to this day § 32. Accus XIX He was acquainted Forty years ago with many Aged Nonconforming Ministers and probably Confederate with them c. Ans Yes in the Baptismal Covenant renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil I repent not of that Nor take it for a sin to have known them § 33. Accus XX. Prejudices against Conformity possest him from his Youth Ans Not unless Cainism be Conformity or twenty four years old be my Youth such as your Writings and Doings are an ill cure of prejudice § 34. Accus XXI Is that I broke my Oaths to the King and Ecclesiastical Superiors whom I was bound to obey Ans I thought verily that I broke neither I Swore not to obey the Convocation much less against the Parliament in unlawful Canons and imposed Oaths never yet Authorized I took the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and thought that defending the Land against Armed Delinquents and Irish and Papists Insurrections had been no breach of it If I was mistaken the Lord convince me and forgive me But your way is unapt to it Let the Reader peruse but Sir Edward Deering's Speeches in Parliament proving that this Et caetera Oath was sinfully imposed without Authority by them that were neither a Convocation a Synod or Commissioners the same Man that spake so much for Liturgy and Episcopacy against Presbytery and Independency And I doubt not but it was flat Perjury that by it we were required to Swear viz. That the described Et caetera Government of the Church ought so to stand And was I perjured for refusing Perjury As a summary Confutation of a multitude of his Lies I at once tell the Reader that I neither was nor am for the way called Presbytery Independency or the English Diocesane way But for the mixture described excellently by Grotius de Imper. Sum. Pot. and Bishop Usher and Sir Edward Deering whose Counsel I wish'd that the Parliament had followed And that I was and am far from defending the irregular Actions of the Parliament or any Members of it Tho' they thought that the Delinquents had put a necessity on them to overgo their own Judgments to please the Scots and the Indiscreet and Schismatical part of the Nonconformists I doubt not but they did ill herein and should have trusted God in the use of none but lawful means I believe that a few Men by Craft and unwearied Industry over-reach'd many that knew not what they did Sir Edward Deering nameth some of them especially Sir H. V. Sir A. H. and O. C. that over-reach'd his own upholders and all the rest I believe they did ill to excite and encourage disorder and tumults on pretence of Petitioning and of scurrilous defamations of such Men as the Lord Falkland the Lord Digby Sir Edward Dering and some other worthy Men and so many good Bishops as they abused And yet that I durst not for these miscarriages consent to give up the Kingdoms Parliamentary Security for its present and future Safety and Liberties I still think is consonant to the most common Principles of Lawyers Politick Writers Historians Divines Protestants Papists and Heathens Even the late great Lord Chancellor Hide sat Chairman of the Committee of Parliament that received the Petitions against Episcopacy Root and Branch and made such Speeches against the Delinquents as I dare not justifie But he forsook them when they quite over-went him If the King of England had a War with the French and I knew that his Cause were bad I would not defend his bad Cause but I would in his Army defend the Kingdom against those that would Captivate it by Conquest For the Kingdom doth not forfeit its safety by the Kings misdoing And if any say Then the King shall be defended in all his injuries how bad soever I would answer That is by accident it is the Kingdom that I defend and Him as a means to defend the Kingdom and not to justifie his sin I leave that to God What a case is a Kingdom in if it must Fight against it self and its representing security as oft as its Representatives miscarry by any sinister means And that all that are to be judged by the chief Judicature shall Fight to Conquer them if the King do but bid them If the safety of this Kingdom be once put into the Trust of the King alone the Constitution is changed and all Enslaved § 35. Accus XXII He saith that in 1640. I entred into a War against the King Ans Whereas the War in England began not till 1642. And I never medled in War but as aforementioned long after § 36. Accus XXIII He saith by the Treatise of Diocesane Episcopacy meditated 1640. I broached Faction in the Church my Pen disdaining to be less active than my Sword Ans 1. I never struck with a Sword in War or Peace 2. Did Meditating broach a Book that was not published nor written till thirty years after 3. Is it Faction to give reasons why I Swore not to Faction even that Antiepiscopal sort of Diocesanes that put down many hundred Churches and Bishops to set up the Name and Image of one 4. Why is not that Book answered to this day when so many Nonconformists