Ant. c. 6. c. The Councils of Nice and Antioch expressing a manifest distinction between Bishops and Presbyters do declare the Disciplinary proceedings of Church-censures to be under the Bishops ordering and not the Presbyters But in this I am prevented by that late excellent Treatise The Vnreasonableness of Separation onely let me observe Mr. Baxter's Argument against Episcopacy Plea p. 17. Having worded it thus That Bishops cannot morally beget the Species of Presbyters he argues If Ecclesiastical Generation imitate Natural then Bishops would beget but their like men beget men Physicians make Physicians and so says he Bishops may beget Bishops Answ As though Bishops should be consecrated in their Mothers womb and Presbyters be ordained such before they were born and as though they could not be Bishops or Presbyters jure divino unless they were born such This is I think the true import and force of his Argument not much unlike to that of his Scotch-brother who reading in Genesis the History of the Creation concludes thus Here 's not a word of Bishops of all that God made therefore Bishops are not Jure divino The unchurching of Tim. and Tit. p. 1 2 3. Ejusdem Farinae is that of Brother Prynn who concludes Timothy to be no Bishop 1. Because St. Paul and St. Luke who were acquainted with him never called him Bishop 2. Because he was St. Paul's Associate and Fellow-traveller 3. Because St. Paul calls him a Minister of God 4. Because he was a young man And I doubt not but Mr. Baxter's late Book against Episcopacy will appear altogether as futile and doubty when it has had its due disquisition SECT IV. Mr. Baxter's Character of Bishops FRom Arguments the Pleader proceeds to down-right reviling and railing Accusations stiling the Bishops Plea 2 part p. 153. 160. Proud Diotrepheses and that it is the lordly proud and impatient spirits of the Pastors of the Church that are the great disturbers and dividers of it maliciously hinting 2 Plea p. 174 175. That there are some of our Bishops that scarce believe that there is a God or a Life to come And in his Book of Concord p. 122. he calls them The Military Instruments of the Devil Concerning the latter of these I shall onely say to the Pleader as Michael said to the Devil The Lord rebuke thee Jude 9. though the Apostle in the foregoing verse calls them Filthy dreamers that despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities he calls them Raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame v. 13. murmurers and complainers whose mouths speak swelling words v. 16. even they who separate themselves v. 19. As to the former part of his Railery 't is strange that he should call Bishops proud Diotrepheses since according to that charge of St. John against Diotrephes which he alludes to Joh. 9. none can be called such but they who refuse the Authority of Bishops prating against them maliciouslly which was that St. John blamed Diotrephes for in his loving to have the preheminence But who are more likely the proud Diotrephes's they who teach and practise Obedience to their Rulers according to Gods Word or they who magisterially set up their own Domination Judgment and Will as the Rule of Order Unity and Peace though in sinful opposition to their Rulers Princely prescribing to all Christian Churches the true and onely terms of Concord as the Pleader in his Plea's and other Books hath done Who but a Pope or Scotch Archegus could have dictated concerning the killing and deposing of Kings as Mr. Baxter has done in his H. Commonw Thes 358. compared with 368. If the King says he raise War against the Parliament upon their declaration of the dangers of the Commonwealth in that case the people may not onely resist him i. e. fight against and kill him if they can but also saith he he ceases to be King Nay let him strain the very Papal Tyranny to what pitch of Insolence and Imposition he pleases there are Presbyterian Claims and Presidents will equal it Witness that of their Brethren in Scotland in and since King James's time whose Discipline they would have had in England they vindicated to themselves and their Consistory a soveraign universal and independent power in all things spiritual They had not onely the Directive but Legislative Power also and all temporal things in ordine ad Spiritualia came within the verge of their Scepter all Soveraign power had onely the Executive power of doing as they commanded and was bound to preserve by its Power and Arms their sacred Priviledges and Soveraignty Whatever Laws enacted by King and Parliament they conceived to be against the Laws of Christ i. e. Presbytery in chief the Presbyterian Ministers had power to repeal and to discharge the Subjects from obeying They might decree Laws of their own not onely contrary to but destructive of the Laws of the Land The King was bound to keep their Laws and put them in execution and if neither he nor his Council would do it the Nobles and Commons nay every individual person was bound to do it at their direction as may be seen in Presbytery displayed A. Bishop Bromhall and others This