make a ratling noise in Rhetorick to please childish fancie but what are these things to men of solidity and sobriety that would inform their understandings But 't is all one with him he is every jot as light and toyish also in managing matter of Argument And this appears by his trifling with another Scripture which he hath drawn in I know not how to prove that Christ hath left Rules enough of such a nature as there needs no help of any prudence to promote the preaching of the Gospel But what trow ye is the proof Even such another Text save only it makes less if that were possible to his purpose than the former It is Luk. 12. 49. I am come to send fire on the earth and what will I if it be already kindled This he tells us signifieth that Christ desired nothing in this world at least comparatively before his departure from it but only to see that fire kindled which he came to send on the earth that is to see the Gospel as it were to have gotten footing and taken some hold in the world Well admit this be the right interpretation what doth he infer from it Ergo doubtless the Lord Christ who was desirous to see this was sollicitous and provident enough by himself or by his Apostles at least to order and enjoin all things necessary or meet for the spreading of the Gospel upon terms of the best advantage after him and not to leave so important an affair to the care and contrivance of the Secular Powers Doubtless while Christ and his Apostles were upon the earth they neglected not to order things which were then necessary and meet for the then spreading of the Gospel So much of Inference may be admitted But Mr. G. stretcheth it further and inferreth from this Text what it never intended to import His Argument stands thus Christs great desire was while he was on earth to see the fire of the Gospel kindled Ergo He by himself or his Apostles laid down such Rules and Directions so full in all circumstances that the Magistrate hath no liberty left to use his discretion for the kindling or promoting of it upon any occasion in After-Ages I shall not now resume the debate whether there are such large Rules and Directions to be found or whether the Magistrate may exert his Civil power and wisdom to settle any Course upon a Civil Account for the publication of the Gospel the former part of this Discourse having sufficiently cleared the Truth already concerning those Particulars but the matter under question here is this whether from such an Antecedent as this That Christ desired to see the Gospel take footing while he lived any such Consequence as this do naturally clearly follow Therfore he by himself or his Apostles left such universal Rules to promote it as exclude all endeavour and care of the Magistrate from assisting thereunto in succeeding times and generations It must be a rare Logical Engine that can serue in such a Consequence without the mighty help of Mr. G. who seems to have an extraordinary faculty of tormenting his own Brains and the Scripture to bring about shadowie pretences of Reason and Religion to cover the peevish designs and odd purposes of an angry spleen But he goeth on to tell us Experience hath manifested in all Ages that for men whoever they be to compound the wisdom counsels and institutions of Christ for the advancement of the Gospel in the world with their own devices and Inventions is the next way to obstruct the course of the Gospel And yet the professing powers of this world have always had itching desires to be officious unto Christ in this kind to obtrude upon him their own Projections and Inventions to accommodate and help him through the world with his worship and Gospel It is readily granted that the Civil Powers of the world have been too much engaged in mingling their own Inventions with the Institutions of Christ and gospel-Gospel-worship which hath been the great hindrance to a progress of the Gospel in the Truth and Power of it But why is this brought in here to be insinuated against the Civil Powers now in England and why is such a heap of words erouded in here to incumber the Reader and countenance the Insinuation Certainly Mr. Goodwin cannot charge the present Governors for mingling their own Inventions with the Institutions and Worship of Christ Could he have done it we should have seen him descending to particulars to prove the charge and have heard of him in a more lofty tune but knowing in his Conscience there is no such matter it serveth his turn well enough by packing and shuffling a company of words together thereby slily to cheat and instill an ill Opinion of the present Authority into the unwary Reader as if they compounded their own Inventions with Gospel-worship and Institutions But take away the Boxes and then what becomes of the Jugler Remove the deceptio visus Viz. the Mist of words from before the eyes of the Reader and then Mr G. his tricks and slights of Insinuation signifie nothing at all to the meanest understanding