a Vine fenced in not only by an immediate Providence but it s own Laws and Authority to enforce them are not only that which supports the branches but also defends the very root Now withdraw but the Obligation and sense of obedience and all the branches will desert the root the Foxes will devour their present fruit and the wild Bore will dig up the root and thus shall the whole languish and decay Ald. But cannot you prove some other way than from the nature of Government in the general that obedience is due to the Churches Laws This seems only to be composed of good words without significancy of an Obligation Vic. I had thought to discourse from Principles of Policy had been the surest way to convince you because your Age and Wisdom have called you to the degree of an Alderman by which sharing in Authority and Government you would from the view of your own experience collect the misery and destroying fate of the least disorder much more when disobedience dares put off her Mask and come abroad with open face hurling all into an Ataxy and Confusion when an embodied Society have agreed upon certain Laws and Principles by which they have both constituted and impowered a part of the whole to take care of the rest wherein particular interests are alwaies to submit to the preservation of the general commerce and universal welfare If the actings of particulars shall not only appear disorderly and mutinous but the very Magna Charta the foundation of the Government shall be undermined by a flat denial of any Obedience or Homage due it must needs dissolve the very Principles make the Empire crack with its weight and burden and reduce this Community into an universal Chaos Ald. But since your Office is Divinity and you are not called to any place of trust in the Government of the State it will as seems to me best become you to keep within your own Confines and tread only upon holy ground Vic. Why I hope your Worship does not think your Office prophane Ald. No Friend but I think you will prophane my Authority if you dare not withstanding all my advice be skill'd in the Principles of Policy and Government and lay down Rules of Confinement to your Superiours I must not suffer my sage ears so far to disparage my head as to endure to hear one to teach me mine own Trade Pray prove obedience to your Church some other way than from Rules of Policy for by this you seem to encroach upon us so far as not only to take away our Priviledges and Prerogative but defraud us of the very Arguments to defend us Vic. If your Worship please but to keep one eye open for the Churches Cause and let your other sleep to your own Interest I suppose I may in mine own habit without any damage at all to your Ears in a few words evince my duty of submission and obedience to the Church even from the second Topick mentioned that Obedience to it is our duty Ald. That I would have not only promised but performed for I have sometimes seen Reasons where the Stems have weighed more than the fruit Vic. Now your Worship seems to be pleasant a man would scarce expect such light wit from so grave an head but experience is that which makes men rich in all things And yet that I may remember your Worship of some thing which you already know I shall not trouble you with the ready submission though uneasie obedience by reason of those raging and persecuting thorns from Jewish Malice and Heathen Fury which continually like the Souldiers Spear in our Saviours Side tormented and grieved them unto the Christian Church in its Bishops and Representatives in its first plantation though not without the publick assaults of open Hereticks no more than free from the secret thrusts of those that seemed bosome Friends But I know you expect Scripture should be judge and prove what it seems you account a Problem For the Jews submission to their Sanhedrim I hope you will not trouble your self so much as to doubt Nor for the Apostles subjection to our Saviour as to him who had the Government upon his shoulders who received his Jurisdiction and Authority from the Father and was anointed from above Nor will you question I suppose the submission of the Christian Church to the Discipline as well as Doctrine of the Apostles whom Christ invested with the same Authority that he had received from his Father in relation to their Presidency and Jurisdiction over the Church in that Consecration of His As my Father sent me so send I you Only perhaps you may still doubt whether this Rule and Authority requiring submission and subjection to its Decrees was conveighed from the Apostles to others But you will have no cause to mistrust that neither when you shall seriously reflect upon the Epistles of the Apostles to the several Churches and more especially to those Angels and Bishops who were there intrusted with the Discipline and Government as well as feeding the Flock of Christ which he had purchased with his bloud Or if you will observe matter of fact and from thence draw the certainty of our Conclusion You may read St. Paul sending his Orders to Timothy and Titus giving them directions how to govern the Diocesses of Crete and Ephesus And it would be endless to enumerate all the Exhortations and Commands to obey our Church Rulers Obey them saies the Apostle that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account This last Clause plainly restrains it to the Bishops of Judea and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies St. Chrysostome But in the fifteenth of the Acts you have enough to silence all doubts of this nature and bring your Worship not only to Reverence but to a resignation of your self as to your Souls direction and guidance into the Churches hands and then you will the easier dispense with us for obeying that so chearfully and fideliously which we earnestly perswade others to a submission to Ald. I like this discourse indifferently well only have a care that your Church does not intrench upon the Authority of our Town and compel the Corporation to come and bow to your Altar Vic. I le warrant your Worship by the grace of God if you can but defend your selves from the Womens Tongues you shall not be offended with Church Musick nor knock your shins when you bow towards the Altar Ald. Come on then pleasant Mr. Vicar let us hear the conclusion of this matter you promised me something out of the fifteenth of the Acts. Vic. I did so Sir and by Gods help I shall perform it we find there that there was a great difference arose at Antioch about Circumcision for it seems there had come down men from Judea who taught the Brethren that except they were Circumcised after the manner of Moses they could not
