also desire that you call not the next Parliament which consisted most of the same Men Presbyterians or Nonconformists nor the other since them Or at least that hereafter before we dispute we may better agree of the meaning of our terms And I declare to the Reader that nothing in all this Book is intended against the Primitive Church-Government or Episcopacy nor against the good Bishops Clergy Councils or Canons which were many nor against King Parliament Magistracy the Laws or Liturgy or Church Communion nor against our peaceable and patient submission where we dare not practically obey But only against the diseases and degeneracy of Bishops Clergy Councils and Canons and those dividing practices by which they have for 1200 Years and more been tearing the Christian World into the Sects of which it now consisteth and against the whole ascendent Change from the Primitive Episcopacy to Papal maturity and against our swearing Subscribing declaring covenanting professing and practising where we understand not the Imposers sense and are unwilling by our private Interpretations to deceive them and where we are persuaded that it would be heinous sin to us not meddling with the case of Lawmakers or Conformists who have no such fears but think all good Chrysostome before cited in Act. 1. Hom. 3. p. mihi 472. speaketh harder than I ever did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which Erasmus translateth Non temere aâ—co sed ut affectus sum sentio Non arbitrer inter Sacâ—rdotes multos esse qui salvi fiant sed multo â—lâ—â—es qui pâ—reant His reason is the same which some give why they think most Physicians kill more than they cure because there is so much Wisdom Goodness Watchfulness and Diligence required to their Calling which few of them have Luther is much sharper than I ever was when he saith Hieronymus alii Patres vixerant in temporali Successione Ecclesiae expertes Crâ—â—â—s persecutionis Episcopi enim jam tum coeperant crâ—sâ—â—re 〈◊〉 â—pibâ—s existimatione gloria in mundo Et plerique etiam tyrannidem exercebant in populum cui praeerant ut testatur historia Ecclesiastica Pauci faciebant sua Officia c. Loc. Com. 4. Class p. 79 80. Et Cap. 27. p. 48. de Synodis In posterioribus Conciliis nunquam de fide sed semper de opinionibus quaestionibus disputatum after the first ut mihi Conciliorum nomen pene tam suspectum invisum sit quam nomen Liberi arbitrii What Melancthon thought of the Papal design of magnifying Councils and pleading the necessity of uninterrupted Succession of Episcopal Ordination see in his Epistles especially of the Conference at Ratisbone Dr. Henry Moore in his Mystery of Iniquity saith p. 1â—2 That Principle tends to the ruining of Faith which supposeth that without right Succession of Bishops and Priests there is no true Church and therefore no true Faith and that this Succession may be interrupted by the Misordination or Misconsecration of a Priest or Bishop the Persons thus ordained being Atheists or Jews or ordained by them that are so As if a man could not feel in his own Conscience whether he believed or not the truths of holy Scripture without he were first assured that he was a Member of that Church that had an uninterrupted lawful Succession of the Priesthood from the Apostles times till now Perhaps Episcopius and Curcellaeus will be more regarded Read that notable Preface of Curcellaeus to Episcopius Works p. 12 13. Resp Experientiam docere nullas unquam Controversias de Religione inter Christianos exortas auctoritate synodali faeliciter terminatas fuisse certiorem multo pacis viam esse Next he shews how little good even the Nicene Council did and how much worse things were after Hierome saying that the whole World was Arian And Constantius reproaching Liberius for being with one man against all the World The Vulgar Dicterium being Omne Concilium parit Bellum Whence he gathers that Councils such as the World hath hitherto had non esse idoneum componendis Religionis dissidiis Remedium Et quamdiu illud usur pabitur perpetuas in Ecclesia Republica turbas fore Episcopii praecipuorum emiouit fides animi magnitudo quod ne promisso quidem solutionis ejusdem quo antea fruebantur stipendii induci potuerint ut se ad silentium quod imperabatur servandum obstringerent etiamsi nonnulli in magna rei familiaris augustiâ— versarentur So copious and sharp is Episcopius Qu. 52. p. 56. b. in maintaining that the Magistrate hath no Authority to forbid sacred Assemblies to tolerable Dissenters and that Ministers and People forbidden them must hold on to the death that I will not recite the words but desire his Admirers to read them An Account to Edward Lord Bishop of Cork and Rosse in Ireland of the success of his Censure of Richard Baxter in England Detecting his manifold Untruths in matter of Fact § 1. TO give my Character of you whom I know not as you do of me is none of my work But 1. Your Stile alloweth me to say that by it you seem to me to be a man of Conscience fearing God 2. And yet your Matter assureth me that you speak abundance of Untruths confidently I suppose partly by not knowing the persons and things of which you speak and partly by thinking that you ought to believe the false Reporters with whom you are better acquainted § 2. The strait which you cast us into is unavoidable Either we must seem to own all the false Accusations brought against us which will hurt others far more than us or else we must deny and contradict them and that will pass for an intolerable addition to our guilt and we shall be supposed such intemperate fierce abusive Persons as you describe me while you think we give you the Lye or make you Slanderers But we cannot cure your Misresentments but must be content to bear your Censures while we call you not Lyars but only acquaint you with the truth § 3. For my own part my final Judgment is so near and I am conscious of so much evil in my self that I have no reason to be hasty in my own Vindication but much reason to take all hints and helps for deeper search and will not justifie my Stile And God knows I am afraid lest selfishness or partiality should hinder me from finding out my sin and I dayly and earnestly beg of God to make it known to me that I may not be impenitent But either Prejudice Converse or somwhat else maketh a very great difference between your Judgment and mine of Good and Evil And I cannot help it If I err it is not for want of willingness to see my Errour and openly retract it nor for want of an ordinary Diligence to know the Truth The Sum of our difference as far as I can understand you is in these particulars I. Whether there be no sin imposed
THE TRUE HISTORY OF COUNCILS Enlarged and Defended Against the Deceits of a pretended Vindicator of the Primitive-Church but indeed of the Tympanite Tyranny of some Prelates many hundred years after Christ With a Detection of the false History of Edward Lord Bishop of Corke and Rosse in Ireland And a Specimen of the way by which this Generation confuteth their Adversaries in several Instances And a Preface abbreviating much of Ludolphus's History of Habassia Written to shew their dangerous Errour who think that a general Council or Colledge of Bishops is a supream Governour of all the Christian World with power of Universal Legislation Judgment and Execution and that Christs Laws without their Universal Laws are not sufficient for the Churches Unity and Concord By RICHARD BAXTER a Lover of Truth Love and Peace and a Hater of Lying Malignity and Persecution To which is added by another Hand a Defence of a Book Entituled No Evidence for Diocesan Churches Wherein what is further produced out of Scripture and ancient Authors for Diocesan Churches is discussed London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1682. To the Pious and Peaceable Protestant-Conforming Ministers who are against our Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction The notice of the Reason of this Book with a Breviate of Ludolphus's Habassian History Reverend Brethren WHen after the effects of our calamitous divisions the rejoycing Nation supposed they had been united in our King newly restored by a General and Army which had been fighting against him invited strengthned by the City many others an Act of Oblivion seemed to have prepared for future amity some little thought that men were about going further from each other than they were before But the Malady was evident to such of us as were called to attempt a Cure and neither the Causes nor the Prognosticks hard to be known A certain and cheap Remedy was obvious but no Pleas no