more Good or Evil to the Professors of the Christian Religion for this is generally said by many of your Friends concerning your Writings Ubi benè nemo melius ubi malè nemo pejus And for your Enemies they are generally so prejudiced with your Malè that they are not able to read or think or speak well of your Benè but discourage many good Souls from reading or minding your most profitable Discourses Now my humble suit to you is to consider whether as St. Augustine that great Light and voluminous Writer Crowned all his Works with his Retractations of what was amiss Mr. Baxter might not do the same to Gods Glory the establishing of good Christians in the Truth bringing the misled out of their Errors stopping the Mouths of your Enemies and causing your Person and good Works to be had in Everlasting Remembrance and the preventing the ill consequences of what has been acted and writ by you which may attend the Church of God for many Ages after your death Sir I doubt not but you have heard and read the dreadful things that you are charged withal I have been amazed at them and heartily sorry for them I beseech you consult some Religious Wise Faithful Person whom you know to be a true Son of the Church of England as no doubt there are some among so many learned Bishops and Pastors and desire them freely to deal with you in helping you to see the great Errata's of your Sarcastical Writings against the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England or take but that one Book call'd The Unreasonableness of Separation the Second Part c. with special Remarks on the Life and Actions of Mr. R. Baxter 1681. and let God and Men see that you cannot only write well of Humility Repentance and Self-denial but you can act them also Where a Cross in time of Plagues is upon the Door every Man that passes by is ready to pray Lord have mercy on that Family Sir if you with your own Hand would please to acknowledge which of your Works is Infectious and may hurt Souls all Men that read it would bless God for you and heartily send up their Prayers to Heaven if they be but Persons that ever frequent the Throne of Grace with a Domine Miserere R. B. wherefore I beseech you think of the advice of a mean Brother of yours in the Work of the Ministry who in real gratitude for the benefit he has received by your Works and for your own Comfort Honour and Happiness and Gods Glory above all presumes before he goes to his Grave to express his Love and Duty to you before you go to yours for he finds that you and we both entred into the Church of Christ March 12. 1614 and therefore cannot be long from appearing before Almighty God to receive a Sentence to an Eternal state Liberavi animam meam Deus Omnipotens dirigat Te in omnibus viis tuis Many years past I met with an Expression in a Preface to another Mans Writing with your Name to it which much troubled me that it should fall from that Pen which had writ such Excellent Helps to follow Christ Jesus his Rules and Example It was this You was speaking of Hell and the Government and Order among Devils and clapt in that common Pulpit-prayer Expression concerning the Ministry of the Church of England viz. By what Names or Titles soever Dignified or Distinguished which I thought one of the bitterest unchristian Reflections I ever read and I was heartily troubled to read it because I thought it impossible for Hell to have crouded it in where there was so much of Heaven Sir You have the best Prayers I can put up to God for you and humbly beg your Prayers that I may follow Paul's advice to Timothy in taking heed to my Self and Doctrine and continue therein that thorough Gods Mercy and Christs Merits my own Soul may be saved and theirs that hear me So I hope we shall meet in Heaven for we have an Advocate with the Father Feb. 169◠Cantianus D Minimis THE PREFACE TO Mr. Cantianus D Minimis Salutem SIR § 1. I unfeignedly thank you for your Invitation to Repentance O pray for me that neither Ignorance nor Prepossession and Prejudice keep me in Impenitency so near my Death I daily wait for my last day on Earth and it is dreadful to die in the guilt of Impenitence But who knoweth all his secret faults I hope God will accept my willingness to know them and openly to confess them what Party or Person soever be displeased with it Upon your Letter I began to practise it and finding the Book which you refer me to begin with my Childhood and Youth in his Accusations I thought my Answer must follow him and begin there also But shewing it to a Friend more prudent than my self he disliked it that I should tell the World of my Childish sins when it is Schism and Rebellion that are my Charge by the Accuser And I have oft heard bis pueri senes as if such passages were the effects of aged weakness which better remembereth the passages of Youth than of later years I suspect that this is true And yet a dying Man is afraid of such prudence as would stifle penitent Confession when I am so loudly called to it by you and the Accuser I will therefore satisfie Him and You and such other and my Conscience though I bear the derision of prudent dislikers It wrongeth no Man and to be accounted weak and simple I can easily bear § 2. But I doubt it is confessing too little and not too much that you will blame me for And I cannot remedy that neither Your Liturgy denieth Christian Burial to all that kill themselves and it is no Virtue to belie our selves I am sure it is sin to belie a Neighbour whom I must love but as my self Yea or not seasonably to vindicate his Reputation against malignant Slanderers I have many years left the Book unanswered to which you refer me for the Confession of my sins though many told me it was my Duty to answer it It is you now that have call'd me to it Would you have me confess all that he falsly accuseth me of Then you would make your self guilty of all his Lies by presuming that they are true and judging before you ever heard the defence of the accused You write too honestly to allow me to judge so hardly of you But truely I durst not put by your Call to my necessary defence The chief reason is that as you doubt whether my Books will do more good or hurt and your Author thinks it would be good that They were all burnt and the Papists are of the same mind so I am fully perswaded is the Devil And till he can get the Conquering Papists or Tories to do it he will Endeavour to make them as useless as if they were burnt by rendering them odious for their own
been tryed therein by many but would not so easily resign what he had got He once admitted me to his Discourse and before the Lord Broghil Lambert and Thurloe I urged him to tell us what the People of England had done to forfeit their right to the Enjoyment of their ancient constituted Government which they professed to be for and still desired And all the answer that I could have was that God had changed it by his Providence the passages of which he talkt over near two hours till Lambert took on him to be asleep for we must not interrupt him Then Sir Francis sent me his Printed Books and some Papers to have disputed over all the Case of the War And not knowing how many such I might be put to answer I thought best in Print to tell him on what Grounds and Principles I had gone not undertaking that I had not mistaken but to desire him if I had erred to shew it by answering my Reasons there given But before I could have his Answer the distracted Armies had overturned all the present Government I repented Writing that Book 1. Because it came out unseasonably too late 2. Because in opposition to Harrington I had pleaded for Monarchy with some excess and I wisht that I had not medled with Government but left all to the Providence of God 3. Because it did occasion more hurt than good so that it became the common Theme of ambitious young Preachers especially at Court before K. Ch. II. as the way to Preferment to talk against The Holy Commonwealth falsly perswading men that by a Commonwealth I meant Democracy or Popular Government which the Book was purposely written against So that when the Oxford University burnt that Book with Dr. Whitby's excellent Reconciler and some others though I expostulated with the Vice-Chancellor concerning its Principles I told them I consented that the Book was burnt though I told them not why as now I do XXXVII Though both Nature and Grace inclined me to hate Lying and specially in Writers and Preachers and I honoured Jul. Caes Scaliger the more because his Son Joseph tells us how vehemently he hated a Lie so that he could not be reconciled to a Liar yet I confess that my impatience herein was faulty It was long before I well perceived that the Father of Lies doth Govern his Kingdom most of the World by meer Lying Call it Errour or Mistake or Falshood or what you will all signifieth the same thing It is delivering Falshood for Truth Christ had told us that the Devil is the Father of Lies and when he speaketh a Lie he speaketh his own Deceit is by Lying and by this he ruleth his World As God's Image consisteth in Life Light and Love the Devil's Image is Hatred Falshood and Hurtfulness or Murder Joh. 8 But alas to take this for some strange thing and to be over-impatient with Liars was my fault when now I find it is but the very state of corrupt unreneved Nature And Pride the Father and Ignorance the Mother make Kingdoms Cities and Persons like a rotting Carkass that swarms with Maggots You that read Histories read with Judgment and due Suspicion for the common corrupt Nature is a lying Nature And it is not about Religion only but the Fool rageth and is confident in all his Errours O what abundance of Lying Books are Shops and Libraries fill'd with even in History and Theology What abundance of false Counsels do Physicians give what abundance of false accusations doth Envy and Malice vend What abundance of false Doctrines and Censures doth ignorant Sectarian Zeal foment How many Lies for one Truth is carried for News or for Slander about the Streets And how few scruple receiving and reporting them how fewer rebuke them It 's useful for the World to know how common this Malady is but it was almost in despair that I lately wrote a Book against it of pretended Knowledge and Love I blame not my self for hating it but being too impatient with it especially in Books and Preachers as if it had been a strange thing XXXVIII When I wrote my five Disputations of Church Government I too hastily mis translated some words of Ignatius and though I then owned Apostolick Successors in the continued part of their Work I did not so fully as now understand how Christ by Institution then founded a National Church nor what a National Church