and Covenant among themselves before their joyning with England in this and were threatned to be chastised for that and other things by a puissant Army yet afterwards upon a through debate thereof in the Parliament of England it was declared by King and Parliament That our Brethren of Scotland had done nothing but what became Loyal and obedient Subjects and were thereupon by Act of Parliament publickly righted in all the Churches of this Kingdom where they had been defamed Yea See the Exhortation for 〈◊〉 the Covenant ordered by the House of Commons to be printed Feb. 9. 1643. the same Exhortation out of which the precedent Paragraph is extracted telleth us That neither this Doctrine nor Practise hath been formerly deemed seditious or unwarrantable by the former Princes that have sate upon the English Throne but justified and defended by Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory with the expence of much Treasure and Noble Blood in the united Provinces of the Netherlands combined not onely without but against the unjust violence of Philip the second of Spain first and chiefly in matters of Religion King James of like blessed memory followed her steps so far as to approve their union and to enter into League with them as free States which was after continued by his last Majesty who both by his Expedition for relief of Rochel in France and by his strict confederacy and Allyance with the the late Prince of Orange notwithstanding all the importunity of Spain to the contrary did set to his seal That all that had been done by his Royal Ancestors in maintenance of those who had so engaged and combined themselves was just and warrantable Thus Mr. Doctor I have given you some patterns of Covenanting Christians beside the Holy League in France the two Houses of Parliament whom you take pleasure every where to bespatter as if they were Fools and Rebels in England and our Brethren in Scotland I forbear to mention Germany the Cantons the Albigenses and others because I have said enough already to shew the fowlness of your Pen and the falshood of him that held it in saying there is no pattern of such a Covenant in any ages of the Church and that we never read nor heard of any Covenanting Christians until the Ligue Sainte in France except those who in Baptism were sprinkled with the blood of Christ and so entred into that Covenant c. pag. 11. I have now taken my walk through your gaudy Field but have gathered little fruit I therefore forbear further progress unless to take a view of Her whom you call Your dear Mother the Church of England pag. 5. I pray who and what is She Which Question I ask not as if I were of opinion that there is none such but to know of you whom you take Her to be I have read of one Mother of us all x Gal. 4.26 I know no more Mothers although I know more Churches I have read in the Articles of Religion established in 13 Eliz. cap. 12. y Art 19. That the visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments be duly administred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same But you are not so rude an Vnderstander nor so uncritical a Speaker By the Church of England you plainly and charitably mean that part of mankind in this Polity or Nation which having been called baptised and instructed by lawful Ministers in the Mysteries and Duties of the Gospel maketh a joynt and publick Profession of the Christian Faith and Reformed Religion in the name and as the sense of the whole Nation c. Thus you in your Tears Sighs c. of the Church of England pag. 24. Then all man-kind in this Polity and Nation making such a Profession is your Dear Mother Are not you then Terrae Filius Sir St. Paul tells us Hierusalem which is above is the Mother of us all But you tell us Your Mother is not Hierusalem â—uâ— England which is below and not free Much joy may you have of her I can own her as a Church but not as a Mother I have read of no Mothers in the New Testament in relation to Churches but onely Hierusalem not Earthly but Coelestial and Babylon the great Whore the Mother of Harlots z Rev. 17.1 5. If the Doctor have found out a third much good may she do him Now I see what makes him so excentrick and extravagant namely his sucking too much of his Mothers Milk when she had eaten too much poysonous meat of Arminianism Socinianism and Popery And now Sir I shall for this time take my leave of you with this close that whereas you pag. 25. vant that in two days you finished those Answers and Solutions truly Sir I think so too and do believe that whoever shall carefully compare those Answers and Solutions with this Reply which cost more time will be of the same opinion and that the spirit of perversness pride and time-serving ambition did dictate them unto you POST-SCRIPT I Had almost forgotten your high Commendation of Dr. Ushers Model of reformed Episcopacy in his Reduction which for my part I dislike not Only I must take occasion hence to tell you or rather others that since the reprinting of that Reduction of Episcopacy into the form of a Synodical Government which little Piece was truly Dr. Ushers child there hath a Bastard appear'd which is called The Bishop of Armagh's Direction concerning the Liturgy and Episcopal Government said to be written at the request of the House of Commons in the year 1642. Which is a meer fiction and a lye For so Dr. Bernard in his Book intituled The judgement of the Archbishop of Armagh c. assureth us pag. 160 That in An. 1640. There was a Book printed intituled The Bishop of Armaghs judgment to the House of Parliament concerning the Liturgy and Episcopal Government And in An. 164â— another Book intituled Vox Hibernia being some pretended Notes of his at a Publique Fast Both these at his Petition were suppressed by Order from the House of Lords and Commons Feb. 11. 