine of the King's Supremacy in Opposition unto that of the Pope's And whoever denyes the King's Supremacy is no Protestant in England Let his other Tenets be never so Orthodox Wherefore Once again We request the Reconciler not to amuse the World with any Bug-Bear Words But in plain English to Unridle Who and What are the Persons he discriminates from all others by the Specious Title of Protestants For if the Reconciler be a genuine Son of the Church of England as now established which we very much doubt He cannot but know That our Church and State own and acknowledge None to be Protestants in England but onely such who in their Consciences and Principles allow of and Protest for The King's Supremacy And by the King's Supremacy we mean Full. Ch. Hist l. 9. p. 53. A Power in the King given to him by Almighty God to Restore Religion when
to serve God after their own Desire And pray What Kingdom is there in the Christian World where by Law Greater Moderation and Clemency is shown than this These are some of the Good circumstances our Church and State are in at present And therefore for any man to desire that our present Laws especially those of Vniformity may be altered it is really to desire That our present Good State and Condition may be Altered especially in the Church whose Good and Welfare does and ought to go hand in hand with that of the State And although an Alteration of the Established Laws may possibly be for the better yet it is an hundred to one but such an Alteration may be infinitely for the worse if we duely consider the great Divisions Heats Animosities and Bloudy-Plots on foot among us and all under the Pretence of Reformation and of setting up a more holy and purer way of Worship than what is Established by Law And therefore these things considered it seems to be the wisest and safest way to keep our present Station and to be what we are that is Well and Prosperous Lest by Changing we prove to be otherwise that is Convulsive Sick and Vnsetled in both Church and State Secondly If we consider our present circumstances as to the Time we live in then in truth they are bad enough For our Church and State as now established have Enemies abroad and which is worse at home The times we live in are full of Deceit and Hypocrisie of Divisions and Distractions full of Plots and Treasons And these Clandestine Treasons are Hatched not onely by Papists but also by Dissenters So that our King and Governours have no real Friends no True Trojanes to Trust unto but onely the Episcopal Protestants of the Church of England whose Honour and Glory it is that they were never sound Guilty of any Treasons or Plots against their King and his Government And in truth it is impossible They should ever be Disloyal unless they shall renounce their own professed Principles and act contrary thereunto and then they would cease to be Episcopal Protestants Whereas on the other side it is impossible for the other Parties whether Papists or Dissenters ever to be constantly Loyal and Faithfull to the King and his Government if they shall continue to act according to their own professed Doctrines as has already been proved For Sinon will ever be a Sinon And if King Priamus shall hearken to his Advice Sinon will persuade him to break down Troy's Wall and let in the Trojan-Horse Nirgil Aen. l. 2. and then in the Night-time of Security Sinon contrary to his Vows and Promises his Plighted Faith and Troth Sinon will Betray the over-credulous King and the Coeci furore Citizens into the hands of the Grecians and set City and all into a Combustion And as my Lord Verulam observes the Wolf will ever be a Wolf though in Sheeps Clothing And the Fox will ever remain a Fox No Art nor Argument can ever prevail with the one to lay aside his Ravening and Cruelty Nor with the other to lay aside his Deceipt and Cunning. And therefore it can be no part of Prudence nor of Fidelity in the Shepherd to let either the Wolf or the Fox into the Fold among the Flock lest the Sheep and the Lambs become a prey to them both Wherefore Queen Elizabeth for the preservation of Peace and Good Order in Church and State and for the prevention of Errour Heresie and Schism did wisely make a strict Law for Vniformity and She Severely punished the Rebellious and Obstinate Offenders Notwithstanding their great and earnest Plea of tenderness of Conscience for their Non-Conformity And She hang'd some of the first Independents that ever were known to be in England Full. Hist l. 9. p. 169. such as Mr. Barrow Elias Thacker and John Coping for their Seditious and Treasonable Practices But to shew that she could be Mercifull