was nor how that which was ultimum in executione a Christian Soveraignty was primum in intentione to which bare Preaching was preparatory XXXIX When I wrote my Treatise of Episcopacy I Calculated it to the Laudian Faction then prevalent that called it self the Church of England and though I distinguished them that put down all the Parochial Pastors and Churches and turned them all into meer Curates and Chappels or partes Ecclesiarum infimarum and so put down hundreds of Bishops and Churches under pretence of magnifying One from the old Reformed Church of England that put not down these but only sinfully fettered them yet I did not so largely open the difference as I ought which gave Mr. Lobb occasion to write confidently for Separation XL. When my Books against Conformity had irritated Dr. Stillingfleet to make me an instance of mischievous Separation who had constantly heard and communicated with my Parish Churches and for my private or occasional Preaching had the Bishops Licence approved under the hands of two the greatest Lawyers of England the Lord Chief Justice Sanders and the now Lord Chief Justice Polixâ—en I doubt that I too provokingly took the advantage of his temerity and confuted him in too provoking terms not considering enough that a Man of great Learning Labour and Merit and Name hath a great interest of Reputation which he would not be insensible of And if it were true as many without proof report that his exasperation engaged first Mr. Morrice and after the second Author of the Mischief of Separation whose writing against me is the transcript of the Character given by Christ John 8. 44. yet I honour the Reading Learning Labour and great Worth of Dr. Stillingfleet now Bishop of Worcester and what ever hand he had in it I unfeignedly forgive him XLI And in defence of the Nonconformists against the false accusation of Shism laid on them by the Imposing Schismaticks I doubt I was too keen in confuting Mr. Sherlocke I found it hard to discern whether the defence of truth and slandered suffering Servants of Christ or not exasperating false Accusers should command my style XLII What other Errors there are or have been in my Life or Writings I daily beg of God to discover to me and pardon For I never did any thing which might not and ought not to have been done better Particularly I beg pardon for too frequent hastiness and harshness of Speech to my nearest Domesticks from whom I never differed one moment in point of Interest or Love but had too often sour over-hasty
we had great plenty of such Fruit at Home sometime with a grudging Conscience I ventured over the Hedge to a Neighbours Fruit. A Sin that Austin himself confesseth V. I was in a School where one or two Lads corrupted many by obscene talk and immodest actions In which I did not sufficiently disown them or rebuke them but oft too much countenanced them in it As also in fighting and abusing the weaker though I was unable thereto my self VI. Though I was bred under many meer Readers and Tipling or Drunken Schoolmasters and Curates and scarcely heard a Sermon in a long time till I was about Fourteen years of Age or then and after none that I felt any profit by I was not troubled at the loss nor at my ignorance and unprofitableness VII When it pleased God by reading some good Books and by my danger of Sickness about Fifteen years of Age to waken my Conscience I was not so obedient to that awakening Call as I should have been But was oft tempted to my old sin of pleasing my Appetite and had almost been drawn away to a covetous love of Gaming at Cards But God quickly check'd it by an unusual Providence VIII I was strongly possest I think by Pride joyned with a Love of Learning to have setled at the University till I had attained some Eminency of Learning and Titles but God in great Mercy by Sickness and other hinderances saved me from that danger and loss of time and bred me up in a more humbling way and gave me some little help of safe and pious Countrey Tutors IX Weakness keeping me in expectation of Death and God then having given me a greater sence of Mans Everlasting state and of the differences between Faith and Hypocrisie Holiness and a worldly state I thirsted to win others to the same sense and state and to that End offered my self to Ordination when I was too low for so high a Work both in Learning and in a methodical knowledge of Theology And though I was naturally inclined to Logical and Metaphysical Accurateness and method I was too ignorant in Languages and Mathematicks and divers parts of Knowledge had I not been a continual Learner by Books while I was a Teacher I had been a dishonour to the Sacred Office and Work and do repent that I made such haste X. I too rashly in this Ignorance took the Judgment of the Countrey Ministers that had been my Helpers and told me of the Lawfulness of Conformity and believed the Books for Conformity which they perswaded me to read for the English frame of Government and Subscriptions before I had read impartially what was against it or heard any speak on the other side or had well studied the case And so I subscribed sinfully because temerariously And though I was so rash that I cannot say that I am sure that I took the Oath of Canonical Obedience it is so long since yet I think I did because else I had not been Ordained Of this I repent and beg forgiveness for the Merits of Christ Though I had never been like to have been a Minister without it but had turned to some other Calling XI Though I know not that ever I broke the Oath of Canonical Obedience or ever disobeyed my Ordinary yet I changed my Judgment of the Canons of which I cannot repent While I lived a year as a Schoolmaster my Ordinary commanded me nothing which I disobeyed When I removed to a Priviledged place Bridgnorth I was only a Lecturer and my Ordinary commanded me nothing which I did not I did read most of the Liturgy and kneel at the Sacrament And my Ordinary himself Baptized without Crossing and never commanded me to use it or the Surplice VVhen I came to Kidderminster Bishop Thornbury died and Bishop Prideaux never gave me any Command or Prohibition I being a meer Lecturer that never had Presentation and the Vicar using the Liturgy and Ceremonies But yet I repent â—â—at I did think worse of that sort of Diocesane Government which puts not down the Parochial Pastors and Churches than I now do and these Forty years have done For I think that a General Episcopacy over many Churches and Bishops is Jure Divino an Order succeeding Apostles and Evangelists in that part of their Office which as Ordinary must continue But I repent not that I renounced that sort of Diocesanes who put or keep down all the Parochial Pastors or Bishops and Churches making them but as Chappels Parts of a Diocess as the lowest Church and taking on them the sole Episcopacy of many score or hundred Churches Nor do I repent of my unanswered Treatise of Episcopacy written against this sort XII Though I ever disliked the Censorious and Separating Spirit that run into Extreams against Conformity yet I Repent that I did no more sharply reprove it But because almost all the people where I came to preach that were not meer VVorldlings but seemed to be seriously Religious were either against Conformity or wish'd it removed for the Divisions which it caused I overmuch valued their Esteem and Love because I loved their serious piety and having sometimes but very seldom spoken against the Corruptions of the Church Government specially the Silencing of Ministers I can scarce tell to this day whether I did well or ill more good by telling Men what to lament and pray against or more hurt by heartening those that were apt overmuch to Censure Government and the Orders of the Church But I beg God to forgive what was amiss XIII Though I desired such a frame of Episcopal Government as Sir Edward Deering offered or as since Archbishop Usher hath described as Primitive yet out of the sense of the evil that Silencers and Persecutors had done I too much rejoiced when the Tidings came that the Prelacy was Voted down not knowing then what would be set up nor well what to desire For neither Presbytery nor Independency had been then debated or were well understood XIV VVhen I heard of the Scots Covenanting and Arming and entering England though I had not so much knowledge of their Cause as should be a just satisfaction in so great a matter yet I was in Heart glad of it for the appearance that it shewed of enabling the Lords and Commons of England to appear more boldly to plead for their Liberties and Laws But I now think that a Suspension of my thoughts as wanting Evidence had been better XV. VVhen I heard of the tumultuous manner of the Apprentices in London petitioning against Bishops I disliked it and the means that encouraged them and the publick reproach that was cast by the Rabble on those called Straffordians such learned men as the Lord Faulkland Lord Digby c. yea and the urging the King so much for his Execution But I too much silenced my dislike XVI VVhen I saw Mr. Burton's Protestation Protested and the forwardness of many Religious unlearned Persons to run toward Extreams
