of it though a pretended reply to a methodical exception which might have directed him to order is so indigested and full of confusion and disorder nothing defined or distinguished Episcopacy the subject of the debate no way described or explained so that every common capacity reading it runs into a wilderness of words by want of relation and connexion leaving his understanding at a loss as to scope or drift gazing as on unknown pictures had not a marginal note related most an end to words more then matter like the bungling workman in the Painters art written this is a Lion this a Bear and that a Wolf Lest the reverend Author should think I do him wrong I must make bold to give a tast thereof leaving his abusive Anatomist to bundle up his Nonsence and blaspemy which what ever it did in his Analysis I am sure lyeth scattered in every page of this book If the Justices assigning a bastard born pag. 150. to be kept because quod fieri non debuit factum valet which men of any braines refer to moral not natural entities or Mr. Crofton saith Episcopacy must not be restored though it be good if not proved to be necessary but he that vows to take away my horse must not say he will not change his vow until it appear my horse is not onely good but necessary for me pag. â—9â— may be taken for Nonsence which certainly for its profoundness of reason would make an understanding horse to break his bridle Or if it may be any way accounted blasphemy to denominate that a Baal-berith which is a Solemn League and Covenant for the glory of God advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus the honour and happiness of the King and his posterity made on sence of the plots conspiracies attempts and practices of the Enemies of God and true Religion and expresly binding to a reformation of Religion according to Gods word and example of the best reformed Churches open vowed Enemies to Baal and to an extirpation of whatsoever is contrary to found Doctrine and the power of godliness all which admitting it extended to one particular thing which ought not to have been removed yet tended at the most but to the bene esse of Religion in which respect it at most could be rendred but imprudent or unjust in that point and not a Baal-Berith Or if the reviling with most opprobrious terms as factious seditious rebellious perfidious pack which I leave the Anatomist to gather up and present unto the world the most lawful rightly called and constituted Assembly of the Lords and Commons Princes and principal Rulers of the people by his late and present Majesty often and openly owned as a Parliament and invested during their being with the fullest Authority of the Nation and thereby despising Dominions and speaking evil of Dignities may be accounted blasphemy Or if false and impudent accusations of the Covenant and Covenanters to have plotted contrived occasioned and effected the Kings barbarous murder from which all sober men in their right wits must acquit it and them as violated and oppressed trodden down and ruined to make way for that accursed act by men on whom God hath avenged the quarrel of the Covenant may be accounted blasphemy Or if railing and despightful speaking in the height of rage and fury in the most base Billingsgate obscene scurrillous opprobrious and disgraceful terms that anger could dictate or envy could devise which breaketh through his own professed integrity pag. 7. and those holy charms by which he pretends to restrain his revenge flyeth out beyond the gravity of a Minister authority of a Bishop sobriety of a Christian or modesty much more honesty of a man unto the height of effeminate scolding and uncivil ribaldry with which he hath stuffed more then twenty sheets of his Book may be accounted blasphemy I must indeed confess in the heat of his anger he hath treated me with as much civility as could be expected from a Bishop to a Presbyter judged rigid and consist with so much railing at another with the same breath often professing to know and keep a difference between me and his other Antagonist acknowledging Mr. Croftons civility reason honesty ingenuity and the like yet not without some drops of his sarcastical pen as little Mr. Crofton so great a Dictator Presbyterian pertness and petulancy hold odious and fallacious and the like which are very little spots in his feasts of love and plain errata and slips of passion in comparison of that series and serious mood of scolding with the other whom he hath coupled with Mr. Crofton in his vindication yet is enough to guide Mr. Crofton what to look for and observe that it is with Bishop Gauden as Rivet noteth of Bishop Mountague Non potest vir ille sine convitiis quenquam a quo dissentit vel in levissimis nominare This man can scarce name without reproach any man from whom he differs in the least thing and sleightest matter But it may be this is the expression of Prelatical state and pomp but the Lord deliver me from rendring railing for railing I do not delight to rake in this puddle And therefore with one note more I pass him over and that