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
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
Meekness and Justice Mercy and Patience Contentedness and Pity Kindness Obedience and Humility And now if the Gospel be an Institution so pregnant with Vertue and Wisdom and Holiness how can any Man that is tender of his Saviours Reputation tamely suffer these brain-sick People to debauch the Divine Wisdom of his Religion with childish and trifling Follies And to represent the design of Christianity in so odde a guise as to suit it chiefly to the Conceptions of Children and inclinations of old Women and make it most agreeable to weak Reasons soft Spirits and little Understandings And how can any Man that is enamour'd of the Beauty of real Goodness think any Satyrs too rough for such bold Impostors as make it a Mask for Pharisaick Hypocrisie and stave off their Proselytes from the practice of real Righteousness by amusing their little Understandings with trifling and unprofitable Gayeties That employ a seeming Godliness to supplant all that is real and oppose all the great ends and designs of Religion under more gorgeous Pretences to advance them and are not onely content to exchange the Reality and Substance of true Goodness for its Varnish and Colours but have been so untoward as to contrive a seeming and hypocritical Sanctity that does not more counterfeit then oppose true Holiness in brief choaking all the most beautiful Graces of Christianity by over-running them with rank and noisom Impostures Now if these things are so who can charge the utmost severity of Expression with intemperance of Speech And that they are so if I have not sufficiently proved it already I shall have occasion to enforce its Evidence by some too clear and convictive Proofs in the sequel of this Discourse And therefore 't is but a vain thing to make loud and tragical Complaints of railing and intemperate Speeches unless they had first discover'd that there is not truth enough in my Accusations to warrant the sharpest and most vehement Expressions I have not thrown out hard words at all adventure nor confuted the Cause by giving bad Language as 't is some Mens custom to stick an Odious Name upon an Adversary and then he is baffled No I first endeavoured to convict them by Evidence of Reason and after that to reprove their Errour and if they resolved to continue obstinate to upbraid their peevishness with some sharpness of Expression And if Men will not distinguish between Railing and sharp Reproofs there is no remedy but the best and wisest Persons of all Ages must pass for the greatest Railers And so far am I from recanting my severity towards them that I am rather tempted to applaud it by the glorious Examples of the greatest Wits of our Nation King Iames Archbishop Whitgift Archbishop Bancroft Bishop Andrews Bishop Bilson Bishop Mountagne Bishop Bramhall Sir Walter Rawleigh Lord Bacon c. And what can you imagine more hateful to such wise Men as these then to see mean People borrow the Face of Religion to make them bold and impudent against Government In short I could name some Persons so vile and abominable that 't is not in the power of Slander to abuse them and there is a Faction of Saints in the World whose Villanies and Falshoods and Perjuries are so utterly destitute of excuse or palliation that no History of any Age or Nation can afford us the like impudent and execrable Examples of Baseness and Hypocrisie And therefore let not the living man complain c. § 20. 3. Another pregnant and serviceable Topick of Argumentation is to load his Adversary with Consequences of Atheism Popery and Mahumetanism though for any Reason I have given him he might as plausibly have charged me of Magick or Necromancy or what perhaps may seem more monstrous of Fanaticism But this is one of the most elegant Idiotisms of their Language and most powerful Figures of their Logick whatsoever they touch is immediately turn'd into Atheism they can wring this Conclusion out of all Premises as they can draw some Doctrines out of all Texts 'T is an odious Inference and then 't is no matter for its Truth and Coherence a wide Mouth and a bold Face shall make good the Charge and what they want of Rational Deduction is easily supplyed by Noise and Confidence Their Followers they know never examine things by the Rules of Reason and Discourse put but an ugly Consequence into their Mouths and they swallow it with a glibber satisfaction then the purest and most refined Reasonings and peremptorily conclude you guilty of all the horrid Tenets and Assertions that their Leaders will throw upon you And there lies all their strength in the Ignorance and Credulity of the Multitude Instances of this nature are innumerable their great Anak of Disputation I. O. to mention no more never commenced a Dispute against any Perswasion but he immediately brought the Controversie to this issue He cannot Arraign the Lords Prayer it self but Atheism and Blasphemy must into the Indictment The asserting that Form of Words says he confirms many in their Atheistical Blaspheming of the Holy Spirit of God and his Grace in the Prayers of his People And when some Learned Men of the Church of England publish't the Biblia Polyglotta the chief Contriver of that Noble Work writes some Prolegomena suitable to the nature and design of the Undertaking especially to defend and assert the Certainty Integrity and Divine Authority of the Original Texts but among other Discourses he happens to assert the