see and say this was not from the beginning You do indeed profess to the first six hundred years but I dare say the last three hundred of them are those you would chiefly cleave to And what do you mean by Ecclesiastical Laws where are these recorded and by what authority were they composed When you have given me a plain clear and distinct resolution to these if I mistake your meaning let me be blamed till then blame me not I love not the Rhetorick which contrary to its end proposeth objects with that obscurity that they cannot be with certainty determined and that under a profession to clear and convince the conscience Yet Sir to do you right When I observe you page 114. eat your own words and offer as if your Brethren Prelates had brought you now into Cassanders School and charged you to make an Apology for your over-friendly proposal to Presbyterians which you pursue by telling us All Presbyterians do hug Bishop Ushers Reduction of Episcopacy which in your Analysis you assured us did reduce Episcopacy to an efficacious conjunction with Presbytery and on which Mr. Cr. concluded that sence which you say he seemed in a sober mood to own An Episcopacy consistent with the Covenant pag. 191. but now say will reduce Bishops to primitive poverty the estate which attended and enforced their piety and therefore tell us That humble learned and pious Lord Primate propounded that reduction not in order to binde the hands of or limit Bishops in England and Scotand but as a condescention and expedient at present to disarm and binde the hands of Presbyters and people Sir who told you that this was the politick stratagem of that pious Bishop did not Bishop Wren Sure I am he came not down from heaven to authorize you in your Book to call him hypocrite and to tell all the world he had in Machiavillian policy by his grave and judicious authority affirmed That it was apparent out of the Word of God and practice of the primitive times that Presbyters had an intrinsecal power unto all Jurisdiction and order in the Church and by after Vsurpation were thrust out and therefore he proposed an expedient prudendentially to restore them to their just authority but never intended it to be believed as a truth or ever be put in practice as a duty but to only be jingled in the ears of crying children Are you not ashamed to cast such a blot on the precious name of him who I know was by some Cassandrian Prelates judged Puritan whilst alive Do you measure every man by your own temporizing principles and think they are onely in a good mood till they have opportunity to be bad and base do not you blush to offer this reduction in one book and call it in in another But whilst I see you thus play fast and loose I know how to trust to you and am holpen the better to understand what you mean by Episcopal Government and when I observe the soveraign power by which Mr. Crofton you say and that truly is not willing to be ruled pag. 216. Coordination with Kings as cheif Governours by Divine appointment pag. 205. Honourable fatherhood and government p. 203. The legal constitution by the Laws of England to which our Episcopacy doth pretend the continued practice and exercise of it in this Nation the superiority above and authority apart and distinct from Presbyters whose advice may be good and useful but not necessary as that which would make every Presbyter suffragan Bishop and the Bishop without his Presbyters a meer â—â—pher All which I finde predicated up and down your tedious discourse of that Episcopacy you would advance and which you say is not so obscure as Mr. Crofton would pretend but in express terms you tell us is That Church polity honour order and government which our Bishops had and now have and that we must not by an equivocal and levelling fence confound Bishops and Presbyters by a silly â—â—gomacâ—ie or cavil of names distinguished by a real rational difference of place honor office authority and use in the Church of Christ which you say no learned man can doubt of or deny but sure you mean affirm when I consider these things I must confess I should mistake you and do my self wrong by suspending yea stifling my judgement if I should not see clearly the Episcopacy which you pretend to reconcile to the Covenant is no other then that very frame and fabrick of government which Smectymnuus tells us was of humane invention and diabolical occasion by which the man of sin was made manifest and did advance himself in the Temple of God innovated by Austin the Monck so exercised that it appeared papatum alterius mundi which my Analepsis told you I was jealous you meant in your Analysis I have Sir with tiring difficultie discovered the ratio formalis objecti which you profess to reconcile to the Covenant and make consistent with it and in my eyes it doth seem to be the very same with that which in terminis was covenanted to be extirpated viz. Prelacy that is to say the government by Archbishops Bishops their Commissaries Chancellors Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons c. depending on that Hierarchy But let us see how you answer the third part of Mr. Croftons Analepsis and acquit your self from the imbecillity of argumentation charged on you And sir you seem to me to take a very preposterous and strange course to commend the strength of your reason by a tedious and long confused discourse of rage enmitie and opposition at the Covenant or by a general hypothesis that it must bind to what is good pious just lawful and not against reason religion justice pietie morallitie duty to God and man whereas you ought to remember that generalia non pungunt these may be all admitted and Episcopacy never the nearer reconciled to the Covenant whereas you ought to have given us a grammatical construction logical resolution genuine interpretation of that Article which seemeth cross to your Episcopacy and by a clear