safety though it were so easie a thing to deifie the Divine after the antient manner and no man be the 〈◊〉 But that which I confess would vex me most were I either an ill or a well-meaning Zealot would be after all to hear him as he frequertly does sneering at me in an ironical harangùe to persuade me forsooth to take all patiertly for Conscience-sake and the 〈◊〉 example of Mankind Nay to wheedle one almost to make himself away to save the Hangman a labour It was indeed rear that 〈◊〉 in the Primitive times and the tyred Magistrates ask'd them whether they had not Ha'ters and Rivers and Precipices if they were so greedy of Suffering But by the good leave of your â—…lence we are not come to that yet Non tibi sed Petro or rather sed Regi The Nonconformists have suffered as well as any men in the World and could do so still if it were his Majesty's pleasure 〈◊〉 Duty to God hath hallowed and their Duty to the Magistrate hath excused both their Pain and Ignominy To dye by a noble hand is some satisfaction But when His Majesty for Reasons best known to Himself hath been graciously pleased to 〈◊〉 of your Rigors I hope Mr. Bayes that we shall 〈◊〉 see when you have a mind to 〈◊〉 with your Comfortable Importance that the Entrem ses shall be of a Fanaticks Giblets nor that a Nonconformists head must be whip'd off s 〈◊〉 as your nose drivles 'T is sufficient Sir we know your Inclination we know your Abilities and we know your Lodging And when there is any further occasion you will doubtless be sent for For to say the truth this Bayes is an excellent Tool and more useful than ten other men I will undertake that he shall rather than fail be the Trepanner the Informer the Witness the Atturney the Judge and if the Nonconformist need the benefit of his Book he shall be Ordinary too and say he is an ignorant fellosh non legit and then to do him the last Christian office he would be his Hangman In the mean time let him enjoy it in speculation secure of all the Imployments when they shall fall For I know no Gentleman that will take any of them out of his hands although it be an age wherein men cannot well support their quality without some accession from the publick and for the ordinary sort of People they are I know not by what disaster besotted and abandon'd to Fanaticism So that Mr. Bayes must either do it himself in person or constitute the chief Magistrate to be his Deputy But Princes do indeed understand themselves better most of 'em and do neither think it so safe to intrust a Clergy-man with their Authority nor decent for themselves to do the drudgery of the Clergy That would have past in the days 〈◊〉 Saint Dominick but when even the Inquisition hath lost its edge in the Popish Countries there is little appearance it should be set up in England It were a worthy Spectacle were it not to see his Majesty like the Governor in Synesius busied in his Cabinet among those Engines whose very names are so hard that it is some torture to name them the Podostrabae the Dactylethrae the 〈◊〉 the Rhinolabides the Cheilostrophia devising as 〈◊〉 say there are particular Diseases so a peculiar Ra 〈◊〉 for every Limb and Member of a Christians Body Or would he with all 〈◊〉 be it spoken 〈◊〉 his Kingdom of England for that of Macassar where the great Alcanum of Government is the cultivating of a Garden of Poyionous Plants and preparing thence a 〈◊〉 in which the Prince 〈◊〉 a Dart that where it does but draw blood rots the person immediately to pieces and his Office is with that to be the Executioner of his Subjects God be prais'd his Majesty is far of another temper and he is wise though some men be malicious But Mr. Bayes his sixth is that which I call his Pushâ—… Divinity For he would perswade Princes that there cannot a Pin be pull'd out of the Church but the State immediatly totters That is strange And yet I have seen many a Pin pulled out upon occasion and yet not so much as the Church it self hach wagg'd It is true indeed and we have had sad experiments of it that some Clergy-men have been so 〈◊〉 that they have rather exposed the State 〈◊〉 ruine than they would part with a Pin I will not say out of their Church but out of their Sleeve There is nothing more natural then for the Ivy to be of opinion that the Oak cannot stand without its support or seeing we are got into Ivy that the Church cannot hold up longer than It underprops the Walls whereas it is a sneaking insinuating Imp scarce better than Bindweed that sucks the Tree dry and moulders the building where it catches But what pray Mr. Bayes is this Pin in Pallas's Buckler Why 't is fome Ceremony or other that is indifferent in its own nature that hath no antecedent necessity but onely as commanded that signifies 〈◊〉 in it self but what the 〈◊〉 pleases that even by the Church which commands it is declared to have nothing of Religion in it and that is in it self of 〈◊〉 great moment or consequence only it is absolutely necessary that Governours should enjoyn it to avoid the evils that would follow if it were not determined Very well Mr. Bayes This I see will keep cold anon perhaps I may have a stomach But I must take care lest I swallow your Pin. Here we have had the Titles and some short Rehearsal of Mr. Bayes his six Pâ—ays Not but that should we disvalise him he hath to my knowledge a hundred more