that Christ should have no one Witness that would ever scruple or contradict them either among the Orthodox or the Hereticks as far as any Records of Antiquity do make known § 300. 7. The seventh Controversie is about their own practice in Administrations and Church Discipline And 1. that they must Ministerially deny the Sacrament of Baptism to all Children whose Parents will not have them use the Cross they say that it is the Church that refuseth them by Law and not they who are by the Law disabled from receiving them 2. The same they say of their refusing to give the Lord's Supper to any that will not kneel in the Reception of it They say that it is better to Administer the Sacraments to some than to none at all which they must do if they refuse not them that kneel not 3. And for the giving of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to the unworthy for all are forced to use them they say that the Infants of all in the Church have right to Baptism at least for their Ancestor's sake and for the Godfathers and Godmothers or the Churches sake And for the Lord's Supper they have power to put away all that are proved impenitent in notorious Scandal § 301. Having told you what the Conformists say for themselves as faithfully as will stand with brevity before I proceed I think it best to set down here the words 1. Of the Covenant 2. Of the Subscription and Declaration 3. Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience before your Eyes that while the Subject of the Controversie is before you the Controversie it self may be the better understood And I suppose the Reader to have all the Books before him to which we are required to Assen◠〈…〉 The Solemn League and Covenant WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens â—â—â—gesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commous of all 〈◊〉 in the Kingdoms of Scotland â—England and Ireland by the Pâ—â—vidence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our Eyes the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ the Honour and Happiness of the King's Majesty and his Posterity and the true Publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Condition is included And calling to mind the trâ—atherous and bloody Piots Conspiracies Attempts and Practises of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their Rage Power and Presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed Estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Cestimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter Ruine and Destruction according to the Commendable Practice of these kingdoms in former times and the Example of God's People in other Nations after mature Deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a Mutual and Solemn League and Covenant Wherein we all Subscribe and each one of us for himself with our Hands lifted up to the most high God â—o swear 1. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several Places and Callings the Preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our Common Enemies The Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church Government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of Persons endeavour the Extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commistaties Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierachy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Uocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the King's Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the world may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just Power and Greatness 4. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindring the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or Parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant That they may be brought to publick Trial and receive Condign Punishment as the degree of their Offences shall require or deserve or the Supream Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall â—udge convenient 5. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of God granted unto us and hath been latlely concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Union to all Posterity and that Iustice may be done upon the wilful Opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. We shall also according to our Places and Callings in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof And shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the Glory of God the Good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King But shall all the days of our
strict against an Oath or Gaming or Plays or Drinking nor troubled themselves so much about the Matters of God and the World to come and the Ministers and People that were for the King's Book for Dancing and Recreations on the Lord's Days and those that made not so great a matter of every Sin but went to Church and heard Common Prayer and were glad to hear a Sermon which lasht the Puritans and which ordinarily spoke against this strictness and preciseness in Religion and this strict Observation of the Lord's Day and following Sermons and praying Ex tempore and talking so much of Scripture and the Matters of Salvation and those that hated and derided them that take these Courses the main Body of these were against the Parliament Not but that some such for Money or a Landlord's Pleasure served them as some few of the stricter sort were against them or not for them being Neuters but I speak of the notable Division through the Land If you ask how this came to pass it requireth a longer Answer than I think fit here to give But briefly Actions spring from natural Dispositions and Interest There is somewhat in the Nature of all worldly Men which maketh them earnestly defirous of Riches and Honours in the World and they that value them most will seek them and they that seck them are more like to find them than those that despise them and he that taketh the World and Preferment for his Interest will estimate and choose all means accordingly and where the World is predominant Gain goeth for Godliness and serious Religion which would mortifie their Sin is their greatest Enemy Yet Conscience must be quieted and Reputation preserved which can neither of them be done without some Religion Therefore such a Religion is necessary to such as is consistent with a worldly Mind which Outside-formality Lip-service and Hypocrisie is but Seriousness Sincerity and Spirituality is not On the other side there is that in the new Nature of a spiritual Believer which inclineth him to things above and causeth him to look at worldly Grandeur and Riches as things more dangerous than desirable and he is dead to the World and the World to him by the Cross of Christ no wonder therefore if few such attain great Matters in the World or ever come to Preferment or Greatness upon Earth And there is somewhat in them which maketh them more fearful of displeasing God than all the World and will not give them leave to stretch their Consciences or turn aside when the Interest or Will of Man requireth it And the Laws of Christ to which they are so devoted are of such a stream as cannot suit with carnal Interest There is an universal and radicated Enraity between the Carnal and the Spiritual the Serpent's and the Woman's Seed the fleshly Mind and the spiritual Law of God through all the World in all Generations Gen. 3. 15. Rom. 8. 6 7 8. Thus Enmity is found in England as well as in other Countries between the Godly and the Worldly Minds as he that was born after the Flesh did persecute him that was born after the Spirit even so was it here The vulgar Rabble of the carnal and prophane the Fornicators Drunkards Swearers c. did every where hate them that reproved their Sin and condemned them by a holy Life This Difference was universal and their Enmity implacable farther than common Grace abated it or special Grace cured it So that every where serious godly People that would not run with others to excess of Rvot were spoken against and derided by the Names of Precisians Zealot Over-strict the holy Brethren and other Terms of Scorn These things being supposed it unhappily fell out that in the Days of Queen Mary that we may fetch the matter ab origine our Reformers being Fugitives at Frankford fell into a Division One part of them were for Diocesans and the English Liturgy and Ceremonies that they might no more than needs depart from the Papists nor seem unconstant by departing from what King Edward had begun The other were for Calvin's Discipline and way of Worship for the setting up of a Parochial Discipline instead of a Diocesan and to have a Government in every particular Church and not only One over a Thousand or many Hundred Churches and for a plain and serious way of Worship suited as near as possible to God's Word When these two Parties returned into England the Diocesan Party got Queen Elizabeth's Countenance and were preferred and their way set up The other Party petitioned and hoped and waited but were discountenanced rebuked and by Law suppressed This lamentable Breach was never healed The discountenanced Party were servent Preachers of holy Lives and so were many of the Bishops also in those days But if those that succeeded them had been as holy and as diligent Preachers they had kept up their Honour and Places without such Assaults as they have undergone But when Iewel Pelkington Grindal and such like were dead many succeeded them whom the People took to be other kind of Men. And the silenced Disciplinarians as then they were called did by their Writings their secret Conference and Preaching and their Godly Lives work much upon such as were religiously addicted And moreover besides what they received from such Teachers there is I know not perfectly whence among the most of the Religious serious People of these Countreys a suspicion of all that is Ceremonious in God's Service and of all which they find not warrant for in Scripture and a greater inclination to a rational convincing earnest way of Preaching and Prayers than to the written Forms of Words which are to be read in Churches And they are greatly taken with a Preacher that speaketh to them in a familiar natural Language and exhorteth them as if it were for their Lives when another that readeth or faith a few composed Words in a reading Tone they hear almost as a Boy that is saying his Lesson And they are much perswaded that a just Parochial Discipline would greatly reform the Church and that Diocesans by excluding it cherish Vice Now upon the Difference between the Diocesans and the Disciplinarians the Diocesans found that their very Places and Power and Lands and Lordships were assaulted by the contrary Opinion and therefore they thought it necessary to suppress the Promoters of it And so putting Episcopacy Liturgy Ceremonies and all into the Subscriptions which they imposed on all that would be Ministers or Schoolmasters they kept and cast out very many worthy Men For some that were for Liturgy and Ceremonies were not for Diocesans but for Parish Discipline and some that were for Bishops were not for the Ceremonies and some that were for the rest yet scrupled some one and he that could not Subscribe to all was forbidden to preach the Gospel whereas in the mean time many Bishops preached very seldom and abundance of Places had ignorant Readers that could nor preach
and silly Preachers whose Performances were so mean that they had better kept to the Reading of the Homilies and many of these were of Scandalous Lives Hereupon the Disciplinarians cried out of the ignorant scandalous Ministers and almost all the scandalous Ministers and all that studied Preferment cried out of the Nonconformists The name Puritan was put upon them and by that they were commonly known when they had been called by that name awhile the vicious Multitude of the Ungodly called all Puritans that were strict and serious in a Holy Life were they ever so conformable So that the same name in a Bishops mouth signified a Nonconformist and in an ignorant Drunkards or Swearers mouth a godly obedient Christian. But the People being the greater number became among themselves the Masters of the Sense And in Spalatensi's time when he was decrying Calvinism he devised the name of Doctrinal Puritans which comprehended all that were against Arminianism Now the ignorant Rabble hearing that the Bishops were against the Puritans not having wit enough to know whom they meant were emboldened the more against all those whom they called Puritans themselves and their Rage against the Godly was increased and they cried up the Bishops partly because they were against the Puritans and partly because they were earnest for that way of Worship which they found most consistent with their Ignorance Carelesness and Sins And thus the Interest of the Diocesans and of the Prophane and Ignorant sort of People were unhappily twisted together in England And then on the other side as all the Nonconformists were against the Prelates so other of the most serious godly People were alienated from them on all these foresaid conjunct Accounts 1. Because they were derided and abused by the Name of Puritans 2. Because the Malignant Sort were permitted to make Religious Persons their common Scorn 3. Because they saw so many insufficient and vicious Men among the Conformable Clergy 4. Because they had a high esteem of the Parts and Piety of most of the Nonconformable Ministers 5. Because they grieved to see so many Excellent Men silenced while so many Thousand were perishing in Ignorance and Sin 6. Because though they took the Liturgy to be lawful yet a more orderly serious Scriptural way of Worship was much more pleasing to them 7. Because Fasting and Praying and other Exercises which they found much benefit by were so strictly lookt after that the High Commission and the Bishops Courts did make it much more perillous than common Swearing and Drunkenness proved to the Ungodly 8. Because the Book that was published for Recreations on the Lord's Day made them think that the Bishops concurred with the Prophane 9. Because Afternoon Sermons and Lectures though by Conformable Men began to be put down in divers Counties 10. Because so great a number of Conformable Ministers were suspended or punished for not reading the Book of Sports on Sundays or about Altars or such like and so many Thousand Families and many worthy Ministers driven out of the Land 11. Because when they saw Bowing towards Altars and the other Innovations added they feared worse and knew not where they would end 12. And lastly Because they saw that the Bishops proceeded so far as to swear Men to their whole Government by the Et caetera Oath and that they approved of Ship-money and other such incroachments on their Civil Interests All these upon my own knowledge were the true Causes why so great a number of those Persons who were counted most Religious fell in with the Parliament in England insomuch that the generality of the stricter diligent sort of Preachers joyned with them though not in medling with Arms yet in Judgment and in flying to their Garrisons and almost all those afterwards called Presbyterians were before Conformists Very few of all that Learned and Pious Synod at Westminster were Nonconformists before and yet were for the Parliament supposing that the Interest of Religion lay on that side Yet did they still keep up an honourable esteem of all that they thought Religious on the other side such as Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall Bishop Morton Archbishop Usher c. But as to the generality they went so unanimously the other way that upon my knowledge many that were not wise enough to understand the Truth about the Cause of the King and Parliament did yet run into the Parliaments Armies or take their part as Sheep go together for Company moved by this Argument Sure God will not suffer almost all his most Religious Servants to err in so great a matter And If all these should perish what will become of Religion But these were insufficient Grounds to go upon And abundance of the ignorant sort of the Country who were Civil did flock in to the Parliament and filled up their Armies afterward meerly because they heard Men swear for the Common Prayer and Bishops and heard others pray that were against them and because they heard the King's Soldiers with horrid Oaths abuse the name of God and saw them live in Debauchery and the Parliaments Soldiers flock to Sermons and talking of Religion and praying and singing Psalms together on their Guards And all the sober Men that I was acquainted with who were against the Parliament were wont to say The King hath the better Cause but the Parliament hath the better Men Aud indeed this unhappy Complication of the Interest of Prelacie and Prophaneness and Opposition of the Interest of Prelacie to the Temper of the generality of the Religious Party was the visible Cause of the overthrow of the King in the Eye of all the understanding World that ever was capable of observing it § 50. And whereas the King's Party usually say that it was the seditious Preachers that stirred up the People and were the Cause of all this I answer 1. It is partly true and partly not It is not true that they stirred them up to War except an inconsiderable Number of them one perhaps in a County if so much But it is true that they discovered their dislike of the Book of Sports and bowing to Altars and diminishing Preaching and silencing Ministers and such like and were glad that the Parliament attempted a Reformation of them 2. But then it is as true that almost all these were conformable Ministers the Laws and Bishops having cast out the Nonconformists long enough before insomuch that I know not of two Nonconformists in a County But those that made up the Assembly at Westminster and that through the Land were the Honour of the Parliaments Party were almost all such as had till then conformed and took those things to be lawful in case of necessity but longed to have that necessity removed § 51. When the War was beginning the Parties set Names of Contempt upon each other and also took such Titles to themselves and their own Cause as might be the fittest means for that which they designed The old Names of Puritans