The Ordinances for Approbation and Ejection made by his Highness and the Councel are the present Subject of this bold mans discourse and therefore we are to suppose his meaning is that by those they have compounded their own devices with Christs Institution and worship If it be so he might have done well to have shewn us wherein they have so done by naming to us some Particulars in the mean time the very Title and Text of the said Ordinances do evince the contrary there being not the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or tittle that so much as mentioneth any thing concerning any Institution of Christ or concerning Worship further than this that the Ordinance for Approbation is purposedly directed to the encouraging and preserving of that Institution of Christ which is called Preaching in the power and purity of it according to the sence and meaning of Christ and his Apostles and the Ordinance for ejecting takes especiall care beside other things to preserve the sincere instituted Gospel-worship free from any humane mixtures or additions whatsoever by appointing the ejection of persons that frequently use the Common-Prayer-Book or who are superstitious and Popishly minded which is a manifest evidence not only of this mans licentious boldness against Authority but also how much his Highness and the Councel abhor the mingling of humane Inventions with the Institutions and Worship of the Gospel and yet such strange stuffe he is fain to make use of to fill up the number fourteen ARGUMENT XV. THis pious Pretender having in the former Argument begun to give us a proof of his extraordinary faculties in speaking evill of dignities now in this takes upon him to dispute the Pedigree of their power and as if he were possessed with the Ghost of Plato or Aristotle very sagely determines what is the right
the Name of Christ to censure the proceedings of Princes and reprove or smite the Potentates Rulers great men of the Earth they being in their Actions subject to his Judgement and Correction he being the man out of all the Tribes and Kindreds of the People separated and set apart in his own conceit for the exercise of this Pontifical Authority over his Highness as if he meant to usurp the Papal Chair and turn out Pope Alexander the seventh And yet this is not all for as if he meant also to be no less than Alexander the great it was well observed lately by a Gentleman in my hearing that as King Alexander having conquer'd the world is said to have sighed because there were no more worlds to conquer so he having in his own Opinion triumphed over a world of Penmen and Powers wanting work elsewhere hath now turned his Arms against a greater in his own eyes than all these put together even against his sacred self most shamefully contradicting himself in many places and thereby hath given the world to understand what a Shuttle-cock this Mr Goodwin is who hath so set out himself with his own Pen and in Print too that the Nation may know he careth not to have his wit and reason and honesty and all obscured together rather then his sparkling Phantsie should not shine in its brightness And these things he hath done not in Anonymous small Kites and Pamphlets but in grave and as he thinks goodly Treatises which he hath set his name to in Capital Letters and out of which I shall give you three or four Instances of the Combats he hath had with himself upon the open Stage One while you have him for the King as in that Book of his called Anticavalierism page 10 11. where you may read this following Passage As for offering violence to the person of a King or attempting to take away his life we leave the proof of the lawfulness of this to those profound disputers the Jesuites who stand engaged by the tenure of their professed Doctrine and Practice either to make good the lawfulnes thereof or else to leave themselves and their Religion and abhorring and hissing to the world As for us who never travelled with desires or thoughts that way but abhor both Mother and Daughter Doctrine and Practice together we conceive it to be the just Prerogative of the persons of Kings in what case soever to be secure from the violence of men and their lives to be as consecrated Corn meet to be reaped and gathered onely by the hand of God himself David's Conscience smote him when he came but so neer the life of a King as the cutting off of the lap of his Garment Not long after contrary to all this he wrote that Book entituled A Defence of the Honourable Sentence passed upon the late King by the High Court of Justice In the 73 Page whereof writing against such as would not have had the King put to death he adviseth them to retract that Inhumane Tenet of exempting Kings from Punishment whereby they encourage Kings to turn Tyrants commit murthers and all abominations that Tenet of theirs saith he I mean wherein they deny unto Kings the help of that Bridle for the ruling of their lusts more needfull