all of them made him their Proxy to speak for them which if they have done why doth he not shew us his Commission for it which as he hath not done yet so I am confident he will never be able to doe no not from all or from the most of any one party of the Nonconformists Which I am the bolder to affirm because having sometimes occasionally made use of his Authority in point of opinion and of his Example in point of practice for the convincing of some both Presbyterians and Independents who by their practice seemed to be of another judgment in diverse things than he was I found that what he said or did signified little or nothing unto them Nay they told me in plain terms that I was very much mistaken if I thought that Mr. Baxter's either judgment or practice was of so great weight with them as for that reason onely to make them alter their own either judgment or practice in any thing whatsoever So that it doth not follow that because Bishop Morley in that printed Letter of his saith that this or that was Mr. Baxter's Assertion therefore he said or must be understood as if he had said it was the assertion of all or indeed of any other of the Nonconformists but of Mr. Baxter himself onely Of any other I say for I did not so much as charge both or either of those two Nonconformists that were Mr. Baxter's Assistants at that Conference with asserting what he asserted Nay I do in that Letter of mine discharge them both from concurring with him in that Assertion which I lay unto his charge though he saith he concurr'd with them in it I charge him with it because as I tell him in my printed Letter he did often affirm and declare it to be his and I discharge them from it because neither of them did affirm or declare it to be theirs but rather seem'd to dislike it and to dissent from him in it But why then will he say do I say Crimine ab uno disce omnes From ones ill carriage you may know the rest which seems to imply that what I charge upon him I charge upon his whole party as I do indeed but not in that same place nor speaking of the same mater but for their censuring and condemning all other Protestant Churches in the World as well as ours as Mr. Baxter did expresly at the Conference aforesaid because They as well as We refuse to give the Communion to those that will not receive it so as by publick order it is to be received And it was upon account of this proud peevish and censorious humour of which I take all the Nonconformists and amongst them the Presbyterians especially to be more or less guilty that I then taking Mr. Baxter to be a Presbyterian said Crimine ab uno disce omnes that is By one man's ill temper you may know the whole party But then as by Omnes All of them I did not mean all the Nonconformists so I did not mean all the Presbyterians neither but those of England and Scotland onely all foreign Presbyterians that allow of and practice Calvin's Scheme of Discipline and Government of the Church agreeing with us against our Presbyterians in the main difference betwixt us and them namely that as it is in the power of a National Church to appoint and prescribe to those of her own Communion the usage of such indifferent things as she shall think to be most for order decency and edification in the publick service and worship of God so it is in her power also to oblige all of her Communion to the use and observation of all such indifferent things after they are prescribed and enjoyned as long as they continue to be so under the penalty of Excommunication or of being excluded out of the Society or Communion of that Church if they do not comply and much more if they preach or write against any such orders or ordinances as are made by publick Authority or by the Representatives of the whole Society and most of all if they deny theChurches power to ordain and enjoyn any such orders or ordinances of all which Crimes or degrees of the same crime no other Presbyterians are guilty for ought I know but those of England and Scotland onely or if perhaps some be they are excluded from Communion with the National Church wherein they live as well as Nonconformists are with us here in England so that in Holland it self where it is said any man may chuse his own Religion or be of what Religion he will no man that will not subscribe to the Synod of Dort in Rituals as well as Doctrinals is or can be admitted to be a member and much less a Preacher in that Church no nor to the exercise of any Office Civil or Ecclesiastical in their Church or State It is true they suffer men of all Religions to live amongst them Lutherans as well as Calvinists Arminians as well as Antiarminians nay Papists as well as Protestants and Jews as well as Christians but not as members of their Church who are Calvinists and Calvinists onely The rest indeed beforenamed are some of them conniv'd at and some of them permitted to have their Meetings and preaching after their own way but it is at their own charge and severely punishable if they preach or print any thing to the reproach or scandal of the Religion allowed of and established by the State We wish no more will our Sectaries perhaps say Let us have but so much liberty as this upon the same terms and We will thank God and you for it But what security will you or any of you give us that when you have that liberty you will not all of you joyn together to destroy our Religion though you know not what to set up instead of it We see you have done so once already and attempted it often both before and since and why may not you do so again For the Laws were against you then as much as they are now and so was the King too And therefore granting such a Toleration of several Sects of Religion or ways of Belief and Worship as there are in Holland it is not possible humanely speaking to secure the publick peace either of Church or State but by keeping up a standing Army of thirty or forty thousand men always in pay even in times of peace with a powerfull Fleet at Sea as the Hollanders do to secure themselves from Insurrections at home as well as Invasions from abroad Now whether the People of England will be content to be at such a Charge and to live under such a Government those that would have such a Liberty of Conscience or Toleration of Religion as there is in Holland let them enquire of the peoples Representatives and Petition them to that purpose at their next meeting In the mean time all their Pleas for Peace
