THE Presbyterians Unmask'd OR ANIMADVERSIONS UPON A Nonconformist Book CALLED The Interest of ENGLAND IN THE Matter of RELIÌ„GION Nihil â—cci diciâ— 3 Iâ—o Nihil Fateris QVISEQVITUR ME NON AMBULAT IN TENâ—â—RIS Non Quis sed Quid. Not Who but What. LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner 1676. THE PREFACE THough perhaps there have been several Junctures since 1661. wherein the publishing of these Animadversions which were then finished would have been judged more seasonable yet I must profess my self in the number of those men who believe nothing of this nature can come out unseasonably till either the Old cause cease to be thought good or else the good old cause cease to be on the Anvile And who can imagine but that it is so still when men still endeavour to support factious Parties in opposition to the Laws of the Land Nay have the impudence to inveigh even against the Laws themselves that were designed to secure the State for the future against the malignant influences and the disturbing pernicious attempts of Presbyterian as well as other Sectarian Spirits witness that late vile Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend in the Countrey in which the able but more daring Author accuses the Act for regulating Corporations as keeping many of the wealthiest worthiest and soberest men out of the Magistracy of those places The Act which settled the Militia as establishing a standing Army by a Law and swearing us into a Military Government Whereas nothing does more justify the necessity of a standing Army of which such a jealousie is pretended than the cross-grain'd seditious humours of those men who exclaim most against it The Five-mile Oxford Act as imposing a most unlawful and unjustifiable Oath and the Act for Uniformity as that which rendered Bartholomew-day fatal to our Church and Religion in throwing out a very great number of worthy learned pious and Orthodox Divines In which glorious Titles the Presbyterian Divines were without doubt intended to have the greatest share and the Lay-Presbyterians in the forementioned character of the Wealthiest Worthiest and Soberest men 'T is a wonder he did not add and most loyal Subjects but it may be he was not so intimately acquainted with them as this John Corbet was who is so profuse and lavish of his praises as to commend Presbyterians Interest of England p. 66. 2. Edit even on this score too We affirm boldly says he that those for whom we plead viz. Presbyterians must needs be good Subjects to a Christian King and good members of a Christian Commonwealth The Man I confess has an excellent knack at whitening Aethiopians and putting Wolves into sheeps clothing But he must not be angry if we endeavour for our own and other mens security to strip them of that covering lest under the specious disguises of Religion Reformation and Liberty they once more rend and tear us and make us a prey to Atheism Confusion and Tyranny It concerns us to have the Presbyterian vizor taken off and these worthy learned sober serious Gentlemen of the padd exposed in their proper shape and features that so they may be too well known to be suffered to rob us any more of our Laws Government Order Peace and tranquillity And therefore he does a very good office who at any time gives men warning to take heed of these devouring Sepulchres And because this demure Author had taken so much pains to make them appear beautiful outwardly I thought it worth mine to pare away the grass and to set a fresh mark upon them that so honest men might not fall into them unawares nor permit themselves to be again defiled with Presbyterian uncleanness Imprimatur Maii 2. 1676. G. Jane R. P. D. Henr. Episcopo Lond. Ã Sac. Dom. ANIMADVERSIONS on a Book Entitled The Interest of ENGLAND in the matter of RELIGION THE Author having told us Page 16. 26. 2. Edit that among the various disagreeing Parties within this Kingdom two main ones appear above the rest viz. the Episcopal and Presbyterian and that the disunion between these Parties must be removed either by the abolition of one Party or by the coalition of both into one or by a toleration indulg'd to the weaker side he proceeds p. 17. 27. without staying to inform us how disunion of Parties may be said to be remov'd either by the abolition or toleration of one Party to that which he presumes the great case of the time and therefore proposes it as the subject of his discourse viz. in which of these three ways Abolition Coalition or Toleration the true Interest of the King and Kingdom lies And the first thing that he enquires into is Whether in Justice or reason of State the Presbyterian Party should be rejected and depressed or protected and encouraged Which Party he distinguishes from Prelatists by these Characters which p. 20. 