Novelty of the Hebrew Punctation an Opinion own'd by the concurrent suffrage of almost all the best skill'd in the Hebrew and Oriental Learning and to acknowledge various Readings in the Original Text and lastly to prove that to be no way prejudicial to their Purity and Integrity Now with what outragious Declamations does I. O. set upon these harmless Assertions and with what foul-mouthed Crys and Consequences does he pursue them and what an horrid Noise do we hear of Atheism Atheism Atheism We are told of a new Plot or design amongst Protestants after they are come out of Rome a design which they dare not publickly own p. 329. The Leprosie of Papists crying down the Original Texts is broken forth among Protestants with what design to what end or purpose he knows not God knows and the day will manifest Epist. p. 14. That this design is own'd in the Prolegomena to the Bible and in the Appendix that they Print the Original and defame it gathering up Translations of all sorts and setting them up in competition with it Epist. p. 9. That they take away all certainty in and about sacred Truth Epist p. 25. That there is nothing left unto men but to chuse whether they will turn Papists or Atheists Epist. p. 9. That there are gross Corruptions befaln the Originals which by the help of Old Translations and by Conjectures may be found out and corrected p. 205. As pernicious a Principle as ever was fixed upon since the Foundation of the
positive Precepts because they are in themselves so essentially serviceable to the design of our Creation And therefore our Saviour came not into the world to give any new Precepts of moral goodness but only to retrive the old Rules of Nature from the evil Customs of the World and to reinforce their Obligation by endearing our duty with better Promises and urging our Obedience upon severer Penalties And as the Gospel is nothing but a Restitution of the Religion of Nature so are all its positive Commands and instituted duties either mediately or immediately subservient to that end Thus the Sacraments though they are matters of pure Institution yet are they of a subordinate Usefulness and design'd only for the greater advantage and Improvement of moral Righteousness For as the Gospel is the Restitution of the Law of Nature so are these outward Rites and Solemnities a great security of the Gospel they are solemn engagements and stipulations of obedience to all its Commands and are appointed to express and signifie our grateful sense of Gods goodness in the Redemption of the World and our serious Resolutions of performing the Conditions of this new Contract and Entercourse with mankind So that though they are duties of a prime importance in the Christian Religion 't is not because they are in themselves matters of any Essential Goodness but because of that peculiar Relation they have to the very being and the whole design of its Institution Forasmuch as he that establish'd this Covenant requires of all that are willing to own and submit to its Conditions to profess and avow their Assent to it by these Rites and Instruments of stipulation so that to refuse their Use is interpreted the same thing as to reject the whole Religion But if the entire Usefulness of these and any other instituted Mysteries consists in their great subserviency to the designs of the Gospel and if the great design of the Gospel consists in the Restitution of the Law of Nature and the advancement of all kinds of Moral Goodness then does it naturally resolve it self into that short Analysis I have given of Religion and whether we suppose the Apostasie of Mankind or suppose it not every thing that appertains to it will in the last issue of things prove either a part or an instrument of Moral Vertue § 3. But we must proceed to particulars In the first place Gratitude is a very imperfect description of Natural Religion for says he it has respect onely to Gods Benefits and not to his Nature and therefore omits all those Duties that are eternally necessary upon the Consideration of himself such as fear love trust affiance Perhaps this word may not in its rigorous acceptation express all the distinct parts and duties of Religion yet the Definition that I immediately subjoin'd to explain its meaning might abundantly have prevented this Cavil were not our Author resolved to draw his saw upon words viz. A thankful and humble temper of Mind arising from a sense of Gods Greatness in himself and his Goodness to us And the truth is I know not any one Term that so fully expresses that Duty and Homage we owe to God as this of Gratitude For by what other Name soever we may call it this will be its main and most Fundamental Ingredient and therefore 't is more pertinent to describe its Nature by that than by any other Property that is more remote and less material Because the Divine Bounty is the first Reason of our Obligation to Divine Worship in that natural Justice obliges every Man to a grateful and ingenuous sense of Favours and Benefits and therefore God being the sole Author of our Beings and our Happiness that ought without any farther regard to affect our Minds with worthy resentments of his love and kindness and this is all that which is properly exprest by the word Piety which in its genuine acceptation denotes a grateful and observant temper and behaviour towards Benefactors and for that cause it was made use of as the most proper Expression of that Duty that is owing from Children to Parents but because God by reason of the