and Covenant of Baptisme as to Infants so your appropriating the administration thereof to the Bishop objected by your N. C. in his next demand doth yet more discover its vanity and evill design To the arguments therefore which you bring for it and 1. to its Antiquity I answere that the simplicity and purity of the first Ages of the Church knew it not 2. As it s very first beginnings cannot be calculate beyond the times of the Churches declination so it is most certain that from an arbitrarie well-meaning institution it hath since been depraved to such an abuse as may sufficiently justify the total removal of its use 2. As for your Scripture probability from the laying on of hands so notourly known to have been then only used in the conferring of the extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit or in the Ordination or Mission of Ministers neither it nor your alleaged assent of most Reformers do merite any answere Next you tell us in defence of Private Baptisme That for us to confine the Sacramental actions to the walls of a Church is gross Superstition But who would have thought when you clamour so much upon our Non-conforming Meetings you would have stumbled into such a mistake Our exception against Privat Baptisme is therefore not the want of a dedicated House as you do vainly alleage but because our Lord having by his commission annexed it to the preaching of the word whereof it is the seal and it being the Sacrament of our initiation into the Church its performance doth evidently appear to be most agreeable to the ordinary Church assemblies where-ever held beside that peoples mindes prone to superstition may by the practice of Private Baptisme be readily inclined both to apprehend the Popish absolute necessity of Baptisme and thence to regard the exterior action more then the spiritual signification and efficacie is confirmed by undeniable experience both in your and the Roman Churches For the inconveniency which you poorly exaggerate from the distance of many Churches the badness of seasons and tenderness of Infants as unto this day it was never made the ground of a reall complaint so you should understand that the dispensations of Gods Providence do not alter the dispositions of his holy will From Baptisme you pass to plead for the private administration of the Communion to Persons on death-bed and this you think the seasonablenes of its use and the propriety of its ends to such a case do abundantly perswade To which I answere 1. That though at no time Faith and Love need more to be quickened the Death of Christ more to be remembred nor communion with the Church to be declared then in the approach of the last pangs it will not thence follow that therefore the Communion may then be privatly administrat for since not the seasonableness of the fruits but the warrant and Rule given unto us is first to be heeded in the going about of holy administrations nay since that without this regard duely adhibit the blessing and fruits are but in vain expected it is evident that barely from the exigence of the fruits to conclude in any case the lawfulness of the celebration is preposterous Religion and worse Reason Now 2. That the rule set down to us in this Sacrament doth reprobate this your observance is evident not only from that connexion that there is and ought to be observed betwixt the word and Sacraments But 1. From our Lords own pattern in the institution keeping this solemnity with the company of his Disciples making as it were a little Christian Church 2. Because the Apostle in his regulation of this Sacrament according and with respect to his Masters pattern doth suppose the Churches coming together into one place and consequently the ordinary Church Assemblies as a necessary requisite in the free and peaceable times of the Church 3. Because the very Mysterie of the Lords Supper representing the union of Believers with and their communion in Iesus Christ their Head and the name that it hath thence obtained 1 Cor. 10. v. 16 17. is not well consistent with this private administration 'T is true the Authors of your Articles not being able to decline the convincing evidence of this reason do among other preparations require that there be three or four free of lawful impediments present with the sick person to communicate with him but as such a packt Conventicle beside other inconveniences hath no just resemblance of the Church her ordinary Assemblies much less can communicating with hand-weal'd companions be a signe of that free equable and comprehensive communion signified by this Sacrament so it is manifest that the forementioned requisite is only a colourable evasion manifestly acknowledging the force of our argument in fraudem Legis salvis verbis sententiam ejus circumveniens But 3. This your Private Communion is to be reprobate because as the decumbents faith love and other graces in that hour of his need are only best excited by the means at that time allowed and competent and the sanctified remembrance and improvement of other privileges and ordinances formerly enjoyed so it is certain that this observance hath not only been abused by the Papists unto the abomination of their private Maâ—â— but is also rejected by the Reformed Churches not Lutheran as found to be inductive of vain Superstition whereever it is used and for this I need not go farre in search of confirmations for you your self in telling us That your practice