such a mixture of Blasphemy and Rebellion when men shall commit such horrid and emphatical Villanies and then shall with so steel'd a Confidence warrant not only their Lawfulness but their Necessity by vertue of a divine Commission and shall break all the Laws of Nature Society and Religion by the Counsel under the Conduct and with the Approbation of the Almighty In short there is scarce a Principle of Blasphemy or Rebellion in the Alcoran that this Wretch has not vouched upon divine Authority He is a Person of such a rank Complexion that he would have vyed with Mahomet himself both for boldness and imposture The divine Majesty never had a dearer and more familiar Achitophel than he they were always through the whole course of the War privy to each others Counsels were always of the same side and drove on always the same designs and had this man been of the Cabinet Council of Heaven he could not have pretended a greater and more intimate acquaintance with the Intrigues of Providence And now I leave it to the World to judge whether it be not becoming our Authors Modesty to charge it upon me as a monstrous Fiction for saying there have been men who have taught that to pursue success in Rebellion is to follow the guidance of Providential Dispensations § 7. Our Authors imprudence and unadvisedness in forcing me upon the proof of my last Charge in defence of my own Integrity recals to my mind another resembling Instance of his discretion in provoking me to an unnecessary Dispute where 't is impossible for him to escape a manifest and dishonourable Baffle viz. that the Pretence of Religion had no concernment in our late Rebellion or Civil War And though I do not remember where I ever affirmed it was yet is he upon every occasion upbraiding and challenging me to prove it and whereas in my first Chapter I chanced to observe that it has frequently been made use of as a covering for unruly and seditious Practices without descending to particular Instances for they are too many to be specified in a small Volume he will needs have me to aim in particular at our late Wars and Tumults and appeals to the publick Writings Declarations and Treaties whereby those Tumults and Wars were begun and carried on And then we shall find that Authority Laws and Priviledges and I know not what things wherein private men have no pretence of Interest were pleaded in those Affairs And upon this string he is again rubbing to as little Purpose in this Chapter Neither is he singular in this conceit and confidence there are others that have as well as himself sounded their Alarms from the Pulpit against Antichristian Idolatry and Oppression and have chafed popular zeal and rage to fight for the purity and beauty of Gospel Ordinances who yet blush not to declare in publick with such a competent measure of confidence are they gifted that the cause of Religion was not pretended or engaged in the Quarrel but that it was a meer Contest about Civil Rights and Priviledges Now though this concerns not me in my own defence yet will I a little concern my self in the Enquiry to discover the honesty and ingenuity of these men that will blow hot and cold out of the same mouth affirm and deny the same thing as it suits with their present Occasion and present Interest And are they not arrived to an heroick pitch of Confidence that dare protest so boldly and so publickly in defiance of so many publick Acts Ordinances Protestations Covenants Engagements Declarations Remonstrances Treaties of peace and Overtures of Accommodation in all which preservation of Religion and demands of Reformation still lead the Van and the sense and substance of all the numberless Papers of Lords and Commons amounts to no more than this that they were resolved to expose their lives and fortunes for the defence and maintenance of the true Religion his Majesties Person and Honour the Power and Priviledges of Parliament and the just Rights and Liberties of the Subject All these Pretences came in of course but still Religion was the first and dearest grievance and its Preservation more tender to them than their lives and liberties As in the Observation upon the Lord Digbys Letters the Lords and Commons declare that they had never done any thing against the personal honour of the Queen only we have desired to be secured from such plots and mischievous designs that they might not have the favour of the Court and such a powerful influence upon his Majesties Counsels as they have had to the extream hazard not only of Civil Liberty and peace of the Kingdom but of that we hold much dearer than these yea than the very being of this Nation that is our Religion whereupon depends the honour of Almighty God and the salvation of our Souls And this was their perpetual answer to all his Majesties Propositions that his Counsels were over-ruled by a malignant party of Papists and other ill-affected persons that carried on their own wicked designs of rooting up the Protestant Religion to plant Popery and Superstition Innumerable are the proofs to this purpose but we will content our selves because it