1641. And now revived to thrust out the other which is his Legitimate issue FINIS
THE ANATOMY OF Dr. Gauden's Idolized Non-sence and Blasphemy IN HIS Pretended Analysis or setting forth the true Sense OF THE COVENANT That is to say Of that SACRED COVENANT taken by the Parliament the Commissioners of Scotland and the Assembly September 11. 1643. Cyprian ad Cornelium Atque haec Frater vere est dementia non cogitare nec scire quod mendacia non diu fallant LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLX THE ANATOMY OF Dr. Gauden's idolized Non-sence and Blasphemy IN His pretended Analysis of the Covenant FOr the the better understanding of this business the Readers both of that Book and this must know That the late Long Parliament I mean both the honourable Houses drew up took and ordered others to take two several Covenants in one year The first was taken in or about the beginning of June 1643. entituled See more of this neer the end of this Book The Vow and Covenant appointed by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament to be taken by every man in the Cities of London Westminster and the Suburbs and Liberties thereof and throughout the whole Kingdom The other was that Solemn League and Covenant which the same Parliament the Commissioners of the Kingdom and Church of Scotland and the Assembly of Divines took at Westminster the 11 day of September in the same year and appointed it to be taken by both Kingdoms Now you are to take notice that it is onely the last the far better of the two which this affected Master of Words and of little else for ought appears by this and sundry other things by him written †Witness his tears sighs c. of the Church of England His Sermon at Pauls as it was printed c. hath opposed instead of explaining and against which he hath lately thrown out among his deluded Admirers a new flatulent Piece as Jupiter did his Log among the Frogs which he calleth Analysis or The loosing of St. Peters bands setting forth the true sense if you will believe him and solution that is the dissolution if he can effect it of the Covenant so far as it relates to the Government of the Church by Episcopacy To which Title of his as an inlet to his Discourse as well as warrantie for the Title he hath subjoyned part of Acts 16.26 The foundations of the prison were shaken the doors opened and every ones bands were loosed Thus he rehearseth that Text. Before I fall to unripping of that Pasquil it self I must a little consider the Title of it in which he presenteth us with a piece of his Non-sense if not Blasphemy to boot Non sense first For what Oedipus can unriddle those first words in it The loosing of St. Peter 's bands so as according to his undertaking to make sense of them Was St. Peter bound in this Covenant Or did he impose it upon others If neither why doth this Wordy Doctor call his Book The loosing of St. Peter 's bands If this be not his meaning what sense can there be of that his vapouring flourish And why St. Peter's bands Oh he hath a Text for it Act. 16.26 as ye saw but now But in alledging it he will rather pare off part of Gods own words which run thus The foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened c. than not carry on his own affected Cadencies in his stile But this is but one of his Peccadillo's Now what intendeth he by this loosing of St. Peter's bands and by that in Acts 16.26 He tells you The setting forth the true sense and solution of the Covenant c. by John Gauden D. D. Very good It is then John Gauden that hath loosed St. Peter's bands that hath shaken the foundations of the prison opened all the doors and loosed every ones bands that were in it If this be not Blasphemy as he applies it then O most glorious John Why do not his zealous Adorers say of him as sometimes the Barbarians of Paul That he is a God Why send they not for one of the Priests of Jupiter I will not say some old high Episcopalian to bring Oxen and Garlands to sacrifice unto him with the people How beit dic sodes Doctor Was it St. Peter indeed that was in Prison Were they his bands that you have loosed I verily were they by your telling And therefore though the Text be far from saying any such matter yet if Doctor John Gauden say it it must be believed without gain-saying though he prove it not Nevertheless if we may be so bold as to consult the verse next going before we