conscience made legible by the Lancashire and Cheshire plea for Non-subscribers and the testimonies of the Ministers in the several Counties of England published with their names subscribed and indeed Imprinted by the invasion and divastation of Scotland the Sequestrations and Sufferings even unto imprisonment and death of many in England pursuing His Majesties restitution on the account of the Covenant How can the Doctor confess Doubtlesse the sence of the Covenant hath lately quickned many mens consciences in their allegiance to the King so as to bring Him as David home with infinite joy and triumph page 25. and yet here complain that it was so easily vacated in point of its express Loyalty for the King's preservation If it were ever vacated when or how was it renewed and re-inforced If I may speak it without vanity had not the firm bond of the Covenant vigorously contended in the point of Loyalty against the violent powers which bare it down His late Majesties Martyrdom had not broken forth with such lustre not His now Majesty whom God long preserve been restored to that estate of Honour in which we now enjoy Him so that the Antecedent of this suggested Argument will be most positively denied But if we should admit it I cannot but wonder to hear a Divine say and inferre upon it If it were so easily vacated in point of Loyalty I do not see how it can be so binding against Episcopacy I think it to be no good Logick and worse Divinity from some mens evasion and violation to infer a vacation and non-obligation or from a vacation of it in one point to infer its non-obligation as to others sin indeed is apt but it must not be allowed to engender sin by Gods grace gradual violation shall not effect in me a total rejection of the Covenant His sixth suggestion seems indeed to be of more force than the former viz. 6th Suggestion in his indirect answer p. 8. The Covenant if so interpreted must needs grate sore upon and pierce to the quick those former lawful Oaths which had prepossessed the souls and consciences of most of us in England not only of Subjects as those of Allegiance and Supremacy besides that of Ministerial Canonical obedience to our lawful Superiours but even the conscience of the late King as bound by his Coronation-Oath c. From which Oaths as we know no absolution so neither can there be any superfetation of such a contradictory vow and Covenant without apparent perjury To all which I offer to consideration That the dissatisfaction of His late Majesty of Blessed Memory and in nothing more blessed than in the conscience He made of the Oath of God upon Him and the charge He hath left His now glorious Majesty That if God brought Him to His own Right on hard conditions He should be careful to performe what He should promise that is now beyond dispute and His Majesty that now is not only free from those Fetters which restrained His Royal Father but also is engaged in the same League and Covenant and this supposed contradiction cast out of doors and as to the contradiction of the Covenant to the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy non constat it appeares not nor would it ever as it hath done have quickned the hearts of some to suffer for and to struggle under their Loyalty untill His Majesties Honourable Restitution if it were so repugnant to them Let its contradiction in this point be noted and we shall speak to it and as to that of Canonical obedience to our lawful Superiors its contradiction is suggested with an If it be so interpreted Let the interpretation be cleared before the contradiction be concluded and argued for if that Oath did bind an obedience to Bishops as invested with paternal authority and as a distinct and superior order of Ministry and it s unexplained etcaetera included more a grating upon and piercing to the quick this Oath was no other but duty and then the Argument is of no more force save to speak the fretting of their spirits who foolishly sware they know not what and now desire to maintain it more for fancy than conscience for it is not yet proved that such are lawful superiors in Church or State His seventh Answer or Argument is ab incommodo the inconvenience which must be very great and visible if it discharge an Oath And here he tells us It must needs run us upon a great Rock of not only Novelty but Schisme c. unto which I desire Sir you will please to observe 1. The loss we are at by the uncertainty of the object he urgeth this Argument with his universal discretive all Episcopal order and government We must Sir have a clear Notion of Episcopal Order and Government before we can with care shun the Schism nor is it explained to us by the general terms of Practice and Judgement of the Catholick Church in all ages and places till of later dayes for we know that superiority and paternal power over other Bishops and Ministers did too soon appear and too universally spread after the Apostles days unto the advancement of the man of sin though it prevailed not without great reluctancy and its removal hath been aimed at and endeavored by the Reformation Again must we take it for granted that conformity is essential to communion with the Church and agreement in discipline unavoidally necessary to union Certaiâ—ly if so we must make