will be sufficient with these few particulars First then 't is notorious the Scottish broils and tumults were raised purely upon a pretence of Religion being begun about the reading the Common-Prayer and not a little promoted by that senseless Pamphlet A Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies obtruded upon the Church of Scotland And the only Conditions of quieting these Troubles were 1. That the Provost and City-Council should join in opposition to the Service-Book 2. That Ramsey and Rollock two silenced Ministers and Henderson a silenced Reader should be restored to their places And not long after there came a Petition of Noblemen Barons Ministers Burgesses and Commons and about what do we think but against the Liturgy and Canons And the next news we hear from thence was That the King having adjourned the Term to Sterling by Proclamation the Earl of Hume and Lord Lindsey protest against it and erect four Tables of the Nobility Gentry Burroughs and Ministers the first Act of which is to enter a general Covenant in defence of Religion and for fashions sake the Kings Person This business of Scotland is an affair not unworthy the mentioning not only because it was well known what invitation they had from their Party to enter England but also because the Parliament here owned their Cause took it unkindly of the King for calling them Rebels voted them a great Supply under the name of a Friendly Assistance and called them their dear Brethren of Scotland And withal did particularly own the Scotch Tumults as raised upon a religious account this we have themselves confessing in a Declaration to satisfie the World of the justice of raising Arms wherein they declare Religion the principal thing and all others subservient to it
and as to this particular business of the Scots they speak thus When they i. e. Papists Clergy and other Enemies of Religion conceived the way sufficiently prepared they at last resolved to put on their Master-piece in Scotland where the same method had been followed and more boldly unmask themselves in imposing upon them a Popish Service-Book for well they knew the same Fate attended both Kingdoms and Religion could not be altered in one without the other God raised the Spirits in that Nation to oppose it with so much zeal and indignation that it kindled such a flame as no expedient could be found but a Parliament here to quench it i. e. By hiring and tempting them to a new Rebellion at the price of one hundred thousand Pound beside the reward of Pay and Plunder for the common Souldiers the promise of Church-Revenues for the chief Promoters of the service the sacrifice of the Archbishop of Canterbury to their malice and revenge and what was most likely to endear the Cause the Reformation of the Discipline and Worship of the Church of England by the Model of the Kirk of Scotland that absolute Pattern of a thorough godly Rebellion Again The Declaration of Lords and Commons March 2. orders this Kingdom to be put in a posture of defence by Sea and Land because there was a design by those in greatest Authority about the King for the altering of Religion That the Scottish War was fomented and the Irish Rebellion framed for that purpose That they had Advertisements from Venice and Paris and Rome that the King was to have four thousand men out of France and Spain which could be to no other end than to change his own Profession and the Publick Religion of the Kingdom In the 19 Propositions sent Iune 2. 1642. the eighth is this That your Majesty will be pleased to consent that such a Reformation be made of the Church-Government and Liturgy as both Houses of Parliament shall advise c. And the 17th That the King should enter into a more strict Alliance with the Protestant Princes and States for the defence of the Protestant Religion against the Attempts of the Pope and his Adherents And the Propositions made by Lords and Commons Iune 10. 1642. for bringing in Money and Plate to maintain Horse and Arms runs upon this ground first That Religion else will be destroyed and this is particularly recommended to all those that tender their Religion And when the King countermanded the Propositions they re-inforce them by the endearments of Religion And Tuesday 12 Iuly 1642. resolve it upon the Question That an Army be forthwith raised for its defence and preservation Their Declaration of Aug. 8. 1642. grounds its self upon this That the Kings Army was raised for the Oppression of the true Religion And therefore they give this account to the World for a satisfaction to all Men of the Justice of their proceedings and a warning to those who are involved in the same danger with them to let them see the necessity and duty which lies upon them to save themselves their Religion and Country Where they tell us at large and in great passion That Papists ambitious and discontented Clergy-men Delinquents and ill-affected persons of the Nobility and Gentry have conspired together and often attempted the alteration of Religion c. That all was subject to will and power that so mens minds being made poor and base and their Liberties lost and gone they might be ready to let go their Religion whensoever it should be resolved to alter it which was and still is the great design and all else made use of but as instrumentary and subservient to it And then after an horrible harangue about the King and Queens going away the Lord Digby's Letter the Members going to York c. They the Papists Prelates c. come to crown their work and put that in execution which was first in their intention that is the changing of Religion into Popery and Superstition The Scots in answer to a Declaration sent them by their Commissioners at London from the two Houses did Aug. 3. 