faults and for mine And you tell me that my Enemies will not read them Now till my Opinion of them be the same with theirs you cannot expect that I that have spent so great a part of above Seventy five years in writing above an hundred and twenty Books should be content to lose my Labour and End and that all Men lose the benefit of them rather than I shall confute a most impudent Liar If you say I over-value them why do you speak the over-valuing of many of them That is good that doth Good About Twelve of them are Translated into the German Tongue and the Lutherans say They have done good Some are Translated into French One into the Language of the New-England Americans by Mr. Eliots Multitudes say they have been the means of their Conversion and more of their Information Confirmation and Consolation And the Chief benefit that I expect by them to the World is when I am dead and gone And can you expect that after so much labour for the Church and Souls I should so far despise both it and them as not to think all worthy of a just defence § 3. But you think that the way of Confessing his Accusations will better do it and will make Men write on the Doors a Domine Miserere for my Soul But have you known me better than I have known my self Or did he know me better who I suppose never spake with me but hath lived two hundred and lately and hundred Miles from me Or is there no way to win the love of your Party but by my known confessing such a multitude of shameless Lies as an Irish Tory or a Pagan would abhor I think it enough that I have to satisfie my Conscience and such as you exposed my self to the Censure of imprudent weakness by my Confessions § 4. But as to my Account of my Opinion about the Wars I must intreat you to take it as it is given you Not as a peremptory justification of all that I did but as the reasons which yet I see not answered desiring that where I erre God will better inform me that I may neither condemn the just nor justifie any sin § 5. But besides your Authors Accusations you have added two heinous ones of your own 1. That before some Book of anothers speaking of Order among Devils I clapt in that Expression By what Names or Titles soever Dignified or Distinguished And you did not think Hell could have done the like because it is a common Pulpit Expression I fear that you are over-tender of your Parties honour to some degree of melancholy suspiciousness that could find so much of Hell in those words I think I have not heard those words in the Pulpit thrice to my remembrance in forty years Our Preachers that I have heard mention only Archbishops Bishops and the Inferiour Clergy I hope you pray for more than England But what Obligation you have to pray for the Three Patriarchs of Antioch the Two Patriarchs of Alexandria or him of Constantinople or the Catholick of Armenia or the Abuna of Abassia or him of Moscovy or the Pope or the Cardinals Priests and Deacons or the Archbishop of Rhemes quâ tales as so Dignified and Distinguished I know not Is not a General Prayer for them enough Did Paul speak the Language of Hell in calling Devils Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickedness in High Places no nor in calling Satan The God of this World And is any Name more tenderly to be used than Gods Is it a wrong to Princes that Beelzebub is called The Prince of the Devils and the Prince that Ruleth in the Air Doth Scripture use Hellish Language in calling wicked Rulers GODS But I gave you not the least cause to think that I meant that Devils were Bishops or Bishops Devils I I spake not of Bishops And do you not know that Devils are dignified and distinguished in superiority by Names and Titles Why did you not name the Book which I prefaced that I might examine it Do you think that I can remember all that I have written before mens Books Seneca saith truly that he that hath a Sore or Ulcer thinks that you hurt him when you touch him not if he do but think you touch him However Dignities Dominions and Titles being words of Political common use if when we talk of spiritual heavenly or hellish Policy we must not use the same terms as of Humane Policy we must devise new Languages and Lexicons and correct the Bible Your second Accusation of me being my writings against the Bishops and Church of England I must suppose you mean truly not Bishops as Bishops nor the true Church of England as such or as heretofore But those Changers that since Laud have called themselves the Church If you speak truth this is your meaning § 6. And I cannot but think that as your honest and kind admonition obligeth me to be truly thankful to you and to renew the tryal of my ways so I am obliged by the same principle of Love and Fidelity humbly to intreat you to consider if possible without partiality 1. How you can answer the owning of such a Volume of a Lying Slanderers Accusations before you hear the defence of the Accused 2. But much more how you can so far countenance the heinous sins of those that you call the Church as not at all to blame them and to take it for so great a crime to name them and call men to repentance for them Can you find so much of Hell in the mention of the Dignities and Distinctions of Devils and yet see nothing but blamelesness in the silencings of about Two thousand such Ministers seizing on the goods and books and beds of so many as were so used laying many so long in common `fails with Rogues even divers to their death ruining so many hundred godly Families shutting the Church doors against so many Scholars that were educated and devoted to the Ministry causing and continuing the woful divisions of the Land to the great weakning of the Church and hinderances of Piety and Love and the great advantage of Popery and Forrein Enemies O how much more of such work have some to answer for Is Repentance for feeling and bewailing all this so great a duty as you suppose and is committing it and preaching it up a virtue not to be repented of Doth God require us to mourn and cry for the common evils if we will escape our selves Ezek. 9. 4. and to mourn for the reproach of the solemn Assembly as a burden Zeph. 3. 17. and is it now a heinous crime Hath Satan got so much right to his possession that if he use but the name of the Church for it they must repent as of hellish evil that so much as blame it and call men to Repentance O how hard is it to be impartial § 7. And when you look back on the Wars why do you not call them to Repentance
conformable to Episcopacy and Parochial Worship and some of them so Zealous for the Liturgy and Diocesanes that they would not hear a Man as a Minister that had not Episcopal Ordination The Archbishop of York Williams was one of them and was not he for Episcopacy § 5. But the Accuser confuteth all this by telling us that it began in King James days between the Regians and the Republicans between Prerogative and Priviledge by a Party that would have perswaded the King to War for the Palatinate c. And why began he it not in Queen Elizabeth's Reign who more overtopt Parliaments than King James did I perceive by this Man that none must pass for Conformable and Episcopal that are not of Sibthorp and Mainwaring's Mind and renounce not Parliamentary Priviledges and give not up Property and Liberty to the meer will of the King called Prerogative And so all our Parliaments till the Dividing and Tearing Long one were not of the Church of England And what then was that Church Was it a Christian Kingdom and yet was the Kingdom Representative no part of it Are none but Leeches Sangutsugi's Men of Blood that must have all lye and die in Goals among Rogues that will not Swear and Subscribe and Declare and Covenant and Practise all that they impose of the Church of England What a Reproach is this to such a Church If I must Repent that I take not all the old Parliaments and all the Bishops in Queen Elizabeths days to be no Church Protestants if I must Repent for taking Jewel Bishop Bilson Ri. Hooker and his Friend Sir Edwin Sandyes for Church Protestants and Repent for believing all Rushworth's Collections all Whitlock's Memoirs all Sir Simon Dewes and Dr. Fuller's Church History and the Volumes of M. S. Parliament Speeches if I must take this King and Parliament and all the Bishops and Clergy that Conform to them to be no Protestants of the Church of England because they have made a Law declaring it to be the Rights and Liberties of the people to be governed by Law and not by Arbitrary Prerogative and have asserted what the old Parliaments claimed I must then heinously dishonour the Church of England and Repent that I am a Man § 6. He falsly feigneth me to say that the Bishops began the War because I said it began between the two Episcopal Parties those that were of Archbishop Abbot's and the old Reformers way and those that were for Land's Innovations and Persecutions And I should justly be noted for vain and tedious if I would stand to answer all his talk about the Provocations He that will read Whitlock may have full satisfaction and particularly find that the Parliament voted a Diocesane in every County when they began to reform And were they not then for Episcopacy § 7. Page 10. He saith From the year 1660 it hath been my chief work to pour out the like contempt malice and violence as was begun 1640. Ans Not a word proved or true till I was silenced 1662 Aug. 24. I was never accused for any word then preached writ and published Which was not for want of Enemies or Power Of many years after I neither preach'd nor printed And what I printed since the world may be judge of § 8. Page 12. He saith that the numerous fry of Sectaries agree to own me as their Champion Ans When the Grand Accuser can hope to make such stuff as this believed and that in a Land City and Time where the clean contrary is more commonly known than I am what can be devised so impudently false which he may not by his stamp make current as truth Are not above Sixty Books of Sectaries written more or less against me an evidence to prove that they take me not for their Champion Are not above Sixscore Books of my own writing many at large and all in part against Sectaries and Errors a visible Evidence of this Mans falshood Is not the common Cry of City and Countrey a sufficient witness that the Sectaries take me not for their Champion but their Adversary Indeed they have shewed it but by words it being but the two Master Sects Papists and Tory Prelatists that shew it by Fining Silencing Prison and taking all for their prey § 9. The Accuser tells me that it is no new thing for Hereticks to have many admirers and to pretend to purity that they may deceive Ans Which is very true and I will add that which is far worse It is no new thing even for them that do not so much as seem to have either Purity Conscience or common Honesty no nor to scruple the grossest Lying and Perjury to have more Followers than Christ himself had while he was on Earth notwithstanding his Purity and all his Miracles Such Men find corrupted nature as disposed to believe and follow them as a Dunghil to breed Weeds or a Carcase Maggots Even those that openly militate under Satan as deadly Enemies to serious Godliness if they will but cloak their malignity with the Name of a Sacred Function and call Piety and Conscience by their own Titles Hypocrisie and Schism shall convert more Souls to Diabolism in a little time than all the Preachers that they silence could have converted to Piety and serious Christianity And the French Prelacy and Dragoon Discipline will cleanse a Nation quickly from Protestant Heresie and Schism We hope not for the honour of having more Followers than such Men. This Man and his Sect would comfort me if I were in fear of that threatening of Christ Mat. 5. Woe to you when all Men speak well of you § 10. Ibid. He saith That under a form of Godliness I would destroy the power of it Ans Hem What is the Power of Godliness with this Sect of Men If it be the Power of Silencing the most Godly and Practical and Blameless Preachers and of Beggering and Murdering by long Imprisonment in common Goals both Preachers and Hearers that will not give over all publick Worship of God like Atheists till they dare venture to Lie and be Perjured and own all that such Men bid them say is faultless If it be the power of Godliness to have an ignorant worldly scandalous Priest who driveth Men from him by his naughtiness to hate threaten and ruine them if they will hear any but him or use any trustier Pastor for their Souls and that would turn Churches into Prisons and Sacraments into forced Drenches to be given by him that can get a Patent for the Trade which some Patrons and Prelates chosen by a Papist King can easily help him to then I am against the power of Godliness Where Gain is Godliness I have long been against the power of it § 11. Page 13. He saith Our Nation would be less in danger of new Flames if all my Books Practical and Polemical were consumed to Ashes Ans How came I to escape till now my self Not at all by your Clemency Your