have Challenged Called and Beg'd for an Answer to it Will a Lying Scorn satisfie any Conscionable Nonconformist 5. That Book owneth so much of Bishops and Diocesanes and Archbishops which Sir Edward Dering condemned that these Men now shew that it is not such as I only but such as Grotius Spalatensis Usher Hall yea most of the great Writers for Episcopacy of whose Judgment I have there given a particular account whom he condemneth for Faction and Enmity to the Church I have written against the Pope too And is not that as bad I am sure many Papists write more against Episcopacy than I. § 37. Accus XXIV It 's probable his Church History had its conception at the same time Ans About Forty years after 1640. Forty years breaks no square with this sort of Men I would this lort of History were not too common with them § 38. Accus XXV Page 23 He feigneth me in my Church History to commend all the Hereticks and omit what is good of the Fathers and Martyrs and write only their faults Ans It seems he thought that without reading the Book that disproveth him his Faction would take his word that he saith true § 39 Accus XXVI The like he saith of my reproaching Councils because I shew the miscarriages of many and our Bishops that plead for a Forreign Jurisdiction dare yet own but six or eight General Councils § 40. Accus XXVII Page 25. He reciteth my mention of the former courses of undoing Men for hearing a Sermon of a Godly Conformist at the next Parish when they had none at home and for Fasting and Praying c. And he taketh it for my crime to call these ungodly Persecutions crimes So that he that is not for them while they are
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
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
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
ways delayed their Relief Though he offered to go over himself the Parliament fearing he would go to Head the Irish 24. The King had before assaulted the Parliament-House in Person with Armed Men to have surprized Five Members and the Lord Kimbolton whom he accused And after frustration confest it a Breach of their Privileges 25. The Money sent Dolbier to buy German Horses and other actions and the Confessions of Sir Jacob Astley Sir John Conniers Sir Fulke Haukes my Mother-in-laws Brother Chidley and the other Commanders of the English Army that were to have been drawn up to London together with the King 's putting a Guarding Regiment on them did put me past all doubt that they were devoted to violence had they not defended themselves And no vain Talk to the contrary can make me doubt of it to this day So that though I think they had done more prudently to avoid War had they spared Strafford and Laud to please the King yet I am fully satisfied that afterward they were necessitated to save themselves from designed Force 26. I am certain that two things filled the Parliaments Armies And both of grand Importance 1. That all over the Kingdom save here and there a sober Gentleman and a formal Clergyman the Religious Party and all that loved them were generally for the Parliament alienated from the Persecutors and Silencers And the Profane Party in all Countries Debaucht Gentlemen Malignant Haters of Piety the Rabble of Drunkards Blasphemers were generally against the Parliament And religious People were loth to herd with such And could hardly believe that in so great a Cause God would reveal the Truth to all his Enemies the sensual Rabble and hide it from the generality of them that fear him And especially that in most Countries the Malignants forced away the Religious and either rose against them themselves or set the King's Soldiers to Plunder and Destroy them My own Father living 18 Miles from me was Plundered by the King's Soldiers though he never scrupled Conformity nor ever medled against the King and was thrice laid in Prison and had still lain there had not Sir Fulke Haukes his Brother in Law been by Prince Rupert made Governour of Shrewsbury and this for nothing And after laid in again till the Town was taken This last was only because when they made him Collector for the King he refused to distrein of those that paid not fearing lest he should be put to repay it And almost all the Religious People of Kederminster were forced to fly and leave their Houses and Trades to their undoing to save their Lives though they had never medled with Wars And the men that had no maintenance of their own were forced to become Garison-Soldiers in Coventry to avoid Famine The second thing and the main that drove men to the Parliament Garisons and Armies was the Irish Murders with the Papists Power with the King They thought that it must be an unusual War that should Kill Two hundred Thousand As dreadful as it was I do believe that all the Wars of England Kill'd not Fifty thousand nor near it And though Fear which is a Tyrant overcame partly their Discretion yet this joyned with the Experience of that which forced them from