limited by the Statute made this Parliament and as it will happen in most other poynts of Civill-Right Not that I can think these Arguments brought on either side to be of equall worth and strength for as it appeares by all their Commissioners Answers which I have read so does it appeare by some of their Commissioners Arguments which I have heard that They had no Power to Conclude but that I thinke Ignorant Men in pursuing of any Truth to be like ignorant Hunters in pursuance of their Game who whatsoever they can light on by the by lay hold on strait and if they come to sell it will be sure to aske much more then it is worth or then any other man who knowes what the Thing is will give Imbecillitate suâ pretium rei metientes as he saies having no better measure of the things worth then their owne weakenesse Or that I thinke with Saint Hilary quot voluntates tot fides there are as many severall Faiths as there are Willes and when men of severall engagements fall into heats and disputes in poynts which are not mathematically demonstrable their severall affections ordinarily will improve into severall opinions and they will judge of things not according to other mens proofes but their own praepossessions And therefore for my part I have ever thought most of our Divinity Disputation but a kind of Church-Duell which does oftner declare which is the Stronger side then which the Truer so much the more often by how much it may fall out easily that the truth may be on neither But if men will proceed to Disputes and Arguments which seldome or never is to any purpose for either those persons at whose request or for whose satisfaction that Disputation is instituted are able to judge of the solidity and strength thereof or they are not If they are not able to judge of it they receive no good by it and If they are able to judge they do not need it it is a requisite expedient for hopefull proceedings in that kind That men proportion their Proofes according to the nature and condition of those Propositions which they are to prove If the matter be a Matter of Beliefe the Scripture is the best proofe thereof bâ—cause the Scripture exactly conteynes all matters of Faith but if it be a Matter of Practise the Scripture is not the best Proofe thereof because as it containes not exactly all Matters of Forme so neither is there any reason why it should containe them it being the principall if not the sole end of Scripture to transmit those Lawes of Faith unto the world by which it should be governed and not to transcribe the Formes Institutions and Difference in degrees of those Officers who then did and ever were to governe it Nor does it a whit impeach the Divine right and Instituâ—ion of Episcopacy in the Church founded in the first Apostles if there should chance to be found no particular Text in Scripture which in expresse tearmes does settle and establish that Foundation no more then it does impeach the Right of Monarchy in a State founded in the Roman Empire or in any other Kingdom of the World a thousand yeares agoe because in the Code or Digest of those Fundamentall Lawes by which those Kingdoms have been so long govern'd there is no particular Act or Lawe made in direct wordes which does establish and ordaine that Imperiall and Monarchicall Forme of Government And therefore there is no more reason in the world when a man sees or may see that the whole Church of Christ in all ages hath ever acknowledged and observed a difference of Order between a Bishop and a Priest why he should inferre that at first a Bishop and a Priest were all one no doubt because the word Presbyter in Scripture is sometime given to both Then there is when he reads or may read that the Church of the Iewes in all ages never had but One High-priest Why he should inferre that at last there were Two High Priests in that Church no doubt because Annas and Caiphas are both called High Priests together in Scripture I speake none of this as if I thought the Divine Right of Episcopacy could not be prov'd by Scripture for I rest most assured it is as cleerly prov'd from thence as the Observation of the Lords Day which particular I rather doe insist upon because in these Propositions for a well setled Peace There is One Act desired to be passed for the Abolishing of the One and Another Act desired to be passed for the Observation of the other when all knowing men must confesse their Interest and Tenure in the Scripture to be equall and the same But because I think that Scripture is not the right Topick out of which men ought to deduce and draw those proofes If it finde but any footing in the Scripture the Churches universall Practice of such a Proofe is the best Proof that can be made of such a Practice In regard that Matters of Faith and Good Life as they are Essentiall to the Church so they are Vnivocall and the Scripture as it delivers them once so it delivers them ever but Matters of Forme and Government if they should be confest Essentiall to the Church in their Institutions yet are they not