1642. return another wherein they give God thanks for their former and present desires of a Reformation especially of Religion which is the glory and strength of a Kingdom c. Protest that their hearts were heavy and made sad that what is more dear and precious to them than what is dearest to them in the whole World the Reformation of Religion has moved so slowly To which they add that 't is indeed a work full of difficulties but God is greater than the World and when the supreme Providence giveth opportunity of the accepted time and the day of salvation no other work can prosper in the hands of his Servants if it be not apprehended and with all faithfulness improved This Kirk and Nation when the Lord gave them the calling considered not their own deadness nor staggered at the Promise of an hundred thousand Pound through unbelief but gave glory to God And who knoweth but the Lord hath now some Controversie with England which will not be removed till first and before all the Worship of his Name and the Government of his House be setled according to his own will when this desire shall come it shall be to England after so long desired hopes a tree of life And therefore they proceed to press earnestly for an Uniformity in both Kingdoms but it must be after their own model What hopes say they can there be of Unity in Religion in one Confession of Faith one form of Worship one Catechism till there be first one form of Ecclesiastical Government yea what hope can the Kingdom and Kirk of Scotland have of a durable Peace till Prelacy be pluckt up Root and Branch as a Plant which God hath not planted and from which no better Fruits can be expected than such sowre Grapes as this day set on edge the Kingdom of England In answer to this goodly Declaration the Lords and Commons desire it may be considered that that Party which has now incensed and armed his Majesty against us is the very same which not long since upon the very same design of rooting out the Reformed Religion did endeavour to begin the Tragedy in Scotland c. And having thanked the Assembly of the Church of Scotland for proposing those things which may unite the two Churches and Nations against Popery and all superstitious Sects and Innovations whatsoever do assure that they have thereupon resumed into their Consideration the matters concerning the Reformation of Church-Government and Discipline which say they we have often had in consultation and debate since the beginning of this Parliament and ever made it our chiefest aim though we have been powerfully opposed in the Prosecution and Accomplishment of it And in another Declaration to the Convention of Estates they remonstrate that the honourable Houses have fully
same design as they say Aristotle writ some of his Books onely to be understood by the Sons of Art and Mystery However by this Artifice they inveigle the silly and unwary People both to follow and admire them for when they are perswaded the outward Element of the Text is but the Cabinet to the Jewel and the precious Mystery they so manage the business as to possess them with an apprehension that no Key can open it but what is made at their own Forges And if any of us attempt to explain a Text by the Coherence of the Discourse by the Propriety of the Phrase and by the Idiom of the Language we are Moral Men and dull Literalists and utter strangers to the inwardness of the Spirit but 't is they that are the practical experimental Preachers and that see into the depths of the Mystery of the Covenant of Grace And by this means do they gain the advantage to obtrude upon the People whatever can neither be proved nor understood as Profound Divinity § 7. But whatsoever Truth Candor and Ingenuity there is in my Character of these Men of the Flock he knows how to revenge their wrongs by bold and confident Recriminations if Reproaches be the Weapon he understands his advantage and when Controversies come to be managed by mutual Accusations there they never want for Ammunition their Magazine is inexhaustible Thus our Author stands amazed that Heresie should complain of Schism Quis tulerit Gracchos c. Shall the Pot call the Pan Burnt And is it not strange that whilst one writes against Original Sin another preaches up Iustification by Works and scoffs at the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ to them that believe Yea whilst some can openly dispute against the Doctrine of the Trinity the Deity of Christ and the