the very form of Discipline an Article of our Creed And truly Sir the jus divinum or Apostolical institution of the form he seems to plead for lieth too much in the dark for such a conclusion and therefore the most himself tells us of it is That it looks like an immediate institution of Christ preceptive and explicite or tacite and exemplary pag. 13. but he knows not whether yet well knows simile non est idem and therefore he here calls it but an ancient tradition and universal observation and then the 34 th Article of the Church of England secureth us from this Rock of Schisme whilst it teacheth us 39 Articles of Religion in the Convocation held 1562. It is not necessary that traditions be in all places one and utterly alike c. In Politicks we well know different forms of Administration are consistent with union in the same Kingdome and Communion in the same Government It is no strange thing to see Corporations in England governed by their twelve Jurors without a Mayor and Court of Aldermen but it would be thought very strange from thence to charge them with sedition and it must be a jus divinum and immediate institution not Apostolical tradition or Universal observation must bar us from the priviledges any more than the dictated properties common to all policy Moreover Sir if this form of Discipline which he noteth some few Reformed Churches of later dayes want though they do not contemne but approve and venerate in others be so necessary a
fierceness of it is much manifested in those multiplied invectives uttered against the Covenant and authority which did enjoyn it and persons who did compose it in these and the like intemperate terms a stratagem of State a flag of Faction an engine framed of purpose to batter down Episcopacy Fierce expressions p. 13. Covenanting complements and Reformings of bungling Reformers page 24. The petty composition of a few politick men Subjects not Princes and very mean Subjects too some of them either as Lawyers or Ministers a great part of whom I and others well know to be no very great Clerks or Statesmen fitter for a Countrey cure than to contrive Solemn Leagues and Covenants whose heads rather than their hearts and their State correspondencies more than their consciences brought forth the Covenant pa. 11. The effect of Scottish importunities English compliances and Presbyterian insolencies page 5. brought forth by the Midwifery of Tumults and Armies engaged and enraged parties and factions whose wrath and policy were not probable to work the righteousness of God evil Angels turning our waters into blood page 6 7. These and many the like Railing Taunring and Intemperate terms much below the expected sobriety of a so publickly professed healer yet as an evidence of his fury he falsely chargeth the Covenant with most sad and unblest effects and to have been the cause of all the havocks in Church and State improsperities disorders False charge confusions contempts wars spoyles bloodshed upon all estates and degrees contempt of Religion and neglect of Sacraments page 7. One of the great rocks for the King's shipwrack no less than the Churches and States and that it was watered with the King's blood pag. 8. I cannot but wonder to finde Dr. Gawden thus audacter calumniare for can any considerate Reader or competent observer of the transactions of our Nations in these last years reade these reproachful speeches and not conclude them a most positive and publick calumny Let the Covenant it self be considered and can it by reason of any tendency in it self be charged to be the proper cause of such prodigious effects Is it not the most fervent profession of piety towards God Loyalty to the King and Justice towards men that can be made Is it not the most firm tie to Religion that can be fastned and the fullest security of all kinde of Interests the prerogative of the King the priviledges of Parliament and Liberty of the Subject which can be given can any thing but ill-will represent to the world such unblest effects as the natural products of it and if some persons engaged in it have engaged in and acted such horrid impieties inhumane and barbarous actions under the false cry of the Covenant shall a man of justice charge the bastard-brood of such prophaneness to be the natural issue of so Solemn and Sacred an Oath But Sir will not an observation of the time when these sad and unblest effects fell upon us acquit the Covenant from being in the least accessary unto the production of them If my observation fail me not and I be not mistaken in my account the throwing stools at the heads of the Bishops in Scotland Confusion before the Covenant the pulling down the Star-Chamber and High Commission Courts those grand supports of Prelatical power the taking away the Bishops Votes and Session in Parliament The preparations against Scotland by Bishop Peirce his Bellum Episcopale the tumults about Lambeth the imprisonment of the Bishops in the Tower the tumults about Whitehall and Westminster with his late Majesties departure from the two Houses the setting up his Majesties Standard the alarums of War with many battels and blood-shed the violence of the vulgar against the Liturgy Crosses and Altars with all that confusion and disorder which attended our first