and Formalists were not now broad enough nor of sufficient force The King's Party as their Serious Word called the Parliaments Party Rebels and as their common ludiâ—rous Name The Round-heads the original of which is not certainly known Some say it was because the Puritans then commonly wore short Hair and the King's Party long Hair Some sâ—y it was because the Queen at Strafford's Tryal asked who that Round-headed Man was meaning Mr. Pym because he spake so strongly The Parliaments Party called the other side commonly by the Name of Malignants as supposing that the generality of the Enemies of serious Godliness went that way in a desire to destroy the Religious out of the Land And the Parliament put that Name into their Mouths and the Souldiers they called Cavaliers because they took that Name to themselves and afterwards they called them Damme's because God Damn me was become a common Curse and as a By-word among them The King professed to sight for the Subjects Liberties the Laws of the Land and the Protestant Religion The Parliament profest the same and all their Commissions were granted as for King and Parliament for the Parliament professed that the Separation of the King from the Parliament could not be without a Destruction of the Government and that the Dividers were the Destroyers and Enemies to the State and if the Soldiers askt each other at any Surprize or Meeting who are you for those on the King's side said for the King and the others said for King and Parliament the King disowned their Service as a Scorn that they should say they fought for King and Parliament when their Armies were ready to charge him in the Field They said to this 1. That they fought to redeem him from them that took him a voluntary Captive and would separate him from his Parliament 2. That they fought against his Will only but not against his Person which they desired to rescue and preserve nor against his Authority which was for them 3. That as all the Courts of Justice do execute their Sentences in the King's Name and this by his own Law and therefore by his Authority so much more might his Parliament do § 52. But now we come to the main matter What satisfied so many of the intelligent part of the Countrey to side with the Parliament when the War began What inclined their Affections I have before shewed and it is not to be doubted but their Approbation of the Parliament in the cause of Reformation made them the easilier believe the lawfulness of their War But yet there were some Dissenters which put the matter to debates among themselves In Warwickshire Sir Francis Nethersole a religious Knight was against the Parliaments War and Covenant though not for the Justness of the War against them In Glocestershire Mr. Geree an old eminent Nonconformist and Mr. Copell a learned Minister who put out himself to prevent being put out for the Book of Recreations and some others with them were against the lawfulness of the War so was Mr. Lyford of Sherborn in Dorcetshire and Mr. Francis Bampfield his Successor and some other Godly Ministers in other Countries And many resolved to meddle on no side Those that were against the Parliaments War were of three Minds or Parties One Part thought that no King might be resisted but these I shall not take any more notice of The other thought that our King might not be at all resisted because he is our Sovereign and we have sworn to his Supremacy and if he be Supreme he hath neither Superior nor Equal And Oaths are to be interpreted in the strictest Sense The third sort granted that in some Cases the King might be resisted as Bilson and other Bishops hold but not in this Case 1. Because the Law giveth him the Militia which was contended for and the Law is the measure of Power 2. Because say they the Parliament began the War by permitting Tumults to deprive the Members of their Liberty and affront and dishonour the King 3. Because the Members themselves are Subjects and took the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and therefore have no Authority to resist 4. It is not lawful for Subjects to defend Reformation or Religion by Force against 〈◊〉 Soveraigns no such good Ends will warrant evil Means 5. It is contrary to the Doctrine of Protestants and the ancient Christians and Scripture it selfe which condemneth all that resist the higher Powers and as for the Primitive Christiansâ— it is well known they were acquainted with no other lawful Weapons against them but Prayers and Tears 6. It importeth a false Accusation of the King as if he were about to destroy Religion Liberties or Parliaments all which he is resolved to defend as in all his Declarations doth appear 7. It justifieth the Papists Doctrine and Practices of Rebellion and taketh the Odium from them unto our selves and layeth a Reproach upon the Protestant Cause 8. It proceedeth from Impatience and Distrust of God which causeth Men to fly to unlawful means Religion may be preserved better by patient Sufferings These were their Reasons who were against the Parliaments War which may be seen more at large in Mr. Dudly Digs his Book and Mr. Welden's and Mr. Michael Hudson's and Sir Francis Nethersole's § 53. As for those on the Parliaments side I will first tell you what they said to these Eight Reasons and next what Reasons moved them to take the other side 1. To the First Reason they said as before that for the Law to give the King the â—â—â—â—itia signifieth no more but that the People in Parliament consented to obey him in Matter of Wars and to fight for him and under his Conduct For the Law is nothing but the Consent of King and Parliament and the Militia is nothing but the Peoples own Swords and Strength And that this Consent of theirs should be supposed to be meant against themselves as if they consented to destroy themselves whenever he commanded it is an Exposition against Nature Sense and Reason and the common Sentiments of Mankind And they said that the same Law required Sheriffs to exercise the Militia in Obedience to the Decrees of his Courts of Justice and this against the King's Personal Commands and in the King's Name Because King and Parliament have by Law setled those Courts and Methods of Execution a Command of the King alone can no more prevail against them than it can abrogate a Law And the Law said they is above the King because King and Parliament are more than the King alone And they pretend also Presidents for their Resistance 2. To the Second they said that when 200000 Protestants were murdered in Ireland and their Friends so bold in England and the Parliaments Destruction so industruously endeavoured it was no time for them to rebuke their Friends upon terms of Civility and good Manners though their Zeal was mixt with Indiscretion and that if the Londoners had not shewed that Zeal
for them it might have emboldned their Enemies against them and that if the permitting of Petitioners to crowd to them too boldly and speak too unmannerly can be called the raising of a War when they fought with none but were assaulted themselves then the calling up of the Army from the North was much more so and so they were not the Beginners Or had they been the Beginners it had been lawful being but to bring Delinquents to Justice as the Sheriff himself may in Obedience to a Court of Justice But the Irish Flames which threatned them were kindled before all these 3. To the third they said that the Parliament are Subjects limitedly and not simply as the King is not an absolute but a limited King viz. limited by the Laws and Constitutions of the Government they are Subjects to him according to Law but not subject to Arbitrary Government against Law Their Propriety is excepted in their Subjection and they have certain Liberties which are not subject to the Will of the King And also they said That as the Sheriff is a Subject and a Court of Justice Subjects and yet may resist the King's Letters even under the Broad-Seal and his Messengers or armed Men that act illegally because the Law which hath his Authority and the Parliament's enable them so to do so also may the Parliament which is his highest Court of Justice And they said that as they have a part in the Legislative Power they have part in the Summa Potesâ—â—as and so far are not Subjects And they said that the bare Title of Supreme is no Argument against the Constitution of a Kingdom though it be expressed in an Oath For the King is stiled the Supreme Governor of France and yet the Oath of Supremacy doth not bind us to believe that no French Man may lawfully â—ear Arms against him 4. They say to the fourth That they wholly grant it that though Religion may be the end of a lawful War yet not of a Rebellion nor may any Reformations be performed by any Actions which belong not to the Places and Callings of the Performers But where the means are Lawful Religion and Reformation are lawful Ends. 5. To the fifth they said That they agree with all good Christians and Protestants that true Authority may not be resisted by any Subject But all Protestants or most agree with them that a limited Governor which hath not Authority to do what he lists may perform an Act of Will which is no Act of Authority and that the Parliament was the highest Judicature and that it was Rebellion in them that resisted the Parliament in their legal prosecution of Delinquents and Defence of the Land and themselves and that Paul Rom. 13. determineth not at all whether the Emperors or the Senate was the higher Power and that the Resisters of the Parliament are the condemned Breakers of that Order and Command 6. To the sixth they said that they Charge nothing on the King but what their Eyes behold viz. That he hath forsaken his Parliament and raiseth Arms against them and protecteth Delinquents And this they mention but as Matter of Fact for the culpability they charge upon his evil Counsellors and Instruments For the King being no Subject is liable to no Accusations in any of his 〈…〉 Irish the Papist and those guilty Persons who would ruine all to 〈…〉 Justice whom they accuse and not the King And whateve◠〈…〉 King 's Declarations say Ship-money hath been imposed the Judges have been 〈◊〉 the German Horse were to have been brought in the Northern Army 〈◊〉 have been brought up against the Parliament the House was invaded and 〈◊〉 Members demanded a Guard was set upon them and their Destruction 〈◊〉 Enemies was powerfully endeavoured 7. 〈◊〉 the seventh they said That for the supreme legislative Authority to defend 〈◊〉 and the Land and for the King's Courts of Justice to prosecute Delinâ—◠〈◊〉 though against the King's Will is no dishonour to the Protestant Religion 〈◊〉 any thing like the Papists Doctrine and Practices of Rebellion nor any Justification of them If it were then the very Constitution of our ancient Government or Kingdom would it self be a dishonour to our Religion 8. To the last they say That Patience is our Duty so far as we are called to Sufferings and God is â—o be trusted in the way which he hath appointed us But if the Irish Rebels had foretold the Parliament and Justices of their Insurrection and then exhorted them to Patience and Non-resistance and trusting God or if a Thief that would rob us to exhort us to be patient and not resist he doth but exhort us to be guilty of his Sin 〈◊〉 Protestants Patience was that which pleased the Irish or if a King must be brought in as a Party the French Mens Patience in the Parisian Massacre pleased Charles IX and the Executioners And if in all Countries the Protestants would let the Papists cut their Throats and die in the Honour of Patience it would satisfie those bloody Adversaries who had rather we died in such Honour than lived without it But if such Patience would be a poor Excuse for a Father that sought not to preserve his Children much less for the Paliament that stand still while Papists and Delinquents subvert both Church and State These were their Answers to their Accusers in those Points § 54. The Sum of those Reasons which satisfied many that adhered to the Parliament were these which I will but briefly name 1. As to the Danger of the State the Matters of Fact did make it seem undeniable to them Ship-money they judged not of according to the Sum but they thoughtâ— Propriety was thereby destroyed and Parliaments cast aside and made unnecessary And they saw that this Parliament was called upon the Scots and then called Discontented Lords importunity after many Parliaments had been dissolved in displeasure and after they had been long forborn And the calling up of the Northern Army and the demanding of the Members made Multitudes think that the ruine of the Parliament was the great Design and their ungrateful beginning and proceedings made this seem credible so that I met with few of that sort that doubted of it But above all the Two hundred thousand kill'd in Ireland affrighted the Parliament and all the Land And whereas it is said that the King hated that as well as they They answered that though he did his hating it would neither make all those alive again nor preserve England from their threatned Assault as long as Men of the like malignity were protected and could not be kept out of Arms nor brought to Justice 2. The End of the War did much prevail with them For they thought that to master and destroy the Parliament was to leave the People hopeless as to any Security of their Propriety or Liberties or any Remedy against meer Will For there is no other Power that may relieve them And if Parliaments
Soldier saith It is my Commission and the High Court of Parliament saith It is the Law declared in a Court of Justice a Parliament seemeth to be the properest Judge As in Controversies of Physick who is to be believed before the Colledge of Physicians Or in Controversies of Religion who before a General Council If the House of York and Lancaster â—ight for the Crown and both Command the Subjects Arms. the poor Peasants are not able to judge of their Titles And if a Parliament shall not judge for them who shall These were the Reasons which caused Men to adhere to the Parliament in this War § 55. For my own part I freely confess that I was not judicious enough in Politicks and Law to decide this Controversie which so many Lawyers and Wise men differed in And I freely confess that being astonished at the Irish Massacre and perswaded fully both of the Parliaments good endeavours for Reformation and of their real danger my Judgment of the main Cause much swayed my Judgment in the Matter of the Wars and the Arguments à fine à natureâ necessitate which common Wits are capable of discerning did too far incline my Judgment in the Cause of the War before I well understood the Arguments from our particular Laws And the Consideration of the Quality of the Parties that sided for each Cause in the Countries did greatly work with me and more than it should have done And I verily thought that if that which a Judge in Court saith sententially is Law must go for Law to the Subject as to the Decision of that Cause though the King send his Broad Seal against it then that which the Parliament saith is Law is Law to the Subjects about the Dangers of the Common-wealth whatever it be in it self and that if the King's Broad-Seal cannot prevail against the Judge much less against their Judgment I make no doubt but both Parties were to blame as it commonly falleth out in most Wars and Contentions and I will not be he that shall Justifie either of them I doubt not but the Headiness and Rashness of the younger unexperienced sort of religious People made many Parliament Men and Ministers overgo themselves to keep pace with those hot Spurs no doubt but much Indiscretion appeared and worse than Indiscretion in the tumultuous Petitioners and much Sin was committed in the dishonouring of the King and provocation of him and in the uncivil Language against the Bishops and Liturgie of the Church But these things came principally from the Sectarian separating Spirit which blew the Coals among foolish Apprentices And as the Sectaries increased so did this Insolence increase I have my self been in London when they have on the Lord's Days stood at the Church Doors while the Common Prayer was reading saying We must stay till he is out of his Pottage And such unchristian Scorns and Jests did please young inconsiderate Wits that knew not what Spirit they were of nor whither such unwarrantate things did tend Learned Mr. Iohn Ball though a Nonconformist discerned the stirrings of this insolent Sectarian Spirit betimes and fell a writing against it even then when some were crying out of Persecution and others were tender of such little Differences One or two in the House and five or six Ministers that came from Holland and a few that were scattered in the City which were the Brownists Relicts did drive on others according to their own dividing Principles