and charge him too severely Ald. How Sir You were as good say that I am unjust Do you think I would offer to scandalize a man or to blame him that were not blame worthy Vic. Nay Sir I humbly beg your Worships pardon if my words have been rash or unadvised Ald. You do well to own your subjection to us and to submit with modesty where your words shall seem to carry any imputation or disrespect Vic. Sir If I could not mortifie and deny my self I were unfit to be a Minister in this Town And yet I hope you will pardon me if for my further information that I may be the better able to limit and bound mine own Actions I am a little inquisitive into the deportment of my Predecessour I suppose that when according to his duty he did not stay beyond the Canonical hour when the greater occasions of the Corporation would not permit them to be at Church so soon as usually he presumed your Worships would not come that time or else that the Congregation would attend no longer Ald. No Sometimes when we have chid him for not having more regard to the Authority of the Place and punished him with the loss of his Sundaies Dinner he has performed his Duty for all that Nay and when we have enjoyned him with the gravest Aspect and the most frowning Countenance Mr. Mayor could make and what is worse on pain of losing all our Gratuities Nay when some Chapmen expected us at home or some Parish Business was to be done in the Church or some Rents to be divided at the Town Hall and he has been commanded to cut off but half the Prayers this audacious and rebellious Person notwithstanding Mr. Mayors Order read all his Prayers and Preached too and conjectured in his ungodly and wicked heart that the Rules and Canons of the Church so called were to be observed notwithstanding Mr. Mayors not only discountenance but commands to the contrary Vic. Truly Mr. Alderman with humble leave first begg'd of your good Worship I conceive the Canons of the Church are to be obeyed non obstante Mr. Mayors counter Order both because they are established by Act of Parliament and the Duty of Obedience to the King and Church perswades us and lastly because we are sworn to their strict observation Ald. But Mr. Mayor represents the King and therefore may dispense with Penal Laws Vic. Although the King may dispense with Penal Laws and may suspend the inflictions due to Offendors it being his great Prerogative derived fom Heaven that makes him more properly a God on Earth to be able to pardon faults and the Executive Power of the Law being in him he may withdraw what he cannot abrogate Yet pardon me if I say that Mr. Mayor is not in this the Kings Representative unless he could exchange his Mace for a Scepter quit his Gown for a Robe of State turn Calve-skins into Ermins and bartar his Sattin Coife for a Crown Ald. Sir You are now grown a little too bold I shall be angry if you thus speak against Mr. Mayors Prerogative Vic. I hope you would nor have M. Mayor accounted a King and Majesty added to his Worship you have for several years made him Right Worshipful and been as I am told outragious with your Minister if he has not informed God Almighty of it once or twice every Sunday Ald. I hope your passion will not make you peremptory too and cause you to forget with whom you are discoursing Vic. I humbly beg your good Worships pardon 't was only zeal for his Majesties Prerogative that thus transported me I must still beseech your excuse if I conjecture a possibility of mistake in you to think that Mr. Mayor can dispense with Law as the Kings Representative Ald. Now you seem to relent for the misdemeanour of your words I can more willingly hearken to your Discourse especially when your Language is so placed that it does not affront but acknowledge Superiority Pray tell me why Mr. Mayor as the Kings Lieutenant and Representative cannot dispense with Law Vic. You know Law is not my Profession but yet I can exhibite Reason enough against such strange and if it might be pardoned I would say uncouth Positions Ald. Come then let us hear yours and the rest I shall enquire of the Town-Clerk Vic. First Because the King himself does not pretend to dispense with Law and therefore his Court of Chancery as I have heard does not judge contrary unto Law but either mitigate and abate its rigour or give relief where Common Law gives none that not the least oppression may be heard in our Streets And secondly supposing the King did dispense with Law yet Mr. Mayor has only so much power as is committed to him in a certain Charter which indeed gives the Corporation power to make By-Laws for the benefit of the Town but by no means liberty by themselves to violate Acts of Parliament or to permit the breach of them in others But as to what we are at present making our enquiry into viz. the Laws of the Church these are without the verge of the Corporations Power and they can neither protect us from the Penalties and Punishments due for such wilful Disobedience nor absolve us from the guilt by the default contracted Ald. Well but admitting then that Acts of Parliament are to be obeyed I would fain know how your second reason becomes argumentative and evinces your Obedience due to the Church notwithstanding our Injunctions to the contrary Vic. If your Worship please to suspend your censure of my discourse for a bold presumption I shall give you an account of that too Ald. I would not have you to think me so critical or captious but that I can hear Reason and Argument in any dress especially when you are so civil as to beg leave for the familiarity of your discourse Vic. I thank your Worship for your candour and condescension and shall give you to understand that I ought to be obedient to the Church not only as I am a Member or a Minister by vertue of which relations I am more especially obliged But as all Government does suppose Obedience and Submission due and we therefore combine in a Common Body for the preservation of Propriety as well as Society so the defect of sense of such an Obligation violates all the bonds of Authority breaks down the Pale by which Government and Rule is fenced and laies it open to every bold Usurper and Intruder Thus not only Empires and Kingdoms have been laid waste and made pastures only for Birds and Beasts of Prey but by this means the Wall both of separation and defense being once assaulted and in an hostile manner scaled and battered the Temple of God is not only left without its Bulwarks but invaded and shot at by its Adversaries until the structure becomes demolished and there is scarce one stone left upon another The Church you know is compared to