for them than for any other sort of men the fear of death by the Sword of Civil Justice upon any occasion whatsoever At the latter end of the same Book he concludes thus The late wars wherein the King by the sword of those men of blood who cast in their lot with him shed so much innocent blood in the land being causelesly and contrary to the frequent obtestations earnest sollicitations grave advisements of his Great Council the Parliament commenced by himself are so far from mediating on his behalf for the bloodshed that they open the mouth of it the wider and cause it to cry so much the louder for vengeance upon Him and His both unto God and men Sic idem jungat vulpes mulgeat hircos A second Instance may be taken out of a certain Letter of his written to T. G. against Independencie which was printed Anno 1643. condemning Separate Congregations so he terms them in his Preface I am saith he as confident as Confidence it self can make me that their way of a Covenant is a mere humane Invention and a strain of that wisdom that desires to exalt it self not only against men but against God himself p. 1. And p. 10. saith he If you have the Truth with you woe to my Wits Reason and Vnderstanding never poor man so strangely misused by such Friends in this world Again p. 13. he hath these words I do profess in the sight of God and in as great singleness and simplicity of heart as ever man in this world spake word unto you that I do as clearly apprehend Error and Mistake throughout the greatest part of your way that is Independencie as I do truth in this Conclusion That twice Two makes Four A lusty Confidence indeed Yet notwithstanding now his twice Two doth not make Four For within a few moneths after he changed his Judgment from the Presbyterian way wherein he then stood and professed himself for this way which he had so confidently decried and took up the practice of it gathered a Separate Church in Coleman street and wrote divers Books in defence of this way and with as much confidence as before as may be seen in his Books against A. Steward Mr. Edwards and other Presbyterians A Third Instance and which is most pertinent to our purpose is in reference to these two Commissions which he flies out against with so much fury the one for Approving and the other for Ejecting and which he in this Pamphlet of his makes the abhorring of his soul and is angry with his Governers about them and tells us he ought to be angry and to smite them with as much shame and reproach before the World as his Pen is able to load upon them Nevertheless both these Commissions are no other not only for substance but also in each material circumstance then what was laid down in certain Proposals for propagation of the Gospel and there distinctly commended one after the other to a Committee of Parliament appointed to receive such Proposals Febr. 8. 1651. as may be seen in Mr Scobels Office in these Words We whose Names are subscribed do with others humbly desire that these Proposals be presented to the Honourable Parliament c. To all which Mr. John Goodwins own self and Mr John Price one of the Elders of his Church together with divers others then subscribed And yet the Tenor of his present Book is against the Magistrate for granting such Commissions as having in his opinion nothing to do with propagating the Gospel and extream severe he is in his language against the Commissioners though the purport of their Commissions to be act according to such Instructions as Mr G.
the same work of Gospel-propagation For if so be that Christ neither immediately of himself nor mediately by his Apostles established such obligatory Rules and Directions as are pretended to exclusive of all other means by vertue of any Precept or exemplary Practice then judge ye whether this bold Assertion of his be like to hold right in conclusion The first observable Medium that the Apostles made use of for the propagation of the Gospel and augmenting the number of Converts and Professors was the exercising a Community of Goods so we may read Act. 4. 34 35. That as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need This is one Instance of Apostolical practice and example which no man that knows the manner and condition of Mr. Goodwin will so much as imagine 't is his opinion that this is one of the Rules binding himself or the Magistrate or any other to observe in promoting the publication of the Gospel 'T is believed neither the Credit nor the Conscience of the Man will rejoice in such an Assertion and therefore having him herein I dare say confitentem reum and Marsupio consulentem it shall be pressed upon him no further Another means that the Apostles made use of for the spreading of the Gospel was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Laying on of hands whereby the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost were in those days usually conferred upon such as they converted to the Faith and these