is His levity and pride in proclaiming his own worth and dignity as if far from his neighbors or that they would not or indeed could not commend him soaring aloft in his ambitious self-apprehensions into an equality with the cheif Fathers of the Church begining his Epistle to the Reader with An having had the honor and happiness after the example of the great Athanasius the industrious St. Austin our own Arch-Bishop Whitgift Mr. Rich. Hooker to encounter the enemies of this Church King and Kingdoms with success When alass he never yet came nigh the last and least of them in a conflict If little Mr. Crofton could have answered God and his conscience for so vain an expence of time he had hampered your Hieraspistes strained your sighs and tears no less then he hath done your Analysis and yet could not for shame have crowed of any valiant act in vanquishing the shadow of a Disputant and in pag 8. He must make the world to take notice of his high honor in attendance on better persons and better imployments getting the Bishoprick of Exeter unto himself which hindered his Reply for so long a time Sir We will excuse you if your friends do not with blame to you say You are come too soon Yet they as we must beleive if your say so be enough that your affirmations are beyond any rational or conscientious Reply pag. 151. because indeed they never reach reasoâ— or pinch conscience But your Lordship is pleased to tell us that you have condescended to consider our exceptions Sir I thought it had been a Casuists duty to consider all objections and a Ministers to endeavour all satisfaction but I must remember you were on your Episcopal Sea
the Houses of Parliament the heads of which petition being agreed on was committed to certain brethren to prepare and draw up and was this To the Kings most Excellent Majesty Humbly sheweth YOur Petitioners humbly blessing God for your Majesties happy Restauration to the Throne of your Royal Father being also sensible of your Majesties gracious acceptance of our humble Address made to your Majesty as likewise of the great piety and zeal in your Majesties late Proclamations for suppressing of prophaneness and countenancing protection of godly Ministers are thereby encouraged to lay this humble presentation and Petition with our selves at your Majesties feet That whereas your Petitioners by the Authority of the two Houses of Parliament were brought under the sacred obligation of a Solemn Oath wherein with our hands lifted up to the most high God we did Covenant to endeavour a Reformation in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and Vniformity of the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms and in pursuance thereof the said Honourable Houses with the advice of the Assembly of Divines did ordain a Form of Church government a confession of Faith a Directory for Worship and the greater and lesser Catechisms which we and our Congregations have through God's goodness for many years together and still do comfortably enjoy and practise We are therefore humbly bold in the name and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ for the prevention of divisions offences snares to the consciences of many thousands within the three Kingdoms both Ministers and people who are pious and peaceable with all humility to beseech your Majesty That the things of God and Religion which have been so solemnly Covenanted for may be owned and confirmed by your Royal Authority which notwithstanding we do sincerely profess our readiness to accommodate with our Godly and Orthodox brethren dissenting from us so far as may consist with our consciences and Covenant This Petition however by some State stratagems and Court complement and over prudent cowardize of some who contrary to the due order of all Assemblies would never let it be reported it was prevented from being presented to his Majesty yet I know it was agreed and assented unto by many learned and ingenious men who are yet ready in all â—â—ble lawful and submissive wayes to own the same cause of the Covenant in which Mr Cr. hath appeared and is here inserted as a check to Dr Gauden's fancied complyance of Covenanted Presbyters 2. Dr Gauden doth often suggest the extinpation of Episcopacy to be inconsistent with loyalty to the King and therefore affectionately wisheth that Mr Cr. may maintain and express his loyalty to which he findeth him a pretender To this give me leave as Dr Gauden hath done before me to play the fool and boast and I can say without vanity in expressions of loyalty on conscience of the Covenant I think I have not come behinde the highest Prelate which pretendeth most to it though it be not so visible at Court as they make theirs to be yet all England knows Mr Croftons contest against the cruel and barbarous murther of his late Majesty how plainly he did in the pulpit at Nantwitch in Cheshire to the face of the chief Republican agents reprove it as an actual positive breach of Covenant in a solemn Assembly and Thanks-giving held on Jan. 25. 