Petitions could get men to accept it The Symptomes then threatned far worse than yet hath come to pass God being more merciful to us than mistaken men We were then judged criminal for foreseeing and foretelling what Fruit the Seed then sown would bring forth And since then the Sowers say the Foretellers are the cause of all We quickly saw that instead of hoping for any Concord and healing of the Bones which then were broken it would become our Care and too hard work to endeavour to prevent a greater breach Though we thought Two Thousand such Ministers as were silenced would be mist when others thought it a blessing to be rid of them we then feared and some hoped that no small number more would follow them It was not you that cast such out nor is it you that wish the continuance and increase of the Causes We agree with you in all points of the Christian Reformed Religion and concerning the evil of all the sins which we fear by Conforming to commit though we agree not of the meaning of those Oaths Promises Professions and Practices which are the matter feared We live in unfeigned Love and Communion with those that love Truth Holiness and Peace notwithstanding such differences as these God hath not laid our Salvation or Communion upon our agreeing about the meaning of every word or Sentence in the Bible much less on our agreeing of the sense of every word in all the Laws and Canons of men Two things we earnestly request of you for the sake of the Christian Religion this trembling Nation and your own and others Souls 1. That you will in your Parish Relations seriously use your best endeavours to promote true Godliness and Brotherly Love and to heal the sad Divisions of the Churches We believe that it must be much by the Parochial Ministers and Assemblies that Piety and Protestant Verity must be kept up And what we may not do we pray that you may do it who are allowed 2. That you will join with us against all Foreign Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical or Civil The Party which we dread I have given you some account of in my Reply to Mr. Dodwell By their Fruits you may know them 1. They are such as labour to make our Breaches wider by rendring those that they dissent from odious which commonly is by false accusations They call out for Execution by the Sword against those that dare not do as they do and cry Go on abate nothing they are factious Schismaticks rebellious They might easily have learnt this Language without staying long in the Universities and without all the Brimstone Books that teach it them An invisible Tutor can soon teach it them without Book He that hateth his Brother is a murtherer and hath not eternal Life abiding in him 2. They are for an universal humane Government with power of Legislation and Judgment over the whole Christian World How to call it they are not yet agreed whether Aristocratical or Monarchical or mixt Some of them say that it is in the Collegium Episcoporum governing per Literas formatas for fear lest if they say It is in Councils they should presently be confuted by the copious Evidence which we produce against them And yet they may well think that men will ask them When did all the Bishops on Earth make Laws for all the Christian World or pass Sentences on Offenders without ever meeting together And how came they to know each others minds and which way the major Vote went And what and where are those Laws which we must all be governed by which neither God nor Councils made The Canons were all made by Councils If you say that I describe men so mad as that I must be thought to wrong them I now only ask you whether our Case be not dismal when such men as you call mad have power to bring us and keep us in our ` Divisions or to do much towards it without much contradiction But others who know that such palpable darkness will not serve their cause do openly say that it is General Councils which are the Legislative and judging Governours to the whole Church on Earth as one Political Body For they know that we have no other Laws besides Gods and theirs pretended to be made for all the World But when the Cases opened by me in the Second part of my Key for Catholicks and else where do silence them this Fort also is deserted by them Even Albert. Pighius hath rendred it ridiculous 1. If this be the specifying or unifying Head or summa Potestas of the Universal Church then it is not monarchical but Aristocratical 2. Then the Church is no Church when for hundreds of Years there are no General Councils an essential part being wanting And they that own but the 4 or 6 first General Councils make the Church no Church or to have been without its essentiating Government these Thousand Years And by what proof besides their incredible Word
or absent Much less that Classes and other Assemblies are the stated Church-Government which all must obey And are the Presbyterians of any of the three forementioned Opinions § 5. I ever held a necessity of manifold dependance of all Christians and Churches As all depend on Christ as their Head so do all the People on the Pastors as their authorized Guides whom they must not Rule but be Ruled by 1 Thes 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 17 24. And all these Churches depend on each other for Communion and Mutual Help as many Corporations in one Kingdom And frequent Synods well used are greatly helpful to these ends And the Command of doing as much as we can in Love and Concord doth bind all the particular persons to concur with the Synods in all things that tend to the Peace and Edification of the Church or are not against it And more than so if the general Visitors or Bishops that take care of many Churches do by God's Word direct instruct reprove admonish the particular Bishops and Churches they ought with reverence to hear them and obey them And if Independents really are for all this why do these Accusers represent them odiously as if it were no such matter but they were meerly for Church-Democracy Either you are not to believed in what you say of them or of me § 6. I know we have men that say that on pretence of acknowledging all this Episcopacy I put down all because I take from them the power of the Sword and leave all to despise them if they please Ans This indeed is the power that under the name of Episcopacy now too many mean Bishop Bilson knew no Power but Magistrates by the Sword and Ministers by the Word But why name I one man It is the common Opinion of Protestants and most sober Papists that Bishops as such have no power of force on Body or Purse But we deny not the forcing Power of the Magistrate 3. But we heartily wish that they would keep it in their own hands and never use it to force unwilling men into the Church or to Church-Communion high Priviledges which no unwilling person hath any right to This is my Independency CHAP. X. Of his Accusation That I make the Bishops the Authors of all Heresies and Schisms as distinct from Presbyters Monks and People § 1. THis also runs throughout his Book and must such Books be answered or believed I never denyed the guilt and concurrence of others with them I only say That as Bishops were the Chief so they had the chief hand as far as I can yet learn in Heresies and Schisms since they came to their height of Power and specially in those grand Heresies and Schisms which have broken and keep the Churches in those great Sects and Parties which in East and West it consisteth of to this day I never doubted or denyed but that 1. The Heresies that were raised before the Church had any Patriarchs or the turgent sort of Bishops were certainly raised without them 2. And afterward sometime a Presbyter began a Heresie 3. And the Bishops were but as the Generals of the Army in all the Church Civil Wars But I never denyed but the Prelatical Priests Monks and multitude were their obsequiâ—us Army § 2. Mr. M. saith That those Bishops that were Hereticks were mostly such or inclined to it before Answ 1. Was there then a good Succession of Ordination when the World groaned to find it self Arian Were all these Arians before their Consecration Answ 2. Were they not all Prelatical Presbyters that aspired to be Bishops and so as they say had a Pope or Bishop in their bellies I never thought that Prelatical Priests that studied Preserment and longed to be Bishops had no hand in Heresies nor Schisms no more than that the Roman Clergy are innocent herein and the fault is in the Pope alone What a deal then of this man's Book is lost and worse on such suppositions CHAP. XI Of his confident Accusation that I mention