allowed by the Magistrate Again Thes 263 saith he If Magistrates forbid Ministers to preach or exercise the rest of their Office in their Dominions they are to be obeyed For which he instances in David Solomon and other Kings taking down and setting up Priests and ordering the Officers of the House of God And what he says in his Plea p. 218. That where there is no necessity of their preaching Nonconformists should forbear it condemns the practice of most Nonconformists in England 5. 'T is a little regardable that many of these Antichurches are kept up by those very persons who blew the Trumpets of Rebellion in XLIII and were the most active Pulpiteers in setting forward the late Civil War and after that the Regicide which will be made evident in the ninth Section following And that these Meetings are all kept up by those who look upon themselves as bound by Oath the Solemn League and Covenant to endeavour all the days of their lives the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops Deans c. i.e. to endeavour the Overthrow of that Government in the Church which is by Law establisht and so to act over again the Tragedies of Civil War when opportunity and power shall give them leave SECT III. Of Bishops THe Pleader comes next to Bishops and tells us p. 6. 13 14 15. That in Scripture times a Bishop had but one fixed Society one Church or worshipping Assembly under him and that the greatest defenders of Prelacy have affirmed that Churches Provincial Patriarchal National c. are but of Humane Institution Answ So have the greatest defenders of Nonconformity affirmed Churches Congregational Classical and all others as well as Diocesan Provincial c. to be of Humane Institution onely The ordering of such distinction of Churches are left saith Mr. Tombs Theodul p. 21. to divine Providence and humane Prudence Among those great defenders of Prelacy he mentions none but Dr. Hammond Dr. Ham. Annot. on Acts 11.6 which Mr. B. mistakes for Acts 11.30 and that most falsly and injuriously thus That though this Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath been extended to a second Order in the Church and is now onely in use for them under the name of Presbyters yet in Scripture-time it belonged principally if not onely to Bishops there being no Evidence that any of that second Order were then instituted though soon after there were such instituted in all Churches From which words the Pleader infers two things 1. That the Office of a Presbyter that was no Bishop was not in being in Scripture-times 2. That no Bishop had more than one worshipping Assembly at once To the first Answ The Doctor in the next page renders this reason for it That while there was no multitude of Christians there were found none among them that were fit to be constituted Presbyters in our use of the word and therefore contented themselves with a Bishop onely and a Deacon or Deacons to assist him there being saith he then so small store out of which to take more and so small need of ordaining more Intimating that when the number of Christians encreased and there was need of ordaining more that Order should be set up in the Church as it was soon after So that his first conclusion from the Doctor 's words is very falsly inferr'd The other thing that he infers from them is That a Bishop had but one Church or one Worshipping Assembly at once Answ Of which there is not one syllable in the Doctor 's words and how far it is from his meaning and opinion will appear to any that will but turn over his Annotations to the page preliminary to Titus where from Eusebius he affirms Titus to have been Bishop of the Churches of Crete and from St. Chrysostom that Titus had committed to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an intire Island So his Annotations on Tim. 1.3.15 and other places shew how grosly he miscites the Doctor and how falsly he asserts from him That Episcopal Churches in Scripture-times were but single Congregations And 't is strange that Mr. Baxter should say that he knows no proof ever produced of Gods instituting Churches Provincial Patriarchal c. since he himself hath produced such full and solid proof of it and that but lately as in his Christian Directions part 7. p. 127. And N. 4. having proved the particular Orders of Presbyters and Deacons he tells us That besides those in the universal Church in the Apostles days there were many general Officers under Christ that had the care of governing and overseeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated Relation to none Which shews that beside the fixed Pastors and Deacons of every Church Congregational or Parochial there was in the Apostles times a larger Episcopacy in Gods Church and more general Officers and Overseers to preside and visit the Churches like Colonels and chief Commanders in an Army Officers different from the Captains and stated Officers of every single Company Thus Mr. Baxter and yet now he never saw proof produced of Churches Provincial Patriarchal c. divine institution It hath been proved ex abundanti by Bishop Hall and others particularly Dr. Stillingfleet's Vnreasonableness of Separation that Episcopacy is founded on no other than Scripture Reason Apostolick practice and Antiquity To which I adde but this That the Apostles and Disciples were distinct Orders of Church-Officers as is evident from that of Judas's forfeiting his Bishoprick and Matthias according to the prediction of the Psalm taking it up who being by