And is governing a Family or my self governing all the World And is governing a Parish-Church under an Archbishop the governing of many hundred Parishes that are no Churches but parts of a Diocesan Church I mentioned Mr. Stanley Gower's words to me of Archbishop Usher that he told him that a Bishop and Presbyter differed not Ordine but Gradu and that he took his Primacy and Lordship not as his Church-Office but as a Collateral Dignity given by the King and one would think no Man that believes the Scripture should think otherwise But this Accuser saith that he will not believe Mr. Stanley as he calls him or me But must we therefore both disbelieve our own Ears For he thinks the Bishop should then act against his Judgment and Conscience What Act may that be And he citeth Dr. Bernard's Testimony as against my Report whereas the very cited words of Dr. Bernard say the same that a Bishop hath Superiority in Degree above a Presbyter And the Accuser putteth these words that are against himself in Capital Letters it seemeth not knowing what he did or what Ordo and Gradus signifie § 87. Accus LXX He saith I injuriously mention King Charles the First his Answer to the Nineteen Propositions because he there gave away his Right for Peace Ans I mention only his own description of the Constitution by King Lords and Commons and their several Powers And would he persuade Men that the King falsly described it or that his Historical Description was his Guilt And he falsly saith that I am a Dissenter from Bishop Usher ' s Judgment about the King's Tribute in Ireland His Uuntruths come so thick that I am weary of naming them As pag. 88. 1. That I was for the Extirpation of Episcopacy Root and Branch 2. And yet that the Archbishop's Model which we desired preserveth that Species of Diocesan Bishops which Mr. B. would destroy Would we destroy that which we desired 3. And That under which Mr. B. maketh Christ's true Discipline unpraecticable Ans Palpably false For therefore we desired it because it maketh that Discipline practicable by the help of Parish-Pastors which without them is impossible 4. That no Government will please me as long as the Liturgy is established When he should have said that professing Assent and Consent to all in it will not please me till I can do it without lying 5. He saith Conformity is to me impossible as long as any of those which I account heinous Sins are retained Ans Yes if Lying be Conformity to me one Lye is unlawful 6. That I was always opposing the Party that was uppermost Ans If that were true it seemeth I sought not for Preferment 7. That I would have the new Liturgy or nothing Ans And yet we offered to use the Old if amended so we might not profess it less liable to Exception than our Translation of the Scripture it self and left it to the Bishops to joyn so much of the Additional Forms as they saw good but the Book was never debated by them § 88. Accus LXXI I have heard it credibly reported by some Reverend Persons there present that that Treaty might have had the desired effect of Concord had not Mr. B. so obstinately resisted Ans That is either those Reverend Persons would have amended their Impositions if I had not Petitioned them to do it and told them the necessity of it or else that all the rest of the Commissioned Nonconformists would have Conformed to all the old faults which they protested that they judged sinful and to all the worse that should after be added if I had not been against it These Reverend Persons were as Credible and Reverend as you are as our present state in England tells us Then he tells us what the Bishop of Chester told Mr. Walton Morley's Steward what Bishop Sanderson said against me which is half false Bishop Sanderson taking the Chair I being by a multitude of Arguments from the words of the Text proving against Dr. Gunning that Paul in Rom. 14 and 15. requireth us to receive to Communion such as differed in as great matters as those do that scruple kneeling at the Sacrament which I told them I scruple not I once told Dr. Gunning that he did petere principium in a case wherein Dr. Sanderson said that word was not in the common Logical sence applicable to his words And the old Learned peevish Man added that I was perverse for saying it And this was the heavy Charge And he addeth what Bishop Morley said of my eagerness to dispute when my Prethren were unwilling Ans Bishop Morley's words of me were much what as credible as yours or Roger Le Strange's Why then did they consent if they were unwilling And if neither Reasoning nor Petitioning them might be used what were we Commissioned for The truth is many of our Brethren when the Bishops told them they would say nothing to us till we brought in writing to them all the faults that we found with the Liturgy and also all the Forms in terminis which we desired as amendments or additions did say It was not this but an amicable consulation that the King Commissioned us for and seeing that this was a meer fraudulent pretence for our frustration they motioned our departing as being denied all that we were called to But I told them that the Bishops would report behind our Backs where we could not be heard that we had nothing to say against their Impositions nor any other terms to offer thinking we would never have agreed on any other Therefore I satisfied divers of them that though we were prejudged it were better let the World see our Cause stated in Writing than leave them to accuse us so when we should never have leave to declare the truth and deny their misreports § 89. Accus LXXII Page 91. He saith His Petition for Peace then was like his Pleas now meer Threatening and Reviling Take heed saith he how you drive Men by penalties on that which they judge would tend to their Damnation The denial of these Desires would renew all our Troubles Ans And indeed is both Damnation and the renewing of our Troubles and Divisions a matter of jest or so indifferent as that it is threatening and reviling humbly to petition Drs to take heed of them They rejected this Reviling Petition And hath England or Hell gained more by their rejection Doth it not tend to Mens Damnation to Swear Subscribe Profess or Practise all those words and things as good and lawful which they think sinful and the Imposers only call Indifferent Have not the Divisions been these thirty years a trouble to this Land which these Men might have prevented and cost them nothing He addeth They tell the Bishops of unmerciful Impositions Ans And is it Mercy to drive Men to Sin and Hell or a crime to beg for so cheap Mercy for the Souls of Men even of Bishops He that doubteth is condemned
up but one sole Bishop and Church instead of a Thousand or many Hundred or many Score do fiercely accuse me as if it were not they but I that am an Enemy to Episcopacy and the Church for desiring that Thousands may not be ejected or kept out and one only undertake in each Diocess an impossible task XIX The factious Sectarian part of the Conformists most fiercely and implacably accuse me for telling them after many years patient silence what are the Reasons that I conform not to their imposed Oaths Covenants Subscriptions Declanations and Practices taking this for an Accusation of those that do what I dare not do And because I give not over Preaching And some of their Writers expect that I falsly accuse my self of a multitude of heinous Crimes of which they by palpable lying accuse me As if Lying against my self were an act of Repentance and a means of Pardon and were not a Sin as well as to bely another XX. The Magistrates and Judges who have oft Imprisoned me and seized on all my Goods and Books and driven me out of the County with the Bishop that forbad my Preaching accuse me for not ceasing to Preach when I have unanswerably proved that so to do would be persidious Sacriledge against my ordination Vow and Calling And when I blamed the Herodians Priests and Pharisees for seeking to destroy Christ and forbidding his Apostles to Preach they said I meant the Bishops that Silenced such as I and for this sent me to Prison with a Fine of Five hundred Marks But from the Justices of the Sessions I had the fairest dealing For when they kept me under many