30. he calls their main and rooted Principles 1. They admire and magnify the holy Scriptures and take them for the absolute perfect Rule of Faith and life without the supplement of Ecclesiastical Tradition yet they deny not due respect and reverence to venerable Antiquity 2. They assert the study and knowledge of the Scriptures to be the duty and priviledge of all Christians yet they acknowledge the necessity of a standing Gospel-ministery and receive the directive Authority of the Church not with implicit Faith but the Judgment of Discretion 3. They hold the teaching of the Spirit necessary to the saving knowledge of Christ yet they hold not that the spirit brings new Revelations 4. They exalt divine ordinances but debase humane inventions in Gods worship particularly Ceremonies properly religious and of instituted mystical signification yet they allow the natural expressions of reverence and devotion as kneeling and lifting up of the hands and eyes in prayer as also those meer circumstances of decency and order the omission whereof would make the service of God either undecent or less decent 5. They rejoyce in Christ Jesus having no confidence in a legal righteousness but desire to be found in him who is made unto us righteousness by gracious imputation yet withal they affirm constantly that good works of piety towards God and of justice and charity towards men are necessary to salvation 6. Their Doctrine bears full conformity with that of the Reformed Churches held forth in their publick confessions and particularly with that of the Church of England in the 39 Articles only one or two passages peradventure excepted so far as they may import the asserting of Prelacy and humane mystical Ceremonies 7. They insist much on the necessity of Regeneration and therein lay the ground-work for the practice of Godliness 8. They press upon themselves and others the severe exercise not of a Popish outside formal but a spiritual and real mortification and self denial according to the power of Christianity 9. They are strict observers of the Lords
1. Their suppressing Lectures and Afternoon Sermons which is nothing to the purpose unless he had proved also that these are of Divine Institution or are necessary means of unfeigned Faith and holy Life 2. A book for sports and pastimes on Sundays enjoyn'd to be read by Ministers in their Parish Churches under penalty of deprivation What so as to exclude either Common-Prayer and preaching in the Morning or Divine Service and Catechizing in the Afternoon or so as to licence the absence of any Parishioner from that service either part of the day 3. Superstitious Innovations introduc'd Si accusâsse suffecerit quis erit innocens 4. A new Book of Canons composed and a new Oath for upholding the Hierarchy inforc'd By whom were not this Oath and those Canons composed in Convocation by our Church-Governours were they not confirmed and imposed by the Royal Assent And why I pray was the new Oath for upholding the Hierarchy establish'd by Law more superstitious than the newer Oath for destroying that Hierarchy so established Far be it from me says he p. 32. 42. to impute these things to all that were in judgment Episcopal for I am perswaded a great if not the greater part of them disallowed these Innovations These Innovations what Innovations The word must in reason refer to the particulars just now enumerated viz. The new Book of Canons the new Oath the Book for sports and pastimes on Sundays But are these men in justice and Reason of State to be protected and encouraged who dare to call new Laws either of State or Church or both occasioned by new emergencies Innovations or new practices superstitious meerly because not commanded in Gods word Now these things are so far from being a proof of the inconsistency of Prelacy with the lively opening of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel with the upholding of all Divine Institutions a laborious and efficacious Ministry c. that the contrary is evident from the instance of the Right Reverend Bishop Morton whom this very Author I believe hath scarce confidence enough to accuse as a Delinquent in those particulars since p. 67. 77. he reckons Bishop Morton in the number of those Episcopal Divines whose Doctrine is entirely embrac'd by the Presbyterians Who yet did not only approve of but had the chief hand in contriving and publishing that Declaration which allowed some Sports and Pastimes as that which was then the most probable course to stop the current of Popery and profaneness as appears from the story of that Bishop's life publish'd by Dr. Barwick p. 80 81. So 't is evident also from the Augustan Confession c. 7. De Potest Ecclesiasticâ and Mr. Calvin's Institutions that both he and the Lutheran Reformers were far enough from thinking the Lords day of Divine Institution who yet were for a lively opening of the pure Doctrine of the Gospel and a laborious efficacious ministry In some following Pages the Author pretends to manifest that the Presbyterian Interest will never be extinguished while the State of England continues Protestant For says he p. 34. 