Holy Ghost Whilst Instances may be collected of some Mens impeaching all the Articles almost throughout there should be no reflection in the least on these things Some Mens guilt in this nature might rather mind them of pulling out the beam out of their own eyes then to act with such fury to pull out the eyes of others for the motes which they think they espy in them c. What a strain of Flattery is here There is questionless no Poison nor Calumny in these leering Suggestions it is an harmless Character and strikes at no Mans Reputation no doubt he nev'r intended to relieve himself and his Party from my foul Reproaches by false or fierce Recriminations nor to write any thing that might disadvantage me in my Reputation or Esteem But some Mens Tongues traduce by instinct and are so venomous that they cannot touch but they will poison your Reputation Their Throats are open Sepulchres and the poison of Asps is under their Lips and they cannot open their Mouths but out flie stings and blasting vapours So that I am now forced to confess my self a dull and trifling Satyrist that have charged them with nothing but their own avowed Principles and notorious Practices and never use tart Language but to express vile Things and go far about to convict them of their Guilt before I dare venture to lash and chastise them for their Folly and all my Satyrical Reflections are the natural Results and Inferences of some foregoing Reasonings But this Man strikes with more sure and deadly Blows he can stab with a doubtful Intimation and dispatch with an oblique Look 't is no matter for evidence of Argument and certainty of Fact this fending and proving is a tedious course 't is but dropping a Train of sly and malicious suspicions and that is enough to blow up your Reputation He knows all Men have a touch of Ill-nature and are apt enough to make the hardest surmises upon these ugly suggestions Nothing sets an handsomer Gloss upon a Lye then to shew it by these dark Lights and indirect Insinuations are the most artificial Schemes of Slandering they heighten and enrage Mens Curiosity and then leave it to their ill Humour to finish the Story and then it shall never be spoil'd for want of spiteful and ill contrived Suspicions And every Man has Wit enough to pick out the Categorical meaning of these oblique Reproaches and had he in direct terms charged me for impeaching the most Fundamental Articles of Christianity it had not been more familiar and intelligible English But as for my own part I am no more moved with the Charge then I am concern'd in the Crime I know none in the Church of England that publish any such false and Heretical Doctrines or if there be any that vent them in Corners and Conventicles I can onely say as one did that was treated as I am Let him be Anathema But the Ingenuity of these Men can dispose of other Mens Faith and Religion at their pleasure and they can with as much ease make Heretiques as they once could Witches and Malignants if a Neighbour incur their displeasure that is enough to make the Indictment and to be charged is enough to make it good Thus you know they dealt with the Ghost of the great Hugo Grotius one would needs have him a rank Socinian and another a thorough Papist though how he could be both can never be unriddled unless Hugo were one and Grotius the other though the evident reason why he might be either is no other then that he was no Calvinian and then he might be any thing what they pleased This way of aspersing has ever been the offensive Weapon of peevish and angry Disputers though never did any Man weild it with more Dexterity then our Author he never encountred Adversary that he did not transform either into Atheist or Papist or Socinian But it seems the Charge of Socinianism is become the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Age and many Men suffer under its imputation though as it always happens in Cases of Slander I know none more clear from the Infection then those that have been most suspected and avoided for it Of which Injustice I can conceive no other imaginable account then some Mens proud imperious Confidence that have adopted their own unlearned Wranglings into the Articles of Religion and put as great a weight upon their own novel Doctrines as upon the plain and easie Propositions of Scripture Now if a sober Man discard their wild and unwarrantable additions 't is all one as if he renounced the Article it self They will not endure a contradiction nor suffer you to suspect the infallible certainty of their Resolutions and if you doubt or dispute the Ius Divinum of a Systematick Subtilty you make them impatient and they make you an Heretick If we are not confident that our blessed Saviour suffered the extremity of Hell-torments at the hour of his Passion even to the Horrours of Despair 't is with some positive people the same thing as if we called in question the Merits of his Death and Sufferings If we smile at the