lot declared to be his Successour was accordingly advanced from the lower Order of Discipleship to that higher one of being an Apostle According to which the Ancients used to compare the Episcopal Office to that of the Apostles and the Presbyters Office to that of the Seventy as Officers employed by and under Bishops And this name Apostle being at last thought too sacred as being fit onely for such as had seen the Lord and were according to the import of the word immediately sent by him therefore in the early times of Primitive Christianity this name Apostle was laid aside and that of Bishop used in its stead implying the same duty and dignity though not of person yet of place as that of Apostle So that what the Apostles were in Christ's own time that are Bishops ever since and what Rank the Seventy had in the Church in Christ's time the same and no other our Ministers have now As for that trite one of the names of Bishop and Presbyter being applied to the same persons it doth no more argue every Presbyter to be a Bishop than the King 's being a Gentleman argues every Gentleman to be a King For admit the names were used in common to both yet where do we finde that the powers are exercised in common also That the Presbyter as well as Bishop has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power of ordaining inflicting Church-censures Conc. Nic. c. 5. Conc.
Ant. c. 6. c. The Councils of Nice and Antioch expressing a manifest distinction between Bishops and Presbyters do declare the Disciplinary proceedings of Church-censures to be under the Bishops ordering and not the Presbyters But in this I am prevented by that late excellent Treatise The Vnreasonableness of Separation onely let me observe Mr. Baxter's Argument against Episcopacy Plea p. 17. Having worded it thus That Bishops cannot morally beget the Species of Presbyters he argues If Ecclesiastical Generation imitate Natural then Bishops would beget but their like men beget men Physicians make Physicians and so says he Bishops may beget Bishops Answ As though Bishops should be consecrated in their Mothers womb and Presbyters be ordained such before they were born and as though they could not be Bishops or Presbyters jure divino unless they were born such This is I think the true import and force of his Argument not much unlike to that of his Scotch-brother who reading in Genesis the History of the Creation concludes thus Here 's not a word of Bishops of all that God made therefore Bishops are not Jure divino The unchurching of Tim. and Tit. p. 1 2 3. Ejusdem Farinae is that of Brother Prynn who concludes Timothy to be no Bishop 1. Because St. Paul and St. Luke who were acquainted with him never called him Bishop 2. Because he was St. Paul's Associate and Fellow-traveller 3. Because St. Paul calls him a Minister of God 4. Because he was a young man And I doubt not but Mr. Baxter's late Book against Episcopacy will appear altogether as futile and doubty when it has had its due disquisition SECT IV. Mr. Baxter's Character of Bishops FRom Arguments the Pleader proceeds to down-right reviling and railing Accusations stiling the Bishops Plea 2 part p. 153. 160. Proud Diotrepheses and that it is the lordly proud and impatient spirits of the Pastors of the Church that are the great disturbers and dividers of it maliciously hinting 2 Plea p. 174 175. That there are some of our Bishops that scarce believe that there is a God or a Life to come And in his Book of Concord p. 122. he calls them The Military Instruments of the Devil Concerning the latter of these I shall onely say to the Pleader as Michael said to the Devil The Lord rebuke thee Jude 9. though the Apostle in the foregoing verse calls them Filthy dreamers that despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities he calls them Raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame v. 13. murmurers and complainers whose mouths speak swelling words v. 16. even they who separate themselves v. 19. As to the former part of his Railery 't is strange that he should call Bishops proud Diotrepheses since according to that charge of St. John against Diotrephes which he alludes to Joh. 9. none can be called such but they who refuse the Authority of Bishops prating against them maliciouslly which was that St. John blamed Diotrephes for in his loving to have the preheminence But who are more likely the proud Diotrephes's they who teach and practise Obedience to their Rulers according to Gods Word or they who magisterially set up their own Domination Judgment and Will as the Rule of Order Unity and Peace though in sinful opposition to their Rulers Princely prescribing to all Christian Churches the true and onely terms of Concord as the Pleader in his Plea's and other Books hath done Who but a Pope or Scotch Archegus could have dictated concerning the killing and deposing of Kings as Mr. Baxter has done in his H. Commonw Thes 358. compared with 368. If the King says he raise War against the Parliament upon their declaration of the dangers of the Commonwealth in that case the people may not onely resist him i. e. fight against and kill him if they can but also saith he he ceases to be King Nay let him strain the very Papal Tyranny to what pitch of Insolence and Imposition he pleases there are Presbyterian Claims and Presidents will equal it Witness that of their Brethren in Scotland in and since King James's time whose Discipline they would have had in England they vindicated