Hundred Pounds Bonds to the good Behaviour that I might be at their will to take me up as soon as they could find any pretence for an Accusation they openly professed that they did it not as a Penalty and had nothing against me but took me to be Innocent but the Times being dangerous they were to do it for Prevention that is By the order of Judge Jeffreys and the King Now if you can tell me what Confession and Repentance that must be which must satisfie all these Accusers or else which of all these Parties it is that I must satisfie and how I shall know that I shall not be guilty of a multitude of gross Lyes by the Confessions which they require and expect you will perform a work which to me seemeth impossible Therefore all that I can do is to search my Heart and Life with a sincere willingness to know the Truth and to confess to God and Man so much as I can find to be truly sinful as far as Men are concerned to know it XXI The Italian and Spanish sort of Papists yet deeplier accuse me than most aforesaid for denying their pretended Vice-Christ and confuting their Heretical and Schismatical Errors and proving that by their Conciliar Religion they profess open Hostility to Christian Kings and Magistrates One of them 1661. wrote me a Challenge to make this good having said somewhat of it in my Sermon to the Parliament which I fully performed But it hath ever since lain unprinted for want of License from our Clergy and Security from the Court. XXII The English Diocesan sort who are for an Universal or Foreign Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction under the Name of General Councils and a Collegium Pastorum in the intervals governing per Literas format as the Pope being Principium Unitatis and Patriarch of the West are deep Accusers of me for denying all such Universal and Foreign Jurisdiction as that which is worse than the Italian sort Popery and would perjure this Land which is oft Sworn against it And for taking the Principles urged by Grotius after his Revolt to be the French sort of Popery and for being against that Coalition with such on these terms which said Foreign Jurisdiction is Pleaded for by Archbishop Laud Archbishop Bromhall Bishop Peter Guning Bishop Sparrow Bishop Sam. Parker Dr. Heylin Mr. Thorndike Dr. Saywell Dr. Beveridge and worse by some others All which by their own express words with a full Confutation of their opinion I have written ready for the Press and disputed it at large three days with Bishop Guning in the presence of his chosen Witnesses Dr. Saywell and Dr. Beveridge But Dr. Isaac Barrow against Thorndike hath irrefragably confuted all their Pretensions notwithstanding Bishop Parker's vain Contradiction XXIII But the great load of the most Bloody Accusations is heapt up against me by the exasperated Clergy and Laity for my calling them to Repentance for the Sins which I shall after mention and they fetch most of their Charges from my Actions in the Wars of which the multitude of Untruths in Matter of Fact which they virulently write and report I had rather think come from the rash belief of one another in their exasperated Faction than from the rupture of tumifying knownLying Malice and Rage But though this vented by Dr. Stillingfleett's nameless Second in the Book called The second Part of the Mischief of Separation be that which Cantianus maketh my Charge I think it not seasonable here to deal with it till I have first confest my real Faults SECTION 2. THough I have more than once Published the Confession of many of my youthful and later Sins the renewed loud call of Accusers and of Approaching Death provoketh me to do it again before I call others to Repentance And I will mention the Sins of my Childhood for a warning to Children to avoid the like And because the Seeds of following Sins are usually then sown I. Though from the first of my remembrance I liked Religious Goodness and feared sinning since my Father had talkt to me of God and Sin and the World to come yet it was many Years before I was humbled for my Original Sin or felt much of the need of a Saviour or understood the Doctrine of the Scripture but only delighted in the Historical part And though my Conscience troubled me for a Lie to scape Danger it did not always keep me from it II. If the most pleasing Sin be the greatest the Delight in feigned Histories called Romances was my great because my most delightful Sin III. Though my Appetite inclined only to the coursest and poorest Diet yet therein I pleased it foolishly and sinfully to the utter ruine of my Health which I the rather mention to bid Parents look to their Childrens Health in the quality and quantity of their Food as they love their Life and Comforts My delightful Diet was so much in Apples and Pears and Plumbs and Cheese that possest my Stomach early with an uncurable excessive Flatulency and my Veins with remediless Obstructions and bred so long and violent a Cough as that brought me into present danger of a Phthysis To Cure which after three Years taking excessively Garlick and flos Sulphuris inclined me to such a great long continued Bleeding as exhausted my Natural Heat and Strength IV. Though
at the Governours House Col. John Barker where I was offered to be Chaplain to the Garrison Regiment which I refused but undertook to preach once a Week to the Soldiers but without pay In which place God shewed me for about two years so great Mercy as I can never be sufficiently thankful for In a quiet and safe Habitation in the midst of a Kingdom torn by War and in pious converse with a great number of Excellent Learned Ministers that retired thither for safety from the rage of Soldiers and the Company of as pious understanding Gentlemen of the Committee as I knew living Sir Rich. Sheffington Mr. George Abbot Godfrey Bossevile and many more But because it was here that I declared my self for the Parliament I am here put to open the Case as it stood with me in order to my request to them that think I sinned yet better to help me by their Counsel and Prayers that God would convince me if I erred and pardon my known and unknown Sin SECTION 3. 1. I Did and do believe that the Legislative Power is the chief Flower of the summa potestas or true Soveraignty In this Bishop Morley himself fully confirmeth me 2. I did believe that the Legislative Power was by the Constitution of this Kingdom in the King and Parliament and not in the King alone This I believed because the words of the Laws say that they are made by the Consent and Authority of the Parliament And the King granted it in his Answer to the 19 Propositions in sence And not only Hooker and Bilson but all the old Bishops and the old Parliaments Judges and Lawyers commonly held it And I was not wiser in Law than all they I know few but Bishop Morley that deny that the Parliament have part in the power of Legislation And even he granteth that they are Authors of the matter to which the King puts the form And so he makes the Controversie like that of Aristotle and Galen about Generation whether the form be only à semine maâ—is vel utriusque As if the very Matter cum dispositione receptiva were not an Essential constitutive part But now King and Parliament have by a Law of the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects determined the Case 3. I did and do believe that it is commonly agreed that Parliaments have five Eminent Relations 1. They are part of the I egislative power by the Constitution of the Kingdoms 2. They are the Kings Supream Council 3. They are the Kings Supream Court of Judicature by the Lords 4. They Represent the Nation as subject to the King 5. They are the Nations Representatives so far as they are Free For had they not Liberties and Properties they were meer Slaves 1. As Subjects they are to obey 2. As Supream Council they are to be the chief Advisers 3. As the Supream Court the King is finally to exercise Judicature by them 4. As they represent the people as far as they are Freemen and not Slaves they are to secure their reserved and natural Liberties and Properties in their Lives Limbs Wives Children and Acquisitions which are not to be taken from them but by Consent or Forseiture 5. Their Legislative power they have not