swoln his Fancy with admiring at the boldness of such lewd Assertions he at last bursts forth into an impetuous fit of preaching against them But seeing he has so lamentably mistaken his Text he may talk his Lungs and his heart out and never talk to the purpose and therefore let him take his full Career of Impertinency it concerns not me either to stop or follow him only this let me tell him for his comfort that I have there proved and here defie him and all the World to disprove it that whoever shall contradict that proposition as I have laid it down viz. that in all doubtful and disputable Cases of a publick Concernment Subjects are not to attend to the Results of their own private Judgment but to acquiesce entirely in the determinations of publick Authority whoever I say shall contradict this is an enemy to the peace of mankind and a Traitor to all Societies in the World For Government is a word that signifies nothing if it be not a Power to determine and appoint what it judges most useful and expedient for the Concerns and Interests of the Common-wealth and if you will cancel this Authority of the publick Judgment whatever you may call it 't is really nothing but Anarchy And this is the last and unavoidable Issue of all their Pretences For as to their general Pleas for Indulgence they still press for an entire and absolute exemption of Conscience from all the Commands of Authority and in effect vest it in a Power Paramount to the supremacy of Princes so that in case of Competition its Dictates must over-rule all their Laws and therefore no Government shall ever be able to pass an Obligation upon it but by its own consent and this if any thing is perfect Anarchy every man is entirely left to the guidance of his own discretion and is as much at liberty whether he will or will not obey as if he were absolutely free from all Superiority and Jurisdiction And then as to their particular Exceptions their scruples are so nice and delicate so peevish and splenetick so giddy and phantastick so impossible to be prevented of redressed that no form of setlement can ever be contrived upon which they will not beat with equal fury for they are indifferently applicable to all Cases and their strength depends not at all upon the Reasons of things but the Humours of men And if the offence of a weak Brother or the scruple of a Tender Conscience are sufficient exceptions against the Power and Efficacy of Laws then farewell all the Reverence and Authority of Government for setle things with never so much Exactness it will be impossible upon these Principles to avoid these Cavils as long as there are either Fools or Knaves in the World And do but observe the untenable weakness of all their Pretences apart and how they shuffle from their general Demands to their particular exceptions and then when they are pursued to their defence how they rowl back to their general Demands and so dance perpetually in a manifest circle of shifting and disingenuous Cavil and you need no farther proof to satisfie you of the Intolerable Impertinency of their Clamours and unexemplified Peevishness of the Men. CHAP. VII The Contents THat some Men from a Belief of the Imposture of all Religions argue for the Liberty of all farther clear'd and justified That some Sects of Men are strongly inclined to Sedition proved by their Practices and Principles Our Authors intolerable Confidence in denying his own Principles especially that that to pursue Success though in Villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence This proved by various Instances out of the Writings of J. O. The Arguments whereby they drew in Providence and the Rabble were 1. By applying old Prophesies to present Transactions 2. By believing God is obliged to do the same things for his People now that he ever did for his People in all former Ages 3. By believing Providence is in good earnest for them though it is in all appearance against them 4. By flat Presumption and down-right Enthusiasm That the Interest of Religion was pretended as a cause of our late Civil Wars proved at large against our Author from the Declarations of Lords and Commons and the Sermons of J. O. The Nonconformists are bound to give us assurance of their Repentance before they may presume to offer us any security of their Allegiance Their Plea for Toleration because Protestants invalid An Account of the Reformation of the Church of England both as to Doctrine and Discipline The manifest Apostacy of the Nonconformists from both The Reformation in most places over-run and destroyed by Calvinism Our Adversaries Notion of Protestancy is nothing else than a Zeal for the Calvinian Rigours Religion is not onely the best but a necessary disguise for Rebellion Men cannot gain an opportunity of committing any more enormous Wickednesses but under shews and pretences of Piety The danger and vanity of balancing different Parties of Religion The Civil Wars of France an eminent instance of this An account of the Original of all peevish and ill-natured Religion The Nonconformists loose way of discoursing of Conscience as if it were a Principle of Action distinct from the Man himself Conscience is nothing but the Soul or Mind of Man Nothing in Humane Nature beside