acceptation and vulgar apprehension or general scope of its words make it appear that the words will without straining admit such a sence and signification but it may be the simplicitie which becomes an oath of the terms extirpation or reformation being incompetible except in a fools fancie might strike you off this But them you should Sir have given a point blank charge against that Article which clasheth with your Hierarchy as binding to injury injustice immorality irreligion against the duty we owe to God and man and pursued that closely by clear and convincing demonstrations then had the Bishop shewed himself a workman who needed not to be ashamed but let little Mr. Crofton be never so great a Dictator he must finde è quovis ligno non fit Mercurius every tongue well hung cannot be well tuned nor will natural fluencie be easily kept to rules of art or under the command of
when little Mr. Croftons Analepsis was laid at your feet to be taken up or kicked away but enough of this it is more fit for your Anonymous Anatomist then for a man of modesty who shall keep himself distinct as you have differenced him and shall therefore desire to weigh what your Worship hath against his Analepsis Mr. Crofton is in this elaborate tract dealt with a part but the little man is so light that he is tossed up and down the Wilderness that seeking he cannot without tyring find himself in these indeed tedious and intangled as your self calls them animad versions he did according to his little reason unravel your last snarled skain and resolved it into a regular method which methinks Sir might have kept your fluency within some bounds and have curbed your wild excursions he shewed you the Rocks against which your resolution dashed and digested your discourse into argumentation as well as he could and dare say you appeared better to the Reader in Mr. Croftons Analepsis then in your own Analysis why kept you not to this I promise you if this be Rhetorick I shall not love it till it keep to rule be plain pure perspicuous and methodical without which it is but natural fluency of words and volubility of tongue and not fordid tedious obscure flat wild rabid raging empty and barely wordy without sentence confused and immethodical as is yours unto the very heigth of exorbitancy take notice of it if I be as God forbid I should be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and an appeal be made to the Archp. against your writings I will adjudge you instead of your Marginal digitations to your Reader to place over every Paragraph the figure by which you frame your sentence and mood by which you form your argument for now you have vindicated your Analysis I must send to you to pray an Analysis of your vindication my reason it is too little to make it I must be fain to guess your meaning by your mumping The Doctors great design in his Analysis professed to reconcile the Covenant and Episcopacy but how unhappily he lost it and miscarried in it was modestly declared by little Mr. Crofton whom I apprehend this great Doctor scorns to admit as a Dictator so as to take notice of or amend his errors on which his conscience cannot but tell him all his Casuistical endeavouâ—s have been and must needs be shipwrackt without all possibility of satisfaction to conscience how ever it may catch the fancy of his prelatical proselytes who are pleased with a sound against the Covenant and consider not the certainty of it and are ready jurare in verba Episcopi be they never so groundless the say so of a grave Prelate is a sufficient reason of their faith The inadvertency of his expressions both for their fury and falshood against Presbytery the Parliament and all those whose consciences cannot correspond with his propounded Prelacy as well as against his particular Antagonists is so far from being abated that it is more vigorously acted and made so accumulative that his book runs over with foams of rage filling as I said before more the twenty sheets of paper with such furious and foolish objurgatioâ—s ridiculous reflexions and scurrilous chiding that he that enters this book and passeth but the Threshold must needs say this man is in no temper to resolve a doubt or satisfie a conscience he is in the heat of a scolding passion and so lay it aside as unfit to be read really had angry Mr. Crofton been his Chaplain he must have become an index expurgatorius to his book and presumed to dictate more sobriety and meekness before it had seen the world for that the wrath of man cannot work the righteousness of God men cannot but judge this book an hot contest and violent plea for his prelatical honour and revenues in which beginning to be warm he groweth as hot as a Toast and fearing to lose them falls into a fretting chafe against the Covenant and Covenanters which promise them little security and therefore runs his rage against sacriledge and buying Bishops Lands from which it is well known Mr. Crofton is free nor indeed doth he charge him rather then for his Episcopal office in Christs Church the conscience of which would have made him sensible a Bishop must be no brawler but patient In this angry mood we cannot expect him to be very clear oâ— certain in the ratio formalis objecti the object of the obligation scrupled and disputed the want of which hath been noted to him by the different acceptation of the term Bishop and Episcopacy the which Mr. Crofton did not onely explain but propose unto him a doublesence thereof affirming the one to be Scriptural primitive and Catholique the other to be Papal Novel and tyrannical and on the variety of his words prayed a positive determination which of them he owned and would reconcile to the Covenant but his greatness would not condescend to make a choice of either according to Mr. Croftons proposal but that we may know he scornfully takes notice that Mr. Crofton had observed his uncertain