as Hooker and many others think by Nature but by that Fundamental Contract which made the form of Government For though Government be of God in the Genus and as empowered and obliged primarily to promote obedience to Gods own Laws yet it is of Man by Contract that the Persons or Families or Number and Order of Rulers be constituted and restraint put on the Invasion of Propriety 4. I did and do believe Grotius Lawson and other Writers of Politicks who agree that the bare Title of Supream given to a King is no proof that the whole Soveraignty summa potestas or Legislation in particular is in him alone and not at all in the Senate or Parliament for it is for Unity sake Honourary not excluding but implying the Parliaments part and also that he is to exercise his Judicatures by the Legal way of his Courts Judges and Magistrates 5. I did and do believe that the King is singulis universis subditis major quoad Fus regendi and that the people quâ talis have no power of publick Government but that he is not Universis melior And that meliority maketh the final Cause And that salus populi or bonum publicum is the Essentiating End or terminus of Humane Government And it is no Government save equivocally which is destructive of this End 6. I believe that the same God that Instituted Political Government did also make 1. Self-Government 2. Paternal Government 3. Marital Government 4. And Pastoral Church Government And that no King hath any Right to null any of these or alter them in Essentials or Integrals but only to over rule them 7. I believe that all Power is of God and no King hath any but what God hath given him And that God hath given none against himself or any of his own Laws And all Laws are nullities that are against them And are not Acts of Authority but Usurpation as Hooker saith 8. But yet he that acteth in one thing without and against Authority is to be obeyed in other things where he hath Authority and not resisted by Arms in every Usurpation yea the Honour of his Office and true Power is to be preserved while we refuse obedience to his sinful Usurpation 9. Grotius and common reason convinced me that where the summa potestas is in King and Senate each part hath right to defend its own true Part therein It can be no part in Soveraignty which is meerly at the Will and Mercy of the other part 10. I did and do believe that the Constitution fixing the chief power in King and Parliament united as one Politick Person it supposeth that they must not be divided And that neither part hath power against the other as such The King hath power over them as Subjects but not as Legislators or exempted Proprietors So that separating them by fixed opposition is dissolving the Constitution As separating Soul and Body Husband and Wife dissolve Man and Matrimony 11. Therefore I did and do believe that neither King nor Parliament had any right to raise an Offensive War against each other None but unavoidably defensive could be lawful Therefore the first assailant was the culpable beginner 12. I did believe that neither the King nor the Parliament as such are questionable by Law having no superior Judicature to try them And that the person of the King is inviolable there being no Power or Law to punish him and therefore the Law saith The King can do no wrong but it layeth all the blame on the Subjects who are responsible for their actions 13. I did and do believe that as every Man hath a power of private Self-defence against a Murderer or Thief so every Kingdom hath a power or right of
than I do that I have been put oft to confute them Yet how is Hooker extolled by them while I that have confuted his popular Principles am a Rebel King Charles II. verbally by a Declaration diso ned his Fathers Wars he honoured many Generals and Colonels of the Parliaments Army with the highest Offices One of them General Monk by a Parliament Presbyterian Army restored him yet I that never was a Commander or Soldier nor ever stroke or hurt Man or drew a drop of Blood in War am the great instance of the Rebellion Who did what I did to avoid the guilt of Rebellion and to save England from being made like Ireland where I thought it was Rebellion that Murdered two hundred thousand And we were then so ignorant of War that we commonly thought that one Battel would have ended all and setled peace As for the Charge of Schism I verily think that the Irish may as modestly transfer on the Protestants the charge of Rebellion as King Charles II. his Prelates can lay on such as I the charge of Schism which they have so powerfully caused and continued He that will read my Search for the Schismatick needeth no further proof And he that will not may keep his beloved Errour § 23. Accus X. Answered I said that I was bred up under eight Reading School masters of whom divers were beggar'd by drinking Must I repent of that Or of disliking such Churchmen O I should have said nothing ill of the dead No nor of their living Successors for hence is the rage O how intolerable to these Men is reproof and repentance in comparison of Sin I must repent for telling that one of my Reading Masters that only officiated in the Church never preach'd but once and that with the notorious signs of being Drunk in Eyes and Tongue on that terrible Text Mat. 25. Go ye cursed c. What enmity to the Church is it to complain of such Men But we were so often whipt when he came in Drunk that made us as weary of him as the Fined and Imprisoned Ministers are of the Persecuting Bishops § 24 Page 17. Accus XI At Nineteen years of Age he had a distaste against Bishops as Persecutors Ans But not as Bishops I cannot repent of distasting Persecutors It was Born in me and New born May not one be a Christian that loveth not Persecution § 25. Accus XII Whether Mr. B. made his Father a Rebel or his Father him he tells us his Father was twice a Prisoner Ans By this proof all the Imprisoned Nonconformists are Rebels How easily can such Prelates and their Agents make thousands of Rebels My Father lived in the Kings Quarters and never was Nonconformist nor medled with Wars But being plundered was made Collector of the Kings Taxes and brought in all that was paid but would not distrain and for that was Imprisoned And at last fled for safety to Worcester a Garrison of the Kings Who can escape the charge of Rebellion from such Accusers § 26. Accus XIII His first adventure was to Seize the Person of a Neighbour in exchange for his Father but Quo Warranto I find not Ans By the Law of God in Nature and the Fifth Commandment and â—ege Talionis the Party being obnoxious and suffering no hurt nor loss by it Yet from these false Conjectures about my Father he saith You see how early Mr. B's Spirit was fermented with Principles of Faction and Sedition Ans Readers you see what Faction and Sedition signifie in this Mans Mouth § 27. Accus XIV Here accusing me for telling how Bishop Morton Confirmed me and many more saying a short Collect without a word of Examination or Instruction he heapeth up divers falshoods 1. That my Master was a Minister I think is false 2. He querieth Did not your Master Examine you Ans He was the best of all my Masters and heard us say the Catechism but never told us any thing of the sence nor ever examined whether we understood any of it 3. He asketh How know you but your Master certified of you Ans If he certified that I understood what Baptismal Covenantings or Confirmation was or much of the rest or what Consent I gave to that Covenant I doubt he certified too much And I being the Head Scholar all the rest were liker to be ignorant than I Except Richard Allestree who though two or three years younger had been diligently Catechized by a Nonconforming Minister He saith This was Mr. B's fault not the Bishops Ans I confess I was faulty in not understanding as much at Fourteen years as I understood many years after I cannot say that a Child of Seven years old is sinless in not understanding all the Articles of Faith But though it be the fault of the Ordained if they seek it unqualified in gross Ignorance or Wickedness the Ordainers will not long believe such Deceivers that it is not their fault to Ordain such He that believeth Dr. Hammond and Mr. Eldersfield two the