tearing the Church and extirpating serious Piety is against them So do the Papists accuse them that blame their Murders and Inquisitions § 41. Accus XXVIII Because I said The War was begun in our Streets by the ungodly drunken Rabble seeking our Lives he saith In plain English Mr. B. with other Reformers put themselves into Arms seizing on the Kings Forts and making them Garrisons against the King and this before King or Parliament had any Armies Ans In plain English this Lie is shameless Unless a poor hired Chamber was the Kings Fort I seized on none The first time the drunken Rabble rose up against me was for preaching Original Sin They said that I slandered their Children The next was for Reading the Parliaments Order to deface the Pictures of the Trinity The third was by bringing in Souldiers that drove me away And it was long after this ere I had a private Lodging in Coventry § 42. Accus XXIX Page 26. He maketh the repetition of his Forgery a proof that I was guilty of Perjury 1. Because I was prejudiced against the Bishops at Nineteen and yet at Ordination took the Oath to obey my Ordinary in Licitis Honestis Ans 1. I did not Swear an approbation of Persecution I was not then prejudiced against Episcopacy but against the sin of Bishops May not a Man disown such shameless Liars as some Ministers are without disowning the Ministry 2. I was prejudiced against Bishop Morton at Fourteen Ans Utterly false I honoured him to his death But when I came to better understanding I disliked turning Confirmation to a meer Ceremony For the right use of which I have written a Treatise agreeing to Dr. Hammond 3. He nameth my omitting the Cross and Surplice Ans I never Sware nor Promised to use them being in no station that obliged me to it And was under an Ordinary that required it not And I have confest my sin in rath subscribing to their lawfulness § 43. Accus XXX Page 27. He tragically reciteth the reasons I alledged why I was for the Parliament But his confutation is only by an Exclamation how bad I was as worse than Cook and Bradshaw as if I had been for the death of the King When he knoweth that the Parliament was broken up by Cromwell for being for the Kings Restoration and their Union And that a Faction called the Rump did this as Cromwell's Confederates I believe I did more against that Faction than many such as he § 44. Accus XXXI Page 27 28. With what Heart could he be an Eye-witness of the Inhumane Butcheries that had been made in almost every Fight from the beginning of the Wars Ans A Lie so gross that it feigneth me to see far off where I never was I have answered it before I was an Eye-witness of many of Gods provident disposals and an Ear-witness of more I saw the Field where they fought near Worcester and Edgehill and Nantwich and I saw many Garrisons Wem Leicester Shrewsbury Exeter Sherburne Bristol Winchester that had been taken But I saw not the Fights at any one of these But that at Langport that ended the Field War I saw afar off but saw none kill'd for they fled I think before a Man was kill'd § 45. Accus XXXII I repent not of saying that I was rescued from many dangers Nor that I had many tedious Nights and Days in that Army which after Naseby Fight I hazarded my Life and spent my Labour to have undeceived and had many doleful sights and tidings I saw the Graves and some of the Corps in Ditches near Edgehill of the Parliaments Souldiers there kill'd and many that lay unburied When after I lived in peace at Coventry how oft were Souldiers of that Garrison brought home Mortally wounded and many slain Few Weeks past in which we heard not of Fights in Fields or Garrisons Which I thought it lawful to call doleful tidings § 46. Accus XXXIII Because I named the doleful Fights at Worcester Edgehill Newberry Nantwich Montgomery Horncastle Naseby York Langport c. he addeth It seems he was present in these Fights Ans Not at any one of them save Langport I said My Eyes shalt no more see the Earth covered with the Carkasses of the slain Which was at Edgehill the next day after where I had no more to do than any other that would see the place § 47. Accus XXXIV He had travelled over the most of England to pursue the War Ans It was much and not most and it was to have prevented the Change of Government and not to pursue the War that I went § 48. Accus XXXV Page 29. He feigneth me accordingly to see many Noble Lords and Gentry perish in their integrity some perhaps by his own Hand Ans All meer Forgery I never saw any such hurt nor ever hurt any But at Coventrey I did encourage the Garrison and at Wem § 49. Accus XXXVI His next is a common Accusation of me by his Party that I speak of Brook Prin Hambden and White as of Men in Heaven Ans I think so still Prin and White were never Souldiers Our Creed containeth not any Article that decideth Controversies about the various forms of Government Christ never told us how much of the Supremacy was in Caesar and how much in the Senate and People and which of them had the Legislative Power Nor whether England be an Absolute or a Limited Monarchy nor whether the Parliament have part of the Legislative and Self-defending Power And those that best knew these Men especially Hambden and White took them for Men in all other respects of Great Wisdom Piety and Honesty If among the old Romans all the Civil Wars between the Senate and the Emperors and one Emperor and another when of Forty scarce Ten died a Natural Death but were Murdered had inferred the Destruction and Damnation of all that were against the Censuring side how few would have escaped When setting up Emperors and killing them was so common that Souldiers set the Crown to Sale I never heard that Brutus or Cato or Cicero or Seneca or Lucan and such others might not have their Virtues praised and that above their Enemies though they died as esteemed Rebels I am sure these Men that reproach me for this Charity have a Law to turn me and all Nonconformists out of the Ministry if we were to bury such a Man and would not profess our Hope of his Salvation For they bind us to do it of every individual person buried in the Land except the Unbaptized Excommunicate and Self-Murderers And exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis And because the Sum of his Accusations is the War the War I will once more give him a Summary Answer If he mean the War before the new modelled Army and new Commission which left out for the King after Naseby Fight I did more against that new Cause and War than he and perhaps many such as he If he mean the first
War stated by the Parliament Commissions for the King and Parliament I was in it and for it Because 1. He that is for the Highest Power in a Civil War is of the righter side caeteris paribus than he that is against it but they that were for King and Parliament were for the Highest Power in our Civil War Proved They that were for them that have the Legislative Power were for them that had the Highest Power as Morley confesseth and almost all others But they that were for King and Parliament were for them that had the Legislative Power Ergo c. Obj. What Hypocrisie is it to shoot at the King and say you fight for him Ans 1. The King protested to be for the Parilament as his Shrewsbury Half Crowns shew while he fought against their Armies and Persons Ergo the Parliament might more clearly be for the King while they fought against his Army and not his Person though in the Field 2. They knew that the King had discretion enough to keep his Person out of the reach of Danger And so he did At Edgehill he stood on the Hill as I heard and look'd down on the Fight in the Field At Naseby where he was nearest he was safe but that was after the first Cause and War I never heard else that he came near 3. Else any Traytor that could possess the Kings Person and carry him about as they did Henry VI. should be for the King and all against him that would rescue him Obj. He was willingly with his Army Ans He may fight for the King that doth it against his Will while he doth it not to hurt his Person Prerogative or Rights We Sware not to be for all the Will of the King If in a Passion he would kill Himself his Son his Lords his Parliament yea or would but Ravish a Woman he may be held and resisted Arg. 2. They that were to bring King and Parliament again to Union fought for the King and Kingdom and the Highest Power for it is the Constitution But the first Wars Commissions were to bring the King and Parliament to Unity Ergo c. Arg. 3. They that were really for the Common Safety and Salus Populi and the very Constituted Form of Government in a case of notorious danger and only against an Army of Subjects that fled from the Justice of the Supream Judicature were righter than those that were against their Wars But c. Ergo c. Arg. 4. They that were for a Defensive War according to Law and Constitution were righter than they that raised War against them contrary to Law and Constitution But c. Ergo c. The Parliament to the last were against all violence to the Person of the King and were cast out by Cromwell for Voting to receive him As it was easie for Bradshaw and â—ook to Charge all the Bloodshed on the King so is it fo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accuser to Charge it according to his Judgment But all of us must be willing of Conviction and deep Repentance so far as we shall be proved guilty Arg 5. The present King and Parliament have by Practice and by Law declared the right of more than Arming and Resisting a King in several Cases Arg. 6. In a doubtful Case under God there is no Judge that hath a deciding power above the Supream Judicature § 50. Accus XXXVII He next accuseth me as falsly Charging the peaceable Reign of King Charles the First with Persecution wherein there was no such thing but Peace save against the Seditious And he appealeth to the Canons Ans 1. See the Preface to my Book called Cain and Abel for an answer to this 2. We appeal to the Canons too and to the Bishops Visitation Articles and to the experience of all England that delight not in the Destruction of the true Servants of Christ 3. But alas how far are Leeches from feeling the smart of the Persons whose Blood they feast upon The Papists say none were punished in Queen Mary's days but the Hereticks and Seditious So saith the King of France And so said the Irish when they Murdered 200000. 