all the faults of the Bishops and none of their Goodness or Good Deeds § 1. THis also is a chief part of the Warp or Stamen of his Book In his Preface he saith This History of Bishops is nothing else but an Account of all the faults that Bishops have committed in the several Ages of the Church without Any Mention of their Good Actions of their Piety and Severity of their Lives of their Zeal for the Faith c. Answ 1. Whether this Fundamental Accusation be true or false let the Reader who loveth Truth see 1. In the very first Chapt. from § 41. to the end 2. Through all the Book where I oft praise good Bishops good Councels and good Canons and good Books and Deeds 3. In the two last Chapters of the Book written purposely to hinder an ill use of the Bishops faults In the first Chapter Very many of the Bishops themselves were humble holâ— faithful men that grieved for the miscarriages of the rest Though such excellent persons as Gregory of Neocaesarea Greg. Nazianz. Greg. Nyssen Basil Chrysostom Augustine Hillary Prosper Fulgentius c. were not very common no doubt but there were many that wrote not Books nor came so much into the notice of the World but avoided contentions and factious stirs that quietly and honestly conducted the Flocks in the waies of Piety Love and Justice And some of them as St. Martin separated from the Councils and Communion of the prevailing turbulent sort of the Prelates to signifie the disowning of their sins Of the Antients before the world crowded into the Church I never made question Such as Clemens Polycarp Ignatius Irenaeus and the rest How oft I have praised holy Cyprian and the African Bishops and Councils he sometime confesseth What I say of Atticus Proclus and other peaceable Bishops you may see p. 17. and very oft Yea of the Bishops of many Sects much of the Albigenses c. p. 17 18. Yea of the good that was done by the very worldly sort p. 18 19 20. Yea of the Papists Bishops that were pious p. 20. § 46. And § 47. I vindicate the excellency of the Sacred Office And § 53 58 59 60. I plead for Episcopacy it self in the justifiable species of it § 2. But perhaps he will say that at least I say more of their faults than their 〈◊〉 I answer of such good Bishops as Cyprian Basil Greg. Nazianzen Chrysostom Augustin Hillary Martin c. I speak of their virtues and nothing at all that I remember of their faults Of such as Theophilus and Cyril Alexandri and Epiphanius c. I speak of their virtues and some of their faults as the scripture doth of many good mens Of the more ambitious turbulent sort I speak only or mostly of their faults For I profess not to write a History of their lives but to inform the ignorant what Spirit it is that brought in Church tyranny and divisions I denyed
commanded it 5. I find that Christ hath himself done the work for which the necessity of Universal Humane Government by Pope or Councils is pretended viz. He hath made and caused his Apostles peculiarly qualified for it to record Universal Church-Laws even as many as are Universally necessary And if so I cannot but think 1. That he hath done it better than Man can do 2. And that to add more unnecessarily must needs be a snare and burden to the Church 3. And that it must be an usurping the Power of Christ For if there be no other Universal Governour there is no other that hath Authority to make Universal Laws Therefore this is Treason against Christ and a making Man a Vice-Christ 6. I found that there is not so much as a Natural Capacity in any one or many for an Universal Government Church-Government being of such a nature as maketh it far more impossible than for one Monarch or Aristocracy to Govern all the Earth And to do it by a truly General Council or by the Diffused Bishops of all the World is further from possibility than to do it by a Pope 7. I searcht the Councils pretended to be General to see whether they had made any better Laws than Christ's or made any desirable addition And I found 1. That while they were not wholly Papists they never pretended to make Canons for any Christians but only those in the Roman Empire 2. And that it had been much happier for the Churches if they had made no more Laws than Christ had made them for holy Doctrine Worship and Church-Discipline and had only as Teachers expounded and applied the Laws of Christ 8. I considered the Present State of the Church Universal and I find it such as no Party of Christians in the World doth own The Pope pleadeth for an Universal Soveraignty and all his Clergy do the same some saying it is in Councils some in the Pope and most in both together or Councils approved by the Pope And Protestants Greeks Nestorians Jacobites and almost all other Christians in the World accuse this Roman Church and Claim The Papists condemn the rest The Greeks Arminians and almost all the rest accuse each other 9. I considered what Popery is that is Clergy-Power in its height and what it hath done in the World And I found 1. A woful description of the lives of multitudes of Popes recorded by their own most credited Historians And 2. I found multitudes of vicious Canons obtruded by them as Laws on the Universal Church 3. I found most doleful Histories of the Wars and Rebellions that they have caused from Age to Age. 4. I found that they have corrupted the Doctrine of Christ in abundance of particulars 5. And that they have lockt up the Sacred Scriptures from the Vulgar as they have not done their Canons 6. And that they have turned God's Spiritual Worship into a multitude of Superstitious Rites and scenical Ceremonies and Shews 7. And that they have turned Spiritual Church-Discipline into a secular sort of Tyranny 8. And that they have most schismatically unchurched the rest of the Churches because they are not Subjects of the Pope 9. And that they have branded the soundest Churches with the name of Hereticks while they are the grand Heresie of the World 10. And that they have been and are the greatest Silencers of sound Preachers and hinderers of true Piety and Reformation in the Church 11. And that they have wofully vitiated the People that are their Subjects so that odious wickedness fed by Ignorance abounds among them and it is their Votaries that are called Religious and a few Canonized persons Saints as if Religion and Sanctity were rarities or any could be saved without them 12. Lastly I find that they have lived upon Blood like Leeches and have been the cruellest Persecutors of holy men on pretence of killing Hereticks And that it is this to which they trust 10. I took not this notice of them upon meer prejudice but have read I think as many Papists Books as Protestants or any other against them Nor have I taken it upon dark Scripture Prophecies suspecting my understanding of them But 1. The matter of fact from themselves 2. Against their Papal Supremacy from such Arguments as are fully collected by Dr. Barrow 3. Against their heinous Church-corruptions from such Moral Evidence as Dr. H. Moore hath fully gathered in his Mystery of Iniquity 4. Against their pretences of Tradition and Antiquity I fetcht my Arguments from the Histories and Authors which they themselves alledge and especially their Councils with the Fathers Writings § 9. Seeing the Church in this sad Condition and the Papal part so greatly vitiated I considered how long it had so been And I found that the Pope and his Bishops grew not up like a Mushroom in a day but had been long in thriving to maturity And I met with no man that could just tell what Year or what Age the disease or tumor did begin Bishop Bromhall thinks if they will abate their last 400 years Innovations we may have hope of agreeing with them Bishop Gunning will own no General Councils but the first six some will receive eight some but four Mr. Morrice here goeth no further in his defence of them whatever he think Some begin Popery with Leo the great some with Gregory's Successour But it is most certain that it was first an Embrio and next an Infant and so grew up from Childhood to maturity by degrees And the first Church-corruption was not that which we now call Popery And it is as certain that the tumor did neither begin nor grow up in the Bishop of Rome alone but in other Bishops who grew up with him were his strength and Councils and he their Head § 10. It is known when the Greeks and Romans began most notably to strive which should be greatest and how the division increased and when and how it came to an anathematizing or excommunicating each other § 11. It 's notorious that it was from the Councils of Calcedon and Ephesus that the great separated bodies of Nestorians and Eutychians now called Jacobites that possess the East and South were broken off with Nestorius and Dioscorus and so continue to this day § 12. I considered who were the Chief Authors of all these lamentable Schisms and Church-corruptions in the several Ages when they rose and who continue them to this day And I found that many Princes were much to be blamed and the People not Innocent no not the Religious Monks But the Bishops that had the main Church-power by abusing it were with their Clergy the principal Causes and so are to this day The breaches might yet be healed in East West and South were it not for them § 13. Finding this in History of undoubted Truth I next considered what was the Cause that the Bishops and their Clergy should become such Church-corrupters and Dividers and still continue the Churches miseries And