again made use of it in order to the converting of others that men seeing those miraculous Gifts breaking forth in several Operations and being thereby convinced of that supernatural and mighty power which then attended the ministration of the Gospel might be brought in to the Faith of Jesus Christ and be confirmed in it But in all the Prints and grave Determinations hitherto published by Mr. Goodwin our great Master of Sentences we do not find that he hath concluded us and all the World under the observance and imitation of the Apostolical practice and example in this particular as absolutely necessary for the work of Gospel-propagation And so I pass it over at present till it be known how his Infallible self will be pleased to pass a Judgment in the matter A third means that the Apostles made use of for promoting the Truth of the Gospel was That when occasion of difference did arise among the Primitive Christians touching Gospel-affairs to the hinderance of its progress they to wit the Apostles and Elders assembled together and by Decrees of their own made an authoritative positive decision in the Case and gave Laws to be observed by all the Churches as you may read Act. 15. And it 's conceived Mr. Goodwin never yet maintained but rather hath openly avowed the contrary that this Example of the Apostles is to be received as a Rule universally binding all men in all Ages to do the like and to assume the same power of Legislation and Determination in the way of Synods or Assemblies in order to the promoting of the Gospel These are the main observable Practices mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and some other there were which related to things reputed of an indifferent nature as the eating or not eating of certain Meats using or not using of Circumcision and of divers Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law as you may read Act. 21. and Gal. 2. which sometimes were admitted sometimes rejected as may be seen by Pauls circumcising of Timothy when as the same Paul at another time was stiffly opposing and pleading against the practice of Circumcision Now we suppose Mr. Goodwin will not say That this kind of liberty so assumed and practised is one of the standing Rules which he with so much confidence commends unto the Reader as necessarily to be observed in the promoting of the Gospel And therefore unless our Reveernd Author can produce some other Examples and Practices of the Apostles which yet we have not seen and with good evidence propound them to the World as universally obligatory upon men to follow he will seem to be as a man beating the air and that hath made a noise to no purpose For the truth is whereas in all the Acts of the Apostles other men can perceive no such Examples of theirs from whence such positive Rules as he pretends to are either directly or by consequence deducible so among all the Precepts of the Apostles contained either in that Book or in any of their Epistles no Rules will be found of so comprehensive a nature as to give direction in all particulars that may fall out so as to exclude all use of humane reason and discretion in the Magistrate or any other towards the advancing so good a work As to the main concernments of Church-Oeconomie and Administration they are sufficiently provided for by the Precepts and Directions left by the Apostles in Writing but as to Church-edification and the gathering in of Beleevers through the preaching of the Gospel by employing and encouraging men to that work there are no Precepts by them recorded to Posterity but what make in justification of those two Commissions of Approbation and Ejection which were given out by his Highness and the Councel as will be made evident by and by when Mr Goodwin comes to fall more directly upon the Commissions and those reverend and worthy persons that are impowered by them In the mean time it is submitted to the Reader what to think of Mr Goodwins first Hypothesis or Supposal and whether he can imagine it was the intendment of Christ either immediatly of himself or mediatly by his Apostles to make such large Provision either by way of Precept or Example to be as standing Rules in perpetuity utterly exclusive of the use and assistance of humane prudence in order to the publication of the Gospel Now to the second false Hypothesis or Supposition upon which the Argument is founded and which is implicitely contained in the Minor Proposition falsly supposing and insinuating as if our Commissioners for Approving and Ejecting were an Authority constituted by his Highness and the Councel in and over the Church and People of Christ For Confutation of this the onely way is to make enquiry into the nature of the Ordinances or Commissions themselves by the genuine scope and drift whereof it will be certainly known of what kind they are and what was the Intent of our Governours in the establishment of them that thereby they should deserve to be scandalized and so rudely handled by him who would be thought a man of Ingenie and most high Ingenuity To this end that the truth may be cleared let both the Ordinances speak for themselves The First is that which he is pleased to call the Commission of Tryers rightly entituled An Ordinance
