not determined in the Scriptures but in obedience to the commands of our Rulers as the ends of Society shall require 3. Another thing they urge is Passive obedience an obsolete self-contradiction which they have taught the Rabble to vapour with but themselves are ashamed to own as being no other kind of Plea than what Papists Thieves Murderers may use with the same reason as they the vilest Malefactors are passively obedient So that since so leading a man as Mr. Baxter hath said it that the Priscilianists Donatists Novatians Anabaptists Quakers and other Sects were kept up meerly by a pretence to more spirituality Reformation tenderness of Conscience c. let the present Non-conformists exempt themselves by improving their religious pretences into religious realities loyalty charity meekness and the like and our animosities and divisions will be quickly at an end But notwithstanding these pretences to Reformation Religion and tenderness of Conscience yet are 6. Sedition Rebellion and Murders real Promoters of Presbytery Of these I may truly say in relation to Presbytery as the Aenigmatist said of Ice and Water Mater me genuit eadem mox gignitur ex me Rebellion hath all along nurs'd up Presbytery and Presbytery hath tolerated and taught Rebellion All History doth assure us that for this last hundred years there hath been no Sedition nor Rebellion no Tumult Treason or Massacre in all Europe but what hath been acted wholly or in part by Papist or Presbyterian as a means and for the sake of propagating their Religion 1. This hath been their frequent Doctrine 2. Their constant Practice 1. Their frequent Doctrine ab origine Calvin in his Institutions l. 4. cap. 10. If there be any popular Magistrate ordained to moderate the licentiousness of Kings so far am I from hindering them in restraining those Kings as their Office binds them that I conceive them rather to be guilty of a perfidious dissimulation if they connive at Kings if they play the Tyrants and wantonly insult over the common People i. e. if the People do but judge their Kings to do so And after him Beza in his Epistle to the Outlandish Church in England Ep. 24. Si quis c. If any man being lawfully invested with the Supreme Magistracy shall unjustly spoil or deprive his Subjects of their Rights and Priviledges of which he makes the People Judge then the ordinary and inferiour Officers are to oppose themselves against him c. It was the frequent Doctrine of Knox Buchanan Willock and the rest of Scotland as may be seen in their Writings that if the King refuse to reform Religion i. e. to set up Presbytery then the Nobles may and if they refuse the common People must The present Non conformists of England have taught that if the King raise War against the ParlJam nt the King may not onely be resisted but he ceases to be King and much more to the same purpose Mr. Baxter's Political Aphor. Thes. 358. 368. 147. 136. 151. passim When King James in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pref. advises his Son King Charles to take heed of those People called Puritans as the very Pest of the Church and Common-wealth whom no deserts can oblige nor oaths bind breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies aspiring without measure railing without reason and making their own imaginations the square of their Consciences protesting before the great God that he should not find in any Highlander greater ingratitude more lies and viler perjuries than among those fanatical Spirits We find the ground and reason of these words of the King to be his observation of their frequent use in their very Sermons to preach that all Kings and Princes were naturally enemies to the liberty of the Church and could never patiently bear the Yoke of Christ thus seditiously endeavouring to steal away the hearts of the People from their Soveraign And in Queen Elizabeths time when Burchet stabb'd Hawkins a Sea-Captain thinking it had been the Lord Chancellour Hatton because a zealous opposer of Presbytery he declared as the old Non-conformists the Donatists did before him that it was lawful to assassinate any man that opposed their religious Principle or Practice And as this was their Doctrine so 2. It was their constant Practice At the very first starting of Presbytery in the Year 1535. when the Bishop of Geneva would not admit of such alterations as Viret and Farellus with their Followers would have had they presently tumultuated drove the Bishop and Clergy out of the Town set up Calvin altered the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil disclaimed all allegiance to their Duke and Bishop and standing on their liberty as a Free State governed the City by a Common-council of two hundred men out of which they chose four as Supreme whom they called Syndicks And Presbytery having thus been first setled in Geneva by Rebellion was presently sent over into France where the Abettors of it supported by the Earl of Tholouse made its way by murdering Trincannel the Viscount and chief Governor of the City Beziers and dashing out the Bishops teeth They set it up in the Low-Countries beginning at the City Embden the principal City of the E. of Friesland by renouncing all allegiance to their Prince taking up Arms against him and setting themselves inform of a Commonwealth Poltrot who being set on by Beza murdered the Duke of Guise when he was upon the Rack confest that he was promised great rewards by the Admiral and was assured by Beza that by