is that Presbytery which was in Scotland and which Nonconformists would have had in England What 's there in Episcopal Jurisdiction to this Presbyterian Insolence their power of citing before their Judicatory the King and his Family of excommunicating him in case of non-appearance their subjecting his earthly Scepter to theirs which they called the Scepter of Christ in a word his being forc'd to do whatever these Presbyterian Ministers enjoyned was that which King James had the smart experience of and therefore in the Conference at Hampton-Court p. 79. saith the King A Scotish Presbytery as well agrees with Monarchy as God and the Devil then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet and at their pleasure censure me and my Council and all my Proceedings then Tom shall stand up and say It shall be thus Dick shall reply and say It shall be thus And therefore says the King to Dr. Reignolds till you find I grow pussie and lazie I pray you good Doctor let Presbytery alone for if that be once up in England I am sure it will keep me in breath The Patriarchal Presbyters among them were honoured and attended more like Kings or Princes than Presbyters or Prelates In a word such was the Domination and Lordly pride of the Nonconforming Brethren of Scotland that 't is certain no Bishop or Archbishop in England Scotland or Ireland hath used more Authority or Lorded it more arrogantly than these Presbyterian pretenders to parity Consult who will Mr. Baxter's Writings and he shall finde that England had never such an Aristarchus the whole world had never such a Metropolitan except the Pope for Magisterial prescribing insolent despising and censuring even all the Christian Churches in the world whose practices agree not with his capricious humour is
with the King at Oxford were the Judas's of England and it were just with God to give them their portions with Judas p. 13. That those that engaged in this Cause i. e. the War against the King and the Covenant were unjustly charged with Rebellion p. 38. That it was Gods Cause and it should at last prevail And in his Speech at Guild-hall Oct. 6. 1643. That this Cause was every way so just and good that if he had as many lives as he hath hairs of his head he would be willing to sacrifice them all in that Cause i. e. the War against the King So Mr. Case in his Sermon before the House of Commons on Ezek. 20.25 Epist Dedic Ye i. e. the Parliament have overcome the Lion and the Bear why may ye not overcome this uncircumcised Philistine who hath not ceased to blaspheme the Armies of the living God Behold HE lies groveling at your feet what doth there remain but CVTTING OFF HIS HEAD And in his Sermon on Ezra 10.2 How hath the preaching of Christ scorched those Cathedral Priests the unhallowed Generation of Scribes and Pharisees and perfected their Rebellion into that unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost Mr. Case on Dan. 11.32 before the House of Commons Cursed be he that holdeth his Sword from Bloud that spares when the Lord says strike p. 24. that suffers those to escape whom God hath appointed to destruction In a Sermon on Isai 43.4 What a sad thing is it my Brethren to see our King in the head of an Army of Babylonians refusing to be called the King of England Scotland and Ireland and chusing rather to be called the King of Babylon Again p. 18. Prelacy and Prelatick Clergie Priests and Jesuits Ceremonies and Service-book were mighty Impediments in the way of Reformation and God hath mightily pull'd them down Preaching to a Court-Martial on 2 Chron. 19.6 You know says he how the Midianites i. e. the King and his Party with whom you have to do have vext you with their Wiles and laboured to obstruct and cut us all off in our passage to the Land of Promise that blessed Reformation which the Parliament consult for Assemblies dispute for Armies fight for and all good Christians pray for therefore do you honour God in avenging your Brethren on those Midianites in doing execution on those Enemies of Christ and the Kingdom And in his Book of the Covenant delivered in three Sermons He that hath been a Malignant or Neutral let him be so no more for I protest against every man that after his striking this solemn Covenant with God shall dare to persist in any of these mentioned Abominations i. e. adhering to the King Ceremonies c. he is an Enemy to Christ a Traytor to the Kingdom a State murderer a destroyer of himself and his Posterity c. Mr. Herle in his Sermon before the House of Commons on 1 King 22.22 p. 28. If the Devil can but get a Prophet to leave Gods service for the Kings he hath taken a Blue already and is ready for as deep a Black as Hell can give him There may be produced many thousand instances of the like shewing how active they were in and how far contributing to the late Civil War and consequently the Murder of the King And thus they whose first Institution made them Messengers of glad tidings between God and his People have made themselves Heraulds to denounce war between Gods Vicegerent and his Subjects and that not onely by casting a slur