as the reason why Ministers are not to be trusted with the expressing of their desires in their own words nor so much as to chuse which Chapter to read as well as which Text to preach on to their Auditours because we shall have Ministers so weak as to be unfit for such a trust NOTE XII A VVE have the same things over again so often I 'm e'en Sick on 't But I Reply 'T is Truth God is better pleas'd with the Saving of Souls by the means of his own Appointment then c. Government is Gods Ordinance Obedience his Appointment Obey then and be saved Re-ordination is not press'd as necessary nor that I know Propos'd so though to deal freely as the Case stands I think it were no needless Test of Discrimination Subscription and Ceremonies are of most necessary Relation to Unity and Order which 't is the Churches Care and Duty to uphold to prevent Schisme and Confusion The Church in these Injunctions does but comply with a Superiour Command virtually inculcated in all those Precepts that concern Vnity and Decency and These Refusers strike at God himself in their Disobedience to his Ministers B But Concord in Ceremonies c. Observe this Clause well Here 's first Imply'd a Competition betwixt the Efficacy of a Sermon and of a Ceremony c. Whereas we put This difference The one is Gods Ordinance the other Mans. Yet is it in such sort Humane as that the Authority is virtually Divine See now their Complement upon the Episcopal Clergy As if the Church of England had no able Preachers but Non-Conformists The Fruit of whose Laborious Ministry has been a Twenty-years Rebellion But the point most remarkable is This. 'T is CEREMONY they oppose not This or that Injunction as of ill choyce or tendency but as an Imposition Their Plea is a Rejection of the Power Imposing more then of the thing imposed 'T is the Command forsooth that they dislike as an Addition to Gods Worship Let Confidence it self blush for These People Pray'e what 's the difference betwixt Addition to Gods Worship in Words or in Actions Only the One works upon the Eye the Other upon the Ear Both tending to the same Effect and Marques of our Conceipt alike whether by a Significancy of nature or of Agreement matters not much They seem to allow of a Set-form of Words why not of Actions too Since neither the One nor the other amounts to any thing but as they are Qualify'd and Tinctur'd with the Intention Says the Command Say Thus and why not DO Thus too Grant Both or neither for These Two Stand or fall by the same Argument WEE ask no more liberty then THEY take Their Prayers and Forms are not Actually in the Scripture Our Rites and Ceremonies are Potentially there For this Cause says St. Paul to Titus I left thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in Order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed Thee Here 's a Commission at Large to set in Order but What or How remitted to Discretion Touching Re-ordination we have spoken before A word now concerning their Oaths of obedience to Diocesans That These persons do not much stick at an Oath is evident from the many Oaths they have already taken divers of which being of direct Contradiction would make a man suspect they did not much heed what they swear Only now when the Oath they should take comes in Question a Qualme of Conscience seizes them They cannot swear obedience to Diocesans That is they will not submit to Episcopal Government or yet more close They 'll set up PRESBYTERY and Rule us Themselves Why should these men be Trusted without an Oath according to the Law that have so freely sworn against the Law Nay did not Modesty restreyn me I should discourse the Insecurity of crediting those people upon their Oath that have already broken so many Again They plead Exemption from Swearing that of all Mortals were the most Violent Enforcers of it Now to our Question'd Forms of Prayer Who Questions them but they that Question'd as well our Form of Government Those miserable Hypocrites whose Breaths are yet scarce sweet since they swore Last against the King and voted down the Bishops Agreement in the manner of Worship ought to be the Churches Care The Peoples Duty is submission and Obedience to which God in the very Precept has annex'd a Promissory Blessing and he that resists shall receive to himself Damnation C But They are no Enemies they say to Order and Concord Indeed they 're Pleasant Folks We are their Witnesses what pains they took to bring all to a Presbyterian Rule and Order and to unite the People in a foederal Concord against their Prince by a Rebellious Covenant D Here they demand that none may be call'd Factious that are not prov'd so Content What is it to be Factious but to promote and stir up Disaffections against the stated Government At This Rate all the Preachers Writers Printers c. against the Episcopal Order or the Constitutions of the Church are Factious More narrowly the Publishers and Contrivers of the Petition for Peace the Presbyterian Lecturers Twenty for One and their Abettors may be reckon'd among the Factious But in fine let them prove our Ceremonies Vnlawful we 'll soon shew them who is Factious Their next Proposition that the Law may not be made the Rule to judge of Faction is I perswade my self a Slip more then they meant us The Law is above the King they say and yet They'd be above the Law This is to draw an Appeal from the Bench to the Barr to damn the Judgement of the Law and make a Presbyterian the Judge of Faction E They come now to presse the violence of the Laws upon their Consciences Whereas 't is evident that Streight and Gentle Laws have met with Soure and crooked Humors They say the Law makes the Offender may they not charge the Decalogue by the same rule What shall we say then says St. Paul Is the Law Sin God forbid Nay I had not known Sin but by the Law for I had not known Lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not Covet But Sin taking occasion by the Commandment wrought in me all manner of Concupiscence Sin is the Transgression of the Law the Disobedience not the Precept This Freedome of Challenging the Law leads to an Arraignment of the Ten Commandements The Idolater excepts to the first and Second the Blasphemer to the Third the Sabbath-breaker to the Fourth the Rebell to the Fifth the Murtherer to the Sixth the Adulterer to the Seventh the Thief to the Eight the Slanderer to the Ninth the Extortioner to the Tenth Well but their Consciences cannot submit to observe such and such Laws Truly to give them their Due nor any Other neither but of their own making Though every man may be allow'd to be the Judge
