because as he saith in the same place a full and free Parliament had owned him thereby implying That a maimed and a manacled House of Commons without King and Lords and notwithstanding the violent expulsion of the secluded Members were a full and free Parliament and consequently that if such a Parliament should have taken Arms against the King he must have sided with them Yea though they had been never so much in fault and though they had been the beginners of the War for he tells us in plain and express terms VIII That if he had known the Parliament had been the beginners of the War and in most fault yet the ruine of the Trustees and Representatives and so of all the security of the Nation being a punishment greater than any faults of theirs against the King could deserve from him their faults could not disoblige him meaning himself from defending the Commonwealth Pag. 480. And that he might doe this lawfully and with a good Conscience he seems to be so confident that in his Preface he makes as it were a challenge saying that if any man can prove that the King was the highest power in the time of those Divisions and that he had power to make that war which he made he will offer his head to Justice as a Rebel As if in those times of Division the King had lost or forfeited his Sovereignty and the Parliament had not onely a part but the whole Sovereignty in themselves IX Finally Mr. Baxter tells us Pag. 486. That having often searched into his heart whether he did lawfully engage into the War or not and whether he did lawfully encourage so many thousands to it he tells us I say that the issue of all his search was but this That he cannot yet see that he was mistaken in the main cause nor dares he repent of it nor forbear doing the same if it were to doe again in the same state of things He tells us indeed in the same place that if he could be convinc'd he had sinned in this matter he would as gladly make a publick recantation as he would eat or drink which seeing he hath not yet done it is evident he is still of the same mind and consequently would upon the same occasion doe the same things viz. fight and encourage as many thousands as he could to fight against the King for any thing that calls it self or which he is pleased to call a full and free Parliament as likewise that he would own and submit to any Vsurper of the Sovereignty as set up by God although he came to it by the murther of his Master and by trampling upon the Parliament Lastly That he would hinder as much as possibly he could the restoring of the rightfull Heir unto the Crown And now whether a man of this Judgment and of these affections ought to be permitted to Preach or no Let any but himself judge THE Bishop of Winchester's VINDICATION Of Himself from divers False Scandalous and Injurious Reflexions made upon him by Mr. RICHARD BAXTER in several of his Writings As likewise A Vindication of the Rights and Sovereignty of all Kings properly so called and particularly of the King of England's being sole Soveraign over all persons in all capacities within his own Realms and Dominions from What Mr. Baxter to justifie the Rebellion against our late King of ever blessed Memory hath in many of his False Factious and Seditious Aphorisms asserted to the contrary Together with A Proposal of a more Legal and more effectual Expedient for the keeping Popery and Arbitrary Government for ever out of England than the passing of an Act to exclude the right Heir from Succession to the Crown either now or hereafter is will be or can be LONDON Printed for Joanna Brome 1683. SECTION I. Mr. BAXTER'S Assertion at the Savoy undeniably proved upon him and consequently his Charge against the Bishop of many mistakes in his Letter in matter of fact and of his Gross mistaking charge viz. Concerning the judgment of the Nonconformists of things sinfull by Accident cleared The Bishop of Winchester's Vindication of himself from divers false scandalous and injurious Reflexions made upon him by Mr. Richard Baxter in several of his Writings CHAP. I. Mr. Baxter 's Charge against the Bishop gathered out of several Writings of his and set down in his own words MAster Baxter in his Preface to his Book called by him The true and onely way of Concord of all Christian Churches reflecting upon a Letter of mine Written and Printed near 20 years before saith There are so many Mistakes in matter of fact in it that although he had made an Answer to it yet he cast it aside for Peace sake believing that the opening of the aforesaid so many mistakes would not easily be born the rather because as he says in the words immediately foregoing he knew he had greatly incurr'd both our displeasures already to wit the Bishop of Ely's and mine for what he had said and done against our Way and that as to my particular the aforesaid Letter of mine was a proof of it Again in the same Preface to the same Book he saith You meaning the Bishop of Ely and Me to whom he addresseth that Preface have above all men I know effectually helped to bring us meaning himself and the rest of his Party under These are Mr. Baxter's complements when he speaks to me and therefore I am not to expect more Civility from him when he speaks of me as he doth in divers of his Books which I have seen and perhaps in many more of them which I have not seen for I hope all men are not bound to reade all Mr. Baxter writes But in those I have seen when he speaks of me it is neither Honoris nor Charitatis gratiâ but to reproach me either directly and in express terms or covertly and by the bye as when in his Preface to the second part of his Plea for Nonconformists he saith It was Bishop Morley 's gross mistaking charge that made him write one whole Tract or Treatise namely That of things sinfull per Accidens or by accident Again in the former part of the aforesaid Plea for Nonconformists he saith Bishop Morley advised him to reade Bilson and Hooker in whom saith he I found more than he approv'd for resisting and restraining of Kings Again in another of his printed Papers I mean that Paper which he would have taken for a Recantation of some of those Political Aphorisms I had laid to his charge though he do not name me yet he points directly at me as if I had accused him for asserting That all humane powers are limited by God which to deny as he there insinuates I do and elsewhere plainly tells me I do is to defy Deity and Humanity and consequently makes me a defyer of them both Lastly with the same ingenuity and candour he aims at me more obscurely and more obliquely indeed