taking out of the World such a persecuter of the Gospel he could not but exceedingly merit at the hands of God In Scotland under pretence of removing the Popish Lords and promoting the Presbyterian Discipline the Earl of Bothwel and his Complices raised Forces to depose and murder the King And after that by the insinuation of fears and jealousies of the Kings aversness to the Gospel his inclination to Popery and of subverting the Presbyterian Discipline the Gowries conspire to kill King James which Plot was so approved of by the Presbyterian Ministers of Edenburgh that they refused to give thanks for the King's deliverance when commanded by his Proclamation so to do The murder of King Charles I. was first attempted by Poison and Pistol by Captain Rolph set on by the ParlJam nt Army before they proceeded in those more gentle methods of disburthening him of his large Revenues easing him of the charge of Royal House-keeping clearing him of his stately Palaces putting him out of care of repairing his Armories Arms Ammunition and Artillery taking him off the charge of keeping his Wife Children and most trusty Servants easing him of a multitude of his best Subjects and Friends by charitable famishing and brotherly banishing liberal or free imprisoning and ParlJam nt-plundering by friendly throat-cutting and unlawful beheading and hanging utterly ruinating as many as could be caught of those that loved served and honoured him and at last making
considering these two things I. That their correspondency of Principles and Practices with the Church of Rome so far as they are erroneous and dangerous is so very apparent to any that understand Popery Ex. gr 1. Both equally deny the King's Supremacy The Papist saith not the King but the Pope is Supream the Presbyter saith not the King but the ParlJam nt Prove saith Mr. Baxter that the King is the higher Power and I 'le offer my head to Justice as a Rebel And Calvin in his Comment upon Amos cap. 7. v. 13. calls them inconsiderate men that had conferred the Supremacy on King Henry VIII 2. The Pope saith an Heretical i. e. a Protestant King is to be deposed The Presbyterian says 't is lawful and commendable to fight against the King for Religion to depose him says Baxter And Martin Mar-Prelate in his second Book advises the ParlJam nt to put down the Bishops whether the Queen would or no. 3. Papists say Heretical i. e. Protestant Kings may be not onely deposed but killed by their Subjects Presbyterians say the same Ministers may excommunicate Princes and after a King is by Excommunication cast into Hell he is unworthy to live upon Earth says Buchanan Guignard the Jesuit hath it France is sick and they must cut the basilick vein to heal her The Presbyter hath the same words concerning King Charles the First Wound that Hazael under the fifth rib you must strike the basilick vein none but it can heal the Plurisie of State And Mr. Love O that our State Physicians would imitate God in cutting off from the Land those that have distempered it meaning the King as his next words shew praestat unus pereat quam unitas And accordingly they have practised as will be shewn in its proper place 4. They both proceed in the same method The Pope first Excommunicates then Deposes then Murders The Presbyter first Deposes the King then Murders Charles Stuart 5. They agree in so much as time The Jesuit i. e. the bloudy Papist and the Presbyter are both of an age the year 1535. is remarkable for the Geneva Discipline and the spawning of the Jesuits Order 6. Papists teach That Truce is not to be kept with Hereticks i. e. Protestants Presbyterians teach That Promise is not to be kept when the preaching of the truth i. e. Presbytery is hindered See their Marg. Not. on Matth. 2. 12. 7. Both will reproach and slander plunder and sequester kill and slay for the Churches good though the Apostle says We must not do evil that good may come thereby 8. Both agree in that Principle that Dominion is founded in Grace 9. 'T is the business of them both in Protestant Kingdoms by ill interpreting their Princes actions by slandering libelling and the like means to draw Subjects from their Allegiance 10. The Jesuits call themselves the Saintly Brotherhood the Church of Rome the onely true Church and all Hereticks beside themselves The Presbyterians call'd themselves formerly the Godly Party and all others Malignants Now the People of God the Zealous Protestants and all others Carnal Superstitious Formalists Popishly affected c. 11. The Papists formerly Plot Rebell and Massacre by entering into a Covenant called the Holy League as in the Massacre at Paris and Rebellion against King Henry the Third The Presbyterian did the same by entering into a Covenant called the Solemn League as in England and Scotland against King Charles the First 12. Papists warring against King Henry the Third of France in performance of their Holy League have frequent Fastings doubled devotions to persuade weak Consciences that they aimed at nothing but the setting up of Christ's Kingdom and to instruct them to cut their Kings throat as for the love of God and the gaining of Paradise Presbyters in warring against King Charles in performance of their Solemn League had frequent days of Humiliation and Thanksgiving for success in fighting against the King The Papists Holy League and the Presbyters Solemn League were both entered upon a groundless jealousie of the King's Religion In both there is a League with Strangers