4. Q. 1. Was there nothing but Amiable Peace when Laud and others wrote for a Forreign Jurisdiction under the Name of our obeying the Pretorian Power of Forreign Councils Q. 2. Was it Sedition not to Read the Book for Sunday Sports and Dancing which exempted Children and Servants from the Government of their Parents and Masters For which many Ministers suffered Q. 3. Was it Sedition for Religious people to go hear a Conformable Preacher at the next Parish when they had no Preaching at Home Q. 4. Was it Sedition for Religious people to pray with their Sick Friends and Fast and Humble themselves to God without Travelling to the Bishop for a License Q. 5. Was it Sedition for a Man Vowed to the Ministry by Episcopal Ordination to Preach or Expound any matter in the Church or elsewhere without a new License from the Bishop Q. 6. Was it Sedition for any Man Noble or Ignoble to affirm that any thing was repugnant to the Word of God in the Ceremonies Liturgy Ordinations or the Et caetera Government of the Church Q. 7. Was it Sedition to refuse the false Et caetera Oath of 1640 Q. 8. Was it Sedition to say that other Societies in England were true Churches besides the Episcopal Churches At least the French and Dutch Q. 9 Was it for Sedition that Men were punished for not Receiving the Sacrament when the Conscience of their ignorance and unfitness deterred them Q. 10. Were the many thousand Families that were put to fly the Land to Holland and America punished for nothing but Sedition Were New England and Barmudas planted without any Persecution Or was it no punishment to be driven from House Land Goods Kindred and Native Countrey into an unplanted Wilderness among VVoods and wild Men and Beasts Q. 11. Was it no Persecution to be Excommunicate ipso facto by Canons 6 7 8 c. without being admonished or heard Q. 12. Was it nothing but Amiable Peace that laid all the Ten sorts of the Excommunicate named in the Statute in the common Goal during Life depriving them there of their Estates unless they Lied by a feigned Repentance Q. 13. Yea was it only harmless that made Seriousness in Religion such a common Scorn as the word Puritane then signified if Mr. Robert Bolton Bishop Abbot Bishop Downame and other Conformists may be believed But say these Accusers All this was but justice and was well done But the casting out of two hundred accused on Oath for gross scandal and utter insufficiency by the Parliament was Persecution and was not well done § 51. Accus XXXVIII Next I am accused because other Men exploded the Lords Prayer Ans 1. And what is that to me that constantly used it 2. And who may not see that the use of it was prescribed in the Directory 3. And the Presbyterian
Independants § 65. Accus LII Page 47. Having told what a few Rumpers said to Monk he saith And because they did this and might justifie it by Mr. B's Theses in his Holy Commonwealth they are the Supream Power the best Governours in all the World Ans How pregnant is malice of falshood 1. It is false that the Parliament in question did what he saith which was done by their Adversaries Such as Scot Robinson and Haseldrigge that flattered Monk till he had them in his Net 2. It is false that my Thâ—ses justifie them which are written against them 3 It is false that it was for this that I call them the Supream Power or the best Governours It 's King and Parliament that I call Supream It was King Parliament the Rump and Richard that the Men whom I wrote against pull'd down And I only tell them that if the Errours of all these Rulers will justifie an Army for Deposing them there is no Power on Earth that might not be so Deposed there being none better than all these Deposed by them § 66. Once more I tell this Accuser and the World that I am so far from justifying King or Parliament from the beginning progress or ending of this War that I think both sides deeply guilty of very heinous sin And I cannot tell whether I know a Man living that hateth War more than I hate it While I medled in it it was far a more sad and hateful Life to me than my abode in Prison was when the Church Defenders laid me there with an unsolvable Fine The truth is both sides began they knew not what I knew not a Man but Sir Francis Nethersole that knew what War was or foresaw what was like to come of it Both sides thought it would be prevented by the Countreys forsaking the other side or that one Fight would end it And no Man can tell just where and when and by whom it was begun No more than just when a Chronical Disease begins in Man Only I am sure that Virtually and Dispositively it began in that division of Minds Hearts and Lives which is common in the World between them that Love a Life of Serious Godliness and cannot Love Wickedness and them that Hate a Godly Life because it 's against their Lust and Carnal Interest Not that every Adversary to the Parliament was a Cainite but that through the Land an Enmity between the Seriously Godly and the Prophane encouraged by Pharisaical Ceremonious Formalists was a War in our Bowels ready to break forth upon the first advantages And the Religious Party as in all former Ages had many young ignorant Novices that by Pride ran into Extreams being self-conceited and unruly and ready by Schism or petulant Censoriousness to vilifie all that be not of their Sects and to pretend Fanatick Inspirations for their Errours As the contrary Party was prone to be so Jealous of their beloved Dominion Wealth and Ease and Honour as to take such for intolerable Enemies that flattered them not in their Worldly Pomp. Long did heart-burnings continue between these discordant Parties one side blaming and the other side ruining those that were against them Till Laud's attempts for Innovation stirred up such opposition in Scotland and distaste in England as I cannot justifie The Parliament encouraged by the Scots went higher in provoking the King than they ought And the King too much occasioned their Jealousie that he intended to have Invaded Property and Liberty and to subdue them by force if they restrained or punished the Executioners of his Illegal Will But this brake out by such degrees that no Man can name the beginning As a small breach in a Pond of Water groweth wider till it let out the whole And as Personal Duels begin in a word or a suspicion and proceed to wrath and then to reproach and thence to revenge When Division was the Death of the Constituted Form of Government both sides should have hated and feared it more than either did But the Parliament thought the King would soon return as deserted And the Devil among us all was as if he had cast among Boys red hot pieces of Brass or Iron and they scrambled for it thinking by the Colour that it was Gold till it stuck to their Fingers and burnt them to the Bone And the dread of 200000 Murdered in Ireland put such a pannick fear in the Antipapists in England as darkened their Wits And yet if the Captain and Mariners fall out by folly the Ship may be preserved by the innocent If the Citizens could not agree about quenching the Fire in 1666. the Inhabitants may endeavour it and pull down Houses to that end without the guilt of injury to the Owners I think that King and Parliament grievously sinned but not equally in doing so much to cause and no more to prevent a Civil War I would they had hearkened to Whitlock's Speech and other Mens healing motions 1641. But who in the beginning fore-knows the end And when once the breach is made usually there is no hope left of any better end than one of the two Parties ruin True is the old saying He that draweth his Sword against his King must throw away the Scabbard When all mutual Trust is gone all hope of Reconciliation is gone The present state of England is a lively Exposition of the beginning of that miserable War We were thus in fear of Popery and Slavery here of late The Murder of 200000 in Ireland and the Papists coming in to the King in England was as loud an Alarm as King James his Liberty of Conscience here The Archbishop and Bishops and the Lay Church Lords and Patrons here had Sworn or Promised against taking Arms against the King on any pretence what soever They did not all own King William's Title to the Crown Yet they thought it lawful to save the Kingdom from a misgoverning King and the Kings own Kindred Lords Army and Clergy forsook him and joyned with him that came in against him They meant it not as owning then the Invaders Right to the Crown nor as disowning King James but to save the Kingdom and it proved contrary to their expectation that without Blood the turn of the Nation turned the Government Just so the first beginners of the resistance of King Charles the First his Army intended no change of the Government and they thought that the War would have been as soon almost ended as begun as King William's was here but when it was once begun reconciliation became impossible And one or others must be ruined Yet we that owned not the miscarriages of either side but thought King and Parliament greatly sinful thought it an absolute Duty to do our best to save the Kingdom from the most threatning danger And we thought that the Massacre of Ireland the Papists in England the malignity of most of the Kings Adherents and the prospect of such an Army of Delinquents Conquering a Parliament and putting