1649. what rage and reproach he that day underwent and what hazard he thereby ran into the yet Minister of that Town and other Gentlemen loyal to his Majesty can declare In conscience of this Covenant and loyalty to his Majesty he withstood and declined the Engagement and that against the open and violent threats of promoters of it perswasions of complying brethren one of whom pressed me to it with this great argument The fight at Dunbar is lâ—st the Kings Interest quite overthrown these times afford few Martyrs yet Mr Cr. resolved to make one and conflicted with a violent and vexatious people to a Sequestration of his Estate on no other reason but not subscribing to the Engagement It is too long to report my constant praying for and preaching up the King's Interest to the conviction of the enemy my constant refusal to observe any of their Fasts or solemn Thanks-givings my preaching at Westchester at the beginning of Sr George Booths attempt and my troublesome attendance on the Councel of State and Militia with the threats and rage I then underwent The Articles of Treason against Oliver charged against me for which I underwent much trouble the friendly and angry conflicts I have often had with John Bradshaw whom I feared not to minde of his wages of unrighteousness my constant asserting of his Majesties Interest and subjects duty of returning to the Lord and to David their King which I preached in St Peters Cornhil when the hearers trembled and all the City expected Mr Crofton's bonds at the least All which were expressions of loyalty to the King and conscience of the Covenant But I will only present thee with a Letter which I sent unto a Member of the Rump Parliament on the very day of their triumphant return from Portsmouth it was then published though without my name I shall now affix it to this Epistle and leave thee to judge how far conscience of the Covenant hath acted Mr Croftons loyalty to the King and tell thee he retaineth the same duty for his Majesty and in sense of it doth and cannot but do it now contest for and assert the solemn League and Covenant in that religious part which must be promoted with utmost zeal by all who wish well to King and Kingdom though the devil and his instruments do endeavour to damp deaden and divert the discharge of duty by the clamorous charge of Treason Rebellion Sedition and Disloyalty of that Act which is in its Nature Principle and Disposition of the Agents most truly loyal and faithful to the King and Kingdoms Interest Honour and Happiness which none hath or can more sincerely seek and promote then the zealous conscientious Covenanters amongst whom to be reckoned cost what it will is the Ambition and Resolution of March 14. 1660. Zach. Crofton A Letter written by a Minister in London in Answer to one sent from a Member of the Long PARLIAMENT Honoured Sir YOurs of the 18th instant I received whereby I discern your sense of the sad hand of God upon these Nations in the many sad Revolutions to which they have been subject And now you seem studious of the way of its recovery in which I rejoyce Though Sir your Enquiry doth a little amaze me not so much for the matter as that you should press me to it in this juncture of time You well know Sir I have not declined to let you know my thoughts of all the late transactions of those who called themselves The Long Parliament Did I not much presume on your Faithfulness never to use it to my damage however God deal with
aspect and appearance will be found by any man conversant in Scripture and acquainted with the estate and affairs of the Church notorious falshoods 1. Presbytery hath no divine appointment was not commanded by God never used in the ancient Church hath nothing in it piously morally or poâ—itically good or necessary Epist to the Reader How Sir can you read of the Elders of Ephesus and the Presbyterie that ordained Timothy and say Presbytery was not commanded by God Can you read in the Fathers of the Presbyterie advancing by their own power a primus Presbyter in the antient canons of the essentialitie of the Presbyteries concurrence in all acts of Discipline of the Fathers Epistles to and concerning Presbyteries and yet say Presbytery was never used in the Church Can you consider Presbytery is a Colledge of Gospel Ministers goveâ—ning communi consilio by jâ—ynt advice and yet conclude there is in Presbyterie nothing piously morally or politically good Will not every childe in his double Psalter tell you In the multitude of Councellors there is safety and every School-boy teach you plus vident oculi quam oculus and yet are you so blind as to see no moral political good in Presbyterie but this is but one Doctors opinion the meanest Clerk in your Cathedral would tell you your Grace was at a loss when you thus concluded Nor do you hit the next 2. Presbytery was not conjoyned to Episcopacy if you mean in its first constitution and the order of it which was without and before Bishops afterwards made by its power you begin well nor hath any power or authority unto the governing of the Church is no way necessary to a Bishop otherwise