and sowed the Seeds which afterward spread over all the Land though then there were very few of them in the Countreys even next to none As Bishop Hall speaks against the justifying of the Bishops so do I against justifying the Parliament Ministers or City I believe many unjustifiable things were done but I think that few Men among them all were the Doers or Instigaters of it But I then thought that whosoever was faulty the Peoples Liberties and Safety could not be forfeited And I thought that all the Subjects were not guilty of all the Faults of King or Parliament when they defended them Yea that if both their Causes had been bad as against each other yet that the Subjects should adhere to that Party which most secured the welfare of the Nation and might defend the Land under their Conduct without owning all their Cause And herein I confess I was then so zealous that I thought it a great Sin for Men that were able to defend their Country to be Neuters And I have been tempted since to think that I was a more competent Judge upon the Place when all things were before our eyes than I am in the review of those Days and Actions so many Years after when Distance disadvantageth the Apprehension A Writer against Cromwel's Decimation recanting his great Adherence to the Parliament in that War yet so abhorreth Neutrality that he likeneth him rather to a Dog than a Man that could stand by when his Country was in such a case But I confess for my part I have not such censorious Thoughts of those that then were Neuters as formerly I have had For he that either thinketh both sides raised an unlawful War or that could not tell which if either was in the right might well be excused if he defended neither I was always satisfied 1. That the Dividers of the King and Parliament were the Traitors whoever they were and that the Division tended to the Dissolution of the Government 2. And that the Authority and Person of the King were inviolable out of the reach of just Accusation Judgment or Execution by Law as having no Superiour and so no Judge 3. I favoured the Parliaments Cause as they professed 1. To bring Delinquents to a Legal Trial 2. And to preserve the Person and Government of the King by a Conjunction with his Parliament But Matters that Warrs and Blood are any way concerned in are so great and tenderly to be handled that I profess to the World that I dare not I will not justifie any thing that others or I my self have done of any such consequence But though I never hurt the Person of any Man yet I resolve to pray daily and earnestly to God that he will reveal to me whatever I have done amiss and not suffer me through Ignorance to be impenitent and would forgive me both my known and unknown Sins and cleanse this Land from the Guilt of Blood § 56. Having inserted this much of the Case of History of those Times I now proceed to the Relation of the Passages of my own Life beginning where I left When I was at Kidderminster the Parliament made an Order for all the People to take a Protestation to defend the King's Person Honour and Authority the Power and Priviledges of Parliaments the Liberties of the Subject and the Protestant Religion against the common Enemy meaning the Papists the Irish Massacre and Threatnings occasioning this Protestation I obeyed them in joyning with the Magistrate in offering
close our Wounds whenever they are closed § 94. The King sending his final Answers to the Parliament the Parliament had a long Debate upon them whether to acquiesce in them as a sufficient Ground for Peace and many Members spake for resting in them and among others Mr. Prin went over all the King's Conscessions in a Speech of divers Hours long with marvellous Memory and shewed the Satisfactoriness of them all and after printed it So that the House voted that the King's Concessions were a sufficient Ground for a Personal Treaty with him and had suddenly sent a concluding Answer and sent for him up but at such a Crisis it was time for the Army to besâ—ir them Without any more ado Cromwell and his Confidents send Collonel Pride with a Party of Souldiers to the House and set a Guard upon the Door one Part of the House who were for them they let in another part they turned away and told them that they must not come there and the third part they imprisoned the soberest worthy Members of the House and all to prevent them from being true to their Oaths and Covenants and loyal to their King To so much Rebellion Perfideousness Perjury and Impudence can Error Selfishness and Pride of great Successes transport Men of the highest Pretences to Religion § 95. For the true understanding of all this it must be remembred that though in the beginning of the Parliament there was scarce a noted gross Sectary known but the Lord Brook in the House of Peers and young sir Henry Vane in the House of Commons yet by Degrees the Number of them increased in the Lower House Major Sallowey and some few more Sir Henry Vane had made his own Adherents Many more were carried part of the way to Independency and Liberty of Religions and many that minded not any side in Religion did think that it was no Policie ever to trust a conquered King and therefore were wholly for a Parliamentary Government Of these some would have Lords and Commons as a mixture of Aristocracie and Democracie and others would have Commons and Democracie alone and some thought that they ought to judge the King for all the Blood that had been shed And thus when the two Parts of the House were ejected and imprisoned this third part composed of the Vanists the Independants and other Sects with the Democratical Party was left by Cromwell to do his Business under the Name of the Parliament of England but by the People in Scorn commonly called The Rump of the Parliament The secluded and imprisoned Members published a Writing called their Vindication and some of them would afterwards have thrust into the House but the Guard of Soldiers kept them out and the Rump were called the Honest Men. And these are the Men that henceforward we have to do with in the Progress of our History as called The Parliament § 96. As the Lords were disaffected to these Proceedings so were the Rump and Soldiers to the Lords So that they passed a Vote supposing that the Army would stand by them to establish the Government without a King and House of Lords and so the Lords dissolved and these Commons sat and did all alone And being deluded by Cromwell and verily thinking that he would be for Democracie which they called a Commonwealth they gratified him in his Designs and themselves in their disloyal Distrusts and Fears and they caused a High Court of Justice to be erected and sent for the King from the Isle of Wight Collonel Hammond delivered him and to Westminster-Hall he came and refusing to own the Court and their Power to try him Cook as Attorney having pleaded against him Bradshaw as President and Judge recited the Charge and condemned him And before his own Gate at Whitehall they erected a Scaffold and before a full Assembly of People beheaded him Wherein appeared the Severity of God the Mutability and Uncertainty of Worldly Things and the Fruits of a sinful Nation 's Provocations and the infamous Effects of Error Pride and Selfishness prepared by Satan to be charged hereafter upon Reformation and Godliness to the unspeakable Injury of the Christian Name and Protestant Cause the Rejoicing and Advantage of the Papists the Hardning of Thousands against the Means of their own Salvation and the Confusion of the Actors when their Day is come § 97. The Lord General Fairfax all this while stood by and with high Resentment saw his Lieutenant do all this by tumultuous Souldiers tricked and over-powered by him neither being sufficiently upon his Guard to defeat the Intreagues of such an Actor nor having Resolution enough as yet to lay down the Glory of all his Conquests and for sake him But at the King's Death he was in wonderful Perplexities and when Mr. Colomy and some Ministers were sent for to resolve him and would have farther persuaded him to rescue the King his Troubles so confounded him that they durst let no Man speak to him And Cromwell kept him as it was said in praying and consulting till the Stroke was given and it was too late to make Resistance But not long after when War was determined against Scotland he laid down his Commission and never had to do with the Army more and Cromwell was General in his stead § 98. If you ask what did the Ministers all this while I answer they Preach'd and Pray'd against Disloyalty They drew up a Writing to the Lord General declaring their Abhorrence of all Violence against the Person of the King and urging him and his Army to take heed of such an unlawful Act They present it to the General when they saw the King in Danger But Pride prevailed against their Counsels § 99. The King being thus taken out of the way Cromwell takes on him to be for a Commonwealth but all in order to the Security of the good People till he had removed the other Impediments which were yet to be removed so that the Rump presently drew up a Form of Engagement to be put upon all Men viz. I do promise to be True and Faithful to the Commonwealth as it is now established without a King or House of Lords So we must take the Rump for an established Commonwealth and promise Fidelity to them This the Sectarian Party swallowed easily and so did the King's old Cavaliers so far as I was acquainted with them or could hear of them not heartily no doubt but they were very few of them sick of the Disease called tenderness of Conscience or Scrupulosity But the Presbyterians and the moderate Episcopal Men refused it and I believe so did the Prelatical Divines of the King's Party for the most part though the Gentlemen had greater Necessities Without this Engagement no Man must have the Benefit of suing another at Law which kept Men a little from Contention and would have marr'd the Lawyers trade nor must they have any Masterships in the Universities nor travel above so many Miles
is dangerous for Men to go against the concurrent Judgments of Casuists yea of their own Casuists in the Case of Vows And they know not how to save Subscription from the enmity of the determinations of Dr. Sanderson and all other ordinary Casuists And these are the general Reasons of their fear § 361. But I shall hear tell you what they grant about the obligation of the Covenant 1. They assert that it can bind no Man to any thing that is sinful 2. No nor to any thing that may hereafter be sinful nor from any thing that may be a Duty when it cometh to be such though it were neither Sin nor Duty at the making of the Vow 3. That it bindeth no Man therefore against Obedience to the King though the thing be in it self indifferent and was not commanded by the King when they vowed For if a Man might prevent the Commands of Prince or Parents by his own Vows he might free himself from his Obedience The Command of God to obey Kings and Rulers is antecedent to our Vows and above our Vows and cannot be evacuated or avoided by them Therefore if there be any indifferent thing in the Covenant I will obey the King if he command or forbid it contrary to the Covenant 4. That we take our selves bound by the Covenant to nothing but what is our Duty if there were not such Covenant Not that a Vow doth not bind a Man to things before indifferent We confess it doth But because this Vow included and intended nothing meerly indifferent For it is the Judgment of Protestants and so both of the Framers and the Takers of it that the use of a Vow is not to make new Dutus to our selves which God never made but to bind us to that which God had made our Duty before Else it is a taking of the Name of God in vain All the doubt therefore is but whether it be a secondary Obligation to that which God had before obliged us to So that there is no one Action materially whose doing or not doing we take to depend upon the Covenant's obligation primarily or alone nor do we imagine any thing to be our Duty which would not be so if the Covenant had never had a being 5. That if the Covenanters did then suppose that they were bound to defend and obey the Parliament in that War and to bring a contrary Party to punishment yet now there can be no place for any such Imagination because the Parliament is not in being the War and Difference of Parties is ended Cessante materia câ—ssat obligatio cessantibus personis rerum statu It is now past doubt that we are bound to obey the King and that there is none to stand in competition for our Obedience so that as a League with those persons it ceaseth with the persons 6. That if we had been allowed but to Subscribe That there is no Obligation to endeavour unlawfully or by any unlawful means We had not scrupled so disclaiming any Obligation as on our selves or any other Subjects Thus far there is no Controversie among us about the Covenant § 362. I come now to the Non-Subscribers particular Scruples which are such as these 1. They say That all Men confessing that an Oath or Vow is obligatory they must see good proof that this particular Vow is not so before they can exempt it from the common force of Vows But such proof they have never seen from Mr. Fullwood Mr. Sâ—â—â—man Dr. Gauden or any that hath attempted it and on whom it is incumbent but rather admire that Men of so great Judgment and Tenderness of Conscience should ever be satisfied with such halting Arguments which they had long ago more fully confuted if the Law had not forbidden them They herein argue as the Bishops in another Case Uncertainties must give place to Certainties caeteris paribus But they are certain in general that Vows are obligatory if materially lawful and they are uncertain that this Vow it materially unlawful and so not obligatory Ergo they dare not say that no Man is obliged by it § 363. 2. They say That all the World confesseth that a Vow obligeth 〈◊〉 necessariâ to that which is antecedently a Duty but they propound it to consideration whether all these things following which are in the Covenant are certainly no Duties antecedently 1. To endeavour in our several Places and Callings the preservation of the Reformed Religion 2. The Reformation of Worship Discipline and Church-Government according to the Word of God in England 3. To bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion 4. To endeavour the extirpation of not Episcopacy but Prelacy that is Church-Government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours Commissaries c. that is the fore described Frame Whether that Frame be so blameless as to be allowable I leave to their Judgments who have weighed what is before said 5. The Extirpation of Popery 6. To endeavour the Extirpation of Superstition 7. And of Heresie 8. And of Prophaneness 9. And of whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound Doctrine and the Power of Godliness 10. To endeavour with our Estates and Lives to defend the King's Majesty's Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms and not to diminish his Majesty's just Power and Greatness 11. To be humbled for our own sins and the sins of the Kingdoms 12. To amend our Lives and each one to go before another in the Example of a real Reformation If all these be not Duties let the question be Whether any one of them be a Duty And then Whether that which is antecedently a Duty by Divine Obligation be not further so by Self-obligation when it is vowed with an Oath Or whether a Vow bind not to a Duty But this is but by the by about the sence of the Imposers of Subscription exprest in the Corporation Act. But it is only the 〈◊〉 of Church Government which the present Controversie is about And if all that was said against our Prelacy on the first Controversie prove it a Duty to endeavour an alteration of the Church-Government then the Controversie is at an end § 364. 3. They say That all Men confess that an Oath and Vow is obligatory in a lawful matter though it were not antecedently necessary But whether in their Places and Callings to endeavour an alteration of the Church-Government be not lawful is the question Here 1. let it be observed what the matter of the Vow is 2. Who be the Persons whose Obligations are in question 1. The matter of the Vow was not to extirpate Episcopacy in general nor the Primitive Episcopacy in particular but only the fore described English Diocesan Prelacy in Specie which I prove beyond all denial 1. Because that which was not in being in England could not be extirpated out of England But it was