this be a Character of the best Church in the World to have such Ministers But if there be no Obligation from that Vow to the things aforesaid 1. Dr. Sanderson and most sober Casuists are mistaken who say That though a Vow be unlawfully imposed and unlawfully taken and part of the Matter be unlawful to be kept it bindeth us nevertheless to keep the necessary part And what am I that I should swear or say that I am wiser than all these Doctors and sure that they are mistaken 2 And then I must swear or say that neither King nor Lords nor any one took it in a lawful sense which else would oblige them And must I become a Voucher for Thousands whom I never knew 3 And then I must swear or say that the King was brought in by Errour and Deceit Monk's Presbyterian Army and the Presbyterian Gentry and Ministry of England brought in the King as bound to it by this Covenant as they declared And must I say it did not bind them to it But our Accusers are no Self-accusers but God will difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an Oath and dare not take God's Name in vain § 76 Accus LIX He dipped his Pen not in Gall and Vinegar but in the very poyson of Asps to keep open the wounds of the expiring Church To which end he endeavours to draw his Neighbour-Ministers into an Association and procures the Worcestershire Agreement the design of which you may see in his Gildas Salvianus Ans I have here some help to understand Christ They that kill you shall think they do God service What Duty so great that some will not say is a Crime that deserveth death The Agreement accused is printed in a Book called Christian Concord The terms of it were that Episcopal and Presbyterians and Independents should agree in the practice of so much of the Ministry and Church-Discipline as they were agreed about in their Judgments or Principles and be left in the rest to their several Liberties Was this a Crime Is an Attempt of voluntary Concord and Peace the poyson of Asps Or is not the poyson of Asps under their lips that are haters of it and have not known the way of peace I have had thanks from Helvetia and other parts of Germany for that Gildas Salvianus and that pacificatory Attempt which is to these Men the poyson of Asps § 77. Accus LX. But there was then a Petition that scandalous and insufficient Ministers might not administer Sacraments on which the Loyal Party were restrained Ans And is it a Crime to be against a scandalous insufficient Ministry and a Duty to be for them that we may be the best Church in the World Reader the truth is this There was a Petition by some that those of what side soever for King or Parliament whose Insufficiency and Scandal was so great as to render them utterly uncapable of Ministry might not be allowed it And I petitioned withal that no Man might be cast out or restrained for being for the King against the Parliament and their Cause Is this so poysonous Doth not this Man more disgrace his Church than me that taketh it for the poyson of Asps to cast out only the uncapable and keep in the rest § 78. Accus LXI He accuseth me for telling the World truly how the English Prelates had encouraged the Enemies of serious Godliness in the Land and at how much cheaper a rate a Man might be a Swearer a Drunkard a Whoremonger an open Scorner of Godliness than to fast and pray or to hear a Conformist in the next Parish when there was no Sermon at home Ans What doth the Man mean by rendering this odious If he mean that all this was well done and that as in Armies he hath most Honour that killeth most so in their Church he is the best Man that doth most against serious Piety this is to profess themselves the Devil's Militia But if he mean that I mis-report the matter of fact and this was not so he may as well persuade us that we lived not then in England or that we knew not our Neighbours or that Men spake not English Can we chuse but know that which every Corner in all the Land did speak Doth he say a word to confute all this And it was a meritorious work to silence and imprison with Rogues all that obeyed not their ungodly Canons but it must go for a heinous Crime to feel their Malice or blame their Cruelty § 79. Accus LXII Pag 66 c. He accuseth me as accusing King Charles the First of too much favouring the Grotian design of Union with the Papists But 1. Doth he say a word so much as to deny his Letter to the Pope to venture Crown and all for Union 2. Or to deny his sworn Articles for Toleration mentioned in Rushworth's Collections and others 3. Or to deny the Papists Murders in Ireland and their power in the King's Armies in England 4. Or that he set up such Bishops as Laud Bromhall and others But if accusing these Men be my Crime when I would have saved England from them Reader peruse but a full Treatise which I have long ago written and hope to get speedily printed with the very words of Laud Bromhall Gunning Saywell Thorndike Heylin Pierce Parker Sparrow Beveridge c. for our Subjection to a Foreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is sworn against and then judge whether I accuse them wrongfully Must we be brought under Aristocratical Popery or French Church-Government merely by saying It is not Popery And must the Land so tamely be perjured and enslaved § 80 Accus LXIII Pag. 67. He hath been made use of as one of the most keen and Catholick Tools that ever the Papacy did employ Ans 1. 'T is an unrighteous Honour to Popery to call it Catholick while they are a Sect contrary to Catholicism But why then do not these Men love and cherish me while they are striving for a Foreign Jurisdiction if I be so much for them § 81. Accus LXIV Pag. 68. That I am for a mixture of Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent Government Ans And what harm is that I am for that which is good in all and for the Faults of none But these Men must needs be faultless and curse all others that they may bless themselves But am I Episcopal and yet the greatest Enemy to Episcopacy Are they for Episcopacy that put down hundreds to set up one in their stead § 82. Accus LXV The next Accusation is That my five Disputations of Church-Government came out to keep out Episcopacy and justifie our Ordination Ans 1. It was to bring in a threefold Episcopacy which our Diocesans kept out viz. Episcopos Gregis Episcopos Praesides and Archbishops over these 2. Chancellor Hide and Morley produced that Book before the King Lords and Bishops at the great Meeting at Worcester-house and Morley said No Man hath written better
Government and defame their Laws as if they were a strange Parliament that made so many Laws that a Man fearing God cannot obey Ans 1. And must we go on such suppositions that our Law-makers must not be said to make sinful Laws Where and in what Ages doth this Principle hold Not in Jeroboam's days nor in Ahab's nor in any Age after Christ till Constantine and Athanasius had exceptions then Not in the days of Constantius or of Valens no nor of Theodosius the Second Zeno Basiliscus Anastasius Philippicus or of few Christian Emperors Nor now in Rome Spain France Poland Portugal Germany c. The Lutherans under Calvinists believe it not nor the Calvinists under Lutherans nor the Prelatists under Presbyterians Nor those English Bishops and Clergy that now here refuse the Oath to King William imposed by the Parliament If this Man think that we have not fully shamed that worse than brutish conceit that we must not plead Conscience against Mens Laws though as good men as any Rulers we know he should have said more to confute us than that we fear not God because we fear him more than man This easie Disputant confuteth my many Volumes of Reasons against obeying their Impositions of Oaths Subscriptions Professions and Practices by telling men that I may be ashamed to call them Reasons A short and cheap Confutation Cannot the French say as much for Dragooning the Protestants And that the Laws were made upon deliberation and for our peace That is for the peaceable success of Silencers and Persecutors of Gods Faithful Servants And were not the Six Articles in Henry the Eighth's days made on deliberation And the French Edicts against the Protestants He referreth us to a Book of Church Unity written in Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet And I refer him to my Answer to that Book which was never answered and confuteth much of this Mans charge As to his talk That Men of Blood may be no Bishops I answer 1. I never drew a drop of Blood 2. I refused their Bishoprick 3. I preach'd for the defence of Kings and the Nation against Men of Blood Irish Papists and Delinquents 4. Were not the Military Clergy Men of Blood who complain of the Parliament for ejecting them for promoting the War against them Was not Dr. Mew now Bishop of Winchester Dr. Crofts now Bishop of Hereford Dr. Compton now Bishop of London Men of War when they went as Chaplains or Officers in the Kings Army and yet are Bishops § 102. Page 127. He nameth The Act for Uniformity As if naming it were a Defence of it for Silencing 2000 Ministers for not Lying and Sinning He nameth Renouncing the Covenant And is that a Justification against Perjury to them that own not the Imposing or Taking it nor obligation to keep any but the Moral Necessary parts He nameth the Declaration that it is not lawful on any pretence whatsoever to take Arms against any Commissioned by the King And is that a Confutation of Bilson and other Bishops and doth he not make his own Church and Party now perjured who have taken Arms against King James or those that were Commissioned by him and have set up another King If King James Commission a French and Irish Army to Invade England are all bound not to resist them § 103. Accus LXXXV He chargeth me with a Scandalum Magnatum for saying The Parliament was drawn by the Clergy to make those Acts. Ans And did any Man doubt of it that then lived with his Reason awake If it were not good why did they do it and why do you justifie it If it were good why is it a Scandalum magnatum to say you did it Is your Merit and Praise a Scandal § 104. Accus LXXXVI Because I tell how Hypocrites tempted Christ about paying Tribute to Caesar he feigneth that I make Christ do what he never intended or really approved and complied with Hypocrites and saith It is near to Blasphemy Ans I find too little in this Accuser that is near to Truth How easily by such Fictions may he turn much of the Gospel into Blasphemies § 105. Accus LXXXVII He addeth And who can wonder if he that speaks thus of the Master should not stick to revile his Disciples making the Conformists so many deliberately perjured Persons Ans 1. Must we not refuse Perjury for fear of your supposition that we accuse you We professed not to accuse you but to prove that it would be Perjury in us 2. But if you are guilty is not that more to be feared by you than our saying why we dare not imitate you § 106. Accus LXXXVIII He addeth And which is Mendacium magnum that about Six Thousand Persons that had gone the other way did declare their Assent and Consent to a Book which they never saw Ans Oh what a mortal Wound do this sort of Men give to the Credit of all History of the proud factious worldly part of the Clergy when this Man dare call this a Lye in the same Land and Age in which 1. It is known that there are near Ten Thousand Parish-Churches besides Hundreds of Chapels and Curacies and Chaplains 2. The Land knoweth that these were in possession 1662. 3. The Land knoweth that the Generality of them that were in 1659. conformed to the Directory or else the Prelatists belye the Usurpers that they say turned out all that did not 4. The Land knoweth or at least it is here commonly known that the new altered Liturgy came not out of the Press till about Bartholomew Even 5. The Land knoweth that all were by the Law to be turned out that declared not Assent and Consent to all things contained in and prescribed by that Book by Bartholomew Day 6. The World knoweth that all over England the Books could not be sent down and seen in a Day 7. The Conformists confess the Matter of fact save to a few in London that could go to the Press 8. The Land knoweth that it was but about Two Thousand that conformed not Must there not be then far more than Six Thousand that declared Assent c. to the Book that they saw not Some of them now say that in Universities and the Chaplains and all set together there are about Thirty Thousand Ordained Ministers in England And what are Two Thousand to such a Clergy § 107. Accus LXXXIX He noteth that I say that before I was turned out I could keep no Man-Servant nor any but one old Woman in a hired Room and yet in St. Martin ' s I could build a Tabernacle for Worship From whence he gathereth 1. That I hoped to gain the Centurion's Reputation among the Factious 2. That I had got well by Nonconformity that could lay out so much Ans Is there any thing pious or charitable that these Men cannot turn into odious Crimes by malignant Calumny 1. Was it Faction to offer to teach freely in a Parish where were Fifty Thousand that could not come