by giving them some other preferment as an addition to their slender livings encourage our Ministers and so withdraw all inconveniences that in their present condition usually attend them Vic. I cannot so much doubt of that charity which I have alwaies found eminent in your Worship as to think you design this Argument under a pious pretense to save charges But yet methinks you do with too much eagerness pursue the Reverend Bishops Priviledges for they have Chaplains that are for the most part learned men and far more deserving than we poor Vicars that have not money to buy those Books which they are able to read and digest that must alwaies have the best preferments that fall in the compass of their Lords Donation Besides the Bishops have Kinsmen and Friends Add to this that these are waies by which they commonly oblige persons in Authority and Power by disposing some of these Livings to their Chaplains and Acquaintance Therefore unless we can find out some other way I fear there will be little hope from this Ald. But there are some little sine-Cures and small Livings that so great persons of such interest in the Bishops will not care to accept of and these methinks may befriend Corporations Vic. How do you mean that Corporations should be enriched with the spoyls of these Ald. No Sir I would not be accounted so Sacrilegious but that those that have the care and burden of exercising their Ministry in great Towns where their duty and work becomes enlarged but their reward narrow and contracted should proportionable to their Learning and Piety have some of these bestowed upon them as a supplement and encrease to their short Revenues Vic. Now I perfectly understand you and shall leave you to perswade them to it In the mean time because I think your Petition may miscarry what do you think of this way Let all Corporations throughout England that send Burgesses to Parliament desire those that serve there for their particular Burroughs to cause a Bill to be drawn up and therein to appoint Commissioners to Assess in all Market Towns by an equal pound rate that pay under an hundred pound per annum to their Minister to the value of this hundred pound to be from year to year collected and recovered by Law to their Ministers use and this will be a moderate but certain establishment Ald. Truly I shall be very willing to promote so pious and religiose a work but I fear many Townsmen will presently endeavour to obstruct and hinder it Vic. That will not be within their power if the principal persons in Towns are for it Ald. But what do you think of the Non-conformists interest in such a concern as this is Vic. Truly Sir I think it is not their interest at all to have such a thing accomplished because then there being an able and pious Ministry established in Towns where you know is their greatest confluence their Dagon must of necessity fall before the Ark of God for their Teachers will be effectually confuted in publick baffled and consequently disgraced in private and their Proselytes will daily fall off from them and be won again to Christianity and Religion Ald. But they say they have Friends above and they making their applications to them by some craft or other will get the Bill to be thrown out of the house or else protract it at a Committee so long 'till the Session be at an end Vic. I heard indeed they did something much like it the last Session but I could hardly believe the truth of the report because 't is to me a very difficult matter to believe any thing almost that such persons are either the Actors or Relators of Ald. Why should you be of so little faith Vic. Strange methinks that the talking of persons of their Character should by a kind of Sympathy put your dress into Scripture Phrase in common discourse But the reason why I suspended my belief was because in their Actions they are commonly Hypocrites and in their Words Liars They will not swear nor if they do will they perform Nor will they drink hard amongst the Wicked as they stile the Kings most Loyal Subjects but with the Saints it may be lawful to enjoy the Creature 'till they are not able to enjoy themselves Some of them that abhor Drunkenness do take a wonderful delight in Gluttony for their Teachers greasing their mouths well makes their Tongues the more slippery And as I am informed have taken up a new way of wishing health not by the Ceremony of a Glass of Wine or Cup of Bear but eating a good full Morsel for Ceres is as good a Friend to Venus as Bacchus and is alwaies less scandalous But I cannot but wonder that you should think such as these to be so powerful with the Parliament Do you suppose that they have many Friends there Ald. I do not know the number of their acquaintance but this I can say that they are the most vainglorious boasters in the World if they are not assured of some interest now and have larger hopes if this Parliament were but once dissolved Vic. As to that we must leave it to the discretion and will of his Majesty and in the mean time we cannot but praise Almighty God that has raised us up not only a nursing Father to his Church but convened so many pious Patriots that like so many Pillars in his holy Temple have hitherto supported the Fabrick notwithstanding all the raging winds and storms And this not without exceeding great justice legible in the largest Characters of his Providence that as an House of Commons by Violence and Usurpation did once deform and ruine his Church so an House of Commons should now be made the grand Instrument to rebuild and support it But if these noble and indulgent Patriots of our beautiful and well-constituted Church should either by accident or policy be dismissed which way could the Fanaticks designs that are so destructful in themselves and can no longer with Fauxe's fire-works be obscured in a Vault of Secresie but become visible and manifest to all now take effect and prosper in the midst of such a World as must needs be cautious and like the burned child dread the fire Ald. The same way they did before Vic. Say you so Sir And must the old Game be played over again that has lost so many fair Estates and been apparent to the World in colours of Bloud That has made the Church crackle with its Ruins and weltered a Nation in its own Gore that by treading upon the Miter got high enough to twitch off the Crown and bring a Sacred head unto the Block Ald. I do not say that all those effects will follow nor are causes supposed so unavoidably to be linked together as to be alwaies the Fathers of such Children Vic. If the old Rule in Logick hold That the Causes being exhibited and put into order the effects will follow we have