proposal of the object in ambiguous words he affords us a parenthesis in the threshold of his book which runs thus The way of Episcopal order and authority that is lest Mr. Crofton should again mistake my meaning the presidency of one chief Prebyter or Bishop among many and above all lesser Bishops or Presbyters in his Diocess according to the ancient custome and laws Eâ—clesiastical and civil I thank you Sir for this grave cast of your eye did Mr. Crofton mistake you without cause or clamour it to your damage or did he not take the paines to pick up your words and put them together and tell you that some of them speld one thing and some another distinct from that and modestly desire which you would own and stand by Sir the spirit and men of your Diocess are said to be near a kin to the Welchmen and they must have leave to tell their tale twice and for ought I see you must tell yours thrice for I am as likely to mistake you as I was before such an Heraclitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are in your Aenigmatical extrication of your own made intricacies and rhetorical labyrinths Before I presume to determine your meaning I must enquire what you mean by Presidency whether you intend not to extend it beyond the gradus of a Moderator unto the power and efficacy of a President of a Colledge at the least what you mean by above all less and subordinate Bishops whether Officio honore Cathedrae or Ordinis authoritate which your Episcopal order authority doth suggest though the title Bishop given by you to Presbyters doth seem to mitigate it What do you mean by antient custom only that which hath long use and can plead prescription and which may have run long and yet leave us a space in which we may
aspect and appearance will be found by any man conversant in Scripture and acquainted with the estate and affairs of the Church notorious falshoods 1. Presbytery hath no divine appointment was not commanded by God never used in the ancient Church hath nothing in it piously morally or poâ—itically good or necessary Epist to the Reader How Sir can you read of the Elders of Ephesus and the Presbyterie that ordained Timothy and say Presbytery was not commanded by God Can you read in the Fathers of the Presbyterie advancing by their own power a primus Presbyter in the antient canons of the essentialitie of the Presbyteries concurrence in all acts of Discipline of the Fathers Epistles to and concerning Presbyteries and yet say Presbytery was never used in the Church Can you consider Presbytery is a Colledge of Gospel Ministers goveâ—ning communi consilio by jâ—ynt advice and yet conclude there is in Presbyterie nothing piously morally or politically good Will not every childe in his double Psalter tell you In the multitude of Councellors there is safety and every School-boy teach you plus vident oculi quam oculus and yet are you so blind as to see no moral political good in Presbyterie but this is but one Doctors opinion the meanest Clerk in your Cathedral would tell you your Grace was at a loss when you thus concluded Nor do you hit the next 2. Presbytery was not conjoyned to Episcopacy if you mean in its first constitution and the order of it which was without and before Bishops afterwards made by its power you begin well nor hath any power or authority unto the governing of the Church is no way necessary to a Bishop otherwise then by advice when called and required and that to be taken or refused at the Bishops pleasure pag. 289. I pray Sir help the Papists and untie that knot whether Peter received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven as a Presbyter or Bishop ordinary Minister or Apostle or prince of the Apostles It is pity John Chrysostom had not you for his Advocate when he was charged as with a crime for ordaining without his Presbyters I hope the correction of the ancient Canons being committed to you you will purge out those that confine the Bishop to his chair to declare and execute the decrees of the Presbyterie and make void the ordinations and censures made without the Presbyterie forget them of the Council of Carthage And Sir there is one passage or two in Scripture worth your notice Let him tell the Church sufficient to such an one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishment inflicted by many You know Sir they are words that imply plurality dignity and authority I pray Sir when your pen is in your hand draw a line through these words in the form of ordering Priests minister the Discipline of the Church to what end should they promise faithful diligence to that which they have nothing to do withal and concerneth them not But to the third 3. To endeavour to advance Presbytery to exercise in the rule and government of the Church is Schisme and Superstition pag. 214 215. How is Church Government an Article of Christian faith and an essential act of Divine Worship Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. your friends at Oxford were of another mind when they charged the Scots supposed say so to look like Schisme and Superstition What fools were Clemens Alexandrinus Augustin and Gregory the great and other Fathers to Father John Gauden they left us this ground of Schisme and Superstition Vnitas Ecclesiae catholicae non consistit in uniformitate disciplinae sed in unitate fidei but our Bishop standeth on their shoulders and can see further then little Mr. Crofton who yet hopes to see as far as little Zacheus in his Sicamore Tree advancing Presbytery as Gods institution and to keep the unty of the spirit in the bâ—nd of peace 4. Bishops are the sole and chief cisterns conservators conduit and derivators of all holy orders discipline and Government the principal Pillars and Fathers of the Church pag. 221 248. I hope Sir you will then make your succession as clear as the sun I would make a journey to Exeter to have the