care he could notwithstanding die quietly 3. The power of Choice and Nomination to Livings was never yet intrusted solely in the hands of Parishes but it hath remained partly in the hands of the Magistrate as the grand Patron partly in the hands of private Patrons who had a Right to it either by Inheritance or Purchase But yet still the Magistrate and the Law interposed as to the power of Trying and Approving men presented and setled a Course accordingly for the Trial and Examination of them before they were admitted to enjoy that Publick Maintenance which was legally annexed to the Places to which they had been presented This hath been the practice from all Antiquity and yet he is pleased to lash out against the present Course appointed for Approbation as unchristian and prodigious And therefore I think rather he this ill-portending Comet this wandring Star of Error and Falshood who would seem to be one of those real ones fixed in the Firmament of the Church but hangs only in the Air as if he were to usher some greater Heresies into the world is himself indeed a most unchristian Prodigie He ends this Argument with telling us The Commissioners may obtrude a man upon a Congregation pro libitu suo be he never so froward insufficient or ill-conditioned or unsound Read over the Ordinance for Approbation which is their Commission and you will find this to be like the rest of his stories For as I have said already if a man that is presented to a place happen to be dis-approved by them upon examination they have no power of placing any other there in his stead but such person or persons who have right thereunto ARGUMENT VI. NOw to the sixth Argument much like the former wherein he saith The Commissions as they have been and still are acted and administred do intrench upon the spiritual Rights and Priviledges of the people of God who are invested by Christ Jesus with power to chuse for themselves and enjoy while they please a man to be over them in the Lord a spiritual shepherd the Commissioners rejecting whom they please and keep asunder them whom God would have joyned together if they will not yea it and nay it with them from the one end of their faith to the other This Argument being compared with the former supposeth two sorts of Congregations in the Nation which is granted Viz A Parish Congregation made up for the most part of the people of the World and another sort sometimes termed a separate sometimes a gathered Congregation consisting only so far as in charity we are able to judge of persons fearing the Lord in truth and sincerity The Minister of the one we usually term Parson or Vicar and the Minister of the other Pastor or Teacher It is of the latter that in this place he asserts this priviledge but it is with the former only that the Commissioners have to do Mr Goodwin could himself have solved this doubt without my help He knoweth that the Vicar of the Parish Assembly of Stephens Colemanstreet may either be put in or put out and yet the Pastor of that remnant of sheep usually assembling in some private house in Colemanstreet remain in his Pastoral relation still and neither be put in or out by either of these Commissions And yet he hath the confidence to speak what he saith at large of the people of God in general whereas 't is well enough known that what priviledge soever the people of God in gather'd Congregations have exercised heretofore in the chusing and retaining of their own spiritual Shepherds they do still enjoy and exercise with the same Liberty and those Shepherds of theirs being not at all under the cognisance and examination of the Commissioners the yeaing and the naying it with them is quirkt in here by Mr Goodwin to no purpose but to fill up the Page and so there is the sum of that which he calleth his sixth Argument though you see it amounts to no more but a bold groundless Affirmation ARGUMENT VII THe seventh is just such another He saith The Commissioners for Approbation by him termed the Commission for Tryers strike at the Civill Rights of Patrons and all others concerned in presenting who have a Law-right of presenting men unto Parochial Demesnes which are called Benefices or Spiritual Promotions But how can that be seeing the Ordinance admits the Rights of Patrons and others in this kinde Yes by a trick that sagacious Master Goodwin hath sented out for he saith Thouh Presentations be made by such as have the right to do it and though the Persons presented be never so deserving yet they lye at the mercy of the Tryers whether ever they shall enjoy the Preferments collated upon them or no. But how comes this about even by a device of his own forging For