in writing if he has not mistaken weeks for daies bathes all its leaves in tears in which perhaps there may be some salt however they were alwaies their best oratory enough at least to season our Charity to those that are moderate and peaceable so far as Law and Oaths permit And I would willingly out of my poor Vicaridge if any such be in a worse condition than my self relieve what by reason of either their Opinion or practice may not be altered and wish them both Conformity and Livings And yet the Church notwithstanding all their large Stories and elevated thoughts of their own abilities could they be otherwise obliged to peace is able to instruct her own Children without the use of the Assemblies Catechism and yet never read some bodies Common-wealth to teach them policy for the propagation of Religion 'T is true you must expect a whole Peale of Ordnance discharged in complaints of youth and ignorance of Pluralities and Non-residence though qui facit per alium facit per se which yet in their own time were extant with an Imprimatur by their Authority who for their own sakes now decry them Witness the Picture of an old man since dead with a great bundle of Steeples at his back who having discoursed against Pluralities and his Arguments being retorted upon himself had nothing but a distinction betwixt the Profits and Presentation to save him from his own Sword But I suppose that those persons even now adaies whose merit or interest have rendred Pluralists if they might but be secured of the profits they would not think it repugnant to their concerns if the Patrons had the keeping of the Presentations And as for that youth and ignorance so much stomached for nothing more probably than because they are not as in the late times conjoyned together we are accused of The Church of England could not be charged with any thing more unlucky to the Non-conformists than the youth of their Ministers when if recrimination might be pardoned we need not look back past the memory of the youngest Priest to hear the little Lapwings crying which when they were seen had the shells upon their heads and a white list round their crowns And as if they came only to see the University and make their Horses proceed Graduates for their Masters upon a sudden having put St. Maries dull Notes into Characters and themselves in Querpo became great Propagators of the Gospel when their Preachment all this while was but only a Chappel Repetition their Confidence was their greatest gift and strong Lungs the grace that approved them We have not yet forgotten the Triars that used to usurp White-Hall who being seated near the Banquetting-house and by Presentation of others being informed of the fall of good Livings would be sure to make a feast for themselves and then others perhaps might partake of their leavings How did they make Babes in years presently to commence Babes in Grace and then as if their Seal of Office had been that of the Spirit they advanced these Punies to Junior Apostles and gave them Commission both to plant and gather Churches Nor would it be a violation of that gracious and indulgent Act of Oblivion to remember those pretty tricks those Touchstones had by which they starved the old Conformists But I hate to mind your memory of that which your Worship cannot possibly forget And as for the ignorance of the younger part of our present Clergy if the Replier to the Debates did but stoop his gravity to converse with them he would find them not ignorant of his Devices and I may confidently affirm without smelling to his Box of ointment that generally in the time of the sober mans peaceable reign there was not the tythe of that learning that now is to be met with in young Divines It should seem by the grave Answerer's sober handling him that the Debater himself is not very old and yet methinks the wise Respondents falling upon him is but like the Limbe of an old decayed and wind-shaken Tree dropping down upon a spiney oak endeavouring to come up under him when one would think the greatness of the Limbe should crush and bruise the younger Tree his own rottenness breaks him to pieces If one would have Old age reverenced the best way is not to despise Youth for those that may be young in years are sometimes elders in Office If I had been in anothers place at the elbow of this sober Answerer when his Pen was pouring out this Complaint with so much Gall in his Inke I would have remembred him that Timothy was a Bishop when he was young and that smooth-faced St John was the Disciple whom Jesus loved Young Melancthon however might have jogg'd his elbow and obtained leave without prejudice I hope to himself or Party to have encountred an old Devil though he complains he was too hard for him and though Mr. Alderman I cannot be so unjust to the World as to list my self in this number lest I should lick up the sober man's ointment and what is worse anothers praise yet this I must tell you of others in the World that no Church need be ashamed when they are numbred amongst her Officers To name men would be ridiculous for me who you know have little other acquaintance than with names in the Tittle Page of a few borrowed Books And besides to name young Divines would be an affront to W. B. which very letters the sober Answer has made sacred though if I do not mistake my information they make up almost his own name But why do I trouble my self or you with what does not much concern us Old age and Youth may well agree whilst the former does not provoke and the latter does not become disobedient If new-built houses have green Walls yet old ones are more full of Vermine Let old mens discourses be grave and wise full of matter and experience yet young ones will sometimes be accounted good Preachers both have their great use in the Church and if old Trees are best to burn yet younger are the fittest for building There is Sir one charge more remaining which I cannot but give your Worship an account of and that is where the sober Answer as if it would plainly evidence it self a more improper Title than the Friendly Debate supposes according to his moderation and charity that the Debater himself is almost an Atheist and his Books the grand destruction of Religion If Christianity suffers by such discourses he may thank himself and that wild Party which this sober man does now head for being the causes and provokers of them by their Enthusiastical Practices and enormous Extravagancies But withal it cannot but be a Paradox to me that truth is not established by the refutation of falsehood or that the purging a disease must alwaies be death to the Patient Cannot the Excrescencies or dead branches be pruned off without digging up the tree by the roots or