intricacies thereof well unravelled what became of the Churches when in Alexandria per totum Aegyptum the Presbyters did ordain and think you that Denmark demolished the Church when Christian their third King did by publick edict beat down your Pillars your charity is more to the reformed Churches then to condemn or censure them as no Churches pag. 196. but yet you will cut off their pipes cisterns conduits and make them come fetch Waters at your Wells your charity is very rational 5. Episcopal presidency and authority is a Soveraign power and spiritual jurisdiction in ordination confirmation censures rebuking silencing excommunication absolution and other exercise of Ecclesiastical power without above and against Presbyters and people pag. 215 229. Well said D. Gauden I like a man that can speak out Mr. Crofton shall know your meaning anon but your jurisdiction is so spiritual that to him your Sovereign power is invisible it is probable you may make him feel it though he cannot see it but I am confident it must be in his body not in his soul make good this description by Scriptures Fathers Divine principles or good Authors Popish or Protestant and if you make not a full formal Pope I will burn the Covenant renounce my reason and believe as your Church believes for all that I have met with give Presbyters an interest if not the greatest share with and without the Bishops in every of these acts of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction 6. The Episcopacy which England had or the English Hierarchy for its difference from Presbytery in place honour office authority use and honourable support is of universal tradition and observatiâ—n in all ages and places eminent in the judgment and practice of antiquity and the Church from Christ and his Apostles until now of late in use and authority in the Church as the Lords day and infant baptisme which to deny is impudence and falsity against the very letter and practice of the new Testament and judgment of all antiquity Pag. 198 220 228 248. How Sir the practice and letter of the new Testament and yet but a tradition you sure will say more of it you do well to paralel it to the Lords day and infant Baptisme for they will be evidently grounded on the practise and letter of the new Testament and so be found more then a tradition but Sir will you stand by it that Episcopacy was an universal observation in all ages and eminent in all places till of late I pray Sir enquire when it came into Scotland and how basely it was driven out of Denmark they are places in the Christian World again was Englands Hierarchy distinct from Presbyters in place office authority honour use and honorable support of universal tradition and practice how am
Berith Anti-Baal OR Zach. Croftons Appearance Before The Prelate-Justice of Peace Vainly pretending to binde the Covenant and Covenanters to their good Behaviour By way of Rejoynder to and Animadversion on Doctor John Gauden's Reply or Vindication of his Analysâ—s from the by him reputed pitiful Cavils and Objections but really proved Powerful and Convincing Exceptions of Mr. Zach. Croftons ANALEPSIS By the Author of the Analepsis and not by the Dr observed Analepsis Anelephthe to the continuing of St. Peter's Bonds and fastning his Fetters against Papal and Prelatical Power Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque mensque Prov. 16.7 The legs of the lame are not equal so is a parable in the mouth of fools V. 4. Answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou also be like unto him V. 5. Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit LONDON Printed by M. S. for Ralph Smith at the three Bibles in Cornhil and for Thomas Parkhurst at the three Crowns over against the great Conduit in Cheapside 1661. TO THE READER Courteous and Christian Reader DOctor John Gauden finding no regular rational or religious way to release St Peter and restore him to his Episcopal chair thinks it best to leave him in his bonds or holy Fetters and as a Justice of Peace proceeds against his keeper and to binde him and his adherents to their good behaviour we say of the Devil that change demonstrates the non-prevalency of his temptations In order whereunto after nigh forty weeks from the appearance of my Analepsis in the world against the Analysis his pregnant Genius was delivered of a Reply thereunto without the least regard to any other thing by me written to enforce and establish the Sacred and Indissolvable Bond of the most Solemn League and Covenant that ever past on Christian Church or People which God hath severely and before our eyes avenged on the Violaters in that part which was for its matter mainly Civil and will undoubtedly appear no less jealous for that part which is Religious and yet it is swoln into such a bulk and dressed in such a garb as that it is not for every man to buy nor any civil sober wise man to read much less to rejoyn unto being able to do no more but fill their mouths who are minded to make a clamour and think speaking though to no purpose to be a sufficient answer to Mr Crafton I having animadverted this Anti-Baal-Berith finde a necessity to Apologize for the very act of my animadversion and fear nothing more then to be bound to my good behaviour for mis-behaving my self so much as to answer a fool according to his folly wherein I may seem like unto him did not the very next words give me some encouragement directing me to answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit The truth is what I ever expected and expressed to many is now effected by the Doctor viz. That he would never be so hardy as to encounter me single or assault the reason and strength of argument objected in my Analepsis to his Analysis but his honour engaged in an evil cause provoked him to say somthing to keep up a repute among the simple he would take up the Anonymous Anatomist whose