own accord wave them all and desire them to stand by or go into whose service they please intending to shift as well as I can without them Now what have you to say I am not only a single person as you see but quite naked and disarm'd of all those weapons wherewith he is so well appointed so that you may hope to prevail if Truth cannot defend me And that I protest Is the thing I will contend for not for Victory N. C. Come on then Say well and do well How can you defend so much as the Title of your Book Are you a friend to those whom you cannot endure within five mile of you c Pag. 4 of his Book but urge the Law against them C. You have answered your self and and would have called him carnal I am sure should One of us have askt you such a Question Do you that are so Spiritual understand no other kindness but what is done to your Bellies I love you so well that I would have you Innocent and am such a Friend to you that I desire to see you at the widest distance from any sin N. C. Pray stay Sir your kindness is much suspected If I should propose some such question to you as Christ diâ— to Peter Simon lovest thou me you durâ— not say thou knowest I love thee d Ib. C. No indeed N. C. Did not I tell you so C. I think I may conclude withouâ— any offence that you are not yet sâ—â— knowing as to search the heart Youâ— Philag indeed supposes our very souls liâ— open to you else why doth he endeâ—vour to satisfie me e Preface pag. 1. that he doth nâ—â— know himself to have ever received the least injury from me in deed or word 〈◊〉 thought But you must pardon us if we be of another mind and cannot appeaâ— to you as St. Peter did to Christ If yoâ— will judg of us by our words then 〈◊〉 can more than say I can protest that even those Debates were writ in kindness to you and he ought to have thanked him that told you of your faults had you any mind to amend them I protest also that I had no respect to any particular person in that passage which he thinks so full of deadly poyson f P. 4. of the Book and therefore it was the aking of his own Tooth that made him snap at me But why do I spend the time in such trivial things as these The Prefaces to both my Books might have satisfied any unpassionate Reader what my intention was But he very fairly takes no notice of them least they should have made him throw away a great deal of the civil languge he had to bestow upon me And for as good a reason I make no doubt he over-lookt the Continuance of our Debate because it would have undone a good part of his Book which is there already answered g As about the non-execution of Laws sharpness scandal and many more too long to number N. C. I must not let you pass thus with the Reputation of good Nature It was not kindly done of you to bring in the N. C. uttering such words as make the King to be a Tyrant h P. 8. of his Book C. As imply you should have said But I pray tell me What shall be done to this false tongue'd Philagathus who tells us in another place very boldly that I bring in the N. C. speaking Treason even saying that the King is a Tyrant Will you never leave this Trade of Lying N. C. You must pass by that C. If he had not told the world an hundred Lies more I should not have taken notice of â—t As to the thing he charges me withal I did but set down those words which more besides me have often heard and supposing they were rashly spoken without consideration of what they implyed let them go with that Confession What greater Candor could he desire and what reason was there for his pains to excuse the N. C. from judging the King a Tyrant save only that he was glad to snatch an opportunity to praise as well as be could the mercy and clemency of his Majesty towards them But I believe I shall make him wish he had held his tongue and spared his ill-savour'd and ill-contrived Rhetorick For first 〈◊〉 only tells us that the Sober Non-Confâ—rmists â—refar from thinking the King a Tyrant i Ib. p. 8. It seems there are some so madâ— and desperate as to be of the contrary opinion And how many who can tell or what may be the issue oâ—â—t N. C. For the love of God be not severe against that slip Or let the Sober men make an amends for their defects 〈◊〉 it is possible they love his Majesty more than you C. And it is possible they may not love him at all Was there ever such a wretched Orator to plead any mans cause in so great a matter as this Would any man of wit have apologiz'd for his Friends with his it may be 's it is possible for any thing I can tell and such like words with which his Book abounds N. C. Whatever his words are he doubts not as you may see but that N. C. have a greater Sense of his Majesties mercy than C. C. Why so N. C. Because they have been so great offenders C. Did ever any man hear such Reasons Do we find that they to whom much is forgiven commonly love very much Are there no ungrateful wretches in the world Or Hath it not been the constant complaint that the most are insensible or forgetful of benefits And doth not one refusal of mens deâ—â—â—es often blot out the memory of