unhappy differences are of some years date before the Covenant was imposed or so much as devised or digested all which were not only begun but carried to some considerable progress before it had its being how then could these be the black shadows of its appearing and prevailing in England Some have observed that from the time of the taking of the Covenant success fell on the side of the Parliament and things did thenceforward grow into a tendency to peace and rested not untill it effected the Resolves that His Majesties Concessions were satisfactory and sufficient ground of peace And here let it be noted that it was so far from being watered with the King's blood that when the debate relating to His Majesty engaged the Contests in the House which run the Armies on those high insolencies against the Parliament as to pull out violently 120. Members who in conscience of the Covenant did pursue and struggle for His Majesties Restitution with honour and happinesse Covenant contest against the King's death And the Covenant was by that perfidious pack openly declared useless an Almanack out of date and violated with the highest impiety imaginable to make way to that execrable murther of His most Sacred Majesty Nay Sir can the clamours of the Covenant which were so loud in Press and Pulpit by the Ministers of London in their Representation to the Armies at Saint Albans before they perpetrated their horrid designes in their publick Vindication Printed with their names subscribed witnessing to the World the inconsistency of that Barbarous proceeding with the Solemn League and Covenant be so far out of the Doctor 's remembrance as to charge the Covenant so Eminently approved the pillar of witness against it to have been the Rock of the King's shipwrack and watered with his blood Your Casuist was willing to have all the world to know * Reprinting his own protest against it his innocency as to that inhumane wickedness methinks Sir he should not quite over-look others no less innocent than himself Moreover Sir many that are no Rigid Bigots or virulent spirits The more likely cause of our late confusions and have considered the concurrence of affairs in this Church and Kingdom think that without breach of charity or sobriety they may conclude the arrogancy of Prelates the alterations of publiâ—k worship the innovated Ceremonies and Superstitions the Oath with its etcaetera binding to Canonical obedience the excommunications banishments stigmatizing Confiscations imprisonments and high Commission-Censures against pious Non-conformists with the silencing and suspending painful powerful and pious Preachers with the Arbitrary Illegal imposition of the new Service-Book in Scotland look much more like the natural parent and proper cause of our late Confusions Commotions War and Bloodshed then doth the Solemn League and Covenant but I intend not to retort or recriminate I shall Sir leave wise men to judge how unlikely a course it is by such unadvised expressions to satisfie conscience which is so tender and tickle that all offences should be avoided passion is not only a perturbation to the mind but also a prejudice to the understanding of what is
it may not the very Ligue de Saint in France and Oath et caetera in England though sinful in their matter be good Spurres and Directions in Christian-policy May not the same means used to corroborate impiety be lawfully and prudentially used to strengthen true Religion and Reformation Why may not Popish policy teach Protestants to combine by Covenant as Protestant piety and prudence did dictate to them a Confirmation in Religion by Chatechising Courses common to men are not to be condemned because used by wicked men to wicked ends None Sir do deny the Covenant made in Baptisme to be the only new evangelical Covenant tò all Christians broken by wilful and presumptuous sins and renewed by repentance and the participation of the Lords Supper But it seems unto me a strange transport of so grave and serious a Divine to oppose it unto the Solemn League and Covenant that piece of policy rather than piety Baptismal Covenant no bar to the Solemne League and Covenant as he is pleased to term it The inconsistency of them I must confess is not to me visible sure I am Baptismal Vows are no bar but may be provocations to Solemn covenanting to and with God Let the matter of this Covenant be exactly scanned and if it be in any one Article found repugnant to or different from the Covenant made in Baptism we will renounce the whole I hope it will not be denyed that Baptized Nations and Churches may in their publique and politique capacities renew and amplifie that Covenant which was made in Baptisme And truly Sir the Solemn League and Covenant seems to me so little to differ from our Baptismal Covenant that it is no hard matter to resolve it into those three grand Heads we are instructed were promised in our names when we were Baptized and then all the difference will be in this the Baptismal Covenant was personal and private this publique and politique But I pray let us note his specification of the difference he suggesteth and the Reasons of this inconsistency he urgeth which he supposeth to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crying out How vastly