determineth that Parliaments Kings Lords and Commons have no prudent moral religious and lawful authority to change the antient universal and excellent government by Bishops for Christian Kings and their Parliaments are obliged to the Laws of God and rules of Christian piety and policy too of which the whole Church in its primitive example and constant custome is the best interpreter No legislative power is empowred by Gods law to bring in heresie error or schisme into the Church or take away the essentials of sound Doctrine and Christian Communion ever owned and maintained in the Church of Christ pag. 196. well said Doctor aut Caesar aut Nullus No Bishop no King must now be a Scripture maxime and article of faith if Smectymnuus his stirr up to the papacy be not now held Salmasius his Apparatus ad papatum asserted and Beza his Episcopi papam pepererunt verified by the Bishop of Exeter I am much mistaken but Sir have you not stretched too far and stept into a premunire little Mr. Crofton should fear to be made less by the head as guilty of Treason sedition at the least should he thus confront King and Parliaments in what all their Statutes declare to be their own creature and constitution changeable at their pleasure even from the statutes of Carlile and 25. of Edward the 3. Declaring against the Pope that holy Church was founded in prelacy by their own donation power and authority Where is Sir the Kings Prerogative over all persons in all causes Ecclesiastical What is become of your Oath of Supremacy can you make this peremptory determination as your self calls it consist with it any more then with your Covenant hath a gracious King lately advanced you to debase nay dethrone him and his Parliament too I know no better confutation of this errour then the hundred eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty pounds payd by the Bishops to Henry 8. to redeem the premunire into which this perswasion had betrayed them with the Petition and Statute of the submission of the Clergy which in my apprehension runs direct counter to Dr. Gaudens peremptory conclusion It hath been observed to be the fatal chance of the Deputies of Ireland to lose their heads and the Bishops of England to run themselves into a Premunire which when his Majestie affected with their bold encroachment doth exact will make them feel and it may be deal with them as did the King of Denmark provoked by the same peremptorie determinations These Sir are your errors in matters Ecclesiastical which you must give little Mr. Crofton leave to tell you are more obvious notorius and abominable heresies then was that charged upon Aerius though an undeniable uniuersal truth by Epiphanius nor doth he fear to be contradicted by any sober or judicious Prelate resolved to keep Episcopacy one peep short of Papacy unto which I shall make bold to oppose these few conclusions of undoubted verity and universally confessed by all Antiquitie which that little Mr. Crofton may not appear too great a dictatour let Dr. Gauden owning sacred or Ecclesiastick story deny it if he can 1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Shepheard and Bishop of our souls the great good chief and onely one to whom all must be gathered by whom all must be ruled that will be saved and from whom all must be authorized that will feed his flock 2. The Lord Jesus executeth this pastoral charge and Episcopal function by the Ministry of men successively sent and commissioned by his immediate authority and in his name without which they may not Minister to or be received by his flock 3. That the mission and commission of Jesus Christ is directed and given to two onely officers in his Church Bishops or Elders and Deacons the one to look after the bodies outward necessities and condition of his sheep to serve Tables the other to manage all the pastoral charge and Episcopal office as it immediately concerneth the soul of his people 4. That all Ministers are equally invested with and do intrinsecally possess authority from Christ for administration of all acts of feeding or ruling the flock of Christ without any difference of order place charge name office or dignity and therefore are joyned in the same general commission called by the same name Bishop or Presbyter chosen by the same characters conseerated after the same order charged with the same duty feeding or overseeing and challenge the same dignity esteem obedience and double honour from and among the sheep 4. That for some time in the pure and primitive time and estate of the Church the Presbyters did by and among themselves govern the Church communi consilio without any over them as Episcopus episcoporum or Pastor pastorum as having from Christ a different order and function yea without any gradual priority or preheminence of any particular Presbyter above the rest 6. That in process of time the Presbyters neglecting the course and care of Christian mortification by which they ought to have subdued their ambition and passions and so silenced their schism did by the working of the man of sin and permission of God devise a politique way or remedy thereof and advancing among themselves a Primus Presbyter ad schismatis remedium who was after dignified with the title Bishop and was by Canons honoris causa placed in Cities who was before in any poor village This giveth just ground for Smectymnuus note that Episcopacy above Presbytery was an humane invention on Diabolical occasion 7. That all jurisdiction and ruling power was yet acknowledged to abide originally intrinsecally and properly in the Presbyterie whose creature the Bishop was to act pronounce and execute their decrees and therefore when Bishops began to encroach and invade the Presbyters libertie and authoritie to usurp and ingross their power and function and make them subject and servile to them Canons were made to limit confine and subject the Bishop maintain