to themselves and their Consistory a soveraign universal and independent power in all things spiritual They had not onely the Directive but Legislative Power also and all temporal things in ordine ad Spiritualia came within the verge of their Scepter all Soveraign power had onely the Executive power of doing as they commanded and was bound to preserve by its Power and Arms their sacred Priviledges and Soveraignty Whatever Laws enacted by King and Parliament they conceived to be against the Laws of Christ i. e. Presbytery in chief the Presbyterian Ministers had power to repeal and to discharge the Subjects from obeying They might decree Laws of their own not onely contrary to but destructive of the Laws of the Land The King was bound to keep their Laws and put them in execution and if neither he nor his Council would do it the Nobles and Commons nay every individual person was bound to do it at their direction as may be seen in Presbytery displayed A. Bishop Bromhall and others This is that Presbytery which was in Scotland and which Nonconformists would have had in England What 's there in Episcopal Jurisdiction to this Presbyterian Insolence their power of citing before their Judicatory the King and his Family of excommunicating him in case of non-appearance their subjecting his earthly Scepter to theirs which they called the Scepter of Christ in a word his being forc'd to do whatever these Presbyterian Ministers enjoyned was that which King James had the smart experience of and therefore in the Conference at Hampton-Court p. 79. saith the King A Scotish Presbytery as well agrees with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and at their pleasure censure me and my Council and all my Proceedings then Tom shall stand up and say It shall be thus Dick shall reply and say It shall be thus And therefore says the King to Dr. Reignolds till you find I grow pussie and lazie I pray you good Doctor let Presbytery alone for if that be once up in England I am sure it will keep me in breath The Patriarchal Presbyters among them were honoured and attended more like Kings or Princes than Presbyters or Prelates In a word such was the Domination and Lordly pride of the Nonconforming Brethren of Scotland that 't is certain no Bishop or Archbishop in England Scotland or Ireland hath used more Authority or Lorded it more arrogantly than these Presbyterian pretenders to parity Consult who will Mr. Baxter's Writings and he shall finde that England had never such an Aristarchus the whole world had never such a Metropolitan except the Pope for Magisterial prescribing insolent despising and censuring even all the Christian Churches in the world whose practices agree not with his capricious humour is
not he then a fit person to call the Bishops and Church-Governours lordly impatient and proud Diotrepheses But 't is no great marvel upon this consideration That were people brought to a due liking of Bishops their beloved Separation could not be kept up As Contzen the Jesuit observed in these words His Directions for restoring of Popery l 2. c. 18. How easie is it said he to bring the Puritans of England into Order and Vnity with other Protestants were they but brought to a liking of Bishops And this railing against Bishops is that Seignior Bellarini advised as one way for the best managing of the Popish Interest in England His Letter to Father Young Let the Bishops said he be soundly aspersed as factious on the one hand as worldly and careless on the other and that it were well if they were removed SECT V. Mr. Baxter's Character of the Conforming Clergie THE Pleader having had this wrathful and malicious fling at the Bishops see how like Ministers of the Gospel he accosts the inferiour Clergy calling them craftily Raw Youths their preaching a saying over a pedantick lifeless Speech and out of the Pulpit little differing in speech or life from Carnal Worldlings or formal Hypocrites 1 Plea p. 87. raw cold dry scandalous Ministers injudicious Novices worldly Formalists and Hypocrites p. 231. He supposes some guilty of Heresie Vsurpation Malignity and Wickedness p. 105. And the greater part of the Ministers of England to procure the liberty of their Ministry by sin yea gross deliberate sin p. 116. Ignorant Readers unfit to be trusted with the care of Souls for their unskilfulness unsoundness notorious sloth and negligence and great aversness to a holy life c. Just as the old Nonconformists the Donatists reputed St. Austin calling him a seducer a deceiver of Souls Possid de vita Aug. cap. 9. exclaiming against him publickly and privately that he was a Wolf that should be slain for the preservation of the Flock and all this because that holy man kept and defended the Communion of the Church which those Schismaticks rejected The like usage had Basil at Neocesarea and Greg. Nazianzen at Constantinople And thus do the Papists at this day call all Hereticks beside themselves But what railing Quaker what black-mouth'd Atheist or Schismatick whatever could say more Yet this is Nonconformists Plea for Peace The Pleader teaches Plea p. 33. That Princes ought to preserve peace and charity among the Churches and hinder Preachers from uncharitable reviling each other Is this such reviling or no In his Scripture-proof for Infant Church-membership he teaches p. 148. That sharp reproaching of Ministers is the common Character of all Schismatical Subverters of the Church Is this sharp reproaching of Ministers or no Who