Learnedst Conformists of this Age of the grand importance of the solemn understanding and serious owning of the Baptismal Covenant in Confirmation when young Men pass into the rank of Communicants should shed streams of Tears to think how contrary common practice is hereto and how this Ordinance is not only frustrate but turned to a deluding Ceremony § 28. Accus XV. He was a Controuler of Bishops at Fourteen Ans A meer Forgery I liked the sport It was too long after that I disliked it § 29. Accus XVI Page 19. I am reproached that the Grave Neighbour Conforming Ministers that kept me from Nonconformity were such as had rather have had the Church rid of such dividing Things whence he slanderously concludeth that they waited an opportunity to be active in Ruining the Church Because when Conformity was forbidden by the Parliament they forsook not their Flock What can escape Satanical reproach when a great part of the County had scarce any able and pious Ministers but four or five such as these and they shall be falsly branded by such as never knew them § 30. Accus XVII His charge of my ignorant Subscribing at my Ordination I confess and lament and beg of God to forgive But the report of raining Manna at Bridgnorth at my coming thither is the Forgery of his Trade A Grain like dryed Rie rained there almost a year before my coming thither which I kept some of long and the like at Shrewsbury about two years ago And he forgeth that there were six Parishes at Bridgnorth because I said there were six under the Ordinaries Power § 31. Accus XVIII He accuseth me for being against the Et caetera Oath and Canons and yet saith not a word to prove it lawful but through me condemneth not only the Parliament that condemned it before the Division but even the long Parliament that made all their cruel Laws that never would own that Oath or authorize those Canons nor any Parliament
War stated by the Parliament Commissions for the King and Parliament I was in it and for it Because 1. He that is for the Highest Power in a Civil War is of the righter side caeteris paribus than he that is against it but they that were for King and Parliament were for the Highest Power in our Civil War Proved They that were for them that have the Legislative Power were for them that had the Highest Power as Morley confesseth and almost all others But they that were for King and Parliament were for them that had the Legislative Power Ergo c. Obj. What Hypocrisie is it to shoot at the King and say you fight for him Ans 1. The King protested to be for the Parilament as his Shrewsbury Half Crowns shew while he fought against their Armies and Persons Ergo the Parliament might more clearly be for the King while they fought against his Army and not his Person though in the Field 2. They knew that the King had discretion enough to keep his Person out of the reach of Danger And so he did At Edgehill he stood on the Hill as I heard and look'd down on the Fight in the Field At Naseby where he was nearest he was safe but that was after the first Cause and War I never heard else that he came near 3. Else any Traytor that could possess the Kings Person and carry him about as they did Henry VI. should be for the King and all against him that would rescue him Obj. He was willingly with his Army Ans He may fight for the King that doth it against his Will while he doth it not to hurt his Person Prerogative or Rights We Sware not to be for all the Will of the King If in a Passion he would kill Himself his Son his Lords his Parliament yea or would but Ravish a Woman he may be held and resisted Arg. 2. They that were to bring King and Parliament again to Union fought for the King and Kingdom and the Highest Power for it is the Constitution But the first Wars Commissions were to bring the King and Parliament to Unity Ergo c. Arg. 3. They that were really for the Common Safety and Salus Populi and the very Constituted Form of Government in a case of notorious danger and only against an Army of Subjects that fled from the Justice of the Supream Judicature were righter than those that were against their Wars But c. Ergo c. Arg. 4. They that were for a Defensive War according to Law and Constitution were righter than they that raised War against them contrary to Law and Constitution But c. Ergo c. The Parliament to the last were against all violence to the Person of the King and were cast out by Cromwell for Voting to receive him As it was easie for Bradshaw and â—ook to Charge all the Bloodshed on the King so is it fo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accuser to Charge it according to his Judgment But all of us must be willing of Conviction and deep Repentance so far as we shall be proved guilty Arg 5. The present King and Parliament have by Practice and by Law declared the right of more than Arming and Resisting a King in several Cases Arg. 6. In a doubtful Case under God there is no Judge that hath a deciding power above the Supream Judicature § 50. Accus XXXVII He next accuseth me as falsly Charging the peaceable Reign of King Charles the First with Persecution wherein there was no such thing but Peace save against the Seditious And he appealeth to the Canons Ans 1. See the Preface to my Book called Cain and Abel for an answer to this 2. We appeal to the Canons too and to the Bishops Visitation Articles and to the experience of all England that delight not in the Destruction of the true Servants of Christ 3. But alas how far are Leeches from feeling the smart of the Persons whose Blood they feast upon The Papists say none were punished in Queen Mary's days but the Hereticks and Seditious So saith the King of France And so said the Irish when they Murdered 200000. 4. Q. 1. Was there nothing but Amiable Peace when Laud and others wrote for a Forreign Jurisdiction under the Name of our obeying the Pretorian Power of Forreign Councils Q. 2. Was it Sedition not to Read the Book for Sunday Sports and Dancing which exempted Children and Servants from the Government of their Parents and Masters For which many Ministers suffered Q. 3. Was it Sedition for Religious people to go hear a Conformable Preacher at the next Parish when they had no Preaching at Home Q. 4. Was it Sedition for Religious people to pray with their Sick Friends and Fast and Humble themselves to God without Travelling to the Bishop for a License Q. 5. Was it Sedition for a Man Vowed to the Ministry by Episcopal Ordination to Preach or Expound any matter in the Church or elsewhere without a new License from the Bishop Q. 6. Was it Sedition for any Man Noble or Ignoble to affirm that any thing was repugnant to the Word of God in the Ceremonies Liturgy Ordinations or the Et caetera Government of the Church Q. 7. Was it Sedition to refuse the false Et caetera Oath of 1640 Q. 8. Was it Sedition to say that other Societies in England were true Churches besides the Episcopal Churches At least the French and Dutch Q. 9 Was it for Sedition that Men were punished for not Receiving the Sacrament when the Conscience of their ignorance and unfitness deterred them Q. 10. Were the many thousand Families that were put to fly the Land to Holland and America punished for nothing but Sedition Were New England and Barmudas planted without any Persecution Or was it no punishment to be driven from House Land Goods Kindred and Native Countrey into an unplanted Wilderness among VVoods and wild Men and Beasts Q. 11. Was it no Persecution to be Excommunicate ipso facto by Canons 6 7 8 c. without being admonished or heard Q. 12. Was it nothing but Amiable Peace that laid all the Ten sorts of the Excommunicate named in the Statute in the common Goal during Life depriving them there of their Estates unless they Lied by a feigned Repentance Q. 13. Yea was it only harmless that made Seriousness in Religion such a common Scorn as the word Puritane then signified if Mr. Robert Bolton Bishop Abbot Bishop Downame and other Conformists may be believed But say these Accusers All this was but justice and was well done But the casting out of two hundred accused on Oath for gross scandal and utter insufficiency by the Parliament was Persecution and was not well done § 51. Accus XXXVIII Next I am accused because other Men exploded the Lords Prayer Ans 1. And what is that to me that constantly used it 2. And who may not see that the use of it was prescribed in the Directory 3. And the Presbyterian