as well as Severe she graciously pardoned Mr. Brown the Independent But our present Gratious King has in Acts of Mercy infinitely out-done Queen Elizabeth for he has saved from Death many of the Presbyterian and Independent-Regicides and has pardoned the whole Body of them for that and other their Treasons But because he found that they and the rest of their Dissenting-Brethren were restless and by their daily Separations made a Dangerous Schism in the Church and as Pernicious a Faction in the State setting up Church against Church Government against Government and thus rendring the Kingdom Divided Therefore was the King and Governours forced to make Laws to Restrain them and to bring all things into their Pristine Order and Vniformity And forasmuch as the Causes and Occasions of the said Laws of Vniformity are still in Being Therefore the said Laws themselves ought in Reason and Prudence to be continued and to stand still in their full force and power And if our King should execute the Laws of Vniformity with Rigour and Severity yet His Majesty would doe no more than what the Independents in New England have done for the Suppression of Dissenters among themselves For they Excommunicate and Banish all Anabaptists into Long-Island All Quakers into Road-Island or other parts and all Episcopal-Men they Expell their Territories And it is not to be forgot how Severely they dealt with Mr. Dunster the first Master of Harvey College in Cambridge in New-England whom the Independents first Excommunicated out of their Congregational-Church at Cambridge then deprived him of his Mastership and Expelled him the said College and after all they Banished him and his Wife out of their Dominions upon Suspicion of his being an Anabaptist or rather as some believe for his being an Arminian and for uttering some words in favour of the Church of England's Episcopacy Nor may we pass by their Severity towards two or three Quakers whom they Hang'd for returning after Banishment and for disturbing their Congregations in New-England Thus the Reader may see what Strict Laws the Dissenters where they have power do make for maintaining their own Ecclesiastick Orders and Impositions and how severely they execute them upon the Offenders And therefore neither the Dissenters nor the Reconciler have any Reason to complain of our King for want of an Indulgence and Condescention toward them when by executing His Laws for Conformity He does but give them their own Measure and does onely par pari referre Doe to them as they doe to others This being Granted We may now from the Premisses Rationally Conclude against the RECONCILER and his Proposition That Considering the Circumstances of Treason and Rebellion of Schisms and Factions our Church and State our King and Governours at present are Molested withall Therefore Things Indifferent ought the rather by Strict Laws of Uniformity and Conformity to be Imposed as Conditions of church-Church-Communion FINIS
194. when it is no Sin but a Duty of the Inferiour to Obey them A Ruler that hath but a bad end or bad circumstances may sin in commanding And yet it will be the Subjects Duty to Obey Yea as to the Matter it self it may be unlawfull for a Ruler to command a thing that will doe no good And yet it may be the Subjects Duty to doe it Therefore says Mr. Baxter remember that ye do not prove it sinfull in you to doe such things Ibid. p. 195. by proving it a sin in the Imposer unless ye have some better Reason and can shew a Law of God forbidding you And elsewhere he tells his Reader That a Form or Liturgy defective may and must be used rather than a Schism by Separation be made and rather than the Churches Edification be hindered by our Non-complyance with such a defective Form His own words are If I am restrained from the Publick Preaching of the Gospel or exercise of my Ministery Ibid. Direct 32. p. 185 186. unless I will use a more disordered or defective Form I shall take it for my Duty then to use it for to use a more defective Form with Liberty to use my best Gifts also and to exercise my Ministery publickly to all is more to the Churches Edification than by Separation to use my Gifts onely a few days in a Corner and then for my Disobedience to he in Prison and use them no more Thus far Mr. Baxter pleads excellently for Obedience to our King and Governours in things indifferent and which are not forbidden by some express Law of God and that not the King nor the Imposers but the Separatists and Disobedient are the Authours and Causes of the Schism and Faction throughout the Body of the Nation And great pity it is ☞ that Mr. Baxter's own practice