to lie against our late experience to the contrary when Tyranny and Tyranny in the highest degree and under many several sorts of Tyrants was brought in without Popery and the Protestà nt Religion of the Church of England was not only suppressed and persecuted but endeavoured to be quite extirpated and for ever to be abolished by the greatest pretenders of enmity to Popery though indeed the greatest of its Friends and the most likely to be a most effectual means to bring it in by their then endeavouring to overthrow and by their now endeavouring to undermine the strongest Bulwark the Protestant Religion truly so called hath in the World against Popery I mean the Protestant Religion of the Church of England And as this Church of ours according to the present legal constitution of it both as to Doctrine and Government is the best fenced of any Church in the World not only against Popery but all other Heresies and Schisms some of them as bad if not worse both in their speculative and practical opinions than Popery it self is So the legal constitution of our civil Government also is I verily believe the best Government now extant in the World or perhaps ever was or can be for the keeping out of Tyranny or arbitrary Government of what disposition or religion soever the Prince or Governour in chief for the time shall happen to be of so the legal established constitution of the Government be not altered CHAP. VIII The Scotch Test an Assurance that there can no change be in Government either of Church or State The case of Protestants in Queen Maries time much different from what it is now FOR preventing whereof the best and as I verily believe the only effectual means that can be devised and put in practice is as I said before the making of such an Act of Parliament here in England as is lately made in Scotland viz. That for the future no Man shall be capable of any place power trust or profit Military Civil or Ecclesiastical or to choose or be chosen a Parliament man but he that will take such a Test as is there specified viz. That he will never give his consent for the alteration either of the Religion or the Government by Law established in the Church and State Which being once enacted I for my part cannot foresee how either Popery or Arbitrary I might add or any other Government or Religion prejudicial to the rights either of King or Subject can be brought in amongst us but by an absolute conquest of the whole Nation For as for Popery and Arbitrary Government the pretended Objects of our present fears that they will be brought in by a Popish Successor supposing there be any such if he be not excluded the aforesaid Act after it is enacted will make it impossible for him to effect it though he have never so strong an Inclination or desire to do it For if he endeavour to do it it must be either by force or fair means if by force it must be either by an Army of his own Subjects or of Foreigners if by an Army of his own Subjects it must be an Army of Papists only which being not one to 500. in proportion to the rest of the Nation and all of them excluded by the aforesaid Act from all places of Power or Trust will make but a very inconsiderable handful of Men to attempt and much less to effect any thing by force against the Body of the Nation whom we are to suppose to be obliged by the aforesaid Act not to consent to and much less to assist the bringing in either of Popery or Arbitrary Government So that if it be by force it must be by an Army of Foreigners and such an Army as shall be able to subdue the whole Nation and then he that brings them in cannot choose but fear they will subdue us for themselves and not for him and therefore will take heed of running such a hazard for any consideration whatsoever We are not therefore to fear it will be attempted to be done by force Nor that it can be effected if it should be attempted to be done by fair means neither that is by Law or by making any Act of Parliament for the introducing of Popery when there shall be an Act before in force to prevent any Man's choosing or being chosen a Member of the House of Commons that is not obliged by Oath never to give his consent to the passing of such an Act and all Popish Lords are already excluded from voting in the House of Lords But why may not a Popish Successor cause both these Acts to be repealed as Queen MARY did for the Reducing of Popery those that were made by Her Brother Edward the Sixth for the Excluding of Popery I answer because of the vast difference between those times and these Then the Protestant Religion was but begun to be planted in this Kingdom and had not taken root enough for the setling and growth and continuance of it much the major part of the People being still Popishly affected in their Hearts though they were by the Laws then in force restrain'd from the open profession of it as appear'd by their so readily and so gladly returning as most of them did to it and by their not only accepting but desiring and purchasing the Pape's Absolution for revolting from it So that it was very easie for Queen Mary to make that Alteration which she did by repealing such Acts and Laws as she found in favour of the Protestant Religion