as good in his budget but really I consult mine own repose But now among friends was there ever any thing so monstrous You see what a man may come to with Divinity and High-feeding There is a scurvy disease which though some derive from America others tell a story that the Genouesâ—s in their Wars with Venice took some of their Noblemen whom they cut to pieces and barrel'd up like Tunny and so maliciously vented it to the Venetians who eating it ignorantly broke out in those nasty botches and ugly symptoms that are not curable but by Mercury What I relate it for is out of no further intention nor is there any more similitude than that the mind too hath its Nodes sometimes and the Stile its Baboes and that I doubt before Mr. Bayes can be rid of 'm he must pass through the Grand Cure and a dry Diet. And now it is high time that I resume the thread of my forâ—er History concerning Mr. Bayes his Books in relation to his Majesty I do not find that the Ecclesiastical Policy found more acceptance than could be â—â—â—ected fâ—om so judicious a Prince nor do I perceive that he was ever considered of at a Promotion of Bishops nor that he hath the reversion of the Arch-Bishoprick
in the consolidation of Kingdoms where the Greatest swallows down the Less so also in Church-Coalition that though the Pope had condescended which the Bishop owns to be his Right to be only a Patriarch 〈◊〉 he would have 〈◊〉 up the Patriarchate os Lambeth to his Mornings-draught like an Egg in Muscadine And then there is another Danger always when things come once to a Treaty that beside the debates of Reason there is a better way of tampering to bring Men over that have a Power to 〈◊〉 And so who knows in such a Treaty with Rome if the Alps as it is probable would not have come over to England as the Bishop design'd it England might not have been obliged lying so commodious for Navigation to undertake a Voyage to Civita Vechia But what though we should have made all the Advances imaginable it would have been to no purpose and nothing less than an entire and total resignation of the Protestant Cause would have contented her For the Church of Rome is so well satisfied of her own sufsiciency and hath so much more wit than we had in Bishop 〈◊〉 days or seem to have yet learn'd that it would have succeeded just as at the Council of Trent For there though many Divines of the greatest Sincerity and Learning endeavoured a Reformation yet no more could be obtained of her than the Nonconformists got of those of the Church of of England at the Conference of Worcester-House But on the contrary all her Excesses and Errors were further rivited and confirmed and that great Machine of her Ecclesiastical Policy there perfected So that this Enterprise of Bishop Bramhall's being so ill laid and so unseasonable deserves rather an Excuse than a Commendation And all that can be gathered besides out of our Author concerning him is of little better value for he saith indeed that he was a zealous and resolute Assertor of the Publick Rites and Solemnities of the Church But those things being only matters of external neatness could never merit the Trophies that our Author erects him For neither can a Justice of Peace for his severity about Dirt-baskets deserve a Statue And as for his expunging some dear and darling Articles from the Ptotestant Cause it is as far as I can perceive only his substituting some Arminian Tenets which I name so not for reproach but for difference instead of the Calvinian Doctrines But this too could not challenge all these Triumphal Ornaments in which he installs him For 〈◊〉 suppose these were but meer mistakes on either side for want of being as the Bishop saith pag. 134. scholastically stated and that he with a distinction of School-Theologie could have smoothed over and plained away these knots though they have been much harder For the rest which he leaves to seek for and I meet casually with in the Bishop's own Book I find him to have been doubtless a very good-natur'd Gentleman Pag. 160. He hath much respect for poor Readers and pag 161. He judges that iâ—… they come short of Preachers in point of Effuâ—…acy yet they have the advantage of Preachers as to point of Security And pag. 163. He commends the care taken by the Canons that the meanest Câ—…re of Souls should have formal Sermons at least four times every year pag. 155. He maintains the publick Sports on the Lords-day by the Proclamation to that purpose and the Example of the Reformed Churches beyond-Sea aud for the publick Dances of our Youth upon Country-Greens on Sundays after the duties of the day he sees nothing in then but innocent and agreeable to that under-foot of people And pag. 117. which I quoted before he takes the promiscuous Licence to unqualified persons to read the Scriptures far more prejudicial nay more pernitious than the over-rigorous restraint of the Romanists And indeed all along he complies much for peace-sake and judiciously shews us wherein our seperation from the Church of Rome is not warrantable But although I cannot warrant any man who hence took occasion to traduce him of Popery the contrary of which is evident yet neither is it to be wondred if he did hereby lye under sometimpuration which he might otherwise have avoided Neither can I be so hard-hearted as our Author