whether one that was seventeen years silent communicated in the Parish Churches and under scorns and ejection imprisonment mulcts did peaceably continue Communion with them without reply or self defence and never wrote against them till they had long called out to him to give them an account of the reasons of his Nonconformity and then durst not provoke them by a dispute but barely named the matters which we judge unlawful professing not to be the Accuser of Conformists but only to answer the Call of Parliament-men Bishops and others that urged us and threatned us if we would not tell them what we stuck at and made this the Justification of their prosecution of many hundred men I say whether such a man had a Call to speak When the King Licensed us I had before briefly defended our Preaching as Licensed But being thus summoned by our Prosecutors and Superiours I told them what we judged unlawful and was this a beginning of the Flame Was Seventeen years Poverty Prohibition and Prosecution and all this Importunity no provocation or call to speak Did this begin If he were in the House of Correction and were beaten but Seventeen years or Seven years to confess the Cause for which he suffered and at last conâ—essed it and one should say This was the beginning of the strife Would he take this for a good Historian And if he had written History would this report advance the credit of it § 3. But the second thing accused is the unchristian Language of that Book Answ Doth a general Accusation signifie more ill of the accuser or of the accused if it be not proved by particular Instances I urged him to name the unchristian words and I remember but two Instances he gave me The first is that I use the word untruths against my Accusers And 1. I think the Reader will very rarely find that word in that Book 2. Is this so harsh as the common charge of Lying used even by the most Learned sober Conformists 3. I thought it had been a modest word What shall a man say when such Volumes of Slander are published against him and others as tends to preach all their Neighbours into hatred and persecution of them Alas Doth it increase our crime to say It is untrue How shall we then answer for our selves at any Bar Is it tollerable voluminously to tell the World down-right falshoods of us and is it railing for us to say They are untrue What 's this but like him that run a man thorow in wrath with his Sword and indicted him for crying oh This is the Church Justice even of our moderate Historians § 4. But he saith I should not call it a falshood or untruth but a mistake Answ This is a sharper word for it signifieth the fault of the mistaker usually whereas by speaking de objecto that it is false I leave it to others how far the reporter is to be blamed But sure most Logical Disputations are Railings if the words â—alsum and fallacia be such § 5. About a month or six weeks ago the Observator the Churches Advocate published That a Captain of Horse of the King 's had the fortune to be dismounted wounded and stript and a Chaplain naming me before cut from about his neck a Medal which the King had given him and the Souldiers spared in the heat of blood I sent him word how false this was I never saw the man in my life that I know of much less ever medled with him But was in a House where a Souldier brought a small silver-guilt Medal about the bigness of a big Shilling and said he took it from about the neck of one Captain Jennings whose Life he spared He offered it to sale and no one offering him more I gave him eighteen pence for it in 1643. as I remember And about 1648. hearing where Captain Jennings was supposing it might be of great use to him I sent it him as a gift by one Mr. Sommerfield And this slander is all the thanks I had The Church-Advocate wrote me back that he had it formally attested I craved as a favour of him to tell me if Captain Jennings be living how I might write to him He answers me that one was out of the way that he must first speak with and I should shortly hear from him The next I heard was as a second part of Dr. Stillingfleet the foresaid Book full of cruel falshood taken from my having been for the Parliament and from many distorted words of mine Now when this Book renders me worse than a Jew or Heathen and unfit to live some I fear will tell abroad that I am a Traitor for saying that It is slanderous or untrue § 6. His second Instance was these words of mine Pardon me for saying I think that Mr. Tombs hath said more like truth for Anabaptistry the late Hungarian for Polygamy many for Drunkenness Stealing and Lying in cases of Necessity than ever I yet read for the Lawfulness of all that I have here described Answ 1. Is there any Railing or unchristian Language in these words which be they Answ 2. Do I here speak of any but my self and the Nonconformists Do I not protest against accusing others and only say what it would be to me should I conform And must I not when importuned by Bishops Priests and Rulers say what I fear leâ—t others should think it intimateth their guiltiness Can I help that Answ 3. Did that man ever understandingly consider the matter who can doubt of the truth of what I say I. On the one side how heinous and many the sins that we fear are if we should conform I must not again name for that 's it that provoketh 11. Now as to the Comparison 1. I 'le appeal to Learned Bishop Barlow whether Mr. Tombs hath not made the Case of Anabaptistry more difficult Let them that deny it confute him better than I have done 2. And why doth none answer the Hungarians book for Polygamy if it be easier done than the task in question I have known the man that maintained that if a King had a barren wife and his Kingdom like to be undone by a destructive successor he might as lawfully take another wife as Adams Children might marry incestuously And indeed the many unreproved instances of Polygamy in Abraham Jacob Moses David Solomon c. will allow men more pretence for it than ever I saw brought for all I say but For all that I have named in that book 3. And many Physicians have said so much though amiss for the lawfulness of a Drunken Cup instead of a Vomit a Cordial in some diseases as have made it a harder case than ours seems to me And I say not what it seems to others 4. And de necessario concubitu legantur quae a medicis dicuntur de furore ut erino 5. And for stealing nothing but present food to save life he that Considers what God allowed