by a daily Separation from the Church of England and by his Constant Disobedience to the King 's and Governours Impositions of things Indifferent should so Notoriously Contradict his own Doctrine But to return to our Reconciler and to speak ad hominem The Sin of not observings things indifferent when lawfully commanded is the sole and chief cause of the Schism This is no more than what the Reconciler himself has owned to be true in many places of his * Protest Recon c. 1. p. 22. c. 2. p. 29. c. 3. p. 58 59. c. 5. p. 145. and Preface p. 59. Book When he Exhorts the Dissenters to obey the King and Governours and to Conform to their Impositions And his Argument persuading the Dissenters to Obedience and Conformity is this scil Because the Ceremonies imposed are things Indifferent Ergo The Dissenters ought to Obey and Conform Lest by their Disobedience they become Guilty of Schism For Separating when they ought not to Separate * I verily believe all Separate Congregations in the Nation which are not Subject to the Government of our Diocesans are Schismatical and that all they who abet and head them and exercise among themselves a Spiritual Jurisdiction Independent on them do set up Altar against Altar Prot. Recon Preface p. 59. Thus our Reconciler is become a very Bifrons a Janus with Two Faces And with the One He looks upon the King and Governours as the onely Authours of our Schisms and Factions for Imposing things Indifferent But with the other He looks on the Dissenters as the onely Authours and Causes of the Schisms throughout the Nation for their not Conforming to the Ceremonies imposed which are things Lawfully to be observed they being things Indifferent As to the Reconciler's other Reason scil That the King and Governours are therefore the Authours of all our Schisms Because they require Subscription †Protestant Reconciler c. 1. p. 7. to things Indifferent c. It is as scandalous to the King and Governours and as false as the other Argument And can be published for no other end But to amuse the World and to prejudice the People against the King and his Government For did not God himself require an Oath which is much more than Subscription of the Priests and People of Israel thereby strictly binding them to observe not onely his Moral but also his Ceremonial Law which chiefly consisted of things Indifferent before they were lawfully Imposed and Commanded And I pray Are not Kings God's Vicegerents And is it not their Prerogative to be like God and to Imitate him in all things lawfull and expedient And did not the Religious Kings and Princes of old Nehem. 5.12 c. 10.29 2 Chron. 15.14 2 Chron. 34.21 33. particularly Nehemiah Asa and Josias make the People take an Oath and to Swear Vniformity and Conformity to God's Laws and to some things that were Indifferent in themselves And have not all Christian Kings and Princes throughout all Ages imitated those Godly Kings when they went about Reformation Have they not required Subscription to their Pious Orders and Constitutions The Reconciler is not able to mention any one Christian Council or Christian Emperour King or Prince that ever made any Canons Laws or Constitutions for Government of the Church and State but they required either an Oath or Subscription for the better observation of their said Canons and Laws or else they subjoyned a dreadfull Punishment such as an Anathema and Excommunication upon Obstinate Disobedience And yet those Primitive Councils and Ancient Christian Emperours ☞ were never Scandalized as is our Gratious King and Governours nor ever said to be the Authours of Schisms and Factions for requiring Subscriptions and strict Obedience unto their Impositions of things indifferent as our King Bishops and Governours are said to be by the Scurrilous Reconciler SECT II. According to the Reconciler The King and Governours are Proud Men and the Plagues of the Earth for Imposing things Indifferent Take the Reconciler's own words IT seemeth Pride for men to institute unnecessary Rites and Ceremonies and say I Command you all to Worship God according to these my Institutions and Inventions and he that will not thus Worship him shall not have liberty to Worship him at all Note Reader * A Great Lie cast upon the Kingand Government that this is an Abominable Lye told of the King and our Governours for by Act of Parliament Any Man with any Company not exceeding five may in his own House worship God in any manner If says the Reconciler the work of Church-Government be to make small Matters great and make that damnable which before was lawfull and this without any Necessity at all Prot. Recon c. 10. p. 328. it will tempt the People as it does the Reconciler to think such Governours to be The Plagues of the Earth To confirm all this Harangue the Reconciler quotes Mr. Baxter's Disp 5th of Human. Cerem Ch. 14. Sect. 8. and Ch. 5. Sect. 4. And in the following words he says Prot. Recon ibid. p. 328 329. That not the Dissenters for Disobeying But