was very early in the Church subjoin that Iustin Martyr sayes they sent of the Eucharist to them that were absent and that the story of Serapion shews how necessary Christians then thought it to be guarded by this holy viaticum which two instances whether true or false being generally held to be an excess both inclining to and introductive of vain Superstition and therefore reckoned among the first Naevi appearing in the face of the Primitive Church and now generally disused by all the Churches of Christ as they are by you adduced do too evidently demonstrate how much both your spirit and customes do bend to a relapse in these evils In the next place your N. C. asks you What you say for Kneeling in receiving sure this looks like Superstition and Idolatrie And in return you confess that it is the Article of them all which you have least fondness for And this indeed is very fitly expressed in as much as it is evident it can be no rational or solid liking which inclineth you to any of them but since even your fondness as to this Article is defective how farre must you be from doing the thing in faith And how much more sound and Christian would it be for you here to subsist and say since for want of the warrant of Faith this Kneeling cannot possibly please God let it be removed from his Holy Ordinance But you proceed and tell us That since the kneelers do declare that they neither believe Christ to
a Gentleman why may not the temporall honour of a Lord be as well put upon a Bishop Sir if you were as innocent of the vanity as you seem to be ignorant of the Nature of these titles Our controversie were at an end a Faithfull Minister truely minding his work values not himself upon points of Herauldriâ— to acquit himself as becometh an Embassadour for the Glory of Christ is all his ambition and truly honourable beyond the accession of all temporall dignity If it were not so I could further inform you that a Gentleman and Nobleman do not only gradually differ but are prorsus disparata wholly different The King wee say can make the one but cannot make the other I grant the privileges of a Gentleman are commonly supposed to belong to Ministers and decent civility may respect them as of that ranck but really there appears to me such a disparity betwixt these things and a Bishops receiving let be the usurping of the temporall and more eminent honour or Lord specially as above his Brethren that if a Minister as such should but tenaciously lay claime to the title of a Gentleman I would think it not only very misbecoming his Profession but a plain forfeiture of the pretended privilege But your N. C. urges to better purpose that Bishops should not Lord it over Gods heritage And you for Answere tell us That by Lording is meant a tyrannicall domination and not a tittle Next That Gods Heritage applyed by us to the Clergie is not in the Text bearing only not Lording over their Lots or Divisions to which you adde That Whatever argument we use to put down Bishops from being as Noble-men will also prove Ministers not born such not to be Gentlemen Sir to put this foolish trifling about titles first by hand Bishops neither are Noblemen nor ought to be esteemed quasi Noblemen because 1. The thing is altogether incompetent and the title without the thing is a vanity 2. Either title or thing as it exalts them above their Brethren is sinful and the very reverse of our Lords Command Whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant not your Lord. He that is chief let him be as he that Serveth not as a Nobleman How then can ye acclaime either thing or title 3. The title of Lord in its Ecclesiastick usurpation hath been and is so grossly abused by Church-men above all that our Lord reprehends in the pride of the Pharisees not only to the pretending to the uppermost roomes at feasts and the chiefe seats in the Synagogues but the chief places in States and the first banches in Parliaments not only to Greetings in the Mercaâ—s and to be called of men Rabbi Rabbi but to ride next to the Honours and be called Grace Grace that seriously I marveil how you or any Christian regarding our Lords express words can justify it That these reasons do not militate against the civil and ordinary respect commonly payed to all Ministers and men of any fashion without either a vain usurpation in the receivers or any other thing then that courteous mutuaâ—l preference commended by the Apostle in the givers which without falling into the ravings of the Quakers their austerity you cannot from our Lords words redargue I think it needlesse to resume Now you say that by Lording prohibite to Church-men a Tyrannical domination is only meant why do you thus offer to impose contraire both to the import of the word and tenour of the Scripture the word used by Peter is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the very same used by our Lord Math. 20. Whence Peter himself learned the Prohibition that it signifies not to Tyrannize buâ— simply authoritative Dominari to rule with Authoritie all Lexica attest Neither doth the proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 joyned to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 import more of force then what doth more expressively denote and distinguish the dominion of Empire and Authority from that of propriety As for the tenour of Scripture that it repugnes to your exposition is manifest 1. Because that where Math. in this