and preserve the Presbyters power in Ordination Excommunication and Absolution not to be done without the Presbyters So that Presbyterie was ever known in the Church as Christs and his Apostles institution and Bishops apart and in preheminence to them the Churches Canonical constitution and Presbyters creation to the formality of whose advancement consensus clericorum was essential 8. That by this political preferment of a primus Presbyter the man of sin did work and exist in the Church engrossing the power of the Presbyterie and advancing himself above them he assumed by degrees a Principality to which he made the Presbyters sworn vassals by which became the subject of Princes indulgence and benevolence until capable of universal influence and extention through the Christian world he assumed an universal Papacie which he executed by subordinate Bishops heads of Diocesses and Provinces contracted universalities throughout the Church thus Beza well notes Episcopi papam pepererunt and Salmasius discovers the apparatus ad papatum â—nd many judicious men see nothing but a
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
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
must not be sworn if sworn not kept if kept senced and interpreted I am certain all the Doctors in Oxford cannot discern it If Christ had thus proved the Resurrection the Saducees would never have been silenced and we must have been at a sad loss for the great Article of the resurrection of the body that ground of our Christian hope Will Dr. Gauden please to frame his argument a pari for little Mr. Croftons rescue he conceives it must run thus Numb 30. Directeth that the Oath or vow of a Daughter Wife or other inferiour made without the knowledge of Father Husband or Superiour should be at the pleasure of the Superiour confirmed or made void Ergo no scandalous disgraceful dishonourable Oath may be taken if taken must not be kept if kept it must be well interpreted by what rules must we measure this argument the Anticedent is particular the consequent is general it must needs be a syllogisme currens quatuor pedibus running as fast as B followeth A C followeth B and so one followeth another and all follow A immediately the frame such upon which the conclusion followeth the connexed termes as naturally as the Jesuites at the conference at Ratisbone Qui negat articulum fidei est haereticus sed hoereticus est qui negat Tobiam habuisse canem Ergo sequitur articulum esse fidei quod Tobias canem habuerit The barking Cur at the Moon-light of Dr. Gaudens logique is seen as plain as the sun continually disturbing his reason I find the Dr. in a Wilderness of words and wood of invention tossing the words of this Scripture telling us one while they are meant of lawful vows another while the Oath is made through weakness another while to the damage of the superiour and so stretching them as the onely square and rule for all Oaths but yet can stumble on no ready way due proportion or fit parallel whereby to resolve them but at lenth preposterously breaks through them with an invective against the nameless Libeller which concludes with a dolosus versatur in generalibus which none is more guilty of then Dr. G. and concludeth that may be just by some general maximes or customes of common law which yet is very unjust when brought to the rules of Chancerie as D. B. well knows in Hipslies case pag. 145. The Dr. hath sure made a good proficiency in his Temple Studies but I must enquire what Chancery can comment on the maximes of the common Law I know the just and proper strict rigour of them may be mitigated must not be denied otherwise then as to execution what Chancellour must do it on Gods Law or hath a Commission to interpret an Oath beyond what its genuine sence alloweth or to restrain the performance of it unto God Dr. Gauden doth assume not to say presume to do it and we well know Bishops have been Lord Chauncellours of England Though we deny his Authority let us a little consider his equity for the strictness of an Oath is an heavy burden and many times bindeth a man to loss and grief and he proceeds by some special cases which he suppose thought not to be made or kept let us take a glance of them that our minds may be cleared in the sence of Numb 30. His first case is If Parents vow not to give a Child in Marriage or not till such a time or not to give him such a portion but to devote him to single life poverty banishment or base employmennt it is sinful and injurious may nâ—t be made or kept in this case he must give me leave to dissent from him untill he have stated the case more perticularly as to the reason and ends of such a vow and until he have proved the Child as to all these things is not to the parent sui juris to be disposed of debased or advanced although I should neither advise nor commend so harsh and heady an exercise of parental power and prerogative yet if pinched with the question I durst not determine the negative The Parent finds the Child Proud Stubborn Disobedient Perverse voweth to cut him short in his portion may he not do this in Justice and in his just displeasure perform it may not the Parent send the stuborn Child to Barbadoes by slavery to subdue his spiritâ— may not the Parent vow he will not give in Marriage to such a person as he judged unfit for his child or is not the Parents consent in his own power the danger of a single life are not proper effects of the Parents not giving in Marriage and Dr. Saunderson distinguisheth between the thing sworn De juram pâ—eâ—ect 3. Sect. 1â— which is causa propria and occasio or causa per accidens of sin and concludeth that an Oath made concerning the last is not unlawful I should wish Parents to be very wary of making such vows and Dr. Gauden as wary of discharging them though rashly made that may be sinfully sworn by a Parent which must be sorrowfully performed if the parent