that was Governour of our Fort at Sheerness had not fortifyed it and deserted it And so they came up to Chatham and burnt some of our greatest Ships and took away some while we partly lookt on and partly resisted to no great purpose And had they but come up to London they might have done much more This cast us into a great consternation § 45. At this time the King came in person among the Citizens to perswade them not to desert him and made a Speech to them at Tower-Hill not here to be recited And he had now great Experience of the Loyalty of the Citizens who after such sufferings and under such pressures in matters of Conscience and of worldly Interest even in such extremity were neither proved to do or say any thing that was contrary to their fidelity to the King § 46. The firing of London which was most commonly suppos'd to be done by the Papists and the Wars with the French did raise greater Jealousies of the Papists than had appeared before so that weekly News came to London from many Counties that the Papists were gathering Horse and Arms and that some of them had got Troops under pretence of the Militia or Volunteers to be ready for our defence The Parliament hereupon declared themselves more against them than was expected which greatly troubled the Papists The Royalists in many Countries were almost ready to disarm them especially the E. of Derby in Lancashire was wholly true to the Protestant Interest Whereupon the Papists thought it policy to live more privately and to cease their oftentation and to obscure their Arms and Strength and to do their work in a more secret way And some of them Printed an Address to the Royalists to plead kindness and affinity of dispositions with them telling them that they hoped that they that had fought and suffered in one cause for the King against the Puritans should have continued in the same Union and Kindness and that they would not have been so much against them This was answered solidly by Dr. Loid And doubtless the Papists had never so great a dejection and disappointment since the King came in For they seemed to think that the Parliament and Royalists had been so distracted with malice and revenge against the Puritans as that they would have been content that London was burnt and would have done any thing that they would have them even against themselves their Countrey their Religion and Posterity so it had but favoured of that revenge But it proved otherwise § 47. Whilest that all these Calamities especially our loss and disgrace by the Dutch must be laid on some or other the Parliament at last laid all upon the Lord Chancellor Hide And the King was content it should be so Whereupon many Speeches were made against him and an Impeachment or Charge brought in against him and vehemently urged and among other things that he counselled the King to Rule by an Army which many thought as bad as he was he was the chief means of hindering And to be short when they had first sought his Life at last it was concluded that his banishment should satisfy for all And so he was banished by an Act during his Life The sale of Dunkirk to the French and a great comely House which he had new built increased the displeasure that was against him but there were greater Causes which I must not Name § 48. And it was a notable providence of God that this Man that had been the grand Instrument of State and done almost all and had dealt so cruelly with the Nonconformists should thus by his own friends be cast out and banished while those that he had persecuted were the most moderate in his Cause and many for him And it was a great ease that befell good people throughout the Land by his dejection For his way was to decoy men into Conspiracies or to pretend plots and when upon the rumour of a plot the innocent people of many Countries were laid in prison so that no man knew when he was safe Whereas since then tho Laws have been made more and more severe yet a Man knoweth a little better what to expect when it is by a Law that he is to be tryed And it is notable that he that did so much to make the Oxford Law for banishing Ministers from Corporations that took not that Oath doth in his Letter from France since his banishment say that he never was in favour since the Parliament Sat at Oxford § 49. Before this the Duke of Buckingham being the head of his Adversaries had been overtopt by him and was fain to hide himself till the Dutch put us in fear and then he appeared and rendered himself and went prisoner to the Tower but with so great Acclamations of the People in the Streets as was a great Discouragement to the Chancellor And the D. of Buckingham was quickly set at liberty Whereupon as the Chancellor had made himself the head of the Prelatical party who were all for setting up themselves by force and suffering none that were against them so Buckingham would now be the head of all those parties that were for liberty of Conscience For the Man was of no Religion but notoriously and professedly lustful And yet of greater wit and parts and sounder Principles as to the interest of Humanity and the Common good than most Lords in the Court Wherefore he Countenanced Fanaticks and Sectaries among others without any great suspicion because he was known to be so far from them himself Though he marryed the Daughter and only Child of the Lord Fairfax◠late General of the Parliament's Army and is his heir hereby yet far enough from his mind but yet a defender of the Priviledges of Humanity § 50. Before this also the Earl of Bristol had attempted to pull down the Chancellor and to bring in a Charge against him into the Parliament But the King soon quelled him And being a Papist he hath lain latent or quiet ever since as unfit to appear in publick businesses And Buckingham performed the Work § 51. In October following the Parliament gave thanks to the King for removing the Lord Chancellor But they were vehement in seeking an account of the Moneys which have been granted for the publick service and also to have an account of the business at Chatham by whose fault it was that the Dutch were unresisted and surprized our shipping And Committees were appointed for these purposes and a great deal of talk and stir was made about them for a long time but they could never attain their ends but they that were faulty had friends enow to procure their security And tho the Parliament grudged at it and sometimes talkt high yet this made no alteration in our Affairs § 52. One notable disadvantage which we had by the Dutch attempt was that it drew down our new raised In-land Souldiers into Kent towards Sherness where the unhealthful Air
his Conscience to baptize any Child who is not thus offered to God by one of the Parents or by such a pro parent as taketh the Child for his own and undertaketh the Christian Education Be it also Enacted that no person shall be constrained against his Conscience to the use of the Cross in Baptism or of the Surplice nor any Minister to deny the Lord's Supper to any for not receiving it kneeling nor read any of the Apocrypha for Lessons nor to punish any Excommunication or Absolution against his Conscience but the Bishop or Chancellour who decreeth it shall cause such to publish it as are not dissatisfyed so to do or shall only affix it on the Church-Door Nor shall any Minister be constrained at Burial to speak only words importing the salvation of any person who within a year received not the Sacrament of Communion or was suspended from it according to the Rubrick or Canon and satisfyed not the Minister of his serious Repentance III. And whereas many persons having been ordained as Presbyters by Parochial Pastors in the times of Usurpation and Distraction hath occasioned many Difficulties for the present remedy hereof be it Enacted That all such persons as before this time have been ordained as Presbyters by Parochial Pastors only and are qualifyed for that Office as the Law requireth shall receive power to exercise it from a Bishop by a written Instrument which every Bishop in his Diocess is hereby impowered and required to Grant in these words and no other To A. B. of C. in the Country of D. Take thou Authority to exercise the Office of a Presbyter in any place and Congregation in the King's Dominions whereto thou shall be lawfully called And this practice sufficing for present Concord no one shall be put to declare his Judgment whether This or That which he before received shall be taken for his Ordination nor shall be urged to speak any words of such signification but each party shall be left to Judge as they see cause IV. And whereas the piety of Families and Godly Converse of Neighbours is a great means of preserving Religion and Sobriety in the World and lest the Act for suppressing seditious Conventicles should be mis-interpreted as injurious thereto be it declared that it is none of the meaning of the said Act to forbid any such Family Piety or Converse tho more then four Neighbours should be peaceably present at the Reading of the Scriptures or a Licensed Book the singing of a Psalm repeating of the publick Sermons or any such Exercise which neither the Laws nor Canons do forbid they being performed by such as joyn with the allowed Church-Assemblies and refuse not the Inspection of the Ministers of the Parish Especially where persons that cannot read are unable to do such things at home as by Can. 13. is enjoyned V. And whereas the form of the Oath and Declaration imposed on persons of Office and Trust in Corporations is unsatisfactory to many that are Loyal and peaceable that our Concord may extend to Corporations as well as Churches Be it Enacted That the taking of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Declaration against Religion and Disloyalty here before prescribed shall to all Ends and purposes suffice instead of the said Oath and Declaration VI. And whereas there are many peaceable Subjects who hold all the Essentials of the Christian Faith but conform not to so much as is required to the Established Ministry and Church-Communion Be it Enacted that All and only they who shall publickly take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy before some Court of â—ustice or at the Open Sessions of the County where they live and that then and there Subscribe as followeth I. A. B. do unfeâ—gnedly stand to my Baptismal Covenant and do believe all the Articles of the Creeds called the Apostles the Nicene and Constantinopolitane and the truth of the holy Canonical Scriptures and do renounce all that 〈◊〉 contrary hereto shall be so far tolerated in the Excercise of their Religion as His Majesty with the advice of his Parliament or Council shall from time to time find consistent with the peace and safety of his Kingdoms VII And lest this Act for Concord should occasion Discord by emboldening unpeaceable and unruly or heretical men be it enacted that if any either in the allowed or the Tolerated Assemblies that shall pray or Preach Rebellion Sedition or against the Government or Liturgy of the Church or shall break the Peace by tumults or otherwise or stir up unchristian hatred and strife or shall preach against or otherwise oppose the Christan verities or any Article of the sacred Doctrine which they subscribe or any of the 39. Articles of Religion they shall be punished as by the Laws against such Offences is already provided I will here also Annex the Copies of some Petitions which I was put to draw up which never were presented I. The first was intended while the Parliament was sitting to have been offered but wise Parliament-Men thought it was better forbear it II. The second was thought fit for some Citizens to have offered but by the same Councel it was forborn III. The third was thus occasioned Sir Iohn Babor told Dr. Manton that the Scots being then suspected of some insurrection it was expected that we renewed the profession of our Loyalty to free us from all suspicion of Conspiracy with them We said that it seemed hard to us that we should fall under suspicion and no cause alledged We knew of no occasion that we had given But we were ready to profess our continued Loyalty but desired that we might with it open our just resentment of our Case They put me to draw it up but when it was read it was laid by none daring to plead our Cause so freely and signify any sense of our hard usage I. May it Please Your Majesty with the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament WHen the Common profession of resolved moderation had abated Men's fears of a Silencing Prelacy and the published Declarations of Nobilitie and Gentry against all dividing violence and revenge had helpt to unite the endeavours of Your Subjects which prospered for Your Majestie 's desired Restoration when God's wonderful providence had dissolved the Military Powers of Usurpers which hindered it and when Your welcome appearance Your Act of Oblivion Your Gracious Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs for which the House of Commons solemnly gave you thanks did seem to have done much to the Cure of our Divisions we had some hopes that our common revived Love and Concord would have tended to Your Majesty's and our common joy in the harmony strength and prosperity of Your Kingdoms and that we might among your inferiour Subjects have enjoyed our part in the common tranquility But the year 1662. dissolved those hopes fixing our old Difficulties and adding more which since then also have been much increased Beeing consecrated and vowed to the sacred Ministry we
Hostility is Disunion and Dissolution Therefore no Head or Soveraign hath power to destroy or sight against his Kingdom nor any Common-wealth or Kingdom against their King or Soveraign Rulers unless in any case the Law of Nature and Nations which is above all Humane Positive Laws should make the dissolution of the Republick to become a Duty As if some Republick should cast off the Essential Principles of Society By Law neither King nor Kingdom may destroy or hurt each other For the Governing Laws suppose their Union as the Constitution and the Common good with the due Welfare of the Soveraign is the end of Government which none have power against But it must be noted that the words are against the King and not against the King's Will for if his Will be against his Welfare his Kingdom or his Laws though that Will be signified by his Commissioners the Declaration disclaimeth not the resisting of such a Will by Arms. 3. And if there be any that assert that the King's Authority giveth them right to take up Arms against his Person or Lawful Commissions it must needs be a False and Traiterous Assertion For if his Person may be Hostilely fought against the Common-wealth may be dissolved which the Law cannot suppose for all Laws die with the Common-wealth And it is a contradiction to be authorized by him to resist by Arms his Commissions which are according to Law For the Authority pretended to be his must be his Laws or Commissions and to be Authorized by his Laws or Commissions to resist his Laws must signifie that his Laws are contradictory when by one we must resist another But so far as they are contradictory both cannot be Laws or Lawful Commissions For one of them must needs nullifie the other either by Fundamental Priority or by Posteriority signifying a Repeal of the other And it must be noted that yet the Trayterous Position medleth not with the Question of taking Arms against the King's Person or Commissioners by the Law of God of Nature or of Nations but only of doing it by his own Authority 4. And that it is not lawful to take Arms against any Commissioned by him according to Law in time of Rebellion and War in pursuance of such Commission is a Truth so evident that no sober Persons can deny it The Long Parliament that had the War did vehemently assert it and therefore gave out their Commissions to the Earl of Essex and his Soldiers to fight against Delinquent Subjects for the King and Parliament 5. And the Oath containeth no more than our not endeavouring to Alter the Protestant Religion established or the King's Government or Monarchy It cannot with any true reason be supposed to tie us at all to the Bishops-much less to the English Disease or Corruption of Episcopacy or to Lay-Chancel lours c. but only to the King as Supreme in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil so far as they fall under Coercive Government This is thus proved past denyal 1. The word Protestant Religion as estalished in the Church of England cannot include the Prelacy For 1. The Protestant Religion is essentially nothing but the Christian Religion as such with the disclaiming of Popery aud so our Divines have still professed But our Prelacy is no part of the Christian Religion 2. The Protestant Religion is common to us with many Countreys which have no Prelacy And it is the same Religion with us and them 3. The words of the Oath distinguish the Religion of the Church of England from the Church of England it self and from Government 4. If Episcopacy in general were proved part of the Protestant Religion the English Accidents and Corruptions are not so They that say that Episcopacy is Iure Divino and unalterable do yet say that National and Provincial Churches are Iure Humano and that so is a Diocesane as it is distinct from Parochial containing many Parishes in it And if the King should set up a Bishop in every Market-Town yea every Parish and put down Diocesanes it is no more than what he may do And if by the Protestant Religion established should be meant every alterable mode or circumstance then King-James changed it when he made a new Translation of the Bible and both he and our late Convocation and King and Parliament by their Advice did change it when they added new Forms of Prayer And then this Oath bindeth all from endeavouring to make any alteration in the Liturgie or mend the Translation or the Metre of the Psalms c. or to take the keys of Excommunication and Absolution out of the hands of the Lay-Chancellour's c. which none can reasonably suppose 2. And that our Prelacy is not at all included in the word Government of the Kingdom in Church and State but only the King 's Supreme Government in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil is most evident 1. Because it is expressly said The Government of the Kingdom which is all one with the Government of the King For a Bishop or a Justice or a Mayor is no Governour of the Kingdom but only in the Kingdom of a Particular Church City Corporation or Division The summa potestas only is the Government of the Kingdom as a Kingdom And because forma denominat we cannot take the Kingdom to signifie only a Church or City 2. Because else it would change the very constitution of the Kingdom by making all the inferiour Officers unalterable and so to be essential constitutive parts Whereas only the pars Imperans and pars Subdita are constitutive parts of every Kingdom or Republick and the Constitutive pars Imperans is only the summa potestas except where the mixture and fundamental Contract is such as that Inferiour Officers are woven so into the Constitution as that they may not be changed without it's Dissolution which is hardly to be supposed even at Venice Tbe Oaths between the summa potestas and the Subject are the bonds of the Commonwealth their Union being the form that must not be dissolved But to make Oaths of Allegiance or Unchangeableness â—each to the Inferiour Magistrates or Officers is to change the Government or Constitution 3. And so it destroyeth the Regal power in one of it's chief properties or prerogatives which is to alter inferiour Officers who all receive their power from the Supreme and are alterable by him even by the Majestas which hath the Legislative powers And this would take away all the King's power to alter so much as a Mayor Justice or Constable For mark that Government of the Kingdom in Church and State are set equally together without any note of difference as to alteration If therefore it extend to any but the Supreme even to inferiour Officers it were to extend to them as Governing the State even to the lowest as well as the Church But this is a supposition to be Contemned 4. And if the Distinction should be meant de personis Imperantibus and should