Flavianus 2. Yet he after excuseth Dioscorus from Heresie more Bishops than were Hereticks were violent § 7. As to his Reflection It may be he thinks the Emperour took a particular Delight in that kind of cruelty and that he had rather one should be kickt to death than that he should be hanged or beheaded which would not be much to the credit of his Moderation And to say the truth his Letter to Valentinian discovers a strange kind of Spirit for there he justifies the proceedings of the Eutychians at Ephesus and saies that all things were carried on with much freedom and perfect Truth and Flavian found guilty of Innovating in Religion This is but an ill sign that Mr. B. is a hater of false History when he lets this pass unreproved Ans 1. Had I reproved such an Emperour I might have expected that some of you would have published me an Enemy to Kings Ans 2. Rather Sir you and I should hence gather that all men must have pardon and forbearance and that for want of that the names of Nestorians Jacobites Melchites Greeks Papists Protestants Lutheranes Calvinists Prelatists and Presbyterians c. have almost swallowed up the Name much more the Love of Christians Ans 3. May it not consist with modesty and the hatred of false History to believe the high praises of this Emperour published by one that knew him in so pious and credible words as Socrates speaks as I before told you giving him to me a more credible Canonization than the Pope could have done as a man of eminent holiness wonderful Clemency that would not let a Traitor go out of the Gates towards the place of Execution and when he was moved to any Execution answered he had rather were he able restore the Dead to Life excelling all the Clergy in meekness and never seen angry May not I who am branded for a railer by meek Prelatists be tolerated to think charitably of such an Emperour and to wish that the world had many more such Ans 4. Judges are taken for unjust if they will not hear both sides speak And why should not I regard the words of such an Emperour as well as of one half the Bishops against the other Ans 5. Surely Modesty requireth me to think that the Emperour was much more capable of knowing the truth of the acts of his own Subjects when his Servants present gave him an account of them than I am 1200 Years after And so good a man would not willingly lye Ans 6. Therefore my own Conclusion is God is true and all men are Lyars that is untrusty and that Eudocia and his Courtiers had much power with him for Dioscorus against Flavian as Pulcheria had against Nestorius but that it was the Peace and Concord of the Bishops which he most studied and thought that it lay in going with the major part And I believe things were bad on both sides and worse than the Emperour thought with the Eutychian Bishops and worse than others say with their Adversaries and that the Emperour though fallible was as Socrates saith beyond all the Clergie But here I see that I am blamed for not railing against a meek and pious Emperour and as a Railer for lamenting the sins of the Clergie § 8. About the Council of Calcedon he accuseth me in general as disingeniously mincing the Acts and using all the soul play possible Easily said And what 's the proof Why 1. Leave out that they were violently beaten to it Ans The Reader may see that this is false I mention it oft pag. 101. The Bishops answered that they did it against their Wills being under fear Condemnation and banishment was threatned Souldiers were there with Clubs and Swords Shall I believe this man against such as Socrates of things done 1200 Years ago that will face me down with such untruths about my own yet visible Writings 2. But is it falshood to omit what is said in such and so many Volumns May not the Reader there see it Do I contradict it Must I write many Folio's or nothing I refer all Readers to the Acts. § 9. But he saith It would go near to excuse their Compliance with a merciful man Ans I confess such are not so bad as the Clergy-men that will sin for meer Preferment and will write against and revile and call for Execution on those that will not do as they But if Nonconformists after 19 Years Ejection and Reproach and Sufferings by more than Threats should at last surrender to heinous sin can he think it would excuse their Compliance when Christ saith Luk. 14 33. He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple If he think Martyrdom a work of Supererogation he is dangerously mistaken And he that to day thinks Threatning and Danger an Excuse for his sin may to morrow think Poverty and the next day the desire of Preferment an excuse § 10. Dioscorus and the Eutychians holding close to the Council of Nice as sufficient as a Test of the Orthodox to which nothing was to be added in reciting this he hath found my Ignorance in translating retractat by retract Is not the English word of the same sence with the Latine If not and I be ignorant in English too what wrong is that to any Bishop § 11. When he had charged Nonsence and Confusion on that which he understood not and mentioned Eusib Doril. giving the Lye to Eutyches he confesseth that the thing was true § 12. P. 253. He saith When the giddy rabble of Monks with Swords and staves like Bedlams broke loose run upon them I should rather pity them than insult Ans If the History be an insulting his own credited Historians insult by recording it If noting it as a fault be insulting then a motion to Repentance is insulting and if he would have us pity them for their sin and not only for their suffering that is insulting too But to own their sin and draw men to imitate them shall be none of my Compassion He minds me of Peters Denial and the Disciples forsaking Christ Alas he is not a man that is not sensible of Humane frailty But is it not therefore to be blamed Why doth Scripture mention it but that we may avoid the like Is it to tempt others to the like Did Christ insult when he said to Peter Get thee behind me Satan c. § 13. He next falls into his familiar strain to carry that ex Cathedra by sentence which he cannot do by proof and saith When I venture on Observations it 's an even lay that I am out Ans That is I am out of the way of his Magistry Preconceipt and Interest It is my Conciliatory words that the peaceable man is angry at viz. That this doleful Contentious Anathematizing and ruining of each other was about the sense of ambiguous words and they were both of one mind in the matter and knew it not He cannot but confess that my judgment
as the Agent to persuade him for the Eutychians and Pulcheria to persuade him against Nestorius My words are visible 3. What Bishops were they that persuaded him to make a Law to confirm the Ephesine Eutychian Council Was it not Dioscorus and the Eutychians Were they not Bishops Did they not do it Yea doth not this man oft revile them far more bitterly than ever I did and revile me for speaking so charitably of them Would you ever have expected that the same man should have so reviled me for saying that these Eutychian Bishops prevailed with a good Emperour to confirm that Council of Eutychians 4. Is it a sin not to speak hardlier of so good a Prince who after repented and punished his Wife and Eunuch for persuading him It was a blaming him to tell to what he was persuaded Truly the mans anger here for my blaming the Eutychian Bishops in condemnation of whom he hath poured out so much more than I doth make me think that there is somewhat in the sound of some words that turns his wrath this way or that When he hears the name of an Eutychian away with them speak not easily of them When the same men are called Bishops it 's malice outragious bitterness to blame them for getting a Law to confirm that called an Heretical Murdering Latrociâ—ian Council His words are p. 146. Were there ever greater violences committed than in that infamous Conventicle at Ephesus § 26. P. 263. He confesseth that the Debate between the Council and the Egyptian Bishops was something too warm but saith that heat was not altogether without reason Ans This is his way to confess their faults and then rail at me for bare reciting the words of the Debate or History But it was not without reason He confesseth not so much as this of the silencing and ruining Ministers now It shall not be the use of my reason to make Fig-leaves to cloath and cover the sins which God abhorreth Men will be men he saith wherever they are placed whether in a Council or in the Church or even at the Altar Ans By Men I suppose he meaneth Sinners and it 's true But of all Sinners Oh that God would save his Church from those who hate reproof and cherish the worst that will be for them and excommunicate and prosecute the most conscionable that will not obey them in things which they call indifferent for fear of sinning against God § 27. His trifling words about Leo and Rome are not worthy of an Answer § 28. He hath P. 268. hit again on the oversight which I before confessed even the effect of my necessitated haste that in translating Theodoret's words I put truly in the wrong place I ask him forgiveness and the Bishops if that be any slander against them which is nothing to them § 29. He saith P. 269. There is no truth in what our Author saith that Ibas Epistle was acquit Ans There is no truth in saying that I said it was when my words were disjunctive The Epistle was acquit or at least the Bishop upon the reading of it He saith Ibas was not acquit on the reading the Epistle but on the defence he made that he communicated with Cyril Ans His Accusations of Falshood are commonly Boyish Quibbles His Defence and the Reading of his Letter go together and in Binnius the Letter and the Letters of the Clergy of Edessa are the last things done before he is discharged § 30. P. 270. He saith The truth is the Eastern Bishops were not so ingenuous and fair after their