and to re-enact or restore such as were for the establishment of Popery which she found to have been repealed by Her Predecessor And to make this work of hers the more easie she did and could without any legal impediment to the contrary bestow all places of Trust Power and Profit Civil Military and Ecclesiastical upon such as were as zealous as she her self was for the suppressing of the Protestant and setting up of the Roman Religion instead of it Whereas now the Protestant Religion has been setled here in England for above fourscore years before the Rebellion and above twenty years since and the Popish suppress'd for twenty years longer even during all the time of the Rebellion it self whilst the Sectaries usurped the Supreme Power and whilst the Protestant Religion of the Church of England was suppress'd and persecuted also But all that while Popery was kept down and Presbytery was set up and spread it self so much in and over all parts of the whole Kingdom that we have much more reason to fear the alteration of Government both in Church and State by setting up of Presbytery instead of Episcopacy in the one and of a Commonwealth instead of Monarchy in the other than Popery or Arbitrary Government under a King in either as long as the Laws we have already against both are in force whereby all Papists are made uncapable
according to the legal establishment thereof of so sound so healthful so orderly and so well compacted a constitution as it is and which by long experience we have found so agreeable to the established Government of the State that we cannot make any alteration in the one without great disordering of the other Let us not give ear to any of those Church and State Mountebanks or Empericks who if we let them alone a little longer will never leave mending till they have marr'd all Mr. BAXTER'S Recantation referred to page of the Conclusion Printed 1670. at the end of a Book of His called The Life of Faith after a Catalogue of Books Written and Published by the same Author LET the Reader know that whereas the Bookseller hath in the Catalogue of my Books named my Holy-Commonwealth or Political Aphorisms I do hereby recall the said Book and profess my Repentance that ever I published it and that not only for some by-passages but in respect of the secondary part of the very scope Though the first Part of it which is the defence of God and Reason I recant not But this Revocation I make with these Proviso's 1. That I reverse not all the Matter of that Book nor all that more than ONE have accused As e. g. the Assertion that all Humane Powers are limited by God And if I may not be pardoned for not defying DEITY and HUMANITY I shall prefer that ignominy before their present Fastus and Triumph who defie them 2. That I make not this Recantation to the Military fury and rebellious pride and tumult against which I wrote it nor would have them hence take any encouragement for impenitence 3. That though I dislike the Roman Clergies writing so much of Politicks and detest Ministers medling in State matters without necessity or a certain call yet I hold it not simply unbeseeming a Divine to expound the fifth Commandment nor to shew the dependance of humane Powers on the Divine nor to instruct Subjects to obey with judgment and for Conscience sake 4. That I protest against the judgment of Posterity and all others that were not of the same TIME and PLACE as to the mental censure either of the BOOK or the REVOCATION as being ignorant of the true reasons of them both Which things Provided I hereby under my hand as much as in me lyeth reverse the Book and desire the World to take it as non Scriptum April 15. 1670. R. B. ACT Anent Religion and the TEST August 31. 1681. Made in the Third PARLIAMENT of Our Most High and Dread Sovereign CHARLES the Second Holden at EDINBURGH the 28 day of July 1681. By his Royal Highness JAMES Duke of Albany and York c. His MAJESTIES High Commissioner for holding the same Referred to Section V. OUR SOVERAIGNE LORD With His Estates of Parliament Considering That albeit by many wholsom Laws made by his Royall Grand-father and Father of glorious memory and by himself in this and His other Parliaments since His happy Restauration the Protestant Religion is carefully asserted established and secured against Popery and Phanaticism Yet the restless Adversaries of our Religion doe not cease to propagat their errours and to seduce His Majesties Subjects from their duty to God and Loyalty to his Vice-gerent and to overturn the established Religion by introducing their Superstions and delusions into this Church and Kingdom And knowing that nothing can more encrease the numbers and confidence of Papists and Schismatical dissenters from the Established Church than the supine neglect of putting in Execution the good Laws provided against them together with their hopes to infinuat themselves into Offices and places of trust and publick Imployment THEREFORE His Majesty from His Princely and pious zeal to maintain and preserve the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith recorded in the first Parliament of King James the Sixth which is founded on and agreeable to the written word of GOD DOETH with advise and consent of His Estates of Parliament Require and Command all his Officers Judges and Magistrats to put the Laws made against Popery and Papists Priests Jesuits and all persons of any other Order in the Popish Church especially against sayers and hearers of Mass Venders and dispersers of forbidden Books And Ressetters of Popish Priests and excommunicat Papists As also against all Phanatick Separatists from this National Church Against Preachers at House or Field-Conventicles and the Ressetters and harbourers of Preachers who are Intercommuned Against disorderly Baptisms and Marriages and