different from this Sacred covenant this late piece of policy more than piety is and how little the true Covenant of a Christian binds him by his Baptisme or Repentance or the Eucharist against all Episcopal government I leave all sober-minded Christians to judge Truly Sir his universal particle All may make something look like a vast difference if we could but understand the species he would pitch upon as excepted by his discretive term but the uncertainty of the object is that we cannot but stumble at in all the conclusions of his suggested answers Methinks such an out-cry of vast difference should have been warranted by a clear antithesis Opposites cannot appear but by their opposition and yet he specifies no one Article different from our Baptismal Covenant but sophistically evades with an How little do Baptismerepentance or the Eucharist bind against all Episcopal government These may Sir very little binde against it and yet the Covenant and they be at no vast difference for the question is not how little the true Covenant in them agitated binds against all Episcopal government but how much it binds to any He is the first Divine I have found to plead our Baptisme as the bond of Canonical obedience and defence of Episcopacy I never did imagine Discipline and order to be the express positive condition of Baptisme and the Christian-Covenant thereby made qua Christian the only new Evangelical Covenant but especially this species of it Episcopacy I hope his jus divinum will be made as clear as the Doctrine of the Trinity whil'st it is and must be owned as the absolute condition of Baptisme and nerve of union with the Church Yet Sir give me leave to tell the Doctor if the late Hierarchy or Episcopacy of England which he seems to advance as the late honour of the Ministry and encouragement of Learning and Religion be as on an easie discussion it may be found to be of the pomps and vanities of this wicked world we are not only a little but very much bound against it for our God-fathers and God-mothers did promise in our behalf That we should forsake them as the Devil and all his works and then he may well imagine all sober-minded Christians must judge there is a vast difference between Baptisme and such Episcopacy and that he is acted with a strong zeal that will by our Baptisme binde unto it who yet declared it to be but a tradition and universal observation But he addes a reason to enforce it and that is Since both the power of ordaining Ministers and by them to consecrate and celebrate both Sacraments Of the power of ordination by Bishops was ever derived from and by Bishops of the Church as the chief Conservaters Cisterns and Conduits of all Ecclesiastical authority and Ministerial power from the very Apostles the first Bishops of the Church Acts 1 c. But Sir is it determined and agreed on without controversie that the power of ordination was ever derived by and from Bishops in his sence paternal Bishops above and distinct from Presbyters that so it must be concluded No ordination by Bishops no Minister no consecration or celebration of either Sacrament and so where these Conservators Conduits Cisterns were never laid or have been any way cut off Ecclesiastical authority and Ministerial power never came or is removed and quite gone for without doubt this water must run in its own Pipes Were it not for that subordination and dependance of ordinary Ministers Shepherds and Rulers unto and upon the Angels Presidents and chief Fathers of his Episcopal authority he at after noteth I should by his adjunct Chief have conceived that he would grant Some small Pipes had run from the Apostles times in union with Christ our chief Bishop and drived Ecclesiastical authority and Ministerial power in the vacancy of his Bishops which if he deny the Church of Rome will triumph in his Episcopal union with her but the Reformed Churches can give him little thanks for this Church annihilating Notion Again is it cleare that Episcopal and Apostolical Ministry is idem ordo the same kinde distinct from that of Pastors and Teachers it must be imagined so to be whil'st Bishops only as Bishops lay so much claim to the immediate succession of the Apostles That the Apostles had an Episcopacy we cannot deny for we reade of it in Acts 1. 20. Nor I think can it be reasonably denyed that the feeding-Ruling Elders at Ephesus were Bishops for so Saint Paul called them as consecrated by the Holy Ghost Acts 20. 28. and immediate successors to the Apostles yet it is not evident that they were all Angels Presidents and chief Fathers and such as set Timothy over them as their Bishop must needs deny them so to have been and then Sir some that wanted this paternal authority