home was too strong a tryal for most to overcome And it confirmed their Suspition when the Queen brought in a Popish Army under General King and the Earl of Newcastle's Army had so great a number of Papists and after the Earl of Glamorgan was authorized to have brought over an Army of Irish Papists and the English Regiments that fought there against them had been called hither to fight against the Parliament and were routed at Nantwich No wonder if men thought that England would have been made too like to Ireland whether the King would or not had such Armies Conquered 27. The Parliament Protested to be for the King and not against his Person or Legal Power or Prerogative but only against his Illegal Will to defend themselves and the Kingdom from an unlawful Army and to bring Delinquents to Legal Tryal and Punishment And they accordingly gave out all their Commissions till the Cause was changed by fairfax's Commission that left out the King And the Soldiers of the Garison where I was commonly believed this to be their Obligation and the true Case of the War viz. Offensive against armed Delinquents as the Sheriff may raise the Posse Comitatus and Defensive against the Kings illegal Will and Way 28. I did believe that if the King by such an Army as he had should Conquer the Parliament the Legal and all Probable Security of the Nation for Life Property Liberty and Religion was in all likelihood gone If it should lye on the King's Will only thereby it were gone For what then were our Constitution or Parliaments for and what differ we from Slaves And were he willing and those with him that meant well he would not be able to Master such an Army 29. I did believe that if the Parliament were certainly more faulty than they were the Kingdoms Security was not therefore to be forsaken by the Subjects nor all Parliaments and Government to be left to the Will of the King who had for so many years interrupted Parliaments and dissolved them still in Displeasure and had raised Taxes called Ship-money by himself without them and on the same account might command all the rest Therefore I owned not any of the discerned Miscarriages of the Parliament but only thought I was bound to defend the common Good and Safety as it was the End of Government My judgment yet is That if the King of England wrongfully begin a War against France the Subjects ought by Arms to help him not owning his wrong Cause but to save the Kingdom which would be lost and enslaved if he were Conquered So the fault of the Parliament could not disoblige the People from labouring to secure the Constitution of the Kingdom and therein their Posterities Properties Liberties and Safety And the bare Promise of a King is no such Security 30. I did believe that if there were a Controversie in these Cases the Supream Council and Judicature of the Kingdom had the most satisfying Power of Determination to particular Persons As the Judgment of a General Council is preferable to any lower Judges and the Judgment of the College of Physicions is more authoritative than of a single Dr. And the Judgment of the University is more than of the Vice-Chancellors or one Man And tho yet it may fall out that the Dissenter may be in the right the unlearned that cannot confidently judge are more excuseable for not resisting the higher Judges 31. Obj. By this Rule whatever wrong a Parliament shall do to the King we must all take their part against him And if they betray their Trust we must bear them out in their Treachery Ans 1. Distinguish between a wrong to the King and the betraying of the
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
me Mr. Baldwin yet living was present 17. When Lying same accused me for almost every Sermon that I preached in London after Bishop Sheldon told me plainly that he had some to hear me and could they have got any thing against me I had soon heard from him 18. When we were all silenced on Aug. 24. 1662. I forbore both preaching and privater Meetings till after the great Plague 1665. to see whether our obedience would mollifie Mens exasperated Minds All that while and after constantly I went to my Parish Church Morning and Evening and staid from the beginning of Common Prayer to the end and after the Plague I only taught such Neighbours as came into my House between the publick Exercises and led all the people into the Church to Common Prayer In so much that my Excellent Neighbour Judge Hale countenanced me therein by his Carriage and thought I did great Service to the Church of England I remember not two of all that heard me that went not with me to the publick Church And that One that would not refused because the Dr. Rieves would Swear in his common talk But I told her that he did not Swear in the Pulpit 19. When in his Sermon he told them that It was because we could not be Bishops that we Conformed not the people look'd at me as a confutation But I forbore not ever the more to hear him 20. When he was no longer able