only take Cognizance of their Actions Your Authority is supplicated and humbly begg'd to be made use of only to restrain their open affronts to Law and Government and to give a check to their bold Assemblies and numerous Meetings for fear lest their discerning their strength they may at last attempt by force what your Oath obliges you to endeavour to prevent and obviate And by this they will only pay a Tribute at the most by Mulcts and Punishments for what they are so willing to enjoy and they need not be forced to a Faith in that which Reason does not perswade them to believe Thus the Rod punishing and restraining the unlimited propagation of Error and Schism they will by this be put upon enquiry after the Truth and upon a sufficient view of what they have not yet made a through inspection into they may at last embrace with cordial affection what they now prosecute and offer violence to with the greatest transports of passion and malignity Ald. But their Party seems so very much lately encreased that they will turn the edge of the Magistrates Sword and weary Justice with the execution of them Vic. You may therefore cut your work far shorter and Justice may act with the less noise but greater success if you only prosecute the Heads of them and execute the Laws only upon those who lead the innocent sheep astray Ald. And are you contented that the rest should still run into disorder Vic. You will find the rest in time to run themselves into the fold when the Bell-weathers are gone which they were wont to follow Ald. But methinks this should be the Office of the Bishops and their Ecclesiastical Judges Vic. First Sir all that the Law permits them to act punishes nothing but the soul and conscience and those persons that we have to deal with have their Consciences feared with an hot iron so that these wounds will not make them bleed for the utmost a Bishops Court can do is but to excommunicate the Offendor Ald. And is not that exceeding severe Vic. It is Sir a most dreadful Sentence and made such gashes and wounds formerly that no Medicine but an Absolution could heal far more deep than the severest stroke from the sharpest Sword set on by the hand of the most potent Emperour But now since Atheism and Impiety has grown to a height under the pretense and shelter of Reformation and Religion heavens thunder and lightening too proves to men but like Squibs and Rockets make only a great noise and a pleasant flash but scarce singe so much as the Garment Ald. Methinks Mr. Vicar you make light of that which was went to be esteemed a serious matter and awed the minds and consciences of men before Christianity could gain either the favour or assistance of the Civil Magistrate Vic. I only now gave you the Conjectures of those persons we have to deal with when Order and Religion are almost banished by the boldness and Rebellion of wicked men but if you would have mine own judgment I cannot but tremble at the very thoughts of an Excommunication which being attended with its due circumstances does not only cut off Communion here but also from Fellowship with the blessed Angels and Saints hereafter and what is thus bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven Ald. And why cannot this then have the same effects that it had heretofore to restrain men from vice and disobedience Vic. Your Worship need not enquire a reason of this when you shall consider that those for the most part that will be concerned in this Sentence have other Notions not only of the Sentence it self but also of the Persons that pronounce it than the Primitive Christians formerly had they think the Sentence is not of such force as we believe it is and however that those persons that now pronounce it are not sufficiently authorized to do it Ald. Why They are Commissioned by the King himself and enabled by the Laws of the Land Vic. The wisest of them will not question I suppose but that they have a Civil Sanction and that the Ecclesiastical are the Kings Courts but this is so far from being Argumentative to produce fear that it is the only reason why they scorn it and the chief motive that I would make use of to crave assistance from the Civil Sword Ald. How can that possibly be Methinks you relate Riddles to me Vic. I shall presently then unriddle the Mystery because I am not willing to hold you in suspense You must know then that our Non-conformists are much of the Papists humour in particular nor can they think that the Civil Power should give a Sanction to the Kirks Laws and therefore if they can but satisfie themselves that the present Church is without Power derived from Heaven the Statutes made to confirm our Courts or to make the Sentences of these valid they conclude to be of no greater concernment than the other Laws made against themselves and may be equally violated without sin or danger To tell you the truth Sir they look upon our Church as none at all our Bishops only as Popish Prelates our Ministers as nothing but Baals Priests and all our maintenance as nothing but food for the God Bell. Al. Not so surely Vic. Why do they then separate from us And not only look upon our Prayers as deficient but our very Sermons without Authority and Power nay our very Communion and Sacraments as abomination and pollution Ald. These men indeed must be looked to for I see if they are permitted thus to run on without controul they will not only bring us to confusion but kill and stay that they may take possession Vic. That was you know their former Doctrine and though they then made as one would think sufficient use yet acording to their usual Method they are yet upon the Application Ald. But if these men reject our Church and deny our Bishops to be at least Ministers how will they make out their own Call and evidence their own Ordination lawful since their Primitive Reformers the Authors of their Succession received Orders from the Bishops hands by virtue of which they presumed to impose upon others Vic. They have a way to deny Succession to be necessary to a Church and besides they have changed their Principles as your Dialogue will inform you that the Presbyterian might the better associate with the Independent and unite their Forces to vanquish ours But if you would have your doubt at large resolved I know you are sufficiently acquainted and have familiarity with persons of all Perswasions and I desire you would put your Objection close to them that so they may give you a resolution of what I profess my self unable to do nor will I attempt it since neither my Judgment nor Obligation leads me to it Ald. I see no reason indeed why you should be put upon the defense of them But an Excommunication makes men liable to Temporal