reconciliation with Cyril c. Thus he becomes himself still an accuser of the Bishops § 31. Because I say that the Judges past sentence to cast out both Stephen and Bassian from Ephesus and all consented he saith One would think here the Judges passed sentence against the consent or Inclination of the Bishops Ans There is no end of answering your thinkings I did not say that the Judges passed the Councils Sentence but their own And whether it were against the Fore-inclination of the Council let any Reader judge when the Judges asking the Council their sence Res Episcopi clamaverunt justiâ—ia Bassianum vocat Regulae valeant The Judges answered them that their judgment was that both were to be cast out and a third chosen and the Council suddenly consented If he would be believed contradicting this he must deny the Acts. § 32. He hath found matter for a quibble against tasting Poterius Flesh with their Teeth Teeth taste not Dangerous false History or want of Learning is learnedly here discovered When he cannot deny the most woeful calamitous dissentions which followed the Calcedon Council he saith Was it the misfortune or the fault of these only not to be able to heal the differences of the Church Or was the defect in the Councils or the blame to be imputed to those obstinate men that opposed the Rule established by them Ans No They were neither the first nor the last that have miscarried Nor are we the first that suffer under such miscarriage It was the misfortune of the Churches to have such Physicians But as it is the honour of some Physicians to shew how many Patients they have cured so is it of some others when most die under their hands to be able to say that it was long of the Patients that would not be ruled or that they killed them secundum artem It was a Proverb in Sutton-Coldfield Who begun A poor man had but one Ass and he loaded him too hard and the Ass being in pain bit his Master a little on the Buttock and his Master knockt him down and killed him and when he saw him dying Well saith he But who begun But who had the loss There be Clergy-Men that can impenitently see the Strages the divisions the swarms of sin that are the consequents of their needless masterly Impositions and wipe their mouths and say It was the obstinacy of those that would not be ruled by us They kill a Flea on a mans Forehead with a Beetle and say they meant not to kill the man But if that Councils Acts were a fit means to cure the Churches Divisions how came they to be presently and through many Ages yea ever since to this day thereby increased so many fold Though the Assembly at Jerusalem cured not all the Jewish Teachers of their blind Zeal for Moses Law it was so far from increasing the Dissentions and number of Dissenters that it satisfied the Gentile Christians for the most part and many of the Jewish and greatly diminished the Discord It 's one thing not wholly to cure and another to make far worse § 33. He instanceth also in the Dort Synod that made things worse Ans 1. The Synod of Dort made things the worse in their own Country not by their Doctrinal Decisions but by too much of the Masterly Spirit engaging the Magistrates against the Arminians in the use of the
matter made of it but they are Members of the Church of England the purest Church in all the World Whereas in those licentious times if one Souldier had spoken such a Word it would have rung out through the Land and perhaps his Tongue would have been bored with an hot Iron It was the errours of the proud rebellious Soldiers that made most of the noise that had no considerable number of Ministers left with them I had a hand in Mr. Edwards Book thus An Assembly of Ministers after Naseby Fight sent me into the Army to try if I could reduce them Dayly disputing with them a few proud selfconceited Fellows vented some gross words At Amersham a few Country Sectaries had set up a Meeting in Dr. Crooks Church to dispute and deceive the People A few of Major Bethel's Troop that afterwards turned Levellers and were ruined joined with them I met them and almost all day disputed against them and shamed them and they met there no more I gathered up all the gross words which they uttered and wrote them in a Letter to Francis Tyton and after I found them cited in Mr. Edwards Gangrena And what 's the absurd Speeches of a few ignorant Souldiers that are dead with them to the Heresies and Schisms that these 1000 or 1200 Years continue in all the Roman Communion and they say in all the rest of the Christian World One cheating Papist as a converted Jew got into an Anabaptists Meeting one Maxwell a Scot and all England rung of it But when Bishops have made and keep France Spain Italy c. in the same Errours Dr. Heylin and Bp. Bromhall and such others took them for such with whom a Coalition on the terms by them described was very desirable CHAP. XXIV His 7th Chapter considered § 1. THE Man had not the courage to defend the surgent Prelacy in its Manhood and Maturity but only in its Infant and Juvenile State nor to defend the many hundred Councils which I mentioned after the Council of Calcedon in which either his Modesty or Cautelousness comes short of his Rd. Fathers who some of them own the six first General Councils and some of them eight and some would unite with the Church of Rome if they will abate but the last 400 Years additions § 2. In his Gleanings in this 7th Chap. he over and over and over persuadeth his Reader that I make or affirm that the Bps. were the cause of all the Heresies in the world and of all the Heresies Schisms and Evils that have afflicted the Church And hath this Historian any proof of this Or is it the melancholy fiction of his Brain Yes this is his proof contrary to my manifold Instances because I say in one age We have a strange thing a Heresie raised by one that was no Bishop which I have answered before To be then strange and never to be at all are not words of the same sense But his Answers throughout do mind me of Seneca's Words that a man that is sore complains or cries Oh when he doth but think you touch him § 3. He thus himself accuseth the Bishops p. 276 There have been wicked men and wicked Bishops in all times And p. 277. That some Bishops have abused their Authority and Office and been the cause of Heresie and Schism cannot be denied But yet He hath shewed sufficiently that most of my particular Accusations are void of all truth and Ingenuity Ans Or else those words are so § 4. He saith All Ecclesiastical Writers agree that Simon Magus was Author of the first Heresie in Christian Religion Ans All confess that Judas was before him And if it be a Heresie to buy the Spirit for Money it is a Heresie to sell Christ for Money But I confess some tell us of his after pranks at Rome and imitating Icarus at Peters Prayers If you would see why Dr. More takes this for a toyish Legend see his Mystery of Iniquity Lib. 2. C. 19. § 6 7. p. 447 448. § 5. P. 286 287. Baronius first and Philastrius after are made guilty of Forgery and disregardable History so that I may well bear some of his Censures § 6. P. 290. To confute me effectually he saith much what the same which is much of the sum of all my Book And yet it 's false and malicious in me and true and charitable in him viz. Praising the first 300 years when the Bishops were such as we offer to submit to he adds The following Ages were not so happy but as Christians generally degenerated so did the Bishops too Ans What! Before the Council of Nice That 's a sad Confession I was ready to say as a Roman Emperour said to a flatterer that still said all that he said Dic aliud aliquid ut duo simus But his next words allay it But yet not so much as our Author would make it appear As the Dominicans and Oratorians must say some falshood of Calvine lest they be thought Calvinists And yet he addeth The beginning of the 4th Century was very unhappy to the Church for Persecution without and Heresie and Schism within Meletius an Egyytian began a Schism forsook the Communion of the Church c. Next the Donatists Arians c. Ans It seems that the Emperours Constantius and Valens were without the Church and yet the Arian Priests and Bishops were within it When he defineth the Church we may understand this But is it not this 4th Century that is made the Churches more flourishing state by others § 7. Even the great Historian of Heresies Epiphanius is said p. 292. to be unaccountably mistaken in several things relating to that History And 293. hath a strange unaccountable mistake in diverse other things relating to that matter If I had at any time erred with such a Bishop and Father I might have been excusable for reciting his History § 8. Pag. 295. He opens the very Heart of his Parties Principles and saith The Church is never distracted more by any thing than Projects of Moderation Ans Experience proveth that you speak your Heart The words are no wilful Lye which agree with a mans Mind be they never so false as disagreeable to the matter No man was more of that Opinion than Hildebrand that would not yield the Emperours the Investiture nor as I before said abate the Prince of Calaris the shaving of his Bishops Beard to save his Kingdom Victor began with that Opinion too soon but his Successors have these Thousand Years been as much for it as you can wish 2. But to whom is it that you intend this Sure not to all Was Bishop Laud of that mind toward the Papists if Dr. Heylin say true Was Grotius of that mind toward them Was Arch-Bishop Bromhall Forbes Beziar Thorndike and many more such of that mind No I 'le excuse you that you meant not them and their Projects of Moderation Nor I believe neither Cassander's Erasmus's Wicelius's Sancta