all former grants of grace and favour N. C. You forget our Saviours words which he quotes C. As he doth a number of other Scriptures nothing to the pâ—â—pose Thâ—y to whom much is forgiven will â—â—â—e much if they be truly penitent as that woman in the Gospel was but Who shall answer for all these mens Repentance and that it is never to be repented of N. C. Come let this alone C. But pray let us see whether this very man do not say those things which plainly strike him out of the number of the Sober N. C. N. C. Will you make him say or imply the King is a Tyrant C. You shall hear How can they be Martyrs and killed all the day long and the King be free from that imputationâ— Do they suffer any thing but according to the Laws And whose are the Lawâ— I beseech you but the Kings Can the Parliament make Laws or any body else but only the Sovereign See noâ—â— how this rash and desperate man hath intangled himself To say the Laws are tyrannical he confesses is Treason or next to it because it implies the King to be 〈◊〉 Tyrant page 8. And yet before he hath done he says in effect they are tyraâ—nical When he tells us the N. C. dâ— think that
they or some of them have been Martyrs by us and are until now killeâ— all the day long nay crucified by us k V. Pag. 229 230. And that it were no difficult thing to write a doleful Martyrology of their sufferings and such as it may be would make my heart to ake l P. 231. Would not a stranger think if he read this that they lived in some Dioclesians days Doth he not write as if some Pagan Prince as furious as Alifamfaron reigned over us in whose days there are so many Martyrs as would make a Volume Nay whose cruelty is so monstrous that he prolongs their torments and will not dispatch them quickly N. C. Pray do not make your advantage of the word Martyrs he only means sufferers for their Consciences as he tells you in the place last cited C. Why then doth he use that word if it be not to procure glory to you and hatred to us Cannot he speak in safer Language that needs none of his Expositions And what do you think the People understand by it in whose mouth he first puts these phrases of Martyrs and Martyrologies and then at last tells them in Latine what may be excepted against them What doth he himself mean when he tells of such sufferers as are killed all the day long or How shall the King avoid being thought another Pharaoh if as he supposes they are in an House of bondage m P. 148. Insomuch that as he tells us with open mouth both King and Parliament are clamour'd upon up and down the Nation for undoing the Families of many hundreds of godly Ministers n P. 236. Is not this a Sober Non-conformist and a most excellent Apologist for his Brethren I pitty him with all my soul and wish I knew how to Apologize for him The most that I can say is that these are words of course wherewith you were wont to rail in former times and he hath not yet forgotten the old language We rejoyce said the General Assembly o Letter of the Gen. Assembly to the Assembly of Divines August 1643. That Christ at last hath created a new thing in that Land in calling together not as before a Prelatical Convocation to be Task-masters over the people of the Lord but an Assembly of godly Divines minding the things of the Lord. And the Independents said the same to these godly Divines or rather made them worse than those ungodly Egyptian Bishops N. C. Pray forbear such odious words C. Can you make any other Construction of what they write but as I was saying the Independents upbraided them p Toleration justified in Answ to the London Ministers Letter to the Assembly 1646. that they could not rest satisfied with being free as their Brethren but laboured to become Lords over them which is just said they as if the Israelites after the Egyptian bondâ—ge had become Taskmasters in the land of Canaan one to another But that it is more in them who have been better instructed by our Saviour to dâ— to others as they would that others should do to them Thus you talkâ— in time past and if you had forgotten this Language we would never have remembered it now But since it is still at your tongues end and you perswade one another you are still in an house of Bondage we must desire you to be more reverend to your Sovereign and use him a little better than you do your fellow Subjects N. C. Doth not he acknowledge his clemency and benignity and call him upon that score the breath of our nostrils so far forth as we breathe or hope to breathe in a free air C. If you read his words he hath so many limitations that they spoil all They account him saith he in that respect to be as it were the breath of their nostrils so far forth as they breathe or hope to breathe in a free air Would to God he would go to School somewhere and learn to speak plainer or rather to hold his tongue For this and some other things make many suspect that all these fair words are but like Mercuries Pipe to lull Argus asleep If you breathe not in a free air or if you have not hope of it if he be not kind to you and do