Antichrist Pag. 80. Pride Rebellion Treason Unthank-fulness which have issued from Episcopacy Pag. 85. These were Favours of the Bishops own laying up and so much for the Reverend Moderate and Learned It seems a Presbyter in the Chayre is not Infallible why may they not mistake themselves as well in the Bishops opinion as in his Character Or may they not forget their Proposalls they have offer'd as well as the Injuries Will these Gentlemen subscribe to the Bishops Episcopacy by Divine Right Or will they shew wherever he pass'd a Contradiction upon himself Nay come to his Modest offer to the Assembly in 1644. Is That the Piece shall rise in Judgement against us and That yet was par'd as Close as close could be the better to comply with the Sullenness of a Prevailing Faction Hear what the Bishop says in That Treatise then There never yet was any History of the Church wherein there was not full mention made of Bishops as the only Governours thereof The Rules of Church Government laid forth in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus do suppose and Import that very proper Jurisdiction which is claim'd by Episcopacy at this day The Co-assession of a Lay-Presbytery he disapproves and in his Epistle Dedicatory to his Episcopacy by Divine Right This If any man Living can shew any one Lay-Presbyter that ever was in the World till Farell and Viret first created him let me forfeit my Reputation to Shame and my Life to Justice See now what the late Primate of Armagh sayes in his Direction of 1642. Episcopal Ordination and Jurisdiction hath express Warrant in holy Scriptures as namely Titus 1.5 For this Cause left I Thee in Crete that thou should'st set in order things that are wanting and ordeyn Presbyters that is Ministers in every City as the first of Timothy 5.22 lay hands suddenly on no man and Verse 19. Against a Presbyter or Minister receive not an Accusation but under Two or Three Witnesses Pag. 4. No other Government heard of in the Churches for 1500. years and more then by Bishops Pag. 5. This is enough to clear the Authority of the Institution But That they 'll say is not the Question These Reverend Bishops gave their Judgements of and for a Primitive Episcopacy and to a Government so Regulated these Divines offer to submit That is they will allow a Bishop to Rule in Consociation with his Presbyters and This looks gayly to the Common-People Rule with his Presbyters they cry and will not that content him what would the Bishops be as absolute as Popes and Then the Order's presently proclaim'd for Antichristian and War denounc'd against all Constitutions of Their framing as Superstitious Nay the most Solemn Forms and Orders of the Church though venerable for their long Continuance Vse Decency and Vniversal Practice are thrown out as Idolatrous because the Bishops favour them Of so great moment are the Fallacies of pleasing words where there wants skill or care to tast the bitter meaning But alas Those simple Wretches that inveigh against the Tyranny and Claim of Bishops and with an undistinguishing rage confound the persons with their Calling how do they draw upon themselves the thing they Fear and furiously oppose the sum of their own wishes Do they first know what 't is To RULE in CONSOCIATION It is To Degrade a Bishop into a Prime Pastor to disrobe him of his Apostolical prelation of Degree and allow him a Complemental priority of Order This Imminution of Bishops will doubtless not displease their Enemies but let them have a care for in that very Act and Instant wherein they fetch a Bishop down to a Presbyter does every Presbyter become a Bishop so that for five and twenty they pluck down they set up some ten thousand This was the Cheat that fool'd the People into those Tumults which the Smectymnuans entred the Lists to justifie A Primitive Episcopacy was the Pretense which they boyl'd down at length into a rank Presbytery and more Imperious Thus was the Government of the Church destroyed and after the same manner That of the State The King was to govern with his Parliament This saying carryed a Popular sound and the Multitude were not able to comprehend the Drift of it In short they brought his Majesty first to be one of the Three Estates thence by degrees lower and lower till they Dethron'd him and at last Murther'd him This was the cursed Issue of a Pretense to the Regulation of Monarchy and Episcopacy But to end this point The Reformers would perswade the world That they have made a Tender of more yielding than the foremention'd Reverend Bishops have accounted necessary to Fraternal Vnity and Peace We answer That to make This good they must prove that These Bishops have renounc'd their Episcopal and Superintendent Authority or Instance for Themselves wherein They acknowledge it Not to insist upon their Vsurpations of Framing a new Liturgy without a Commission and Imposing upon the Established Government without either Modesty or Reason C Touching Reordination with submission I do not understand it either Requisite or Vnlawful nor can I learn that it is Press'd as they pretend The Canon whereupon they ground is This. Si quis Episcopus aut Presbyter aut Diaconus secundam ab aliquo Ordinationem susceperit deponitor tam ipse quam qui ipsum Ordinavit nisi fortè constet eum Ordinationem habere ab haereticis Qui enim à talibus Baptizati aut Ordinati sunt hi neque Fideles neque Clerici esse possunt If any Bishop Presbyter or Deacon shall receive from any man ab aliquo a second Ordination let the Person Ordaining qui ipsum ordinavit and the Person Ordained be both Deposed unless it appear that his prior Ordination was by Hereticks For those that are either Baptized or Ordained by such cannot be reputed either Believers or Clergy-men Observe first that This Canon presupposes a Regular and Episcopal Ordination ab aliquo qui ordinavit referring singly to the Bishop whose Assistance is deem'd so Essential to the work as that No Bishop no Ordination Next there 's an Error in the Canon For If Baptism seriously be administred in the same Element and with the same form of words which Christs Institution Teacheth there is no other defect in the world that can make it Frustrate So that This Canon availes them little either in respect of the Scope of it or the Authority But is Re-ordination say they so new and strange a thing I am sorry to see Smectymnuus quarrel with himself We had it in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth urg'd and received and with less colour Then thâ—n Now for there a true necessity lay upon them They fled for Conscience and received Orders in the Reformed Churches not in contempt of Bishops but onely for want of them Whereas our cavilling Pretenders have cast them off Rejected their Authority Vsurped their Power laid violent hands upon their sacred Order and