irregular Ordinations and all other Schismaticall disorders To full and vigorous execution according to the Tenour of the Respective Acts of Parliament thereanent provided And that his Majesties Princely care to have these Laws put in Execution against those Enemies of the Protestant Religion may the more clearly appear HE DOETH with advise and consent foresaid STATUT and ORDAIN That the Ministers of each Paroch give up in October Yearly to their respective Ordinaries true and exact Lists of all Papists and Schismatical-withdrawers from the publick Worship in their respective Paroches which Lists are to be subscribed by them and that the Bishops give in a double of the saids Lists Subscribed by them to the respective Sheriffs Stewards Bailies of Royalty and Regalitie and Magistrats of Burghs To the effect the said Judges may proceed against them according to Law As also the Sheriffs and other Magistrats foresaids are hereby ordained to give an account to his Majesties Privy-Council in December yearly of their proceedings against those Papists and Phanatical Separatists as they will be answerable at their highest peril And that the diligences done by the Sheriffs Bailies of Regalities and other Magistrats foresaids may be the better enquired into by the Council the Bishops of the respective Diocesses are to send exact doubles of the Lists of the Papists and Phanaticks to the Clerks of Privy Council whereby the diligences of the Sheriffs and other Judges foresaids may be controlled and examined And to cut of all hopes from Papists and Phanaticks of their being imployed in Offices and Places of publick Trust. IT IS HEREBY STATUT and ORDAINED that the following Oath shall be taken by all Persons in Offices and places of publick Trust Civil Ecclesiastical and Military especially by all Members of Parliament and all Electors of Members of Parliament all Privy-Counsellors Lords of Session Members of the Exchequer Lords of Justiciary and all other Members of these Courts all Officers of the Crown and State all Arch-Bishops and Bishops and all Preachers and Ministers of the Gospel whatsoever all Persons of this Kingdom named or to be named Commissioners for the Borders all Members of the Commission for Church Affairs all Sheriffs Stewards Bailies of Royalties and Regalities Justices of the Peace Officers of the Mint Commissars and their Deputs their Clerks and Fiscals all Advocats and Procurators before any of these Courts all Writters to the Signet all Publick Nottars and
rest of the Sectaries that joyned with them in the War against the King think so too when they kill'd as many as they could of the Royal Party and when their Preachers incourag'd them to do so which he that doubts of let him read Evangelium armatum for his conviction But that they will say was but in the heat of blood whilst the War lasted afterwards they suffered us to live amongst them And so say I do the Papists too and to enjoy not only their lives but their liberties and their legal possessions and goods also in many nay in most places where there is no Inquisition which was more than we of the Church of England especially we of the Clergie were suffered to enjoy here under the Raign of either the Presbyterians or Independents And whether they would not have proceeded to blood as well as the Papists upon the account of Religion only I have reason to doubt or rather I have no reason to doubt but they would for as it is a Popish opinion that all Hereticks are to be put to death and that all that are not Papists are Hereticks so it is a Presbyterian opinion that no Idolater is to be suffered to live and that all Papists are Idolaters as likewise that all the Bishops and Episcopal Party of the Church of England are Papists and consequently Idolaters that is such as by the Law of God are to be put to death And if they did not put this doctrine in practice here as they have done in Scotland witness the murder of the late Primate there upon the account of Religion only whatsoever the first printed Narrative of that horrid Fact said to the contrary it was because their reign was so short and because they were not so well setled in their Dominion as to think it safe for them to proceed so far The Church of Rome her self did not at first proceed with that extremity of Rigor against those she calls Hereticks as she did afterwards It is but of late that the bloody Inquisition was set up by the Church of Rome and that but in some places And was not that of the Tryers here in England in order to the depriving Men of their livelihoods though not of their lives some such thing And who can tell whether it might not have proceeded to deprivation of life also as well as the Roman Inquisition doth if it had gotten power and authority enough to support it We know that the Anabaptists who made a great part of that rebellious Army against the late King of blessed Memory were a Sect that did profess at first that it was not lawful for them to defend either their Goods or their Lives though never so injuriously threatned or attempted to be taken away from them by any though not their Superiors but even by Thieves and Pirates insomuch as they would not carry Guns in their Ships when they went to Sea for fear of being tempted to make resistence in defence of their Goods or of themselves by having wherewithal to do it And yet I have been credibly informed that there were none in that rebellious Army whose feet were more swift and their hands more ready to shed blood than theirs of that Sect were as fearing to offend God by doing his work negligently or that their own lives should go for theirs if they spared or suffered any to escape whom it was in their power to kill So that now as one of their Officers said lately The Sword is become a good Ordinance of God in its season And of the