upon the King and representing him as unworthy to be King but by clamouring against Bishops and Ceremonies Mr. Blair Mr. Jenkins as the blinde brood of Antichrist Popish trash and trumpery c. Which same method is just now reviving I pray God prevent the same sad consequents and effects But notwithstanding all this they still out-face the Sun and say as the Pleader doth That they preacht and wrote against the War and Regicidie and that they were of those who restored the King But alas when Galeatos serò duelli poenituit When the Independents had rode them like fools they were glad to part Stakes 'T is certain these Presbyterians never attempted the Kings restoring till they were visibly in th◠very jaws of the Phanaticks that would suffer them to domineer no longer but were then seizing on their Tithes and Churches the last morsel of their Spiritual Revenues So that as one said if the Tithe-pig had not cry'd louder in their ears than either their Conscience or the Word of God they had not been awakened to attempt it Mr. Baxter objects That it was not the Presbyterian but a rude conquering Army that put the King to death Answ A rude conquering Army were the immediate Agents but who impower'd them to do it those Under-parties and inferiour Sects How broke they in upon us but at the Schism and breach that Presbyterians first made This point of Nonconformists guilt as to the promoting of the War and the Kings death may be cleared from other Topicks as the Covenant c. But hanc movere nolo Camerinam In asserting Nonconformist Loyalty Mr. Baxter proceeds to tell us p. 30. That Princes and Rulers may forbid all that preach Rebellion or Sedition that propagate such wicked Doctrine and that they may punish them that do it p. 247. And that they shall never be against making the strictest Laws to punish Nonconformists that shall be proved guilty of Sedition or disloyalty c. Answ Not to call Nonconformists disloyal or seditious I leave to the Readers judgment these things following which Mr. Baxter in his first Plea speaks not as his own onely but as the sentiment of his whole Party He teaches p. 226. That Pastors preached against the will of Princes for three hundred years and after that against the will of Christian Princes And p. 26. That God hath wrought Miracles to justifie those that would not cease preaching when Princes yea Christian Princes have forbid them Particularly the Bishops of Africa who for preaching when the King forbad them had their tongues cut out by the Kings command and yet spake freely after their tongues were cut out Where though he call them Christian Princes yet all that he alledges for it proves no such thing but that those Princes were all Arrians or usurping Conquerours Is this disloyal and seditious or not to argue the duty of Nonconformists preaching in disobedience to Christian Princes and in spite of their Laws from Ministers disobeying such Usurpers and Arrians as he instances in Valens Constantius c. that because Athanasius Basil and Miletius preached notwithstanding the prohibition of Arrian Princes that therefore Nonconformists of England must notwithstanding the Interdict of the King What doth this argue unless the King and Clergy of England were Usurpers that had not the power of forbidding them to preach or Arrians that would not suffer any Ministers to preach Christ Again he tells us p. 225. That
not he then a fit person to call the Bishops and Church-Governours lordly impatient and proud Diotrepheses But 't is no great marvel upon this consideration That were people brought to a due liking of Bishops their beloved Separation could not be kept up As Contzen the Jesuit observed in these words His Directions for restoring of Popery l 2. c. 18. How easie is it said he to bring the Puritans of England into Order and Vnity with other Protestants were they but brought to a liking of Bishops And this railing against Bishops is that Seignior Bellarini advised as one way for the best managing of the Popish Interest in England His Letter to Father Young Let the Bishops said he be soundly aspersed as factious on the one hand as worldly and careless on the other and that it were well if they were removed SECT V. Mr. Baxter's Character of the Conforming Clergie THE Pleader having had this wrathful and malicious fling at the Bishops see how like Ministers of the Gospel he accosts the inferiour Clergy calling them craftily Raw Youths their preaching a saying over a pedantick lifeless Speech and out of the Pulpit little differing in speech or life from Carnal Worldlings or formal Hypocrites 1 Plea p. 87. raw cold dry scandalous Ministers injudicious Novices worldly Formalists and Hypocrites p. 231. He supposes some guilty of Heresie Vsurpation Malignity and Wickedness p. 105. And the greater part of the Ministers of England to procure the liberty of their Ministry by sin yea gross deliberate sin p. 116. Ignorant Readers unfit to be trusted with the care of Souls for their unskilfulness unsoundness notorious sloth and negligence and great aversness to a holy life c. Just as the old Nonconformists