Oath to the discovery of all Conspiracies against his Majesty and by the Oath I have taken I judge this here in question to be a foul one Next as a Subject I am bound to do the King all lawful service Thirdly I look upon this Office as a small Offering to my Country 't is no great vanity if I believe some weak enough for me to teach and 't is a truth that I as much desire to learn from others Fourthly We are charg'd with Ignorance and Scandal the Presbyterians Livery and I would have the world to know that Those of the Censorious Cut are not all Saints and Philosophers I might add for a Fifth Reason that general good allowance which my well-meaning weaknesses have found with the King's Friends from whose agreement of opinion I receive great assurance and encouragement in my poor undertakings and in their Charity much Honor. But All are not so satisfi'd for at This Instant I am inform'd of several mean designes upon my Person Freedom and Credit The first amounts to nothing The Next I look upon but as the boiling of some old rancorous Humor against the King a Dream perchance of forty-four again For sure no other Persons will condemn me Now but those that would have hang'd me Then As to the Third I 'm least of all sollicitous for perjur'd persons are no proof in Law and for the rest I fear them not It will be urg'd perhaps What has this scribling Fellow to do with the publick I cry ye mercy Gentlemen You count it nothing then after three Prentiships spent in the Royal Cause to be bespatter'd by those very persons that overthrew it This is the course of your Implacable Distempers The Cavaliers are abus'd and the Presbyterians complain Give me leave onely to offer ye two or three Questions and I have done The first an old one but not yet Resolv'd First VVithout Repentance can there be any Salvation or without Confession and Restitution any Repentance Secondly VVhy will not you swear to obey Bishops as well as ye Covenanted to destroy them and why may not you as well be forc'd to take a lawful Oath as you forc'd others to an Unlawful one Thirdly VVhy is it not as lawful for Bishops to silence Presbyterians as for Presbyterians to extirpate Bishops One Fool may ask more Questions than twenty VVise-men can answer FINIS Caveat pag. 18. Birds of a Feather The Marks of the Beast Nemo repente Cujus Contrarium The Divineâ— Petition for Peace pag. 1. Had Zimri Peace Johnson The Presbyt Demands Pag. 2. Presbyterian Reformation signifies Abolition Fraud Usurpation Design not Conscience The Method of Sedition A Petitionary Menace Pag. 14. The Divines exceed their Commission The Kings Proposal to the Presbyterian Ministers The Godly Party Tender Conscienceâ— Page 61. Ibid. His Majesties Tendernesse abused An Arbitrary Set-Form Christian Liberty Pag. 32.35.36 ibid. Pag. 46. Christian Liberty at the Communion Pag. 55. ibid. Pag. 56.57.58 Unchristian Rigour Pag. 62.64 Consistorian Tyranny Hookers Ecclesiastical Policy l. 5. S. 64. Pag. 68.72.73 Concerning Festivalls Ibid. Pag. 74.78 Pastoral Discipline p. 82. Pag. 80. Pag. 81. Open Confession For a Traytor A Schismatick An Oppressour A Murtherer An Hypocrite A Perjur'd person This Discipline necessary for the Presbyterians The Method of the Presbyterian Faction The Marques of a Presbyterian Page 2. Pag. 3. Reas. 1. The Duty of Bishops John 10.27 Pag. 4. Reas. 2. A sad Compleynt The Presbyt Character Able Holy Faithful Laborious Peaceable Pag. 4. Reas. 3. Sorrow in a day of Common Joy unseasonable The Presbyterians laugh when they should cry The old Cause reviv'd Pag. 3. Reas. 4. How great a part of the 3. Nations suffer The Faction good at false Musters Inconsiderable Pag. 4. Reas. 5. The Nature of the Cause Page 5. Ibid. Pag 6. The ground of the Reformers Schisme Gal. 1.8 2 John 1.9 Rom. 16.17 1 Cor. 14.40 The manner of Worship left to the Church Conformity necessary A queynt Scruple Matth. 26.20 Matth. 26.39 2 Kings 4.13 Their Scruple is Faction Pag. 6. Reas. 6. The Disproportion betwixt the things in Question and the Salration of Souls Pag. 7. Pag. 8. Ceremonies are necessary to Order They oppose the Power not the Thing Tit. 1.5 The Presbyterians swear freely Who are Factious Rom. 7.7 8. The Consequence of Presbyterian Liberty Pag. 8. Reas. 7. The Nonconformists submit to all things necessary to Salvation Pag. 9. Things necessary to Salvation Pag. 9. Reas. 8. As well the Mass-Book as the Common-Prayer Pag. 9. Reas. 9. The Liberty of the Ancient times Luke 1 1.2 A modest request Johnson Pag. 9. R. 10. The hazzard of Refusing Presbyterians no Protestants Smectimnuus Pag. 23. Bishop Hall's Modest offer Pag. 3. Ibid. Pag. 4. Pag. 15. Presbyterian Primitive Episcopacy Hooker's Eccles pol. lib. 5. sect 62. * Smectymnuus Mr. Manton's Impression pag. 51. Spotswood Hist. of Scotl. lib. 7. pag. 514. Page 10. Reason 11. The Church the Judge Matth. 24.4 Matth. 24.24 Schisme turns to Rebellion Pag. 10. Reason 12. The End of mans Creation Objection Sol. peevish Liberty Page 12. Reas. 13. The Reformers Method Page 12. Reason 14. Page 13. The Intellect not to be forced Page 13. Pag. 13. Reas. 15. Pag. 14. Reas. 16. Do as ye would be done by Object Sol. The Presbyterians case put Page 14. Reas. 17. Pag. 16. Page 16. A Text wrested The Reformers Unity A subtle Inference Page 18. Reas. 18. The common Enemy Great Exemplar Pag. 447. Pag. 18. Reas. 19. Psal. 37.36 Psal. 73.17 Psal. 37.39 Mat. 7.15 16. How to judge of mens hearts Exact Collect. Pag. 494. Note The Bishops adversaries The Holy Thousands The friends of Episcopacy Page 18. Reas. 20. Page 19. Rom. 15.1 Rom. 14.15 Plautus History of the Church of Scotl. pag. 267. Spotswoods Hist. Scotl. pag. 136. Ibid. 137. Dangerous Posit pag. 35. Ibid. pag. 61. Ibid. pag. 9. Ibid. pag. 36.