Clara's Leander's c. But towards such as I am you have been as firm to that Principle as any one of our Enemies could wish In 1660 1661. it was most effectually improved and you have attained much of the fruits then foretold and ever since have been unmoveably and prevailingly true to it 3. But this maketh some men the Distracters of the Church if not the greatest which truly I have better thoughts of Such as Junius Paraeus Amyraldus Le Blanke Davenant Ward Usher Holdsworth Morton Hall c. And lately when we were preparing for the Kings Return Bp. Brownrig and after his death Dr. Gawden Dr. Gulston Dr. Allen Dr. Bernard and diverse such did offer themselves to a Treaty for Moderation And since then Dr. Wilkins Dr. Burton Dr. Tillotson and in diebus illis Dr. Stilling fleet have been guilty of this crime of distracting the Church by projects of Moderation But I can name the Bps. that were not guilty of it To abate or forsake the necessary points of Faith and Practice on pretence of Moderation is to destroy Christianity on pretence of Humanity or Peace But to make Laws that men shall preach with Horns on their Heads to signifie the Victory of Truth and to ruine all that will not keep these Laws much more if men should command worse and to say a Project for Moderation would distract the Church would be as far from Wisdom as it is from Moderation And some Prelates have done as bad as this § 9. He confesseth p. 296. that by force and Fraud the whole World in a manner was turned Arian And did I ever say worse of the Bishops than this § 10. He maketh Aerius to speak against Bishops because he could not be a Bishop so that he was of a Prelatical Judgment and Spirit and calleth him The Cartwright of the times by which if he mean that Cartwright would have been a Bishop it doth but tell us that he deserveth little belief in his History § 11. He is a most singular Historian p. 303. in telling us that after the Monothelites in following Ages of the Church the Devil started up but few Heresies till these Ages Swenk feldians Anabaptists c. By this I perceive he believeth neither Papists nor Protestants For the Papists name many Heresies since and the Protestants say that Popery is but a Composition of many Heresies and name us many that concur'd thereto § 12. He there giveth me this serious Admonition It is a much greater wonder that any man that makes Conscience of what he saith should against all truth of History and against his own knowledge charge the Bishops with all the Heresies in the World that a person that seems so sensible of approaching Judgment as frequently to put himself in mind of it should yet advance so malicious and groundless an Accusation There is no dallying with the all-seeing God What Plea shall be made for whole Books full of Calumny and Detraction c. Ans This is not the least acceptable passage to me in his Book I love the man the better for seeming serious in the belief of Judgment and I hope his Warning shall make me search my Heart with some more jealousie and care He seems here to believe himself but being my self far more concerned than he is to know how far I am guilty of what I am accused as far as I can know my Heart and Writings I 'le tell the Reader what to judge of his words and me 1. That I charge the Bishops with all the Heresies in the World never was in my mind nor can I find it in any of my Writings Yet this he very oft repeateth And should a man so often write a falshood about a thing visible and never cite the place where I say it and this while he is thus seriously mentioning Calumny and Judgment 2. Can he make men believe at once that I do persuade men that Bishops or Diocesanes came not up till about 150 years after Christ and yet that I make them the Authors of the Heresies that were in those times Non entis non est actio Could Bishops be Hereticks when there were no Bishops 3. If I had charged the Bishops with all the Heresies it followeth not that I had charged no one else with them and made the Bishops the sole Authors and acquit People Priests and Princes why then doth he name many Monks and Priests that were Hereticks Or Emperours that promoted them as if this crossed what I say Did he think that I excluded the Army if I blame the General or the Prelatical Priests when I blame the Prelates If I took the Bishops of England to be the chief cause of our Church-Schisms and Calamities doth it follow that I acquit such as you and all the Clergy like you 4. That I have done this against all Truth of History which I transcribed out of the Councils and Historians most partial for the highest Prelacie is either a great untruth and unproved by him or I know not what I read or write 5. That I do this against my own Knowledge I am certain is an untruth 6. That my Accusations are malicious I am certain is untruth as being able to say that I speak in pitty to the Church and to save Souls from deceit and malice no man but pray with the Liturgy that God will forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and turn their Hearts 7. That I have brought any Groundless Accusation I must take for an untruth till my Grounds produced are better confuted 8. Much more that I write whole Books full of Calumny and Detraction All these and more untruths being heapt up with the mention of Death and Judgment tells us whither Faction and Prepossession may carry men 2. But what is the truth I shall again briefly tell the Reader 1. About 2000 of such Ministers as I confidently take for the most spiritual and conscionable and devoted to God and the good of Souls are silenced and in Law imprisoned and ruined and all the People of their mind are ipso facto if they confess it excommunicated besides their other penalties I accuse not the Law but mention only the matter of Fact which the K. once commissioned Bps. to have prevented 2. The Kingdom is dolefully divided and alas the sad consequents are not to be named 3. Besides all our Penalties the Bishops accuse us as the causes of all and as wilful Schismaticks and call for the Execution of the Laws against us 4. We say we dare not do that which when ever they will give us leave we are ready to give our reasons why we take it for heinous sin against God and tending to the ruine of the Church nor dare we forsake our Ministry while the Churches necessities are to us past doubt 5. We beg of them but to abate us some needless Oaths and Covenants and Professions and a few things called indifferent by the Imposers that we may all live