passage useth the compound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke doth indifferently use the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as of the same import to the present purpose by which your gloss of a tyrannicall domination is deprived of all shadow of ground 2. Because our Lord by both words doth only prohibite such a domination and authority amongst his Disciples as was exercised amongst the Gentiles by their Princes and which they who were called their Benefactors did use over them but certain it is that neither was the dominion of the Princes of the Gentiles allowedly or commonly tyrannick nor is it our Lords purpose in this place to brand them with such a character 3. The positive Command plainly set down and enforced by our Lords own example is too evident to leave any man hesitant as to the Prohibition But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among youâ— truely great in virtue and reward let him be your Minister Let him exercise the Ministery committed to him by way of humble and painfull service denyed to all worldly advantages and neither affect nor assume the Grandour and Authority of Civil Governours Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to Ministere and to give his life c. and made himself of no reputation contemning his Gentility and not valuing his Nobilitie but took upon him the form of a Servant Sir do we indeed beleeve that this is commanded and proposed for a pattern to Gospel Ministers And yet it is not only most certainly so but also undeniable that if there were in Ministers and Church-men that same Spirit of Obedience to God and love to Souls which was in him who accounted it his meat and drink to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work and if they had the same eye and regard to the joy set before them which he had who is the Author and â—inisher of our Faith it could not be other wayes For my part I think a serious reflection on these things is not only enough to confound for ever the ease vanity and pomp of aspiring Prelats but to make the best of Ministers ashamed to appear so much above their Master even in their indulged honesties and conveniencies But 4. Because the place that you touch is taken from Peter see how it also agrees with that of Math. Feed the flock of God c. Not as being Lords or Lording over Gods heritage but as being Ensamples where it is evident that the adversative doth not only reject your Gloss of a tyrannick domination But by commanding rather to lead and instruct by example then to rule by Authority hold furth the same humble and simple Ministerie to be enjoined here which by our Lord was before recommended The next thing you answere is that Gods heritage applied by us to the
thoughts they appear to be but extrinseck and of little moment so pray Sir whence did they proceed And what have they produced Certainly if either serious reflections upon all the Ages of Christianity especially upon these alterations that have happened amongst us since the Reformation or a just consideration of the present condition and state of affaires could have place as the pride and avarice of corrupt Church-men and consequently of the worst of men assisted since the rejection of the Pope with the same irreligious spirit and practices observed in former times of an aspiring Supremacie moving under the specious pretexts of order and peace will appear to be the only spring and cause so ignorance profanity violence and distraction will be found the woful fruits of these innovations But it is of the Lord for the punishment of our iniquities especially our not receiving and walking worthy of the glorious Gospel that judgement is farre from us neither doth justice overtake us we wait for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness We look for judgement but there is none for salvation but it is farre from us The Lord see to it and let his Arme bring salvation and his name be glorified As for the concluding complement of affection which you do here give your Non-conformist and make him to repay at our cost with the confession of his former unmeasured fury it is but too palpably the wantonnesse of your own extravagant fancie wherein to looke for more truth then you do shew constancie in your resolution to put a point to these matters controverted and never to resume them againe were great weaknesse You add in words Let us provoke therefore one another to charity and good works and yet we know your practice to be to press your trifling conformity and provoke the Powers against such as cannot comply We have indeed a blessed exercise for our tongues even with them to bless God the Father but since you do persist in your maligning the wayes work and people of God your mouth must and shall be stopt if the small endeavours by me used might make you minde the pursuance of truth more then the study of your so often repeated Temper my satisfaction would be little inferior to your advantage but seing both your words and works do shew that thou art neither cold nor hot but lukewarm I counsel the in the words of the great Counseller To be Zealous therefore and repent behold he standeth at the door and knocketh if any man hear his voice and open the door he will come in to him and sup with him and he with him To him that overcometh will he grant to sit with him in his throne even as he also overcame and is set down with his Father in his throne And