to bear the peoples coming to my House though he converst with me placidly and never spake to me against it he went to the King and got his Order to the Bishop Hinchman and by him to Justice Rosse and Auditor Philips for my Imprisonment And when these Justices at Brainford Examined me they shut the Doors against all Witnesses and would let none in but their Clerk though Alderman Ashhurst Captain Yarrington and many others at the Door claimed open audience as a Legal Priviledge And after they raised false reports of my words to them when I was allowed no one Witness 21. I lay quietly in New Prison though kept waking by the constant noise of rude Prisoners and knocking under me at the Gate And upon my Habeas Corpus all the four Judges of the Common Pleas were for my Deliverance 22. When I was delivered the Parliament making a new Act against Conventicles added three new clauses which drove me to dwell in another County Where also I went constantly Morning and Evening to the publick Church and Common Prayer and gave 2 l. per Annum to increase the Ministers Maintenance 23. When Ministers had some time forborn publick Sacraments in the Parish Churches I got many of the most Eminent in London together and in writing gave them so many reasons for such Communion as they approved But the Oxford Parliament having by an Act Banished us five Miles from all Corporations forc'd them from the London Churches when in Conscience they durst not leave London Service when 100000 had died of the Plague and the Ministers fled and left the dying without their help many Nonconformists ventured their lives among them beg'd Money for them and relieved them and found the dying Persons so much inclined to hear repent and pray that this brake the Bonds of the Acts of Uniformity and Banishment so that they resolved rather to die than to cease preaching while they were out of Prison and could speak And the City being burnt the next year confirmed their resolution the Conformists ceasing to preach long for want of Churches But all this time had a Nonconformist Minister been seen in a Parish Church he must for Six Months have lain in Goal with Rogues So that the sum of their imposed Obedience was Either inhumanely desert the deserted City after Plagues and Flames left desolate or go to the Parish Ministers when they return and Communicate with them and go Six Months to Goal or else be Excommunicate and lye in Goal for not Communicating with them Of these three they had their choice But in all this time I was driven far off and kept constantly to the publick Church at Toteridge 24. I never became the Pastor of any Church since I was expelled from Kiderminster I offered when I refused a Bishoprick to preach there for nothing under the ignorant Reader that was Vicar But the Lord Chancellor Hyde wrote to Sir Ralph Clare that his Majesty thought himself not well dealt with that Mr. Baxter that had deserved so well of him had not the Vicaridge and he promised to pay the Vicar the worth of it by his own Steward Mr. Clutterbuke out of his own Rents But durst not give a Prebend much less a Pastoral Charge to the Vicar lest it disgrace the Ministry I was not so ignorant as not to know what the King and Chancellor meant by all this and by the Gracious Declaration But he gave me unsealed the Copy of his Letter to send And the Vicar answered as he was taught that he would not quit his place for an uncertainty nor would Bishop Morley let me preach for nothing under him 25. When the King sent out his Declaration that gave us leave to preach I returned to London and chose only St. Martins Parish to preach in because there were said to be above Sixty Thousand Souls more than could hear in the Church and hiring a room over the Market-house at St. James's where we were all delivered by almost a Miracle from a crack in the Floor I published to the Hearers and left to them in writing that I came not thither to gather or preach to any new Church or as separating from the Parish Church but being Vowed to the Ministry in necessary compassion pro tempore to help part of the many thousands that could not come into the Parish Church For which some Separatists censured me And we used the Scripture part of the Liturgy and more 26. Being driven from that Room by the breach of the Main-beam I built a Room and Leased the Ground at too dear rates in Oxenden-street near But had preached but one Sermon but Secretary Henry Coventree with two Justices more came with a Warrant to apprehend me and I being twenty Miles distant they seized on Mr. Sedden a stranger that preached for me And though he had by the Cromwellians suffered Imprisonment for seeking to bring in King Charles the Second they sent him to the Goal where it cost me twenty pound for his Charges but my Wisest and most Over-valuing Friend Judge Hale proved the Mittimus void and released him by the Sentence of all the Court. 27. When I could not be suffered there I hired a Room to preach in for nothing in Swallow-street and ask'd the Bishops leave who gave some hope of his favour But after a few days many Constables Church-wardens and other Officers were set at the Door to take me had I come and so continued about three Months till another came 28. I then that the people might