this be a Character of the best Church in the World to have such Ministers But if there be no Obligation from that Vow to the things aforesaid 1. Dr. Sanderson and most sober Casuists are mistaken who say That though a Vow be unlawfully imposed and unlawfully taken and part of the Matter be unlawful to be kept it bindeth us nevertheless to keep the necessary part And what am I that I should swear or say that I am wiser than all these Doctors and sure that they are mistaken 2 And then I must swear or say that neither King nor Lords nor any one took it in a lawful sense which else would oblige them And must I become a Voucher for Thousands whom I never knew 3 And then I must swear or say that the King was brought in by Errour and Deceit Monk's Presbyterian Army and the Presbyterian Gentry and Ministry of England brought in the King as bound to it by this Covenant as they declared And must I say it did not bind them to it But our Accusers are no Self-accusers but God will difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an Oath and dare not take God's Name in vain § 76 Accus LIX He dipped his Pen not in Gall and Vinegar but in the very poyson of Asps to keep open the wounds of the expiring Church To which end he endeavours to draw his Neighbour-Ministers into an Association and procures the Worcestershire Agreement the design of which you may see in his Gildas Salvianus Ans I have here some help to understand Christ They that kill you shall think they do God service What Duty so great that some will not say is a Crime that deserveth death The Agreement accused is printed in a Book called Christian Concord The terms of it were that Episcopal and Presbyterians and Independents should agree in the practice of so much of the Ministry and Church-Discipline as they were agreed about in their Judgments or Principles and be left in the rest to their several Liberties Was this a Crime Is an Attempt of voluntary Concord and Peace the poyson of Asps Or is not the poyson of Asps under their lips that are haters of it and have not known the way of peace I have had thanks from Helvetia and other parts of Germany for that Gildas Salvianus and that pacificatory Attempt which is to these Men the poyson of Asps § 77. Accus LX. But there was then a Petition that scandalous and insufficient Ministers might not administer Sacraments on which the Loyal Party were restrained Ans And is it a Crime to be against a scandalous insufficient Ministry and a Duty to be for them that we may be the best Church in the World Reader the truth is this There was a Petition by some that those of what side soever for King or Parliament whose Insufficiency and Scandal was so great as to render them utterly uncapable of Ministry might not be allowed it And I petitioned withal that no Man might be cast out or restrained for being for the King against the Parliament and their Cause Is this so poysonous Doth not this Man more disgrace his Church than me that taketh it for the poyson of Asps to cast out only the uncapable and keep in the rest § 78. Accus LXI He accuseth me for telling the World truly how the English Prelates had encouraged the Enemies of serious Godliness in the Land and at how much cheaper a rate a Man might be a Swearer a Drunkard a Whoremonger an open Scorner of Godliness than to fast and pray or to hear a Conformist in the next Parish when there was no Sermon at home Ans What doth the Man mean by rendering this odious If he mean that all this was well done and that as in Armies he hath most Honour that killeth most so in their Church he is the best Man that doth most against serious Piety this is to profess themselves the Devil's Militia But if he mean that I mis-report the matter of fact and this was not so he may as well persuade us that we lived not then in England or that we knew not our Neighbours or that Men spake not English Can we chuse but know that which every Corner in all the Land did speak Doth he say a word to confute all this And it was a meritorious work to silence and imprison with Rogues all that obeyed not their ungodly Canons but it must go for a heinous Crime to feel their Malice or blame their Cruelty § 79. Accus LXII Pag 66 c. He accuseth me as accusing King Charles the First of too much favouring the Grotian design of Union with the Papists But 1. Doth he say a word so much as to deny his Letter to the Pope to venture Crown and all for Union 2. Or to deny his sworn Articles for Toleration mentioned in Rushworth's Collections and others 3. Or to deny the Papists Murders in Ireland and their power in the King's Armies in England 4. Or that he set up such Bishops as Laud Bromhall and others But if accusing these Men be my Crime when I would have saved England from them Reader peruse but a full Treatise which I have long ago written and hope to get speedily printed with the very words of Laud Bromhall Gunning Saywell Thorndike Heylin Pierce Parker Sparrow Beveridge c. for our Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is sworn against and then judge whether I accuse them wrongfully Must we be brought under Aristocratical Popery or French Church-Government merely by saying It is not Popery And must the Land so tamely be perjured and enslaved § 80 Accus LXIII Pag. 67. He hath been made use of as one of the most keen and Catholick Tools that ever the Papacy did employ Ans 1. 'T is an unrighteous Honour to Popery to call it Catholick while they are a Sect contrary to Catholicism But why then do not these Men love and cherish me while they are striving for a Foreign Jurisdiction if I be so much for them § 81. Accus LXIV Pag. 68. That I am for a mixture of Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent Government Ans And what harm is that I am for that which is good in all and for the Faults of none But these Men must needs be faultless and curse all others that they may bless themselves But am I Episcopal and yet the greatest Enemy to Episcopacy Are they for Episcopacy that put down hundreds to set up one in their stead § 82. Accus LXV The next Accusation is That my five Disputations of Church-Government came out to keep out Episcopacy and justifie our Ordination Ans 1. It was to bring in a threefold Episcopacy which our Diocesans kept out viz. Episcopos Gregis Episcopos Praesides and Archbishops over these 2. Chancellor Hide and Morley produced that Book before the King Lords and Bishops at the great Meeting at Worcester-house and Morley said No Man hath written better
than Mr. B. of these things And now it is all intolerable 3. That Disputation of Ordination was never yet answered that I could hear of and yet Men were forced to be re-ordained I never had a hand in ordaining any one § 83. Accus LXVI His Accusations of my holy Commonwealth are so slippery and trifling that they call not for an Answer unless it be that he taketh it for criminal 1. That I told Cromwell's Army that it was Treason to take Arms against the highest Power as they did and that if the highest Legislative Power was in the King alone and not in King and Parliament conjunct I must confess that I was guilty of death 2. Or that I said I honoured all the Providences of God that made our Changes though I abhorred the Deeds of Men that were guilty And is it a Crime to honour God and his Works 3. Or that I desired Richard Cromwell to govern well and called my self his Subject though I never owned his Right to the Government thinking that Christ directed me so far to submit to the Possessor when he paid Tribute to Caesar and sent Lepers and others to the High Priests that were Usurpers And this very Man and his best Church in the World except seven or eight Bishops do now practise that which he so condemned me for yea and much more while they swear Obedience to the present King William publishing that it is as to a King de facto only § 84. Accus LXVII is That I say I had been a Traytor had I taken Arms against the Parliament Ans Yes or the King either if the Legislative Power be in them conjunct