alwaies Vnivocall in their operations but of necessity must rise and fall and either admit of grouth or seem to doe so according to the conditions and changes of time that will suite best unto them Besides the condition of the Mysticall Body the body of the Church as considered in her Infancy to my thinking is not much unlike to the condition of the Naturall body the body of Man as considered in His and the severall operation of orders in the one is not much unlike to the severall operation of soules in the other now we know that the reasonable soule albeit a soule of another order then the sensitive being derived from a nobler extraction and origine and infused from the beginning into the Body no lesse then it yet it exercises little or no distinct operations in that body from it till such time as that body come to yeares of understanding where Reason may have room and scope to work in at her pleasure In like manner that Order of Episcopacy might be planted from the beginning in the Church and be superinduc't upon this order of Preisthood as a distinct and nobler Order from it and yet in the nonage of the Church there may be little or no distinction found in the Scripture of Administration of those Orders which then began most eminently to appear when that Body of the Church was a little more grown and come to years and had Instruments fitted and Organs well prepared for the execution thereof Furthermore it would be considered that there is something almost in every practicall Text of Scripture like to that which the Painters call the Aire in every Face if all the parts of a
CONSIDERATIONS Touching the Late TREATY FOR A PEACE held at VXBRIDGE With some Reflections upon the Principall Occasions and Causes of the FRVSTRATION THEREOF Extracted out of the late Printed full Relation of the Passages concerning it PRINTED AT OXFORD BY Leonard Lichfield Printer to the Vniversity 1645. CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE FRVSTRATION Of the Late TREATY CONON describing the practises and plots used by Gelon how to make himselfe sole Tyrant over Sicily sets this downe for a ruled observation upon his Case {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that as there is a kind of Pleasure in the practice and exercise of any Power which is given so that pleasure is improoved to a kind of Lust or Venery no way so much as when that Power is exercised and administred either against the Fortune or against the Person of that man which gives it The beames of Soveraignety by like being as the beames of the Sunne not so hot in direct and strait lines as in reflections And therefore as Pliny speakes of Callimachus an excellent Painter but one that was so curious that the grace of his work was much abated by the diligence for he could never tell when he had done well that he was maximus sus calumniator his own worst detractor So does Aristides observe of an excellent Prince administring that Empire with Remissenesse and Favour which is best sway'd by Iustice and by Power that he is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} his own greatest Rebel For letting down the string of Monarchy never so little and sinking his own naturall Right and Interest in all High Actions to an inferior communication and adoption of other Councells It often hapneth to him as it does to many other kind Masters in the World That whatsoever he shall heretofore have granted shall be no longer thought on as a piece of Grace and Mercy but whatsoever He shall henceforth deny shall be now lookt on as an Act of great Injustice and Tyranny The sadde testimony which the Miseries of our present Warre afford unto this Truth will save the labour of examining other witnesses and the sadder testimony which the Mistakes of our late pretended Peace afford will save the examination of them Never did condescention I had almost said submission in any Prince meet with so much scorne and contempt from any People whil'st all His former Acts of Grace and Favour that should have Instructed their obedience doe but Arme their Pride By receiving they only learne to Aske and having gotten a Power into their hands they are now so farre enamoured of Majesty that if they cannot get her Scepter as they hope they shall They are resolv'd not to let goe her Sword not unlike to some young passionate lovers of Beauty who when they cannot obtaine the Eldest daughter to Wife whom they most desire will match her Sister They think it not enough to cousen us of our Monies now they cousen us of our very Sences and whilest they call upon the World to behold and see a Treaty They cheat them with a very Trick They have dealt with this whole Kingdom now as they dealt with the Lord Mack-Quire not long since They have in a manner executed a Common-wealth these three or foure years by Rapines by Rebellions and by all the sad appertenances of Warre and now They cut it downe as it were in a pretended Treaty for a well setled Peace but to what end not as purposing or intending any such blessing as Peace unto