in words 46. Thence I went quietly to a costly Prison where I continued in pain and languor near two years Enjoying more quietness in that Confinement than I had done of many years before Because they had no further to hunt me And God there healed my Bloody Urine that had continued two years 47. Being Fined 500 Marks and to give Bond for the Behaviour when they saw that I did neither pay the Fine nor Petition the King and Papists who all this while did their work by Men called Protestants resolved to have the thanks for my Release and offered me deliverance by the Marquess of Powis his endeavour But they would not abate my Bonds to the Behaviour 48. When I was released the Protestant Justices at the Sessions that declared they had nothing against me would not take up my former Bonds but made me long wait with Counsel at Hicks Hall and I know not that they have given up my Bonds to this day But Patience is my remedy 49. Before while I lived in St. Giles's Parish I went Morning and Evening to the Parish Church to Common Prayer and Sermon And I Communicated kneeling at the Rails But I first told Dr Sharp now Dean of Canterbury that I am ipso facto Excommunicate by Canon 7 8 9. and left it to his consideration But after Consultation he admitted me because the Canon bound him not before prosecution or declaration 50. In Prison and since my Release I have written divers Books for Communion with the publick Churches And one of Government and one against Schism and others pacificatory that are not printed And I have continued to preach only as a helper to another not related to any gathered Church as their Teacher though Licensed by Law to have gathered such a Church as well as others 51. The reason why I have not these four years gone to any Parish Church is because Prisons and utter disability of Body hindered me being scarce able to creep once a day to our Assembly but the fourth Door from my House 52. To conclude Whoever after reading my many great and small Writings for Concord and Peace and for the Church especially my Cure of Church Divisions my Treatise of the way of Unity my Catholick Theology my Christian Directory my Methodus Theologiae and the numerous Volumes of Controversie written all to end Controversies and shall know that it hath been my chief study and labour these forty four years to promote Unity Peace and Concord and what I have suffered for it and yet will accuse my Heart and Life as quite contrary to all this must bring to any sober impartial Man very clear evidence to prove me so mad and deadly an Enemy to so long and painful Labours § 14. I am next therefore further to enquire what this Evidence is But his words do seem to forbid an answer for they are capable of none but what will sound harshly even to name them as they are Most Impudent Lies meer forgeries or the most unquestionable Duties made most odious sins and most of the pretence fetcht from some words of my Writings and Confessions depraved and impudently falsified The General Accusation is page 14. I dare challenge any Historian that hath observed or read the Tragedies of the late times to shew a parallel in any one person I say not only among the Apostate Clergy but the Laity and the worst of them that may equal Mr. B. Accus I. Particularly Who is there among the Living that entertained more early Prejudices against the Bishops Ans Mendac I. I thought them to be of Divine Institution till after I was Ordained And since then I have proved it of the Primitive Episcopacy And opposed none but that sort of Diocesans who put down all the Bishops and Churches that should be under them and will be the sole Bishops of many hundred or score Parishes making true Episcopal Discipline impossible and substituting a delusion § 15. Accus II. That left his Calling as a Minister of Peace and entred with the first into a War against the King Mendac II. I never left my Calling nor ever took Command or Office or so much as a Chaplains relation to any Souldiers nor pay for it Save that when Naseby Fight almost ended the War I went a Chaplain to have tryed to save the Land from Rebellion I always was for King and Parliament and never against the Kings Person Power or Prerogative but only for his return to his Parliament and against his Will and Instruments When Hen. VI. was carried about by his Enemies his Friends fought for him that fought against the Army where his Person was I was so far from going into a War with the first that I only fled to Coventry for a private Refuge when I was forced from Home of which enough before § 16. Accus III. And for four years space which was the heat of the Wars was an Agent as well as an Eye-witness of