same mind with the Anabaptists if they be not yet may the Quakers and all the rest of the Sectaries come in time to be also together with those merely moral Philosophical Christians I mean the Socinians themselves how much soever they seem for the present to dislike the propagating of Religion by force which there is no Sect but doth profess also whilst they want power to practise it themselves It being as natural for all sorts of Hereticks and Sectaries to endeavour the propagating of their opinions by making as many Proselytes as they can as it is for single Persons to desire and endeavour the propagating of their kind by natural Generation CHAP. V. The Exclusion of the right Heir contrary to the Law of God both Natural and Positive SUpposing therefore but not granting the present Heir of the Crown to be a Papist as I will not deny but that he may as long as he continues to be so wish and desire that all were of the same Religion so they that would have him excluded upon that Account must needs grant likewise that if any Heir of the Crown after him or at any time hereafter shall chance to be of any other Religion than that established by Law and consequently as desirous as a Papist can be to change or abolish that and bring in his own in the stead of it which may be as bad or perhaps worse than Popery as I take not only Paganism whatsoever Julian the Apostate saith to the contrary but Socinianism to be also They must grant I say that upon the same account whosoever shall be of any other than the established Religion must be excluded from succession to the Crown for fear of the alteration he may possibly make of the established Religion in the Church and probably of the established Government in the State also Which I confess to be a thing of such dangerous consequence that it ought to be prevented and provided against by any lawful effectual Means that can be made use of to that purpose especially where the present constitution of the Church and State is such as ours is that is such a one as I think all things considered there cannot be a better and therefore I say it will become the wisdom of the State to prevent as much as by humane prudence it may be prevented any alteration either of the Religion or of the Government I mean as to the essentials of either of them but then it must be by the use of such Means as are lawful and effectual And first the Means that must be made use of to prevent such an alteration must be lawful evidently and undoubtedly lawful and that both in relation to the Law of God and in relation to the Law of the Land also But the excluding of the right Heir from his Inheritance seems to be contrary to both and by the right Heir I mean the first-born or him that is nearest in bloud to him that is or was for merly in possession And that such a one hath a right of succession from which God would not have him to be excluded appears by the almost universal practice of all Nations in all Ages and in all Places which Practice being every where and almost the same among those that in all things else differ so much from one another must needs proceed from some
and particularly such as are against Princes safety and honour or whose Principles tend to overthrow the honour and safety of Governours and to kindle the fire of contention and enmity or such as draw their hearers Souls into any damnable errour or sin or that perswade men against any precept of the Decalogue and consequently against any of the precepts of the second Table as well as of the first all such as these saith Mr. Baxter are to be restrained from preaching For far be it saith Mr. Baxter from any sober man to think that the Magistrate must let all men doe the evil that they will but pretend to God and Conscience for Which one saying of his makes all that he said before to justifie the preaching of his Nonconformists to signifie nothing if they be silenced or forbidden to preach for any of the aforesaid causes by him specified and acknowledged to be such as Preachers ought to be silenced for notwithstanding any pretence of conscience to the contrary So this being agreed on betwixt us the next thing in question betwixt us is whether those that are silenced are such as Mr. Baxter confesseth ought to be silenced or no for if they be he confesseth likewise that no pretence of conscience can warrant their preaching and much less oblige them to preach For the deciding of this question therefore whether those that are silenced are justly silenced or no there remains one and but one question more and that is who shall judge and finally determine whether they that are silenced be or be not such as ought to be silenced or restrained from preaching Surely they themselves must not be their own judges but who must then why who but the Magistrate saith Mr. Baxter who in Church cases and religion hath the onely publick judgment whom he shall countenance maintain or tolerate or whom he shall punish or not tolerate nor maintain but with this caution so he be not the executioner of the Clergy's sentence without or against his own conscience and judgment Where by the Magistrate I hope he means the supreme Magistrate and by his judgment he means his judgment according to Law For the Law and nothing but the Law is the declaration of the supreme Magistrate's publick judgment in giving whereof he neither is nor can be the executioner of any other man's sentence but all subordinate Magistrates whether Civil or Ecclesiastical are the executioners of the supreme Magistrate's judgment or sentence and are no farther binding or to be obeyed than they are so Now that the supreme Magistrate with the advice and consent of his great Council hath given his judgment not onely who are and who are not to be tolerated to preach in publick or in Churches appears by the Act