44. let but the Protestant Doctrine as 't is by Law establisht in the Church of England be upheld and preach'd and 't will raise up a genuine off-spring of this people whose way is no other than the life and power of that Doctrine But I as confidently affirm on the other side that if the Protestant Doctrine by Law establisht in the Church of England be upheld and preach'd 't will raise up such a genuine off-spring of true English Protestants as shall own Prelacy and the Churches Authority in appointing Ceremonies both which are establisht by that Doctrine but rejected by Presbyterians If their way be no other than the life and power of that Doctrine they act suitably to these Principles viz. That the Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies and authority in Controversies of Faith Artic. 20. That whosoever through his private Judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offends against the Common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren Every particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Artic. 34. They practically own the Kings power within his Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and all other his Dominions and Countries as the highest power under God to whom all men as well inhabitants as born within the same do by Gods Laws owe most loyalty and obedience afore and above all other Potentates in Earth They act as if they believed his Majesty to have the same Authority in causes Ecclesiastical that the godly Kings had among the Jews and Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church They use the Form of Gods worship in the Church of England establisht by Law and contained in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments without surmising it to be either corrupt superstitious or unlawful or to contain any thing in it that is repugnant to the Scriptures They are obedient to the Government of the Church of England by Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons and the rest that bear office in the same not fancying it to be either Antichristian or repugnant to the word of God They do not combine themselves together in a new brotherhood accounting the Christians who are conformable to the Doctrine Government Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England to be profane and unmeet for them to joyn with in Christian Profession They imagine not 1. that any of the 39. Articles are in any part superstitious or erroneous or 2. that the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England by Law establisht are wicked Antichristian or superstitious or such as being commanded by lawful Authority men who are zealously and godly affected may not with any good conscience approve them use them or as occasion requires subscribe to them or 3. that the sign of the Cross used in Baptism is any part of the substance of that Sacrament They hold that things of themselves indifferent do in some sort alter their natures when they are either commanded or forbidden by a lawful Magistrate and may not be omitted at every mans pleasure contrary to the Law when they be commanded nor used when they are prohibited These are parts of the Doctrine establisht by Law in the Church of England as is evident from the 1 2 4 7 9 5 6 30. Canons legally framed and ratified But where are those English Presbyterians to be found whose way hath been no other than the life and power of this Doctrine Have not their practises too loudly proclaimed to the world that they have
Nobility Gentry and Commonalty and when they had got the power in their hands O what grateful and ingenuous returns they made them for that benignity and favour They ruin'd the Bishops not sparing even those most heartily Protestant Bishops who had been so benign and favourable to them they raised a War against the King plundered sequestred murthered those that adhered to him and by degrees extorted from himself such grand diminutions of his Royal Prerogative as that they left him little more than the Title of a King And are such men as these such true English Protestants so good Christians as that they ought in justice and reason of State to be still treated benignly and favourably Nay rather should not King Nobles and Commons p. 40. 50. remember their darling Protestantism I mean that good English Protestantism contained in the 39. Articles by Law establisht in the Church of England that true mean between Fanatick and Jesuitical Protestantism Should not I say King Nobles and Commons remember this their darling and in reason of State abandon that sort of persons who have contributed so much to the destruction of it Let them not sleep securely while the seeds-men of the envious one sow the Tares of Division in our Field not only to weaken and hinder but to choak and eat out our English Protestant Faith Order and Government And let our gracious Soveraign still shew himself gracious where his undeserved clemency is like to produce happy permanent effects but on the other side let the mischiefs that befel his Royal Father through the stubborn Insolency of ingrateful and disloyal Presbyterians make him wary in time and circumspectly provident for his own and the Kingdoms safety lest himself also know and feel by sad experience what it is to protect and encourage presbyterians P. 41. 