eminency of his Bounty more peculiarly deserves our Respect and Observation 't is in a more signal and remarkable sense appropriated to him so that Gratitude is the first property and radical Ingredient of Religion and all its other Acts and Offices are but secondary and consequential and that Veneration we give the Divine Majesty for the excellency of his Nature and Attributes follows that Gratitude we owe him for the Communication of his Bounty and Goodness 'T is this that brings us to a knowledge of all his other Endowments 't is this that endears his Nature to us and from this result all those Duties we owe him upon the account of his own Perfections and by that experience we have of his Bounty and by that knowledge we have of his other Attributes into which we are led by this experience come we to be obliged to trust and affiance in him so that Gratitude expresly implies all the Acts and Offices of Religion and though it chiefly denotes its prime and most essential Duty yet in that it fully expresses the Reason and Original Obligation of all other parts of Religious Worship But in the next place he reckons up Repentance Conversion Conviction of Sin Humiliation Godly Sorrow as deficient Graces in my Scheme and Duties peculiar to the Gospel Though as for Repentance what is it but an exchange of vicious customs of Life for an habitual course of Vertue I will allow it to be a new species of Duty in the Christian Religion when he can inform me what Men repent of beside their Vices and what they reform in their Repentance beside their Moral Iniquities it has neither end nor object but Moral Vertue and is onely another word peculiarly appropriated to signifie its first beginnings And as for Conversion the next deficient 't is co-incident with Repentance and he will find it no less difficult to discover any difference between them than between Grace and Vertue And as for the other remaining Graces of the Gospel Conviction Humiliation Godly Sorrow and he might as well have added Compunction Self-abhorrency Self-despair and threescore words more that are frequent in their mouths they are all but different Expressions of the same thing and are either parts or concomitant Circumstances of Repentance After so crude and careless a rate does this Man of Words pour forth his talk In the next rank comes in Self-denial a Readiness to bear the Cross and Mortification as new Laws of Religion But as for Self-denial 't is nothing else than to restrain our appetites within the limits of Nature and to sacrifice our brutish Pleasures to the interests of Vertue As for a Readiness to bear the Cross 't is nothing but a constant and generous Loyalty to the Doctrine of the Gospel and a Resolution to suffer any thing
Articles of my Charge He cares not to have it observed because he neither dares justifie it nor will renounce it It has and may again by Providential Alterations do brave service for the separate Churches but 't is so apparently inconsistent with the establish't setlement of things that it can never safely be owned but when it may safely be used and therefore 't is more politick to let it lie dormant and unregarded till opportunity shall call it forth to Action And let us upbraid them never so much with its mischievous and noisom consequences 't is their wisest course still to counterfeit an artificial deafness and not to understand its meaning till they may own it to some more effectual purpose What other probable Reason can you imagine why he should so carefully pass it over in silence whilst he so faithfully relates all the other particulars of my Impeachments He cannot have forgotten how oft some body has proclaimed it from the Pulpit in a thousand dresses and varieties of Canting 't is the Result of all his Preachments in behalf of the Proceedings in the late Rebellion and what is more unhappy it has been all along publickly owned and pleaded by the Chiefs both of the Presbyterian and Independent Factions and never yet that I could hear or read of once disavowed by any and therefore though I charged it not upon any Party but only branded the Principle it self this advantage this man has gain'd to his Brethren by his rashness and presumption that it shall lie at their doors till they shall remonstrate to it by some publick Protestation § 3. The other Articles that I chose to specifie among many other were these three that Princes in case of Disobedience to the Presbytery may be excommunicated and by consequence deposed that Dominion is founded in Grace and that to pursue success though in Villany and Rebellion is to follow Providence But all the World says Modesty knows what it is that hath given him the advantage of providing a covering for these monstrous Fictions and an account thereof hath been given elsewhere And what now if those intended do not believe these things nor any one of them What if they do openly disavow every one of them as for ought I ever heard or know they do and as I do my self These monstrous Fictions so are all the Histories and Records in the World Were there never any Sects of men that placed a Power in the Presbytery to excommunicate Princes or that challenged an Exemption from the Commands of Authority upon the score of their Saintship or that taught Success to be a certain Argument of Divine Approbation Did you never hear of such Creatures as Presbyterians Anabaptists and Independents Were there never any such men in the World as Iohn Knox Iohn of Leyden and I. O? Or are all the Stories that