I cannot but return very many thanks to you Mr. Vicar for all your large and pertinent discourses which I must confess have fully convinced me not only of the danger of discontented persons if permitted any longer to meet thus in great numbers to the disturbance of our peace both in Church and State but also of the Obligation of mine Oath as a Justice of the Peace to put in execution the Laws against them And I pray God enable me to deny mine interest rather than so great and solemn an Obligation as an Oath is Vic. Trust God Almighty Sir with your Estate he will never bless you the less for the performance of your duty For if you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured with the Sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Isa 1.19 20. Trust Sir in God and do good and you need not doubt of being sufficiently fed Not only the welfare of the Church which is as glorious as it is great depends upon your activity courage and diligence but even the King's honour and the Kingdoms prosperity For if Laws that have received their Sanction are not put in execution it must be for one of these three Reasons either because they are imprudent and unjust in themselves and this will subvert the Legislators wisdom Or secondly because he that is to put them in execution has not power enough to accomplish the design and then his force being contemptible fear and dread will be withdrawn from the Subject Or lastly because there is a defect in his will for the accomplishment of what his Power is ready to assist him in and the Justice of the cause enforces the Obligation of the duty and either of these Reasons being granted and believed amongst the multitude will immediately lay a Kingdom waste and reduce Empires into heaps of Ruines For a Prince being thought to want wisdom brings his Person in contempt want of power in time raises his Adversaries and defect of will to resist and withstand them encourages them to proceed to victory and conquest Ald. I have nothing with which I can withstand your conviction God pardon my past neglects and I will be more sedulous for the time to come But methinks it should something abate our rigour to consider that they would tolerate us Vic. I see did not your Oath goad you the welfare of the Church and peace of the Kingdom would scarce prevail Shake off for once all your fear and do not love the honour more than the duty and burden of of your Office And then I will tell you that never any Party yet would plead for Toleration but whilst themselves were under restraint they had another note when the Sun shined different from what they have in a shower To my knowledge Toleration was accursed in their mouths who now thank God for a gracious indulgence The late times will afford you testimonies enough of their tyranny when they wore the Sword of Power and Force and we shall assuredly find their actions contrary to their specious pretensions should Rebellion ever be rampant to a victory Do but read over the Books I lent you and tell me then what hopes you have of an indulgence from them unless you once more turn to their Principles and Opinions But that I may use a Reason that must of necessity silence this Plea shall we suffer our selves to become the conquered Party only that we may experience the civility of our Adversary Will any man in his right senses make over his Lordship and Possessions to another that he may receive a Pension from it We can expect none other than the greatest violence from persons of their Principles and malice and therefore let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Ald. But if they should chance to have their designs accomplished and should either by strength or treachery gain a victory over us and so we should lose the day they would presently fall to pieces again and thrust their Swords in one anothers bowels Vic. This Sir will be readily consented to But as by their former Methods you collect this so by their present attempts you may without the help of Stars Prognosticate their barbarous designs of ruine to our Church And it cannot but be a strange piece of Policy for a Prince to permit the invasion of his Territories and sacrifice both himself and Possessions to the Avarice and Malice of his cruel Adversaries that they wanting an Enemy to encounter may sheath their Swords in one anothers bowels To be sure they will not disagree as long as they have a Common Adversary left alive and it will be strange pleasure for a dead Enemy that his Adversaries rage against each other I hope Sir your Arguments are all now spent for the Vessel I perceive is out by the dregs and Lees that run from it Let me now with all humility beseech your double care for the execution of what has been to our sorrow too long neglected and let a true repentance for your Omissions be evidenced both to God Almighty and the World by your future vigour and Activity The Night has now blotted out the Day and calls for a period to our Discourse The Laws will prove your best Director and your Oath and Duty the greatest Motive Let the gaping wounds of a bleeding Church beg your Charity to bind up the sores and the devastation and misery of former Wars and almost total subversion of Christianity amongst us beseech your endeavour to support that Church which a warm Sun would soon revive and a sovereign Balsam quickly cure That your duty to God may be faithfully discharged and the breach of Oaths may not burden your Conscience That you may prove both an obedient and loyal Subject unto him who gives you your Honour and Authority by your Office a faithful Assertor of his Majesties Power and Supreme Prerogative a stout Champion for the Church's Priviledges a just Fence to Propriety and Enclosures and a charitable Repairer of those breaches that Schism and Sedition have too long made upon us So shall you be a true Fence to the Fold of Christ preserving the enclosed from the mouths of Wolves and be a means of reducing those wandring sheep that through giddiness or wantonness have strayed out of their appointed Pastures amongst the wild beasts of the Forest And God Almighty direct all your undertakings and crown your Pious and Christian endeavours with success that your courageous resolutions and sacred Promises may never terminate or be envalidated through the subtilty of the Adversary or allurements of the World 'till your unwearied Performance publickly testifies that your Promise was not rash nor your Oath in vain Ald. Now Sir that you have answered my scruples and invalidated my reasonings I should be beneath the worth of mankind if I should not thankefully receive my conviction And I hope whatever liberty