plainly If the Dissenters will not be satisfied However the King and Governours ought to Indulge them and Leave the Event to God And if by such an Indulgence the Dissenters shall destroy all our Church-Government and bring in Confusion among us God's will be done However the King and Governours must doe their Duty and INDVLGE them and then Leave the Event to God And if the Pragmatical People shall usurp an unlawfull power to themselves and shall chuse their own Bishop and every Parish Priest Volens Nolens the King or any Proper Patron God's will be done However the King and Governours must doe their Duty and give the People their Liberty and then Leave the Event to God If Dissenters should as they did in 48 Mutiny Rebell and Cut off this King 's Sacred Head as they did his Fathers and destroy all Good Order and Government in Church and State as formerly under the fair Pretence of Liberty of Conscience if so God's will be done However The King and Governours must doe their Duty that is Indulge the Dissenters and meekly resign up their Lives and Concerns to the Mercy and Courtesie of their Rebellious Enemies and then Leave the Event to God Now should this Rule of the Reconciler's take place in its full Latitude without the due use of Means for the Support of Government and for the Suppression of Vice Rebellion and Treason Then there would be nothing but Anarchy and Confusion in Church and State Which evil Design to bring to pass has been the great endeavour of All the Reconciler's Arguings For the main force of all his Arguments for Condescention to the Dissenters have tended to nothing more than to break down the Hedge of all our Good Laws and Orders for Vniformity and Conformity and to introduce an Unbounded Licentiousness and Confusion And therefore we may very truely Conclude The Reconciler's Design in Publishing his Book as Managed by him to be Malitious and Treasonable towards the King the Church and the State as now Established CHAP. VIII The Reconciler's Proposition Proved to be False His Proposition is this scil THat Things Indifferent considering the Circumstances our Church and State at present are in ought not to be Imposed by the Legislatours Prot. Recon c. 1. p. 4. as Conditions of Church Communion This Proposition as it is propounded by the Reconciler is to be considered two ways 1. Simply and Absolutely in it self 2. Relatively as it refers to the present Circumstances our Church and State are in In both respects it will appear to be false 1. For take it Absolutely as simply considered in it self And then his Proposition which is the main hindge and Herculean Pillar on which his whole Book depends runs thus scil That at no time Things Indifferent ought to be imposed upon the People as Conditions of Church-Communion The Falsity of this Proposition is Proved 1. By the Testimony of Sacred Scriptures to the contrary 2. By the Authority and Canons of the first and most Ancient Councils And by the examples and practices of the Primitive Christians in their Church-Government 3. By Reason and the Natural Grounds of Ecclesiastick Polity and Government All these speak the expediency and lawfulness if not Necessity of imposing Things Indifferent as Conditions of Church Communion The prosecution of these Arguments at large we shall leave for an entire Discourse of it self And at present onely touch briefly upon them in their order And therefore as to the first 1. Several Instances in Canonical Scripture speak it lawfull to impose things Indifferent as Conditions of Church Communion For God in the very first founding of all good Order and Government between Himself and Mankind did Impose a thing in it self Indifferent to wit the not eating of the Forbidden Fruit as a necessary condition of Communion and Fellowship with Himself And God Excommunicated Adam and Eva his presence his love and favour for not observing that Ceremony and Imposition of not eating the Forbidden Fruit which fruit might have been eaten as well as any other fruit in the Garden of Eden as Clem. Alexandrinus notes had not God by a strict Imposition commanded the contrary on purpose to try the sincerity of Man's obedience to him his Lord and Creator And farther under the Mosaical Law God Himself and Moses by his Command Imposed many indifferent