that this renders our Magistrates more cruel than the Turk himself For the Turk himself in the present height of his Tyranny and Popular reverence of his Mahumetisme yet lets the disconsolate Greeks have the free exercise of their Religion True-man This is as you think home-put indeed but I pray do but consider how miserably poor he keeps them how contemptible he renders them to all his Mahumetans what pitiful Cells rather than Churches they are glad to worship in what Tributes he lays upon them for their Religion how he hath rob'd them of all means of Learning so that as Mr. Ricaut saith in his State of the Greek Church Cap. 1. nothing but their strict and constant Observation of the Feasts and Fasts of the Christian Church and their reverence to their Priests things which our Dissenters seem to make nothing of doth preserve any Knowledge of Christianity amongst them Nay how barbarously they are used in Africa and more particularly in Asia by the Turks and then let the World judge whether their Circumstances are like unto yours How glad would those poor Christians be that they had but half those Priviledges of our Church which you Dissenters slight and contemn They would think they deserved the extreamest Rigor that could be inflicted upon them should they make a Schism in so excellent a Church for matters of meer Order and Decency For the lesser and more inconsiderable our Differences are the greater is your Crime in not uniting with us and the more Severity you deserve whilst you continue in your Divisions and endeavor to propagate them amongst us Farther the Case is far different as to the People themselves The Greek Church are but a handful of poor Beggars in comparison of the Turks and in no manner of possibility of raising any Commotions or Rebellions amongst them the Turk having a constant standing Army over them but ours boast of their Numbers and Riches and have already rais'd the most Bloody and Unnatural Rebellion amongst us which ended in the Murder of the Best of Kings and the Destruction of the best of Churches and since God hath been pleased by a miraculous Power to restore us again as at the first by the Restauration of our King that now Reigns how many Plots and Mischiefs have they continued amongst us To instance in no more witness that Bloody Villany acted by Venner and his Party in England and the late Rebellion rais'd by the Field-Conventiclers in Scotland Nay they are such a sort of People that having got an Interest in the Late Times how unjustly it matters not with them in the Lands of the Church and Crown and of most of the Loyal Nobility and Gentry in England their Fingers itch to be at them again and they would willingly venture their Skins to have a fair Blow for them And that this is the reason of some of their Non-conformity I am fully convinced having with these Ears heard one of them confess That if they would give him his Bishops-Lands again he would be as good a Church-man as any is in England They have no other way to come at another push for them but by drawing in the People to their Party by keeping up Conventicles amongst us For this I can speak of my own Knowledge That they value their old Titles to those Lands at some years purchase more than they did before His Majesties Declaration for the suspension of the penal Laws against them So grateful are they for the King's Favors and so excellent Designs do they carry on by the pretences of Conscience Moreover the Case is quite different as to our Magistrates our King hath not an Absolute and Arbitrary Power and a Standing Force sufficient at the first Rise to suppress any Commotion that may be rais'd amongst them as the Turk hath but he is pleas'd to govern us by Laws even of our own desiring and therefore there is an absolute necessity that such Laws should be executed unless we would be ruled by the sole Power of the Sword Now let me refer it to the Nobility and Gentry of England whether they will continue to break their Oaths in not executing our Laws to suppress Conventicles and so force His Majesty contrary to his Inclinations to govern by a Standing Army or whether they will let him see that the Laws are sufficient to do it by a due Execution of them For let me tell you Gentlemen we may talk of Liberty in Religion but there is no Monarchy under Heaven that I know of where it is allowed where there is not an Arbitrary Power and a constant Standing Force able to suppress all Mutinies and Seditions that may be the Consequence of it Let us therefore consider well at present for now is the time or never whether we will maintain our Church and Laws or whether we will submit to the long Sword or tamely yield up our Lands to them who think their former Possession hath given them a sufficient Title to those Estates which they once possessed Cap-cloak-man Ah Neighbour have a Care how you scandalize God's People the Sober Party of the Nation and do but observe what follows p. 10. ibid. and I hope you will be sorry you have rais'd so tedious so impertinent not to say for wicked and false a Discourse against them True-man The Discourse was forced from me by your Impudence in preferring the Turk to our Most Gracious King and Governours Forbear your Scandalous Reflections if you will not hear your selves represented as you