Dialect I cannot approve which unhappily had started into the world some two hours before my Analepsis and scoulding at that and its Author would shuffle in my Book and Nâ—me which yet as one that could not read or fought blindfold not seeing his adversary he hath mistaken through his Book writing Mr Grafton as if I should answer Dr Gaudie and seem to say somthing in it though nothing to the purpose How exactly this is done I leave the Reader to observe It is indeed to be acknowledged that although he enter the Stage with a Title that bespeaks him some strange Hercules fureus or Ajax Mastigophorus and his raging rambling raving discourse towards his late Anatomist doth too much verifie the same yet he expresseth himself with as much civility respect and modesty towards Mr Cr. as can be looked for from such a sarcastical Pen that I wonder he could make it consist with so much rage I could not but expect his prudence to have directed him no way to conjoyn two such different tracts in the same furious expostulation lest his wrath had run beyond its propounded end or his Reader should apply the whole discourse beyond the Authors intention as indeed they commonly do for he knoweth â—ulgus non distinguit I am not insensible the barking Curre in the Embleme most scurrilously prefixed to his Book without colour of reason is by many applyed and understood to be intended to represent Mr Cr. which if so I leave the Reader to judge its aptness the Dr taking no notice of any Book written by Mr Cr. save the first which hath found much acceptance for the sobriety of its Stile so far from barking as that its modesty is acknowledged by the Dr himself and all rational men must acknowledge the Moon for its mutation spots dark cloudy uncertain light and cold chilling influence to be much a more apt Embleme of inconstant uncertain ambiguous obscure and luke-warm Bishop Gauden whose Episcopal Influence is like the Moon more likely to kill then animate Religion and his glorious light of his rude Rhetorical swadoes to lead men into a fools Paradise for children to play by rather then direct mens duties or resolve their doubts or guide them into paths of safety But I have more charity then to think that this though by the vulgar applyed was by the Dr intended as such an Embleme of Mr Cr. 's book because though he is restlesly unquiet in barking out the barking property of his Anatomist yet he doth not so much as allude thereunto in all his debates with Mr Cr. otherwise I could have answered a fool according to his folly and to this piece of scurrility unbeseeming a man of common modesty much more a Christian a Minister nay one who as a Bishop pretends to more piety patience and gravity have opposed and prefixed to this Tract the figure of a Wheel with a Tongue on it whirling about without order or stay to the only raising of a cloudy dust with this Motto Who is this that darkneth knowledge by words without wisdom Or this A fool is full of words a man cannot tell what shall be and what shall be who can tell My nature is as bad and fancy as wilde as the Drs can be but I bless God for the restraints of Reason and Religion which bridles I hope I shall never break or cast off The Dr doth in the close of his elaborate Tract complain that he had tired himself and his Reader nor is it without cause he might have said it in the middle nay beginning of his journey and remembred that wise observation Eccl. 10.15 The labour of the foolish wearieth every
he one of them guide or guided because he knoweth not how to go into the City which one thus illustrates Nesciunt viam in Vrbem Lava qui a recto tramite aberrant in loca a via adducuntur The Dr having in his Analysis loosed from the Haven of Reason true Religion and the fear of God runs adrift where-ever the wind of his own words can hurry him and leads his Reader into a wilderness where he hears no sound but the shrieks of Satyrs barking and howling of beasts at best raging and rayling of men or wilde and improper discourses that direct to no certain end The Dr having unhappily returned railing unto what seemed rational in his Anatomist according to what is noted as usual with heretiques Haeretici cum perver sitatis suae non possunt reddere rationem in maledicta convertuntur and endeavoured by words and shuffling glosses to darken the plainness and clearness of the truth urged by the Analeptist of whom we must say as Bishop Jewel of the Jesuite Harding in his confutation of him Who so takes upon him to maintain untruth must needs be forced to discourse about with long vagaries to lead his Reader from the purpose and to feed him with words for want of matter Defence of the Apologie of the Church of England Preface to the Reader The truth is the Reverend Dr hath expressed great affection to Episcopacy in his zeal for it fully matching Harding's apprehension of the Papacy and Assertion That the Popes chair or English Prelacy is the very knot of Christian Vnity and so branding with Schism all that say the contrary Nor falls he much short of Pope Boniface having according to the measure of his Prelatical power Anathematized all Presbyters as he did Aurelius and all the Bishops of the Councel of Africa not exempting Augustine himself Aurelius cum collegis suis instigante diabolo superbire caepit contra Romanam Ecclesiam Nor is he much defective in their subtilty whilst visum est utile ut scribatur ad Episcopum Romanum ut consideret res nostras det consilium will more easily signifie the Popes power and be rendred It hath seemed good that we write unto the Bishop of Rome that he visit us and determine our matter by his sentence then I swear with reality sincerity and constancy to endeavour the extirpation of Prelacy that is to say the Government by Arch-bishops Bishops c. can be rendred I do swear to my power to establish and advance Prelacy the Government by Arch-bishops