are recorded of them fairy-tales and Romances If they are not these things are as far from being monstrous fictions as any thing upon Record in the four Gospels But an account of these things has been given elsewhere Perhaps so among the Antiquities of China or in Lucians true History And a wise and true account it is no doubt that shall undertake to prove there never were any People in the World that have abetted these Principles And 't is hugely sutable to his following Apology that if any may heretofore have owned them yet for ought he knows they have openly disavowed them But this is pure and burnish'd confidence to bear down certain and undeniable matters of Fact with a flat denial a peremptory Perhaps Did I ever imagine I should be put to prove there have been men in the World that have own'd and acted these Principles or to disprove the Reality of a publick Repentance never heard of This mans insufferable Perverseness would vanquish the Patience of an Arch-Angel he cares not what he says so the cause go forward and he would deny that Abraham begot Isaac if it stood in his way And if he should it would not be a greater Violence to Truth or Affront to Modesty than this Attempt to clear some men from the guilt of these Perswasions But still what if those intended do not believe these things Then good Sir Pertinent they are not intended I named no body but only enquired upon this supposition that if heretofore there has been or hereafter there should arise such a Race of men in the World whether the Belief of a Deity and the dread of Invisible Powers blended with such innocent Propositions were likely to secure their due Obedience and Respect to Authority or rather to drive them to attempts of disturbance and sedition when they thought themselves obliged under the most dreadful Penalties to act sutably to their Principles And therefore I intended none but those that either actually have been or possibly may be guilty without naming or specifying any particular Criminals Though indeed the matters of fact are so notorious that upon bare Intimation every man has knowledge and sagacity enough to discover the Offenders and they themselves are so conscious of the Notoreity of the Crime that as it happens in the Excuses of all Enormous Malefactors they cannot avoid to bewray their own guilt by their own Apologies unless this be sufficient to clear their Innocence and their Reputation that for ought any body knows they have publickly repented which if they had every body must certainly have known it Whatsoever disorders they have run into in pursuit of these Principles yet if the boldest and most scandalous offender in the whole Mutiny shall come forth and with a bare-faced confidence tell his Governours that perhaps and for ought he knows they have forsaken them they immediately become loyal and peaceable Subjects and must be supposed as white as Snow and as harmless as Doves But to particulars The first Article then falls directly upon the men of the holy Discipline who challenge to themselves an original and independent Jurisdiction over all Persons and in all matters of Ecclesiastical Concernment so that though they acknowledge themselves subject to the Power of Kings in civil and secular Affairs yet in the Government of the Church and conduct of Religion the temporal Power is subject to the spiritual and Princes must submit to the sovereign Decrees of the Presbytery and therefore in case of disobedience to their Authority they are as obnoxious as any of their Subjects to the Censure of the Church and the Sentence of Excommunication This in brief is the true Platform of the Discipline publickly owned by all its Patrons and Assertors and whoever does not vest the Classical Meetings with a Supremacy over Kings in Ecclesiastical Government is no true Disciplinarian when 't is the only design of the Discipline to put the Scepter of Jesus Christ into the hands of the Presbytery i e. to strip the secular Authority of all spiritual Jurisdiction and to settle it entirely upon spiritual
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
Gibellines another Party of professed Enemies to the Church of England But to take down the Confidence of these forward Pretenders and to give a more distinct and satisfactory Account of this Affair you may know that our Reformation consists of two parts Doctrine and Discipline the design of the former was to abolish the corruptions and innovations of the Church of Rome and to retrieve the pure and primitive Christianity and the design of the latter was to abrogate the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome and to annex all Superiority and Preheminence over the Ecclesiastical State to the Imperial Crown in both which attempts the Non-conformists or Puritan-Recusants have absolutely forsaken our Communion 1. As to Discipline The design of those great men that first arose to that great work was to redeem the Christian World from the shameless and exorbitant Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome that had invaded the Thrones of Princes and made their Scepters do homage to St. Peters Keys and enslav'd the Royal Dignity to the Interests and Insolences of a proud Vicar And this was the Schism of the Church of England its defection to its lawful Prince and its first departure from the Church of Rome was nothing but its Revolt to its due Allegiance and at this day its greatest Heresie is the uncatholick Doctrine of Obedience to Sovereign Authority Whereas the