have unadvisedly devoted the child to want the law may rather take Alimony for him then the parent perjuriously give it I hope Abraham shall not be charged with injury to them in sending away Hagar and his son Ishmael Gods encouragement could not acquit the sin and what a parent may do he may swear to do without injury And methinks the case of the Israelites should resolve this case fully they had I admit rashly sworn they would not give their daughters to Benjamen the effect reflects their Oath very sadly and reduceth them into a strait yet they fear to break it and upon Counsel from God find out a way to save it and make some supply unto the defect which falling short they devise some think indeed sinfully a second stratagem rather then break their Oath what ever others may say upon this case I cannot but observe Children are fully sui juris to the Parent an hurtful oath is to the child no injury strictly to be so accounted an Oath concerning them when rashly made must be strictly observed and kept the light of nature and law of Scripture doth in my apprehension in this dissolve our Chancellours injunction The next case is of the like nature in reference to Servants and Subjects for supposing their Masters and Princes to have as Prelates suppose of every King merum imperium though they may swear rashly sinfully in reference to God yet not injuriously as to the slave or Subject Although Gomarrus and others note that man hath not from God aâ— absolute dominion over himself yet they deny not but men may vow and must keep their vows to the latitude of that Dominion God haâ— given them over themselves or others and this is the rule ourâ— Bishops Chancery should interpret and relieve against for this will conclude against him that a King may swear or having sworn must performe a diminution of his own just Soveraignty and that
authority and power which is given him by Law and is necessary for his high calling Is a man bound to take what the Law alloweth him and that whether he will or no if so if our prelate can beg the recognisances forfeited by licensed victuallers allowed by the law to the King it will make his Bishoprick a fat one But how do these cases clear the conclusion to be proved out of Numb 30 there is nothing relating to the Oath of the superiours but the asserting of their prerogative and absolute dominion over their inferiours to irritate or establish their vows what ever the Libeller did Mr. Grofton in his Analepsis allowed the Dr. this Text in its latitude and referred him to be judged by it and now granteth that the inferiour in things not sui juris may have the action vowâ—d superseded by the declared pleasure of the superiour and that whether it be son or servant but in our case he then affirmed 1. The Parliament sitting had over us a Legislative power to which we owed subjection they were in their capacity the Nation collective and sui juris and to be obeyed during their Session by those whom they represented their power in this Covenant was no less legislative then in the Protestation of May 1641. 2. The King who then was hearing of it did prohibit the Act but never did declare it null and void and Dr. Saunderson concludes the superiours dissent must be exprest in a full formal dâ—scharge ut tâ—llendo tâ—llat renuendo renuat is required to rescinde the oath But our late King advised to keep the Oath his present Majesty sware it sware his consent to it and to the Ordinances enjoyning it and conjured his Subjects to the keeping of it Both these Mr. Crofton suggested in his Analepsis and cleared more fully in his Analepsis Anelepthe which the Doctor should have considered before he had declaimed from the force of this Screpture Mr. Cr. doth not cannot extricate himself by his more serious endeavours whilst Mr. Cr. hath traversed his ground and turned the mouth of his cannon against himself and will offer again to joyn issues with a man acted by reason to establish the Covenant by the force equity analogie of this Scripture or otherwise to let it fall But he must not be worded out of Gods warrant But the judicious Doctor opposing p. â—45 14â— counteth Mr. Croftons observations pitiful shifts and not potent solutions and small twigs at which poor Mr. Crofton as a drowning man did catch yea weeds which sink him being of no deep reach nor any skill in swimming You are very right Doctor for Mr Crofton God be thanked could never yet swim with the stream or reach preferment with a profligated conscience But let us see these twigs and weeds he taketh notice of and observe whether the Doctors wits be not run a woolgathering in charging them with weakness Analepsis pag. 12. The first was The two Houses of Parliament are coordinatoâ— and sharers in the Legislation of England and so a constant lawfull authority To this the Doctor replieth He gently observeth a legislative power at least coordinate in the Parliament More modest man he this being out of his sphear otherwise then as a Subject and Casuist yet you might have pleased to observe he hath more strongly asserted and enforced it to the fastning of St. Peters fetters Sect. 4. But the Doctor enquires Can they legally exercise it without and against the Kings consent being not in his nonago nor out of his wits that they may do it without the Kings consent none do or can deny it common practice with the peoples constant obedience doth plainly manifest it as also the Protestation of May 1641. never doubted as to the validity of authority which you say was precarious but Resolves of the House declares to have been authoritative Votes Resolves Orders and Ordinances of one or both Houses do proclaim it and the priviledges of Parliament That the King take no notice of what is debated or voted ordered or acted by them until it be by themselves formally presented to his Majesty And the very nature of coordinate power if the Dr. understand it with their