of Vniformity as likewise that he hath given his judgment also that those who are not to be tolerated to preach in publick or in Churches are not to be tolerated to preach in private nor in Conventicles neither appears by those other Acts of Parliament whereby such preaching is forbidden and such penalties as are therein specified are to be inflicted upon the transgressours of them Lastly as those Acts of Parliament are undeniable evidences who are and who are not to be tolerated to preach either publickly or privately according to the publick judgment of the State so the reasons why such preaching and such Preachers are prohibited are declared in the Titles and Prefaces of the aforesaid Acts for example the Title to one of those Acts namely that of decimo tertio of our present King is this An Act for the safety and preservation of his Majesty's person and Government against treasonable and seditious practices and attempts and in the Preface to the said Act it is said that the Lords and Commons assembled in that Parliament deeply weighing and considering the miseries and calamities of well nigh 20 years before his Majesty's happy return and withall reflecting upon the causes and occasions of so great and deplorable confusions the growth and increase of which they say did in a very great measure proceed from a multitude of seditious Sermons Pamphlets and Speeches published with a transcendent boldness from which kind of distemper say they as the present age is not wholly free so posterity may be apt to relapse into them if a timely remedy be not provided Therefore say they We the Lords and Commons having duly considered the Premisses do most humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be enacted c. By which Title and preface it plainly appears that the Lords and Commons did believe that neither the safety of the King's person nor of the Government could be secured if such kind of Preaching and Preachers as had in the late times been the stirrers up of the People to rebellion were not restrained from preaching for the future unless they would give some such security as the Parliament should think fit to require which was their renouncing the Covenant and their subscription to the Act of Vniformity which was enacted by the King by the advice and with the consent of the Lords and Commons the year following And it was for their not conforming to this Act of Vniformity that is for their not giving that security which the Law required that they would not preach schismatically and factiously and seditiously as they had done formerly for which they were some of them deprived and all of them disabled to preach publickly in Churches and consecrated places But this Act not proving effectual enough to prevent the danger for preventing whereof it was enacted because those that were forbid to preach publickly and in Churches did preach the same doctrines in Conventicles and in corners confirming their old and making more and more new Proselytes and being more and more followed because they were forbidden to preach in publick Therefore two years after this there was another Act made by the same Authority the Title whereof is An Act to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles and the Preface or Preamble thereof is That for the providing of farther and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practices of seditious Sectaries and other disloyal Persons who under pretence of tender Consciences do at their meetings contrive Insurrections as late experience hath shewed Be it enacted c. And then tells us first what shall be taken for a seditious Conventicle namely any meeting or Assembly in any place under colour or pretence of any exercise of Religion in other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy or practice of the Church of England where there shall be five Persons or more over and above those of the same house Secondly What are to be the Penalties for the first second and third Offence and lastly who are to be the Executioners and Inflicters of these Penalties Where you see that it is the Highest secular Magistrate whom Mr. Baxter will have
last yet that which both of them agree in to be done first is the pulling down of us in order to the setting up of themselves afterwards And hence it is that the Papists who are much the cunninger Gamesters do make the Sectaries to play their Game for them by making as many divisions as they can amongst us to the end that dum singuli pugnant universi vincantur while we fight in single parties we may all the whole body of us be beaten and worsted And I pray God it prove not to be so at last In the mean time the aid and assistance which Mr. Baxter thinks we of the Church of England have from the Nonconformists for the inabling us to defend our selves against the common Enemy the Papists puts me in mind of what the ingenious Boccalini saith of Spain that when it was weighed by it self the weight that is the power wealth and strength thereof was very considerable but when they put the Kingdom of Naples first and then the Dutchy of Millain into the Scale thinking thereby to add much to the weightiness of the Spanish Monarchy they found it to be much lighter and the less considerable both in strength power and wealth than it was before And so no doubt the Church of England of it self alone would be more healthfull more strong more vigorous and every way more able than it is to preserve the Protestant Religion and to defend it self against Popery and all other heretical opposition or invasion from without if there were neither Presbyterians nor Independents nor Baxterians or any other Dissenters from it lurking in it who whilst they seem to be zealous to keep out Popery do effectually though not intentionally make way for the bringing of it in And