might if we durst tell him Act. 16.25 that we find onely Paul and Silas but no St. Peter there unless he will say which he may as well say as what he doth for it is not his manner to prove ought that Paul and Silas is Greek for St. Peter and St. Peter is English for Paul and Silas and so they are all one But perhaps St. Peter in this mans intention denotes his Successors at Rome with whom this charitable Doctor professeth elsewhere * In his tears sighs c. of the Church of England â—ag 314. a desire to hold not onely all inward but all actual Communion in all Doctrines and Duties of Faith and Worship agreeable to the Word of God as if that Romish Crew performed any such Duties without so much mixture of will-worship and superstition as hath not from the same Word of God procured a strait charge to all Gods people to come out of her not so much in regard of place as Communion which is doomed as a partaking of her sins And if this be his meaning Rev. 18.4 his Charity hath so far transported him as to loosen what God hath laid on those pretended Successors and all their Locusts by upholding Communion with Popery which the Covenaut engageth all to extirpate If this be his meaning let him speak out If he mean otherwise he is grosly mistaken Indeed we find St. Peter to be cast into Prison at Hierusalem by Herod where he had chains put upon his hands Act. 12. which by means of the incessant prayers of the Church to God for him an Angel went and unloosed opened the prison doors and so brought him out But good Sir were you that Angel If so let your Title stand I will have no further difference with you about it But Paul and Silas whose imprisonment is mentioned in your alledged Text Act. 16. were imprisoned at Philippi far distant from St. Peters prison And even there we read of no bands upon them but onely that their feet were made fast in the stocks And for ought appears they were not out of the stocks when the bands of every one else were loosed but they continued therein till the Jaylor himself came in and took them thence But be that so or so we will not contend about it Whose bands then were loosed The bands of the
Jayl birds who had been cast in before namely Thieves and perhaps Murderers and other Rogues and Malefactors for they are the usual Guests in such places Now if any such have taken the Solemn League and Covenant and are thereupon troubled in Conscience so as not to dare to set up the old Hierarchy again with some small refining let them repair to Dr. John to loose them of that band and he will do it But for the greater encouragement of such men and others that are for that Lordly Episcopacy and would gladly read his Book to be satisfied in Conscience therein I could wish the Title might be altered and put into the words of Martin Mar-prelate in answer to Dr. J. Bridges that had pleaded for such Bishops and their Trinkets onely changeing the Name that the Title of the Book might run thus O read Dr. John Gauden for it is a worthy Work Which how worthy it is we shall now further enquire by looking into the Book it self In prosecution whereof I shall industriously avoid the waste of so much time and paper as would be taken only up in pursuing all his out-leaps and extravagancies and use all possible brevity in opening some of the principal onely for the undeceiving of such as dote upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 8.10 or great one as if he were the great power of God The main scope of my present endeavour is this namely to make it manifest that this Doctor under pretence of giving that sober sense of the Covenant whereof he believeth it to be capable before God before all good Christians and in a mans own well-informed Conscience which he promiseth pag. 3 4. and to do it with freedom from passion and prejudice pag. 5. he directly laboureth to decry vilifie and blaspheme the Covenant it self and to make it odious as that which was sinfully taken at first and of necessity to be cast off and abhorred by all that have entred into it For more distinct proceeding therein I shall endeavour to make out these four Propositions 1. That he himself doth admit the Covenant to be in some sense lawful and good 2. That therein all sober Christians who understand themselves agree with him 3. That all this notwithstanding he endeavours to vilifie make odious and to destroy the Covenant it self 4. That maugre all his calumnies and malicious aspersions the Covenant even as to the point of extirpating that hierarchical Prelacy lately laid aside is to be constantly and conscienciously observed and kept in the right sense thereof by all that have taken it as they will avoid destruction here and damnation hereafter I. PROPOSITION That the Doctor himself doth admit the Covenant to be in some sense lawful and good 1. HIs own words before alledged where he saith he hath endeavoured to give that sober sense of the Covenant whereof he believeth it to be only capable before God before all good Christians and in a mans own well-informed Conscience is evidence enough against him at least that the Covenant is