the Donatists reputed St. Austin calling him a seducer a deceiver of Souls Possid de vita Aug. cap. 9. exclaiming against him publickly and privately that he was a Wolf that should be slain for the preservation of the Flock and all this because that holy man kept and defended the Communion of the Church which those Schismaticks rejected The like usage had Basil at Neocesarea and Greg. Nazianzen at Constantinople And thus do the Papists at this day call all Hereticks beside themselves But what railing Quaker what black-mouth'd Atheist or Schismatick whatever could say more Yet this is Nonconformists Plea for Peace The Pleader teaches Plea p. 33. That Princes ought to preserve peace and charity among the Churches and hinder Preachers from uncharitable reviling each other Is this such reviling or no In his Scripture-proof for Infant Church-membership he teaches p. 148. That sharp reproaching of Ministers is the common Character of all Schismatical Subverters of the Church Is this sharp reproaching of Ministers or no Who then are the Schismatical Subverters of the Church He adds in the next words They smite the Shepherds that they might the easier scatter separate and divide the Sheep who teach people to scatter separate and divide And to what else doth this smiting slandering and reviling tend Who sees not 't is the Atheist's great endeavours to make the profession of the Ministry it self the ground of its contempt and the distinctive names of Ministers the very Appellatives of scorn So that to call a man a Priest is with some to degrade him below his Servant Is it not sad then that such an old carping Minister as Mr. Baxter should so abet that rampant sin of the times which the Leviathan-sinners so sport in Not to say what the Pleader's designe in it is had any man a mind to make Schisms in the Church what better method could he use than to vilifie the Teachers of it None could make men Schismaticks by perswading to Schism so as people should perceive it it must be done eruptly by vilifying their Teachers and representing them as such that the people may or ought to separate from Suppose the Devil were incarnate and dwelt among us I appeal to the Pleader whether this would not be his main work and business viz. to make the Ministry and preaching of the Gospel succesless to the good of Souls And I appeal to any but the Pleader whether any thing can be devised conducing more thereto than vilifying the Ministers and Preachers of it as the Pleader doth and making them odious to the people all he can What people having any sence of Religion or the fear of God would not separate from Ministers of such black Characters as the Pleader fixes on the Conforming Clergy I shall end this with those words of Mr. Baxter in 241 Thes of H. Commonw It is necessary said he to the Churches peace that no Pastors or Christians be suffered in Print or Speech to rail at one another and use contentious or opprobrious words And that tolerated Churches be not suffered to cast scorn upon the approved Churches nor be over-busie or publick in drawing away others to their mind He adds If men for foul words are bound to their behaviour and women for scolding be put in the Gumble-stool there 's no reason men should be suffered to rail on pretence of their opinions in Religion Thus Mr. Baxter Yet he allows himself such railing in his opinions of Religion that no Mother Celiers Hobbes White or Whitebread would exceed But this is just that which Contzen the Jesuit advised in order to the promoting of Popery in England to vilifie the Ministers For saith he Cont. l. 2. c. 18. he that shall read the Writings of Lutherans against Calvinists and Calvinists against Lutherans much more of Nonconformists against Conformists will think he reads not the Invectives of men against men but the Furies and Roarings of Devils against Devils And hence in time saith he the very Rulers themselves will take occasion to change their Religion It was on this same account that Vrsin gave Flacius Illyricus this Character Pref. in Apol. Cat. That he was one who for divers years by his discrediting Worthy and Orthodox men and by stirring up unnecessary contentions was a troubler of divers Consciences and Churches all over Germany As I wish Mr. Baxter be not all over England SECT VI. Mr. Baxter's Character of Nonconformists BUT are there none of this black Character among Nonconformists are no raw cold injudicious Novices c. among them No they are hinted to be clear serious holy diligent Preachers Plea 1. p. 87. Judicious convincing affectionate Ministers p. 231. And in his second Plea 't is totidem verbis Vnder all the Heavens of God there 's no one party of Ministers or People more able holy wise and faithful than those that are now silenced and reproached as Puritans in his Majesties Dominions and that they are the glory of the Churches and of the King and Kingdom and such as no Prince in the world is equally blest with Thus like the people of China they fancy themselves to have two eyes and almost all the world beside to be blind But 1. This uncharitable boast