and unnecessary things as necessary conditions of Church Communion such as All or most of the Levitical Rites and Ceremonies were whose observation was injoyned upon pain of Excommunication and sometimes of Death in case they were wilfully neglected And God gave Authority not onely to Moses and Aaron but also to other his Vicegerents such as the Judges and Kings of his chosen people the Jews to impose things Indifferent as Terms and Conditions of Church-Communion such as the use of Bloud Oil Salt and other things in their Sacrifices such as the use of Garments Ephods Veils and Surplices and Bowings in Divine Worship Washings and Purifications of their very Garments And all manner of Musick such as their Superiours especially such as King David and King Solomon should judge most conducing to God's Glory and to the better stirring up of the Peoples Devotions and Affections in the Worship and Service of God The Imposition of Holy Days is the Imposing of a thing Indifferent for all Days in themselves are alike And yet God highly approved of Queen Esthers and her Uncle Mordecai's Imposition of the Holy-Days called Purim upon the People for ever to be solemnly kept as necessary Conditions of Church-Communion And it is to be noted that this Imposition was laid upon the People without any Command from God in time of Banishment when the Church was in Persecution yet even then in such Circumstances as those did Queen Esther use her Authority as to the Imposing of things Indifferent And if so then surely much rather may Kings and Queens use the same Authority in times of Prosperity The Feasts of Dedication of the Temple and of the Altar but especially of the Wall of Jerusalem Dr. Keller Tricen l. 1. c. 5. part 8. p. 23. was in it self a Thing Indifferent and yet they were so strictly Imposed as that whosoever wilfully neglected their Observation was under an Anathema Maranatha And it is very Remarkable that our Lord Jesus Christ who came to fulfill all Righteousness and to set an unerring pattern and example of Obedience unto all under Command Did himself approve of the Feast of Dedication instituted by the Macchabees l. 1. c. 4. v. 59. Judas and his Brethren with the whole Congregation of Israel Ordained that the days of Dedication of the Altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of eight days For St. John 10.22 It was at Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication and it was Winter and Jesus walked in the Temple c. So that if you read on our Saviour Christ did not onely honour with his Presence
any Civil Magistrates For now under the Gospel nothing is to Govern the Church of God Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. §. 1 2. but onely the Spirit of God And because the Spirit of God is invisible Therefore the Regimen of God's Church must also be invisible and spiritual Upon this account it is That All or most of the Anabaptists Cry-down all External Forms and Orders of Church Polity and Government And many of them decry the Religious use of any outward visible Elements such as Water in Baptism Or Bread and Wine in the Eucharist Because now we are to be Baptized onely with the Holy Ghost And now we are Onely to eat and drink Christ's Body and Bloud Spiritually by Faith in our hearts and not Carnally with our Mouths Now by the illumination of God's Holy Spirit without the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments Men may be saved Hence it was Simpson Ch. Hist p. 445. that the Anabaptist Gasper Suenkfeldius born in Silesia maintained That the Outward Ministery of the Word and Sacraments was not necessary to eternal life Their General Opinion is That the Supreme Magistrate highly sins when he makes Laws and Orders for the Outward Worship of God and for the External Celebration of the Sacraments or for any thing else which is visibly to be observed in Divine Worship They being of opinion That every Christian is left to the particular Guidance and Persuasion of the Holy Ghost And that he is to doe nothing but what he is persuaded to doe by some secret and immediate Impulse of the Spirit 2. As to matters of State They deny the Civil Magistrate to have any Right unto the Secular Sword But that All are to vail unto Christ's Sceptre of Grace Hence it is that They deny Princes to have power to put to Death any Malefactours though never so Criminal And if any of their Faction be executed although it be for Murther Treason and Rebellion yet they will cry out of Persecution and will Canonize such an one for a Martyr Declaring to the World that that their Brother died giving his Testimony to the Truth as died Scot the Regicide and that according to his Duty and Conscience he resisted unto Bloud the Anti-Gospel Powers as they Maliciously at least Erroneously Nick-Name all Civil Magistracy For Totam politioe rationem rem esse pollutam Calv. ut supra c. They condemn the whole Polity of Civil Government as a thing corrupt and Anti Christian And affirm Nec judicia sint nec Leges nec Magistratus c. That in these glorious times of the Gospel there ought to be no Laws Statutes or Magistracies obliging Christians to the obedience of Humane Ordinances nor any Tye put upon men whereby their Christian Liberty may be obstructed For now Alexand Ross View of Relig §. 