Tormentors Is Treason Blood and Sacriledge so Light and yet the Common-Prayer-Book or a blameless Ceremony a Burthen so Intolerable Those People that Engag'd against the King in the late War should do exceeding well to look into Themselves ere they meddle with the Publick and take a strict Accompt of their own sins before they enter upon the Failings of Others As 't is their duty to begin at home so 't is our Part not to trust any man that does not for beyond doubt 't is Vanity or worse that governs these unequal Consciences that are so Quick and tender for Trifles so dead and so unfeeling in weightier matters But all this while why a Petition for PEACE where 's the Danger what 's the Quarrel The Law stands still my Masters You come up to 't and then complain of Violence Again you Pray to them for whom you utterly refuse to Pray the Bishops But let that pass Peace is the thing ye would be thought to aim at which as you labour to perswade the World depends upon complying with your Alterations of the Common-Prayer That is we are to look for War or Peace in measure as your Propositions are deny'd or granted Is it not That you mean But with your Legs Good Gentlemen unless it be otherwise This as I take it is to Command not Treat and to deal freely your Petitions are commonly a little too Imperious Here 's in a word the sum of All. You have transform'd the Common Prayer and ye would have it ratify'd You make your Demands ye give your Reasons and when all fails ye throw your Papers up and down the Nation to shew the silly little People what doubty Champions they have to irritate the Rif-raff against Bishops and to proclaim your selves the Advocates of Jesus Christ. Now do I promise my self quite to undo all that you have done to prove from your own Form of Worship that the design of it is arrantly Factious 't is a course word and an Encrochment upon the Kings Authority that your Demands want Modesty your Reasons weight This I shall likewise shew and that your scatter'd Copies are a most disingenuous and unseemly Practice I shall go near to unbait all your Hooks too lay open all your Carnal Plots upon the Gospel and in fine Place an Antidote wherever you have cast your Poyson I give my Thoughts their Native Liberty which is no more then Modest toward those that are now laps'd into a Second Apostacy and for the Rest let me declare here once for all A Convert is to me as my own Brother We 'll see now what it is you plead for and Then in Order to your Argument the Right and Reason of your Asking Ye Demand Reformation in Discipline and Freedome from Subscription Oaths and Ceremonies The Restoring of able faithful Ministers without pressing Reordination Ye have taken a large Field to Cavil in See now what 't is you call a Reformation The REFORMATION of the LITURGY OR The Ordinary PUBLICK WORSHIP on the LORDS-DAY Page 25. NOTE III. OUr Liturgy was very much to blame sure Seventy Six Quarto-Pages to reform it Pray'e Gentlemen since y' are so Liberal of your Labours do but once blesse the World with a Presbyterian Dictionary that we may be the better for them It would be an Excellent means I can assure ye to beget a right understanding betwixt the King and his People Alas how Ignorant were We that all this while took Reformation only for Amendment a Pruning perhaps of some Luxuriances and setting things Right that were out of Order But now we stand Corrected and perceive that to reform is to destroy Was not Church-Government REFORM'D yes by an Act of ABOLITION Was not the Kings Power REFORM'D too yes by a Seisure of his Regalities and of his Sacred Person At this rate is our Liturgy REFORM'D that is 't is totally thrown out and a wild Rhapsody of Incoherences supplies the place of it Note here Good People of the Land that Presbyterian REFORMATION signifies ABOLITION By the same Irony they made YOV FREE and HAPPY the King A GLORIOUS PRINCE advanc'd the GOSPEL When of all Slaves you know ye were the cheapest and the most Ridiculous Your Lives and Fortunes hanging upon the Lips of Varlets Your Consciences tenter'd up to the Covenant and every Pulpit was but a Religious Mous-trap In short remember that Presbytery and Rebellion had the same Authority and that those Prodigies of seeming Holyness your Kirkify'd Reformers those Reverend Cannibals that made such Conscience of a CEREMONY made none of BLOUD-SHED This is not yet to prejudge Tenderness and to conclude all Forwardness of Zeal to be Hypocrisie Let it rest here we have from Truth it self that Liberty may cloke Maliciousness we have it likewise from experience for we our selves have been Betray'd by most malicious Libertines The Question is but now how to discern the Real from the Counterfeit and That so far as may concern the Plat-form here before us shall be my business By the Reformers Leave we 'll shortly plainly and sincerely examine the matter They pretend in the Front of this Pamphlet to exhibite to the World A REFORMATION of the Liturgy but upon search we find just nothing at all of it only a Pragmatical and Talking thing of their own in stead of a most pertinent and solemn service That 's Fraud Score One Good People Next they confess themselves authorized to treat only about the ALTERATION of it to propose This for That perhaps one Clause or Passage for another but barely to discourse or offer at the total ABROGATION of the old form is to assume a Power we do not find in their Commission This is another Presbyterianism Reckon Two Thirdly they were to Treat They did so and the debate prov'd Fruitless Where lyes the Fault I pray'e Do but observe a little His Majesty out of a Gracious Inclination to gratifie all persons whatsoever of truly-Conscientious and tender Principles appoints a Consult of Episcopal and Presbyterian Divines to advise jointly upon some general expedient whereby to satisfie all reasonable Parties saving the Glory of God the Good of the Church his own Royal Dignity the Peace and welfare of his People What they insisted on ye see under their own hands and that the Change of Government was That they aim'd at not as they would perswade the World relief of Conscience That day wherein this Proposition should be granted would I much fear prove but the Eve to the Destruction of this Nation I am no Prophet but my kind Friends the Presbyterians before they have done I think will make me pass for one They make good every Syllable I promis'd for them in my Holy Cheat and if the Duke of Ormond would forgive me I should presume to mind his Grace of a Paper which now more then a Twelve-month since was left at Kensinton for his Lordship although not known from WHOM to