no Acts of Government but the Parliament in being should continue or if none then were that which last was should be in power and exercise all the Government in the Name of the King This offer took much with many but most said that it signifyed nothing For Papists have easily Dispensations to take any Tests or Oaths and Queen Mary's case shewed how Parliaments will serve the Prince's will § 39. Divers Papists turned from them to the Protestants upon the Detection of their wickedness and bloody Principles and minds And among others Mr. Hutchinson that called himself Berry against whom I lately wrote He first wrote for the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and after forsook them seemingly for a time § 40. When I had written my Book against Mr. Gale's Treatise for Predetermination and was intending to Print it the good man fell sick of a Consumption and I thought it meet to suspend the publication lest I should grieve him and increase his sickness of which he dyed And that I might not obscure God's Providence about sin I wrote and preached two Sermons to shew what great and excellent things God doth in the World by the occasion of Man's sin And verily it is wonderful to observe that in England all Parties Prelatical first Independents Anabaptists especially Papists have been brought down by themselves and not by the wit and strength of their Enemies and we can hardly discern any footsteps of any of our own Endeavours wit or power in any of our Late Deliverances but our Enemies wickedness and bloody Designs have been the occasion of almost all Yea the Presbyterians themselves have suffered more by the dividing effects of their own Covenant and their unskilfulness in healing the Divisions between them and the Independents and Anabaptists and the Episcopal than by any strength that brought them down tho since men's wrath hath troden them as in the dirt § 41. In April I finished a Treatise of the only way of Union and Concord among all Christian Churches In three parts 1. Of the Nature and Reasons of Union an Concord 2. Of the true and only Terms 3. Of the Nature of Schism and the false Terms on which the Church will never unite § 42. Two years ago by the Consent of many Ministers I Printed one Writing called the Judgment of Nonconformists concerning the Parts or Office of Reason in Religion which having good acceptance by the same Men's consent I yielded to the Printing of three more one of the difference between Grace and Morality Another called the Nonconformists Judgment about things indifferent commanded by Authority And another What Nonconformity is not disclaiming several false Imputations To which I added a 4th of Scandal But when they were Printed some of our Political friends in Parliament and else where were against the publishing of them saying they would increase our sufferings by exasperating or offend some Sectaries that dislike some words And so I was put to pay 23 l. for the printing of them and suppress them § 43. I wrote also Divers Treatises of Nonconformity One opening their case by a multitude of Quere's Another by way of History and Assertion specially vindicating them from the Charge of Schism Another to prove it their duty to continue preaching tho forbidden c. § 44. The Earl of Argyle told me that being in company with some very great men one of them said that he went once to hear Mr. Baxter preach and he said nothing but what might beseem the King's Chappel and concluded that it was his Judgment that I ought to be beaten with many stripes because it could not be through ignorance but meer faction that I conformed not And the Bishops and Clergy to this day make unstudied Noble Men and Gentlemen believe that we confess all to be lawful and meer Inconveniences which we deny Conformity to O inhumane Impudence A Plot of Satan to tempt men never more to believe Clergy men's History Hereupon the said Earl of Argyle after many others desiring me to write down the points that we deny Conformity to I wrote 1. The case of the Nonconformists in a brief History 2. An Index of about 40 or 50 of the points that we cannot conform to but barely naming them without proof to avoid prolixity which may expose them to any Pretender's Confutation And at the importunity of a friend this week May 2. I permitted the shewing them to the Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Barlow who is a Man firmly zealous against Popery of great Reading and Learning long a publick Professor of Divinity in Oxford and esteemed of as equal at least with the best of the Bishops And yet told my friend that got my Papers for him that he could hear of nothing that we judged to be sin but meer inconveniences When as above 17 years ago we publickly endeavoured to prove the sinfulness even of many of the old Impositions and our petition for peace was printed in which we solemnly professed that nothing should hinder us from Conformity did we not believe it to be sin against God and endangering our salvation Yet thus talk the best and Learnedest of them as if they had dwelt a thousand Miles from us and had never heard our Case Some would persuade us that they are all meer hardened impudent Worldlings that know all to be Lies which they thus speak But I am persuaded that this is too hard Censure and that some yea many of the Clergy think as they thus speak because the Schism of the Age doth make them meer strangers to us knowing little more of our minds than what they hear from one another by such Reports And yet we never had leave to speak or write our Case to tell men what it is that we think sin in the New-Conformity much less to give our Reasons § 45. The firing fury going on still God leaving the Papists to self-destroying madness on Friday night May 9. Some Papist prisoners bribing the Porter they set the prison on fire and burnt much of it down the Porter and they escaping together which put the Parliament to appoint the drawing up of a stricter Law to prevent more firing But what can Laws do to it § 46. On the Lord's day May 11th 1679. The Commons sate extraordinarily and agreed in two Votes first that the Duke of York was uncapable of succeeding in the Imperial Crown of England 2. That they would stand by the King and the Protestant Religion with their Lives and Fortunes and if the King came to a violent Death which God forbid would be revenged on the Papists § 47. The Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews in Scotland Iames Sharp was Murdered this Month. The Actors a Servant hardly used by him or a Tenant drew in some Confederates since suffered § 48. The Parliament shortly dissolved while they insisted on the tryal of the Lord Treasurer § 49. The Scots being forbidden to preach and Meet in the open Fields being led by a few rash
est ut res ita tempora rerum c. The Lord Bacon nameth Four Causes of Atheism 1. Many Divisions in Religion 2. The Scandal of Priests 3. A Custom of Prophane Scoffing about Holy Matters 4. Corrupting prosperity Essay 16. p. 91. * Mr. Mitchel as it s said And since this Mr. Elliot of New-England hath sent me a printed Paper of his own contriving a Healing Form of Synods for constant Communion of particular Churches * This is since published She is since married to the Earl of Argyle * Of what is since published see after-ward * Since printed twice * Since printed Since printed as Directions for weak Christians * Now dead * Publisht since the Author's Death by Mr. Ios. Read * Since Printed * Since Printed * Archbishop Bilâ—on frequently and fully professeth See this matter fully cleared in Le Blancis Thesis * 〈…〉 In the Appendâ—x Pardon the tediousness of three or four Sections which repeat some of that which was mentioned before because it is here put in as part of my Pacificatory Endeavours only Though the Conjunction of the matter caused me to speak together of these things yet the matter of this Section and the following was for time about two or three Years after that which followeth In Ian. 1659. the Committee of Parliament the Rump as they were called Voted Liberty of Religion for all not excepting Papists Feb. 28. 1655 6. * This Writing being some how or other mistard cannot as yet be found March 10. 16â—9 A Petition was sent up from Worcestershire to have 〈◊〉 the Long Parliament â—ate till they had done that for King and Church and Country which they were restored for But it was not delivered because Mâ—â—k that recalled them was otherwise benâ— March 16. The Long Parliament â—â—â—tlolâ—ed it self March 25. Dr. Hammond died The last Day of April 1660. I preached to the Parliament May 1. 1660. the Parliament owned the King and voted his Recall This was in the end of Nov. 1660. Iune 25. 1660. I was Sworn the King's Chaplain in Ordinary This was put in because the serious practice of Religion had been made the common Scorn and a few Christians praying or repeating a Sermon together had been persecuted by some Prelates as a heinous Crime This was added because we knew what had been done and was like to be done again This was added because that the utter neglect of Discipline by the over-hot Prelates had caused all our Perplexities and Confusions and in this Point is the chiefest part of our Difference with them indeed and not about Ceremonies This was added because abundance of Ministers had been cast out in the Prelates Days for not reading publickly a Book which allowed Dancing and such Sports on the Lord's Day a a The Form of ordering of Priests b b Ibidem Acts 20 17 18. * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so taken Matth. 2. 6. Rev. 12. â— 19. 15 c c Rev. 2. 1. e e Ibidem etiam exhortationes castigationes censurae divinae nam indicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu summumque futuri Iudicii praejudicium esse Si quis ita deliquerit ut a communione orationis conventus omnis Sancti commercii relegatur Praesident probati quique seniores hoc norem istum non precio sed testimonio adepti Tert. Apol. Cap. 39. f f Nec de aliorum manibus quam praesidentium sumimus idem de corona militis Cap. 3. g g Dandi quidem baptismi habet jus Summus Sacerdos qui est Episcopus desint Presbyteri Diaconi Idem de Baptismo Cap. 17. h h Omni actu ad me periâ—to 〈◊〉 coâ—trahi Presbyterium Cornel apud Cyprian Epis. 46. i i Florentissimâ— illi clero lecum praesidenti Cyprian Epist. 55. ad Cornel. k k Vt Episcopus nullus caâ—â—sam audiat absque presentiâ clericorum suorum alioquin irrita erit sententia Episcopi nisi clericorum presentiâ confirmetur Concil Carthag 4. Cap. 23. l l Encerption Egberti Cap. 43. m m 15. qu. 7. Cap. Nullus The Parochial Government answerable to the Church-Session in Scotland The Presbyterical or Monthly Synods answerable to the Scottish Presbytery or Ecclesiastical Meeting Diocesane Synods answerable to the provincial Synods in Scotland * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Superintendentes unde nomen Episcopi tractum est Hieron Epist. 85. ad Evagrium See Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions and our 39 Articles This is spoken of the Old Common Prayer Book and not of the New where the Doctrine in point of Infants Salvation is changed All this enclosed part was left out of the Petition as presented to his Majesty This only being inserted in the room of it And on the contrary should we lose the Opportunity of our desired Reconciliation and Union it astonisheth us to foresee what doleful Effects our Divisions would produce which we will not so much as mention in particulars lest our Words should be misunderstood And seeing all this may safely and easily now be prevented we humbly beseech the Lord in Mercy to vouchsafe to your Majesty an Heart to discern a right of Time and Judgment * * This was thus expressed in the Petition that was presented not presuming to meddle with the Consciences of those many of the Nobility and Gentry c. ††What follows in this double inclosure was omitted in the Copy presented this only being inserted in the room of it We only crave your Majesty's Clemency to our selves and others who believe themselves to be under its Obligations And God forbid that we that are Ministers of the Word of Truth should do any thing to encourage your Majesty's Subjects to cast off the Conscience of an Oath * * This enclosed part was quite left out of the Copy that was presented * Dr. Wallis Declar. p. 11. p. 11. p. 11. p. 12. p. 12. p. 12. p. 12. p. 13. p. 14. This occasioned Mr. Durel after to say how hardly I was persuaded to let go the Place * But since it is licensed and printed called Directions for weak Christians c. Mr. Hales * Since Bishops of Chester Ely and Norwich upon enquiry of the Inhabitants since I understand that it is no such thing but that Aylesbury was well supplied either by a setled Incumbent or the Preacher of the Garison For somewhat the like Passage see Rushw. Hist. Callect 3 part Vol. 1. 134. Our Arguments Their Answer Note this great Bishop's Acquaintance with Antiquity * Here we had a great Debate they should have proved their penal Imposition lawful but I could get them to no more * This was a mistake in the Speaker or the Scribe * Frewen * Since of his death he made it his request that the ejected Ministers might be used again but his request was rejected by them that had overwitted him as being too late * Referring to something that past