great project of the men of the Separation was never to abrogate but only to exchange the Papal Usurpation and to setle that Power and Supremacy of which they stript his Holiness of Rome upon the Presbyterial Consistory The Holy Discipline is but another name for the Papal Power it equally disrobes Princes of their Ecclesiastical Supremacy and entirely setles its Jurisdiction upon the Presbytery and vests them with an Authority to controul their Commands restrain their Civil Power and punish their Persons in that by the Principles of the Holy Discipline Kings must be subject to the Decrees of the Presbytery in all matters of Religion neither small nor great may be exempted from subjection to the Scepter of Iesus Christ by which they mean the same thing that the Papists do by the Keys of St. Peter viz. an Original Power in themselves of exercising a temporal Jurisdiction over the Kings of the Earth under pretence of their Spiritual Sovereignty So that in this part of the work we have not been encountred with more disturbance and opposition from the Jesuites than from the Presbyterians that are as to the Doctrine of Regal Supremacy as arrant Recusants and therefore it as much imports Princes for security of their own Rights and Prerogatives to have an eye to the Factors of Geneva as to the Emissaries of Rome They are both men of bold and fiery spirits and all the late Combustions of Europe have either been procured or occasion'd by the seditious and aspiring attempts of these two daring Sects But the Tumults and disorders of the Jesuites concern not our present Enquiry nor may I enter upon the History of all the Leagues Conspiracies Seditions Spoils Ravages and Insurrections of the Puritan Brethren It has been lately performed by an Elegant Pen to purpose that has thereby done that Right to the Cause of Reformation as to absolve the true Protestant from the Charge of Seditious Doctrines and Practices and to score all the Embroilments of the Kingdoms and Estates of Christendom on the Account of the Calvinists who thrust themselves into all Places and Designs and if any where they were suffer'd to grow into any considerable strength and Interest were upon all occasions drawing in the zealous Rabble into holy Leagues and Confederacies against their Governours And if you will but compare the first practices and proceedings of the Hugonots in the Kingdom of France of the Gheuses in the Belgick Provinces of the Kirk-faction in the Realm of Scotland with the Actings Treasons and Disloyalties of the English Puritans as you will discover a strange agreement in the issues of their principles and proceedings so you will find their disorders to exceed the common mischiefs and exorbitancies of Mankind But I must not pursue particular Stories the History of their Tumults Outrages and Desolations would require a larger Volume than the Book of Martyrs It was these hot and fiery Spirits that in most places spoil'd this gallant Enterprize and by their seditious Zeal and madness drove up the Reformation into down-right Rebellion and were so outragious against the Church of Rome that they had not patience to wait the lazy temper of Authority for the Reformation of Abuses It s Wisdom and Moderation was Carnal Policy and if Governours would not set upon it in regular and peaceable ways at their first alarm then the only Doctrine they thunder'd from the Pulpit was That if Princes refuse to reform Religion themselves 't is lawful for their godly Subjects to do it though by violence and force of Arms. These are the Men that are so forward to thrust themselves into the Reformed Communion and whom we are so resolved to disclaim as shameful Apostates from the Reformed Cause and judge just such Protestants as the Gnosticks were Christians the scandal and dishonour of their Profession and whom the true Sons of the Church were forced to avoid as much if not more than Heathens and Infidels though it were only to secure their own Reputation that their Tumults and Disorders might not be scored upon their Reckoning This is plain matter of Fact though how it will relish with our Author 't is easie to foretel and it is not to be doubted but he may have the confidence to remonstrate to the most credible evidence of History that has the boldness in defiance to so many publick Ordinances and Declarations to deny that the Pretences of Reformation had any concern in our late Confusions But however he would be well-advised not to dare to Apologize for other Men unless he could first clear his own innocence for if a Man shall undertake to plead the Cause of a notorious Offender that stands himself chargeable of the deeper guilt he does not defend but betray and upbraid his Client his very Apology becomes a strong Accusation and all the World will suspect that Mans innocence when they shall see a person so scandalous so forward in his defence He is but an ill Apologist for the peaceableness or Loyalty of any Party that has himself been a famous Trumpeter not to say a great Commander in Rebellion and when our late Thirsty Tyrants had gorged themselves with Royal Blood was the first Chaplain that proffer'd his service to say a long Margarets Grace to the Entertainment § 11. This short account may suffice to let you see that the Nonconformists as to this particular however they may glory in the Name of Protestant are but another sort of Papists that pluckt down one Popery to set up another and justled his Holiness out of the Chair only to seat themselves in it