Conscience is capable of subjection to Humane Laws Conscience is not its own Rule nor of it self any Plea of Exemption from Obedience If it be abused by evil Principles nothing more mischievous Vulgar Conscience the most mistaken Guid in the World In the common People 't is for the most part either Ignorance or Pride or Superstition or Peevishness or Enthusiasm The Conclusion § 1. OUr Authors Adventures in this Chapter are such ordinary and possible things that now to reherse Enterprizes so lank of prodigy after all these wonders were to darken the lustre and abate the admiration of his former Performances Many faint Essays we may observe of his ancient Courage and Confidence but alas Deeds of a greater strain and more stupendious Prowess are kept for Holy-day Atchievments Now and then we may meet with a lowd and rapping Falsification but every Page does not entertain our wonder with Forgeries of a Garagantuan bulk and boldness Once indeed we are inform'd how I discourse that the use and exercise of Conscience will certainly overthrow all Government and fill the World with confusion yet however the old Calumnies are not continually ratling in our Ears as That the Civil Magistrate is vested in an absolute and immediate Soveraignty over Conscience in all Affairs of Religion in so much that whatever the precise truth of the thing may be he has power to order and appoint what Religion his Subjects shall profess and observe That Conscience has nothing to do beyond the inward Thoughts of Mens Minds and That as to all their outward Actions the Commands of Authority over-rule all its Obligations c.
declared by what they have done and what they are desirous to do That the true state of the Cause and Quarrel is Religion in Reformation whereof they are so forward and zealous that there is nothing expressed in the Scots Declarations former or later which they have not seriously taken to heart and endeavoured to effect c. And in a Letter from the Assembly of Divines to them by order of the House of Commons they call it twice The Cause of Religion And the Assembly in answer to the Parliament desire it may be more and more cleared Religion to be the true state of the differences in England and to be uncessantly prosecuted first above all things giving no sleep to their eyes or slumber to their eye-lids until it be setled In their Declaration and Protestation to the whole World Octob. 22. 1642. They are fully convinced that the Kings Resolutions are so engaged to the Popish Party for the suppression and extirpation of the true Religion that all hopes of peace and protection are excluded that it is fully intended to give satisfaction to the Papists by alteration of Religion c. That great means are made to take up the differences betwixt some Princes of the Roman Religion that so they might unite their strength to the extirpation of the Protestant Cause wherein principally this Kingdom and the Kingdom of Scotland are concerned as making the greatest Body of the Reformed Religion in Christendom c. For all which Reasons we are resolved to enter into a Solemn Oath and Covenant with God to give up our Selves our Lives and Fortunes into his hands and that we will to the utmost of our Power and Judgment maintain his Truth and conform our selves to his Will And in the Declaration upon the Votes of no further Address to be made to the King by themselves or any one else Feb. 17. 1647. the Lords and Commons make Religion one of the great Motives upon which they proceeded for say they the torture of our Bodies by most cruel Whippings slitting of Noses c. might be the sooner forgotten had not our Souls been Lorded over led captive into Superstition and Idolatry triumphed over by Oaths ex Officio Excommunications Ceremonious Articles new Canons Canon-Oaths c. p. 19. And in the last Paper to the Scotch Commissioners Feb. 24. 1648. they declare that the Army of the Houses of Parliament were raised for maintenance of the true Religion and that they invited them to come to their assistance and declared the true state of the Quarrel to be Religion and they earnestly desire the General Assembly to further and expedite the assistance desired from the Kingdom of Scotland upon this ground and motive that thereby they shall do great service to God and great honour may redound to themselves by becoming Instruments of a Glorious Reformation c. This was the stile of all their Papers from 42 to 48 till some of the Grandees of the Independent Faction had by their hypocritical Prayers malicious Preachings counterfeit Tears unmanly Whinings false Protestations and execrable Perjuries scrued themselves up into a Supremacy of Power and Interest and then they alter'd the stile of their Pretences with the change of their Affairs and suited their Remonstrances to their Fortunes and so stopt not at their old demands of Reformation and purity of Ordinances these Pretexts were too low for the greatness of their Attempts and Resolutions and were not sufficient to warrant the Murther of their lawful Sovereign and therefore it was necessary for them to take up