were some other reasons besides what are alledged by him that made him forbear the Printing of it for whereas he saith It was for peace or for peace sake that he laid it aside or forbore printing it because having already that is before my publishing of the aforesaid Letter greatly incurr'd the Bishop of Ely 's displeasure and mine by what he had said and done against our Way he believed the opening of so many mistakes in matter of fact as were in that Letter would not easily be born and for that reason he laid aside that Answer of his to that Letter of mine I cannot believe that this was the onely or indeed any reason at all of his so doing I mean it was neither his love of peace in general nor his fear of giving me any farther provocation in particular that made him suppress that pretended Answer For first if he were of so peaceable a disposition or so great a lover of Peace as he would seem to be he would not have spent so much of his time in writing so many Volumes to keep up and increase Schism and Separation in the Church together with Faction and Sedition in the State as he hath done Which might be made to appear yet farther from the manner as well as the matter of his writing which is so Magisterial and with that contempt undervaluing and vilifying of those he writes against or that write against him and sometimes with such exasperating and provoking language as very ill becomes him that pretends to be a Peace maker And perhaps in such a style was that Answer of his written if he writ any answer at all to the aforesaid Letter of mine and then perhaps too some wiser Friend of his might advise him to forbear printing of it at least at that time namely at the King 's first coming in against one that came in a little before him and was sent by him and had been all the while the King was abroad in Exile with him and for him and had newly received some more than ordinary marks of his Majestie 's favour from him These or the like considerations to these being suggested to him might peradventure at that time prevail with him rather wholly to suppress or at least to defer the printing of that Answer of his if there were any such answer than thereby so unseasonably to provoke me more whose displeasure he saith he had greatly incurr'd by what he had said and done against the Bishop of Ely 's way and mine as if the Bishop of Ely and I had a Way of our own wherein no body walked but our selves I would therefore fain know what he calls the Bishop of Ely's way and mine and for his speaking and acting against which he had so greatly incurr'd that Bishop's and my displeasure Is it a new or a newly found out Way or a way of our own devising as Mr. Baxter's way is of his a way that never any walked in before nor none but himself doth walk in yet nor will I believe ever walk in hereafter For it is neither Episcopal nor Presbyterian nor wholly Independent nor any of any other denomination either ancient or modern that I ever heard of but partly of all and partly of none of them But Ours I mean the Way which the Bishop of Ely and I do walk in is no By-path not a Way of Sufferance or Toleration onely such as Mr. Baxter and all the Nonconformists plead for but the Good old way the King 's the Church of England's way nay the Catholick Churches High-way the Way wherein all the Primitive Fathers Saints and Martyrs and all the Orthodox Christians in all Ages untill the last before this of ours have gone before us I mean the Government of the Church by Bishops teaching all and nothing else but what was taught by Christ and his Apostles in point of Doctrine and commanding nothing which God has forbidden nor forbidding any thing which God has commanded in the outward Administration of God's publick Worship and Service but making use of that liberty and power that God hath left to his Church in order to Decency and Uniformity and Edification and consequently in order to that Unity and Concord which Mr. Baxter doth so much pretend to desire and plead for This and no other but this is the Way of the Church of England and this and no other but this is the Way which the Bishop of Ely and I do walk in and would have all men else that are born within the pale of our Church to walk in also And therefore as we cannot chuse but be sorry for those that are led or kept out of this way both for their own and the Churches sake so we cannot chuse but be displeased too with those that not onely refuse to walk in it themselves but endeavour and doe what they can to draw others from it and to keep those that are gone out of it from returning again into it by making and preaching and printing Pleas and Apologies for Nonconformists which can have no other end consequentially at least if not intentionally but to confirm them in their Non-conformity And surely he that would not forbear to doe this and to doe it over and over again being so prejudicial and destructive to the peace of the Church and State as We have experimentally found it to be He I say that would not forbear to doe this for the publick peace sake nor for fear of offending the King and the Parliament the makers of those Laws against those things and persons he so loudly and so boldly pleads for did not in all probability for peace sake and much less for fear of displeasing Bishop Morley forbear to publish what he had written in answer to that Letter of the Bishop's which would have been much less provoking by specifying though not proving some of those many mistakes he now chargeth him with without naming any of them and consequently as much as in him lies imposing upon his Readers especially such as are ill-affected to Bishops an implicit belief that there are indeed many very many mistakes in the Bishop's Letter and perhaps gross ones too and such as Mr. Baxter could have named and proved also but being a man of so peaceable so patient and so meek a disposition as he is he did for peace sake and because he would not provoke the Bishop to be more displeased with him than he was already forbear to doe so Credat Judoeus non Ego Believe it who list for me as he faith And therefore he must give me leave to think upon better considerations that he never writ any Answer at all to my Letter So that all the Reply I need to make to this general unattested and unproved Charge of Mr. Baxter is to oppose my bare Negative to his bare Affirmative for Affirmantis est probare He who affirms a thing ought to prove it which
Law of in their Opinions if he please and if it be so in his opinion also So that the King is finally the only and sole Judge whether what is agreed on and propos'd by them as fit to be made a Law be fit to be made a Law or no and if he thinks it fit to be so it is he and none but he that by his Le veult makes it Law So that to conclude this Point the thing proposed whether by King or either of the Houses is the Matter or material cause ex quâ or out of which the Law is made the Efficient or the causa à qua whereby or by whom the matter of the Law is made to be a Law is the King and the King only the Formal cause or the cause per quam res est quod est by which a thing is that thing which it is or that whereby it actually becomes and is effectually made to be a Law is the Kings declaration of his Assent or Will to make it a Law by those Nomothetical or Legislative words pronounced by himself or in his Name Le Roy le veult the Final cause or the cause propter quam Res est for which or for the sake whereof a thing is is Bonum Publicum the Publick good So that the consent of the two Houses to what is proposed to be made a Law is but that which we call Causa sine quâ non a Cause without which a thing is not to be which indeed is a condition rather than a cause but such a condition as is so necessary for disposing of the matter to receive the form that the efficient cannot introduce the form without it though he be not necessitated to introduce the form by it that is it is such a condition as without which the King cannot make what is so conditioned to be a Law though it