not am I bound to dedicate my Book to such By what Obligation But he saith so voluminous and embost a Title will deter the Readers But do you not know the Dedication from the Title only because it is printed on the Title Page Is that unusual But the odious Arrogance followeth Could any thing easily be said with more appearance of Arrogance in the very Title Page too than that his Book is above all others of the same Subject I know not how otherwise to interpret his supra omnes viz. Methodus Theologiae Christianae c. framed disposed and hallowed to the propagation and growth of Holiness to the Peace and Honour of the Church I will now for ever acquit him of hypocritical Modesty Ans I desire Mr. Morrice to compare this Ld. Bp's Translation with that oversight of Theodoret's words which he fasteneth on in me What if I had said that this Bishop knoweth not how to interpret a plain Latine Sentence as he saith it of himself That which I most expresly say of pious ingenious Youth he feigneth me to say of my Book Reader look on the Book and judge whether Methodus the Nominative Case singular agree with natae dispositae consecratae the Dative Case when Juventutis Parti studiosae sedulae with many other Datives went before it There are no less than Twelve Adjectives joined to Parti in the Dative Case and yet he construeth the three last a agreeing with the very first Title-name in the Nominative Case And is this the way to make me lament my want of his Academical Education Is it any wonder if these men prove us Liars and proud and if they sentence us for lesser Crimes Yea here he concludeth that I write so pievishly so variously and unconstantly to my self so blindly as if willfully blind and not penitent of my own guilt and so arrogantly and disdainfully c. You have heard the proof § 34. Pag. 99. He proveth my unpeaceableness from the Petition for Peace and Additions to the Liturgy The Crime here is There 's not one Office no not one Prayer of the old Liturgy and is stiled A Reformation of the Liturgy and little more than a Directory Ans O miserable World What cure is there for thy Deceits This good man talks as he hath heard and so all goes on But 1. he knoweth not it seems what Title our Copy had but judgeth by that which some body printed 2. It seems he knoweth not that this Draught was only offered to debate expecting abundance of Alterations We openly declared that it was done on supposition of obliterating and altering all that they had any just exception against were it but as needless And for the clauses These or the like words we profest that we expected an Obliteration of them but had rather the Bishops did the imposing part if it must be done than we 3. He knew not it seems that ours were offered but as additional Forms that such of them as both sides agreed on might be mixt as Alias's with the old Liturgy And doth his Lordship then exclaim with reason that Not one Office not one Prayer of the old was in when all after correction was to be in and none left out Oh what is History and what men are its corrupters And that his work may be homogeneal p. 100 101. having recited my Commendation of their Liturgy as better than any in the Biblioth Patrum he addeth as an Accusation Yet p. 219. he complains of such failings in it that IT IS A WORSHIP which we cannot in faith be assured God accepteth Reader This is one of the lesser sort of deceiving Accusations I said that among greater sins which we fear in our Conformity we fear least by Assent and Consent to all things contained and prescribed c. we should be guilty of justifying all the failings in that worship and also of offering to God a Worship that we cannot in faith be assured that he accepteth This Lord so wordeth it that the Reader who peruseth not my words would verily think that I had said this of the Liturgy in the substance of Worship there prescribed which I said only as to the things which we dare not conform to And I explained it by saying We dare not justifie the best Prayer we put up to God in all things E. g. To dedicate Infants to God without their Parents exprest Dedication or consent or their promise to educate them as Christians and this upon the false covenanting of Godfathers that never owned them nor ever mean to educate them as promised as is known by constant experience neither they nor the Parents intending any such trust in the undertakers and to dedicate them by the sacramental Sign of the Cross or a badge of Christianity and to refuse all that will not be thus baptised This we fear is a worship that God will not accept But is this therefore said of the substance of the Liturgy And if the Lord Bp. be wiser or bolder than we and be beyond all such fears should he not suffer Fools gladly seeing he himself is wise And if he like not our fearing an Oath Subscription Declaration Covenant or Practice which he thinks to be true and good and we think to be false and evil why may he not endure our timorousness while he may rush on himself and venture should he not rather pitty us while St. Paul saith He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not in Faith § 35. P. 108. He questions whether their communion be my practice and p. 110. giveth me two friendly Councils 1. To peruse my Books and retract what 's amiss 2. To tell the World now my sober Thoughts what I could and would do were I to begin the World again I heartily thank him for his Counsel for it is good and honest But alas what a thing is it to write of things which men know not 1. He knoweth not that I have retracted much already partly by disowning and partly by large Obliterations Of the first sort are my Aphor. of Justification and my Polit. Aphorisms though not all that 's in them Of the 2d he may see many and large Obliterations in my Saints Rest my Key for Catholicks c. 2. He seemeth not to know what bloody Books to prove me one of the worst men living their Church Advocates have written against me fetcht mainly from these retracted Books and Words Nor how they that commend Augustine reproach me as mutable for those Retractations 3. It seemeth he knoweth not that I have already performed his second Advice in my Cure for Church-Divisions my Second Plea for Peace about Government Yea Bishop Morley before the King Lords and Bishops at Worcester-house speaking of Ceremonies and Forms caused my Disputations of Church-Government produced and said No man hath written better than Mr. Baxter as if it were against my self And in Doctrinals my Cathol Theol. and Methodus Theol. and Christian Directory have expressed my maturest calmest thoughts But he that counsels me to it knows not that it is already done And more for Revising and Retractation I would do if necessity did not divert me even the want of time and strength § 36. P. 115. You say That Reverend and great man Bp. Morley tells us The generality of Nonconforming Divines shewed themselves unwilling to enter on Dispute and seemed to like much better another way tending to an amicable and fair compliance which was wholly frustrated by a certain persons furious eagerness to engage in a Disputation This was it seems the sense of both sides at that time Ans How far from Truth It was the sense and Resolution of the reconciling Party called by them Presbyterians We all desired nothing but an amicable Treaty We were promised by they should meet us half way When we met Bishop Sheldon declared the Agreement of his Party that till we had brought in all our Exceptions against the Liturgies and our additional Forms they would not treat with us Mr. Calamy Mr. Clark and others would have taken that as a final Refusal and meddled no more lest Dispute should do more harm than good I was against such an untimely end and said They will report that we had nothing to say It 's better let the case be seen in writing than so break off The rest wrote the Exceptions about the Liturgies some Agent of the Bishops answered them without the least concession for alteration at all I wrote a Reply and the Additional Forms and a Petition to the Bishops and they would treat of never a one of them But at the end put us to dispute to prove any Alteration necessary they maintaining that none at all was necessary to the ease of tender Consciences Of which before § 37. I had thought to have proceeded but truly the work which the Bishop maketh me is so unpleasant almost all about the truth or Falshood of notorious matter of Fact that I have more Patience to bear his Accusations whatever his learned Friend said of my impatience than to follow him any further at this rate But whereas he saith that some will think that many things in his Book want truth I am one of those and leave it to the Readers Judgment whether they judge not truly And whereas he lays so much stress on Bp. Morley's words if any Printer shall be at the charge of Printing it I purpose while he and the Witneesss are yet alive to publish the Answer to his Letter which I cast by to avoid Displeasure And if they will still be deceived let them be deceived I cannot help it It is no wonder that he that is described Joh. 8. 44. should carry on his Kingdom accordingly in the World But must his Dial be set on the Steeple of Christs Church and have a consecrated Finger for its Index O lamentable Case FINIS Had I said what is this Week published as one of their chief Dr's Elegy upon Oliver Cromwell with two others what should I have heard What abundance of Conformists flattered Oliver while I openly disowâ—nd him as a Usurper but now their malice hath got the handle * Diad since the writing of this