the Kingdom that should animate it as it were with a new life and make it happy but only to recover a little so much of her exanimated Spirits as shall make her sensible and more apprehensive of fresh and new Miseries For that in the late Treaty they never did intend a Peace I think will be easily made appeare to any common judgement and understanding that shall observe and weigh no more then these foure particulars First their Indisposition and Aversion from Treating Secondly their Impotent and Imperfect Qualification of their Commissioners to Treat Thirdly their Insolent Expostulations and Demands in the Treaty and Lastly Their Inexorable Obduration and Deafnesse against all Enlargement Prorogation or Reviving of the Treaty I. Concerning the first of these their naturall indisposition and aversion from Treating It is worth observing That from the 4th of Iuly last when His Majesty recommended this Treaty first unto them unto the 23d of November last when their Propositions were brought downe to Oxford upon which the Treaty was founded there passed almost five whole Monthes betweene A Small Time for the grave Advices of a Parliament to worke in in such a poynt full of perplexities as this Whether it be better for the Kingdome to have Peace or Warre If the question had been onely put whither Presbytery were not better then Episcopacy whereon dependeth but the Ruine of the Church or whether Democracy were not better then Monarchy whereon dependeth but the Ruine of the State or lastly whither the Militia of the Kingdome were not safer in their hands then in the Kings whereon dependeth but the Ruine of them both For the ventilation and agitation of such easie poynts as these a matter of Three Dayes a piece is time enough for no more would be allowed us at Vxbridge as if the Church amongst the other new markes of Primitive Institution were in this also to be reckoned the more like to Christ for dying and rising again for laying down her old Ceremonious and Carnall Body and taking up a new glorious and Spirituall Body and all in Three Dayes But when a poynt of so great concernement as this comes in debate whither it be better to have Peace or Warre A poynt which if it miscarry never so little in the stating may chance endanger That Lords Pension and this Lords Place may chance endanger the Tryall of some of the Members and the Trade of more may chance returne them to their Originall three-penny Seates that have sat all this while in great State upon the Stage It will aske time to traverse and discusse it and foure or five monthes Allowance is truely with the shortest All this while indeed had they a very hard game to play They held the Wolfe by the Eare as they say They durst not hold a Treaty when the King offered it for then They knew they should loose Themselves and They durst not let it goe when it was offered for then they knew they should loose the People Was it not high time for to bestirre them now and like true State-Iugglers expresse a little skill First therefore to make the People a little sport in the street the better to perswade them faster in They doe give it out that if the King would acknowledge them His Parliament and the Great Councell of the Kingdome then They would Treat as if this were a World for men {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to admire Names for Things as
the Church and Church-men were heretofore oblig'd by any known established Law of the Kingdome whatsoever And now let all men Iudge of their Faith in other Testimonies which cannot easily be reduc't to a convenient Teste who dare thus abuse the World with Falshhood in This which lyes so open and obnoxious to a plaine and ordinary Tryall Secondly For the Militia they say We made no good Progresse therein and therefore were resolv'd it seemes the Treaty should break up Because We thought it not fit to consent to any one of their Demandes but made some new Propositions of our owne which were not in any degree sufficient for the setling and securing of the Peace of both the Kingdomes I did ever thinke till now that it was one thing to make a Progresse and another thing to make an End Doe they say We made no good Progresse in the Militia because We consented not unto their whole Demands They might altogether as properly say that a Country-man travailing towards London hath made no good Progresse in his Iourney because He is not come as yet to Charing-Crosse Questionlesse a Progresse is made on their Demandes when We Consent but unto any part thereof and the better that part is that is consented to the better is the Progresse Now if halfe of any Thing be a good part then is our Progresse upon their Demands a good Progresse for We consented to the one halfe of every thing that was required They demanded the Nomination of all the Commissioners and We granted them the Nomination of halfe They demanded the Militia for Seaven yeares and We would have given them it for Three But I perceive He grants them nothing that does not grant them all and it fares with