then are the Schismatical Subverters of the Church He adds in the next words They smite the Shepherds that they might the easier scatter separate and divide the Sheep who teach people to scatter separate and divide And to what else doth this smiting slandering and reviling tend Who sees not 't is the Atheist's great endeavours to make the profession of the Ministry it self the ground of its contempt and the distinctive names of Ministers the very Appellatives of scorn So that to call a man a Priest is with some to degrade him below his Servant Is it not sad then that such an old carping Minister as Mr. Baxter should so abet that rampant sin of the times which the Leviathan-sinners so sport in Not to say what the Pleader's designe in it is had any man a mind to make Schisms in the Church what better method could he use than to vilifie the Teachers of it None could make men Schismaticks by perswading to Schism so as people should perceive it it must be done eruptly by vilifying their Teachers and representing them as such that the people may or ought to separate from Suppose the Devil were incarnate and dwelt among us I appeal to the Pleader whether this would not be his main work and business viz. to make the Ministry and preaching of the Gospel succesless to the good of Souls And I appeal to any but the Pleader whether any thing can be devised conducing more thereto than vilifying the Ministers and Preachers of it as the Pleader doth and making them odious to the people all he can What people having any sence of Religion or the fear of God would not separate from Ministers of such black Characters as the Pleader fixes on the Conforming Clergy I shall end this with those words of Mr. Baxter in 241 Thes of H. Commonw It is necessary said he to the Churches peace that no Pastors or Christians be suffered in Print or Speech to rail at one another and use contentious or opprobrious words And that tolerated Churches be not suffered to cast scorn upon the approved Churches nor be over-busie or publick in drawing away others to their mind He adds If men for foul words are bound to their behaviour and women for scolding be put in the Gumble-stool there 's no reason men should be suffered to rail on pretence of their opinions in Religion Thus Mr. Baxter Yet he allows himself such railing in his opinions of Religion that no Mother Celiers Hobbes White or Whitebread would exceed But this is just that which Contzen the Jesuit advised in order to the promoting of Popery in England to vilifie the Ministers For saith he Cont. l. 2. c. 18. he that shall read the Writings of Lutherans against Calvinists and Calvinists against Lutherans much more of Nonconformists against Conformists will think he reads not the Invectives of men against men but the Furies and Roarings of Devils against Devils And hence in time saith he the very Rulers themselves will take occasion to change their Religion It was on this same account that Vrsin gave Flacius Illyricus this Character Pref. in Apol. Cat. That he was one who for divers years by his discrediting Worthy and Orthodox men and by stirring up unnecessary contentions was a troubler of divers Consciences and Churches all over Germany As I wish Mr. Baxter be not all over England SECT VI. Mr. Baxter's Character of Nonconformists BUT are there none of this black Character among Nonconformists are no raw cold injudicious Novices c. among them No they are hinted to be clear serious holy diligent Preachers Plea 1. p. 87. Judicious convincing affectionate Ministers p. 231. And in his second Plea 't is totidem verbis Vnder all the Heavens of God there 's no one party of Ministers or People more able holy wise and faithful than those that are now silenced and reproached as Puritans in his Majesties Dominions and that they are the glory of the Churches and of the King and Kingdom and such as no Prince in the world is equally blest with Thus like the people of China they fancy themselves to have two eyes and almost all the world beside to be blind But 1. This uncharitable boast
Lords Table for fear of kneeling and all upon such feeble pretences as the best that the learned Pleader could produce This scruple hath been so oft so fully and so convincingly confuted that Mr. Baxter in his Book against Bagshaw tells us That the Nonconformists of London upon consult in this matter did generally determine to receive the Sacrament of the Parish-Minister and kneeling Which shews that they are convinced of the lawfulness of it and do act in this matter contrary to a known duty meerly to keep up the Separation And in his fifth Disput p. 411. That himself would kneel rather than disturb the Churches peace intimating that himself doth not believe it to be sinful though he would have his Followers to believe so I know one or more Nonconformists of the greatest note in Worcestershire who having acknowledged the lawfulness of kneeling ingenuously declared that they refused Communion with their Parish-Minister and gave the Sacrament in houses meerly in compliance with the people and for fear of losing them as much as to say For fear lest their Faction should return to Union and Church-Communion and as Mr. Zach. Crofton said serve God and do their duty leaving their Leaders to their dissembling tricks The rest of his Exceptions are for the most part such as do vanish in the very naming of them As 1. That every Parishioner should receive the Sacrament twice a year As though every Child or Ideot