with new Pleas suitable to the wickedness of their new Purposes and then nothing was big enough to Arreign or Condemn their Prince but the Charge of Treason and Tyranny and the Sentence of Death was passed and executed upon him as a publick Enemy to the Commonwealth So that though Pretences of Secular and Political Interest were necessary to cut off his Head yet it was purely Zeal and Reformation that brought him to the Block To these Declarations from the Press I might add their Declarations from the Pulpit their Preachers incessantly encouraging the People to fight against the King as the most acceptable service to God and the People accordingly fought against him because they were perswaded that he was a Papist and would bring in Popery that the Common-Prayer was the Mass in English Organs were Idolatry and Episcopacy Antichristian It was nothing but the purity of the Gospel to which they so cheerfully sacrificed their Thimbles and Bodkins And though here it were easie to collect vast Volumes there being scarce a Parliament-exercise for which the Preacher had the Thanks of the House in which some sands and sweat were not wasted in crying up the piety of their Intentions for the Reformation of Gospel-Ordinances But because this would prove a Work too Voluminous I will therefore put off my Reader and satisfie my Adversary too with two or three passages out of the inspired Homilies of I. O. in his several Dispensations In his Sermon preached before the Parliament April 29. 1646. he thus bespeaks them From the beginning of these Troubles Right Honourable you have held forth Religion and the Gospel as whose Preservation and Restauration was principally in your Aims and I presume malice it self is not able to discover any insincerity in this the fruits we behold proclaim to all the Conformity of your Words and Hearts Now the God of Heaven grant that the same mind be in you still in every particular Member of this Honourable Assembly in the whole Nation especially in the Magistracy and Ministry of it that we be not like the Boat-men look one way and row another cry Gospel and mean the other thing Lord Lord and advance our own ends that the Lord may not stir up the staff of his anger and the rod of his indignation against us as an hypocritical People And Feb. 28. 1649. he tells them again Gods Work whereunto ye are ingaged is the propagating of the Kingdom of Christ and the setting up of the Standard of the Gospel And Octob. 13. 1652. From the beginning of the Contests in this Nation when God had caused your Spirits to resolve that the Liberties Priviledges and Rights of this Nation wherewith you were intrusted should not by his assistance be wrested out of your hands by Violence Oppression and Injustice this he also put upon your hearts to vindicate and assert the Gospel of Jesus Christ his Ways and his Ordinances against all Opposition though you were but inquiring the way to Sion for then they were little better than Presbyterians with your faces thitherwardâ— God secretly entwining the Interest of Christ with yours wrapt up with you the whole Generation of them that seek his face and prosper'd your Affairs on that account And lastly Feb. 4. 1658. Give me leave to remember you as one that had opportunity to make Observations of the passages of Providence in those
And as for the under-Sects and farther improved Schismaticks that have since sprung out of the Corruptions of Presbytery our Controversie with them is not between Protestants and Protestants but between Protestants and Anabaptists a sort of people as to this particular worse than Papists whom nothing will satisfie but absolute Anarchy and Confusion in the Church and by consequence in the State for in a Christian Commonwealth they are but one and the same Society which as I have proved over and over and our Author sometimes confesses nothing can avoid but an Ecclesiastical Supremacy or coercive Jurisdiction in matters of Religion The hearty and serious acknowledgment whereof is the true Shibboleth and distinguishing mark of the right English Protestant This is the pride and the glory of the Church of England that she was never tainted with Sedition and Disloyalty and in the management of her Reformation never out run the Laws but always moved under the Conduct of Sovereign Authority It grieved our Prelates to behold the Dignity of the Throne prostituted to a Foreign Tyranny and when chiefly by their counsel and assistance our Princes had disingaged themselves of their ancient Fetters they proceeded to engage and encourage them in the Reformation of the Christian Faith to its ancient purity and with the advice of their Ecclesiastical Senate to establish Rites and Ceremonies of Worship by their own Authority So that there is not a Monarchy in the world that might be so well guarded as the Crown of England by its Orthodox Clergy were they allowed that Power and Reputation that is due to the Interest and Dignity of their Function not only because they hold so entirely from his Majesty and are so immediately dependant upon his favour for their Preferment but