not the very best 3. To pity the Bishops and Fathers of the Church who have been there too injurious or injuriously used and pull down all proud Prelates and paternal authoritie over Presbyters which abuse their brethren and debase their Ministry because in a black Coat 4. To encourage Ministers and endeavour the rescue of them from dividing factions and popular insolencies which have befaln them for want of the King and Ecclesiastical order but may be enjoyed without a Bishop advanced in power above his Brethren 5. Love to the Church in endeavouring its unity peace and prosperity in the ruine of Prelacy and establishment of an Episcopacy and over-sight duely constituted and carefully executed 6. Care to his own soul inward and eternal peace not to be couzened by glosses courted by Rhetorical flourishes nor cudgelled out of his Covenant by most bitter sufferings but to cleave unto it with care constancy and diligence and take heed of all sophistical solutions and subtle reconciliations which endeavour to baffle the Covenant and break in pieces the very power of all Religious bonds Sir Knowing how under and dclicate a thing Conscience is yet fearing it might be baftled and deluded by Sophistry and scovered I have presumed to surveigh your Doctors Solution of the Covenant and give an account of my apprehensions of it Covenant-breaking is so direful a God-provoking sin that I tremble to think of Englands least tendencie to it whatever men fancie to themselves of the Covenant being the Rock of his late Majesties shipwrark it is visible that the violation of it hath been the destruâ—â—ion of our late Ilsurpers who laid i aside that they might leap into their Chair oâ— State and it cannot be denied to have beene the chief and only means of his Majesties most just and honourable Restitution and an adherencie to it I doubt not will prove the establishment of his Royal Throne I cannot therefore but be grieved to finde contempt poured on the Covenant not only by the vulgar but such whose ranck and gravity should make them more sensible of the weight and worth of an Oath When Sir your Doctors Solution came first into my hands the Speech of Julian Cardinal of Saint Angelo concerning the League of uladislaus King of Hungary with Amurath the Turk came into my memory and one observation seems too much alike unto it I pray you pardon the comparison the pretended principle of the one was Zeale for the Church History of the Turks p. 290 291 292. and love of Religion and so of the other the scope of the one was to discharge the Oath and so of the other the method of the one was to absolve by colour and pretence of binding under the Oath so of the other the Arguments of the one were defect of authority from Gods Vicar on earth consent of Confederates contrariety to former Covenants exclusion of greater good exposal to reproach and scandal rashnesse and unadvisednesse in making and the like and such are the arguments of the other the one was by a man of eminencie and esteeme and engaged in the same Oath so is the other such is Sir the agreement in every point that it would much better have become a Jesuite or Popish Cardinal than a Protestant Doctor I cannot but pray they may not agree in their intended end the breach of the Covenant lest God make them agree in the miserable effect the losse of the Christian Cause ruine of King and people and their perpetual infamy I shall Sir trouble you no longer save to tell you this answer was dispatched in two days and had waited on you much sooner but that I hoped some more eminent and able pen would have pleaded the Cause of the Covenant and matched the Doctor suitably to himself such as it is you now have it I desire it may be weighed in the ballance of Reason and Religion without respect unto the person who by his meannesse and many calumnies which yet he weareth as his crown is obnoxious to no little prejudice but if he prove a Taylors Goose hot and heavie but blinde and dark will be contented to wear the Cap whilst resolved to approve himself no lesse zealous in the Religious than he hath appeared in the Political or Civil part of the Solemne League and Covenant and make it his care to give God the things that are Gods as Caesar the things that are Caesars July 8 th 1660 SIR Farewell be faithful
Nerve that the abjuration and exclusion of it runs us on such a Rock of Schisme I see not how those Churches though their want be through necessity of times and distress of affairs put upon them can be owned in the union of the Catholique Church for essentials unto union must not only be reverenced in others but enjoyed by themselves It is Sir worth enquiry what he means by the Catholique Church for besides the vulgar appropriation of it to Rome and affection our late Prelates had to that term his Note That the abolishing of Episcopacy is no small wall of partition newly set up to keep all Papists from due Reformation makes me jealous the Cassandrian accommodation is yet in the Bishops intention and endeavour upon which they would not put that reproach scandal scruple or affront as to be without Bishops of paternal authority but if so happy is that Church whose Reformation carrieth them furthest off Romes Superstition in discipline and worship as well as doctrine His eighth Answer or Suggestion is a Rhetorical swada and insinuating plea which hath wholly lost its force by the uncertainty of the object If conscience be erroneous we shall easily grant that it is equal and ingenuous Loyal and Religious to redâ—ce and confine it Erroneous conscience must be rectified which yet must not and will not be straiter than the proper and genuine sence of the Covenant will admit but as for that extravagant disloyal unlawful enormous and Schismatical sence against which he declaimes in which it could neither be lawfully