and Armies raised in the Kingdom against their natural Sovereign who gave them no occasion of the War but the too much gentleness and condescensions of them both In both the Fire of Civil War was blown about by seditious Preachers 13. Papists and Presbyterians both in their distinct Parties do still combine against the Government 14. Both for many years have been the great disturbers of the Peace of all Christendom Tell me says a late Gentile Writer of any Massacre or bloudy Wars or Stratagems against the Magistrate of any Treason or Rebellion whatever within the memory of man but what was carried on by one of these two Parties Papists or Presbyterians and I 'le be content to undergo the bloudy Inquisition of the one and the fate of the two Archbishops Canterbury and St. Andrews murdered by the other Now if they will go no further from the Church of Rome than she hath gone from the Truth let them shew if they can half so many parallels between the Church of England and of Rome 'T is true indeed the Churches of England retain some things that are in use in the Church of Rome but must we disbelieve and difuse every thing as Popish that the Papists believe and use then must we not believe that Christ is the Messias then must we renounce the Word Sacraments and Prayer because the Papists believe and use them But if we will depart no further from the Church in Reformation than she departs from the Truth in Corruption let the Non-conformists shew if they can wherein the Church of England agrees with that of Rome in half so many erroneous Principles and dangerous Practices as the Non-conformist doth What reason then have they so to curse a Church which the Lord hath blessed Her Sisters the Reformed Churches all calling her blessed and joying to behold her order and stedfastness in Christ so to stigmatize with the brand of Popish all that are not peevish and turbulent like themselves II. What Reason have they for it considering what great things the Episcopal Divines have done and suffered above them all along from the beginning of the Reformation to this day in detestation of Popery and attestation of the Reformed Religion as now professed in the Church of England some laying down their lives to testifie against Popery as Cranmer Ridley Latimer c. others standing in the Gap upon all occasions to oppose the return of it with most eminent abilities and greatest zeal above what Non-conformists can pretend to In the beginning of the Reformation when Calvin sent to Cranmer and after that to the Protector Seymour to offer his assistance they rejected him utterly so that neither he nor any of the Consistorian Principle had any hand in the first Reformation in England or have any of them ever since done any
their froward hearts and 't is the Rod of Correction must fetch it out The Non-conformity-Faction being always observed to have this Hydropical humour of increasing by being indulg'd which makes them just as fit to be indulg'd as a desperate Dropsie which is exasperated by mitigations But the unreasonableness of Non-conformists Plea for Toleration and complaints of Sufferings in being restrained will sufficiently appear by considering distinctly the Persons suffering and the Things suffered The Persons suffering are 1. Such who at the same time revile the Government reproach and expose their Governours managing their pretence of Conscience in such an invective way as makes their complaints and clamours more like matter of superiority than of scruple 2. They are such as have kept days of Prayer and Thanksgiving for Victories over the King have preached the People into Rebellion against him have preached from him his Arms and Money Laws and Credit Liberty and Life and in the most solemn manner have Justified all when they have done and after this endeavoured all they could to keep this present King out of his Throne That Mr. Baxter's Holy Commonwealth was wrote to that very end and purpose will appear to any that compares the time of his publishing it which his Book was wrote as he says 〈◊〉 to satisfie the demands and doubts of which was the Year 1659. when the grand point in doubt was whether the King should be restored or no. He that compares this with those three Theseses 145 146 147. where he hints that the King was justly dispossessed as by a lawful War that being conquered by the People they were not obliged to restore him nay though he had been dispossessed unjustly yet it was not the duty of Subjects to seek his restitution I say these things compared with that vital circumstance viz. the time of writing it make it evident that the design of it was only this to keep out the King But 2. The Unreasonableness of Non-conformists Plea for Toleration and complaint of Sufferings will further appear by considering the things suffered Consider it in the Comparison and in it self 1. In comparison of what the Conforming Clergy suffered under them Their sufferings in the Usurpation times will appear to be little less than those of the Spanish Inquisition or the Marian Persecution to any that reads but 1. the Bill of Mortality of the Clergy of London wherein we have account of 115 turned out of their Livings Plundered of their Goods their Wives and Children sent a begging whereof above 40 were Doctors in Divinity 20 imprisoned in London and the Ships 25 fled to escape imprisonment 22 died with grief in Prisons and remote places The Protestants Remonstrance recounts many more alike sufferers in