first he imagineth but proveth not a Word That the Commissioners practise is to act their power in quarelling and opposing the Clerk presented And secondly By means of their power in conjunction with their Interest and subtilty to bring about their ends they become effectivè the Patrons of all spiritual livings in the Nation These are not all his very words but the sum and substance of that unmanly scandal which he calls his seventh Argument and under the name of an Argument he will needs obtrude it upon the Reader whereas it is nothing lesse for it concerneth an Accuser both in foro externo and interno that if he brings in an Accusation of Fact against any man or number of men he should produce Instances as an Argument to prove the Accusation or else he must stand condemned of calumniation both before the world and in his own conscience for want of due proof But Mr Goodwin brings not so much as one single Instance towards the making of such an Argument Ergo He is an errant Calumniator Moreover if you look a little narrowly into it you will finde this directly contradictory to the two foregoing arguments In the fifth he pleads as if it were the Civil Right and Royalty of the People in a Parish to chuse Then in the sixth he pleads for it as one of the Spiritual Rights and Priviledges of the People of God onely to chuse And now again in this seventh he forgets both these and falls stifly to pleading on the behalf of Patrons asserting the power of choice to be in them as a Royal Priviledge and matter of Conveniencie intended them by the Law by which means he now thrusts the Rights that he before alledged on the behalf of the other two quite out of the Calendar Saevis inter se convenit Vrsis Bears usually agree together yet these Arguments of his are so wilde and savage that it is not in the power of man to tame them or bring them to consistency and correspondence with each other so as to apprehend what he intends by either Onely this is evident that somewhat he would say against the
constitution of a Common-wealth and what are the Bonds and Bounds of Civil power To this end he tells us God in these daies doth not make supream Rulers immediatly or by Divine dictate but mediatly by those that are to be ruled and governed by them Viz. The people now the people have no power from God which they can entrust unto their Rulers either by the Law of Nature or otherwise to establish any Rule or Law amongst them unto which they shall all stand bound every man to beleeve the same things with another in all points of Christian Religion or that the judgement of any one man or number of men amongst them shall be the Standard unto which all the rest shall conform their judgments in matters of Faith or Worship or else incur some civil punishment The reason saith he is because God never gives power to any to enslave or subject the consciences of men in matters appertaining unto himself And it is not probable that the People of this Land ever gave their Rulers any such power as that now mentioned that they might invest any one or more of their Subjects with authority to mould and form the judgments and consciences of their fellow Subjects in matters of Faith or to inflict any civil Mulct or Punishment or to set any brand of publick Infamy and reproach upon them as by excluding them as unworthy from places of publick Trust yea from all livelihood and maintenance of which they are capable because they cannot set their judgements by theirs or make one lip with them in some controverted points of Christian Religion Therefore the Commission by vertue whereof our Triers sell their Brethren into the hand of poverty and disgrace onely because they will not prostitute their judgements to the lust and ambition of theirs stands not upon any regular foundation of power or Authority Here is as the Proverb saith a great deal of Crie and but little Wool This is the sum of this extravagant Argument And though the vanity and unreasonableness of the most part of it be of it self evident enough to any man that hath read my Answers to several of the foregoing Arguments yet wheresoever he is pleased to Tautologise I have been willing to imitate and trace him in the mystery of wording lest perhaps himself or some others whose Faiths are pinned upon the Sleeve of this great Doctor should cry out that divers of the Arguments never had any Answer Let us on therefore to the business 1. Whereas he saith That not God immediately but the people mediately do make Rulers though it be but to little purpose to enter upon such discourse as this now yet the angry man having thought fit to lugg it in here by the ears mihi Cynthius aurem vellit I must needs say somewhat which may perhaps sink into the consideration of this Mongrel-Polititian if it finde him in a calm or out of his Currish humor And it is this That however it hath been talked over aud over and printea a thousand times that there have been no valià Titles