in the Rites of our new Birth for their Pieties Sake that offer us thereunto In Matrimony the Minister may talk his Pleasure concerning the Institution c. of Marriage and Bury the Dead as he pleases Vpon the receipt of great and Extraordinary mercies the Church having opportunity that is if the King be at Oxford is to assemble for Publick Thanksgiving unto God and the Minister to do no matter what nor for the Kings Authority in the Case Further Though it be not unlawful or un-meet to keep Anniversary Commemmoration by Festivals of some great and notable mercies to the Church or State as for the Root and Branching of Episcopacy some great Victory over the King or the like Yet because the Church-Festivals are much abused and many sober Godly Ministers and others unsatisfy'd in the Observation of them as Holy Dayes Let not the Religious observation of them by publick Worship be forc'd upon any c. Oh have a care 't is Lawful to Kill and Steal upon the Lords Day but not to serve God Publickly upon a Saints Day These Following Prayers or the like for the Sick In their Thanksgiving for Deliverance in Child-bearing Thus If the Woman be such as the Church hath cause to Judge ☜ Vngodly and a small matter will make the Kirk judge so Then the Thanksgiving must be in words more agreeable to her Condition if any be used This is in English either no Thanks at all or else to Publish the Mother a Whore and the Child a Bastard Methinks the Holy Sisters should not like this kind of Fooling but in some cases the Reverend will wink at small Faults Of Pastoral Discipline NOTE V. THeir Forms of Pastoral Discipline follow which may be varied as the Variety of Cases do require Never such Engrossers of Liberty to Themselves and such Niggards of it to others and yet they advise that Ministers may CONSENT to give accompt when they are accused of Male-administration But what if they will not consent to give Accompt If any by notorious persidiousness or frequent COVENANT-BREAKING have forfeited c. Marque how they hang upon the Haunt This Covenant-breaking signifies one thing to the Law and another thing to the People In the Penitents confession before the Congregation The Sin must be named and aggravated when by the Pastor it is judg'd Requisite Pag. 85. As for Instance if any man has been a Traytour a Schismatique an Oppressour a Murtherer a Hypocrite or a Perjur'd Person Let him say I have fought against the King or I have Preach'd against his Authority and Provoked Tumults against his Person Behold I am a Traytour I have renounc'd my Mother the Church and Preach'd others into Schisme and Separation I have destroy'd the Apostolical order of Bishops and countenanc'd all my wild extravagancies with Forms of Religion Lo I am a Schismatique I have Impos'd upon mens Consciences unlawful Oaths and Covenants Enslav'd my Fellow-Subjects Robb'd and Imprison'd my Sovereign Enter'd upon the Ministry without a Call and thrust out Lawful Ministers from their Livings Scatter'd their miserable Families and snatch'd the Bread out of the Mouths of the Widow and Fatherless Behold I am an Oppressour I have Embru'd my hands in the Blood of the King and of his Friends bless'd God the more for the more mischief Father'd the Rebellion and Bloudshed upon the Holy Ghost See here a Murtherer I have led and encourag'd men against his Majesty under Pretence to save him Subverted the Law under pretext of defending it made the People Slaves under Colour of Setting them at Liberty erased the Order of Episcopacy under the notion of accusing the Persons that exercised it and stripp'd his Majesty of his best Friends under colour of removing Evil Counsellours I have call'd those Ministers Scandalous that had good Livings Those men Delinquents that had good Estates and those People Jesuits that had either wit or Conscience I have belyed the Holy Spirit in pretending Revelations and I have covered my Ambitious Bloudy Covetous and Factious Purposes under a Cloke of Holiness I have stumbled at a Ceremony and leap'd over the Seven deadly Sins Lord I am an Hypocrite I have renounc'd my Oath of Allegiance and that of Canonical obedience and taken other Oathes and broken Them too and multiply'd my Perjuries I swore to defend the late King and I have destroy'd him and I have now sworn to the Son with an Intent to serve him as I did his Father I am a Perjur'd Wretch In Truth This Pastoral Discipline put duly in Practise by the Composers of it would be of Singular benefit and of great Satisfaction to the Nation This Discipline is follow'd with a Letany and That with a Thansgiving both at Discretion Observe now what a Mockery is this Pretense to a Prescript Form and do but think how irreligious a Confusion would certainly ensue upon a Publique Sufferance of these peevish Liberties for doubtless such they are They have thrown out what they undertook to mend and the new Service they have introduced is left Arbitrary and values norhing or at the best 't is but an Execution of the Directory As the Contrivance of it is a Jewd design upon the Publick Government so is the Printing of it a Practice no less foul upon the Publick Peace The Instruments employ'd in 't were the Last Kings Base and bitter Enemies and the prime Agents in This Enterprize were grand Confederates in the late Rebellion These are ill Signs my Masters Truly among matters that arrive frequently I wonder at nothing more then that ever a Presbyterian Faction deceiv'd any man Twice for of All Parties that ever divided from Truth and Honesty I take them for a People the most easily distinguishable from other men and Trac'd to their Ends. Their first work is still to find out the Faults of Rulers and the Grievances of the People which they proclaim immediately but with great Shews of Respect toward the One and of Innocent Tendernesse for the Other The Offending Persons ye may be sure are Bishops where the Episcopal Order is in Exercise But where they have thrown it out and introduc'd themselves ye hear no more news of Ecclesiastical Errors but of Church-censures in abundance The Civil Magistrate is then to blame and never will these People rest till they have grasp'd all In Fine Where you find a Private Minister inveighing against the Orders of the Church bewailing the Calamities of a Nation under Oppression Preaching up Conscience AGAINST Authority and stating in the Pulpit the Legal Bounds of King and People A Boaster of himself and a Despiser of his Brethren a Long-winded Exhorter to the Advancement of Christs Temporal Kingdome and a Perpetual Singer of the Lamentation A Cryer up of Schisme for Conscience Faction for Gospell and Disobedience to Temporal Magistrates for Christian Liberty where ye find such a