taken nor honestly kept it must be determined by an Explication of his All Episcopacy and full demonstration of a sence so qualified before there can be any more strength in his Rhetorick than in his Reasons I must Sir be free to tell him the Covenant doth expressely binde against the Fabrick and very form of the late Hierarchy in England not its abuses exccesses or defects only though not against the use of any thing which was good and fit to be used in the succeeding form to be established nor do I understand it to be such an unreasonable and irreligious Ametrie transport for men to Covenant against all the right use of things that are good but not necessary because of the abuse incident to them as he doth suggest though the Covenant is not guilty of such obligation But more of this in his direct Answer Having assaulted the Covenant with his fierce battery and alarummed it with his frightful Ecchoes The Covenant authority proved not only pretended by examples in the old Testament he proceeds to level to the ground all those faire but fallacious pretences as he deems them drawn to fortifie the Covenant from Scriptures examples wherein the Jewes sometimes solemnly renewed Covenant with God c. And the main and only Morterpiece he lets flie is That it was that express Covenant which God himself had first made with them in Horeb and Mount Sinai punctually prescribed by God to Moses and by Moses as their Supream Governour or King imposed upon them this they sometime renewed after they had broken it by their Apostacy to false and strange gods Unto the enforcement whereof we must desire the Doctor to demonstrate That the Law of Moses or Covenant in Horeb was not only the Rule and Dictate of what matter they should Covenant but the express Covenant which was or did consist in the exact recital and Repetition of that Law of the ten Commandements as the very form thereof so as that they never varied or altered it according to their special defections in the particular points of their lâ—ves and that this was the formal Covenant between God and the people in the times of Joshuah and before Israels defection on from God or that this was the Covenant between God the people and King and between the people and their King in the dayes of Jehoiadah Or that this was the express Covenant made in the point of the Sabbath and the putting away strange wives in the times of Nehemiah These several occasions and special obligations do bespeak them to have been Covenants conformed as to the matter of them to some part of the ten Commandements but as to their forme and manner of expression to have been squared by themselves But whatever was the matter or forme of their Covenanting I imagine it will not be denied that the taking or renewal thereof was their own political Act done by their own will and power at the time and on the occasion their own condition did require and dictate and so our Covenant warranred for matter by the Word of God is by their example justified to have been a pious and prudent action within our own power to performe though for the form of it it be not any Divine dictate or Soveraign prescription yet better to be esteemed than the petty composition of a few politick men Nor is there any strength in that we were not Apostatized to false and strange gods unless he will affirm no defection short of Apostacy from the true to false gods is a sufficient ground or occasion on which to renew Covenant which I think neither right reason or Religion will allow shall not gradual defections be restrained and total Apostacy be superseded by a seasonable Solemne League and Covenant Surely then Joshuah was too preposterous in working Israel into Covenant with God on a jealousie or rational conjecture of their future Apostacy and had England no need to Covenant when they were posting in doctrine especially in worship and discipline to Romes Superstition and Tyrannie Can any man consider the corruptions continued in England since the Reformation and so defended that nothing but a soveraign Remedy could remove them nay the very Retrogradations of the Reformation by a return of many expelled Rites and Prelatical power and say because she yet owned the true God she had no need to Covenant If covenanting be an Act within mans own power and choice and defection from God and his wayes inchoated or suspected be a just ground and occasion Englands covenanting is fully fortified by Scripture and Reason and the pretences thereof no way found fallacious His last Suggestion in his indirect Answer is of no force for admit that there is no precept or pattern for such a Covenant in all the New Testament which directs us as Christians and leaveth us to the Dâ—ctates of Nature and discoveries of the Old Testament in more publique and political Acts which concern us as a Kingdome or Church National or in the succeeding ages of the Church Will it therefore follow that such covenanting is sinful the Primitive Churches never were of such extent in the enjoyment of such power under such publique defections and in such capacitie of covenanting as we have been Must we enquire what hath been done in the Christian Churches to do that and no more without regard to what may be done the condition of the Church requiring