51. The Author takes upon him to vindicate Presbyterians from the many Calumnies with which he tells us they are loaded The first that he mentions is their plucking from the Civil Magistrate his power in Causes Ecclesiastical and erecting Imperium in Imperio Which says he is a groundless and gross mistake and to prove it so he urges the declared judgment of the Highest of that way according to their own words which are these To the Political Magistrate is allowed a Diatactick ordering regulating power about Ecclesiastical affairs in a Political way so that he reforms the Church when corrupted in Divine Worship Discipline or Government But notwithstanding this there may be Imperium in Imperio For the Kirk may assume to themselves the power of judging whether there are such corruptions or no and whether the Civil Magistrate reforms those corruptions in a warrantable manner or no and consequently of checking him in both respects if he chance to judge otherwise than they do witness the next He convenes and convocates Synods and Councils made up of Ecclesiastical Persons to advise and conclude determinatively according to the word of God how the Church is to be reformed and refined from corruption how to be guided and governed when reformed But notwithstanding this there may be Imperium in Imperio For the Kirk may challenge to themselves a power of convening without yea against the Civil Magistrate's command and here they actually challenge the power of conclusively determining how the Church is to be reformed and governed He ratifies and establishes within his Dominions the just and necessary Decrees of the Church in Synods and Councils by his Civil Sanction But notwithstanding this there may be Imperium in Imperio For the Kirk may claim the power of determining whether its own Decrees be just and necessary or no and of puting them in execution though the Civil Magistrate deny to ratify them by his Civil Sanction He judges and determines definitively with ae consequent and political judgment or judgment of Discretion concerning things judged and determined antecedently by the Church in reference to his own Act. But notwithstanding this there may be Imperium in Imperio For the Kirk may take upon them to controul the King as well as private persons if his difinitive Judgment of discretion which they allow to every private person p. 20. 30. in reference to his own act should chance to contradict their antecedent determinations He takes care politically that even matters and Ordinances merely and formally Ecclesiastical be duly managed by Ecclesiastical Persons orderly called thereunto But notwithstanding this there may be Imperium in Imperio For the Kirk may imagine that in case the King refuse to take this Political care themselves may appoint Ecclesiastical Persons to manage them and that their so doing is an orderly call to those Persons to act accordingly He hath a compulsive punitive or corrective power formally Political in matters of Religion in reference to all sorts of Persons and things under his Jurisdiction But notwithstanding this there may be Imperium in Imperio For holy Kirk may deny her self to be in matters of Religion under his Jurisdiction He may Politically compel the outward man of all Persons Church-Officers or others under his Dominion unto External performance of their respective duties and offices in matters of Religion punishing them if either they neglect to do their duty at all or do it corruptly But notwithstanding this also there may be Imperium in Imperio For the Kirk may fancy themselves the only or chief Judges of what are the duties and offices belonging to such and such Persons and whether they neglect or corruptly perform them So that if Presbyterians grant no more power to belong to the King of England in Ecclesiastical matters they deny his Supremacy and consequently erect Imperium in Imperio How they who give up themselves to the sole direction and Authority of the holy Scriptures p. 24. 34. can in reason acknowledge a spiritual power over the Conscience as intrinsecally belonging to the Church I leave him to inform us who would have us believe p. 43. 53 that Presbyterians do not claim for the Convocation or any other Ecclesiastical Convention an Independency on Parliaments That they do not claim it for a Convocation of Bishops and Episcopal men I am apt enough to believe But I cannot entertain any reasonable hope that they who have Covenanted so deeply in the behalf of the Scotch Discipline and Form of Government as to swear an endeavour of reforming things in England according to the example of the Kirk of Scotland as one of the best reformed Churches will acknowledge the ratification of the decrees of all Ecclesiastical conventions to depend on Parliaments For if Bishop Bramhall deceive us not Fair Warning p. 9. 'T is a Scotch maxime that Parliamentary ratifications can no way alter Church-Canons concerning the worship of God for Ecclesiastical Discipline ought to be exercised whether it be ratified by the Civil Magistrate or not The want of a Civil Sanction to the Church is but like lucrum cessans not damnum emergens as it adds nothing