chiefly because there is not any sort of Men in the World possessed with so deep a sense of Loyalty 't is become their Nature and their Genius 't is the only thing that creates them so many Enemies exposes them to so much Opposition and divides them from all other Parties and Professions What is it that so much enrages the Roman Clergy but that we will not suffer his Holiness to usurp upon the Rights of Princes And when these Janizaries invade and assault their Thrones and attempt to seat their great Master in the Imperial Primacy 't is we and only we that have ever stept in and beat back all their approaches with shame and dishonour And whatever provisions might have been made against the Encroachments of Rome upon the Crown of England they would have been lamentably weak without the aids and assistances of Religion because 't is that alone that is pretended in their Opposition and its very pretences where they prevail are so strong and powerful that they easily bear down all the Arts of Civil Policy and Government Nothing but Religion can encounter Religion And how easie had it been for Rome considering its Power Interest Cunning and Activity to have either inslaved our Princes to their Tyranny or annoyed them with eternal Broils and Seditions had not the English Clergy bestirred themselves to counterwork all their Mines and to possess the peoples minds with an impregnable sense of Loyalty And this whatever is pretended is the real ground of the breach between us viz. The Interest and Grandeur of the Court of Rome And would we but grant them back that Sovereignty they once exercised over the Kings and Kingdom of England they would never stand so much upon any Controversies about Doctrinal Articles and would willingly permit us to enjoy all our other fancies and perswasions knowing that if they can but regain their absolute Dominion over us they shall soon be able to model our Opinions to their Interest And what was it that so exasperated the Disciplinarians but when these pert Gentlemen would have been perking up into their Spiritual Throne and in imitation of their Kirk-brethren Nosing the Power of Kings both in and out of the Pulpit they pluckt down such pitiful Pretenders with scorn and dishonour exposed their folly and ignorance to the publick Correction and let the world see they were more worthy of a Pillory than a Throne But these bold Youths have at length in pursuance of their designs run themselves beyond their Pretensions and lost their Cause among the Disorders and Confusions of their own procuring out of which have sprung new swarms of Sects and Schisms that were born and bred in Rebellion and were never known to the World by any other visible marks than their Opposition to the Royal Interest Yet have these Men the face to challenge their Right of Liberty and Indulgence and to rail at us for not granting it though the things for which they demand it are nothing but principles of Sedition and Disloyalty The World knows what pranks and practices they have committed with the confidence and under the protection of Religion and they have never given us the least signs and tokens of repentance and that alone is an infallible symptom of their impenitence for were they sincere Converts the World should be sure to know their resentments so that we have all the reason in the World to believe them no Changelings and then would it not be admirable policy to trust Men of such implacable Spirits and Principles to the present setlement of things For if we have no ground but to suppose them Enemies to the Publick Peace we certainly have no Motive or Obligation to treat them as Friends but rather to use them as People that thirst after a Change and aim at nothing more than our ruine Tenderness and Indulgence to such Men were to nourish Vipers in our own bowels and the most sottish neglect of our own quiet and security and we should deserve to perish with the dishonour of Sardanapalus And howsoever their Ring-leaders may whine and cant to the people grievous complaints of our present Oppressions and Persecutions yet would they inwardly scorn us as weak and silly Men that understand not the height of our Interest if we should be prevail'd with to bestow any milder usage upon such irreconcileable Enemies And 't is not impossible but that the Mercy of the Government may have been a great temptation to their insolence and perhaps had some of them been more roughly handled they had been less disobliged They think Lenity and Compassion to an implacable Enemy an effect of weakness and would never forgive themselves should they not use all means to suppress all known and resolved Opposition to their own Interest And therefore as many of these Men as have been Objects of Royal Mercy if they expect to obtain any farther favour to their Party they would do well to give us some publick and competent assurance of their renouncing their former principles of Sedition as to Civil Government Though not a Man continuing in their Communion has ever as yet given the World any satisfaction of this kind and certainly they can never