deserve For my part neighbour I am not sensible of any thing I have said but what is as necessary as true and upon my Reputation I assure you that as soon as you can make me sensible of it I will not at all stick to recant it but I must needs say your bare word for it to whom it is as natural to call Names as it is to some Animals to grin and snarle at any thing that displeaseth will not go very far with me Let me therefore hear your Reasons you talk of Cap-cloak-man You may find them there to this purpose that notwithstanding those two special Fathers of the Church of England Observator and Heraclitus make such a Cry about Fanatick Plots and Plotters though the Papist-plotters have been visible enough at the Old-Baily Westminster-Hall Tower-Hill and the Gallows yet they have not been able to discover any such amongst the Dissenters and though there may be turbulent factious and seditious Persons of all Professions yet it is a great Imprudence to throw away a whole Quarter of Wheat for the mixture of a Peck of Tares True-man In the first place Neighbour why are the Observator and Heraclitus call'd the two special Fathers of the Church of England I verily believe those Gentlemen think it Honor enough to be Sons not Fathers of our Church But I 'll warrant you you think you have made a fine Reflection both upon them and our Church but let me tell
of the Apostles Is there not such a Chain of all Affairs as that there can scarcely be any matter but may in some sort or another be Ecclesiastical as well as Civil So that either Obedience must be preached to Civil Magistrates in all matters salva Conscientia or else in none at all Are not all Laws that are enacted by the Civil Power rightly call'd Civil Laws Why then are not those Acts of Parliament which command all men to come to their own Parish-Church to worship God and to behave themselves there in such decent and orderly manner as our Liturgy prescribes which is established by Act of Parliament as well Civil Laws and consequently as much to be obeyed as any other Why are not Laws for the security of our Religion as readily to be obeyed as those which are made for the security of our Property and as fully to be executed There cannot certainly be any reason of difference to any man who does not set a much higher value upon his Interest than upon his Religion Nay have we not seen that your dear Brethren of the Kirk of Scotland under the notion of Ecclesiastical Causes brought in all manner of Affairs of State and by the Decrees of their National Synods controll'd all the Laws of their Natural Sovereign and proceeded so far till at length raising Horse and Arms to fight against his Majesty was the great Kirk-matter which they met together to compleat Cap-cloak-man Had I not a very great command of my self thorough mercy I should not have the Patience to hear one word more from you or to stay one Minute longer in your Company True-man Why Neighbour What 's the matter How have I hurt you Have you some old Sore about you which I touched a little too hard I assure you Neighbour it was unawares if I did and therefore I pray you be a little pacified Cap-cloak-man Unawares say you Why you 'r always rubbing our old Sores How do you think they can ever heal if you will be always picking and scratching of them True-man Corrosives are sometimes necessary especially where the Sores are closed up with dead or proud Flesh. When I see you sensible of your old Faults and endeavour to amend them I can be very willing to give my self the quiet as not to disturb my Neighbours but when in your Scriblings you will be insinuating the same Principles that have been the Authors of so much War and Blood-shed amongst us I cannot help it if you hear of the old Practises that followed from them Cap-cloak-man I wonder you will not see that these Principles are utterly rejected by us even in that very Book you mention see the discourse of Loyalty pag. 6. ibid. where the Author saith I think there is no Dissenter in England that would not be accounted a Rebel but would confirm it to his Prince with his Heart his Hand and his Purse and what he means by it you have in the former words viz. An obedience to Commands enjoyn'd by the politick Constitution and Frame of Government and this he proves most learnedly from the derivation of the word Loyalty from Lex True-man But all this I doubt is but one and the fairest side of the Party which he would have all men to see Thus far I believe him That there is no Dissenter in England that would be accounted a Rebel for they love a Successful Rebellion which they can soon call by the Name of the Good Old-Cause the Cause of God which he hath so manifestly even against all Opposition declared himself to own by casting down the strong holds of all the Powers on Earth as they have formerly without so much as ever wiping their Mouths after it canted oftentimes in their Sermons before the two Houses and the Army And let me deal freely with you neighbour Cap-cloak How can we believe those Mens bare Words whom no Oaths can hold A Shaft -Association possibly might hold them but if that will not I know nothing but an Halter that can Now that this is the truth of the Business look a little farther and you will plainly see for after in the Name of all the Dissenters