actings in case of his absence by minority or otherwise doth determine it As to the exercise against the Kings consent I shall conclude nothing but commend Mr. Prians Sovereign power of Parliaments to your serious study yet this much matters not in our case for a Parliament duly summoned and rightly constituted hath his Majesties consent to exercise that legislation placed in them so long as they shall continue in that capacity I think no English man will deny this And the legislative power of their Votes Debates Resolves Orders or Ordinances were never gainsaid by his Majesty though the peoples act of swearing the Covenant upon an unhappy difference and misapprehension was by an unusual way inhibited But the Doctor further profoundly demands Are they legislative in fact where there is no law made as none was for the Covenant was there legislation in actu secundo in exercise or act as to commend a writer for a book never writ or an architect for an house never built Where are now your wits good Master of words Is there is no writing or architecture in actu secundo in act and exercise until the whole book be writ or house built I fancied the writing of every page and framing of every board or squaring of every beam and laying every brick to be somthing more then scribendi or aedificandi potentia and if any more how far is it short of actus secundus Is there no Legislation without a full and formal Statute law What do you make of Votes Resolves Orders Ordinances of either or both Houses suspending superseding the Laws and Courts of Judicature directing and disposing the Subjects enquire at the Temple whether these be legislation in actu secundo Let your old friends a little laugh to see the Prelate-Justice his profound notions of legislation But the Doctors enforcement of these premises of legislation in potentia and actu is very considerable At best the two Houses nor King nor both together have any legislative power to decree or execute what is unrighteous against God or man Suppose they have not have they therefore no legislation in actu secundo act and exercise else what is this to the purpose But stay Sir What is that you say King and Parliament have no legislative power to decree or execute what is unrighteous against God or man I must deny this have you never read of wickedness established by a law Had Queen Mary and her Parliament who cast out the true and returnned the false Religion no legislative power by which they did it Doth the injustice of the matter nullifie the authority of the Law and Legislators is impiety enjoyned by a just authority to be actually disobeyed and relisted will not this prostitute legislation to every private
to the damage of the family or progenitors in a corporation to the damage of successors or Governours to the damage of the people or Subjects to binde because these are sui juris and then he yeilds as much as I desire to shut out yea thrust out and pluck up his Episcopacy and in this point we shall agree But now he shufles to defend his strange notions of morality Of which The first is Mr. Crofton carps at the Doctors owning the bonds of God which are moral to have in them sufficient and indispensable obligations of the soul to all duty Pag. â—8â— By your leave Doctor this is false Mr. Croftons wonder was at the Doctors Antithesis of the words of a Covenant to Reason Justice Truth Religion Duty which he never denied to tye as well as Oaths but not as much muchless more as your iron adamantine bonds of Reason moralitie c. opposed to the cords and wit hs of Oaths did suggest in your Analysis but now indeed you confess that Oaths do harden and soder these moral chains unto a greater toughness which was the thing Mr. Cr. asserted in his Analepsis I confess retraction of error is the best vindication but you should be ingenuous and do it without shufling and suggesting a falshood against your Antagonist But Mr. Cr. will grant to you that new Covenants cannot absolve or abrogate old lawful Oaths but what it may do to laws I must dispute when done by Legislators I affirm it to be the fullest repeal But if I admit it it will not secure your Bishops Lands Honor Office or Authority until you have proved your Episcopacy to be established by law which may be done by an act of the next Parliament if the long Parliament be not in being as hath been affirmed though it is out of Mr. Cr. way to determine and he is well advised by the Doctor to let wise men manage affairs as is but reason for no doubt wisemen will hear and weigh the doubts of the meanest men the stating of which proud Prelates think to be pragmatique But Sir Mr. Cr. thinks whatever Jepthas vow was it was literally fulfilled Pag. 281 and I hope Dr. Gauden will not assert a Popish commutation of an Oath and the Popish Casuists conclude Non posse promissum commutari in evidenter pejus an oath may not be changed for the worse And Sir if he vowed which I will not conclude his daughters life I think her virgin liberty to be less and worse And Dr. Saunderson determineth Vinculum juramenti non posse remitti vel solvi ex parte per commutationem sine consensu partium omnium The exchange must be by consent of all parties concerned But the Scripture mentioneth not Gods consent nor Jeptha's exchange what he vowed that he performed For ubi lex non distinguit non est distinguendum His second suggestion was That a Covenant cannot bind a man by the power of his own imagination Analysis p. 15. To this Mr. Crofton excepted in his Analepsis pag. 19. and he replys It is true that imagination or meer presumption cannot binde contrary to what in Reason Justice Law and Religion you owe to another But Doctor Pag. 282 â— have you not again run from your own second suggestion How long will you shufle your suggestion was of any Covenant your reply of Covenants to the wrong of others and therefore you add the measure of an erroneous conscience