The King protested that he took not Arms against the Parliament and the Parliament protested that they took not Arms against the King This Man makes Mr. Udal guilty of Sedition against the Queen because it was against the Bishops her Ministers And is it not as criminal to be against the Parliament Are they so much lower than the Bishops Here he wonders that any Christian can still take me for a Saint and the Guide of the Party and recites some applauding words of Mr. John Humfreys no Sectary But I take my self for a very great Sinner and know no Party that take me for their Guide and am so conscious of my Ignorance that I know it to be far greater than my Knowledge and yet my Affections come short of what I know The rest of his Invectives to the end of his first Chapter are nothing but a rabble of intimated congested Lyes upon the occasion of the Wars and perverted Words unworthy of a Confutation They are all built on the supposition that all that they did against the Parliament and Kingdom was not only just but necessary and all the Ignorance Drunkenness Ungodliness and Cainism of the vicious part of their Clergy were not to be blamed but the reproof of them and endeavours to reform them was heinous wickedness What a Charm is the name of the Diocesan Clergy that can turn the most scandalous Treachery into Sanctity and make the best Church in the World of the Haters of ferious Godliness and make a desire of their Reformation to be the badge of intolerable Rebels § 85. Accus LXVIII He begins his second Chapter with a recital of my Profession that 't is Treason to fight against the King and with this oft repeated Lye that I had the confidence to meet the Old King and his Armies in the Field This is his Diocesan History I never met the King in the Field nor ever saw an Army where he was nor ever saw one of his Armies till that of Goring's at Langport-Fight where the Field War ended Indeed I came into the Quarters where they had gone before me and I was so guilty of opposing them as to be ashamed of the fame they left behind them At South-â—ederton the Gentleman where I quartered told me that in his House they prick'd their Fingers and made the Blood run into the Cup and drunk a Health to the Devil At the Catherine-Wheel in Salisbury the Neighbours reported that some of them drinking a Health to the Devil one of them was carried away and never seen more I went into the Room and saw a new Standard and Glass where the Window was broken but the Woman said she was not in the Room and knew not how it was done whatever the Neighbours said of it from the Soldiers that were frighted But 't is none of my purpose to intimate that they were all such or most § 86. Accus LXIX His next Accusation is Our offering our Consent to Archbishop Usher ' s Reduction of the Primitive Episcopacy as a means of Concord Against this he saith The Bishops knew whence it came not from the Archbishop but from the Presbyterian Forge Ans Still this is English Church-History The Archbishop Usher owned it to his death as his Chaplains Dr. Bernard and Dr. Parre testifie He owned it to me himself and told me King Charles the First refused it at first but after would have accepted it But he exclaimeth against it as that which would have pulled down the Bishops or cut their Throats So that if one Bishop may not be said to govern many hundred Churches when a Lay-Chancellor doth it without any subordinate Bishop or Presbyters their Throats are cut And even the two Agents of our Misery Sheldon and Morley who were intrusted by the King to word this Declaration are by this Man made their own Cut-throats by granting some part of Pastoral Power to the Rural Deans and Synods This is the Church that must not be amended He saith that by this Model They would have robbed the Bishops of all their power and taken it to themselves And was Archbishop Usher such a Robber of himself and all the Bishops Did he motion any thing but the Primitive Episcopacy with the edditions of their large Diocess Wealth and Honour What was the power that they would have taken to themselves Was it to be Diocesans to rule a Diocess as the smallest Church that had none under it Would each Man have had this Diocesan Power or only all as one Political Body If each Man sure England had not Diocesses enough for so many Thousands If all as an Aristocracy could they desire more than Convocations have Or did they desire so much to all the Ministers of a Diocess in Conjunction with the Bishop as his Councils as every single Lay-Chancellor hath without the Bishop This is just like the Papists Accusation of Parish-Pastors that every Man would be a Pope in his own Parish And their saying of Masters that are for governing their Families that every one would be a Pope to his own House And against Self-governing of our Words and Actions that every one would be a Pope to himself And Idiots perceive not the Contradiction To be a Pope is to be one that claimeth the Government of all the World or Church
if he eat saith Paul England yet feeleth such Mens Mercy There is I think but one of their Commissioners now surviving nor on our side but few even Dr. Tho. Pierce Dean of Salisbury And he moved for leave by Disputation there to prove that it is a work of mercy to all that think it unlawful to receive the Sacrament kneeling to deny it them and the Communion of the Church though the prohibition of all kneeling in Adoration on any Lords Day was one of the Ancient Ceremonies of the Church setled also at the great Council of Nice and continued near a Thousand years saith Dr. Heylin But Morley had the wit to take him off that dispute § 90. Accus LXXIII Page 96. After other Harangues he alledgeth false Causes of my refusing a Bishoprick I satisfied the Lord Chancellor Hide by a Letter with truer Reasons too long here to repeat § 91. Accus LXXIV He next accuseth my Moral Prognostication Ans Let it answer for it self to the Impartial Reader § 92. Accus LXXV He threateneth me for blaming the Laws Ans And do not many Bishops now blame the Laws If Laws be made engines of Schism and Persecution let them justifie them that can and that love them David saith Shall the Throne of Iniquity have Fellowship with thee that frameth mischief by a Law How many German Divines blamed the Interim imposed by the Emperor as for Peace § 93. Accus LXXVI He next reciteth Bishop Morley's Accusations in his printed Letter Ans Which I have proved to abound with falshood in a full Answer which for want of printing hath lain by me these six and twenty years Mr. Baldwin is yet living who was present when he forbad me to preach And Dr. William Bates is yet living who joyned with me in the Savoy Disputation which he misreported § 94. Accus LXXVII He accuseth my Book called The Cure of Church Divisions and yet saith It is the only Book that Mr. B. hath written that hath any thing of moderation Ans Must the World have a confutation of so gross a Liar after the visibility of above Sixscore Books that are an evidence against him and after the testimony that the Lord Chancellor Hide and Morley gave of me producing one of these Books before the King Lords and Drs. at Worcester-House If I understand them above a hundred Books have been written by me with a special design for Moderation Unity and Concord § 95. Accus LXXVIII Page 101. He is not ashamed to be a procurer of the Indulgence for Popery 1. Because I said I would have Papists used like Men. 2. I would have no Man put to death for being a Priest 3. I would have no writ de Excommunicato capiendo or any Law to compel them to our Communion and Sacraments Ans This Man is for Moderation Do you think he or I is more for Popery or hath written more against it Would he not have them used like Men nor suffered to live And must they be cast out of a Church that they were never in It seems he would receive them all to his Sacramental Communion if they will but chuse his Church before the Goal § 96. Accus LXXIX Page 102. Because I hold that If a Bishop or their Church Party would lay us in Goal for our Duty to God it is lawful to accept deliverance from a Papist that is in Authority He feigneth that If they will not come to us I would go to them And if a Protestant did