do not necessitate him to make that to be a Law which is so conditioned so that as I said before it is but Causa sine quâ non only which is indeed no cause at all And this I think enough to prove the Legislative power to be in the King and in the King only and consequently that the Soveraignty upon this account is not divided betwixt the King and the two Houses either equally or unequally or that they have any part of it or share in it And yet upon this Supposition and upon this supposition only Mr. Baxter concludes first that the Kingdom of England is no Monarchy And Secondly that the Parliament's defending of their own part of the Soveraignty against the Kings Invasion of it was a just War and no Rebellion By the first of which Conclusions he seems to think that there is no Monarchy but where the Government is Despotical and Arbitrary ubi Arbitria Principum as Justin saith pro Legibus sunt where the Will of the Soveraign is the Law of the Subject And such indeed were the first especially the Eastern Monarchies of the World and yet not altogether so neither as appears from the 7th compared with the 15th Verse of the 6th Chapter of the Prophecy of Daniel for as in the former of those Verses we find there was a consultation by a Senate or Parliament of all the Presidents Governours Counsellors and Captains of the Kingdom of Persia for the making of a Decree or Law by the King which he did by his signing of it so in the latter of those Verses we find also that it was a standing Law of or amongst the Medes and Persians that no Decree or Statute made by the King with the advice of an Assembly of the chief Men of his Kingdom could be changed or repealed without the consent as I presume they meant of those that advised the King to make it So that there were or might be some fundamental unchangable Laws or Rules even in the most absolute and most despotical Monarchies for such was the Persian if ever there were any and yet you see there was a Law by which the King himself was obliged And probably the like was in the former or first Monarchy that of the Chaldeans or Assyrians also For as Darius here so Nebuchadnezzar there called all his Princes and great Men when he made a Decree that all that would not fall down and worship the Image he had set up should be cast into the fiery Furnace Dan. 3. 12 c. CHAP. VIII The English Monarchy asserted The King under no Judicatory Accountable to God alone That Laws are not to be made without the Peoples consent in Parliament was from the favour of the Kings THE Truth is that it is not the Governing by Law or without Law that makes the Government to be Monarchical but the governing of One over all whether his way of Governing be Arbitrary Despotical or Legal and Political Ours indeed is Legal and Political but for all that it is Monarchical because it is but One that governs us all He governs indeed and is obliged and hath obliged himself by his Coronation Oath to govern by Law but it was not his Coronation Oath that made him King for all our Kings are as much Kings before they take the Oath as they are after the taking of it Neither is it their governing by Law that gives them their Right nor their not governing by Law that can take away their Right they have unto their Crowns for then there must be some Judicatory above them to judge betwixt them and their People whether they have forfeited their Right or no and if they have to take the forfeiture of it And if there be such a Judicatory it is indeed no Monarchy though it may be called a Kingdom as that of Sparta was as I have proved at large already Mr. Baxter therefore if he will prove this Kingdom of ours to be no Monarchy he must prove there is some such standing Judicatory here amongst us as the Ephori were in Sparta If he saith the Parliament is such a Judicatory He must prove it to be a Court or Judicatory always in being as that of the Ephori was and as the Senate of Venice is and not such a one as must not meet but when the King calls them and must be gone when he bids them and such a Judicatory is our Parliament according to the Legal Constitution of this Kingdom And how such a King as ours can be liable or obnoxious to such a Judicatory as this which he may make or unmake as he pleaseth so as to be question'd or tried or judged or condemned by it as the Spartan Kings might be and were by the Ephori and as the Dukes of Venice may be and have been by their Senate let Mr. Baxter tell us if he can For my part I cannot imagine the Practicability of it I mean the practicability of it de jure as to right in any Case or upon any Provocation whatsoever
THE Bishop of Winchester's VINDICATION Of Himself from divers False Scandalous and Injurious Reflexions made upon him by Mr. RICHARD BAXTER in several of his Writings See the TABLE on the other side of the Leaf 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 16. London Printed by M. Flesher for Joanna Brome 1683. A TABLE OF THE Matters contained in this Book TWo Prefaces the One to Mr. Baxter the Other to the Reader The Bishop's Letter whilst he was Bishop of Worcester in Vindication of himself against Mr. Baxter's Calumny Page 1. The Attestation of Dr. Gunning and Dr. Pearson p. 27. Mr. Baxter's Theses of Government in general and his Doctrine of the Government of England in particular p. 29. These formerly Printed 1662. and now Reprinted Loyalty censured and his Way of Concord disapproved Mr. Baxter's pretended Recantation printed at the End of his Life of Faith 1670. and here Reprinted The Scotch Act Anent Religion and the Test made at Edenburgh 1681. For the Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter Reverend Sir IT is now more than four years since I being then elder than Barzillai was when he made the like request to King David did beg and obtain leave from the King my Gracious Lord and Master to quit my personal attendance on him at the Court in Council and to retire into the Countrey and to serve him there by praying for him without distraction or interruption remembring that old and wise saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And withall resolving having withdrawn my self from the encumbrance and noise of all Secular Affairs to mind nothing else besides the necessary care of mine own Diocese but the making my self ready by God's gracious assistance for a quiet and a comfortable Exit out of this evil and troublesome World The near approach whereof by reason of my great Age you do well to put me in mind of and I thank you for it though you do it in such a manner as seems to imply that you think me to have more need of such a Memento than one of my Age ought to have But then being my unfeigned well-willer as in the subscription of your Address to me you tell me you are why do you endeavour so unseasonably to withdraw me from so necessary a work especially supposing me to have so little time left for the doing of it which you do first by calling me to an Account for what I writ in a Letter above 18 years ago in which you say there are many mistakes in matter of fact which if I say nothing to the contrary will be taken for granted And secondly by your so earnestly pressing me as well as the Bishop of Ely to whom you make the aforesaid Address also to tell you what we think of that which you call