may bind to things of our own injury but not otherwise your suggestion opposed a mans own imagination to others interpretation your reply opposeth our own to others wrong where shall we hold you can Jesuitism it self be more subtile and sophistical I pray come to the question doth an erroneous conscience binde and doth it universally bind I have sworn and do imagine it is no wrong to my neighbour though I ought to be the better informed by right reason and rules of justice yet whilst in my error must I conscienciously wrong my neighbour or captivate my conscience by Dr. G. say so you profess Sir to be best in a particular case I pray you resolve it clearly and plainly You boast of this second suggestion as having as much strength as I confess your next hath when indeed you have made it the same and instead of defending the second you have spoken the third in a second book profound disputing I will admit this strength and yet your inferred safety of your Episcopacy which I stand by is no wrong to remove is a plain non sequitur grounded on your common petitio prinipii for I must enquire what is the right of Episcopacy may not the power that founded Prelacy extirpate it Is it not sui juris May not Episcopacy be abolished without wrong as well particular Bishopricks be given to lay persons for two three four five ten fifteen twenty thirty years together and the See kept vacant tell us was the Church so long injured May not English authority abolish Prelacy with as little wrong as Denmark did I know my horse and sadle wife and children Pag. 183. house and lands but yet I know not the pretended right of Episcopacy and conceive there is some difference between personal and political right When God stirreth up the Kings heart to conâ—ider and raiseth up an English Parliament to take notice of they will know their right in and over Episcopacy and make Bishops know they are their servants horse and saddle to be disposed at their pleasure without complaint of wrong Mr. Cr. shall freely trust them to it and God to give them thereunto hearts of wisdom conscience and courage The Doctors assertion more then his judgement leads him to an exclamation Mr. Croftons next paragraph is a factious quaerie not worth any sober mans Reply It is well Sir it is not seditious pag. 2â—4 for many Deputy Lieutenants are become so far the Bishops slaves and Constables as to resolve the peace and order of the Kingdom into owning the Bishops and make the contrary sedition But Sir what is the Query I presume it toucheth the Prelates copy-hold you cry so of faction whether the Statute of 17. Caroli hath not cut short their horns And you tell us of a Councellor who resolved in the negative Mr. Cr. knows him not but hath heard of a Convention of Prelates who on advice with Councel discerned the affirmative and received the silence of the learned in the Law to their enquiry you may if you please take silence for consent I am prone to think Dr. Gauden knows this story to be true and that the Councellor who concluded for Episcopal Jurisdiction did determine it could not be executed without the Kings commission barred by the Statute of 17 Caroli primi But this was fit for the Doctor to tell The Doctors next fling is at Mr. Croftons fear of National perjury before considered pag. 185. and on good grounds will convince men it is
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
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
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
Champions the Authors of the Oxford reasons and therefore must be proved 5. That the Parliament putting an Oath upon themselves as the collective body of the Nation doth not transmit an obligation to the Nation us and our posterities who shall any way succeed into that national capacity as if Parliaments were not the Princes yea more the body of the people doing in their names and by their consent what ever they do and if they do it by an act of permanent nature binding posterity in all ages that can dispose their succession into that capacity of this see more in my fastning of St. Peters Fetters Sect 6. 6. That tumults stirs and the timorous withdrawings of some doth nul and void a Parliament established by a positive law and without any positive visible and real force securing their doors to the barring of the entrance of any the Members to the discharge of their duties and easie way to dissolve Parliaments and blow them up without Gunpowder 7. That the Parliament can Act Vote Determine and execute nothing under the Kings withdrawing from them into any part of his own Country Who may yet do all things in his infancy or whilst in a Forreign Country as if the place of his retirement or reason of his absencâ— did add or abstract to the Authority of Parliament 8. That the two houses alone nor King alone no nor King with them have any legislative power to decree or execute what is unrighteousnes against God or man So that the legislation is founded in the piety and justice of the decree And rebellion against authority is acquitted by the iniquity of the command An authoritative aholishing of any subordinate order or society of men is injustice to the persons and possessions of the present Occupants And so England is bound to pennance for the abolishing Monks Nuns and Abbeys and that no King or Parliament have a power or can justly extirpate and abolish out of the Nation any trade calling or order of men any way useful to the Common-wealth Tinkers and Pedlers and men of the like order will certainly cleave close to this conservator of their liberty 9. That no King can lawfully swear to the diminution of his own prerogative and power or honorable estate which all people in the world must and will contradict 10. The solemn League and Covenant binding to an endeavour to extirpate prelacy is irreconcileable to the duty we owe to God and man First to the Kings Supremacy