then by advice when called and required and that to be taken or refused at the Bishops pleasure pag. 289. I pray Sir help the Papists and untie that knot whether Peter received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven as a Presbyter or Bishop ordinary Minister or Apostle or prince of the Apostles It is pity John Chrysostom had not you for his Advocate when he was charged as with a crime for ordaining without his Presbyters I hope the correction of the ancient Canons being committed to you you will purge out those that confine the Bishop to his chair to declare and execute the decrees of the Presbyterie and make void the ordinations and censures made without the Presbyterie forget them of the Council of Carthage And Sir there is one passage or two in Scripture worth your notice Let him tell the Church sufficient to such an one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishment inflicted by many You know Sir they are words that imply plurality dignity and authority I pray Sir when your pen is in your hand draw a line through these words in the form of ordering Priests minister the Discipline of the Church to what end should they promise faithful diligence to that which they have nothing to do withal and concerneth them not But to the third 3. To endeavour to advance Presbytery to exercise in the rule and government of the Church is Schisme and Superstition pag. 214 215. How is Church Government an Article of Christian faith and an essential act of Divine Worship Oxford Reasons Sect. 3. your friends at Oxford were of another mind when they charged the Scots supposed say so to look like Schisme and Superstition What fools were Clemens Alexandrinus Augustin and Gregory the great and other Fathers to Father John Gauden they left us this ground of Schisme and Superstition Vnitas Ecclesiae catholicae non consistit in uniformitate disciplinae sed in unitate fidei but our Bishop standeth on their shoulders and can see further then little Mr. Crofton who yet hopes to see as far as little Zacheus in his Sicamore Tree advancing Presbytery as Gods institution and to keep the unty of the spirit in the bâ—nd of peace 4. Bishops are the sole and chief cisterns conservators conduit and derivators of all holy orders discipline and Government the principal Pillars and Fathers of the Church pag. 221 248. I hope Sir you will then make your succession as clear as the sun I would make a journey to Exeter to have the intricacies thereof well unravelled what became of the Churches when in Alexandria per totum Aegyptum the Presbyters did ordain and think you that Denmark demolished the Church when Christian their third King did by publick edict beat down your Pillars your charity is more to the reformed Churches then to condemn or censure them as no Churches pag. 196. but yet you will cut off their pipes cisterns conduits and make them come fetch Waters at your Wells your charity is very rational 5. Episcopal presidency and authority is a Soveraign power and spiritual jurisdiction in ordination confirmation censures rebuking silencing excommunication absolution and other exercise of Ecclesiastical power without above and against Presbyters and people pag. 215 229. Well said D. Gauden I like a man that can speak out Mr. Crofton shall know your meaning anon but your jurisdiction is so spiritual that to him your Sovereign power is invisible it is probable you may make him feel it though he cannot see it but I am confident it must be in his body not in his soul make good this description by Scriptures Fathers Divine principles or good Authors Popish or Protestant and if you make not a full formal Pope I will burn the Covenant renounce my reason and believe as your Church believes for all that I have met with give Presbyters an interest if not the greatest share with and without the Bishops in every of these acts of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction 6. The Episcopacy which England had or the English Hierarchy for its difference from Presbytery in place honour office authority use and honourable support is of universal tradition and observatiâ—n in all ages and places eminent in the judgment and practice of antiquity and the Church from Christ and his Apostles until now of late in use and authority in the Church as the Lords day and infant baptisme which to deny is impudence and falsity against the very letter and practice of the new Testament and judgment of all antiquity Pag. 198 220 228 248. How Sir the practice and letter of the new Testament and yet but a tradition you sure will say more of it you do well to paralel it to the Lords day and infant Baptisme for they will be evidently grounded on the practise and letter of the new Testament and so be found more then a tradition but Sir will you stand by it that Episcopacy was an universal observation in all ages and eminent in all places till of late I pray Sir enquire when it came into Scotland and how basely it was driven out of Denmark they are places in the Christian World again was Englands Hierarchy distinct from Presbyters in place office authority honour use and honorable support of universal tradition and practice how am