thus passing your preposterous postscript and your Icarian Pindarick I proceed to your Continuation The Continuation OR The seventh DIALOGUE Answered SIR Beginning this your seventh Dialogue with your ordinary insinuations whereof the slender artifice obvious to the first view needeth no further discovery I only take notice that where your preface affirmeth that the true reason of your consenting to the publishing of the former Dialogues was That since yow had allayed a great deall of the heat you met with in your N. C. upon these matters you presumed it might produce the like good effect in others It is an alledgeance too serious to be groundless and beyond what the license of the fictitious form of your conferences will allow and therefore since any excess of heat that appeares in your N. C. is not ours but purely your own invention your pretense of having allayed it doth both bewray your vanity and shew this to be indeed the true cause of the publication As for the advantages yow reckon upon yow reckon before your Host reckon again and then boast of your Reason But you would also be accouâ—ted a Droll forsooth though you say you have only adhibite somwhat of that not out of humour but for sweetening the transitions according to the manner of all Dialogues certainly you Latitudinarians are all brave comprehensive spirits Masters of all good qualities whether you possesse them or not and yet I dare affirm that a pleasant humorist will laugh more at this passage of your conceitedness then all the drolries that hitherto you have vented But now begins your half-proselited N. C. and without connexion tells you that some charge you with Socinianisme others with Poprie others with Arminianisme and others with Quakerisme though as it seems to him upon very slender grounds Sir what may have moved you after what we have heard in your sixt Dialogue again in this place to resume these things to so small purpose I do not conceive You shew as if you were extremly picked by such reproaches and tell us that you know the arts of such who will tell their people that you are unsound and heteredox and back ther hard words with grave nods and ivry faces Poor man your passion is stirred and I am sorry to find you so impotent as again to relapse in such a childish reflection whereas to have used it once before was too much and unworthy of your gravity Buâ— sure who ever are your accusers who really to me are unknown they have too visible an advantage in this your weakness and if many men be not mistaken no less ground of retortion in your own scenical gesticulations and affected grimaces The thing I am concerned to notice is why being so sharp in your resentment are you so scant in your purgation You ask if they do understand things who charge him with Socinianisme who believeth that Christ is the eternal Son of God and hopes for salvation only through his blood And I grant that these things being truely understood and believed as I hope you do are indeed the truth opposite to the Socinian errors But seeing you know that some Socinians do also very easily admit and acknowledge the same form of words and that the cardinal point of this Controversie is whether or not Iesus Christ the Son of God be indeed essentially naturâ Deus according to that Scripture And we are in him that is true even in his Son Iesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life I wish you had chosen the same positive assertion for your vindication As for your clearing your self of Poprie in the matter of Justification because forsooth that you ascribe all we receive in this life and in that to come to the love and grace of God thorough Iesus Christ. It is so far from being a sufficient test of your orthodoxy that I am confident there is scarce one understanding Papist who would not say it were a calumny to charge them with the contrary Nay you your self in your sexth Dialogue do plainly say that they hold the foundation Jesus Christ and expressly wave their opinion of Justification in the enumeration of
wicked School 2. Though the assertion as by you indefinitly laid down be not a little invidious yet seeing it is undeniable that Phineas and Elias did neither as Magistrats whatever was their capacity nor by special warrant punish crimes and execute judgment and that desperate disorders in the publick government may by the force of necessity license to private persons specially parents and masters this power controverted to affirme without exception that the doctrine concerning private persons their punishing of crimes in case of the supinness of the Magistrate is cursed seemeth rather to be the effect of passion then of reason 3. Divine impulses have been and are still casible and that the Lord thereby without the giving of any special commission may stirre up to such an heroick act as though necessarily debording from common methods may not the less in its whole tract and event be attended with so peculiar a lustre and evidence of Gods approbation as may even force from you an assent notwithstanding that the deed can only be maintained by these general positions which you seeme to disprove is to me unquestionable And therefore your so severe disowning without any reserve of private persons their punishing of crimes in case of the supinness of the Magistrate excluding all possibility of divine excitations to that purpose appeareth to be very precipitant Are the contingencies of