not as yoâ— would have him then away goes the breath of your nostrils in a whiâ— according to this Writer And I must tell you that notwithstanding all the Clemency he here talks of and seems to be thankfull for he plainly affirms before 〈◊〉 concludes that there are those out oâ— whose heads this conceit can hardly be beaten That they had never enjoyed tâ— peace they have but that God gave us trâ—ble and interruption by the Plague Fire anâ— Sword q Pag. 122. anâ— he adds But a word to 〈◊〉 wise You understand his mind it s like better than I who can make no sensâ— of it but this That they are beholdâ— to Plague Fire and Sword not to his Mâ—jesty for the peace they have enjoyed N. C. You make very harsh Inteâ—pretation sure no body hath 〈◊〉 thoughts C. This is no new thing but it haâ— of old been the way of such dissatisfied people to seek how they might work upon our distress and then notwithstanding all their good words to pretend a necessity they should be favour'd Thus I remember in Queen Elizabeths days they made long Discourses to shew how they prayed for her Majesty in the business of 88. though as Dr. Sutcliff r Answer to a certain Libel Supplicatory c. Printed 1592. pag. 54. replyed their tumultuous praying and prating in those times did rather discourage than incourage any And then at that very time did Martin frame his seditious Libels and then others preached seditious Sermons nay Martin senior professed that when the Enemy was ready to assail us there were an hundred thousand hands ready to subscribe the Supplication of the Pâ—ritans at home Which saith he in good policy we being in fear of outward force might not be denyed nor discouraged N. C. No more of Martin I entreat you We had too much of him the last time and indeed have too much of this C. He may thank himself who like Chaucer's Cook would needs be busie where he needed not taking much pains for which neither side will think themselves beholden to him The Observation of Solomon should have been remembred by him which might have kept him from medling with things he could not manage That as a thorn goes into the hand of a Drunkard so is a Parable in the mouth of a Fool Prov. 26.9 For a Drunkard saith a famous person s Bishop of Galloway in his Defence 1614. Pag. 32. taking a thorn into his hand to strike his neighbour hurts himself with it and a fool pierces himself with the words wherewith he thinks to prick others N. C. It is thought he hath prickt you to the quick in his next exception against your
that he thought letter upon letter might be as necessary as precept upon precept line upon line twice over which are the Prophets words Isa 28.10 C. He prophanes the Holy Scripture throughout his whole Book by using its words on every common and trivial occasion But let him repeat it a thousand times till he hath made his own head ake as well as his Readers I shall remain as innocent and you as guilty as before only he himsef will appear more boldly Ignorant For he is like those men who write of Countries they never saw who commonly tell a great many tales I have great cause to be confident that he never read this Act seriously about which he talks so much but only poured a flood of words with a great noise out of his own unfurnisht brains With these he hoped to make his credulous Readers like those who live near the falls of Nilus deaf to any other Information though never so certain N. C. You cannot think him so bold as to charge you with breaking an Act the matter of which he did not understand C. Then he is a dishonest man if having read it and understood it he would not confess the truth which is this Within two or three days after his Majesties return he desired the Parliament which then sate speedily to dispatch an Act of Indemnity which he had promised After it had passed the Commons he went to the Peers k Speech in House of Peers July 27. 1660. and expressed his impatient desire to have this Act presented to him for his Royal assent Accordingly upon Aug. 29. 1660. this Act was passed as an Act of free and General Pardon Indemnity and Oblivion And in the Preface to it these two intents and purposes of it are expressed First that no crime committed against his Majesty or his Royal Father shall hereafter rise in Judgment or be brought in Question against any one to the least indamagement of them c. Secondly To bury all Seeds of future discords and remembrances of the former Accordingly the Former part of the Act is for Indemnity and provides for mens safety by acquitting releasing and discharging all persons from all crimes save those excepted afterward committed from Jan. 1. 1637. till June 24. 1660. And then the other part which concerns our present-business is for Oblivion in these words To the intent and purpose that all Names and terms of distinction may be likewise put in utter Oblivion be it enacted that if any person or persons within the space of three years next ensuing shall presume maliciously to call or alledg * The particle Of is to be left out as appears by the Chancellours Speech made afward where he recites these words of or object against any other person or persons any name or names or other words of reproach any way tending to revive the memory of the late differences or occasions thereof that every such person so as aforesaid offending shall forfeit and pay unto the party grieved if he be a Gentleman ten pound c. This clause the Lord Chancellor at their adjournment Sept. 13. 