Discipline and Government is founded and exercised 2. Whether those English Presbyterians who have covenanted to endeavour the reformation of Religion in the Kingdom of England in Discipline and Government according to the example of the best reformed Churches in the number of which Churches they may well be supposed to reckon the Kirk of Scotland ought not to be look'd upon as persons engaging themselves to imitate that Kirk by endeavouring the Introduction of the like practices here in England grounded on the like principles 3. Whether therefore such an approbation of those Principles and Practices ought not in justice to have been mentioned as part of their Character and 4. Whether persons that may justly have such a character affixt upon them ought in justice or reason of State to be protected and encouraged or rejected and depressed Whereas this Author tells us p. 24. 34. that the men of the Presbyterian perswasion are not lukewarm but true zelots I answer They are so much the more dangerous and more likely to be Instruments of mischief unless their zeal be ballasted with knowledge and discretion and exerted in lawful ways Indeed if they are like the Scotch Disciplinarian zelots before mentioned they are so far from being lukewarm that they are rather Seditious Incendiaries and prone to nothing more than the kindling of devouring Fires in that Nation where they are encourag'd Nevertheless says he they have no fellowship with the spirit of Enthusiastical and Anabaptistical fancy and frenzy What! not in their main and rooted Principles By which he characterizes them p. 20 21. 30 31. which I intimate chiefly as another Argument of the lameness and imperfection of that character We have reason to believe that our modern Presbyterians are somewhat better than their Forefathers if they do not agree with them and the Anabaptists 1. In disturbing the Church under pretence of reforming it 2. In labouring both by conferences in private and by Sermons in publick to draw the common people from their liking the present State 3. In publishing factious Books to the view of the world 4. In disdaining and reproaching Magistrates for endeavouring to bring them to conformity by compulsion 5. In slandering and reviling those Ministers that withstand their factious proceedings attributing much good to themselves and pouring contempt and discredit upon their opposites 6. In impugning the prescript Form of Prayer 7. In holding that the word of God must of necessity be preach'd before the Administration of the Sacraments 8. In protesting that they go not about to take any authority from Magistrates even while they seek to overthrow the Government of the State That the Anabaptists in Germany were thus guilty and the Presbyterians in England in Q. Elizabeth's days I refer the Reader for proof to Oliver Ormerod's picture of a Puritan written about those times and reprinted 1605. wherein he endeavours to prove that the Puritans then resembled the Anabaptists in above fourscore Points See also Archbishop Whitgift's defence of his Answer to the Admonition p. 33 34. in Fol. And I wish it were not easie to manifest that our late Covenanting Presbyterians have had too much fellowship with the spirit of these Anabaptistical Frenzies now mention'd who says this Author are no Fanaticks although they begin to be by some abus'd under that name But he might have known that turbulent Presbyterians have been so call'd long since by one that had skill enough to give persons such names as were suitable to their Natures even King James himself in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 B. 2. where speaking of some Scotch Puritans such fiery-spirited-Presbyterians as endeavoured to introduce a parity in the Church you shall never find says he with any High-land or Border Thieves more lies and vile perjuries than with those Fanatick Spirits c. But says this Author they are persons of known learning prudence piety and gravity in great numbers Here it may be question'd 1. How he can prove this Encomium of them to be true 2. Whether the Quakers do not excel them in gravity the Anabaptists in piety the Independents in prudence the Prelatists in learning and some Jesuits in all four and yet this Author seems willing enough to have all these parties rejected and depressed Besides of inferior rank a vast multitude of knowing serious honest people 1. This also wants proof 2. The more learning prudence piety and gravity those of the superior rank have the more peaceably and quietly they will live under lawful Governours and the more obediently they will submit to their Laws which therefore if either they or those of inferior rank refuse to do they are either less knowing or less serious and honest than in conscience it concerns those to be who expect to be protected and encouraged by Governors None of all which are led blindfold by Tradition or implicit Faith This man sure is a very knowing person himself if he be so well acquainted with all the Presbyterians as to be able to aver this of them all or of a vast multitude of them upon good grounds But is he indeed certain that none of them are so lazy ignorant and sottish as to be led blindâ—old by the Tradition and dictates of their Presbyterian Parsons Did none of them by an implicit Faith believe it lawful to take the Covenant Do none of them by an implicit Faith believe the Rites and Forms by Law and Canons establisht among us unlawful p. 29. 