the Onely true way of Concord of all Christian Churches and if upon Perusal thereof we are convinced it is so to see that Prejudice resist not but that we would acknowledge and confess it to be so But this you know cannot be done without reading over and considering and examining that whole Book of yours nor consequently by me without taking off my thoughts from minding so much as otherwise I might do that Vnum necessarium which you advise me to think on and which indeed is a much more proper employment for one so near the grave as I am than to engage or to be engaged to Apologize for mine own or to Censure other mens Writings Yet rather than to seem by my silence to acknowledge what you charge me with to be true which I cannot without being injurious to truth it self as well as to mine own reputation I will in the first place vindicate my self from having made so many or any one so gross a mistake in matter of fact as you say there are in my aforesaid Letter And then if I live long enough and have time enough to spare from better and more necessary employments I will tell you freely and plainly what I think of the Book you address to the Bishop of Ely and me I mean whether what you promise in the Title-page of it be performed in it In the mean time wishing you Saniorem mentem in saniori corpore I rest as much as the peace and safety of the Church will permit me to be Your Friend and Servant George Winton TO THE READER NExt to the carrying of a good Conscience towards God out of the World with him I think the next care every man ought to have is to leave a good name or memorial of himself in the World behind him especially if he be or have been a man of any Eminency of Place or Office or Order either in the Church or State because whatsoever aspersions of infamy are cast upon such mens persons do commonly in vulgar construction reflect on their Office and Order also and are often by the malignancy of the Authours of them intended to do so And therefore though we must if it be God's will it should be so be content as St. Paul was to run the race that is set before us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether we be well or ill spoken of yet we may and ought as St. Paul did and did it often doe what we can to vindicate our personal Credit and Reputation also especially when the Credit and Reputation of our Office or Order is concerned in it and more especially when we are ill spoken of publickly and in Print and by one that is a professed Adversary to the Church and Order whereof we are as well as to our selves most especially if he be the Head or one of the heads of a very numerous Party and therefore likely to be believed in what he says or writes of or against any one though never so false and injurious by many too credulous though well meaning men if he be not publickly contradicted and confuted This therefore being my very case in all the aforesaid particular circumstances of it I am constrained weak and feeble and old as I am drawing near the end of the 85th year of my age to enter into the Lists with this great Goliah or Champion of the Non-conformists not to defend our Church against him or them that is too great a work for my undertaking at this time of day my night being so near when no man can work and that work being done thanks be to God and done better already than I could have done it when I was much more able than I now am but onely to vindicate my self together with the honour of the Order whereof I am though I confess myself unworthy to be so from being guilty of such crimes and reproaches as it hath pleased Mr. Baxter to lay unto my charge which may perhaps after I am gone be believed to be true if they be not proved to be false before I go from hence and be no more seen And this I had done sooner had not some of my learned Friends and Brethren advised me
not to take notice of any thing Mr. Baxter had said of me because as they said his tongue is no slander nor his pen neither especially when he whets either the one or the other against Bishops and because I had already long ago both answered and prevented all the Objections he had then or hath since made against the truth of what I had said of him in relation to the Conference at the Savoy and of the justice of what I had done to him when I was Bishop of Worcester which is now above 20 years ago These perswasions and reasons together with the consideration of the little time I had left for better employment prevaild with me to lay aside some few Observations and Animadversions I had begun to make upon some particulars relating to me in some of Mr. Baxter's late Writings untill some other of my Learned and Reverend Brethren did very lately let me know that in their opinion I was obliged for the Churches sake as well as for mine own not to suffer it to be said hereafter that a Bishop of the Church of England having been told and told in Print that he was a Preacher of untruths and consequently a liar in the pulpit a slanderer of all the Non-conformists nay a blasphemer or a defier not of Humanity onely but of the Deity it self had nothing to say because he did say nothing to the contrary though I could have replied that I thought and some others of my Reverend Brethren thought also that the Letter I had written and printed so long ago with the Testimony annexed to it was enough and more than enough to vindicate me from the two first of those Reproaches and to prevent the last of them also yet because they have been again repeated and because there hath been since a Book written and written on purpose as Mr. Baxter the Authour of it saith to prove Bishop Morley to have been grosly mistaken in the relation he hath made in the aforesaid Letter of what was asserted by Mr. Baxter in the aforesaid Conference at the Savoy and because it was since the writing of that Letter also that he makes me a defier of Deity and Humanity because I am not of his opinion that all unlimited Governours are Tyrants and have no right to their Governments for these reasons I say and for the satisfaction of some of my friends rather than out of any inclination of mine own who love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be quiet and to doe mine own business as well as Mr. Baxter doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have an Oar in every man's Boat and thereby quieta movere to disquiet both himself and others I have adventured to launch forth once more though I have reason to fear I may not live to finish what I have begun not because I foresee any difficulty at all in the work I have to doe I mean the justifying of my self against any thing Mr. Baxter hath laid unto my charge but because humanely speaking there is so little of the sand in the Hour-glass of my life left which yet if it last but a month or two longer before it be run out with the continuance of that mediocrity of health of body and soundness of mind which by God's great goodness and mercy I do yet enjoy I hope it will by God's gracious assistance be long enough to make the impartial part of the world see that Mr. Baxter is not a man of that sincerity ingenuity or integrity as he would be thought and perhaps he is by those who have his person in admiration but one that will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to