1660. commended in his Majesties Name to their and all mens remembrance Now mark the Ignorance and the Malice of this Philagathus as he falssly stiles himself His bold Ignorance in that he would have the world believe I have violated nay horribly violated l Pag. 7. of the Preface this Law as it is an Act of Indemnity for in that stile he speaks when I have not so much aâ— a power to punish any man though he were not acquitted and discharged His malice in perswading you that it is the drift of my Book to provoke the Magistrates to break it in pieces in their anger as Moses did the Tables of Stone m Ib. p. 6. when it hath no design in those passages which have so netled him but either to shew that they act not according to their declared Principles in times past or that they have not so behaved themselves as to deserve the name of the only or most knowing and godly people which they commonly assume to themselves In which I will shew you by and by how they break this as well as other of his Majesties Laws But first let us mark again how rashly and impudently he charges me with the breach of this Law as it is an Act of Oblivion which must be distinguished from the other though they He confused as all things else in his head and how he manifestly discovers he never read it or with no care to understand it The Act saith we shall not object against any person any name or names or other words of reproach under such a penalty But this man saith with a bold face it is expressly provided in the Act of Indemnity that the crimes therein mentioned as forgiven should no more be objected to any man under a certain penalty p. 249. The same he saith in another place n Pag. 88. without any stick and that those old things must never more according to that Act be so much as rehearsed o P. 142. which is less then objected And more then this he affirms that we may not so much as speak of any Ordinance of Parliament which was formerly made p P. 254. and therefore like a man of an exceeding nice and tender Conscience he dares not so much as seem to know or remember that ever there were any such Ordinances q These are his very words as I mention A special way to Answer me by saying nay by knowing just Nothing But judg now of the modesty and sincerity of this man who makes bold as he speaks to take me to task for the breach of a Law whose words he never recites nay always puts other words of his own making in the room of them And judg of his discretion and understanding Who can let it enter into his thoughts that the Law prohibits us so much as to remember what was done in the late Times Suppose we hear them call us shortly the old and the implacable Enemy must we not so much as seem to call to mind that this was the stile of those days If they begin to talk of the Holy cause and the Good old cause must we according to this new Doctor seal up our lips and make as if we never heard of such a thing before What may we not so much as write a true History of what is past This is the thing no doubt they would be at We must forget as I told you at our last meeting r Contin of the Debate p. 66. all that is past and now believe you cannot err nay were always innocent This will be a fine way to keep posterity in Ignorance that you may do the like again and never be suspected till it be too late to prevent it A most admirable contrivance for which he will be well rewarded if he can make it good to turn us
observe it N. C. You should not study revenge by taking notice of the motes that are in the eye of his discourse because he did so by yours r Sober Answ p. 11. C. If I sought for motes I could find a great one in that very phrase These are logs which I am going to speak of that a man may see with half an eye First he confesses that they are self conceited impatient of contradiction wedded to their own opinion such as will rule even their Ministers if not despise and abandon them unless they please their humor Else why should they so easily run away from them nay spew them out of their mouth ſ They are his own words p. 228. and see p. 223. if they perswade them earnestly to that which they think in their conscience is their Duty They are so currish also and hard hearted that they will give such a Minister a Bill of Divorce and he may starve if he will for any thing that they will do for him t His own words p. 229. But the reason is that they are in a rage in a violent fermentation and boiling against our Church and therefore must not be medled withall but let alone for fear as he tells you of making them stark mad which it is thought would be the effect of an attempt to reduce them to that which I call