39. Was it not an implicit Faith in the seditious Doctrines of the Society of Jesus whereby they believed it lawful to take up Arms against their lawful Soveraign Or do run headlong into Fanatick delusions Are any turn'd Fanaticks at last but those that were first such Presbyterians as himself describes p. 21 22 But they give up themselves to the sole direction and authority of the holy Scriptures He hath told us before that they deny not due respect and reverence to venerable Antiquity p. 20. 30. Let him shew if he can how they respect and reverence venerable Antiquity if they afford it not some directive Authority 2. Why may not Independents and Anabaptists as well be said to give up themselves to the sole direction and Authority of the holy Scriptures as Presbyterians Wherefore impartial Reason will conclude that they chose this way as with sincerity of affection so with gravity of judgment and that the things themselves even the more disputable part of them as that against the Hierarchy and Ceremonies are such as may frequently prevail with good and wise men Which inference signifies nothing till the truth of the premises be clear'd except the Authors confidence that the Prelatists have reason to believe whatsoever he says in the praise of Presbyterians merely because he is bold enough to say it Inasmuch as they appear to those that have embrac'd them to have the Impress of Divine Authority and the Character of Evangelical Purity Dares this Author deny that the Principles of
other Sectaries appear to those that have embrac'd them to have the Impress of Divine Authority and the Character of Evangelical Purity If not does it follow that those men also chose their way with sincerity of affection and gravity of judgment or that their opinions may frequently prevail with good and wise men if it does not follow why does he argue so weakly and injudiciously For the reasons aforegoing the infringment of due liberty in these matters would perpetuate most unhappy controversies in the Church from age to age It seems the man is of opinion that all parties ought to be tolerated yea encouraged who chuse their way with sincerity of affection and gravity of judgment and upon such grounds as may frequently prevail with good and wise men inasmuch as they appear to them to have the Impress of Divine Authority and the Character of Evangelical Purity If he be not of this opinion let him shew why Presbyterians ought to be encouraged and not others that have the same qualifications If he be let him produce convincing Arguments that other Sects have not all these qualifications that is that the Independents Anabaptists and Quakers were for the generality either Fools or Knaves when they chose those ways Besides does he imagine that the Independents Anabaptists and Quakers are not as desirous of due liberty in their way as the Presbyterians are in theirs or that the men of those perswasions are so lukewarm in their affections or so inconsiderable for their number as that the infringment of their liberty will not perpetuate most unhappy Controversies in this Church Ergò by this Authors Presbyterian Logick they ought in reason of State to be protected and encouraged as well as Presbyterians If the three next Pages prove any thing they evince that the Presbyterian Leaven will from time to time sowre the lump of this Church and State if such literally-Polemical and unchristianly-practical Teachers as too many of them are be protected and encouraged 'T is no wonder that Tares should grow where they are suffered to be sown and that they should spoil the Wheat where they are nourished I find it observed by a late writer See the Apologie for Bishops sitting and voting in Parliament P. 73. out of Bishop Bancroft that he long since plainly foretold that the Puritans would never give over their clamour for Reformation till they had utterly ruined the whole Kingdom and Church and yet said he there are divers meaning men in great places that would gladly have these things smothered up being willing to think that the Puritans were no such dangerous men as he and others did take them to be only scrupulous and peevish perhaps about Ceremonies and therefore were willing to forbear them and not to censure them sharply But that Prelate did wisely tell them That if any such mischiefs which God forbid shall happen hereafter they were sufficiently warned that both should and might in good time have prevented them and withall it would then be found true which Livy says Urgentibus Rempublicam fatis Dei hominum salutares admonitiones spernuntur When the Lord for the sins of a people is purposed to punish any Country he blindeth the eye of the wise so as they shall either neglect or not perceive the ordinary means for the safety thereof c. This Author would perswade us p. 29. 