to Government but what were received from the People yet from the very first time that the Goverment called Political was instituted in the World it is a most undeniable truth that in all the considerable Nations which have since been under the Sun Titles to government and forms of Government have in all times been de facto dispensed and devolved from hand to hand mediately by the power of the Sword There are but few or no exceptions that stand upon record to the contrary and indeed the onely remarkable Instances which are contrary are those in sacred Story concerning the State of the people of Israel whose happiness alone it was above all the Nations upon the face of the earth to have persons and Families invested with Title to Government many times by immediate designation from God himself But this was extraordinary and excepting only those extraordinary Instances I am able otherwise at large to make good the Assertion But because I live in a touchy time when most mens brains are crowing upon points of Government I would by no means be mistaken and do therefore for the Readers more right apprehending of my purpose take leave here to distinguish betwixt Title to Government and Administration of Government I gladly acknowledge that in all times after Governments have been founded and established by the sword then they who held the Sword have been contented and thought it their best security as indeed it is to administer Government by Law and accordingly they have been willing to admit the People to the exercise of their Right more or less in the making of those Laws whereby they were to be governed and so the superstructure in the Administration of Government by Rulers hath oftentimes been carried on by their contenting themselves to rule according to such Rules or Laws as have been in a measure handed out unto them by the Representative Bodies or Assemblies of the People This hath frequently been the way after that Governments and Titles have been set up and founded But in the setting up or founding of them the People have ever had but little or no share Titles and Forms in their original having de facto been cut out and carved by the Sword all over the world in the more eminent and I might say all Nations Which being considered I suppose this Political point of his lies flat upon the ground and his Assertion may with better reason be turned this way That God hath been so far from making Rulers mediately by the People that having ever assumed to himself the disposing of Governments and Kingdoms to whom he pleaseth as his great prerogative he hath in the several turns and variations of his Providence concerning it generally so ordered the matter that the People have for the most part had least to do in founding Governments or in making their own Rulers but that the only wise God having permitted the Sword many times to be drawn for the executing of his justice upon Nations for their sins and for the bringing about his own great designs in the world hath mediately by the Sword exercised that his own Prerogative in setting up Governors and Rulers at his own pleasure and in founding new Forms of Government from time to time And the same God who hath constantly over-ruled the management of Affairs in the hands of men after this manner for bringing things to a new settlement after warlike commotions hath also so disposed the hearts of men to acquiesce therein that the Suffrages and Consent of the People have usually ex pest facto been brought and taken in for Confirmation This hath been the general course of Gods providence in ordering the Governments of this World as is evident both in Profane and Sacred Story In the mention whereof take notice by the way that I dispute not the Peoples right but only tell how things have gone de
Malignancie they be enclined to Treat the State contumeliously That is a small matter in the eye of Mr G. because therein himself may shake hands with them as a brother having in this Book made as bold that way as any of them and therefore 't is contumeliously done of the State to animadvert upon their Malignancy and a crime in the Commissioners because they will not break their Trust by giving an Approbation to enable them to Treat the State with contumelie in publick before all the People This is the Inference and the sum of his Discourse about the matter amounts to this When Preachers are enclined to the highest mischief that may be in a Nation if the State or their Officers do take a reasonable Course to prevent the mischief they thereby contumeliously handle those Preachers and it were better to let them be actually doing mischief than irritate their malignant Inclinations by depriving them of the opportunity to rob the State of the hearts of the People This would make an Argument to prove as well that Robbers should be let alone upon the Rode and Cut-throats in the City rather than the Inclinations of them and their Companions should