serve his turn for the present and to keep up his reputation with his party say or unsay affirm or deny any thing either in matter of right or of fact and juggle one proposition into the room of another as if it were identically the same or at least equipollent or equivalent to the other when there is nothing of likeness either in sound or of sense betwixt them Which that it may the more clearly appear and that the impartial Reader may the better judge both of what I have said of him and what he hath said of me and whether I or he have dealt more difingenuously or injuriously with one another I have caused all that I printed before to be reprinted viz. Mr. Baxter's own report of the Conference at the Savoy and my Letter in reply to that report of his together with the Collection of Aphorisms out of that Book which he calls his Holy Commonwealth and all these verbatim in the same words without any the least addition diminution or alteration onely I have added thereunto another Paper of Mr. Baxter's which I met with since and which he calls a Revocation or Recantation of his Book of the Holy Commonwealth or Political Aphorisms which whether it be indeed a Recantation or such a Recantation as it ought to have been or no we shall examine in due place But I have added I say that because it was printed by him since the printing of what I have now reprinted and because it is in that paper that Mr. Baxter hath been pleased to expose me as a Defier of Deity and Humanity This Advertisement I thought fit to premise and withall to desire the impartial Reader first to peruse what I have reprinted I mean Mr. Baxter's Narrative to his Kidderminster friends and my Letter in answer thereunto together with Mr. Baxter's Political Aphorisms annexed to that Letter and then to take notice of the time when that Narrative of his and Letter of mine were first printed which was 10 years before the publishing of his pretended Recantation of all or any of his aforesaid Aphorisms and lastly when he hath done this to proceed to the perusing of what upon another provocation of Mr. Baxter's I now write to justifie what I writ before and after mature deliberation to pronounce sentence for me or against me as he shall see cause Reader You are desired to take notice that this work was prepared designed and expected to have come forth before Easter-Term last THE Bishop of Worcester's LETTER To a Friend For VINDICATION of himself FROM Mr. BAXTER'S Calumny Together with The ATTESTATION of Dr. GVNNING and Dr. PEARSON AND A Collection of Mr. Baxter's Theses and Doctrine concerning Government Reprinted Tenet insanabile multos Scribendi Cacoethes LONDON Printed for Joanna Brome 1683. Mr. Baxter hath lately printed a Book called The Mischiefs of Self-Ignorance and the Benefits of Self-Acquaintance in the Address of which Book to his dearly beloved the Inhabitants of Kidderminster he hath this ensuing passage relating to the Bishop of Worcester IN a disputation by writing those of the other part formed an Argument whose Major Proposition was to this sense for I have no Copy Whatsoever Book enjoyneth nothing but what is of it self lawfull and by lawfull Authority enjoyneth nothing that is sinfull We denied this
the three Disputantsfor the Common-Prayer-Book against Mr. Baxter and his Assistants which Attestation of theirs being printed and published twenty years ago and never since contradicted or so much as questioned by any of the contrary party no not so much as by Mr. Baxter himself to this day I hope there needs no other proof of the truth of it And if that Attestation be true then it is evident that Mr. Baxter did affirm and maintain as well as he could from first to last in the Conference That the command of a thing lawfull in it self by lawfull Authority was unlawfull if by Accident it might be the occasion of Sin though it were not commanded under an unjust penalty and though that evil whereof it might be the occasion by Accident were not such as the Commander was obliged to provide against For all this he thatdenies the aforesaid Major Proposition of the last of the aforesaid three Syllogisms as Mr. Baxter did must needs grant and consequently must he needs grant and assert also if he will not contradict himself That any command of anything though never so lawfull in it self by what Authority soever it is commanded is unlawfull if it may be the occasion of Sin though per Accidens onely and though that Accidental Sin or evil be such as the Commander either did not or could not foresee or was not obliged to provide against it For all this is consequentially and necessarily affirmed and asserted by him that denies the aforesaid Major Proposition for no other reason but because the Command may by Accident be the Occasion of Sin But if Mr. Baxter shall say he gave another reason for his denial of the aforesaid Proposition namely that such a Command though never so lawfull in it self might become unlawfull if it were commanded under an unjust penalty I confess he did but most illogically and irrationally because one of the conditions of the Command which the Proposition affirms and Mr. Baxter denies to be lawfull is that it must not be commanded under an unjust penalty and the reason why Mr. Baxter denies it to be lawfull is because it is or at least it may be commanded under an unjust Penalty which is all one as if he had said that which is not so is so because it may be so This reason therefore being so expressly excluded as it is from being any reason at all why the Proposition which Mr. Baxter denied should be or could be denied with any shew or colour of reason there was nothing left him to resort to or rely on as his last refuge but his first reason namely because such a command though it was not commanded under an unjust penalty yet it might be the occasion of Sin per Accidens and therefore unlawfull to be commanded which being given for a reason for his denying of the aforesaid Proposition of the last Syllogism he could not mean it of such an evil per Accidens as that the commander ought to provide against because it was another of the Conditions expressly required by the Proposition it self to make a Command lawfull that as it should not command any thing evil in it self so it should not command any thing neither though never so good in it self that might by accident be the occasion of such an evil as the Commander ought to prevent or provide against so that the occasion of evil in that sense per Accidens could not be the reason why Mr. Baxter denied the Proposition and therefore by evil per Accidens in relation to this Proposition and his denial of it he must needs mean such an evil per Accidens as was neither commanded under an unjust penalty nor such as the Commander was obliged to hinder or prevent Whence it follows that Bishop Morley's charging him with asserting That the command of that which is lawfull in it self is unlawfull if it may by Accident be the occasion of Sin was not as Mr. Baxter saith it was a gross mistake or any mistake at all though he had not asserted it in terminis or in express terms as he did often when he gave it for the first of his reasons why he denied the Major Proposition of the first of the aforesaid Syllogisms CHAP. IX His instances of Things lawfull in