therefore as a great Statesman in Queen Elizabeth's time was wont to say That England would be the best Island in the World if Scotland and Ireland were drown'd in the bottom of the Sea speaking I suppose of Scotland and Ireland as they then were the one at enmity with us and the other in rebellion against us and therefore that it would be better for us that they were not at all than to be so near in place to us and so far off in affection from us so may I say of the Church of England That as it is the best so it would be the happiest of all Churches in the Christian world if there were not so many tam propè tam procúlque nobis That are so near to us and so far off from us I mean so many among us that are not of us who have been and are and will be always thorns in our Eyes and goads in our Sides unless they be either wholly as the Irish Rebels were suppressed by us or of Enemies become our Friends as the Scotch are by being united to us and that not onely as the Scots are by becoming Subjects to the same King but Subject to the same Laws also The End of the Sixth Section THE CONCLUSION Wherein two possible Objections against the whole Design of this Writing are Answered Mr. Baxter 's Recantation examined his professions of Loyalty censured and his Way of Concord disapproved AND now having sufficiently and as I hope satisfactorily to all indifferent and impartial Readers justified what I have truly said of Mr. BAXTER in that Letter of mine with the Appendices thereunto so long ago Printed and vindicated my self from all those false and injurious reflections which in diverse passages of several of his Books he hath either plainly and directly or obscurely and obliquely made on me which was all I intended to do I should here make an end of giving my self or the World any more trouble did I not foresee that there might one or two Objections more de novo anew be made against me which I think I ought to prevent The former of which is That supposing I have sufficiently proved that Mr. Baxter did at the Conference at the Savoy assert and maintain what I in my long ago Printed and now reprinted Letter do affirm he did assert and maintain concerning things sinful by Accident yet seeing that since then he hath in a Treatise purposely written upon that subject declared himself to be otherwise minded than I say he was at that Conference I ought in Charity to have forborn upbraiding him with what he said then Whereunto I answer that the difference betwixt me and Mr. Baxter as to that particular being whether I had falsly charged him or no with what he had said at the aforesaid Conference as he in an Address to his Parishioners at Kidderminster pretends I had I was necessitated in mine own defence to prove I had not charged him falsly but that howsoever his mind be changed since he did then assert and maintain what I in my Sermon at Kidderminster did affirm he had asserted and maintained at that Conference as it was presently after that Conference attested in Print by the subscriptions of the now Bishops of Ely and Chester who were two of the three Disputants on our part and are yet God be thanked alive to confirm and justifie the truth of their Attestation if need be which hath never yet though it was Printed above 20 years ago been excepted against either by Mr. Baxter himself or by any of his Party and consequently is as good as acknowledged and confessed to be true And if that Attestation of theirs be true all that I affirm to have been asserted by Mr. Baxter of things sinful by Accident at that Conference must needs be true also whatsoever he hath said and published in any of his Books since to the contrary Which I take for a sufficient answer to the former of the aforesaid objections if any such shall be made by Mr. Baxter or by any other in his behalf hereafter Now as to the latter of the aforesaid Objections which I foresee may be made against me also and which is of much more moment than the former namely that it was uncharitably done of me to publish such a Collection of Mr. Baxter's Aphorisms against all Monarchies in general and this Monarchy of ours in particular as I did at first with that Letter of mine above 20 years since and much more uncharitably done of me now not only to reprint and publish those Aphorisms again with some others of the same kind out of the same forge but to aggravate the hainousness and dangerousness of them in relation to Kingly Government as I have done in this Book of mine to make him more and more odious to those that are in Power at present as one that is not only not to be suffered to Preach or Write but to Live in a Monarchy and all this after he hath disclaimed and recanted what he writ before and what I except against in those Aphorisms of his My answer therefore hereunto is 1. That Mr. Baxter having been silenced by me when I was
answer to the same objection Vide Preface to the Hâ—ly Common wealth pag. 6. Vid. The Pref to his Holy Commonwealth prope finem * Vid. his Letter to Mr. Hinkley and his last answer to Dr. Stillingfleet He names no one mistake Himself the only Accuser An Accusation against a Presbyter not to be received without witnesses No one to be believed in his own Case The Non-Conformists Teachers as Infallible as the Pope Baxterian Nonconformists M. Baxter 's Answer to the Bishop's Letter inquired after Not likely that it was laid aside His writings numerous And contradictious His own reasons why he laid it aside Not probable for peace-sake Mr. Baxter Magisterial in his writing What likely might be the reason of his laying it aside Mr. Baxter 's Way a New way of his own The Bishop's Way the old Church of England-way Nonconformist Teachers draw and keep people out of the way Mr. Baxter 's Pleas for them justly taxed Most likely that he writ no Answer The reason of reprinting