most of the terrible Battles that were fought in England Mendac IV. I never so much as saw one of those terrible Battles The first that ever I saw was that at Langport when the Field War ended And there I saw not the killing of one Man Because I said that I saw some Fields and Dead he forgeth me to have seen the Fights I never saw the Fight at Edgehill but being at Alcester I went to see the Ground and some unburied Bodies the following day I never saw either of the two Newberry Fights nor the Countrey I never saw the Fight at Horncastle at Allford or any in the East South West or North. I never saw the greatest Fight at York nor ever was in or near the County I saw not that at Mongomery nor that at Nampwich nor any Fight in England save that aforesaid at Langport and the flight of our Coventry Men from Banbury And I went to see the Ground at Naseby when the Armies were gone a day or two before And I once saw at a distance about thirty Men of a side Fight between Linsell and Longford where one was kill'd Some Sieges I was not far off while I was with the Armies on the Accounts at large before recited § 17. Accus IV. Who ever boasted of drawing thousands to that War Ans He falsly calleth a Confession a Boasting To convince Cromwell's Soulders that pull'd down the Government I that had drawn thousands into the Parliaments defensive War could not have denied the heinousness of my Crime if I had done as they did or been against King and Parliament united or for the changing of the Government I said by aggravation that I had drawn in thousands because at Coventry and Wem I had publickly preach'd against the accusations of the Cause that I then thought just § 18. Accus V. Who hath said more to justifie not the War only but the Death of the Royal Martyr Ans Mendac V. What can a Reader say of such Men that shall find 1. That
than I do that I have been put oft to confute them Yet how is Hooker extolled by them while I that have confuted his popular Principles am a Rebel King Charles II. verbally by a Declaration diso ned his Fathers Wars he honoured many Generals and Colonels of the Parliaments Army with the highest Offices One of them General Monk by a Parliament Presbyterian Army restored him yet I that never was a Commander or Soldier nor ever stroke or hurt Man or drew a drop of Blood in War am the great instance of the Rebellion Who did what I did to avoid the guilt of Rebellion and to save England from being made like Ireland where I thought it was Rebellion that Murdered two hundred thousand And we were then so ignorant of War that we commonly thought that one Battel would have ended all and setled peace As for the Charge of Schism I verily think that the Irish may as modestly transfer on the Protestants the charge of Rebellion as King Charles II. his Prelates can lay on such as I the charge of Schism which they have so powerfully caused and continued He that will read my Search for the Schismatick needeth no further proof And he that will not may keep his beloved Errour § 23. Accus X. Answered I said that I was bred up under eight Reading School masters of whom divers were beggar'd by drinking Must I repent of that Or of disliking such Churchmen O I should have said nothing ill of the dead No nor of their living Successors for hence is the rage O how intolerable to these Men is reproof and repentance in comparison of Sin I must repent for telling that one of my Reading Masters that only officiated in the Church never preach'd but once and that with the notorious signs of being Drunk in Eyes and Tongue on that terrible Text Mat. 25. Go ye cursed c. What enmity to the Church is it to complain of such Men But we were so often whipt when he came in Drunk that made us as weary of him as the Fined and Imprisoned Ministers are of the Persecuting Bishops § 24 Page 17. Accus XI At Nineteen years of Age he had a distaste against Bishops as Persecutors Ans But not as Bishops I cannot repent of distasting Persecutors It was Born in me and New born May not one be a Christian that loveth not Persecution § 25. Accus XII Whether Mr. B. made his Father a Rebel or his Father him he tells us his Father was twice a Prisoner Ans By this proof all the Imprisoned Nonconformists are Rebels How easily can such Prelates and their Agents make thousands of Rebels My Father lived in the Kings Quarters and never was Nonconformist nor medled with Wars But being plundered was made Collector of the Kings Taxes and brought in all that was paid but would not distrain and for that was Imprisoned And at last fled for safety to Worcester a Garrison of the Kings Who can escape the charge of Rebellion from such Accusers § 26. Accus XIII His first adventure was to Seize the Person of a Neighbour in exchange for his Father but Quo Warranto I find not Ans By the Law of God in Nature and the Fifth Commandment and â—ege Talionis the Party being obnoxious and suffering no hurt nor loss by it Yet from these false Conjectures about