Bishops only I will consent to reform the excessive and defective abuses thereof but the cause cannot be good that must be salved by such strained yea contrary interpretations especially in matters of an Oath with how great ability the Dr hath managed his great affection against his little Antagonist let wise men judge the weight of the cause and some mens doting on the bare say so of a Bishop more then the cogency of the Reply hath produced this following Tract to thy cost and trouble as well as my pains and expence of more precious time into which before I pass thee I must minde thee of these two things pretermitted in the following Animadversion 1. That Dr Gauden seems to gather much strength from the silence or seeming compliances of some to his absurd contradictory interpretations of the Covenant Because I will do him or them on whom he reflects no wrong read his own words viz. I finde no men of learning and ingenuity but are ashamed to appear in such a cause Sober Presbyterians do very loyally piously prudently own yea and profess to the King's Majesty a quiescence under Episcopal Government as no way inconsistent with the Covenant Epist to the Reader This mitigated and just sense of the Covenant some that were and are great masters in our Israel and assertors of the Covenant are now content to owne abating the rigour which somtime possessed some Covenanters against Episcopacy in that sense wherein this and most other Churches ever owned and used Episcopal Government and Authority among and above Presbyters yea many of them begin to cast a favourable eye on Episcopal dignity no less then on Church lands fearing nothing so much as not to have a share of them much congratulating as the King 's happy restauration so the hopes of recovering the pristine Honour and Government with the Revenue and Rights of the Church in point of Episcopacy not in the fallacy of a Presbyterian parity but of a presidential constant eminency of Bishops in authority over Presbyters pag. 72 73. That any have by their silence or seeming compliance given the least occasion to this insultation is matter of grief and scandal to good men who yet have observed the subtile attempts strenuous endeavors of Prelats and their abettors to tempt debauch the consciences of some Zealous Covenanters and cannot but bless God that any have obtained power to withstand such temptations decline such glorious baits which should they and many have admitted I was am resolved through divine grace to sing no song under the sufferings that are threatned against me save only this All this is come upon me yet have I not dealt falsly in thy Covenant but charity bids me conclude that the Dr reckons without his host and that the boasting clamour is a base calumny He professeth the reason of the so late appearance of this elaborate wilderness was an expectation of what others would say in the cause and yet he runs so fast as not to heed the Covenanters Plea which would have told him some men no way short in learning and ingenuity of Dr Gauden did appear in such a cause moreover many may and do appear in it that appear not to write for it Pen and Pulpit are different capacities multitudes of books need not let the Dr judiciously not judicially confute one of his Antagonists I dare assure him more will take up the quarrel and defend it I could if he call on me shew the letters of many faithful Covenanters out of many Counties in England joyntly and singly owning the same cause of the Covenant with Mr Cr. and are neither afraid nor ashamed to own it I know not what any particular Presbyter might profess to his Majesty I hope such on whom the Dr reflecteth will in due season vindicate themselves I have cause to think the Dr reports this as faithfully as he did Mr Baxter's discourse about the Liturgie I well know that those who had immediate conference with his Majesty professed in private debates with their Brethren another judgement of the Covenant and Episcopacy then what is now reported of them I am sure at a general meeting of the Covenant Presbyters in and about the City of London the cause of the Covenant was debated generally owned in its opposition to Episcopacy and other things returned amongst us and by joynt consent it was agreed to petition his Majesty and
I mistaken in the poverty of the Primitive Bishops and the parity at least of Presbyterie to Episcopacy I must borrow your Spectacles when I look into any thing of antiquity but sure Sir Smectyâ—â—nuus will not think you modest to charge impudence and falsity on such as deny it they were bold to contradict your opinion in this very poynt asserted by the remonstrant your predecessour and assign several things in which the English Bshops differ from the primitive when you have reconciled them we will find you more but they will be enough for one book of forty sheets 7. This universal custome is not to be despised by any sober Christian yet this Episcopacy is not onely tradition and universal observation for it hath further the stamp and impression of divine order and wisdome Scripture precept and Apostolique pattern all right reason prudence and policie pag. 247. we need not go far to find the precepts canâ—ns commission power and authority of this Episcopal jurisdiction given by Jesus Christ and his Apostles pag. 228. such Bishops rooted in Christ branched in the twelve Apostles and spread in all the Christian world and endowed with honorary supports pag. 220. I like you Dr that you speak out most Episcopal men stand stammering at a divine right as if afraid to say it were to be found in Episcopacy and yet Dr. Gauden can plainly see the stamp and impression not onely of right reason prudence and policy but of divine order and wisdome yea Scripture precept and Apostolique pattern the very canons and commission of Jesus Christ I must confess I am so dark sighted I cannot