sobriety u pag. 227. So uncapable they are of good instruction that they speak evil of our Bishops and others with open mouth being the Authors or abetters of false and scandalous stories concerning them and yet cannot be perswaded that they have done it sufficiently or that they can open their mouths too wide in this case N. C. A horrid slander C. Say you so I will read his very words then to you that you may be convinced though others will not Neither must they x pag. 228. i. e. your Ministers presume to keep a Day of Humiliation for the sin you there mention p. 235. viz speaking evil of Bishops c. though either to raise or take up a false report against any man especially if in Authority is a great sin yet to keep a day of Humiliation among the people upon such an account as that who will not be convinced that they can open their mouths too wide in that case were immediately to divorce themselves from them ☞ or to cause the people to give them a Bill of Divorcement and to be married to some worse Husband N.C. I am astonisht at his negligent writing I shall not be angry hereafter if you call him a shatter'd-brain Scribler C. Who not only confesses that you cannot be convinced that you can bawl too loudly though falsely and scandalously against our Governours but that the hearts of your people are alienated from us and have an antipathy against us as he tells you in the next page And that some of them hate our Worship worse than a Toad as he assures us upon his own knowledg y pag. 224. Canepejus angue and are so ungrateful withal to our Sovereign that they will not so much as wish for the peace and prosperity of their Native Country unless they can enjoy such quiet as they desire N. C. There is no such thing sure in his Book C. No! read then what he saith in another place p. 221 222. Where he tells us we must not expect that you should be perswaded to seek our peace by such easy means as I directed you to for men cannot easily so much deny themselves as to promote the interest of those by whom they have been ruined and are ruining all the day long If you urge that text saith he seek the peace of that City whether I have caused you to be carried captive and pray to the Lord for it some are ready to reply how many who knows Yea and so we will seek your peace and presperity when you make good what is there added for in the peace thereof yee shall have peace They will condition you see with his Majesty or else he must not have the benefit of their prayers for the tranquillity and happiness of his Realmes N. C. Would He had held his peace and never undertaken our cause C. There is a plain reason he tells you for this surliness They are grons high and proud they swell with grief anger and vexation z pag. 281. because they cannot have their will or as he calls it are trod and trampled upon And though they are it seemes so low yet their spirits are so high and so far from humble and silent patience that they have clamoured both upon King and Parliament 〈◊〉 and down the Nation for the undoing of many families a So he tells us p. 236. which tells you what excellent Christians they are for that word clamour as one b Mr. Fullers Vindic of his Sermon 1643. told Mr. Saltmarsh sounds in a bad sense in the Holy Scriptures as arguing an ill tempered spirit with amixture of Pride and impatience for which he cites 9. Prov. 13.4 Ephes 31. But some of them are gone higher and have a rebellious principle in them as he confesses if what I said be true c Sober Answer p. 105. as I am sure it is And yet for all that there are no such people as they the power of Godliness is their peculiar portion thus far this man himself is possessed with those proud fancies that he thinks from what I have said against them it will be inforc'd that all that which is called Religion is meer Hypocrisie and imposture d Preface p. 22. 23. Lastly as for lying and speaking falsly you shall not easily meet with a greater example of it than in himself And if one of your guides be so addicted ro this vice that he blushes not to put them in Print when he may be so soon confuted what a number of lyes in all probability are there whispered in corners by your common people N. C. You should say they are mistakes and no more C. I would willingly have called them all by no worse name than falshoods but upon serious consideration of all things I cannot but conclude that too often there was something of his will in it and that he had a mind to calumniate And for our more orderly proceeding this being you know part of my Charge against him I will first set before you some of the lyes and falshoods in his preface and then some of those that are in his Book For the former there is no truth in those words you meet withal p. 3. that I call some men all to naught nor did I say so much as this which he confidently affirms that W. B. is the greatest Impostor that ever I knew in the Christian Religion c My words are He is one of the principal Impostors that perverted the truth and a lulterated c. Contin p. 108. These are forgeries of