Hang this Man himself would he take it for Popery or Sin to consent that a Papist cut the Rope You see what kind of crimes we Nonconformists are guilty of A willingness to live out of Goals against the Churchmens will Nay it is yet more our Crime is that we will not damn our selves by Subscribing or Swearing falsly and breaking our Ordination Vow by giving over our Ministry The proof that these Men are against Popery is that they would have the Nonconformists die in Goals and have no Papist seek to deliver them § 97. Accus LXXX Accusing my Book against Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry he asketh me Why I Baptize not nor Administer the Lords Supper and so seem to desert Christianity Ans Because I was called to preach and not to Baptize and Administer the Lords Supper by the Necessities of the people where I lived There were in Martins Parish about 60000 more than could come into the Church to hear But they had Curates enough to Baptize and they were compelled to the Lords Supper or might have come and neither Minister nor People desired my help And if these Men believe it not I do That we may and must preach to many that yet are not capable of Sacraments And to many whose Pastors and Judges herein we are not Shall every Minister that preacheth occasionally for him presume to Congregate his Flock and give them the Sacrament Or is he displeased that I gathered not a separated Church § 98. Accus LXXXI As to his Accusation of the Book I leave it to the Readers Judgment that will impartially peruse it But I am not yet convinced by him that it is a Crime to name the heinous sins that have torn this poor Nation and no Crime to commit them Most of his Accusations are that I tell them of their sin and perswade them to repent § 99. Accus LXXXII He accuseth my Plea for Peace and my Book called The true and only way of the Churches Concord as being utterly against Peace Ans Read them and Judge § 100. Accus LXXXIII He accuseth my History of turbulent Bishops and Councils and their Anathematizing as if it were false and almost all was done by Presbyters Ans Let him that hath read it and the proof I cite freely judge who is the falsifier As to his talk about Nestorius had he read David Derodon and what I have said in my Reply to the Defender of Dr. Stillingfleet Mr. Morrice it might have acquainted him with more than he seemeth to know about the Nestorians Eutychians and Monothelites As to his talk against the Arrians I am as much against them as he but not so much against Peace Dr. Henry More a Learned Conformist saith that those after the Council of Nice were to be numbered with the Catholicks and not with the Antichristians Though a Presbyter began their Sect it was Bishops and Persecuting Emperors that upheld it As to my words of many Writers mistakes therein before the Council of Nice he may find them with abundance more in Petavius de Trinitate As to his words of the Controversies and Councils de tribus Capitulis he that excuses the said Councils and Bishops as faultless as to all the doleful Divisions that followed hath not a due love to peace and prudence The same I say of the Monothelites § 101. Accus LXXXIV His great Accusation Page 126. is that If I had any fear of God or reverence of Man I would not reproach the
within the Church 2. Did he know my Heart that I did it for Reputation And may he not say the like by any Man that doth good 3. Did I gain by Nonconformity that from the Day that I was silenced had never taken a Groat for Preaching nor ever had a Church to maintain me and had commonly refused even Friends Gratuities save 10l from one Man that I could not refuse for many Years after this and save from few to this day Who by refusing a Bishoprick and other Emoluments have lost I think above Twenty Thousand Pounds by Nonconformity What Answer do these Men deserve And I preached but one Sermon in that Chapel When I had built it to have preached freely And when they persecuted me away I resigned it to the Parish-Minister for their publick Worship which is used there to this Day near Sixteen Years But must I tell this Man how I got the Money that did it How much others gave towards it and how much I borrowed or else be so guilty as this Spirit maketh me If it were a Crime to be rich Fame reporteth him extraordinarily guilty But if it be Building Chapels that is the Crime I never heard of his Guilt § 108. Accus XC He saith I am guilty of Pride Malice and Uncharitableness for telling Men that the Wheel is turning and bidding them remember which side will be down at last whether I mean of a Change by Providence or of the Day of Judgment Ans Alas poor Men How soon will you know that such Counsel once signified better than Pride Malice and Uncharitableness unless all Preaching be such § 109. Accus XCI He accuseth me for saying in Mr. Corbet's Funeral-Sermon How sad a Prognostick the Death of such Men was Ans Had this Man known the great Wisdom sincere Piety eminent Charity and Peaceableness of that excellent Man as well as I did or as Glocester Chichester and London did and his Writings testifie he would not have turned my Lamentation into a Reproach nor seemed to intimate his contrary Disposition § 110. Accus XCII Because some other Men say that the Time of the Episcopal Persecution will be but short he gathers that we are engaged in some Plot against the Government Ans Who he meaneth I know not but if the time of Life and this World be short certainly Persecution will be short Every one that saith Your Life is short is not in a Plot to murder you All save one Man that were commissioned as against us in 1661. have found already by Death that their time of Revenge and Wrath was short His talk of Dr. Owen and his surmizing that some would have had a Toleration for Popery is like the rest when our main fears have been lest this sort of Men were studying from the time of Laud a Coalition with the French Papists and so many of them have written for a Foreign Jurisdiction But if we would not be ruined silenced and dye in Goals by them they will say we are for Popery § 111. Accus XCIII He accuseth me as most unchristian in my Answer to Mr. Cheyny for what I say of his Books and accounting him melancholy Mr. Cheyny is a Man better known to me than to him and I think much better loved by me He calls himself a Nonconforming Conformist and a Conforming Nonconformist I have motioned him to Friends for publick Employment for his serious Piety But these Men that seem now to be for him have depressed him and driven him up and down and disown his Books I think more than I do But any one that will allow them to use his Name for them shall be so far praised while they cannot well endure him But he glorieth of Mr. Cheyny's Success in pleading the Direction in some dubious Cases to go to the Bishop for Resolution in the Preface to the Liturgy And I wonder not at their valuing of that Clause for it is worth to many some Hundreds a Year and 't is hard to imagine what else could quiet many Men's Consciences But if I should say This is a frivolous â—alliate though I prove it he will say I am criminal or confuted by so denominating it But 1. The Words limit the Decision of the Bishop only to that which is not contrary to any thing in the Book and I am very tractable in such a Case But it is none of the Cases that I am concerned in 2. If it were in the Bishop's power to put what Sense he please on all the Words he were the Law maker for the Sense is the Law 3. I have gone to divers Bishops and asked their Sense and found it as unsatisfactory as the Book it self For instance I asked the Bishops at the Savoy-Debate If I have two in my Parish that declare they believe not in Christ but are Deists and yet will send their Child to be baptized with Godfathers and Godmothers of their own Fraternity who declare that whatever they say they never mean to own or educate the Child what Right that Child hath both to Baptism and certain Salvation And Dr. Sanderson in the Chair answered That as long as he brought such Godfathers as the Church of England requireth I must not doubt of his Right I long after asked Bishop Cunning What proof he had from God's Word of the certain undoubted Salvation of