from the Creature and in That point we are all agreed upon a Common Principle of Reason that 't is our Duty to Adore Love and obey that Gracious Power that made us That This is the Prime end we all Agree and that our works are only Good or Evill according as they correspond with or recede from it In the next place as we consist of Soul and Body we seem to fall under a mixt Concern and There the Skill is how to temper the Angel and the Brute in such sort as may best comply with the behoof and Comfort of the Individual subjected still to the great Law and Purpose of our Being Our Reason we submit to the Divine Will and our Affections to our Reason Behold the Scale of our obedience and Universal Dictates of our Reasonable Nature In These Particulars God as the Sovereign Prince of the whole World binds all Mankind alike with an unlimited and undistinguishing Authority Our Souls the Almighty Governs by his Immediate and blessed self our Bodies he referrs to his Deputies whom in all sensible and common Actions we are to obey as Gods Commissioners We come now to the point that moves the great dispute our state of Liberty in matters of themselves indifferent In This Question we are to consider that every man is born first for the Publick Next for Himself He that Rates any thing except his Soul above the common Benefit of Social Nature is an ill Member of the Vniverse While every man consults his own Particular how easily he 's drawn to Think That Fair which he finds Pleasant Employing much more cunning to perswade himself that what he Likes is Lawful then strictly to Examine it for fear it should prove otherwise Are we not All made of the same Lump born to the same Ends Dignify'd with the same Reason What is it Then but an Injurious Custome and oppression that puts the Difference betwixt Governours and Slaves That prostitutes so many Millions of Free-born Christians to the Command of any Single Person These are the Stirrings and Debates of Mutinous and unadvised Natures They scan but the one half and that the Grosser too the vulgar part of the Question Can the whole Perish and the Parts ' scape Can any thing be beneficial to Particular Persons that is Destructive to the Community what by one Violence they Get they Lose by Another and in exchange for the Soft Honest bonds of Order and Obedience they leap into a Sinful Shameful Slavery Was not the late War undertaken in Shew for This Imaginary Freedome and yet at last what was the Event but Tyranny and Bondage not by miscarriage neither but by a Regular Fatality and Train of Causes Do we not find mens Minds and Humours as various as their Complexions or their Faces Every man likes his own way best Pleads for his own opinion There 's no such thing as right or wrong in things Indifferent but as they are circumstanc'd by Application and here 's the very Case of our Reformers Some are for Kneeling at the Eucharist others for Standing Sitting or the like They differ too about the manner of Receiving Capricious Holyness Shall That confused and Promisenous use of several Forms and Postures pass for a Decency in the Lords house and on so solemn an occasion which at a Private Table would be exploded for a grosse and ridiculous Immorality The Church for Order sake and Uniformity enjoyns one form or Posture This or That 't is Indifferent where lyes the Conscience of Refusing Should but the Rubrick say Let the Minister enter at the Church Dore Would not our Teachers make it a piece of Conscience to creep in at the Window Marque it 't is That That That 's the Businesse 'T is POWER they Tug for and to bring MONARCHY under the Yoke of PRESBYTERY They argue the Expedience of granting Liberty because forsooth of the differing humours of Applying it The strongest Reason in the World against them For in this State of Disagreement take but away that Limiting and Binding Rule that prescribes Vniformity what other Consequence can be expected from letting loose so many wild and Petulant Passions so many Raging and dividing Factions but Tumult Heresie and Rebellion IF any shall make men disobedient by imposing things unnecessary which they know are by learned pious peaceable men esteemed sins against the Lord and then shall thus heavily afflict them for the disobedience which they may easily cure by the forbearance of those impositions let not our souls come into their secret nor our honor be united to their Assembly If they shall smite or cast out a supposed Schismatick and Christ shall find an able Helper peaceable Minister or other Christian wounded or mourning out of doors let us not be found among the Actors NOTE XIX VVHy did not the Reformers rather say If any shall make people Rebellious by preaching down Obedience to Authority as a thing unnecessary or abuse the simple by calling Good Evil and Evil Good Let not our souls Whether is greater the boldness of these Teachers or the blindness of their Disciples Does not this way of Reasoning root up all Government And has not the Practice of These men made good the worst that any man can say or think of their Designe Were they New Folks yet a man might find some Charity for the soft-headed Gulls that believe them but to be Twice catch'd in the same Trap Twice fool'd by the same Persons were an unpardonable sottishness Let the three Kingdoms cast up the Accompts of the late War and see what they have gained clear by the Reformation These very Gentlemen were one and twenty years ago upon this Argument infinitely troubled about Additions to God's Worship in things unnecessary Oathes of Subscription c. To obviate these crying evils they set to work a Preaching Ministry and Lectur'd up the people into a Gospel-frame for that 's the Knack of Disobedience The People heard their Prayers for 't was to them they prayed Meroz was curs'd and curs'd and the right Reverend Matrons sent forth their Bodkins and their Thimbles to help the Lord against the Mighty In fine The Cause prosper'd under their Ministery and Things unnecessary were taken away that is King Bishops the Law of the Land the Liberty of the Subject the Heads and Fortunes of his Majesty's best Friends Some Oathes that were of exceeding scandal and burthen to weak consciences were taken away too or rather exchang'd for others less offensive to the sense of the Learned Pious and Peaceable men they speak of As for instance in stead of that Abominable Oath of Canonical Obedience to the Bishop and his Successors in omnibus Licitis honestis in all things lawful and honest A Covenant was introduced of Combination against them But no man was compell'd to take it neither for 't was but losing the capacities of Englishmen a Sequestration Rotting in a Gaol or some such trivial