the Bishop's Letter with Mr. Baxter 's Aphorisms Mr. Baxter justly silenced upon his own grounds * Vid The True and onely way of Concord circa finem Mr. Baxter 's bundle of extorted and distorted Treatises The Bishop's pretended mistake not mentioned in the Treatise written to answer it That gross mistake what it is No man bound to reade all Mr. Baxter writes Mr. Baxter 's ingenuity Three Observations from what hath been said He doth not set down the charge in plain terms but leaves it to be guessed The Title page is the Treatise wherein he pretends to answer it Written in as dreadfull a style as any Pope's Bull. Our zealous Antipapists take up many of the Popish principles They have the same arts of keeping their Proselytes Mr. B 's end in this Title If it be so as he says he was highly to blame for not publishing this Treatise sooner Vpon his own account as well as others His design to draw an odium upon the Bishop from all the Nonconformists Mr. B. makes himself the Head of the Nonconformists and their Advocate Without their Commission or approbation His two Assistants at the Savoy conference discharged from that Assertion The Nonconformists condemn all Protestant Churches All the Presbyterians abroad agree with us in the main point against our Presbyterians Why all Religions tolerated in Holland and how Such Toleration not practicable without the charge of a standing Army The necessity the Hollanders lie under of keeping up a standing force at Land and Sea Their Excise and other Taxes We under no such necessity Provided the Laws be put in execution The thing charged upon Mr B. matter of Fact and prov'd by Testimony The Bishop's Letter when and why printed The Attestation why annexed to it No notice taken of it for twenty years The Consequences of Mr. B 's Assertion His Assertion written with his own hand The first Argument at the Savoy Conference Mr. B 's reason for denying the Major The 2d Syllogism Mr B. denies the Major again and his peevish reason for his so doing Another starting hole of his The 3d. Syllogism Mr. B. in effect grants the Premisses and denies the Conclusion The Attestation made by Dr. Gunning and Dr. Pearson never so much as questioned The Assertion charged home upon-Mr B. The Bishop's charge against Mr. B. no gross mistake Mr. B 's Instance of commanding out a Navy to Sea Of selling poyson Of lighting a candle All granted Nothing to the purpose Mr. B 's prevarication The charge against him stands good His Instance of kneeling at the Sacrament as frivolous Supposing an unjustpenalty And supposing such an accident as the commander ought to provide again The fraudulence of these Instances detected Mr. B 's design in them His charge convincingly renew'd upon him What he must mean by Accident in his Assertion at the Savoy The consequence of his Assertion urged His Instances onely disguises of his Assertion The Injuriousness of thâ—se Instances made ouâ— As implying that the Bishop had asserted the contrary Which the Bishop utterly disclaims Mr. B 's notorious Calumny In his Book called The judgment of Nonconformists of things sinfull by Accident p. 65. Some other Instances of his calumnious dealing * Page 23. Some amongst us as bad Casuists as the Jesuits Mr. B. cares not what he says against the Bishops That Treatise of his impertinent to this business His charge repeated His sham Answer with the reply to it The consequence of his Assertion His soul dealing The Attestation annexed to the printed Letter proves the charge of that Assertion against Mr. B. Nothing he saith now can invalidate that testimony What he saith now contrary to what he said then His false representation of the thing That Treatise of his grounded on a false supposition The issue of the whole matter His charge stands good His own Treatise fights against him * Vid his book of Things sinfull by accident The instance of an Aptthecary's selling poyson canva ed. Mr. B 's slanderous imputation The Case rightly stated Another instance of his misapplying the term per accidens * Vid. The Nonconformists judgment of things sinfull by Accident p. 1. His Encomium of the Episcopal party Why he calls them men of confounding practices Whom he must mean by that Title Whom he means by the men of confused conceptions Their just Vindication Mr. B 's design in so terming them The Management of the conference at the Savoy how it was The Dissenters Answers written with Mr. B 's own hand The same as are attested in the Bishop's printed Letter Mr. B 's final answer strangely peevish and absurd The Consequence of it urged A rejoynder to Mr. B 's Reply The Consequence charged home A Call to Mr. Baxter His gross shuffling and cutting His Assertion the occasion of breaking up the Conference He is not charged with it as his judgment * In his printed narrative to his friends of Kidderminster Nor is He but the Assertion charged with its Consequences His reputation more valued by him than truth The Attestation utterly spoils all his endeavours of clearing himself That Treatise of his wholly useless to that purpose The Vpshot the Bishop's charge against Mr. B. no mistake Mr. B. charges the Bishop to be a defier of Deity and Humanity That he doth so prov'd out of his Recantation and out of his Answer to a Letter of Dr. Hinckley 's And out of his Apology for the Nonconformists Ministry p. 138. Mr. B. gives a false account of the Bishop's accusing of him The true account what it is the Bishop accuseth him of The Question rightly stated Mr B 's artifice to vent his gall against the Bishop His wretched falshood in charging the Bishop His zealous descant upon it Who they are he means in that descant The Bishop's solemn declaration concerning Governours His disavowal of Mr. B 's charge Mr. B. a false accuser His consequential proof of the charge His Metaphysical