were thereby obliged to it or as though the Church meant any but persons duly qualified though the * Mr. Cartwright greatest Nonconformists in Queen Elizabeth's time and the †Alt. Dam. greatest in King James's time seemed to think three times a year too little and therefore would have all who were in the Churches Communion forc'd to receive Statis temporibus omnes adigendi said the latter forc'd by civil punishment said the former 2. That all Priests and Deacons are to say dayly the Morning and Evening-prayer privately or openly not being let by sickness or some other urgent cause Where is the Exception or what is the evil of praying when they can awhile for the injunction intends no more 3. He excepts against the use of Godfathers and Godmothers though himself in Scripture proof of Infants Baptism page preliminary to his Epist Dedicatory hath proved sufficiently that the use of Godfathers and Godmothers is if not Apostolical yet of greatest antiquity in the Church it being used in Hyginus's time who lived as he proves from Helvicus Paraeus Prideaux and others within fourty years of St. John and convers'd with the Disciples and Familiars of the Apostles and so as he urgeth cannot be ignorant of the practice of the Apostles in baptizing Infants So that according to Mr. Baxter himself it 's probable enough that the use of Godfathers and Godmothers is Apostolical However that it is of greatest antiquity in the Church himself hath proved beyond the reach of scruple nor are any other of his scruples much less futile Is it not a shame then for those Dissenters to make such pitiful Pleas for Peace and Nonconformity to disturb the Churches Peace and endanger the Safety of the Kingdom on such frivolous pretences and scruples no more rational or religious than that of their Brethren in Scotland who once scrupled the lawfulness of sending sealed Letters into Spain lest the Wax should be employed in making Tapers to the Virgin Mary or other Saints and so they should be accessory to Idolatry or than that of a Worcestershire-Nonconformist who kill'd his Fathers Greyhound contrary to his Interdict and Intreaty because it was said he a profane creature SECT XI Now upon a due disquisition of these things judge who will of these Queries following Q. 1. WHether that which Mr. Baxter saith of Conformity be not much more true of Nonconformity viz. That there is more in Mr. Tombs for Anabaptistry in the late Hungarian for Polygamy in others for Drunkenness stealing and lying in cases of necessity than ever hath been published yet for the lawfulness of Nonconformity Q. 2. Whether the present sad Separation be not kept up chiefly by this Cheat viz. the Peoples supposing Nonconformists to know Communion with our Church to be unlawful and sinful whereas they do believe and know the contrary and accordingly some of the learnedest of them have declared publickly the innocence and lawfulness of our Church-Communion Liturgy and Ceremonies c. who yet could never be brought to say one word to the people of this their belief Q. 3. Whether Mr. Baxter's taking up with such frivolous Exceptions and being guilty of so many gross and palpable self-contradictions in defending Nonconformity be not some proof that he writes what he doth not believe and designes nothing in his Writings but to amuse the people and support the Separation and whether he could with all his Learning have devised any thing more whereby to perpetuate a rigid Separation Q. 4. Whether their being so studious of new Scruples and so busie at reviling Governours and Government at such a time as this when Indulgences to them abound when their Interest gets ground when they enjoy all that liberty that once they did pretend to desire when there are attempts of opening the doors of Toleration and Comprehension to them and when the attempters have been so scurrilously reproacht and so abusively requited for it as that excellent person Dr. Stillingfleet and others have been Whether this be not some signe that they affect Nonconformity and are fond of their Separation and to be satisfied with nothing but governing and that it is not Conscience as King James said at Hampton-Court but Contumacy that keeps them from conforming Q. 5. Whether their refusing to renounce the Covenant which Mr. Alsop calls the great Mountain in their way to Conformity whether this doth not import their belief of the obligation of that diabolical Sacrament and so that they look upon themselves as bound thereby to endeavour the alteration of the Government as soon as they can strengthen their Party and get power and opportunity so to do And whether the Government had not need to have a very watchful eye over such as so look upon themselves as obliged to endeavour all they can its overthrow who have sworn and stand to their Oath expresly thus never to give themselves to Neutrality or Indifferency in extirpating the Government as 't is now by Law establish'd but will zealously and constantly continue their endeavours all the days of their lives to extirpate the Church-government by Bishops c. That they will do this against all opposition against all lets and impediments whatever as the words of the Oath are Q. 6. Whether the Nonconformists would endure in the Kingdom a Party so combined against them as they are against the present Government had they the power that once they had Q. 7. Whether the like out-cries against Bishops and Ceremonies the like Paper-scuffles as these Pleas for Peace