gradual difference between Englands Prelacie and Romes Papacie this being in specie the same with that and so a formal papatus alterius mundi 9. Under this usurpation Presbyterie sensible of its intrinsecal power did resist and often complain and when it was by force acted by fraud restrained yet made and continued its contests and its paritie in order and authority and hath ever been dogmatically asserted and polemically debated by not only the enemies but friends of the Papacie by Canonists Schoolmen Commentators and open discourses in Councils where the Pope durst never admit a free dispute not so much as in the Councel of Trent and as the Reformation of the Church proceeded Presbyterie not only pleaded but reassumed its own proper power and authority and managed the affairs of the Church as against the Pope so without Bishops and England it self though through the policie which too much attended and acted its reformation it retained an Episcopacie yet did dethrone its spiritual jurisdiction and resolve it into a meer humane and civil constitution acting circa ecclesiam and most plainly avowed the intrinsecal power of Presbyters in the act of the submission of the Clergie and other Statutes disavowing any ecclesiastical or scriptural constitution of Prelacie and baring them from all juridical acts otherwise then by the Kings commission and in his name And all our English Divines have openly asserted and polemically defended the power and authority of the Presbyters in their contests against Papists concurrence with and defence of the reformed Churches and their Presbyterial acts and at length our late learned Primate of Armagh in his grave Reduction affirmed it to be the Presbyters right to rule and govern the Church and propounded an expedient in order to the restitution thereof too long held from them the which being in its natural tendency desperata causa papatus as Voetius hath well termed his defence of the Presbyterated reformed Churches the man of sin doth under a Cassandrian accommodation withstand and endeavour to stifle it in which however he succeed to oppose he shall not prevail Presbyterie being Christs own ordinance and the primitive constitution of the Church and mediate discharge of his pastoral and Episcopal office whilst this is a plain humane constitution conform to the course of the world and contrary to the charge of our great Shepherd Matth. 20.25 The Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority over them but it shall not be so among you Sir consider well this Climax I will assure you it is to me so obvious and apparent in Ecclesiastical story that he that will not see must turn Sceptique and must say Non persuaseris etiamsi persuaseris and how much soever Presbyterie be sleighted and represented to the world with the insignificant odious charge of Schism and superstition Christs kingly Office in and over his Church is bottomed in it and the recovery of its full liberty to the exercise of its just authority is not only justice but duty that may that which must be pursued pleaded for unto bonds yea death it self and therefore to match your number I upon these undeniable premises make these conclusions which if you will turn your Rhetorick into Reason and with a calm and composed spirit debate it I will be bound logically and theologically to defend against you Hierarchia Anglicana non est ecclesia nec ad ecclesiae entitatem aut gubernationem necessaria adeo ut ejus extirpatio estimetus schisma Hierarchia Anglicana est nullo modo divina aut ecclesiastica sed mere humana civilis cujus abolitio extirpatio sit licita sub juramento faederanda Englands Hierarchy is not the Church nor necessary to the being or government thereof so as that the extirpation thereof should be accounted schism Englands Hierarchy is neither divine or ecclesiastical but meerly civil and humane whose abolition and extirpation may be lawfully sworn and covenanted Until Sir these be confuted you who blame others do your self build upon a plain petitio pincipii Dr. Gauden being well considered will be found no less erroneous in his Politiques then in his Ecclesiastiques running away with certain general notions as if universally granted and undoubtedly true and agreed upon by all whilst indeed they are openly and generally denied I shall gather them together as the former and leave the Reader to take notice of them as he reads his book they running as a line through his book some of them being obvious in every page where his passion would give him leave to speak like a reasonable creature As that 1. The Hierarchy or Episcopacy is established by the Laws of England which I have in my Analepsis Analepthe denyed and the Covenanters plea hath more fully and judiciously expostulated and contradicted in Cap. 6. pag. 22 23 24. I do aver that the English Laws finding Episcopacy conversant about the Church doth restrain its exorbitancies and direct its administrations