themselves becoming unlawfull by Accident Impertinent to the present business FRom hence it follows likewise that all those Instances which Mr. Baxter assigns and alledges in his Narrative to his friends at Kidderminster to free himself from the Assertion I charge him with and which his denial of the aforesaid Proposition doth necessarily and manifestly convince him of are all of them frivolous and impertinent and not so onely but fraudulent and scandalous and injurious also I mean those instances which he gives of such evils per Accidens as make the Commands of things good and lawfull in themselves to become evil and unlawfull As saith he To command out a Navy to Sea is not unlawfull in it self but if it were foreseen they would fall into the enémies hands or were like to perish by any Accident and the necessity of sending them were small or none it were a Sin to send them Again saith Mr. Baxter it is not unlawfull of it self to sell poison or to give a knife to another or to bid another to doe it but if it were foreseen he must mean by him that sells the poyson or gives the knife that they will be used to poyson or kill the buyer he might have added or any body else it is unlawfull He goes on and saith It is not of it self unlawfull to light a Candle or set fire on straw but if it may be he should have said if it be foreknown to him that by another's negligence or wilfulness it is like to set fire to the City or give fire to a train of Gun-powder that is under the Parliament House when the King and Parliament are there I crave the Bishop's pardon saith he for believing it were Sinfull to doe or command it You have it Mr. Baxter you have the Bishop's pardon not onely for believing as you say you do in this last but in all the former particulars which you instance in also And I do assure you the Bishop believes them all as much as you do and so I am confident do all the Episcopal Party in England for they are all of them notoriously and unquestionably true and are undoubtedly sufficient to prove the Command of a thing lawfull in it self to be unlawfull if the Commander foresees it will be by Accident the cause or occasion of such an evil or mischief as he ought to prevent But what is this to the proving the Command of a thing lawfull in it self to be unlawfull if it may be by Accident the cause or occasion of some such evil as the Commander doth not foresee or is not bound to prevent For such a Command it must be that
magne Sacerdos But do not bluster so mighty Presbyter Is this the humble the meek the mortified and daily dying Mr. Baxter Tantoene animis Coelestibus irae Have heavenly minds such boisterous passions And why not may some Friend of his say can a man be too zealous for God or too angry with any that defies God or that denies his Sovereignty over all his Creatures and consequently over all humane Powers or Governours Was not Moses the meekest man alive and yet was not he angry very angry so angry that he brake the Tables of stone wherein the Law was written by God's own hand because the People had by their Idolatry broken the Law written by God's own hand in the Tables of their hearts The like may be said of Phineas of David and of St. Paul who was so angry that he wished that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The disturbers and overturners of the Church in those times were cut off which by the way is as bad if not worse than silencing Why then should Master Baxter be blamed if he thinks no words bad enough for those that are the defiers of Deity and Humanity and the Enemies to God to Kings and to all Mankind True but who or where are they that are so they are those saith Mr. Baxter in one place that deny all humane Powers to be limited by God But who are they that deny all humane Powers to be limited by God they are saith Mr. Baxter in another place Such as deny all Governours whether limited or unlimited to be Subjects themselves and under the Sovereignty and laws of God But who are they or who is he that denies either this or the former of those two Propositions Bishop Morley for one saith Mr. Baxter in the aforesaid late Book of his and therefore he is a defier of Deity and Humanity and so are others too for the same reasons as he tells us in his Paper of Recantation but they it seems must be nameless Well but how doth he know that Bishop Morley doth or ever did deny either That all humane Powers are limited by God or that all Governours are subject to God Did he ever hear me say so himself or can he produce any Witness that is fide dignus That may be believed who told him so I am sure I never thought so and therefore I am sure I never said so But because he grounds my being a defier of Deity and Humanity upon this supposition and upon this supposition onely That I deny all Humane Powers to be limited by God or That all Humane Governours are Subject unto God And because there be many that will believe whatsoever he saith because he saith it Be it known to Mr. Baxter and all Baxterians in the World that I Bishop Morley do in my own name and I am confident may doe it in the name of all the Episcopal Party that is of the whole Church of England truly so called not onely confess and acknowledge but declare and aver and avow first That all Humane Powers and not Humane onely but Terrestrial Celestial and Infernal Powers also are subject to God and limited by God that is by the Power the Will and Wisedom of God so that none of them can doe more or less or otherwise than he wills or permits them to doe and that he restrains overrules and orders whatsoever they doe as he pleaseth in order to his own most wise and just ends Secondly I do acknowledge and declare also that all humane Powers or Governours the Supreme as well as the Subordinate and the Vnlimited I mean the unlimited by humane Pacts and constitutions as well as the Limited are all of them limited by God and that not by his Power onely but by his Laws also either as they are written by him in Mens hearts or revealed by him in his Word and that as all the Heathen World Kings as well as Subjects were limited by the former so all the Christian World Kings and States as well as Subiects are limited by the latter and by the former also so as to be thereby obliged though not necessitated to observe the Dictates and to doe nothing contrary to either of those Laws and if they doe not accordingly that they are answerable to God and punishable by God for it as he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 King of Kings and Lord of Lords as much or more than any of the meanest of their Subjects This is and always was my Creed as to this parcular and therefore instead of defying Deity and Humanity I defy Mr. Baxter and all the Baxterians in the World to prove that I ever did dicto vel scripto By saying or writing directly or indirectly in terminis vel in sensu oequipollenti In downright terms or equivalent meaning formally or consequentially deny all or any humane Powers or Governours either de jure As to matter of right or de facto As to matter of fact to be limited by God or that I did ever accuse Mr. Baxter or any body else for affirming it And therefore I do now accuse him for having falsely accused me of such a Crime as is no less as he himself saith than the defying of Deity and