the Country both which together shew that there were more suffered by Ejecting Sequestring and barbarous plundering by the Presbyterians in three Years time then did by the Papists in all Queen Maries Reign But 2. Consider what their suffering is in it self and it will appear to be little else but a self-silencing meerly because they cannot get priviledge above the peaceable and loyal Sons of the Church I call it a self-silencing because all that the Law doth is to hold forth one common rule indifferently to all every man hath the conditions of his Freedom tendered him which are such as themselves have for the most part acquitted from all intrinsick turpitude or sin and he that will not comply with these conditions siilences himself beside 't is not the Man that is silenced neither but onely this or that irregular Practice or Opinion which the Magistrate seeing insuperable necessity for hath authority from God to regulate and restrain Moreover their Plea in this matter is no more than what Dissenters of all sorts may use so that if Rulers may be judge they are to be suppressed if the People must be judge then Papists Quakers c. must be tolerated also And such Liberty saith Mr. Baxter in matters of Worship and Faith is the way to set up Popery in the Land But let Non-Conformists Scruples be what they will if it seem good to our Rulers to put the restraint upon them I humbly recommend to them that good advice of Mr. Baxter See to this my Brethren saith he that none of you suffer as an evil-doer or as a busie-body in other mens matters as a resister of the commands of lawful Authority as ungrateful to those that have been instruments of our good as evil speakers against dignities as opposers of the discipline and ordinances of Christ as scornful revilers of your Christian Brethren as reproachers of a laborious and judicious Ministry Saints Rest. p. 131. examining well whether the grounds and reasons of their sufferings be not the same as that of Popish Priests and Jesuites viz. not their religious Principle but their seditious Practice encouraging People to tumultuate and rebel by rendering the Government and Governours odious by teaching as Mr. Baxter doth in his Plea for Peace that 't is not in the power of Princes to forbid Ministers preaching as much as to say 't is lawful to resist the King's Authority in defence of the Conventicle 2. Grindallizing A second thing that promotes the interest and increase of Separation is Grindallizing By Grindallizers I mean the Conforming Non-conformists or rather such as are Conformists in their Profession Half-Conformists in their practice Non-conformists in their judgment like the old Gnostick-Separatists which the Apostle calls double minded men or like the Sinner in Eccl. 2. 13. that looks two manner of ways or like the Haven in Creet Acts 27. 12. that bows and bends to the South and to the North to the Church of England and to the Kirk of Scotland as interest and opportunity shall incline These are they which down with all Oaths and Subscriptions required though what they swallow whole in their Subscriptions they mince and mangle in their practice they conform to all seemingly but hypocritically mangle the Common-Prayer handle the Surplice gently plow socunningly with their Ox and Ass together carry it so cunningly that they can scarce be known but per modum opinionis by their open compliances with the Enemies of the Church by their Gallionism in defending the Orders and Ceremonies of the Church and other matters of Conformity which require their proportion of Zeal and Resolution by their hearing with patience and unconcernedness the interest honour and peace of the Church run down by swaggering Sectaries by their talking Conformity and Nonconformity with such compassionate and serious innuendo's as may sufficiently signifie their favourable opinion of if not good will to their Cause by their defending the popular Election of Bishops by ambiguously representing the separation as if it were no Schism by their writing fraudulent Pleas for the Non-conformists by endeavouring to acquit the Presbyterians and Independents of the King's Murder and in statu quo by their Votes in chusing ParlJam nts
him a glorious King by cutting him off with the Sword of Justice for the sake of God and the Gospel I say before they proceeded in these gentle religious methods they first design'd his murder with Poison and Pistol by the aforenamed Captain Rolph set on by the ParlJam nt Army Sir Rich. Bakers Chron. p. 585. Thus hath Presbytery all along like any Penthesilea furens been bred of bloud and fed of bloud and as common History shews was begot in Rebellion born in Sedition and nurs'd up in Faction 7. Aspersing Governours and Government To this Head of Faction and Sedition may be reduced their frequent custom of aspersing and reproaching Governours and Government 'T is a Rule in Politie Corruptio optimi est generatio pessimi so that when the Monarchical and Episcopal Government are rendered odious the Republican and Presbyterian must of course be hugg'd and endeavoured to be trump'd up therefore hath it always been their restless endeavours to cast what odium they can upon the Government and Governours as Arbitrary Tyrannical and Popishly affected and on the Worship and Discipline of the Church as Formal Superstitious and savouring of Popery because when once People are seduced to opinion thus of it they have plausible pretence to oppose it and to endeavour all they can an alteration in it and therefore I say it hath always been their practice as the Apostle observes of the old Gnostick Schismaticks to despise dominions and speak evil of things they know not and that loudest of all in their infamous Libellings Though the holy Scriptures teach that he that provokes the King to anger sinneth against his own soul Prov. 20. 