see it I dare not encline to say or think as Dr. Gauden doth that the Apostles were proper Bishops or such as are our English Bishops because our learned and judicious Whitaker whom I judge no way short of Dr. Gauden declareth it to be the fancie of a crack brain Patres cum Jacobum Episcopum vocant aut etiam Petrum non proprie sumunt Episcopi nomen sed vocant eos episcopos illarum ecclesiarum in quibus aliquando commorati sunt si proprie de episcopo loquuntur absurdum est Apostolos fuisse episcopos nam qui proprie episcopus est is Apostolus non potest esse quia episcopus est unius tantum ecclesiae at Apostoli plurium ecclesiarum fundatores inspectâ—res erant non multum distant ab insania dicere Petrum fuisse proprie episcopum aut reliquos Apostolos I hope Dr. Gauden will not charge Dr. Whittaker with impudence and falshood and I think he strikes at the very root of his supposed Divine impresion and Apostolical practice and precedent to which you refer us for proof but that this may be believed you must needs proceed 8. The testimonies of the Fathers Councils and Historians are so necessary to the Scriptures that without them no man can receive satisfaction concerning the distinct offices of the Church the difference between the community of Christian duties as professors and believers of the common verity and specialty of the office of Preachers pag. 247 248. But Sir is a charge of imperfection in the Scripture the only support of your Prelacy or doth it abide as a mark of its papacy I apprehended the Scriptures profitable for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works which it can never be if we cannot by it receive satisfaction concerning the distinct offices in the Church which are the only means of intercourse between God and the soul or the common Christian duties of professors and beleiving of the common verity or specialty of the off ce of preaching certainly if the word be in this too short the writings of the Fathers Councils and Historians must needs aedisicare in Gehennam guide us like a dark lanthorn into inevitable danger for whence did they know these if not from Scripture this you stumbled on to divert the dispute of the Office name degree order and authority of your Bishop which Mr. Crofton put you upon Sir I am sorry I should be an occasion of your divulging such an error which your Anatomist will readily pick up as piece of blasphemy incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim you would avoid the dispute of the Divine right of your Episcopacy as that which was dangegerous to your See and have laid a foundation for another dispute concerning the perfection of the Scriptures as to the common duty of Christians and special office of Preachers and that on a fancy too For Sir Mr. Crofton would have you know he hath an audience and credence for the Fathers Councils and Historians as venerable witnesses in matter of fact but cannot receive them as judges in matter of right and sole Dictators of duty Mr. Crofton hath read that when Augustine was pinched with a passage out of Cyprian he made answer Sunt certilibri dominici quorum authoritati utrique centimus utrique servimus ibi quaeramus Ecclesiant ibi discutiamus causam nostram Sir whatever you say in an angry mood I wil hope you will joyn with me in an appeal to the Scriptures and then I say ibi quaeramus Episcopum find your Episcopacy there for otherwise if I find its extirpation in the Covenant I 'le stand by it it must be extirpated if King and Kingdome or peace and glory must be preserved from Gods angry extirpation for bona mutabilia are within the verge of mans vow and reach of his hand but you being loosed from the truth tumble you know not whither and therefore you suggest 9. Episcopacy is a matter of Faith essential to the being of the Church an eminent part of Gods Worship which may not be wanting withdrawn from or withstood changed or covenanted against without Schisme and superstition Pag. 195 214 215. Yet you dare not trust it to the tryal of the Scriptures I promise you Sir I dare not admit any thing as an Article of my Creed nor offer to God any thing as an act of his Worship which is not plain and obvious in the Scriptures without the witness and Authority of Fathers Councel or Historian I must adventure the schisme and superstition I hope Dr. Gauden doth not use Schisme and superstition as the old Prelates did the term Puritan and Englands late Tyrants did the term Malignant as words of no signification but onely served to nickname and reproach the opposers of their prophane principles and proceeding and to deter men from the discharge of required duty but to secure your Prelacy you go one step further and suggest yea speak out that 10. Bishops are coordinate and equal with Kings in that commission the word whereby God hath left liberty to his Church or the chief Governours thereof Kings or Bishops to order all things as they shall judge meet Page 205. Episcopacy is unalterable by any lawful humane power Dr. Gauden peremtorily