Humanity which is a very high degree not of Profaneness onely but of Atheism and Blasphemy also and therefore highly criminal and highly punishable even here in this world in them that are guilty of it and per legem talionis By that law which requires like for like in those also that accuse any man of it and cannot prove it especially in one Church man accusing another and more especially according to the ancient Canons of the Church in a Presbyter accusing a Bishop of so high a Crime as this is But Mr. Baxter it seems will joyn Issue with me upon this point and will prove that though I did not in terminis defy Deity and Humanity by denying in terminis all humane Power to be limited by God Yet I am nevertheless a defier of Deity and Humanity because I do consequentially deny all humane Powers to be limited by God And that I do consequentially deny all humane Powers to be limited by God he proves or thinks he proves or rather indeed would have others think he proves it for I am confident he himself believes it no more than I do because I deny this Aphorism of his That all unlimited Governours are Tyrants and have no right to their unlimited Governments so that the proof of my being a defier of God because I deny all humane Powers to be limited by God depends upon the truth of this Syllogism He that denies all unlimited Governours to be Tyrants and such as have no right to their unlimited Governments doth consequentially or by necessary consequence deny all humane Powers to be limited by God But Bishop Morley doth deny the former Ergo he doth deny the latter also Well
rest of the Sectaries that joyned with them in the War against the King think so too when they kill'd as many as they could of the Royal Party and when their Preachers incourag'd them to do so which he that doubts of let him read Evangelium armatum for his conviction But that they will say was but in the heat of blood whilst the War lasted afterwards they suffered us to live amongst them And so say I do the Papists too and to enjoy not only their lives but their liberties and their legal possessions and goods also in many nay in most places where there is no Inquisition which was more than we of the Church of England especially we of the Clergie were suffered to enjoy here under the Raign of either the Presbyterians or Independents And whether they would not have proceeded to blood as well as the Papists upon the account of Religion only I have reason to doubt or rather I have no reason to doubt but they would for as it is a Popish opinion that all Hereticks are to be put to death and that all that are not Papists are Hereticks so it is a Presbyterian opinion that no Idolater is to be suffered to live and that all Papists are Idolaters as likewise that all the Bishops and Episcopal Party of the Church of England are Papists and consequently Idolaters that is such as by the Law of God are to be put to death And if they did not put this doctrine in practice here as they have done in Scotland witness the murder of the late Primate there upon the account of Religion only whatsoever the first printed Narrative of that horrid Fact said to the contrary it was because their reign was so short and because they were not so well setled in their Dominion as to think it safe for them to proceed so far The Church of Rome her self did not at first proceed with that extremity of Rigor against those she calls Hereticks as she did afterwards It is but of late that the bloody Inquisition was set up by the Church of Rome and that but in some places And was not that of the Tryers here in England in order to the depriving Men of their livelihoods though not of their lives some such thing And who can tell whether it might not have proceeded to deprivation of life also as well as the Roman Inquisition doth if it had gotten power and authority enough to support it We know that the Anabaptists who made a great part of that rebellious Army against the late King of blessed Memory were a Sect that did profess at first that it was not lawful for them to defend either their Goods or their Lives though never so injuriously threatned or attempted to be taken away from them by any though not their Superiors but even by Thieves and Pirates insomuch as they would not carry Guns in their Ships when they went to Sea for fear of being tempted to make resistence in defence of their Goods or of themselves by having wherewithal to do it And yet I have been credibly informed that there were none in that rebellious Army whose feet were more swift and their hands more ready to shed blood than theirs of that Sect were as fearing to offend God by doing his work negligently or that their own lives should go for theirs if they spared or suffered any to escape whom it was in their power to kill So that now as one of their Officers said lately The Sword is become a good Ordinance of God in its season And of the same mind with the Anabaptists if they be not yet may the Quakers and all the rest of the Sectaries come in time to be also together with those merely moral Philosophical Christians I mean the Socinians themselves how much soever they seem for the present to dislike the propagating of Religion by force which there is no Sect but doth profess also whilst they want power to practise it themselves It being as natural for all sorts of Hereticks and Sectaries to endeavour the propagating of their opinions by making as many Proselytes as they can as it is for single Persons to desire and endeavour the propagating of their kind by natural Generation CHAP. V. The Exclusion of the right Heir contrary to the Law of God both Natural and Positive SUpposing therefore but not granting the present Heir of the Crown to be a Papist as I will not deny but that he may as long as he continues to be so wish and desire that all were of the same Religion so they that would have him excluded upon that Account must needs grant likewise that if any Heir of the Crown after him or at any time hereafter shall chance to be of any other Religion than that established by Law and consequently as desirous as a Papist can be to change or abolish that and bring in his own in the stead of it which may be as bad or perhaps worse than Popery as I take not only Paganism whatsoever Julian the Apostate saith to the contrary but Socinianism to be also They must grant I say that upon the same account whosoever shall be of any other than the established Religion must be excluded from succession to the Crown for fear of the alteration he may possibly make of the established Religion in the Church and probably of the established Government in the State also Which I confess to be a thing of such dangerous consequence that it ought to be prevented and provided against by any lawful effectual Means that can be made use of to that purpose especially where the present constitution of the Church and State is such as ours is that is such a one as I think all things considered there cannot be a better and therefore I say it will become the wisdom of the State to prevent as much as by humane prudence it may be prevented any alteration either of the Religion or of the Government I mean as to the essentials of either of them but then it must be by the use of such Means as are lawful and effectual And first the Means that must be made use of to prevent such an alteration must be lawful evidently and undoubtedly lawful and that both in relation to the Law of God and in relation to the Law of the Land also But the excluding of the right Heir from his Inheritance seems to be contrary to both and by the right Heir I mean the first-born or him that is nearest in bloud to him that is or was for merly in possession And that such a one hath a right of succession from which God would not have him to be excluded appears by the almost universal practice of all Nations in all Ages and in all Places which Practice being every where and almost the same among those that in all things else differ so much from one another must needs proceed from some