my Father he saith You see how early Mr. B's Spirit was fermented with Principles of Faction and Sedition Ans Readers you see what Faction and Sedition signifie in this Mans Mouth § 27. Accus XIV Here accusing me for telling how Bishop Morton Confirmed me and many more saying a short Collect without a word of Examination or Instruction he heapeth up divers falshoods 1. That my Master was a Minister I think is false 2. He querieth Did not your Master Examine you Ans He was the best of all my Masters and heard us say the Catechism but never told us any thing of the sence nor ever examined whether we understood any of it 3. He asketh How know you but your Master certified of you Ans If he certified that I understood what Baptismal Covenantings or Confirmation was or much of the rest or what Consent I gave to that Covenant I doubt he certified too much And I being the Head Scholar all the rest were liker to be ignorant than I Except Richard Allestree who though two or three years younger had been diligently Catechized by a Nonconforming Minister He saith This was Mr. B's fault not the Bishops Ans I confess I was faulty in not understanding as much at Fourteen years as I understood many years after I cannot say that a Child of Seven years old is sinless in not understanding all the Articles of Faith But though it be the fault of the Ordained if they seek it unqualified in gross Ignorance or Wickedness the Ordainers will not long believe such Deceivers that it is not their fault to Ordain such He that believeth Dr. Hammond and Mr. Eldersfield two the Learnedst Conformists of this Age of the grand importance of the solemn understanding and serious owning of the Baptismal Covenant in Confirmation when young Men pass into the rank of Communicants should shed streams of Tears to think how contrary common practice is hereto and how this Ordinance is not only frustrate but turned to a deluding Ceremony § 28. Accus XV. He was a Controuler of Bishops at Fourteen Ans A meer Forgery I liked the sport It was too long after that I disliked it § 29. Accus XVI Page 19. I am reproached that the Grave Neighbour Conforming Ministers that kept me from Nonconformity were such as had rather have had the Church rid of such dividing Things whence he slanderously concludeth that they waited an opportunity to be active in Ruining the Church Because when Conformity was forbidden by the Parliament they forsook not their Flock What can escape Satanical reproach when a great part of the County had scarce any able and pious Ministers but four or five such as these and they shall be falsly branded by such as never knew them § 30. Accus XVII His charge of my ignorant Subscribing at my Ordination I confess and lament and beg of God to forgive But the report of raining Manna at Bridgnorth at my coming thither is the Forgery of his Trade A Grain like dryed Rie rained there almost a year before my coming thither which I kept some of long and the like at Shrewsbury about two years ago And he forgeth that there were six Parishes at Bridgnorth because I said there were six under the Ordinaries Power § 31. Accus XVIII He accuseth me for being against the Et caetera Oath and Canons and yet saith not a word to prove it lawful but through me condemneth not only the Parliament that condemned it before the Division but even the long Parliament that made all their cruel Laws that never would own that Oath or authorize those Canons nor any Parliament
and Episcopal Nonconformists that now are commonly used it But he hath found out one Independent Dr. John Owen who when he was Vice-Chancellor at Oxford was against the common use of it as necessary § 52. Accus XXXIX He feigneth also that the Creed and Ten Commandments were also cast out and scarce a Chapter read in many Churches Ans 1. Was he that hated them more oft in their Churches than I I knew not one such Presbyterian Congregation in England 2. Read the Directory whether it were for them or against them and judge of this Mans words § 53. Accus XL. His Exclamation against the Scots Covenant and Cromwell's doings I before shewed to be just And I think I opposed both more than he did § 54. Accus XLI Page 39. Whereas I before said how I went into the Army after Naseby Fight by the Consent of an Assembly of Loyal Ministers in Coventry to try whether there was any hope to save the Church and State from the Corrupted Army He feigneth that this was the Westminster Assembly or some Rebellious Branch of them All falsly as the rest § 55. Accus XLII That I went to Col. Whalley Ans Who then profest himself a Lamenter of the Armies Corruption and a Desirer of their Reformation and so continued while I was with him But was after overcome by his Kinsman Cromwell and worldly Interest to hold on with them for his preferment § 56. Accus XLIII His Page 41. is made of meer forged Lies As 1. That I promised my self great things much what as I did from King Charles the Second when instead of a Bishoprick