whatsoever either granted and commended to the trust and managery of the Kings Majesty or else joyned and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom Part of which there is none that understands any thing of the State of his Country or Religion but immediately reckons Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for correction and amendment of all Errors and abuses in Church Affairs To enter therefore into a League and Covenant contradicting and violating a former Oath that plucked also a choice Jewel out of our Sovereigns Crown and entrenched upon his Royal Prerogative is an Action to be abandoned by Mankind and damned to that place to which it is to be feared it has condemned many a Promoter Ald. These methinks are hard words and were it not a derogation to my Honour and a blemish upon my Grandeur I could almost be sorry and sigh for my taking it But I hope as I was saying but now I shall pass still among the Herd Vic. Truly Sir without repentance it must be amongst the Goats then and I would advise you and if in any thing I may inform then in this to be serious where Eternity will be the measure either of your bliss or misery Will you be pleased that I shall proceed to the third reason Ald. Yes to any thing so as I may be rid of those I have already heard Vic. Then thirdly your Worship must easily grant that it was not imposed by a sufficient power For an Oath cannot lawfully be taken by a person subject to another in relation to those particulars in which his subjection is due or to constitute any thing or confirm it by such a Solemn Sanction concerning those matters in which he is lawfully subjected without the leave and permission of his Superiour First Because in this he does an injury to another and obliges himself to injustice by an Oath because he determines and disposes of those matters and affairs that are totally dependent upon anothers Commands And Secondly because every one in those things in which he is subjected to a Superiour is bound to attend and obey his Will and be passive only in relation unto his disposal to whom he has been obliged either by Nature Contract or a precedent Oath which no subsequent can disanul And though these Reasons are ponderous enough to weigh down whatever can be produced to the contrary yet if you try them by the weights of the Sanctuary you will not find a grain deficient For the thirtieth of Numbers is throughout the whole a compleat confirmation of this particular where if a woman remaining in her Fathers House whilest she is under his tuition and Government vow a Vow unto God and bind her self by a most Sacred Bond that Bond and Vow though never so solemn was to be null and void if her Father disallowed it Ald. But the Holy League I hope was no such thing that was cloathed with such unluckie Circumstances Vic. Yes Sir that it was For first the King not only disallowed but protested against it so far was he from giving it the least Contenance or Sanction And had he indeed consented to that he knew he should seale his own ruine as well as violate his Coronation Oath and make a Deed of Gift of all his Prerogative Ald. Then it seems this way a Net that would have entangled and catched both King and Subject Vic. It was a Net Sir that was fit to fish with in troubled waters for had not the Rivers been stained with bloud and the Clouds of Heaven as well as the Mud of the Earth darkned the Waters it is impossible that so much fish should have come to net the Web being so monstrously big that all that had eyes would have seen the Snare but so it was that it had fatal Circumstances attending it that it might prove a ruine to such a People that were out of love with their own beauty murmured and repined at their own plenty and were willing to abandon their blessings and felicity Ald. Well Sir I have no reason to say much agaiast what you reply but I can bear witness to the Old Proverb that it was good fishing in troubled waters But pray make good your second particular that the matter of the Covenant was not within our own power Vic. That I shall make good to your Worship too But first I must take notice by the by that your Worship would make a good Pope for that you have I perceive got a special Argument to prove your self St. Peters Successour because you have catched such fish as brought money in their mouths Ald. I tell you Sir I had rather have my Shop full of them than of Red Herrings Vic. Well there 's salt however in a Red Herring but I never knew your Worship so covetous before however let us throw aside the fish for the present and take up the Net The matter of the Covenant was not within your own power because those very things which you Covenanted to alter and extirpate and what you swore to defend and maintain were all contrary to that duty and subjection which before both by Birth and Oaths you owed to his Majesty Ald. How so Vic. But that I must allow to your Worship the infirmities of Old Age and account your memory as short as your days I could else tell you that but just now it was plainly evinced to be quite opposite to our Natural Obligations to our Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy and not only tended to the diminution but the total destruction of the Kings Prerogative Ald. You are something zealous in your cause Mr. Vicar Vic. Not so zealous as your Worship was formerly in yours my Zeal is neither so hot as to boyle over into raging fury nor yet so blind as not to see its own Object and yet I hope I shall obtain your Worships pardon if so much discourse begins to make me a little warm Ald. I hope this Town stands in an Air that is able to cool you and therefore pray make your last particular a little plainer Vic. I shall chearfully undertake that task and I most humbly thank your Worship for your patience You know omitting the Proem and Conclusion the Covenant consisted of six Articles Every one of which is quite opposite to that obedience you before were engaged for to his Majesty besides the forfeiture of that Religion your Fore-fathers died for Ald. I would fain hear this proved Vic. That you shall certainly Sir without injury to any thing but your own patience As to your Religion the two first Articles do so palpably offer violence to that it not only demolishing the present structure of our most famous Churches but utterly extirpating that pious and most ancient Order of Bishops without which some doubt whether the Christian Church can have its being and by this means leaving us as much as in it lies without any future hopes of a true Priesthood Ald. But how does it oppugne that obedience