he hath promised to confirm an Obedience to Commands enjoyn'd by the politick Constitution and Frame of Government with Heart Hand and Purse under the Penalty of being accounted Rebels yet immediately he destroys his own very Principle of Loyalty by endeavouring to subvert all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction for saith he lin 13. ibid. this being the chief Satisfaction to the Civil Magistrate it seems hard that Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction should make such an heavy clutter for her far less inconsiderable mite of a Coercive Power Now Neighbour put on one Cap more I beseech you that is your Considering-Cap and tell me where according to your own Notion of Loyalty we shall find any such thing in your Party who in your Obedience to the Civil Magistrate take no notice of Ecclesiastical Laws For is not the settled Religion of the Nation the true Protestant cause one main part of the politick Constitutions of our Nation Are not the Canons of our Church and our Liturgy and Ceremonies ratified commanded and enjoyn'd by the politick constitution and frame of the Government of our Nation i. e. even by Parliaments themselves as well as any other Laws whatsoever Confirm then your Loyalty to your Prince by your hearty obedience to his Ecclesiastical Laws or else by your own Concession I must conclude that you 'r of that number of Dissenters who would be accounted Rebels and I must needs say that you 'r the first of them that ever I met withal for though most of them I have too much reason to believe would if their Brethren the Scots last Insurrection had prosper'd have been Rebels yet they have now generally more Wit than to desire to be accounted so Cap-cloak-man Nay Nay good Neighbour not so bitter and cholerick I beseech you against the Sober People of God in our Land your Passion hath so far transported you that you have not Patience to read on for if you had you would find that they do acknowledge the Tithes of Vnity Love and Charity to the Church of England True-man Aye say you so a blind man would be glad to see it Where do we see in their Actions any such Tythe paid No No they cannot so much as spare their Mint Cummin Annis to their lawful Ministers because they reserve all to be paid to those of their own way not of the Church of England But however methinks that a great Tythe of Obedience as well as the small Tythes of Love and Charity should be due from them to our Church which was mainly founded by the first and best Martyrs for the Protestant Religion Cap-cloak-man This is acknowledged too in the same Page only he tells you they cannot come to Church to pay it because your Pulpits are like so many Beacons where ye raise such a Flame that they
that is all that you care for For was there ever so senseless a reflection upon all our Laws as this is Are not Bills generally first pass'd in the House of Commons I pray you how many of the Clergy are in that House What is the Speaker's Chaplain alone able to over-rule the wisdom of our whole Nation as sometimes you please to call the Members of that House As for the House of Lords there are but 26 of the Clergy in it and is it not very strange they should out-vote all the rest or that by their Interest they should over-power them It seems the case is altered since they were called the dead weight of that most Honourable House and thought to signifie little or nothing in it I remember a worthy Clerk told me once that a Speaker amongst the Quakers whom he vilely suspected to be a Papist made it his main Argument against his payment of Tythes that the Laws which enjoyned them were made by the Papists and the Clergy And indeed the objection lies equally against all our ancient Laws so that if this be a satisfactory excuse no man can have any right to any thing he possesses by vertue of any ancient Law in England For the same objection may be made against them all Is it for this reason that some of you Dissenters will not take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance nor take any notice of the Acts for the observation of the Thirtieth of Ianuary or 29th of May Are not they most admirable Subjects and most exactly obedient to our Civil Power and great Lovers of the King who refuse to acknowledge his Power and to swear fealty to him or so much as to bewail the murder of his Father or to praise God for his happy return If these are not excellent Subjects I know not where you 'l find any such unless amongst the Banditi or the Wild Arabians Cap-cloak-man Not so fast I beseech you Let me put in a word or two to vindicate my dear Brethren who are for all your aspersions precious in the sight of God and Man As for those who refuse to take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance I utterly disown them But as for the observation of the thirtieth of Ianuary Why should they bewail that fact in which they had no hand This would be tacitly to confess themselves guilty of it And as to the 29th of May Is it not enough for them who think they have received benefit by it to express their joy and thankfulness for it We lost our Lands and Livings by it and what reason have we to keep a thanksgiving for it True-man If you disown the first sort why do you own such Principles as may justifie them for were