humane affaires and their surprisals and pressures such as to move Kings and Princes on earth over and above all fixed and regular courses to define certain causes and occasions Quando liceat unicuiqne sine judice se vindicare velpublicaÌ„ devotionem subjug are edicto quod serum esset punire judicio it a ut cuncti adversus latrones publicos desertoresque militiae jus sibi sciant pro quiete communi exercendae publicae ultionis indultum And if in the far more pressing and conspicuous exigences of the glory of God when Soul-murderers and Christ-deserters are not only permitted but patronized the Lord in that case animat private persons to heroick undertakings for his glory when all other judgment faileth shal the justifying of such practices though otherwise countenanced by many undeniable testimonies be exclaimed against as accursed doctrines far be it from us and all that love the Lords glory and adore his soveraignity I say otherwise countenanced c. for that some men under these collours may pretend to the like warrant when in reality they have it not is indeed to be regreted nay that the present loose and lewd practices of some who most licentiously invade Conformists under cloud of night in their own houses to no good purpose whatsomever but to the great scandal of Religion and prejudice of the Countrey are such as by many clear circumstances are utterly to be condemned whatever they may pretend is I hope manifest without any observation and needeth not any further caution 4. If I may come a little nearer on this subject wherein I protest sincerâ—ly I have no designe but to vindicat the truth and wayes of the Lord with all tenderness and fear and with all due regard to the deceitfulness of humane passion and corruption are there not many suppositions casible wherein to speake roundly freely in the extreme pressure either of our own or our neighbours interest in matter of life or estate both you and I and all others whatever be our shynesse in opinion would have a clearnesse to act many things of the same nature with or as important as the punishing of crimes not only without but even in some cases against the Magistrate how can we then deny the like obligation and warrant to the highest and most important concernment of the glory of God in its just and manifest exigence Sir I know that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God but verily when I reflect how that in many cases relating to self the most part of men and even dissemblers in profession are neverthelesse in practice firmly perswaded and in some cases all without exception are even in opinion most determined as to their right and obligation of defence and resistance And withall consider that our love which is certainly the foundation of this right and obligation ought to be infinitly more intended toward God then toward all things else I cannot but wish that both the perswasion and zeal of all men in his matters were accordingly proportional to their value But oh who is now on the Lords side and who are they that aspire unto Levi's blessing who said unto his father and to his mother I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his brethren nor knew his own Children 5. Although the position be by you exhibited in such a laxe Manner as if upon the emergencie of every crime every private person were constitute the Magistrats overseer and exacter of his administrations that you may the better load us with your forged absurdities Yet Naphtali's doctrine above declared over and above the just exigence required is so clearly set down in the case only of gross and notorious backsliding and defection countinanced or connived at by the Magistrate wherein the concernment of Gods glory and our call to assert the same is far more discernable and manifest then in the punishing of other crimes that I hope I have said enough to cut off vain and impertinent cavillations It is therefore certain that though this doctrine concerning private persons their punishing of crimes in case of the supinnesse of the Magistrate in its undefined and uncautioned latitude may be obnoxious to gross abuses yet absolutely to deny the same and thence to condemne not only many fair scripture-examples but all heroick excitations which in their suteable exigences are by a clear concurrence of circumstances manifestly demonstrate to be from the Spirit of God as to the matter warranted by his command and in their manner dependent on his soveraignity were most rigid and unjust But you go on and tell us that what cursed effects this cursed doctrine produced all the Nation saw when in the sight of the Sun a villain with a pistol invaded the persons of two of the fathers of the Church and that in the chief â—â—rect of our royall City What an empty pomp of words have we here to make out this cursed effect a villain fathers of the Church chief strâ—et royal City big words indeed Sir the way to be just in your resentments is first to be equal and then I doubt but if you have as much respect to our Lord Jesus King over his Church as you pretend to your fathers of the Church that the wrongs and invasions by them villainously committed with a high and insolent hand in the sight of all the Nations against his glory and prerogative will not only make you give to them the epithet wherewith you censure their invader but account the effects of their wickednesse a hundred-fold more accursed But lest I offend you by