lawful and good How else could he give a sober sense of it which he believes would hold water before God all good men and a well informed Conscience 2. He tells us pag. 14. that he will look upon the Covenant with the best aspect considered in Conscience in the softest sense that can be made of it namely as a voluntary Vow or Religious Bond by some spontaneously taken in order to declare their sense of duty to God the King the Church their Country and the reformed Religion to make themselves more strictly sensible of the sacred and civil obligations respectively due to them that so they might be more ready to discharge them in their places and callings c. And is not this lawful and good He after addeth that he believeth that very few took it in any sense against Primitive Reformed and Regular Episcopacy so reduced to an efficacious conjunction with Presbytery as the most reverend Primate of Armagh proposed in his Reduction of Episcopacy Now if such a Reduction be necessary the Covenant in this sense cannot be unlawful but good 3. In pag. the 20. he saith The most strict and severe Covenanter cannot but be satisfied and absolved in point of Conscience if first he hath and still doth in his place and calling seasonably advise humbly petition and lawfully endeavour to reform what is truely amiss in the Church Government by Bishops Secondly If he use the like means to restore and preserve what he finds good and useful in Episcopacy They then that do not thus cannot be satisfied or absolved in point of Conscience therefore to do this by vertue of the Covenant is lawful and good 4. In his voluminous Book of Tears and Sighs c. pag. 448. he reckons up sundry evils defects and dangers incident to Episcopacy as namely pride ambition secular height and idle pomp a supercilious despiciency and Lordly Tyrannizing over other Ministers and the flocks of Christ under their inspection arrogating a power to do all things imperiously and alone without any regard either to that charitable satisfaction which was antiently given to Christian people or to that fraternal Counsel and concurrence which might and ought in reason to be had from learned and grave Presbyters c. Is not all this enough to prove from his own Pen That such a Covenant for extirpating such an Episcopacy is lawfully and good Indeed he would in the same breath fain extenuate this his unripping of the late Hierarchy by saying that this ariseth not from the function or imployment but from the persons of Bishops which he brings in by a parenthesis but when he had undertaken to enumerate the evils defects and dangers incident to Episcopacy it self of late in use How can these be separated from that Function And if they arise from the persons of Bishops do they not arise from the imployment of Episcopacy for how else could they be incident to Episcopacy That parenthesis then is but a piece of contradictory non-sense which can no way infringe the inference I have here made of it to confirm from the Author himself the first point here undertaken II. PROPSITION Herein all sober Christians who understand themselves agree with him HE is pleased indeed pag. 6. from Sir L.B. at whose motion * Pag. 3. he wrote and published that pamphlet to say that Sir L. B. a fit Patron for such a Proctor told him that many sober and honest men are by their once taking the Covenant so scared from all complyings with any Church-government under any name of Bishops or notion of Episcopacy never so reformed and regulated that they fear by looking back to the Primitive Catholique and Vniversal Government of this and all other antient Churches to be turned into pillars of Apostacy as Lots wife was into a pillar of Salt If the Knight told him so in these words we must needs admire the metamorphosis of a Cutler turned
Knight that hath arrived already at such heards of good words and flocks of figures and that he who heretofore took the Covenant and pretended to be a zealous propugner of it and of all that had taken it should now in hope to get into some place to help maintain his Knighthood leave all those of his former party and run over to such a flashy Advocate for Episcopacy and a mortal enemy to all Covenanters to assoyle the doubts of sober honest men that had entred into that Covenant But if that Knight did so inform him it is be doubted whether he did it for want of ignorance or of stedfastness in that Covenant of God and out of a desire of procuring by that his story to the Doctor and his motion for his resolution of this business in point of Conscience some plausible Apology for his own intended Apostacy However he did it let that K. take this to him as the forerunner of that reward which he must exspect from that God whose Covenant he hath thus occasioned to be despised That all the reproaches and blasphemies that are or shall be belched out against the Covenant occasioned by reading that scurrilous Satyre of Dr. John Gauden will one day be put to the account of Sir L. B. as the principal occasion of it and instigator to it if God give him not timely repentance and stop the current of