not the Clergy as much active in making those Laws that enjoyn those Oaths as any other As for the question Why should they the Dissenters bewail that fact in which they had no hand I shall return you these few Queries Had you Dissenters attain'd to an absolute perfection had you no sins that amongst the rest of the sins of the Nation might combine to pull down God's wrath upon us and to render us odious to all Nations by the most barbarous murder of the best of Princes Was it the Cavalier or the Army-Saint that perpetrated that Villany Was it the Church-man that fought for the King or the Phanatick that fought against him that were guilty of it Was it the Jew or Christian that killed our Saviour Was Peter that fought for him or Iudas that betrayed him guilty of his bloud I suppose for the same reason you joyn with the Iews in not observing any day in memory of our Saviour's Crucifixion because you believe that neither they nor you were any ways guilty of it For I am sure you may as well believe this as that you were no ways guilty of the murder of our Royal Martyr As for the Query in your Vindication for not observing the 29th of May though I believe you will be ashamed to own it yet I assure you upon the reputation of a Gentleman that I have heard that reason given by a well-wisher of your brethren and that I do really believe never a Dissenter of you all can give a truer or better reason for that ingrateful neglect Did you not then by the Kings great clemency receive your Lives which were justly forfeited to the Laws and do not too many of you enjoy great Estates which were other Mens Rights and is not all this worth I thank you to God and the King besides those infinite publick Mercies the whole Nation received thereby Cap-cloak-man You never know when to have done railing it is so natural to you Come come if you would lay aside passion you would find the Men you speak off to be good Men and therefore as the second Argument tells you pag. 7. ibid. since it was never yet known in the world that ever any Civil Magistrate made a Law with an intent to punish any good man therefore this Law was never intended by the Supreme Power against the Dissenters For that they are good men is fully proved out of the Psalmist c. pag. 8. True-man Here is a demonstration for you indeed such an one that will hold eternally like a rope of Sand. For first Did you never hear of certain Heathen Emperours that made Laws to punish even with the severest Penalties and greatest tortures all the Professors of Christianity Or 2dly Can you believe that all those Primitive Confessors and Martyrs were not as good Men as our Dissenters And lastly Do you not know that Men may be very good in the performance of some Duties that yet neglect the great duties of peace and subjection and may be very wicked as to many other nay that Men may be very strict in Sobriety and seeming obedience to the Laws of God out of design to carry on some gain or profit to themselves Have you not heard of the Pharisees who made long prayers to devour Widows houses or of a sort of People whose gain is their godliness Was you never acquainted with a sort of good godly and sober people who preached up murder sacriledge and rebellion and justified in their Pulpits that most execrable crime committed against the life of our late martyred Sovereign These might be in other matters as to all appearance very good Men and yet had there not been an Act of Indemnity they do well deserve the Gallows Do you not know that all that will endeavour the destruction of a Church or State by drawing in the People to their party are necessitated to appear as the best of Men to carry on even the worst of designs Hath not the Devil himself been transform'd into an Angel of Light and do not his Agents always imitate him And therefore such as these who under the Shew of Goodness carry on ill Designs not only because their false Pretences make even Religion it self become contemptible
c. of the Parish and County aforesaid Crape-Gown-men being to preach before the Artillery Company did chuse such Texts as were most suitable to the occasion and did not as you ought to have done chuse your Texts out of the Book of the Revelations or out of Daniel's Visions or Ezekiel's Wheels c. and further that you the said Crape-Gown-men did use such Terms of the Military Art and so applied them as might be most useful to the Hearers and might be best remembred by them c. Cap-cloak-man This surely cannot be the Summ of what I charge them withal in those 2 pages If I have either Eyes or Understanding this is all that I can find in them Cap-cloak-man I can't tell how to believe it Well but go on You 'll find enough behind True-man In page 31 and 32. you continue your Charge to this Effect And further that you the said Crape-Gown-men not having the Fear of God before your Eyes out of premeditated malice against our Sovereign Lord the King's Iustices and all the able Council learned in the Law and the wise Iuries at a certain Assizes c. then and there assembled did in their Sermons then and there preach'd put them in mind of their Duties and of the great Sacredness of Oaths even amongst Heathens and terrifie and affright them even to the putting them in fear of their immortal Lives with the Terrors of the