Second to the Church and Countrys peace and honour Third to the glory of God in the Government of the Church Fourth to the reformation of reformed Religion Fifth to the conscience and care of avoiding Sacriledge Schisme and Faction Sixth to the justice we ow to all godly honest and deserving men especially Ministers cujus contrarium verum est Sir whilst you take these for granted which are contrary to right reason natural policy Ecclesiastical story yea and truth it self you may easily raise your Fabrick swell your book and run on in a magisterial redaâ—gution prelatical determination and raging reviling opprobrious rebuke but Sir you must remember a man that is first in his own cause seemeth righteous but his Neighbour cometh after and findeth him out Prov. 18.17 We shall leave the Doctor to a view of these Rafters proportioned to his foundation and promiscuously scatterd up and down his book And more particularly observe the strength of his argumentation in his reply to what was excepted against in his Analysis and specially as it relateth to Mr. Crofton leaving Anonymous to himself who herein will finde full work for his anatomizing genius The first onset of Dr. Gauden in this his vindication of his Analysis made upon Mr. Crofton his Analepsis is in page 147 and thus enters viz. Which was the thing Dr. Gauden had to prove as Christ did the resurrection not out of the letter only but the Analogie and equity of that Scripture from the force of which M. Crofton cannot extricate himself by his more soberendeavours Under this charge I must enquire what it was he had to prove and I find nothing in this sentence dictating what it should be save only the relative which from which his rhetorick or rather his indigested heap of words hath removed the antecedent at such a distance that I cannot easily find it I looked into the Paragraph fore-going to find out the thing spoken of as that which according to the grammatical construction should make the Antecedent to the Relative and there I find this general conclusion viz. Such Vows and Covenants so much to the scandal of Religion reproach of Reformation gratifying dangerous factions disgrace of this and all reformed Churches dishonor to Jesus Christ his Apostles and chief Successors the Bishops so injurious to many worthy men to the whole Church and Nation of England either ought not to be taken by Christian King and People or if by force fraud or fear and facility they aâ—e so taken or rather imposed and mistaken yet they muâ—t never be kept in any such sence bue either repented of and dissolved or else the words must be resolved and reduced to such a sence as is good and lawful Id quod erat demonstrandum To leave his Libeller to take up his petitio principii as to our Covenant not such in point of matter or form nor so imposed or mistaken as he suggesteth and taketh for granted and to demand his Id quod erat demonstrandum This sentence must be the antecedent to his relative which for so it is connexed which was the thing Dr. Gauden had to prove out of that Scripture But what is the Scripture out of which he must prove this conclusion I find no Scripture nigh hand that can be the proof produced running some seven pages back through a wilde wilderness of words I find in pag. 140. a quarrel begun about Numb 30. and other Scripture is not urged this was the Scripture which was produced in his Analysis though with a misquoted verse and must be vindicated in this book so that this only must be the Scripture predicated to prove his which before noted and then indeed Mr. Croftons more serious endeavours cannot extricate him from the entanglements of the Doctors wilde fancy for the Text neither the letter nor analogy doth afford any such conclusion All Mr. Croftons brains cannot beat such a sense into the words they are so far out The Text in the letter of it is a special direction concerning the vow of a daughter or wife vowing without the knowledge of the Father or Husband In the Analogie of it of the Inferior swearing without the knowledge of the Superiour and directeth an establishment or irritation of the vow not any sencing or interpretation id quod erat demonstrandum And how Dr. Gauden can make it grammatically speak or logically conclude Such a Vow so scandalous to religion gratifying to faction dishonourable to Christ disgraceful to England
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
by Mr. Cr. in his Analepsis Analephthe Sect. 3. pag. 35. and avoid it if he can onely take notice it is the honesty of the Covenant not all Covenanters that Mr. Crofton pleads with confidence he confesseth many cups may be found in his brethrens sacks but not in any Article of the Covenant and Dr. Gaudens multiplyed reiterated Ifs do make me confident of Benjamins innocency and apt to think things unknown are thrust upon them but not from so pious a principle and to so charitable an end as Joseph acted from and aimed at but truely Doctor it is a Sophistical evasion to confound things and persons in a dispute but this the learned Doctor doth decline as to the name office degree order and Authority of a Bishop in Scripture Sir do you not now appear a greater dictatour then little Mr. Crofton Pag. 249. who rationally urged his exception and is no way affraid or unwilling in this case to try a turn with Dr. John Gauden on the questions before propounded who yet will hold to his ingenuous agnition which so much pleaseth you viz. that the Covenant is not levelled against any real excellency in the Bishops which is all that Mr. Crofton agnifed Analep Pag. 25. though you according to your usual falshood do add authority estate and honour which Mr. Cr. noted to be unwarrantable neither to be assumed by them nor attributed to them and Sir I must tell you ruine and extirpation of the frame of the English Hierarchy doth no way interfere with the preservation and esteem of any real