but neither Canon nor common law doth establish it and in terminis declare and authorize it to be the Government of the Church of England 2. No Oath may be fully sworn which shall bind to an endeavour to extirpate what is established by law and therefore although sworn by the legislative authority and command or by the sharers in the legislation it is ipso facto void and yet endeavour of alteration is to every man sui juris no way inconsistent with that passive obedience which we owe to laws in force and all Laws lye vailed and at the legislators feet to take up or refuse and void and an Oath is the most positive authentique repeal of a law vailed and at the least binding the sharers in the legislation and such as shall succeed into their capacity to repeal those laws which establish the thing which they have sworn to extirpate 3. There is no legislative power de facto operating and exerted binding the subject to any action or obedience unless all things concur which may constitute a full and formal statute law and so all Votes Orders and Ordinances Resolves and Judgment of any the Estates of Parliament are of no force power or authority during their session Which all Lawyers acquainted with Englands constitution will deny unless their Oracles of divinity have at the Temple taught them new notions of law which the constant practice of Lords and Commons and subjection and obedience of those whom they represent doth ordinarily contradict 4. That Lords nor Commons severally nor both conjunct can impose on themselves or others whom they represent any Oath without the knowledge consent and command of the King and if they do it is ipso facto void therefore you suggest that the protestation which is apparently sworn by Parliament and Kingdome without the King to be precarious whilst there is nothing of petition in it but much of legislation and that manifest by the subjects obedience even to your
fancy and furnish all Rebellion with Apology I am not bound for the thing decreed is unrighteous and neither King nor Parliament nor both had legislative power to decree and cannot therefore execute it for execution is subsequent to legislation I must not be punished where I am not bound to obey Doctor whose wits are now a woolgathering to run away from the Covenant by stating a doctrine of Sedition yea Rebellion Mr. Crofton should more soberly have said The King and Parliament have legislation to all acts of humane Society but must be careful they do not decree unrighteousness establish iniquity by a Law You have indeed very powerfully opposed Mr. Cr. his first observation beating down all legislation in actu secundo yea and in some cases which will fall too often and must be judged by every private man all potentia legem ferendi What say you to the second M. Croftons second notion saith the Doctor his second nothing observed as his safety is that a thing may bind in conscience which doth not bind in law or in the Judicature of man This M. Crofton did say and will stick to against the raging billows of your proudest words But what saith the Doctor to this notion True is it true and yet M. Croftons nothing True and yet a pitiful evasion a small twig a sinking weed Sure Sir the true of so big a bladder will keep little M. Crofton swiming above water How doth D. Gauden avoid the strength of what he confesseth to be true hath he well weighed it is an Oath that bindeth in conscience though not in law or humane judicatu how is it that he having cryed true turneth off with a but nothing can bind in conscience against the Laws of man in cases of equity justice and right Suppose Mr. Crofton cry True to Dr. G. what hath he gained Mr. Cr. did not affirm that any thing of that nature did bind conscience but that the Coveâ—â—nt not charged on any by a Statute Law yet bindeth the conscience of all personally or politically subjected to it And Dr. G. runs away with his petitio principii that Englands Episcopacy is established by Law and cannot according to Juâ—tice Equity and Common right be extirpated which M. Cr. hath denied and doth deny and when it is proved will further examine how far an oath bindes in conscience against it But as yet Dr. G. offers nothing to prove it but his Worships say so which will not be beleived Only M. Cr. must say that my oath may bind me against what according to equity and right the Law must adjudge me as in cases of contracts bargains or alienation of Land or goods where I have sworn or vowed a release of which the Law according to common justice equity and right can take no cognizance but must restore I am bound from requiring or by law receiving the restitution or performance It is hard that Dr. G. should lose the power of conscience by preaching equity and right among the Lawyers Mr. Croftons third Observation of the Kings oath making a supply to the supposed defect of authority binding the Covenant is entred upon with a drop of his sarcastical pen for Mr. Cr. bold and odious no less then fallacious if you will make a right Shemaiah add seditious and treasonable too