are not simply wicked are obliging and to correct a publick Sanction by a private Hand is but to mend a Misadvice by a Rebellion This they concede that All may erre Then they themselves are not Infallible so that the Competition rests betwixt the Law and the Reformers But now to what we are sure of There are some cases wherein a Subject must not obey his Prince but I defie the world to shew me any wherein he may Resist him That were to say A Subject is no Subject To say he may be Su'd makes nothing That Law which warrants the Compleynant is virtually the King Again That which betwixt Man and Man were a fair Rule holds no proportion betwixt a Personal Weakness and a Publick Inconvenience The giving way to Clamours of this impetuous and froward nature cost the late King his life To say more were to prejudge my Betters let this suffice PUt your selves in their case and suppose that you had studied conferred and prayed and done your best to know whether God would have you to be Re-ordained to use these Forms or Ceremonies or Subscriptions or not and having done all you think that God would be displeased if you should use them would you then be used your selves as your dissenting Brethren are now used or are like to be love them as your selves and we will crave no further favour for them NOTE XXII THis we call laying of the Matter home to a Man Make it your own Case Good Whose Case did these Reformers make it when they stripp'd all men to their Shirts whose Consciences could not submit to their Rebellious Leagues of Extirpation and Directorian Fopperies Would they have been Content Themselves to have been turn'd out of their Livings because they could not play the Renegado's to have been muzzled up in Dungeons debarr'd the Common Benefits of Humane Life Not suffer'd to Officiate as Private Chaplains No nor so much as teach a petty School nor enter into any honest Employment which their Ingenious malice foresaw might give The Persecuted Wretches Bread Is This according to the Rule Do as you would be done by There were no Superstitious Impositions at That Time but matters went as they would have them They Order'd every thing Themselves and the best Choyce an honest man had left him was Job's upon the Dunghill It was the Pulpit too that gave Fire to the Train that warranted the Treason and cover'd Murther with a Gloss of Justice Briefly a Reformation was the Crye of the Design and see the Issue of it And yet Do as you would be done by is Their Plea that did all This. Far be it from us however to imagine that their abuse of Justice should overthrow their Title to it or that the pravity of Man should frustrate the Eternal Virtue of a Decree of God and Nature We 'll make Their Case our own then and Reason with them upon their own Principles Do as you would be done by say they to us Do as ye would be done by say We to Them Would you be willing to be thus Impos'd upon says a Private Person Would you be willing to be thus contemned says the Magistrate Yes if I commanded things unlawful says the one or if I were a Schismatick says the other If upon Search and Prayer for better Light we think that God would be displeased with us for doing This or That we must not do it Now why should others trouble us only for doing That which in our places they would do Themselves This is the Fair state of the Question We are to Note here that Words are not the certain Evidences of our Thoughts and that our Charity is never so ty'd up as to be barr'd advice with Reason Now others are to deal with Vs according to the Rules of what things rationally seem to Them not strictly peradventure what they are As Thus A common Lyer tells a Truth it may be so yet I 'm not bound to venture any thing upon his Story The first Profession a man makes in Charity I 'll Credit yet still in Prudence I 'll secure my self in case I prove mistaken But People that Break oft where they may keep their Words that by prepense Contrivance have formerly strew'd their way with Oyly Language to deadly Ends These by the general Dictate of Common Reason I may suspect and which is more I ought to do it and to be wary of them Does not our Blessed Saviour himself bid us BEWARE of the Leven of the Pharisees which is HYPOCRISY Those that Tithe Mint and Cummin and neglect Judgement Mercy and Fidelity That streyn at a Gnat and Swallow a Camell That are Fair outwardly and Rotten within and under colour of long Prayers that devour Widows houses Do not Pharisee and Puritan begin with a Letter Is not this Character most bitterly like the humour of the men we wote of Further 't is manifest from this Caution that we are not bound to think all People Godly that call themselves so nor to trust all appearances of Holyness but we are soberly to reduce our Judgements to the Standard of Discourse and Reason They must deny the Bible that refuse us This and now suppose the Table 's turn'd We told the World that we were afraid of Popery and that our Consciences could not submit to Ceremonies under which colour we entred into a Covenant which in pretense was to Reform the Church and to Establish the King We destroy'd Both by virtue of That Freedome which we seem'd only to desire in order to our Souls The Son of that Prince whom we ruin'd is now by Providence and Hereditary Right placed on his Fathers Throne Our Consciences are once again Sick of the Old Scruples and cannot down with Forms and Ceremonies Shall we be laid aside now for our Consciences Yes certainly we must be laid aside unless we shew very good reason first why they should believe us Conscientious and next if truly Scrupulous they can Imagine us why they should trust us Did not we swear than an Impulse of Conscience transported us into our first Engagement That all the World knows was a design of Faction and Sedition and that the Pulpit-Theme was the Decrying of the Kings Negative Voyce and the Exalting of the Power of Parliaments Blaspheming the Authority of the Nation by applying it to a Conspiracy in the Two Houses This we have formerly done and as yet given the World no Tokens of Repentance We ask the same things over again and in good deed why may not they suspect to the same Purpose May they not argue likewise from our Practises against our own Demands Do we say People may not be compell'd Why did we compel Them then Well but suppose it a pure Case of Conscience that hinders our Complyance Men may think many things unlawsul to be done that are still as unlawful to be suffer'd We ask that Freedome from the Law which would in Consequence