12. p. 362. Mortui sumus per Christum elementis hujus Mundi c. We are dead through Christ unto the Elements and Ordinances of this World And therefore upon this account they style themselves Liberi Free-men because they being in Christ are made Free by Christ from all Obedience unto Humane Laws Hence it is that They all deny to take an Oath and to Swear before a Lawfull Civil Magistrate And therefore they are so far from taking the Oath of Supremacy as that they will not so much as take the Oath of Allegiance So that the King has from these Men no other Security for the preservation of his own Life and of his Subjects Properties than their Bare-Word and Promise Which word and promise they may and have Broke and again will soon break when ever the Spirit shall Dictate and Reveal to them That it is for God's Glory so to doe For all Anabaptists are of this Belief scil That God revealeth his Will P. Sim's Ch. Hist 443. not onely by the written word but also and that very frequently by immediate Visions and Dreams the which the Saints i. e. themselves ought as well to follow as the written word So that through pretended Revelations and sudden impulses of the Spirit they have oft times in their Zeal been irritated to draw the Sword against the Civil Magistrate and have sheathed it in the Bowels of many Innocent Christian people who would not be carryed away with their wind of Doctrine And they have been so far hurried on and actuated by a Spirit of Delusion as that in imitation of Jonathan and his Armour Bearer a few of them have essayed to chase thousands though they have wretchedly fallen and miserably miscarried in their bloudy Attempts A fresh and desperate instance of this we have had in London since the King 's Happy Restauration when the Wine Cooper Thomas Venner an Anabaptist and a Fifth-Monarchy Man who had before in 1657 stiled himself the Champion of Christ's Monarchy on earth and an Enemy to all Monarchies besides Christ's He did on January 7 8 9 1660 with about Sixty of his own Opinion Armed with Back Breast and Head-piece enter London-streets crying King Jesus King Jesus threatning present Death to all those that would not yield and side with him for K. Jesus And such was their Madness as that they believed That they and the rest of their own judgment were called by the Spirit of God to reform the wicked Anti-christian World and to make all the Earthly Powers which they called Babylon subservient to the Kingdom of Jesus And in Order hereunto Venner and his Company Vowed never to Sheath their Swords till the Powers of the World were subdued And although their Number was but small not exceeding Threescore yet they taught and believed that One of them should subdue a Thousand making an account that when they had conquered England they should have passed over the Seas and have subdued France Spain Italy and all Christendom if not all the other parts of the World And thus have brought Satan and all the Kingdoms of the Earth under the Sceptre and Obedience of King Jesus Dr. Featley and other Writers have noted that the Anabaptists have been the Great if not the first Incendiaries and Fomenters of Rebellion against their Lawfull Princes And that it is impossible they should be otherwise unless they should act contrary and inconsistently to their own avouched Principles For the two fundamental Articles of their Faith are these scil 1. That the Offices of Kings and Emperours and of all Civil Magistrates are not approved by God under the New Testament There being in their judgment no other Monarchy or Government but onely that of King Jesus 2. That no man ought to take any Corporal Oath or to enter into any Covenant to preserve or to obey the Secular Powers Royalties and Dignities there being no Covenant but that of Grace among Christians And therefore saith the fore-mentioned Historian It was no wonder that Men who had laid such Grounds of Seditious Doctrine were also found in their lives to be Authours of Seditious