urging by a Presbyterian pertness the present taking of the Covenant in Scotland I pray you sir though this be bold wherein is it fallacious that his Majesty sware the Covenant is not nor can be denied the form of his Royal Coronation his Royal Declaration from Dumferling and the History of King Charls the Second have made it known through the world that it cannot be hidden Though had not Dr. G. blurred paper to bring perjury upon King and Kingdom it had not been here pleaded by Mr. Crofton But Sir Wherein is an argumentative urging the Kings taking the Covenant so odious a piece of Presbyterian pertness Shall not every Disputant have liberty with freedom to express what will enforce his argument Is not the meanest Subject interested in the Kings oath and capacitated humbly to demand performance Do not Royal acts fall under the consideration of Casuists resolving conscience Are not Kings objects of ministerial admonition how bold soever it may seem none but a proud Pashur and shameless Semaiah could count it odious in Jeremiah to say to the King Keep the oath and thou shalt be delivered from that distress which may too late engage his Majesty to send to his faithful Monitor to pray for him Is not Mr. Cr. capacitated in all these respects to consider his Majesties oath even when he is abstracted from his Presbyterian pertness Sir I must tell you it is more odious in you to make his Majesties Legislative authority depend on the piety of his decrees then for Mr. Crofton to urge his Royal Oath as a bar to the Nations perjury Wherein lyeth the odium of an argumentative urging the King taking of the Covenant it was but modestly mentioned in the Analepsis though more fully and forcibly to the fastning of St. Peters Fetters It is every way visible Mr. Cr. doth neither justifie nor commend the insolent imposing of it but doth expresly condemn that although the maturity of his years here mentioned by this Doctor maketh it the more obliging as having the full exercise of his judicium rationale which if it were any way restrained by the distress of his affairs will not release him because it was chosen as his best course and juramentum metu extortum is agreed to bind the conscience and as a moral rule reacheth Kings as well yea as much as other men though therein he is more obnoxious to temptations and needs to have the case more clearly resolved if his Majesty delight not to hear of it as Dr. G. scandalously reporteth more is the pitty Mr. Cr. hath in Loyalty to his Majesty pressed it and perswaded others to press it on the same principles in his Analepsis Analepthe Sect 1. convincing and affirming his Ministers and Chaplains ought as his Monitors to mind him of it and affect him with it though I fear flattering prelates will rather expose him to hear of it in Gods wrath and by his Enemies reproach for the breach thereof then hazard their dignity by discharge of the duty they owe to God and his Royal soul That the Kings taking the Covenant can make any thing in it lawful which by the rules of religion and civil justice is unlawful Mr. Cr. did not affirme or urge it to that purpose but that it maketh up the supposed defect of authority in the first taking the Covenant is that which Mr. Cr. said nor doth D. G. deny it his consent unto the ordinance for taking the Covenant expressed by Oath gives it at least to conscience the formality of a Law That what his Majesty did in Scotland must not extend to England is a most false maxime according to which we
expurgation of the other commending the Physitian but the Reader cannot without high content unto open laughter observe the apt similies which boyled out of our Doctors codled brain who must not be angry if Mr. Crofton adhaere to his conclusion who is ready to meet the Doctor unto a fair dispute about his Episcopacy and hopes until he have thereby convinced him he will restrain his rods of Iron Pag. 201. and severity of power which he imprecates and give us leave to live in Old England without the logick of their high commission for he shall find little Mr. Crofton who cannot be vanquished by a flood of words will easily fall under the power of reason though he with plainness out of conscience have declared his judgement not as the Doctor fancyeth on a presumption of his Majesties indulgence whose judgment expressed and declared for Episcopacy may be a reason for submission negative by non resistance not of conviction or sinful suspension or silencing of his judgment in his place as with the modesty and moderation so the confidence of a Minister for I fear God but to proceed The Doctor tells us having strapped the sweetness of Mr. Crofton after which for its reason and sobriety truth and seriousness give me leave to say Dr. Gauden needs not be ashamed to lick his lips he proceeds to his ninth reflection the Covenant of Israel the ten Commandements to which Mr. Crofton took exceptions in his Analepsis pag. 20. and tells us that Mr. Crofton runs a calmer but not clearer stream then the Libeller and so the Doctor sets up his own shadow to fight