that we were before engage to perform to his Majesty Vic. That your Worship may with great facility discern when you shall consider that you were before obliged to preserve and defend not only his Majesties Person but also all his Praeeminencies and Prerogative part of which is notoriosly known to be Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Government and consequently the power of reforming Religion and therefore the offering at an Alteration without him attempts the destruction of that blessed mixture that Lawyers inform us is in his Person and violates his Royal Prerogative besides the diminution of his Revenue by abolishing of the Hierarchy from whose First-fruits and Tenths he reaps no small advantage nay finally it makes part of a Parliament contradict and abrogate what the whole had before by several Acts and Statutes established fixing Prelacy by Laws that cannot justly be repealed by a power less than what at first established it Ald. Truly I did not think so much could have been said against what carried such specious or pretenses but it seems there lodged a Snake in the midst of those sweet herbs Pray Sir proceed to your reflections upon those other Articles that remain unconsidered Vic. I would not have your Worship to conjecture that my discourse will be so much as a Breviate and Epitome of what many persons have writ in Folio For there have scarce been more hunters of the Beast in the Revelation whose exact number a melancholly person once found out in the words of the Covenant than there has been of this Scotch Monster however that we may see also how great friends they are to his Majesty we need travel no further than the third Article which engages us to preserve the Kings Person only in the conservation of true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdom which laies him open as I hinted before to every Traytor or Enthusiast that has either malice or madness enough to conclude him an enemy to both or either But what may be worth your observation in the same Article in which the preservation of the King 's naked Person stripped of all his Royal Prerogative is limited care is taken that the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the People be strictly maintained without an interpretation or restriction at all which loudly proclaimes to the whole World what friendship this League designed for his Majesty Ald. Methinks I begin to withdraw my affection from that which I had once a kindness for and I fear this wound to his Sacred Majesty was but a kind of Prologue to that Tragedy that succeeded it Vic. Although I cannot but very much rejoyce to see your Worship confirming that Act with your Judgment which the Penalty of a Law then only seemed to extort to wit the renunciation of the Covenant Yet I shall further I hope enhance your abhorrency of this strange Beast no less than confirm your last consequence and deduction when I shall remember you that the next Article besides that it assumes a most Absolute Tyrannical and Arbitrary Power in bringing men to what we know not who shall deem condign punishment does countenance and encourage and not only so but bind men by the Solemnity of an Oath to Parricide Regicide and any the greatest Villanies in the World How easie was it by vertue of that for Husbands to ease themselves of unpleasant Wives or Wives to divorce themselves from those Husbands that they found their affections either out of wantonness or curiosity to decline from How easie a way was this for the Son to enquire into his Fathers years before nature gave period to his life that so he might be the present Possessour of what he was only heir to before Nay for the Subjects to arraign and condemn their Prince since it was without respect of persons could they but once affix the Title of Incendiary Malignant or obstructer of the Reformed Religion upon him The definition of each particular of which was left in their own breasts to inspire Ald. These Inferences cannot methinks but startle all us that have swallowed down such poyson the regret that is in my Conscience makes me sit very uneasie Vic. I could willingly allow my self as well as you a breathing time were it not for fear that what I have all this time pursued would be too long at rest and recover strength Ald. Nay I would not have you by any means give an interruption to your discourse for I have already given order that they should not expect us at Dinner but provide some repast for us against the Evening Vic. I thank your good Worship not only for your patient condescention in admitting so much familiarity all this while but for your great care both of your self and me though indeed I should not alwaies be so bold an Intruder Ald. He never intrudes that is invited Bagpipes you know will not go at all if they are quite empty Vic. I thank you Sir for that Metaphor for nothing but that could so well have reminded me of the Covenant We have already dispatched half the Articles and condemned one more to make them even and the fifth is nothing but talking of Peace in the midst of War and boasting of strange effects of reconcilement when all know there was no such thing and therefore here the failing of the Saints was superadded to the Perjury of the Sinner And finally as to the Sixth Article it only supposes in general terms what we have already refuted in particular that the cause of this Covenant was the defence of Religion together with the Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms that the whole tended to the glory of God the Publick Advantage and the Kings Honour and therefore the Jurors here swore to remain constant in the pursuit of the Design against all opposition throughout the whole course of their lives Thus did it not only ensnare a Nation with good words to dig out their own Bowels to rage against Nature it self and sheath their Swords in their nearest Relations to pull down and ruine the most glorious Church in the whole World and force it to be truly Militant but what may supperadd the Complement to all it s deformed dashes it made the King a Slave to his Subjects divested him of all his Royal Robes and made him sacrifice his Head to preserve his Crown which it would also have deprived him of but that his Martyrdom eternized it Ald. Why do you think then that the Covenant murdered the late King of ever blessed memory Vic. No Sir I should be strangely uncivil if I should draw such Conclusions for in that your Worship would be concerned but this I shall be bold to say That the threefold Cord tied him to the Block and left him there for another Party to cut off his head But I expected your Worship should after all this digression have required me to discover the strengeh of the Argument by reducing the whole to some short Form Ald. Truly