those railing Shimei's who are glad of this opportunity to set their mouths against heaven and to let their tongues walk through the earth b Psa 73.9 But to leave this digression I come to make good the second point which I enlarge thus That the admitting of some Church-governours under the name of Bishops reformed and regulated according to the Primitive Catholicue and Apostolique Institution for the Government of this Church is not against but very consistent with and agreeable to the late Solemn League and Covenant and the true intention of it allowable by God and all good men that rightly understand themselves and the Covenant And thus far they concur with the Doctor To make this out briefly take notice 1. That the Covenant Art 2. as to this point runs thus That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the grace of God endeavour the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy that is Church government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaness and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues and that the Lord may be one and his name one in the three Kingdoms This expresly relates to the Prelacy or Episcopacy then in being and use in England which was far from Apostolique and Primitive as this Doctor in his words before cited out of his Book of Tears c. hath clearely confessed and to the extirpating of whatsoever in it savoured of Superstition Tyranny Schism Prophaness Sinfulness or was otherwise contrary to sound Doctrine or the power of godliness If there be any other Episcopacy truly Apostolique and Primitive free from all these evils and agreeable to sound Doctrine and the power of godliness It is so far from the sense and intention of this Covenant to extirpate it that it plainly includes rather a binding of all Covenanters to endeavour by all lawful and fit ways and means to procure it 2. That herein by the Doctors own allegations all sober honest men that rightly understand themselves and the true meaning of the Covenant concur with him Himself saith pag. 22. that the Covenant is no way in Conscience to be stretched against a right and regular Episcopacy no more than Physique given to cure a disease should like unmortified Quick silver be applyed to kill the man And this he knows was the sense of the most learned men in the Assembly And this he saith pag. 23. He hath often heard Mr. Marshal * This may put him in mind that hereupon himself took the Covenant which he now so much vilisieth and others affirm who had a great hand in penning and promoting the Covenant and they owned it to some Foraign Divines That the Covenant was levelled at the Despoticum Tyrannicum regimen mis-government not the Government by Episcopacy To which he addes This is at present the sense and hopes of the most learned and godly Presbyterians whom I have lately spoken with in London and elsewhere c. And a little after he beseecheth God that by his Majesties piety and wisdom all those materials which were good in that antient noble and venerable fabrick of Episcopacy may be speedily and resolutely setled in its best constitution wherein to take counsel is Kingly and Christian But whereas he there pag. 23. saith that this was also the sense of those who with himself had as much right to sit among them that is in the Assembly as any others but were not permitted either by popular faction and tumult or by other shufflings and reasons of State which took care to exclude or deter all the excellent Bishops of the Church and the most able of Episcopal Divines for fear there should have been any just plea for moderate Episcopacy against the then Magistry of Presbytery To this I must give this Answer 1. That I willingly accept of that part of this speech that this to wit what was before by him spoken and by me alleged touching the right Episcopacy was the sense of himself and of those that by his telling had right to fit in the Assembly to make out my present assertion of the concurrence of able men herein 2. That which he here affirmeth either of himself or any others having right to sit in the Assembly of Divines called by Ordinance of both Houses of Parliament dated June 12. 1643. that they were not permitted either by popular faction and tumult or by other shufflings c. to fit c. is a very great slander For 1. Touching himself who not now only but heretofore hath complained that he having as much right to sit among the Divines in the Assembly as any others was not permitted to sit there If he mean that he had as much right as any others who were not at all chosen to sit there I admit what he saith to be true But if he intend to insinuate that he was chosen and yet not permitted to sit this is a loud untruth for he being then as I remember Parson of the Deanry of Bocking in Essex which albeit it be reputed to be worth 4 or 500 l. per an yet he to his shame and the little honour of those that imploy him is non-resident from it and preacheth at the Temple was not chosen to be one of the Assembly For in Essex were chosen Mr. Stephen Marshal of Finchingfield Mr. Obadiah Sedgwick then of