withal and desires a demonstration to prove Pag. 257. that one compleat and grand Covenant given of God to the Jews was the onely rule and dictate of what matter they should Covenant to which he insultingly answers as indeed to a frivolous question he may as well look for a demonstration to prove there is but one God one true Religion and one Sun in the firnament judiciously fought Doctor must you not be hum'd is Mr. Crofton so little you cannot see or distinguish him from your Umbra I pray you where doth Mr. Crofton desire this in his Analepsis which onely you encounter he did determine and agree to this your grave eyes are dim and Episcopal spectacles made at Rome dusty otherwise you would have read true English Mr. Crofton his desire to the Doctor was to demonstrate that the law of Moses Analep p. 20. or Covenant in Horeb was NOT ONELY the RULE and DICTATE of what MATTER can you see it Sir they should Covenant but the EXPRESSE COVENANT or did consist in the EXACT RECITAL and REPETITION of the law or ten Commandements so as that they never VARIED or ALTERED Sir I would help your eye sight the same Do not these words much agree with that you have falsely fathered on Mr. Crofton his desire is this the praxis of your profound notion by which you would save the credit of your liturgy from beginning its Rubrick with a lye defending the sameness of the words by a supposed soundness of the sense But what say you yet to Mr. Crofton his demand were the Jews tied to those words on no occasion to vary them that these did rule and limit their matter is agreed but you dare not affirm they were tied to the order and number of words yet on this score you quarrel with the Covenant and by a childish fancy cast the words into 666 as if that number was as fatal to every thing as it is to Papal Prelatical Hierarchy and will needs suppose to live according to the word of God and laws of the land to be a sufficient form for all Oaths or Covenants on any occasion but who made Dr. Gauden the Dictator of the words which should be the same in all Covenants these are not the words of Moses or Covenant in Horeb. I may sir come into your Diocess and need your license and I will covenant with you to live according to the word of God and laws of the land I hope you will require no other canonical oath or subscription Sir declare this and stand to it and you shall be the best Bishop and have your Diocesses stored with the best Ministers in England The Doctor having thus solidly defended his profound notion of the one Covenant in the Old Testament he proceeds to establish his one baptismal covenant in the New the man professeth much to unity and fondly dreams of nothing but unites even of words and humane expressions as if tens or hundreds or thousands in a covenant were utterly Antiarithmetical and Antichristian against the rule of Nature and Scripture Herein having sufficiently scolded his Anatomist he courts Mr. Crofton with such justice and civility as â—he can afford which is comparatively very much and tells us Mr. Cr. instead of proving the Covenant to be ratified by any precept in the New Testament or examples of any Christians in succeeding ages flieth to justifie it by the dictates and discoveries of the Old Testament by politick arts befitting any people or Church National But the Doctor should have been so just and civil as to have observed Mr. Croftons distinctions between the matter and circumstances of the Covenant how he concluded in his Analepsis that the New Testament directeth us as Christians but in Acts that pertain to us as a Kingdom or Church national it leaveth us to the dictates of Nature and the discoveries of the Old Testament Although the Doctor hath unjustly couched the one he doth not he dares not contradict the other but inferreth truly on the same grounds that so much by him and others decried oath he intends with c. in it which excluded Popery and confirmed the already legal and settled Episcopacy of the Church of England had been as lawful and sacred as this Covenant and in some respect more allowable because it disseised no man of his free-hold or Estate But sure the Doctor runs too fast and now reckons without his host and by an after reckoning will find his mistake in these three things First The Episcopacy of the Church of England was legal and already settled which we have before charged as his error and by a petitio principii he all along builds upon it but must go to the Temple and beg some help of the Lawyers to prove Id quod erat demonstrandum Secondly Admitting the dictates of Nature and discoveries of the Old Testament to direct the circumstances of an Oath that the Oath with c. in it will be found as lawful and sacred as the Covenant is a meer non sequitur For the dictates of nature do authorize any person to vow in his place calling and capacity to endeavour the extirpation of what he conceiveth or experienceth evil but that Oath bindeth against the giving consent to alter what on after conviction may appear not only alâ—erable at the pleasure of the superiour to