would have Parents disabled to chuse Schools and Tutors for their own Children But whether such Men as this were not far more against Dr. Stillingfleet's Concessions than I was let my old Friend Mr. Samuel Thomas now of Chard his Invective against Dr. Whitby and Dr. Stillingfleet be Judge and Dr. Stillingfleet himself who seemed once to yield to Terms of Concord which many of us offered to him and others And judge of the peaceableness of that Tribe of Clergy-men by the University of Oxford's burning Dr. Whitby a Conformist's excellent Book called The Reconciler and his being forced to seem to retract it § 118. Accus C. His Intimations pag. 156. of my desiring to be a Parish Bishop and also motioned with Dr. Owen to be an Archbishop are meerly impudent When I never was either parish-Parish-Bishop or sought it at least since cast out of the Ministry 1662. nor so much as the Pastor of any Church and have refused a Diocesan Bishoprick many Years before any one now in England was a Bishop How can a Man be n nocent before such impudent Accusers and Judges § 119. Accus CI. As to his Accusation of my Self-Contradictions and L'Estrange ' s Proof I think no distinguishing Reader will need a Confutation of so false a Charge which confused Heads do feign that understand not things that differ And for his Charge against my Third Plea for Peace about the Principles of Government I only refer the Reader to the Book § 120. I have not thought his mere general Clamours worthy of a particular Answer lest I tire the Reader as I have tired my self with so unsavoury an Employment But I will here tell the Reader how I that these eight Years have never thought this Accuser worthy of an Answer have been brought to change my Judgment and to be at this unpleasing Labour when other Thoughts are more suitable to my Condition I. A Letter from some ancient Conformist that calls himself Cantianus De Minimis of my Age Seventy five so earnestly calleth me to Repentance and Retractation before I dye referring me to this Book for the notice of my Sins that I thought not meet to resist his Importunity II. I read so much of the horrid Reports of many Papists of the Crimes and Deaths of Luther Zuinglius Oecolampadius Calvin Bucer Phagius Beza and many such and how confidently they are commonly believed in the Roman Church and how greatly it hardeneth many against the Reformation that I was loth to contribute to their Deceit And I find that the same Sect accuseth the Generality of Dissenters that do but affirm that there is AND THING in their Books of Liturgy or Articles or in their Ceremonies or Ordination or in their Government by Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons AND THE REST that bear Office therein unlawful or repugnant to the Word of God who are my Accusers and cry as Morley Ex uno disce omnes and when they have render'd me as one of the worst on Earth they make the rest as bad when I take them to be for the most the best Ministry that I ever knew And no wonder that their Writers and Preachers thus report them when their Canons ipso facto excommunicate them unheard not excepting Lords Knights Ministers or any And Lying is now grown so common a Sin in England confessed by all that few know what Reports to believe or to reject So that to betray my own Cause to these Accusers and Canoneers is to betray the Innocency of many Thousands III. I have long thought it my duty to call this sinful divided selftearing bleeding Nation to Repentance in a Treatise called REPENT O ENGLAND Bradford's dying Words though Experience telleth me that such Men as this will take the Motion for a greater Crime than all the Sins that I call them to repent of so odious a thing is Repentance and Confession to the Proud and Impenitent And before I call others to Repentance several sorts I take it for my first Duty to exercise my own To which end I unfeignedly resolved to confess what I could by any means find to be my Sin and being referred to this Accuser for my Conviction I found the Falshoods and Calumnies so many and so gross that I took it for my Duty not to seem by Silence to give Credit to them but having confessed what Sins I found to do my part to save others from the Temptations to Hatred and Lying and Persecution which such Men lay before them IV. And having laboured most of Forty two Years by Writing to profit Posterity as well as the present Age and written above a hundred and twenty Books to that End and God having prospered them far beyond my expectation in Germany and other Foreign Lands as well as in Britain I thought it Treachery to suffer the Devil and his Agents to blast them all with those that know me not without any Contradiction and Confutation of the Slanderers Sure if they were worth so many Years Labour 't is worth a little to take them out of the Fire or Water where Diabolism casteth them Which I am the more moved to because while I have the Thanks of Thousands that have read them common Fame and Mr. Cantianus that called me to this Work and others do tell me that the Generality now known by the Name of Tories or malignant Haters of serious Piety in England especially among the Universities and Clergy do so much hate my Name that they will read no Book which they see my Name prefixed to unless as the Adversary against whom it is written And as I have small hope of curing that malignant Prejudice which is more the hurt of the Envious than of me so I must not by Sloth or Silence contribute to its Increse and Men's Guilt § 121. I will conclude with these three farther Notices to all Readers for the true understanding of all these Controversies with the Men who so implacably hate and accuse me I. That they grosly cheat their sequacious Believers with this great Lye that I am against Bishops whereas I am for a Divine Right of three sorts of Bishops two by direct Institution and the other by Consequence viz. I. General Bishops call them Archbishops or Diocesans or Apostolicks or Evangelists that in every Nation are over many Churches II. Episcopi Gregis or Ruling Pastors of single Churches which are all true Presbyters III. Episcopi Praesides or Pro-estotes which are the Presidents of the Presbyters in particular Churches And that I am of the Judgment of Grotius De Imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra and highly value Bishop Overall's Convocation-Book in the main but abhor all Foreign Jurisdiction yet desiring the most extensive Foreign Communion § 122. II. That they grosly cheat their Believers in telling them that I am against Forms and Liturgies when they know that we offered to use theirs upon the Amendment of some Faults and severe cruel Impositions and by their Demand
And is governing a Family or my self governing all the World And is governing a Parish-Church under an Archbishop the governing of many hundred Parishes that are no Churches but parts of a Diocesan Church I mentioned Mr. Stanley Gower's words to me of Archbishop Usher that he told him that a Bishop and Presbyter differed not Ordine but Gradu and that he took his Primacy and Lordship not as his Church-Office but as a Collateral Dignity given by the King and one would think no Man that believes the Scripture should think otherwise But this Accuser saith that he will not believe Mr. Stanley as he calls him or me But must we therefore both disbelieve our own Ears For he thinks the Bishop should then act against his Judgment and Conscience What Act may that be And he citeth Dr. Bernard's Testimony as against my Report whereas the very cited words of Dr. Bernard say the same that a Bishop hath Superiority in Degree above a Presbyter And the Accuser putteth these words that are against himself in Capital Letters it seemeth not knowing what he did or what Ordo and Gradus signifie § 87. Accus LXX He saith I injuriously mention King Charles the First his Answer to the Nineteen Propositions because he there gave away his Right for Peace Ans I mention only his own description of the Constitution by King Lords and Commons and their several Powers And would he persuade Men that the King falsly described it or that his Historical Description was his Guilt And he falsly saith that I am a Dissenter from Bishop Usher ' s Judgment about the King's Tribute in Ireland His Uuntruths come so thick that I am weary of naming them As pag. 88. 