poor Plowmen understood but little of these Matters but a little would stir up their Discontent when Money was demanded But it was the more intelligent part of the Nation that were the great Complainers Insomuch that some of them denied to pay the Ship-money and put the Sheriffs to distrain the Sheriffs though afraid of a future Parliament yet did it in obedience to the King Mr. Hampden and the Lord Say brought it to a Suit where Mr. Oliver St. Iohn and other â—Lawyers boldly pleaded the Peoples Cause The King had before called all the Judges to give their Opinions Whether in a Case of need he might impose such a Tax or not And all of them gave their Opinion for the Affirmative except Judge Hatton and Judge Crook The Judgment passed for the King against Mr. Hampden But this made the Matter much more talk of throughout the Land and considered of by those that thought not much of the Importance of it before § 25. Some suspected that many of the Nobility of England did secretly Consederate with the Scots so far as to encourage them to come into England thinking that there was no other way to cause the Calling of a Parliament which was the thing that now they bent their minds to as the Remedy of these things The Earl of Essex the Earl of Warwick the Earl of Bedford the Earl of Clare the Earl of Bullingbrook the Earl of Mulgrave the Earl of Holland the Lord Say the Lord Brook and I know not how many more were said to be of this Conâ—ederacy But Heylin himself hath more truly given you the History of this That the Scots after they came in did perswade these Men of their own danger in England if Arbitrary Government went on and so they petitioned the King for a Parliament which was all their Consederacy and this was after their second Coming into England The Scots came with an Army and the King's Army met them near Newcastle but the Scots came on till an Agreement was made and a Parliament called and the Scots went home again But shortly after this Parliament so displeased the King that he Dissolved it and the War against the Scots was again undertaken to which besides others the Papists by the Queens means did voluntarily contribute whereupon the Scots complain of evil Counsels and Papists as the cause of their renewed dangers and again raise an Army and come into England And the English at York petition the King for a Parliament and once more it is resolved on and an Agreement made but neither the Scottish or English Army disbanded And thus began the Long Parliament as it was after called § 26. The Et caetera Oath was the first thing that threatned me at Bridgenorth and the second was the passage of the Earl of Bridgwater Lord President of the Marches of Wales through the Town in his Journey from Ludlow to the King in the North For his coming being on Saturday Evening the most malicious persons of the Town went to him and told him that Mr. Madestard and I did not sign with the Cross nor wear the Surplice nor pray against the Scots who were then upon their Entrance into England and for which we had no Command from the King but a printed Form of Prayer from the Bishops The Lord President told them That he would himself come to Church on the morrow and see whether we would do these things or not Mr. Madestard went away and left Mr. Swain the Reader and my self in the danger But after he had spoken for his Dinner and was ready to go to Church the Lord President suddenly changed his purpose and went away on the Lord's Day as far as Lichfield requiring the Accusers and the Bailiffs to send after him to inform him what we did On the Lord's Day at Evening they sent after him to Lichfield to tell him that we did not conform but though they boasted of no less than the hanging of us they received no other Answer from him but that he had not the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and therefore could not meddle with us but if he had he should take such order in the business as were fit And the Bailiffs and Accusers had no more wit than to read his Letter to me that I might know how they were baffled Thus I continued in my Liberty of preaching the Gospel at Bridgenorth about a year and three quarters where I took my Liberty though with very little Maintenance to be a very great mercy to me in those troublesome times § 27. The Parliament being sate did presently fall on that which they accounted Reformation of Church and State and which greatly displeased the King as well as the Bishops They made many long and vehement Speeches against the Ship-money and against the Judges that gave their Judgment for it and against the Et caetera Oath and the Bishops and Convocation that were the formers of it but especially against the Lord Thomas Wentworth Lord Deputy of Ireland and Dr. Laud Archbishop of Canterbury as the evil Counsellers who were said to be the Cause of all These Speeches were many of them printed and greedily bought up throughout the Land especially the Lord Falklands the Lord Digbies Mr. Grimstones Mr. Pims Mr. Nath. Fiennes c. which greatly increased the Peoples Apprehension of their Danger and inclined them to think hardly of the King's Proceedings but especially of the Bishops Particular Articles of Accusation were brought in against the Lord Deputy the Archbishop the Judges Bishop Wren Bishop Pierce and divers others The Concord of this Parliament consisted not in the Unanimity of the Persons for they were of several Tempers as to Matters of Religion but in the Complication of the Interest of those Causes which they severally did most concern themselves in For as the King had at once imposed the Ship-money on the Common-wealth and permitted the Bishops to impose upon the Church their displeasing Articles and bowing towards the Altar and the Book for Dancing on the Lord's Day and the Liturgy on Scotland c. and to Suspend or Silence abundance of Ministers that were conformable for want of this Super-canonical Conformity so accordingly the Parliament consisted of two sorts of Men who by the Conjunction of these Causes were united in their Votes and Endeavours for a Reformation One Party made no great matter of these Alterations in the Church but they said That if Parliaments were once down and our Propriety gone and Arbitrary Government set up and Law subjected to the Prince's Will we were then all Slaves and this they made a thing intolerable for the remedying of which they said every true English Man could think no price to dear These the People called Good Commonwealth's Men. The other sort were the more Religious Men who were also sensible of all these things but were much more sensible of the Interest of Religion and these most inveyed against the Innovations in the
in to the King's Standard whereas the Londoners quickly fill'd up a gallant Army for the Earl of Essex and the Citizens abundantly brought in their Money and Plate yea the Women their Rings to Guildhall to pay the Army Hereupon the King sent to the Parliament from Nottingham the Offer of a Treaty with some General Proposals which in my Opinion was the likeliest Opportunity that ever the Parliament had for a full and safe Agreement and the King seemed very serious in it and the lowness of his Condition upon so much Trial of his People was very like to have wrought much with him But the Parliament was perswaded that he did it but to get time to fill up his Army and to hinder their Proceedings and therefore accepted not of his Offer for a Treaty but instead of it sent him Nineteen Proposals of their own viz. That if he would Disband his Army come to his Parliament give up Delinquents to a Legal Course of Justice c. he should find them dutiful c. And the King published an Answer to these Nineteen Propositions in which he affirmeth the Government to be mixt having in it the best of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and that the Legislative Power is in the King Lords and Commons conjunct and that the Lords are a sufficient skreen to hinder the King from wronging the Commons and to keep off Tyranny c. And he adhereth only to the Law which giveth him the power of the Militia Out of this Answer of the King 's to these Nineteen Proposals some one drew up a Political Catechism wherein the Answers of every Question were verbatim the words of the King's Declaration as if therein he had fully justified the Parliaments Cause The great Controversie now was the present power of the Militia The King said that the Supreme Executive Power and particularly the Power of the Militia did belong to him and not to the Parliament and appealed to the Law The Parliament pleaded that as the Execution of Justice against Delinquents did belong to him but this he is bound by Law to do by his Courts of Justice and their Executions are to be in his Name and by a Stat. Edw. 3. if the King by the Little Seal or the Great Seal forbid a Judge in Court to perform his Office he is nevertheless to go on Also that for the Defence of his Kingdoms against their Enemies the Militia is in his power but not at all against his Parliament and People whom Nature it self forbiddeth to use their Swords against themselves And they alledged most the present danger of the Kingdoms Ireland almost lost Scotland disturbed England threatned by the Irish and the Ruine of the Parliament sought by Delinquents whom they said the King through evil Counsel did protect And that they must either secure the Militia or give up the Protestant Religion the Laws and Liberties of the Land and their own Necks to the Will of Papists and Delinquents § 49. And because it is my purpose here not to write a full History of the Calamities and Wars of those Times but only to remember such Generals with the Reasons and Connexion of Things as may best make the state of those Times understood by them that knew it not personally themselves I shall here annex a brief Account of the Country's Case about these Differences not as a Justifier or Detender of the Assertions or Reasons or Actions of either Party which I rehearse but only in faithfulness Historically to relate things as indeed they were And 1. It is of very great moment here to understand the Quality of the Persons which adhered to the King and to the Parliament with their Reasons A great part of the Lords forsook the Parliament and so did many of the House of Commons and came to the King but that was for the most of them after Edghill Fight when the King was at Oxford A very great part of the Knights and Gentlemen of England in the several Counties who were not Parliament Men adhered to the King except in Middlesex Essex Suffolk Norfolk Cambridgeshire c. where the King with his Army never came And could he have got footing there it 's like that it would have been there as it was in other places And most of the Tenants of these Gentlemen and also most of the poorest of the People whom the other called the Rabble did follow the Gentry and were for the King On the Parliaments side were besides themselves the smaller part as some thought of the Gentry in most of the Counties and the greatest part of the Tradesmen and Free-holders and the middle sort of Men especially in those Corporations and Countries which depend on Clothing and such Manufactures If you ask the Reasons of this Difference ask also why in France it is not commonly the Nobility nor the Beggars but the Merchants and middle sort of Men that were Protestants The Reasons which the Party themselves gave was Because say they the Tradesmen have a Correspondency with London and so are grown to be a far more Intelligent sort of Men than the ignorant Peasants that are like Bruits who will follow any that they think the strongest or look to get by And the Freeholders say they were not enslaved to their Landlords as the Tenants are The Gentry say they are wholly by their Estates and Ambition more dependent on the King than their Tenants on them and many of them envied the Honour of the Parliament because they were not chosen Members themselves The other side said That the Reason was because the Gentry who commanded their Tenants did better understand Affairs of State than half-witted Tradesmen and Freeholders do But though it must be confessed That the Publick Safety and Liberty wrought very much with most especially with the Nobility and Gentry who adhered to the Parliament yet was it principally the differences about Religious Matters that filled up the Parliaments Armies and put the Resolution and Valour into their Soldiers which carried them on in another manner than mercenary Soldiers are carried on Not that the Matter of Bishops Or no Bishops was the main thing for Thousands that wished for Good Bishops were on the Parliaments side though many called it Bellum Episcopale And with the Scots that was a greater part of the Controversie But the generality of the People through the Land I say not all or every one who were then called Puritans Precisions Religious Persons that used to talk of God and Heaven and Scripture and Holiness and to follow Sermons and read Books of Devotion and pray in their Families and spend the Lord's Day in Religious Exercises and plead for Mortification and serious Devotion and strict Obedience to God and speak against Swearing Cursing Drunkenness Prophaneness c. I say the main Body of this sort of Men both Preachers and People adhered to the Parliament And on the other side the Gentry that were not so precise and
Reputation of his Word and Cause Major General Skippon fighting valiantly was here dangerously wounded but afterwards recovered The King's Army was utterly lost by the taking of Leicester for by this means it was gone so far from his own Garrisons that his Flying Horse could have no place of Retreat but were utterly scattered and brought to nothing The King himself fled to Lichfield and it is reported that he would have gone to Shrewsbury his Council having never suffered him to know that it was taken till now and so he went to Rayland Caâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 which was a strong Hold and the House of the Marquess of 〈◊〉 a Papist where his Dispute with the Marquess was said to be which Dr. Baâ—ly published and then turned Papist and which Mr. Christopher Cartright continued deâ—ending the King Fairfax's Army pursued to Leicester where the wounded Men and some others stayed with the Garrison in a day or two's time the Town was re-taken And now I am come up to the Passage which I intended of my own going into the Army § 73. Naâ—â—by being not far from Coventry where I was and the noise of the Victory being loud in our Ears and I having two or three that of old had been my intimate Friends in Cromwell's Army whom I had not seen of above two Years I was desirous to go see whether they were dead or alive and so to Naseby Field I went two days after the sight and thence by the Armies Quarters before Leicester to seek my Acquaintance When I found them I stayed with them a Night and I understood the state of the Army much better than ever I had done before We that lived quietly in Coventry did keep to our old Principles and thought all others had done so too except a very few inconsiderable Persons We were unfeignedly for King and Parliament We believed that the War was only to sive the Parliament and Kingdom from Papists and Delinquents and to remove the Dividers that the King might again return to his Parliament and that no Changes might be made in Religion but by the Laws which had his free consent We took the true happiness of King and People Church and State to be our end and so we understood the Covenant engaging both against Papists and Schismaticks And when the Court News-book told the World of the Swarms of Anabaptists in our Armies we thought it had been a meer lye because it was not so with us nor in any of the Garrison or County-Forces about us But when I came to the Army among Cromwell's Soldiers I found a new face of things which I never dreamt of I heard the plotting Heads very hot upon that which intimated their Intention to subvert both Church and State Independency and Anabaptistry were most prevalent Antinomianism and Arminianism were equally distributed and Thomas Moor's Followers a Weaver of Wisbitch and Lyn of excellent Parts had made some shifts to joyn these two Extreams together Abundance of the common Troopers and many of the Officers I found to be honest sober Orthodox Men and others tractable ready to hear the Truth and of upright Intentions But a few proud self-conceited hot-headed Sectaries had got into the highest places and were Cromwell's chief Favourites and by their very heat and activity bore down the rest or carried them along with them and were the Soul of the Army though much fewer in number than the rest being indeed not one to twenty throughout the Army their strength being in the Generals and Whalleys and Rich's Regiments of Horse and in the new placed Officers in many of the rest I perceived that they took the King for a Tyrant and an Enemy and really intended absolutely to master him or to ruine him and that they thought if they might fight against him they might kill or conquer him and if they might conquer they were never more to trust him further than he was in their power and that they thought it folly to irritate him either by Wars or Contradictions in Parliament if so be they must needs take him for their King and trust him with their Lives when they had thus displeased him They said What were the Lords of England but William the Conquerour's Colonels or the Barons but his Majors or the Knights but his Captains They plainly shewed me that they thought God's Providence would cast the Trust of Religion and the Kingdom upon them as Conquerours They made nothing of all the most wise and godly in the Armies and Garrisons that were not of their way Per fas aut nefas by Law or without it they were resolved to take down not only Bishops and Liturgy and Ceremonies but all that did withstand their way They were far from thinking of a moderate Episcopacy or of any healing way between the Episcopal and the Presbyterians They most honoured the Separatists Anabaptists and Antinomians but Cromwell and his Council took on them to joyn themselves to no Party but to be for the Liberty of all Two sorts I perceived they did so commonly and bitterly Speak against that it was done in meer design to make them odious to the Soldiers and to all the Land and that was 1. The Sots and with them all Presbyterians but especially the Ministers whom they call Priests and Priestbyters and Drivines and the Dissemby-men and such like 2. The Committees of the several Countries and all the Soldiers that were under them that were not of their Mind and Way Some orthodox Captains of the Army did partly acquaint me with all this and I heard much of it from the Mouths of the leading Sectaries themselves This struck me to the very Heart and made me Fear that England was lost by those that it had taken for its Chiefest Friends § 74. Upon this I began to blame both other Ministers and my self I saw that it was the Ministers that had lost all by forsaking the Army and betaking themselves to an easier and quieter way of Life When the Earl of Essex went out first each Regiment had an able Preacher but at Edg-hill Fight almost all of them went home and as the Sectaries increased they were the more averse to go into the Army It s true that I believe now they had little Invitation and its true that they must look for little Welcome and great Contempt and Opposition besides all other Difficulties and Dangers But it is as true that their Worth and Labour in a patient self-denying way had been like to have preserved most of the Army and to have defeated the Contrivances of the Sectaries and to have saved the King the Parliament and the Land And if it had brought Reproach upon them from the Malitious who called them Military Levites the Good which they had done would have wiped off that blot much better than the contrary course would do And I reprehended my self also who had before rejected an Invitation from Cromwell When he lay at Cambridge long before with that