last Iudgment before an all-knowing infallible Almighty Iudge c. Cap-cloak-man Read on read on you 'll come to more Material Faults in the following Pages True-man From pag. 33. to p. 39. you proceed in your Indictment to this purpose viz. That you the said Crape-Gown-men in several of your Sermons at other times and in other places not having the fear of God before your Eyes out of premeditated Malice against the good Godly and sober Party of this our Nation have chosen certain malignant Texts of Scripture to prove to the People those damnable Doctrines of the Excellency and Divine Right of Monarchy and that in other Discourses you have defamed his Majesties best Subjects the Presbyterians that were so instrumental to the bringing him in for their own Interest and ever since his Restauration have been most Loyally endeavoring because he will not let them be Kings to throw him out again with a matter of Truth and that you the said Crape-Gown-men to the great prejudice of his Majesties Grammer-School of St. Paul c. have made use of certain Citations out of Valerius Maximus and Cicero because they were pertinent to your purpose and lastly that you the said Crape-Gown-men in other of your Sermons have proved that it is not lawful to make an Act of Parliament to exclude the Right Heir from the Crown because Job tells us Ch. 36. v. 21. that it is not lawful for a man to do evil that good may come of it and that you have most bitterly rail'd against such as endeavored to settle the Crown and the Succession in the right Line by such an Exclusion of the true and lawful Successor whereby the Godly Party have been very much lett and hindered in doing God's Work i. e. in introducing an Holy and thorough Reforming Commonwealth amongst us And all this you have done and said contrary to the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and the Statutes made at the last Sessions of Parliament in Eutopia Anno 1900. of the Reign of Amadis de Gaul c. 201. c. Cap-cloak-man How can you acquit your Crape-Gown-men from these Faults Is not the Indictment fully proved against them True-man I think there is no great need of a Verdict in the Case If it will do you any Service because there 's no Treason in them I 'll confess them Guilty Cap-cloak-man Then you must acknowledge them sufficiently ridiculous True-man I beg your Pardon for that Sweet Dear Neighbour For I cannot see any such thing charg'd upon them Cap-cloak-man You have hudl'd up together what I have said and represented it according to your own Humor but if you would consider particularly as there you may find it I doubt not but you must be forced to confess the Ridiculousness of such preaching True-man I am mistaken if I have not delivered the Sence of your Words according to the Truth and the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth and the reason why I put your whole Accusation in one Summ of an Indictment is because I did not see any thing that you have said that deserved a more particular Consideration but if you have any thing more to say I have Patience enough to hear it let it be never so impertinent Cap-cloak-man In the first place I pray you let me know why you talk of Malignant Texts of Scripture I am sure I made use of no such blasphemous Epithet I have more Reverence for the sacred Scriptures than to blaspheme them at that Rate True-man Possibly you may have now but there was a time when one of your Godly Committees of Sequestration sentenced an honest Clergy-man for want of other Faults merely for chusing malignant Texts of Scripture to be sequestred and executed their Sentence upon him accordingly and therefore you must pardon me if because I saw you so hot against these Texts I did imagine these might be the very malignant Texts for which he was sequesterd For I cannot but think that your hatred to Monarchy may sometimes over-ballance your great Reverence for the Holy Scriptures when they oppose your most dearly beloved Common-weath Doctrines Cap-cloak-man You mistake me I was not hot against any Texts of Scripture but against the Preacher for misapplying them True-man Let 's see then how they are misapplied Cap-cloak man For Example to prove the Power of Kings a Wakefield Gent. takes this Text Psal. 51. v. 4. Against thee only have I sinned vid. p. 33. True-man Had he not reason for it For he that can sin only against God is accountable to none but God for his Sin and therefore cannot nor ought not to be brought to the Block by his own People and Subjects Cap-cloak-man I must acknowledge the Consequence to be true in spight of my Teeth but how are the Premises true from that Text viz. that David as a Monarch could only sin against God or against God only True-man For all any thing that you have said to the Contrary this may be the very true and genuine sense of the Words I did desire a friend of mine to examine Interpreters about them and by the account he hath given me I am much confirm'd in that opinion Cap-cloak-man Let us see your friend's account for I cannot but think it will prove a very strange one True-man I will give it you truely in his own Words let it appear never so strange to you He tells me that St. Hierom who possibly could have writ Hebrew in other kind of Characters then you have done renders the Words thus In