up seaven of the chief Violators of the Vow will your Worship please once a day to take a turn in poor Mr. Croftons walk and deliver your soul from this pittiful passion if you can however you fancy that fraud and force make void an Oath your Brother Bishop Sanderson all Protestant Divines and Civilians yea Popish Cafuists will dictate to you other things and little Mr. Crofton desireth to fear an Oath and to tremble at every tendency to a breach of faith with a jealous God but judicious Dr. Gauden can find a difference in the case of the Gibeonites from the case supposed by Mr. Crofton and makes it a specialty to that people and that in these particulers First The League with the Gibeonites was onely civil and secular not Religious Secondly Made by the chief councel and authority of the Nation Thirdly It was of things within their power as civil and secular Fourthly No injury to honest men Fifthly Though unadvised in prudence and policy of War yet it was confirmed by God to punish unadvisedness to preserve leagues obtained by honest fraud God had mercy for the Gibeonites as less sinners and more disposed to fear and repent A most profound comment but Sir was the Covenant with the Gibeonites wholy civil and secular within their power were they not the Hittites by Gods express command to be destroyed observe well the Catalogue Deut 7.1 2. Exâ—d 23.32 your predecessour Dr. Hall saith the sentence of Death was passed against all the Cananites and that Joshuas heart was clear from any intention to make a league with the Canaanites and enters a caution against it So Sir this was a League against the Laws of Israel given by God something more then civil confederacy with the Canaanites was inhibited for the safety of their Religion lest they should be seduced by them but Sir where the matter is religious will the case alter or the Oath be any more void then where it is civil the validity or religion of the matter whilst either it may be just and lawful according as the occasion of the Covenant doth direct 2. In that the Covenant was made by the chief Councel and authority of the Nation it doth not relieve the fraud whoever they were they were cozened by a peopâ—e who appeared to them what they were not Mr. Cr. will not fear to affirm the Solemn League and Covenant was sworn by the chief Councel and authority of England though not compleat But the question is of the fraud by which any are deceived into an oath 3. Was the oath of the Gibeonites no way to the injury of honest men you will not stand to it was it no injury to Israel to lose four Cities out of their inheritance given them by the Lord Was it no injury to be engaged in war and to hazard their lives for a company of Trepanners and cheaters who should have faln by their sword and D. Gaudens interpretative spirit would have left to fall by the sword of another was it no injury to have such a temptation to Idolatry which God had charged to be removed and such tormenting affliction Canaanites as pricks in their eyes and thorn-in their side If it were no injury to Israel what was the well-meant zeal of Saul on which his resumed reason did perjuriously destroy the Gibeonites 4. But say you it was confirmed by God how Sir not by any post-fact or immediate signification of his pleasure nor by the special dispensation of the High Priest but meerly by the power and vertue of the oath fraudulently obtained buâ— admitttng God did confirm it an oath obtained by bone fraud and surprisal as you phrase it if any can be honest is established as permanently binding and the breach of it is punishable by God hath not then Mr. Crofton cause to fear or must his fear be super superstition or not â—ather Dr. Gaudens observation be super-ignorant and super-arogant in reputing the hypothesis illustrating the very pinch of the Question against the very utmost supposed strength of opposition the least issue of weakness and exhausted spirits yet this is as ingenuous as the next note is honest Pag. 352. Mr. Croftons Oratory reason and civility failes his zeal whilst he makes such a reflection on his honorable Covenanting Masters comparing them to Colliers whilst they acted like Kings Where Sir did Mr. Cr. make this reflection had he not asserted and established their authority though to detect the weakness of your argument he imagineth what you fancy to make against the binding power of an Oath and your self is constrained to see the weakness thereof but verbosity must be venting though with falshood yet this is as honest as the next is sound that not the honour and authority but reason and religion in a Parliament must be weighed as if there were nothing in such an assembly but what is common to men if your prelacy may be thus measured it will soon be found a vanity But Sir I must tell you the man can be afraid God will be angry for not keeping Oaths unlawfully made and also for keeping and making unlawful Oaths or lawful Oaths by unlawful means but he cannot admit the say so of a Runagado as an evidence against the Covenant but affirmes it will be broken before your strain of Rhetorick can make extirpation to signifie reformation of your Episcopacy the first being so plain in the words and unavoidable sence of the Covenant that it needs no Presbyterian stretch as you scurrilously taunt or strappado more then it will endure the Antiphrastical strain of an apostate Presbyter and English Prelate But stay Sir you crow before the Victory Mr. Crofton was so far from shewing his wit and art in this defence as you falsely say by presently withdrawing that he who out of his sally port appeared to you like a little Mark and picolhomo did so little fear your first Granado that he followed you to your trenches and encountered your main body encamped in the Oxford reasons and yet keeps the field within reach of your Gunshot not fearing to have his brains beaten out by Dr. Gauden his reason if God restraines the Prelates high commission batteries against the truth which they can neither bear nor contradict let me tell our Champion notwithstanding his renewed assault he must go down to the Romish Phylystines to sharpen his prelatical Pikes before his battering rams can make impression on the Covenant and enter the garrison of Presbyterial reformation impregnably guarded by Mr. Crofton his Woolsacks which the Doctors skill cannot remove Having as he thought reinforced his battering Rame he proceeds to what he calleth his gulph between the Covenant and its legality and sanctity the tumultuating terrours of those times in which it was contrived conceived and brought forth or impâ—sed as if sanctity and legality could not exist in tumultuous days pag. 177. And he tells you in this mud Mr. Crofton was afraid to