39. that the numerous Presbyterian party will not vary from it self or vanish upon changes in Government or new Accidents for it rests not upon any private temporary variable occasion but upon a cause perpetual and everlasting Those forementioned principles of science and practice which give it its proper being are of that firm and fixt nature that new contingencies will not alâ—er them nor length of time wear them out To which I answer 1. If this Party is so invariable how comes it to pass that those Rites and Ceremonies which himself tells us p. 28. 38. were heretofore by the greatest part of the Ministers nam'd Puritans look'd upon and yielded to as things in their own nature Indifferent are now accounted p. 29. 39 by most of this way Unlawful Does not this argue a variation in this Party from it self Hath not length of time worn out those their former Principles of science and practice Dr. John Burges in his Preface to his answer in Vindication of Bishop Morton touching Ceremonies tells us p. 11. that the State in K. James his Reign would never suffer these Ceremonies to be questioned of unlawfulness which Dr. Reynolds Dr. Chaderton Dr. Spark and the rest of the most eminent men of this Nation who seem'd to favour that Party would neither affirm to be unlawful nor be known that any of that side were so weak as to think so But now it seems the men fam'd so much by this Author for their Learning and Orthodoxy their excelling in Polemical and Practical Divinity p. 23. 33. these Judicious and Prudent men that have no Fellowship with Anabaptistical Fancy and Frenzy p. 24. 34. these knowing and wise men p. 24 25. these fixt and unalterable men p. 29. 39. are grown so weak and feeble in their Intellectuals so Feminine in their resolves as to deem them unlawful Again if they are such an invariable Party in their Principles of science and practice what 's the reason that in these days they have Covenanted to endeavour the extirpation of that English Hierarchy which in the days of yore their Presbyterian Ancestors were far from condemning as wicked and intolerable Witness this passage which Crakanthorp in his Desens Eccles Anglicanae contra Archiepisc Spalat p. 243. quotes out of Henry Jacob one of that Party who is his Tract de Veritate Vocat Minister p. 88. against Johnson the Brownist speaks thus Quisquis quicquam de Ecclesiae Anglicanae Statu intelligit non potest non videre multos eosque doctos in Ecclesiâ Anglicanâ sentire docere Hierarchicum quod nunc est in eâ Regimen unicum esse verum ac legitimum Regiminis genus ferè omnes etiam Puritanos idem ut indifferens legitimum agnoscere perpaucos verò vix usquam quenquam invenies qui ut malum impium aut non ferendum judicant He that understands any thing of the State of the English Church cannot but see that many learned men in the Church of England believe and teach that the Hierarchical Government by which 't is ruled is the only true and legitimate Form of Government and that almost all men acknowledge it indifferent and lawful and that there are very few scarce any men any where to be found who judge it evil wicked or intolerable Thus he who in the same P. is quoted by that Doctor as expressing himself to this purpose in behalf of the English Church-Government and Discipline Haec verò Christi esse dicuntur licet non à Christo sed ab Ecclesiâ mandata praescripta sint cùm Ecclesiae Authoritatem Christus
Practice But the latter clause that they teach obedience active in all lawful things and passive in things unlawful enjoyned by the higher power may justly make an impartial Reader that reflects upon their actions for several years together to wonder what this man means by the higher power by things unlawful by obedience active and passive If in the days of the Long Parliament Presbyterian Doctrines and practices in this point were suitable and correspondent the words must be thus paraphrasad Presbyterians taught obedience active in things unlawful enjoyned by the two Houses whom Mr. Herle's as 't is reported seditious invention made only co-ordinate with the King and disobedience active even to bloudy Rebellion in things lawful enjoyned by the King whom by Oath they acknowledged to be the only Supreme Governour of this Kingdom I have read in Philips his Veritas inconcussa p. 23. that in 1642 Presbyterian Pulpits flamed with seditious invectives against the King and incitements to Rebellion and that the people running headlong into it had all manner of countenance and encouragement but those Ministers that preacht obedience and sought to prevent Rebellion were sure to be imprisoned and put out of their places for it Was this for Presbyterians to preach either Faith or Holiness or Obedience active to the King or were those men so good Subjects so good Christians as either actively or passively to obey his Majesty or preach such obedience when they took themselves and exhorted others to take that Solemn League and Covenant which the King in his Proclamation against it calls a Traiterous and Seditious combination against himself and the establisht Religion and Laws of the Kingdom We do therefore says