in the Nonconformists case of Discipline to think it were better that he or a hundred more Divines of his temper should suffer though innocent in their Reputation than that we should come under a possibility of losing our Relgion For as they the Bishop and I hope most of his Party did not intend it so neither could they have effected it But he could not expect to enjoy his Imagination without the annoyances incident to such as dwell in the middle story the Pots from above and the smoak from below And those Churches which are seated nearer upon the Frontire of Popery did naturally and well if they took Alarm at the March For in fact that incomparable Person Grotius did yet make a Bridge for the Enemy to come over or at least laid some of our most considerable Passes open to them and unregarded a crime something like what his Son De Groot here 's Gazotte again for you and his Son-in-law Mombas have been charged with And as to the Bishop himself his Friend an Accusatory Spirit would desire no better play than he gives in his own Vindication But that 's neither my business nor huMour and whatsoever may have glanced upon him was directed only to our Author for publishing that Book which the Bishop himself had thought fit to conceal and for his impertinent efflorescence of Rhetorick upon so mean Topicks in so choice and copious a Subject as Bishop Bramhal Yet though the Bishop prudently undertook a Design which he hoped not to accomplish in his own dayes our Author however was something wiser and hath made sure to obtain his end For the Bishop's Honour was the furthest thing from his thoughts and he hath managed that part so that I have accounted it a work of some Piety to vindicate his Memory from so scurvy a commendation But the Author's end was only railing He could never have induc'd himself to praise one man but in order to â—…ail on another He never oyls his Hone but that he may whet his Razor and that not to shave but to cut mens throats And whoever will take the pains to compare will find that as it is his only end so his best nay his only talent is railing So that he hath while he pretends so much for the good Bishop used him but for a Stalking-horse till he might come within shot of the Forreign Divines and the Nonconformists The other was only a copy of his countenance But look to your selves my Masters forin so venomous a malice courtesie is always fatal Under colour of some mens having taxed the Bishop he flyes out into a furious Debauch and breaks the Windows if he could would raze the foundations of all the Protestant Churches beyond Sea
be he did write that before he was come to full maturity of judgement and some other things I do not say after he was superannuated but without that due deliberation which he useth at other times wherein a man may desire Mr. Bayes in Mr. Ba yes Or it it may be some things may be changed in his Book as I have been told by one os his nearest friends and that we shall shortly see a more Authentick Edition of all his Works This is certain that some of those things which I dislike were not his own judgment after he was come to maturity in Theological matter And had Mr. Bayes as he ought to have done carryed his Book to any os the present Bishops or their Chaplains for a Licence to print it I cannot conceive that he could have obtained it in better terms than what I have collected out of the 108. page of his Answerer Notwithstanding the old Pleas of the Jus Divinum of Episcopacy of Example and Direction Apostolical of a Parity of Reason between the condition of the Church whilst under Extraordinary Officers and whilst under Ordinary of the power of the Church to appoint Ceremonies for Decency and Order of the patern of the Churches of old all which under Protestation are reserved till the first oportunity I have upon reading of this Book found that it may be of use 〈◊〉 the present 〈◊〉 of Affairs and therefore let it be printed And as I think he hath disobliged the Clergy of England in this matter so I believe the favour that he doth his Majesty is not eqvivalent to that damage For that I may with Mr. Bayes his leave prophane Ben John son though the gravest Divines should be his Flatâ—…erers he hath a very quick sense shall I prophane Horace too in the same period Hunc male si palpere 〈◊〉 undique tutus If one stroke him ilfavouredly he hath a terrible way of kicking and will fling you to the Stable-door but is himself safe on every side He knows it's all but that you may get into the Saddle again and that the Priest may ride him though it be to a Precipiece He therefore contents himself with the Power that he hath inherited from his Royal Progenitors Kings and Queens of England and as it is declared by Parliament and is not to be trepann'd into another kind of Tenure of Dominion to be held at Mr. Bayes his pleasure and depend upon the strength only of his Argument But that I may not offend in Latin too frequently he considers that by not assumining a Deity to himself he becomes secure and worthy of his Government There are lightly about the Courts of Princes a sort of Projectors for Concealed Lands to which they entitle the King to begg them for themselves and yet generally they get not much by it but are exceeding vexatious to the Subject And even such an one is this Bayes with