another kind of Militia I had than theirs I found that many honest Men of weak judgments and little acquaintance with such Matters had been seduced into a disputing vein and made it too much of their Religion to talk for this Opinion and for that sometimes for State Democracy and sometime for Church Democracy sometimes against Forms of Prayer and sometimes against Infant Baptism which yet some of them did maintain sometimes against Set-times of Prayer and against the typing of our selves to any Duty before the Spirit move us and sometimes about Free-grace and Free-will and all the Points of Antinomianism and Arminianism So that I was almost always when I had opportunity disputing with one or other of them sometimes for our Civil Government and sometimes for Church Order and Government sometimes for Infant Baptism and oft against Antinomianism and the contrary Extream But their most frequent and vehement Disputes were for Liberty of Conscience as they called it that is that the Civil Magistrate had nothing to do to determine of any thing in Matters of Religion by constraint or restraint but every Man might not only hold but preach and do in Matters of Religion what he pleased That the Civil Magistrate hath nothing to do but with Civil Things to keep the Peace and Protect the Churches Liberties c. I found that one half almost of the Religious Party among them were such as were either Orthodox or but very lightly touched with their mistakes and almost another half were honest men that stept further into the contending way than they could well get out again but with competent help might be recovered But a few fiery self-conceited men among them kindled the rest and made all the noise and bustle and carried about the Army as they pleased For the greatest part of the common Soldiers especially of the Foot were ignorant men of little Religion abundance of them such as had been taken Prisoners or turned out of Garrisons under the King and had been Soldiers in his Army And these would do any thing to please their Officers and were ready Instrument for the Seducers especially in their great Work which was to cry down the Covenant to vilifie all Parish Ministers but especially the Scots and Presbyterians For the most of the Soldiers that I spoke with never took the Covenant because it tied them to defend the King's Person and to extirpate Heresie and Schism Because I perceived that it was a few Men that bore the Bell that did all the hurt among them I acquainted my self with those Men and would be oft disputing with them in the hearing of the rest and I found that they were men that had been in London hatcht up among the old Separatists and had made it all the matter of their Study and Religion to rail against Ministers and Parish Churches and Presbyterians and had little other knowledge nor little discourse of any thing about the Heart or Heaven but were fierce with Pride and Self-conceitedness and had gotten a very great conquest over their Charity both to the Episcopal and Presbyterians Whereas many of those honest Soldiers which were tainted but with some doubts about Liberty of Conscience or Independency were men that would Discourse of the Points of Sanctification and Christian Experience very savourily But we so far prevailed in opening the folly of these Revilers and Self-conceited men as that some of them became the laughing-stock of the Soldiers before I left them and when they preached for great Preachers they were their weakness exposed them to contempt A great part of the mischief they did among the Soldiers was by Pamphlets which they aboundantly dispersed such as R. Overtons Martin Mar-Priest and more of his and some of I. Lilburn's who was one of them and divers against the King and against the Ministry and for Liberty of Conscience c. And Soldiers being usually disperst in their Quarters they had such Books to read when they had none to contradict them But there was yet a more dangerous Party than all these among them only in Major Bethel's Troop of our Regiment who took the direct Jesuitical way They first most vehemently declaimed against the Doctrine of Election and for the power of Free-will and all other Points which are controverted between the Jesuits and Dominicans the Arminians and Calvinists Then they as fiercely cried down our present Translation of the Scriptures and debased their Authority though they did not deny them to be Divine And they cried down all our Ministry Episcopal Presbyterian and Independent and all our Churches And they vilified almost all our ordinary Worship especially singing of Psalms and constant Family Worship They allowed of no Argument from Scripture but what was brought in its express words They were vehement against both the King and all Government but Popular and against Magistrates medling in Matters of Religion And all their disputing was with as much fierceness as if they had been ready to draw their Swords upon those against whom they disputed They trusted more to Policy Scorn and Power than to Argument They would bitterly scorn me among their Hearers to prejudice them before they entred into dispute They avoided me as much as possible but when we did come to it they drowned all Reason in fierceness and vehemency and multitude of words They greatly strove for Places of Command and when any Place was due by order to another that was not of their mind they would be sure to work him out and be ready to mutiny if they had not their will I thought they were principled by the Jesuits and acted all for their Interest and in their way but the secret Spring was out of sight These were the same men that afterward were called Levellers and rose up against Cromwell and were surprized at Burford having deceived and drawn to them many more And Thompson the General of the Levellers that was slain then was no greater a Man than one of the Corporals of this Troop the Cornet and others being much worse than he And thus I have given you a taste of my Imployment in the Army § 78. As soon as I came to the Army they marched speedily down into the West because the King had no Army left but the Lord Goring's there and they would not suffer the Fugitives of Naseby-fight to come thither to strengthen them They came quickly down to Somerton when Goring was at Langport which lying upon the River Massey was sent to keep him in on the farther side while Fairfax attended him on this side with his Army One day they faced each other and did nothing The next day they came to their Ground again Betwixt the two Armies was a narrow Lane which went between some Meadows in a bottom and a small Brook crossing the Lane with a narrow Bridge Goring planted two or three small Pieces at the Head of the Lane to keep the Passage and there placed his best Horse so
eleven Weeks and at the same time the Army being come up from the West lay in siege at Oxford By this time Col. Whalley though Cromwell's Kinsman and Commander of the Trusted Regiment grew odious among the Sectarian Commanders at the Head-quarters for my sake and he was called a Presbyterian though neither he nor I were of that Judgment in several Points And Major Sallowey not omitting to use his industry in the matter to that end when he had brought the City to a necessity of present yielding two days or three before it yielded Col. Rainsboroug was sent from Oxford which was yielded with some Regiments of Foot to Command in Chief partly that he might have the honour of taking the City and partly that he might be Governour there and not Whalley when the City was Surrendred And so when it was yielded Rainsborough was Governour to head and gratifie the Sectaries and settle the City and Country in their way But the Committee of the County were for Whalley and lived in distaste with Rainsborough and the Sectaries prospered there no further than Worcester City it self a Place which deserved such a Judgment but all the Country was free from their Infection § 80. All this while as I had friendly Converse with the sober part so I was still employed with the rest as before in Preaching Conference and Disputing against their Confounding Errours And in all Places where we went the Sectarian Soldiers much infected the Countreys by their Pamphlets and Converse and the People admiring the conquering Army were ready to receive whatsoever they commended to them And it was the way of the Faction to speak what they spake as the Sense of the Army and to make the People believe that whatever Opinion they vented which one of forty in the Army owned not it was the Army's Opinion When we quarter'd at Agmondesham in Buckinghamshire some Sectaries of Chesham had set up a Publick Meeting as for Conference to propagate their Opinions through all the Country and this in the Church by the encouragement of an ignorant Sectarian Lecturer one Bramble whom they had got in while Dr. Crook the Pastor and Mr. Richardson his Curate durst not contradict them When this Publick Talking day came Bethel's Troopers then Capt. Pitchford's with other Sectarian Soldiers must be there to confirm the Chesham Men and make Men believe that the Army was for them And I thought it my Duty to be there also and took divers sober Officers with me to let them see that more of the Army were against them than for them I took the Reading Pew and Pitchford's Cornet and Troopers took the Gallery And there I found a crowded Congregation of poor well-meaning People that came in the Simplicity of their Hearts to be deceived There did the Leader of the Chesham Men begin and afterward Pitchford's Soldiers set in and I alone disputed against them from Morning until almost Night for I knew their trick that if I had but gone out first they would have prated what boasting words they listed when I was gone and made the People believe that they had baffled me or got the best therefore I stayed it out till they first rose and went away The abundance of Nonsense which they uttered that day may partly be seen in Mr. Edward's Gangraena for when I had wrote a Letter of it to a Friend in London that and another were put into Mr. Edward's Book without my Name But some of the sober People of Agmondesham gave me abundance of thanks for that Days work which they said would never be there forgotten And I heard that the Sectaries were so discouraged that they never met there any more I am sure I had much thanks from Dr. Crook and Mr. Richardson who being obnoxious to their displeasure for being for the King durst not open their mouths themselves And after the Conference I talkt with the Lecturer Mr. Bramble or Bramley and found him little wiser than the rest § 81. The great Impediments of the Success of my Endeavours I found were only two 1. The discountenance of Cromwell and the chief Officers of his Mind which kept me a stranger from their Meetings and Councils 2. My incapacity of Speaking to many because Soldiers Quarters are scattered far from one another and I could be but in one Place at once So that one Troop at a time ordinarily and some few more extraordinarily was all that I could speak too The most of the Service I did beyond Whalley's Regiment was by the help of Capt. Lawrence with some of the General 's Regiment and sometimes I had Converse with Major Harrison and some others But I found that if the Army had but had Ministers enough that would have done but such a little as I did all their Plot might have been broken and King Parliament and Religion might have been preserved Therefore I sent abroad to get some more Ministers among them but I could get none Saltmarsh and Dell were the two great Preachers at the Head Quarters only honest and judicious Mr. Edward Bowles kept still with the General At last I got Mr. Cook of Roxhall to come to assist me and the soberer part of the Officers and Soldiers of Whalley's Regiment were willing to pay him out of their own pay And a Month or two he stayed and assisted me but was quickly weary and left them again He was a very worthy humble laborious Man unwearid in preaching but weary when he had not opportunity to preach and weary of the Spirits he had to deal with § 82. All this while though I came not near Cromwell his Designs were visible and I saw him continually acting his part The Lord General suffered him to govern and do all and to choose almost all the Officers of the Army He first made Ireton Commissary General and when any Troop or Company was to be disposed of or any considerable Officer's place was void he was sure to put a Sectary in the place and when the brunt of the War was over he lookt not so much at their Valour as their Opinions So that by degrees he had headed the greatest part of the Army with Anabaptists Antinomians Seekers or Separatists at best and all these he tied together by the point of Liberty of Conscience which was the Common Interest in which they did unite Yet all the sober Party were carried on by his Profession that he only promoted the Universal Interest of the Godly without any distinction or partiality at all But still when a place fell void it was Twenty to one a Sectary had it and if a Godly Man of any other Mind or temper had a mind to leave the Army he would secretly or openly further it Yet did he not openly profess what Opinion he was of himself But the most that he said for any was for Anabaptism and Antinomianism which he usually seemed to own And Harrison who was then great with him was for the
same Opinions He would not Dispute with me at all but he would in good Discourse very fluently pour out himself in the Extolling of Freegrace which was savoury to those that had right Principles though he had some misunderstandings of Freegrace himself He was a Man of excellent Natural Parts for Affection and Oratory but not well seen in the Principles of his Religion Of a Sanguine Complexion naturally of such a vivacity hilarity and alacrity as another man hath when he hath drunken a Cup too much but naturally also so far from humble Thoughts of himself that it was his ruine § 83. All these two Years that I was in the Army even my old bosom Friend that had lived in my House and been dearest to me Iames Berry then Captain and after Colonel and Major General and Lord of the Upper House who had formerly invited me to Cromwell's old Troop did never once invite me to the Army at first nor invite me to his Quarters after nor never once came to visit me nor saw me save twice or thrice that we met accidently so potent is the Interest of our selves and our Opinions with us against all other Bonds whatever He that forsaketh himself in forsaking his own Opinions may well be expected to forsake his Friend who adhereth to the way which he forsaketh and that Change which maketh him think he was himself an ignorant misguided man before must needs make him think his Friend to be still ignorant and misguided and value him accordingly He was a Man I verily think of great Sincerity before the Wars and of very good Natural Parts especially Mathematical and Mechanical and affectionate in Religion and while conversant with humbling Providences Doctrines and Company he carried himself as a very great Enemy to Pride But when Cromwell made him his Favourite and his extraordinary Valour was crowned with extraordinary Success and when he had been a while most conversant with those that in Religion thought the old Puritan Ministers were dull self-conceited Men of a lower form and that new Light had declared I know not what to be a higher attainment his Mind his Aim his Talk and all was altered accordingly And as Ministers of the old way were lower and Sectaries much higher in his esteem than formerly so he was much higher in his own Esteem when he thought he had attained much higher than he was before when he sate with his Fellows in the Common Form Being never well studied in the Body of Divinity or Controversie but taking his Light among the Sectaries before the Light which longer and patient Studies of Divinity should have prepossest him with he lived after as honestly as could be expected in one that taketh Errour for Truth and Evil to be Good After this he was President of the Agitators and after that Major General and Lord as aforesaid And after that a principal Person in the Changes and the principal Executioner in pulling down Richard Cromwell and then was one of the Governing Council of State And all this was promoted by the misunderstanding of Providence while he verily thought that God by their Victories had so called them to look after the Government of the Land and so entrusted them with the welfare of all his People here that they were responsible for it and might not in Conscience stand still while any thing was done which they thought was against that Interest which they judged to be the Interest of the People of God And as he was the Chief in pulling down he was one of the first that fell For Sir Arthur Haselrigg taking Portsmouth of which more hereafter his Regiment of Horse sent to block it up went most of them into Sir Arthur Haselrigg And when the Army was melted to nothing and the King ready to come in the Council of State imprisoned him because he would not promise to live peaceably and afterwards he being one of the four whom General Monk had the worst thoughts of was closely consin'd in Scarborough Castle but being released he became a Gardiner and lived in a safer state than in all his Greatness § 84. When Worcester Siege was over having with Joy seen Kidderminster and my Friends there once again the Country being now cheared my old Flock expected that I should return to them and settle in Peace among them I went to Coventry and called the Ministers again together who had voted me into the Army I told them That the forsaking of the Army by the old Ministers and the neglect of Supplying their Places by others had undone us that I had laboured among them with as much Success as could be expected in the narrow sphere of my Capacity but that signified little to all the Army That the Active Sectaries were the smallest part of the Army among the Common Soldiers but Cromwell had lately put so many of them into Superiour Command and their Industry was so much greater than others that they were like to have their Will That whatever obedience they pretended I doubted not but they would pull down all that stood in their way in State and Church both King Parliament and Ministers and set up themselves I told them that for this little that I have done I have ventured my Life and weakened my Body weak before but the Day which I expected is yet to come and the greatest Service with the Greatest Hazard is yet before The Wars being now ended I was confident they would shortly shew their purposes and set up for themselves And when that day came for all that are true to King Parliament and Religion then to appear if there be any hope by contradicting them or drawing off the Soldiers from them was all the Service that was yet possible to be done That I was like to do no great matter in such an Attempt but there being so many in the Army of my mind I knew not what might he till the Day should discover it Though I knew it was the greatest hazard of my Life my Judgment was for staying among them till the Crisis if their Judgment did concur Whereupon they all voted me to go and leave Kidderminster yet longer which accordingly I did § 85. From Worcester I went to London to Sir Theodore Mayern about my health He sent me to Tunbridge Wells and after some stay there to my benefit I went back to London and so to my Quarters in Worcestershire where the Regiment was My Quarters fell out to be at Sir Tho. Rous at Rous's Lench where I had never been before The Lady Rous was a godly grave understanding Woman and entertained me not as a Soldier but a Friend From thence I went into Leicestershire Staffordshire and at last into Derbyshire One advantage by this moving Life I had that I had opportunity to preach in many Countreys and Parishes and whatever came of it afterward I know not but at the present they commonly seemed to be much affected I came to our