his Majesty strictly charge and command all our loving Subjects of what degree or quality soever upon their Allegiance that they presume not to take the said seditious and traiterous Covenant And we do likewise hereby forbid and inhibit all our Subjects to impose administer or tender the said Covenant as they and every of them will answer the contrary at their utmost and extremest peril What therefore was the taking of this Covenant and tendering of it to others was it obedience either active or passive to the King No but on the contrary 't was active disobedience to his Majesties command and the taking up Arms against the King in prosecution of this Covenant thus taken and cursing those that did not was Treason and Rebellion by the Lawes of the Land and damnable resistance by the Law of Christ And these and other Presbyterian practices were such a palpable contradiction to the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance that in some late reflexions on those Oaths 't is admired with what face presbyterians can now either take or urge them It 's a wonderful mystery p. 41. how it should come to pass that our English Presbyterians c. should especially now of late with so much willingness and greediness themselves swallow these Oaths and so clamorously urge them on others Is it because the Oath of Supremacy has so peculiar a conformity to their principles and that of Allegiance to their practices or that they are so ready and pressing to disclaim and condemn all that themselves have done these last twenty years And a little after Who ever heard or knew to flow from the Tongue or drop from the Pen of a Presbyterian so Christian a Position as is sincerely avouched both by English Protestants and the general body of Roman Catholicks viz. that even in case a Christian or Heathen Prince should make use of his Civil Power to persecute Truth that power ought not upon any pretences to be actively resisted by violence or force of Arms but though they cannot approve they must at least patiently suffer the effects of his mis-used Authority leaving the judgment to God only If this Rector can answer this Question in the affirmative and then prove it true of any one Covenanting Presbyterian Scotch or English within the compass of this last twenty years let him I shall be glad to see it Whether he can do so much or no I doubt as I do likewise whether that Reflecter can prove that that Position as he has worded it is owned by the general body of Roman Catholicks but that he cannot do it of Presbyterians generally or any considerable number of them I am pretty well assured if he can 't will follow that the generality of Presbyterians or a considerable number of them most wretchedly detained that Truth in unrighteousness and for several years together acted most horrid things contrary to their Light Knowledge and Conscience But 't is observable that this crafty Impostor instead of proving that Presbyterians teach obedience active in things lawful and passive in things unlawful enjoyned by the King's Majesty affirms only that they teach such obedience in things enjoyned by the Higher power not telling us whether they mean the higher power de jure or de facto only nor whether their Doctrine will not comprehend the higher power de facto though themselves acknowledge it no power de jure if so be that power will in the main comply with the advancement of the Presbyterian Interest What the presbyterians meant by the higher power in the late divisions was too evident by their practises viz. that parcel minor part of the Long Parliament which favoured Presbytery which opposed the King and made War against him which elected a multitude of new Members by vertue of a counterfeit treasonable Seal Prove that the King was the Higher power in the time of the Divisions says Mr. Baxter Pref. to his Holy Commonwealth p. 23. They declared May 26. 1642. that the Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parliament as the Author of Veritas Inconcussa quotes them p. 29. who also p. 91. informs us That the Parliament could not be called a Parliament when they had driven away the King who is the Head and Life of it nor they be said to be two Houses of Parliament when there was not at that time when they first raised a War above a third part of the House of Peers nor the half part of the House of Commons remaining in them and what those few did in their absence was either forced by a Faction of their own or a party of Seditious Londoners for indeed the War rightly considered was not betwixt the Parliament and the King but a War made by a Factious and Seditious party of the Parliament against the King and the major part of the Parliament So that a factious seditious part of a parliament was heretofore owned by Presbyterians as the Higher power Nay the chief Presbyterian Advocate was such a learned man such a good Subject and Christian he did so fear God and honour the King as to be able and willing to distinguish between the supreme Governour and the supreme Power of this Nation Sover power of Parl. p. 104. and to teach that the King was indeed the