to lie against our late experience to the contrary when Tyranny and Tyranny in the highest degree and under many several sorts of Tyrants was brought in without Popery and the Protestà nt Religion of the Church of England was not only suppressed and persecuted but endeavoured to be quite extirpated and for ever to be abolished by the greatest pretenders of enmity to Popery though indeed the greatest of its Friends and the most likely to be a most effectual means to bring it in by their then endeavouring to overthrow and by their now endeavouring to undermine the strongest Bulwark the Protestant Religion truly so called hath in the World against Popery I mean the Protestant Religion of the Church of England And as this Church of ours according to the present legal constitution of it both as to Doctrine and Government is the best fenced of any Church in the World not only against Popery but all other Heresies and Schisms some of them as bad if not worse both in their speculative and practical opinions than Popery it self is So the legal constitution of our civil Government also is I verily believe the best Government now extant in the World or perhaps ever was or can be for the keeping out of Tyranny or arbitrary Government of what disposition or religion soever the Prince or Governour in chief for the time shall happen to be of so the legal established constitution of the Government be not altered CHAP. VIII The Scotch Test an Assurance that there can no change be in Government either of Church or State The case of Protestants in Queen Maries time much different from what it is now FOR preventing whereof the best and as I verily believe the only effectual means that can be devised and put in practice is as I said before the making of such an Act of Parliament here in England as is lately made in Scotland viz. That for the future no Man shall be capable of any place power trust or profit Military Civil or Ecclesiastical or to choose or be chosen a Parliament man but he that will take such a Test as is there specified viz. That he will never give his consent for the alteration either of the Religion or the Government by Law established in the Church and State Which being once enacted I for my part cannot foresee how either Popery or Arbitrary I might add or any other Government or Religion prejudicial to the rights either of King or Subject can be brought in amongst us but by an absolute conquest of the whole Nation For as for Popery and Arbitrary Government the pretended Objects of our present fears that they will be brought in by a Popish Successor supposing there be any such if he be not excluded the aforesaid Act after it is enacted will make it impossible for him to effect it though he have never so strong an Inclination or desire to do it For if he endeavour to do it it must be either by force or fair means if by force it must be either by an Army of his own Subjects or of Foreigners if by an Army of his own Subjects it must be an Army of Papists only which being not one to 500. in proportion to the rest of the Nation and all of them excluded by the aforesaid Act from all places of Power or Trust will make but a very inconsiderable handful of Men to attempt and much less to effect any thing by force against the Body of the Nation whom we are to suppose to be obliged by the aforesaid Act not to consent to and much less to assist the bringing in either of Popery or Arbitrary Government So that if it be by force it must be by an Army of Foreigners and such an Army as shall be able to subdue the whole Nation and then he that brings them in cannot choose but fear they will subdue us for themselves and not for him and therefore will take heed of running such a hazard for any consideration whatsoever We are not therefore to fear it will be attempted to be done by force Nor that it can be effected if it should be attempted to be done by fair means neither that is by Law or by making any Act of Parliament for the introducing of Popery when there shall be an Act before in force to prevent any Man's choosing or being chosen a Member of the House of Commons that is not obliged by Oath never to give his consent to the passing of such an Act and all Popish Lords are already excluded from voting in the House of Lords But why may not a Popish Successor cause both these Acts to be repealed as Queen MARY did for the Reducing of Popery those that were made by Her Brother Edward the Sixth for the Excluding of Popery I answer because of the vast difference between those times and these Then the Protestant Religion was but begun to be planted in this Kingdom and had not taken root enough for the setling and growth and continuance of it much the major part of the People being still Popishly affected in their Hearts though they were by the Laws then in force restrain'd from the open profession of it as appear'd by their so readily and so gladly returning as most of them did to it and by their not only accepting but desiring and purchasing the Pape's Absolution for revolting from it So that it was very easie for Queen Mary to make that Alteration which she did by repealing such Acts and Laws as she found in favour of the Protestant Religion and to re-enact or restore such as were for the establishment of Popery which she found to have been repealed by Her Predecessor And to make this work of hers the more easie she did and could without any legal impediment to the contrary bestow all places of Trust Power and Profit Civil Military and Ecclesiastical upon such as were as zealous as she her self was for the suppressing of the Protestant and setting up of the Roman Religion instead of it Whereas now the Protestant Religion has been setled here in England for above fourscore years before the Rebellion and above twenty years since and the Popish suppress'd for twenty years longer even during all the time of the Rebellion it self whilst the Sectaries usurped the Supreme Power and whilst the Protestant Religion of the Church of England was suppress'd and persecuted also But all that while Popery was kept down and Presbytery was set up and spread it self so much in and over all parts of the whole Kingdom that we have much more reason to fear the alteration of Government both in Church and State by setting up of Presbytery instead of Episcopacy in the one and of a Commonwealth instead of Monarchy in the other than Popery or Arbitrary Government under a King in either as long as the Laws we have already against both are in force whereby all Papists are made uncapable