be provoked by a contumelious sending them to Gaol to keep them from doing further mischief It would be every jot as wise a Conclusion for the toleration of them and all other Offenders as that of Mr G. on the behalf of Malignant Preachers Nevertheless he breathes the utmost of his Conclusion in these words ERGO Therefore the Politick Consideration suggested in the Argument in Countenance of the Triers and their Constitution is clearly anti-politick and frowns rather than smiles upon their Consistory And so saith he if Policy having weighed them in her Balance finde them wanting and Religion having weighed them in the Balance of the Sanctuary hath found them yet wanâ—ing more let their Kingdom be divided and given to the Congregations of the Land That is to say to the Parishes for these are the Congregations he intends in this Place By which it is evident that as many of the former Passages of his Book are contradictory to each other so what pretences soever he made before on the behalf of Patrons the Gather'd Churches Presbyteries and others he contradicteth all now 't was not out of any respect to them but onely to colour his corrupt design of exasperating all sorts of men for an overthrowing the present Establishment of Commissioners for Approbation seeing after all he looks over the left shoulder with Scorn and Contempt upon the other Parties and in opposition to them all concludeth on the behalf of Parishes whom in gross he would prefer as the most competent Approvers But notwithstanding all that ever he hath said the foregoing Argument or Objection raised by himself on the behalf of the Commissioners stands yet far more considerable than all his pretended Answers thereunto which being found so mean surely no man will look so low as to frown at them though many may smile but especially at his Eighteen Arguments in the managing whereof he hath you see proved himself no less scandalous than vain in reference to Religion and carried the matter as illogically in this as in most of his other Scripts which whosoever reads with a judicious eye will hardly beleeve the man was ever acquainted with the Schools of Reason and will I dare say readily subscribe to this Censure That they are Thus Piper Scombros metuentia Scripta Such a sort of writings which might be most Politickly preferred if they were duly divided betwixt the Grocers and the Tipling-Schools of the Land A Postscript to the learned Reader concerning Mr J. Goodwin's Temper Mart. l. 5. Ep. 59. In Mamercum UT bene loquatur sentiatque Mamercus Efficere nullis Aule moribus possis Pietate fratres Curios licèt vincas Quiete Nervas comitate Rufones Probitate Marcos aequitate Mauricos Oratione Regulos jocis Paulos Rubiginosis cuncta dentibus rodit Hominem Malignum forsan esse tu credas Ego esse miserum credo cui placet nemo FINIS * 2 Pet. 2. 18. Dan. 5 9. Mr. G. his first Argument Mr. Goodwin's first Argument reduced into Form The Answer Mr Goodwin his first false Supposition His second false Supposition A Thesis in opposition to his first false Hypothesis * Asturam vapich servat sub pector ulpem Mr Goodwin his second Supposition refused Mr. G. his second Argument Answer Answ 2 Tim. 2. 2. 1 Tim. 3. 10. * These are the words of the Ordinance for ejecting * Projicit ampullas sesquipedalia verba Mr. G. his third Argument Mr. G. his Fourth Argument Mr. G. his fifth Argument b Entituled A Voice from Heaven against the Triers Mr. G. his eighth Argument Mr. G. his own expression Mr. G. his Ninth Argument A true State of the design and purport of the Ordinance for Approbation Mr. G. his Tenth Argument Mr. G. his Arminian Tenets Gospel Truths in opposition to Mr G his Arminian Teâ—ers Chap. 1. sect 11. Miserable Absurdities which Mr. G. hath been necessitated to broach to bottles up his Arminian Tenets Chap. 2. sect 1. Ibid sect 2 Chap 2 sect 12. ibid. Chap. 3 sect 1. Chap. 3. sect 3 Ibid. sect 7. Chap 4. sect 23. Ibid. sect 21. Sect 18. Sect. 17. Chap 16. s 14. Chap. 4. sect 8. Chap. 18. sec 37. Chap. 4. sect 30. Chap. 16. sec 15. Chap. 16. sect ult Ibid. Chap 9 sect 16. Chap. 13. sec 33 Mr. G. his eleventh Argument Mr. G. his 12th Argument Mr G. hâ—s 13th Argument Mr. G. his 14th Argument * Mat. 9 38. Luc. 10. 2. 1 Cor. 9. 27. Mr. G. his fifteenth Argument * Touching the truth of this I refer you to a Book written by my self entitulâ—d The State of the Case of the Commonwealth Anno 1650. wherein this 〈◊〉 is made evident by all the great Instances out 〈…〉 Mr G. his 16th Argument The Testimony of his Highness touching the Commissioners for Approbation and Ejection Mr G. his 17th Argument Mr G. his 18th Argument * Offa Cerbero An Objection on the behalf of the Commissioners starâ—ed by Mr. G. A Survey of the Answers brought by Mr. G. against the Objection raised by himself A reply to Mr G. his second Answer A Reply to Mr G. his third Answer A Reply to Mr. G. his fourth Answer Mr G. his pleadings for Malignant Pâ—â—achers