done 't is at the Reformers Choyce either by a Reply to shew the little they have to say or by a more ingenuous Silence modestly to confesse that they can say Nothing TVVENTY REASONS AGAINST Their PROPOSITIONS First the Design is Dangerous as Presbyterian For I do not find where ever yet that Government was Setled but by Conspiracy and to the Ruine of the Supreme Magistrate With Reverence to the Reformed Churches whose opinions in matters of Faith may be Sound and yet the Extraction of their Discipline vitious 2. The Proposers of This Peace as they call it were the Promoters of the Late War and by those very means did they destroy the Last King which they here offer as Beneficial to This. 3. The very Matter of their Proposals imports a Denyal and Usurpation of the Kings Authority His Majesty may not prescribe a Set-form of Worship They Themselves may for WEDDED JOYN'D c. stamp'd with the Kings Authority signifie nothing But change them into MARRIED CONJOYN'D c. and the Reformers Seal to them They pass for Current 4. Their Propositions are an utter disclaim of the Episcopal Order for they oppose under pretense of Conscience all Powers or Faculties derivative from Bishops as Canonical Obedience Ordination Subscription c. 5. They Press the King to act against his Declar'd Conscience and to condemn the Blessed Memory of his Father who Dy'd because he could not Grant what they demand now from his Royal Successour 6. The Ground of their Pretense is Scandal and Unfitness for the Ministry in the One Party Great Holyness Ability and Conscience in the Other which to allow were to make Martyrdome and Loyalty Scandalous and to give Treason Faction and Hypocrisie the Credit and Reward of Holynesse for That 's the Difference betwixt those that Ruin'd the Late King and Those that Perish'd for him which Two are now the Question 7. The very Style and Manner of the Addresse is Menacing Libellous and Mutinous Menacing in the Title A Petition for PEACE That is no Peace without a Grant Libellous in the way and purpose of it A Nameless Close and Defamatory Invective against Bishops Mutinous in the Scope and Consequence 't is an Appeal from the Supreme Power to the People 8. The Liberty they ask Extends to any thing they shall call Conscience and Then what Crimes and Villanies shall not passe for Virtues when every Malefactour is his own Judge 9. To give these People what they ask is to allow the Reason of their asking and at once to reward one Injury and justifie another 10. They plead the Peoples Cause without Commission and what the Church styles Schisme They terme Religion That Christian Liberty which the Law calls Treason 11. 'T is dangerous trusting of common Vow-breakers and most unequal to challenge absolute Liberty and allow none 12. The grant of one unreasonable Request begets another till at the last it becomes unsafe to deny by having parted with too much 13. The late War began with a pretence of Reformation and with Reformation are we now beginning again It may very well be that the same persons may intend the same things by the same terms and that they still propose to act by the same conscience which if they do in common equity and prudence they are not to be admitted If otherwise till their Confession is as publick as their Fault they are not to be believed I speak of Church-men more especially 14. If really the common people be disaffected to the Orders of the Church surely these Ministers that preach'd them into these distempers deserve rather to be punish'd than gratifi'd for so doing And that 's the case They themselves first stir up a factious humor in the Multitude and then they call that Conscience which is nothing else but a misguided Ignorance of their own procuring 15. While they pretend to reform bad Laws they destroy good ones noy they oppose the very scope and benefit of Law it self common utility and concord making their fickle and unquiet fancies the Rule of that Authority which better Reason meant expresly for a curb of our licentious wandrings 16. Our Reformers place the last Appeal in the People an excellent contrivance to make That Party Judge of every thing which effectually understands nothing 17. Whereas they plead Religion in the case such a Religion 't is as the whole Christian world cann't shew the fellow on 't rather to justifie those outrages which even Humanity it self abhors than to admit those universal Rights of Government which all men in society acknowledge and submit to but themselves 18. A furious Bustle they make with the silly people for fear of Popery Let this be observ'd The Church of Rome hath gain'd more English Proselytes ten for one during our Presbyterian Tyranny than in proportion of time it ever did under our Bishops And still we lose I would I could not say with Reason too for what 's Presbytery but a more shameful and Intolerable Popery But all perswasions have their more moderate and their violent Parties We talk of Jesuits What is a Jesuite but a Presbyterian Papist or what a Presbyterian but a Reform'd Jesuite 19. Their Propositions are an affront to the King and a snare to the People They ask leave to alter the Common-prayer and they take leave to destroy it They offer a new form and they desire it may be left to the Minister's discretion which to use which being granted the Minister is left still at liberty to use neither Thus do they play Fast and Loose with his Majesty ensnaring likewise the People with a lamentable pretence that they cannot obtain what in effect no mortal can understand 20. Let them now get what they ask and they shall soon take what they please for they onely desire that they may do what they list and then judge of their own doings We all know what they have done and call'd it Conscience too so that their present talk of Conscience gives us no certainty of what they intend to do Wherefore 't is safer to refuse than trust them Let me be taken still to speak with reverence to Authority and truly I shall further yet subject my Reason to my Charity if any man will but do me the kindness to shew me onely one publick President where ever a Presbyterian Faction in a contest for Power and under no necessity kept faith with any party What were all Articles and Ties of Honor more then Bulrushes when they could gain by breaking them How much I loathe these brawling Arguments I might appeal to the whole practise of my life wherein I never yet put Pen to Paper to any man's dishonor that was not a profess'd enemy to the King nor have I ever printed the least syllable but on a publick score 'T is now high time to end this tedious wrangle which I must not absolutely quit till I have given some Reasons for engaging in it First I am ty'd by