I craved leave in vain to have been for nothing the Curate of an ignorant Reading Vicar 2. That I was disappointed of my hopes By whom And how And for what 3. That I thought my self capable of advancement but They did not As if I sought that which I refused 4. That I was well promised for my pains Who never ask'd them any thing nor was promised any thing 5. That I was content with the pleasing work of drawing Blood gratis Because I that never drew a drop of any Mans Blood did labour to prevent the Papists and malignant other Leeches from bursting with the Blood of King Parliament and Kingdom 6. That I hoped they would have advanced me to some Military Preferment Who never was so much as a Souldier and could have had Military Preferment long before Thus the Mans Brain from what cause let others judge breeds Lies as a Carkass breedeth Maggots They swarm by heaps Is this the Credit of our Church History § 57. Accus XLIV Page 42. Against his Will he is forced to leave the Army Ans Yes just the day that they consulted at Nottingham to Rebel and I had else at Triploe-Heath ventured my Life against them But it had been in vain as it was to those that drew off about 5000 from them whose places they fill'd up with King Charles the First 's Souldiers that had come to them and with Fanaticks that would be true to their Interest § 58. Accus XLV That ever since it hath been my business to destroy the best Established Church in the World Ans By desiring them not to set up a Forreign Jurisdiction which the Kingdom is Sworn against And by humble Petitioning them not to silence all the Ministers of England conditionally and two thousand of the most Faithful actually in one day By striving for Concord as for Life upon terms once granted by the King in his Gracious Declaration and after on lower terms consented to by Bishop Wilkins Dr. Burton Judge Hale and I think by Dr. Tillotson and Dr. Stillingfleet I never motioned the alienation of one Farthing of the Revenues of the Bishops or Deans nor spake against their Baronies Parliament Place and Power 〈◊〉 nor against their vast Diocesses so they would not put down the Inferiour Pastoral Office and Churches and make Lay Civilians Usurpers of the Keys Thus I sought to destroy the best Church in the World Locusts are famished if they may not destroy our Trees and Fruit and Pikes if they may not devour all the lesser Fish All Human's Wealth and Honour is nothing to him if Mordecai be not hanged This Envy consumeth them if we lye not still with Rogues in Goals § 59. Accus XLVI He will not affirm that I was given to plunder But it is a suspicious sign when I would take up a Man to exchange for my Father Ans This hath a little modesty though even natural Affection be a Crime with Tories even when exercised without hurting any Here also he repeateth his Forgery of raining Manna § 60. Accus XLVII Page 43 That I sate down on the Sequestred Living of Mr. Dance at Kiderminster Ans This is cautelously said Not that I had a hand in Sequestring him not that I took his living But that I sate down on it And Bishop Morley saith That he was a Man of an unblameable life But I. He shall not hereby draw me to recite the Articles Sworn against him by as credible Men as any of his Neighbours 2. I think that it is not a blameless life to undertake the Pastoral Care of Souls and neither preach to them nor be able to Expound the Creed and to keep one as ignorant but much more vicious Turner at Mitton under him 3. I yet believe that such a Mans Possession doth not oblige the people to venture their Souls upon his Pastoral Care and own him for their Teacher and seek no other Nor make it a sin for any other to Teach them No more than the King's Ships or Armies must wilfully cast away Ships and Lives for want of Conduct because a Man that hath no tolerable skill is in Possession How cheap are Souls or how contemptible is Ministerial Knowledge and Preaching with these Men. You see here what is the best Church in the World in their account and what it is to destroy it 4. Almost two years before the Wars the Vicar conscious of his obnoxiousness entred into Bond with the chief Magistrates and others of the Town and Parish to pay 60 l. per Annum to a Lecturer of their choice he keeping his Vicaridge and officiating as Reader And so he put out Mr. Jo. Dide his Preaching Curate in whose place I came being before in another County Which Mr. Dide though more offensive before than the Vicar to the Religious people being after on my Testimony for him received into a Benefice of his own was so reconciled to the people of Kiderminster that he Bequeathed much of his Estate to them 5. In my absence some years Mr. Dance by Bond owed me about 120 l. of which I never desired or ask'd for a Penny And if Mr. Dance when forced out had right to his Benefice I that was forced away had right to my Salary Which yet I think was no good Title in him or me But he was sequestred when I was in another Countrey