excellency in Bishops but that Mr. Crofton may be ready and bound if in a capacity to vail that pompous worldly State and wicked superiority which Church Governours had obtained a note or instance of which he gave in Lawn sleeves no more puerile or scurrilous nor unbeseeming a Scholar or Gentleman then the baseness and contemptible inferiority of Presbyters was by you marked out in a black coat to which that was opposed is below the sobriety of a man the humility of a Primus Presbyter and reverence of a Christian to the poorest meanest Minister of Christ and speaks your prelatical Pride much more then your Rochet and Chymer sets out your pomp which my baptisme binds against and will engage the Boanergesses of God to thunder out terrour against Covenant breaking which you account a weak Womanish flash Pag. 249 251. yet will not be quenched by your first demonstrations or this reply by your judicious self proclaimed rational and conscientious though to all men beside proud prophane ridiculous weak and wicked whilst Mr. Crofton seeketh not to strain the â—ovenant beyond its own just and ingenuous resolution Pag 251. sence operation influence and obligation consenting to and rejoycing in its limitation to the Word of God and dutys of our places and callings by which Mr. Crofton is resolved he will be judged and is in himself assured that King and Kingdome accordingly keeping their Covenant the controverted Episcopacy will be at an end and the commission of our present Prelate Justices expired and useless covenanters by their good behaviour proving the solemn League and Covenant to be as indeed it is Berith Anti-Baall which Dr. Gauden blasphemously denominateth Baal Berith and Mr. Crofton is nor shall no way be shye of retrospection how or by whom to what or in what sence it binds and the rationality of its obligation all which he hath seriously considered in an opposition to the Oxford Reasons to which the Doctor so often retireth as he may see in my Analepsis Anelephthe pag. 265. We have seen the Doctors strength in the defence of his indirect answer and consideration of the Covenant which being done he proceeds to reinforce his direct answer and Goliah like being encouraged by the stature of little Mr. Crofton not taking notice of his stone and sling he triumphantly enters and tauntingly crieth Mr. Croftons fear good man is lest Dr. Gaudens down right blows may quite break in sunder Pag. 273 274. whatever may be of sacred bond in the Covenant the Reader that well regardeth the strength of his book cannot but with Laughter say there was great cause of fear but the best is it was but a fear and so on past for in the next assault Mr. Crofton is victor Mr. Croftons note that the paucity of the Covenanters doth not discharge its obligation is true had not Mr. Crofton much cause of fear and trouble I but in making Dr. Gauden one of the number Mr. Crofton reckoned without his host when that appears Mr. Crofton will cry true but the Doctor doth not dare not deny he sware it which if he should Mr. Crofton can tell who heard him preanh upon the Covenant acd saw him in the Pulpit at Bocking lift up his hand and swear it He doth indeed like a shifting runnegado labour to darken the act which retorts on his conscience in his now estate and tell us he never took an oath but those appointed by Law he might reckon the Covenant to be of this nature for the Authority of Parliament is by the Petition of Right the legal appointment of an Oath He tells us a large story how he did sense the Covenant and with what nonsense he did approve it understanding Extirpation to signifie Reformation and so by general salvoes and restrictions he cheated others and himself which Mr. Crofton hath detected in his Review of Reordination pag. 35. but may as soon acquit his soul from the bond as make the words of the Covenant bear his sence let him â—now equivocation in an Oath is no way short of Ananias and Saphira's lie unto the Holy Ghost it is much patience that the punishment hath not yet proclaimed it The Lord grant it may lead unto repentance He proceeds Mr. Crofton is apt to think the Covenant national not as in a Presbyterian illegal caetera sence which the Doctor adds but will not alter the case the sence being no way considerable to the Nationalty of it but in any sence signifies as little as other mens thoughts to the contrary But good Sir weigh the Reasons brought by Mr. Crofton and his answer to what you have objected as to the troubles of the Houses absence of some members or the like in Analepsis Anelepthe sect 6. which had you read would have saved or encreased your labour in your Reply Mr. Crofton must not shufle that into this book and therefore shall make bold to tell you His sacred Majesty and the Kingdom must submit to the plain and literal sence thereof though it seem as sowre grapes unless we will by Gods wrath set our own and childrens teeth on edge for the capacity of the Covenanters doth extend the obligation But The Doctor judgeth an oath extorted by fear to a mans private damage doth binde Pag 279. sure he means a proper damage for I cannot think he will in cool blood deny the Parents oath