his Project of a Concealed Power that most Princes as ee saith have not yet rightly understood but whereof the King is so little enamour'd that I am confident were it not for prolling and momolesting the People his Majâ—…sty would give Mr. Bayes the Patent sor it and let him make his best on 't after he hath paid the Fees to my Lord Keeper But one thing I must confess is very pleasant and he hath past an high Complement upon his Majesty in it that he may if he please reserve the Priest-hood and the Exercise of it to himself Now this iudeed is surprâ—…sing but this only troubles me how his Majesty would look in all the Sacerdotal habiliments and the Pontifical Wardrobe I am asraid the King would find himself incommoded with all that furniture upon his back and would scarce reconcile himself to wear even the Lawn-sleeves and the Surplice But what even Charles the fifth as I have rerd was at his Inauguration by the Pope content to be vested according to the Roman Ceremonial in the habit of a Deacon and a man would not scruple too much the formality of the dress in order to Empire But one thing I douâ—…t Mr Bayes did not well consider that if the King may discharge the Function of the Prest-hood he may too and 't is all the reason in the world assume the Revenue It would be the best Subsidy that ever was voluntarily given by the Clergy But truly otherwise I do not see but that the King does lead a more unblamable Conuersation and takes more care of Souls than many of them and understands their office much better and deserves something already sor the pains he hath taken The next is Publick Conscience For as to mens private Consciences he hath made them very inconsiderable and reading what he saith of them with some attention I only found this new and important Discovery and great Priviledge of Christian Liberty thar Thought is free We are howexer obliged to him for that seeing by consequence we think of him what we pleaser And thii he saith a man may assert against all the powers of the Earth and indeed with much reason and to great purpose seeing as he also alledges the Civil Power is so far srom doing violence to that liberty that it never can But yet if the freedom of thoughts be in not lying open to discovery there have been wayes of compelling men to discover them or if the freedom consist in retaining their judgments when so manifested that also hath been made penal And I doubt not but beside Oaths and Renunciations and Assents and Consents Mr. Bayes if he were searched hath twenty other tests and picklocks in his pocket Would Mr. Bayes then perswade men to assert this against all the Powers of the Earth I would ask in what manner To say the truth I do not like him and would wish the Nonconformists to be upon their guard lest he trapan them first by this means into a Plot and then preach and so hang them If Mr. Bayes meant otherwise in this matter I confess my stupidity and the fault is most his own who should have writ to the capacity of vulgar Readâ—…rs He cuts indeed and saulters in this discourse which is no good sign perswading men that they may and ought to practise against their Consciences where the Commands of the Magistrate intervenes None of them denies that it is their duty where their Judgments or Consciences cannot comply with what is injoyned that they ought in obedience patiently to suffer but further they have not learned I dare say that the Casual Divinity of the Jesuites is all thorow as Orthodox as this Maxime of our Authors and as the Opinion is brutish so the Consequences are Develish To make it therefore go down more glibly he saith that ' t is better to err with Authority than to he in the right against it in all doubtful disputable cases because the great duty of Obedience outweighs the danger of a little error and tittle it is if it
Superiority over other men further than positive Order agreed upon among Christians hath preâ—…cribed Time hath taken leave sometimes to fix this name of CONVENTICLES upon good and honest Meetings Though open Assemblies are required yet at all times while men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pious all Meetings of men for mutual help of 〈◊〉 and Devotion wheresoever and by whomsoever celebrated where permitted without exception In times of manifest Corruption and Perseru-tion wherein Religious Assembling is dangerous Private Meetings howsoever besides Publicâ—… Order are not onely lawful but they are of necessity and duty All piâ—…us Assemblies in times of Persecution and Corruption howsoever practised are indeed or rather alone the Lawful Congregations and Publick Assâ—…mblies though according to form of Law are indeed nothing else but RIOTS and CONVENTICLES if they be stained with Corruption and Superstition Do you not see now Mr. Bays that you needed not have gone so for a word when you might have had it in the Neighbourhood If there be any Coherence leâ—…t in yâ—…ur Scull you canâ—… but perceive that I have brought you Authority eâ—… to prâ—…ve that Schism for the reason we may discourse another time do's at least rhime to Ism. But you have a peculiar delight and selicity which no man 〈◊〉 you in Scripture-Drollery â—…othing less 〈◊〉 taste to your Palat whereaâ—… otherwise you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far in Italy that you could not escape the Tiâ—…les of some Books which would have served your turn as well Caâ—…dinalism Nâ—…potism Putanism if you were in a Parox 〈◊〉 of the Ism's When I had â—…rit this and undergone so grateful a P. 