all such baptized Infants if the Parents were Heathens or Jews or Atheists and resolved to educate their own Children And he answered that As any one had Right to take up an exposed Child in the Street and take him in Charity into his House so any one had power as an Act of Charity to take up any Heathen's or Infidel's Child and being him to Baptism and then it was certain by the Word of God that he was in a present State of Salvation These Bishops Judgments are not that undoubted Word of God which they boast of but will not shew us And other Bishops think otherwise And so under several Bishops we must be of several Religions § 112. Accus XCIV He accuseth me for speaking of the Tediousness of Mr. R. Hooker's Argumentation when their Bishop Sam. Parler speaketh much more and the Case is undeniable And that I say If Hooker Bilson and Usher were alive they would be Nonconformises Ans Have I not fully proved it They were honest Men and would not subscribe and practise contrary to their own Writings but their Writings are downright against much of Conformity How large is Hooker for the Popular Legislative Power and that the King useth not Power but Usurpation when he useth more than the Law giveth him How large is bishop Bilson for Resisting the King in divers Cases Doth not Conformity renounce and forswear this Mark the renowned Bilson in this Honest Men would not go against their Judgments § 113. Accus XCV Pag. 134 135. He maketh it my shameful heinous Sin to beg of the Bishops not to be guilty of one of the most
would have Parents disabled to chuse Schools and Tutors for their own Children But whether such Men as this were not far more against Dr. Stillingfleet's Concessions than I was let my old Friend Mr. Samuel Thomas now of Chard his Invective against Dr. Whitby and Dr. Stillingfleet be Judge and Dr. Stillingfleet himself who seemed once to yield to Terms of Concord which many of us offered to him and others And judge of the peaceableness of that Tribe of Clergy-men by the University of Oxford's burning Dr. Whitby a Conformist's excellent Book called The Reconciler and his being forced to seem to retract it § 118. Accus C. His Intimations pag. 156. of my desiring to be a Parish Bishop and also motioned with Dr. Owen to be an Archbishop are meerly impudent When I never was either Parish-Bishop or sought it at least since cast out of the Ministry 1662. nor so much as the Pastor of any Church and have refused a Diocesan Bishoprick many Years before any one now in England was a Bishop How can a Man be n nocent before such impudent Accusers and Judges § 119. Accus CI. As to his Accusation of my Self-Contradictions and L'Estrange ' s Proof I think no distinguishing Reader will need a Confutation of so false a Charge which confused Heads do feign that understand not things that differ And for his Charge against my Third Plea for Peace about the Principles of Government I only refer the Reader to the Book § 120. I have not thought his mere general Clamours worthy of a particular Answer lest I tire the Reader as I have tired my self with so unsavoury an Employment But I will here tell the Reader how I that these eight Years have never thought this Accuser worthy of an Answer have been brought to change my Judgment and to be at this unpleasing Labour when other Thoughts are more suitable to my Condition I. A Letter from some ancient Conformist that calls himself Cantianus De Minimis of my Age Seventy five so earnestly calleth me to Repentance and Retractation before I dye referring me to this Book for the notice of my Sins that I thought not meet to resist his Importunity II. I read so much of the horrid Reports of many Papists of the Crimes and Deaths of Luther Zuinglius Oecolampadius Calvin Bucer Phagius Beza and many such and how confidently they are commonly believed in the Roman Church and how greatly it hardeneth many against the Reformation that I was loth to contribute to their Deceit And I find that the same Sect accuseth the Generality of Dissenters that do but affirm that there is AND THING in their Books of Liturgy or Articles or in their Ceremonies or Ordination or in their Government by Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons AND THE REST that bear Office therein unlawful or repugnant to the Word of God who are my Accusers and cry as Morley Ex uno disce omnes and when they have render'd me as one of the worst on Earth they make the rest as bad when I take them to be for the most the best Ministry that I ever knew And no wonder that their Writers and Preachers thus report them when their Canons ipso facto excommunicate them unheard not excepting Lords Knights Ministers or any And Lying is now grown so common a Sin in England confessed by all that few know what Reports to believe or to reject So that to betray my own Cause to these Accusers and Canoneers is to betray the Innocency of many Thousands III. I have long thought it my duty to call this sinful divided selftearing bleeding Nation to Repentance in a Treatise called REPENT O ENGLAND Bradford's dying Words though Experience telleth me that such Men as this will take the Motion for a greater Crime than all the Sins that I call them to repent of so odious a thing is Repentance and Confession to the Proud and Impenitent And before I call others to Repentance several sorts I take it for my first Duty to exercise my own To which end I unfeignedly resolved to confess what I could by any means find to be my Sin and being referred to this Accuser for my Conviction I found the Falshoods and Calumnies so many and so gross that I took it for my Duty not to seem by Silence to give Credit to them but having confessed what Sins I found to do my part to save others from the Temptations to Hatred and Lying and Persecution which such Men lay before them IV. And having laboured most of Forty two Years by Writing to profit Posterity as well as the present Age and written above a hundred and twenty Books to that End and God having prospered them far beyond my expectation in Germany and other Foreign Lands as well as in Britain I thought it Treachery to suffer the Devil and his Agents to blast them all with those that know me not without any Contradiction and Confutation of the Slanderers Sure if they were worth so many Years Labour 't is worth a little to take them out of the Fire or Water where Diabolism casteth them Which I am the more moved to because while I have the Thanks of Thousands that have read them common Fame and Mr. Cantianus that called me to this Work and others do tell me that the Generality now known by the Name of Tories or malignant Haters of serious Piety in England especially among the Universities and Clergy do so much hate my Name that they will read no Book which they see my Name prefixed to unless as the Adversary against whom it is written And as I have small hope of curing that malignant Prejudice which is more the hurt of the Envious than of me so I must not by Sloth or Silence contribute to its Increse and Men's Guilt § 121. I will conclude with these three farther Notices to all Readers for the true understanding of all these Controversies with the Men who so implacably hate and accuse me I. That they grosly cheat their sequacious Believers with this great Lye that I am against Bishops whereas I am for a Divine Right of three sorts of Bishops two by direct Institution and the other by Consequence viz. I. General Bishops call them Archbishops or Diocesans or Apostolicks or Evangelists that in every Nation are over many Churches II. Episcopi Gregis or Ruling Pastors of single Churches which are all true Presbyters III. Episcopi Praesides or Pro-estotes which are the Presidents of the Presbyters in particular Churches And that I am of the Judgment of Grotius De Imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra and highly value Bishop Overall's Convocation-Book in the main but abhor all Foreign Jurisdiction yet desiring the most extensive Foreign Communion § 122. II. That they grosly cheat their Believers in telling them that I am against Forms and Liturgies when they know that we offered to use theirs upon the Amendment of some Faults and severe cruel Impositions and by their Demand