1. That I was for the Extirpation of Episcopacy Root and Branch 2. And yet that the Archbishop's Model which we desired preserveth that Species of Diocesan Bishops which Mr. B. would destroy Would we destroy that which we desired 3. And That under which Mr. B. maketh Christ's true Discipline unpraecticable Ans Palpably false For therefore we desired it because it maketh that Discipline practicable by the help of Parish-Pastors which without them is impossible 4. That no Government will please me as long as the Liturgy is established When he should have said that professing Assent and Consent to all in it will not please me till I can do it without lying 5. He saith Conformity is to me impossible as long as any of those which I account heinous Sins are retained Ans Yes if Lying be Conformity to me one Lye is unlawful 6. That I was always opposing the Party that was uppermost Ans If that were true it seemeth I sought not for Preferment 7. That I would have the new Liturgy or nothing Ans And yet we offered to use the Old if amended so we might not profess it less liable to Exception than our Translation of the Scripture it self and left it to the Bishops to joyn so much of the Additional Forms as they saw good but the Book was never debated by them § 88. Accus LXXI I have heard it credibly reported by some Reverend Persons there present that that Treaty might have had the desired effect of Concord had not Mr. B. so obstinately resisted Ans That is either those Reverend Persons would have amended their Impositions if I had not Petitioned them to do it and told them the necessity of it or else that all the rest of the Commissioned Nonconformists would have Conformed to all the old faults which they protested that they judged sinful and to all the worse that should after be added if I had not been against it These Reverend Persons were as Credible and Reverend as you are as our present state in England tells us Then he tells us what the Bishop of Chester told Mr. Walton Morley's Steward what Bishop Sanderson said against me which is half false Bishop Sanderson taking the Chair I being by a multitude of Arguments from the words of the Text proving against Dr. Gunning that Paul in Rom. 14 and 15. requireth us to receive to Communion such as differed in as great matters as those do that scruple kneeling at the Sacrament which I told them I scruple not I once told Dr. Gunning that he did petere principium in a case wherein Dr. Sanderson said that word was not in the common Logical sence applicable to his words And the old Learned peevish Man added that I was perverse for saying it And this was the heavy Charge And he addeth what Bishop Morley said of my eagerness to dispute when my Prethren were unwilling Ans Bishop Morley's words of me were much what as credible as yours or Roger Le Strange's Why then did they consent if they were unwilling And if neither Reasoning nor Petitioning them might be used what were we Commissioned for The truth is many of our Brethren when the Bishops told them they would say nothing to us till we brought in writing to them all the faults that we found with the Liturgy and also all the Forms in terminis which we desired as amendments or additions did say It was not this but an amicable consulation that the King Commissioned us for and seeing that this was a meer fraudulent pretence for our frustration they motioned our departing as being denied all that we were called to But I told them that the Bishops would report behind our Backs where we could not be heard that we had nothing to say against their Impositions nor any other terms to offer thinking we would never have agreed on any other Therefore I satisfied divers of them that though we were prejudged it were better let the World see our Cause stated in Writing than leave them to accuse us so when we should never have leave to declare the truth and deny their misreports § 89. Accus LXXII Page 91. He saith His Petition for Peace then was like his Pleas now meer Threatening and Reviling Take heed saith he how you drive Men by penalties on that which they judge would tend to their Damnation The denial of these Desires would renew all our Troubles Ans And indeed is both Damnation and the renewing of our Troubles and Divisions a matter of jest or so indifferent as that it is threatening and reviling humbly to petition Drs to take heed of them They rejected this Reviling Petition And hath England or Hell gained more by their rejection Doth it not tend to Mens Damnation to Swear Subscribe Profess or Practise all those words and things as good and lawful which they think sinful and the Imposers only call Indifferent Have not the Divisions been these thirty years a trouble to this Land which these Men might have prevented and cost them nothing He addeth They tell the Bishops of unmerciful Impositions Ans And is it Mercy to drive Men to Sin and Hell or a crime to beg for so cheap Mercy for the Souls of Men even of Bishops He that doubteth is condemned
if he eat saith Paul England yet feeleth such Mens Mercy There is I think but one of their Commissioners now surviving nor on our side but few even Dr. Tho. Pierce Dean of Salisbury And he moved for leave by Disputation there to prove that it is a work of mercy to all that think it unlawful to receive the Sacrament kneeling to deny it them and the Communion of the Church though the prohibition of all kneeling in Adoration on any Lords Day was one of the Ancient Ceremonies of the Church setled also at the great Council of Nice and continued near a Thousand years saith Dr. Heylin But Morley had the wit to take him off that dispute § 90. Accus LXXIII Page 96. After other Harangues he alledgeth false Causes of my refusing a Bishoprick I satisfied the Lord Chancellor Hide by a Letter with truer Reasons too long here to repeat § 91. Accus LXXIV He next accuseth my Moral Prognostication Ans Let it answer for it self to the Impartial Reader § 92. Accus LXXV He threateneth me for blaming the Laws Ans And do not many Bishops now blame the Laws If Laws be made engines of Schism and Persecution let them justifie them that can and that love them David saith Shall the Throne of Iniquity have Fellowship with thee that frameth mischief by a Law How many German Divines blamed the Interim imposed by the Emperor as for Peace § 93. Accus LXXVI He next reciteth Bishop Morley's Accusations in his printed Letter Ans Which I have proved to abound with falshood in a full Answer which for want of printing hath lain by me these six and twenty years Mr. Baldwin is yet living who was present when he forbad me to preach And Dr. William Bates is yet living who joyned with me in the Savoy Disputation which he misreported § 94. Accus LXXVII He accuseth my Book called The Cure of Church Divisions and yet saith It is the only Book that Mr. B. hath written that hath any thing of moderation Ans Must the World have a confutation of so gross a Liar after the visibility of above Sixscore Books that are an evidence against him and after the testimony that the Lord Chancellor Hide and Morley gave of me producing one of these Books before the King Lords and Drs. at Worcester-House If I understand them above a hundred Books have been written by me with a special design for Moderation Unity and Concord § 95. Accus LXXVIII Page 101. He is not ashamed to be a procurer of the Indulgence for Popery 1. Because I said I would have Papists used like Men. 2. I would have no Man put to death for being a Priest 3. I would have no writ de Excommunicato capiendo or any Law to compel them to our Communion and Sacraments Ans This Man is for Moderation Do you think he or I is more for Popery or hath written more against it Would he not have them used like Men nor suffered to live And must they be cast out of a Church that they were never in It seems he would receive them all to his Sacramental Communion if they will but chuse his Church before the Goal § 96. Accus LXXIX Page 102. Because I hold that If a Bishop or their Church Party would lay us in Goal for our Duty to God it is lawful to accept deliverance from a Papist that is in Authority He feigneth that If they will not come to us I would go to them And if a Protestant did Hang this Man himself would he take it for Popery or Sin to consent that a Papist cut the Rope You see what kind of crimes we Nonconformists are guilty of A willingness to live out of Goals against the Churchmens will Nay it is yet more our Crime is that we will not damn our selves by Subscribing or Swearing falsly and breaking our Ordination Vow by giving over our Ministry The proof that these Men are against Popery is that they would have the Nonconformists die in Goals and have no Papist seek to deliver them § 97. Accus LXXX Accusing my Book against Sacrilegious Desertion of the Ministry he asketh me Why I Baptize not nor Administer the Lords Supper and so seem to desert Christianity Ans Because I was called to preach and not to Baptize and Administer the Lords Supper by the Necessities of the people where I lived There were in Martins Parish about 60000 more than could come into the Church to hear But they had Curates enough to Baptize and they were compelled to the Lords Supper or might have come and neither Minister nor People desired my help And if these Men believe it not I do That we may and must preach to many that yet are not capable of Sacraments And to many whose Pastors and Judges herein we are not Shall every Minister that preacheth occasionally for him presume to Congregate his Flock and give them the Sacrament Or is he displeased that I gathered not a separated Church § 98. Accus LXXXI As to his Accusation of the Book I leave it to the Readers Judgment that will impartially peruse it But I am not yet convinced by him that it is a Crime to name the heinous sins that have torn this poor Nation and no Crime to commit them Most of his Accusations are that I tell them of their sin and perswade them to repent § 99. Accus LXXXII He accuseth my Plea for Peace and my Book called The true and only way of the Churches Concord as being utterly against Peace Ans Read them and Judge § 100. Accus LXXXIII He accuseth my History of turbulent Bishops and Councils and their Anathematizing as if it were false and almost all was done by Presbyters Ans Let him that hath read it and the proof I cite freely judge who is the falsifier As to his talk about Nestorius had he read David Derodon and what I have said in my Reply to the Defender of Dr. Stillingfleet Mr. Morrice it might have acquainted him with more than he seemeth to know about the Nestorians Eutychians and Monothelites As to his talk against the Arrians I am as much against them as he but not so much against Peace Dr. Henry More a Learned Conformist saith that those after the Council of Nice were to be numbered with the Catholicks and not with the Antichristians Though a Presbyter began their Sect it was Bishops and Persecuting Emperors that upheld it As to my words of many Writers mistakes therein before the Council of Nice he may find them with abundance more in Petavius de Trinitate As to his words of the Controversies and Councils de tribus Capitulis he that excuses the said Councils and Bishops as faultless as to all the doleful Divisions that followed hath not a due love to peace and prudence The same I say of the Monothelites § 101. Accus LXXXIV His great Accusation Page 126. is that If I had any fear of God or reverence of Man I would not reproach the