〈◊〉 for no less than that I had transcribed beâ—…ore cut of â—…ur Author I could not upon compariug them both together but reflect most seriously upon the difference of their two ways of Discoursing I could not but admire that Majesty and Beauty which sits upon the forehead of masculine Truth and generous Honesty but no less detest the Deformity of falshood disguised in all its Ornaments How much another thing it is to hear him speak that hath cleared himself from forth and growns and who suffers neither Sloth nor Fear nor Ambition nor any other tempting Spirit of that nature to abuse him from one who as Mr. Hales expresseth it makes Christianity lackque to Ambition How wretchedly the one to uphold his Fiction must incite Princes to Persecution and Tyranny degrade Grace to Morality debauch Conscience against its own Principles distort and mis-interpret the Scripture fill the world with Blood Execution aâ—…d Massacre while the other needs and requires no more but a peaceable and unprejudicate Soul and the native simplicity of a Christian-spirit And me thinks if our Author had any spark of Vertue unextinguished he should upon considering these together retire into his Closet and there lament and pine away for his desperate follie for the disgrace he hath as far as in him is brought upon the Church of England by such an undertaking and for the eternal shame to which he has hereby coudemn'd his own memory I ask you heartily pardon Mr. Bayes for treating you against Decorum here with so much gravity 'T is possible I may not trouble you above once or twice more in the like nature but so often at least I hope one may in the writing of a whole Book have leave to be serious Your next Flower and that indeed is a sweet one Dear Heart how could I hug and kiss thee for all this Love and Sweetness Fy â—…y Mr. Bayes Is this the Language of a Divine and to be used as you ometimes express it in the faâ—… of the Sun Who can escape from thinking that you are adream'd of your Comfortable Importance These are as the Moral Saâ—… calls them in the claenl est manner the thing would bare Words left betwixt the Sheets Some body might take it ill that you should misapply your Courtship to an Enemy But in the Roman Empire it was the priviledge of the Hangman to deflour a Virgin before Execution But sweet Mr. Bayes for I know you do nothing without a precedent of some of the greatest wits of the Nation whose example had you for this seeming Transport of a gentler Passion Then comes Wellfare poor Macedo for a modest Fool. This I know is matter of Gazette which is as Canonical as Ecclisiastical Policy Therefore I have the less to say to 't Onely I could wish that there were some severer Laws against such Villains who raise so false and scandalous reports of worthy Gentlemen And that men might not be suffered to walk the streets in so confident a garb who commit those Assassinates upon the reputation of deserving persons Here follows a sore Charge that the Answerer had without any provocation in a publick and solemn way undertakâ—…n the Dâ—…fence of the Fanatick Cause Here indeed Mr. Bayes You have reason and you might have had as just a quarrel against whosoever had undertaken it For your design and hope was from the beginning that no man would have aâ—…swered you in a publick and solemn way and nothing would vex a. wise man as you are more than to have his intention and Counsel frustrated When you have rang'd all your forces in battel when you have plac'd your Canon when you have sounded a charge and given the word to fall on upon the whole Party if you could then perswade every particular person of 'm that you gave him no Provocation I confess Mr. Bayes this were an excellent and a new way of your inventing to conquer single 't is your Moral Vertue whole Armies And so the admiring Drâ—…ve might stand gaping till one by one you had cut aâ—…l their throats But 〈◊〉 Bayes I cannot discern but that you gave him as much Provocation in your first Book as he has you in his Evangelical Love Church Peace and Unity which is the pretence of your issuing this Preface For having for your Dear sake beside many other troubles that I have undertaken without your giving me any Provoration sought out and perused that Book too I do not find you any where personally concern'd but as you have it seems upon some conviction assumed to your self some vices or errours against which he speaks in general and with some modesty But for the rest you say upon full perusal you find not one Syllable to the purpose beside a perpetual Repetition of the old out-worn story of Unscriptural Ceremonies and some frequent whinings and sometimes â—…avings c. Now to see the dulness of some mens Capacities above others I upon this occasion begun I know not how it came at p. 127. And thence read on to the end of his Book And from thence I turn'd to the beginning and continued to p. 127. and could not all along observe any thing but what was very pertinent to the matter in hand But this is your way of excusing your self from replying to things that yet you will be medling with and