the Parliaments Demands as some report it does in the fortunate Ilands of Arabia with the People Dayes They know not what belongs to dawning They never see Day till the whole Sunne appears unto them Besides if Our Commissioners had made no better Progresse then They pretend if We had exhausted all those Twenty Dayes assigned for the Treating upon Their Propositions in meere Tergiversation and Cavill if We had denyed Our Assent to all their Demands and then had been never able to make good any colourable Reason for that Our Denyall yet certainly Their Originall Commission having a kind of Counter part and they being authorized to Treat upon those Three Propositions offered by Vs to Them as well as upon these other Three offered by Them to Vs Reason and equity would that an equall number of Propositions should have been allow'd an equall number of Dayes and then if the Successes and Issues of both had happily falne out equally unprofitable yet no one side could have had just cause for to complaine of the partiall and uneven proceedings of the other And although We doe not urge it as an Argument of Insolence and Pride that Their Propositions must be Treated on in the first place before the Kings yet when the pretence of Our ill Progresse upon Theirs is made a Reason of their no Progresse at all on Ours We cannot but look upon this Order and Disposall of the partes as an Argument of great Inconvenience against a Peace and which hath somewhat of the visage of an Affected and Studyed Obstruction cast in the wayes thereof For those Three Propositions of Theirs if They had been denyed at Vxbridge yet they might have been granted at Westminster in a Full and Free Convention of Parliament out of which I know not well indeed how They could be granted But these Three Propositions of Ours They cannot be granted at Westminster if They be denyed at Vxbridge unlesse you thinke it fit to perswade one man to lay downe the Bucklers whilest another beats him The Kings Proposition for a present Cessation in England could not be setled but in a Treatie The Parliaments Proposition against the Cessation which was already past in Ireland might be setled out of it and yet so inraged incensed are these men against that Cessation there that they will not endure the mention of any thing that sounds like it here as that impetuous Emperour who by witchcraft having learnt three letters of His name that was afterwards to Succeed him put every man to death whom he could lay hands on that had those three letters for the beginning of his Name His Majesties Returne to Westminster which Our Commissioners desired in the second place could not be Safe but as both Sides agree before He commes But Episcopacy which their Commissioners desired to have abolisht could not be but unsafe even after his comming for if there be just Reason to take it away now there will be reason then And yet so transported are they with a passionate and eager pursuit of a thing in the perswasion whereof both Parties professe they differ that they will not admit Discourse or Treat of another thing wherein both Sides professe before hand that They doe agree Both Armies cannot be Disbanded according to that Demand of Ours but before the King and Parliament doe meet but the Power of the Militia may be setled according to that Demand of Theirs after that Meeting and indeed there is but little reason that this Power of the Militia should now come in projection in these Times of Warre which must lye Dormant as Themselves confesse and not be put in Execution till the Time of Peace And yet so violent are these Men in setling of a Power which must not be exercis'd but in the Time of Peace That they will heare of no course that may be taken in the meane time for dissolving of the Warre like ordinary People in a Croude that will make such hast every man to get first out of dores that no man stirres So that upon viewing of the whole matter We can cast all these obstacles and Impediments in the wayes of Peace that arose out of this perverse Method of handling the Propositions into no other Mould but this That They never intending to conclude a Peace resolved in the first place to Treat of Their Propositions which they knew no man with Honesty or Conscience could Grant That in the second place they might with better colour avoyd the Treating upon Our Propositions which they knew no man with Conscience or Honesty could offer to Deny And if all this which hath bin said be not enough to perswade with men of common understanding that these Rebels never did intend a Peace but that they purpose to make this Warre which at first was their Necessity now become their Trade for too many of them know not how to live without it yet this One Consideration is sufficient to enforce them to beleife if they will but weigh it well and that is this That They never would allow the Tender and Offer of all those things for Overtures of Peace the Stoppe and Obstruction whereof they themselves ever professed till now was the greatest Incentive and