fancy and furnish all Rebellion with Apology I am not bound for the thing decreed is unrighteous and neither King nor Parliament nor both had legislative power to decree and cannot therefore execute it for execution is subsequent to legislation I must not be punished where I am not bound to obey Doctor whose wits are now a woolgathering to run away from the Covenant by stating a doctrine of Sedition yea Rebellion Mr. Crofton should more soberly have said The King and Parliament have legislation to all acts of humane Society but must be careful they do not decree unrighteousness establish iniquity by a Law You have indeed very powerfully opposed Mr. Cr. his first observation beating down all legislation in actu secundo yea and in some cases which will fall too often and must be judged by every private man all potentia legem ferendi What say you to the second M. Croftons second notion saith the Doctor his second nothing observed as his safety is that a thing may bind in conscience which doth not bind in law or in the Judicature of man This M. Crofton did say and will stick to against the raging billows of your proudest words But what saith the Doctor to this notion True is it true and yet M. Croftons nothing True and yet a pitiful evasion a small twig a sinking weed Sure Sir the true of so big a bladder will keep little M. Crofton swiming above water How doth D. Gauden avoid the strength of what he confesseth to be true hath he well weighed it is an Oath that bindeth in conscience though not in law or humane judicatu how is it that he having cryed true turneth off with a but nothing can bind in conscience against the Laws of man in cases of equity justice and right Suppose Mr. Crofton cry True to Dr. G. what hath he gained Mr. Cr. did not affirm that any thing of that nature did bind conscience but that the Coveâ—â—nt not charged on any by a Statute Law yet bindeth the conscience of all personally or politically subjected to it And Dr. G. runs away with his petitio principii that Englands Episcopacy is established by Law and cannot according to Juâ—tice Equity and Common right be extirpated which M. Cr. hath denied and doth deny and when it is proved will further examine how far an oath bindes in conscience against it But as yet Dr. G. offers nothing to prove it but his Worships say so which will not be beleived Only M. Cr. must say that my oath may bind me against what according to equity and right the Law must adjudge me as in cases of contracts bargains or alienation of Land or goods where I have sworn or vowed a release of which the Law according to common justice equity and right can take no cognizance but must restore I am bound from requiring or by law receiving the restitution or performance It is hard that Dr. G. should lose the power of conscience by preaching equity and right among the Lawyers Mr. Croftons third Observation of the Kings oath making a supply to the supposed defect of authority binding the Covenant is entred upon with a drop of his sarcastical pen for Mr. Cr. bold and odious no less then fallacious if you will make a right Shemaiah add seditious and treasonable too urging by a Presbyterian pertness the present taking of the Covenant in Scotland I pray you sir though this be bold wherein is it fallacious that his Majesty sware the Covenant is not nor can be denied the form of his Royal Coronation his Royal Declaration from Dumferling and the History of King Charls the Second have made it known through the world that it cannot be hidden Though had not Dr. G. blurred paper to bring perjury upon King and Kingdom it had not been here pleaded by Mr. Crofton But Sir Wherein is an argumentative urging the Kings taking the Covenant so odious a piece of Presbyterian pertness Shall not every Disputant have liberty with freedom to express what will enforce his argument Is not the meanest Subject interested in the Kings oath and capacitated humbly to demand performance Do not Royal acts fall under the consideration of Casuists resolving conscience Are not Kings objects of ministerial admonition how bold soever it may seem none but a proud Pashur and shameless Semaiah could count it odious in Jeremiah to say to the King Keep the oath and thou shalt be delivered from that distress which may too late engage his Majesty to send to his faithful Monitor to pray for him Is not Mr. Cr. capacitated in all these respects to consider his Majesties oath even when he is abstracted from his Presbyterian pertness Sir I must tell you it is more odious in you to make his Majesties Legislative authority depend on the piety of his decrees then for Mr. Crofton to urge his Royal Oath as a bar to the Nations perjury Wherein lyeth the odium of an argumentative urging the King taking of the Covenant it was but modestly mentioned in the Analepsis though more fully and forcibly to the fastning of St. Peters Fetters It is every way visible Mr. Cr. doth neither justifie nor commend the insolent imposing of it but doth expresly condemn that although the maturity of his years here mentioned by this Doctor maketh it the more obliging as having the full exercise of his judicium rationale which if it were any way restrained by the distress of his affairs will not release him because it was chosen as his best course and juramentum metu extortum is agreed to bind the conscience and as a moral rule reacheth Kings as well yea as much as other men though therein he is more obnoxious to temptations and needs to have the case more clearly resolved if his Majesty delight not to hear of it as Dr. G. scandalously reporteth more is the pitty Mr. Cr. hath in Loyalty to his Majesty pressed it and perswaded others to press it on the same principles in his Analepsis Analepthe Sect 1. convincing and affirming his Ministers and Chaplains ought as his Monitors to mind him of it and affect him with it though I fear flattering prelates will rather expose him to hear of it in Gods wrath and by his Enemies reproach for the breach thereof then hazard their dignity by discharge of the duty they owe to God and his Royal soul That the Kings taking the Covenant can make any thing in it lawful which by the rules of religion and civil justice is unlawful Mr. Cr. did not affirme or urge it to that purpose but that it maketh up the supposed defect of authority in the first taking the Covenant is that which Mr. Cr. said nor doth D. G. deny it his consent unto the ordinance for taking the Covenant expressed by Oath gives it at least to conscience the formality of a Law That what his Majesty did in Scotland must not extend to England is a most false maxime according to which we