2. and that none may say unto Kings ye are wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly Though the Scriptures call it Blasphemy to speak reproachfully of the King and by Moses ' s Law it was death to disobey but an inferiour authority yet in despight of these Laws of God Nature and Nations it is and ever was their constant practice by insolent and treasonable discourses by impudent and seditious libellings to cast what odium they can upon the Government as that which is very conducible to the pulling of it down Queen Elizabeth they compared to an idle dirty Slut who swept the middle of the room but left the dirt behind the door because she would not for their Innovations sake sweep all Decency out of the Church For the same reason they called K. James the greatest and most deadly Enemy of the Gospel And it was his frequent observation that in their Sermons they used to teach that all Kings and Princes were naturally Enemies to the Churches Liberty and could never patiently bear the Yoak of Christ. And in King Charles the First 's time to say nothing of their Sermons before the ParlJam nt they kept in constant pay Mercurius Britannicus and other scandalous Writers by their horrid Libels to defame the King or as their word of advice was to blacken him and to enrage the People against him And t'other day Fitzharris in his Depositions before Sir George Trebee as I remember and others says that Father Patrick the Jesuite desired him to send him over into Ireland all the Libels that came out in London telling him that libelling the King and the Government was a thing necessary to be done in order to distaste the King and to make him and the People jealous of each other And accordingly hath been their practice as appears by their late Letter of Advice for Election of ParlJam nt their Appeal from the Country to the City the Nations Aggrievance and many the like venomous Libels which send forth such poisonous evulsions and belchings of Fanaticism as are enough to turn the very heart and stomach of any that hath but the least sense or savour of Loyalty in him And yet how much these contribute to the encouragement and increase of their Interest and Party may be partly seen by that pleasant eagerness and jocond titillation wherewith they entertain and read them 7. Their boast of their number and strength It hath always been their practice to endeavour the increase of their Party by boasting of their increase When they had a mind to proceed in their Innovations in the Year 1585. Penry advised it as an expedient to terrifie the State into a compliance with them that they present themselves to the ParlJam nt with a Petition subscribed by a hundred thousand hands 'T is said nothing more alarmed the Queen no not the Spanish Armado than the report of their strength and number published in a Book called The Humble Motion in which it was affirmed that thousands did sigh for the Holy Discipline and ten thousands had sought it and that the most worthy men of every Shire had consented to it that the Eldership was at hand that all People were inflamed with a zeal for it and that it was hard dangerous nay impossible to stand against it The very first thing they offered at in King James's time soon after his coming to the Crown was to present a Petition to him in the name of the Ministers of England desiring reformation of sundry Ceremonies and abuses in the Church it was given out to be subscribed by a thousand Ministers and therefore called the Millenary Petition which when 't was examined wanted several hundreds of the number Of the same kind was that of B. H's True Prot. Intelligence who lately printed an Address from the City of Colchester subscribed by a great number of hands which Address was never seen nor presented by any of the Inhabitants of Colchester as was made appear by an Instrument under the Town-Clerks hand The Appeal from the Country to the City says that the City of London is too powerful for any Prince that governs not by the love of his People A man can scarce come into any of their company but he shall hear them with this kind of boast flattering themselves deluding others and belying the whole Kingdom Now whether the design of this be to encourage the People in a Rebellion if opportunity should serve or whether it be meerly to intimidate the Rulers into a compliance with them and a suspension of the poenal Laws Certain it is that this kind of boast of their number and strength and what a considerable Party they are is one frequent way they have and of very proper tendency to encourage their Followers in Schism and Faction and to increase their Party But as the design of it speaks Rebellion so doth its falsity shew the Cheat. CONCLUSION Now upon review of the whole it will appear to any not blinded with prejudice or hardened in Faction That Toleration of Church-Dissenters was never hitherto the way to Church-Union but that Toleration and Separation are as inseparable in themselves as intollerable in their effects which are constantly such as these Schism in the Church Sedition in the State Disorder Distraction