of the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdom otherwise than we did For as they extended the word true Religion further than we did including the Form of Church Government in Scotland so they seem to understand it Conjunctione inseparabili and to prefer the Defence of Religion before the Defence of the King whereas we understood it Conjunctione seperabili and though in meer estimation we preferred Religion before King or Kingdom yet in regard of the Duty of Defence we thought the King must be restored and defended though legally he would have brought in worse than Prelacy Though we did not think that he might do it illegally and therefore that he could not govern Arbitrarily nor take away the Peoples fore-prized Propriety or Liberty nor change the Form of the Government of the Commonwealth But those that thought otherwise said That there is no power but from God and therefore none against him or above him and therefore none against or above his Laws which how true soever seemeth not at all to decide our Case For though it follow never so much that such Acts against God are not Acts of Authority yet the same Person that hath not Authority to do this may have Authority in other matters and may be our rightful Governour and therefore must be obeyed in all things lawful though not in this and his Person defended And therefore how they could refuse to receive the King till he consented to take the Covenant I know not unless the taking of the Covenant had been a Condition on which he was to receive his Crown by the Laws or Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom which none pretendeth Nor know I by what power they can add any thing to the Coronation Oath or Covenant which by his Ancestors was to be taken without his own Consent But in their Zeal for the Church the Scots did cause the King when he was come over to them not only mutat is mutandis to take the Covenant but also to publish a Declaration to the World that he did it voluntarily and heartily and that he lamented the Sins of his Father's House acknowledging the Guilt of the Blood of the late Wars c. In all which it seemed to me and many others that they miscarried divers ways 1. In imposing Laws upon their King for which they had no Authority 2. In forcing him to dishonour the Memory of his Father by such Consessions 3. In tempting him to speak and publish that which they might easily know was contrary to his heart and so to take God's Name in vain 4. And in giving Cromwell occasion to charge them all with dissimulation § 103. What Transactions there were between the King and the Scots for the Expediting of his Coronation and what Preparations were made for an Army to defend him and what Differences among the Parties hereabouts I shall not describe there being enow of them that were upon the place who can do it better But to return to England as soon as they understood what the Scots had done the Sectaries in England reproached them as Fools and Hypocrites that by such a Pageantry mockt themselves and would make the People believe that the King was turned Presbyterian and was a Cordial Covenanter when they had forced him to say and do that which they might well know he did abhor And they presently resolve to invade the Scots to keep them from invading England and not to stay till they came in upon this Land as heretofore So that Cromwell is in Scotland with his Army before they were well setled in their Affairs This much increased the alienation of the Peoples hearts from the Cromwellians for though they might suppose that the Scots intended to bring the King into England yet few believed that he might begin with them by an Invasion it being too much to have resisted them at home § 104. When the Soldiers were going against the King and Scots I wrote Letters to some of them to tell them of their Sin and desired them at last to begin to know themselves it being those same men that have so much boasted of Love to all the Godly and pleaded for tender dealing with them and condemned those that persecuted them or restrained their Liberty who are now ready to imbrue their Swords in the Blood of such as they acknowledge to be Godly and all because they dare not be perjured or disloyal as they are Some of them were startled at these Letters and O blindness thought me an uncharitable Censurer that would say that they could kill the Godly even when they were on their march to do it For how bad soever they spake of the Cavaliers and not without too much desert as to their Morals they confessed that abundance of the Scots were godly Men. And afterward those that I wrote to better understood me § 105. At the same time the Rump or Commonwealth who so much abhorred Persecution and were for Liberty of Conscience made an Order that all Ministers should keep their days of Humiliation to fast and pray for their Success in Scotland and that we should keep their Days of Thanksgiving for their Victories and this upon pain of Sequestration so that we all expected to be turned out but they did not execute it upon any save one in our parts For my part instead of praying and preaching for them when any of the Committee or Soldiers were my hearers I laboured to help them to understand what a Crime it was to force men to pray for the Success of those that were violating their Covenant and Loyalty and going in such a Cause to kill their Brethren And what it was to force Men to give God thanks for all their Bloodshed and to make God's Ministers and Ordinances vile and serviceable to such Crimes by forcing Men to run to God on such Errands of Blood and Ruine And what it is to be such Hypocrites as to persecute and cast out those that preach the Gospel while they pretend the advancement of the Gospel and the liberty of tender Consciences And what a means it was to debauch all Consciences and leave neither tenderness nor honesty in the World when the Guides of the Flocks and Preachers of the Gospel shall be noted to swallow down such heinous Sins My own Hearers were all satisfied with my Doctrine but the Committee Men look sowre but let me alone And the Soldiers said I was so like to Love that I would not be right till I was shorter by the Head Yet none of them ever medled with me farther than by the Tongue nor was I ever by any of them in those times forbidden or hindered to preach one Sermon except only one Assize-Sermon which the High Sheriff had desired me to preach and afterward sent me word to â—orbear as from the Committee saying That by Mr. Moor's means the Independent Preacher at the Colledge the Committee told him that they desired me to forbear and not
reason of his distaste to the Earl of Lauderdaile who prest him but to read one of the Books over which he did and so read them all as I have seen many of them marked with his hand and was drawn to over-value them more than the Earl of Lauderdaile Hereupon his Lady reading them also and being a Woman of very strong Love and Friendship with extraordinary Entireness swallowed up in her Husband's Love for the Books sake and her Husband's sake she became a most affectionate Friend to me before she ever saw me While she was in France being zealous for the King's Restoration for whose Cause her Husband had pawned and ruined his Estate by the Earl of Lauderdaile's direction she with Sir Robert Murray got divers Letters from the Pastors and others there to bear witness of the King's sincerity in the Protestant Religion among which there is one to me from Mr. Gaches Her great Wisdom Modesty Piety and Sincerity made her accounted the Saint at the Court. When she came over with the King her extraordinary Respects obliged me to be so often with her as gave me Acquaintance with her Eminency in all the foresaid Vertues She is of solid Understanding in Religion for her Sex and of Prudence much more than ordinary and of great Integrity and Constancy in her Religion and a great Hater of Hypocrisie and faithful to Christ in an unfaithful World and she is somewhat over-much affectionate to her Friend which hath cost her a great deal of Sorrow in the loss of her Husband and since of other special Friends and may cost her more when the rest forsake her as many in Prosperity use to do those that will not forsake their Fidelity to Christ. Her eldest Son the young Earl of Balcarres a very hopeful Youth died of a strange Disease two Stones being found in his Heart of which one was very great Being my constant Auditor and over-respectful Friend I had occasion for the just Praises and Acknowledgments which I have given her which the occasioning of these Books hath caused me to mention § 208. 51. After our Dispute at the Savoy somebody printed our Papers most of them given in to them in that Treaty of which the Petition for Peace the Reformed Liturgy except the Prayer for the King which Dr. W. wrote the large Reply to their Answer of our Exceptions and the two last Addresses were my writing But in the first Proposals and the Exceptions against the Liturgy I had less to do than some others § 209. 52. When the grievous Plague began at London I printed a half-sheet to stick on a Wall for the use of the Ignorant and Ungodly who were sick or in danger of the Sickness for the Godly I thought had less need and would read those large Books which are plentifully among us And I the rather did it because many well-winded People that are about the Sick that are ignorant and unprepared and know not what to say to them may not only read so short a Paper to them but see there in what method such Persons are to be dealt with in such a Case of Extremity that they may themselves enlarge as they see Cause § 210. 53. At that time one Mr. Nathaniel Lane wrote to me to intreat me to write one sheet or two for the use of poor Families who will not buy or read any bigger Books Though I knew that brevity would unavoidably cause me to leave out much necessary matter or else to write in a Stile so concise and close as will be little moving to any but close judicious Readers yet I yielded to his perswasions and thought it might be better than nothing and might be read by many that would read no larger and so I wrote two Sheets for poor Families The first containing the method and motives for the Conversion of the Ungodly The second containing the Description or Character of a true Christian or the necessary Parts of Christian Duty for the direction of Beginners in a Godly Life These three last Sheets were printed by the favour of the Archbishop's Chaplain when the Bishop of London's Chaplain had put me out of hope of printing any more With all these Writings I have troubled the World already and these are all except Epistles to other mens Works as one before Mr. Swinnock's Books of Regeneration one before Mr. Hopkin's Book one before Mr. Eedes one before Mr. Matthew Pool's Model for Advancing Learning one before Mr. Benjamin Baxter's Book one before Mr. Ionathan Hanmer's Exercitation of Confirmation one before Mr. Lawrence of Sickness two before two of Mr. Tombe's Books and some others of which there are two that I must give some account of The Bookseller being to print the Assembly's Works with the Texts cited at length desired me by an Epistle to recommend it to Families I thought it a thing arrogant and unfit for a single Person who was none of the Synod to put an Epistle before their Works But when he made me know that it was the desire of some Reverend Ministers I wrote an Epistle but required him to put it into other mens hands to publish or suppress according to their Judgment but to be sure that they printed all or none The Bookseller gets Dr. Manton to put an Epistle before the Book who inserted mine in a differing Character in his own as mine but not naming me But he leaveth out a part which it seems was not pleasing to all When I had commended the Catechisms for the use of Families I added That I hoped the Assembly intended not all in that long Confession and those Catechisms to be imposed as a Test of Christian Communion nor to disown all that scrupled any word in it If they had I could not have commended it for any such use though it be useful for the instruction of Families c. All this is left out which I thought meet to open lest I be there misunderstood Also take notice that the Poem prefixed to Mr. Vines's Book of the Sacrament was not printed by any order of mine Having received the Printed Book from the Stationer as Gift it renewed my Sorrow for the Author's Death which provoked me to write that Poem the same Night in the Exercise of my Sorrow and gave it the Donor for his Book and he printed it without my knowledge § 211. Manuscripts that are yet unprinted which lye by me are these following 1. A Treatise in Folio called A Christian Directory or Sum of Practical Divinity In four Tomes The first called Christian Ethicks The second Christian Ecclesiasticks The third Christian Oeconomicks The fourth Christian Polisticks It containeth bare Directions for the practice of our Duties in all these respects as Christians as Church-Members as Members of the Family and as Members of the Commonwealth But there is a sufficient Explication of the Subject usually premised and the Directions themselves are the Answers of most useful Cases of Conscience
set all in joint again by Violence and secure the Peace of Church and State And neither Pope Prelate nor Council should take this Work upon them which is his And therefore Magistrates should be Wise and Holy and fit for so great a Charge as they undertake It must be still noted that all this was when Diocesanes were put down and few saw any probability of restoring them and many religions Persons dreaded such a Restoration § 50. When Cromwell's Faction were making him Protector they drew up a Thing which they called The Government of England c. Therein they determined that all should have Liberty or free Exercise of their Religion who professed Faith in God by Iesus Christ After this he called a Parliament which Examined this Instrument of Government and when they came to those words the Orthodox Party affirmed That if they spake de re and not de nomine Faith in God by Iesus Christ could contain no less than the Fundamentals of Religion whereupon it was purposed that all should have a due measure of Liberty who professed the Fundamentals Hereupon the Committee appointed to that Business were required to nominate certain Divines to draw up in terminis the Fundamentals of Religion to be as a Test in this Toleration The Committee being about Fourteen named every one his Man The Lord Broghill after Earl of Orery and Lord President of Munster and one of his Majesty's Privy Council named the Primate of Ireland Archbishop Usher When he because of his Age and Unwillingness to wrangle with such Men as were to join with him had refused the Service the Lord Broghill nominated me in his Stead Whereupon I was sent for up to London But before I came the rest had begun their Work and drawn up some few of the Propositions which they called Fundamentals The Men that I found there were Mr. Marshal Mr. Reyner Dr. Cheynell Dr. Goodwin Dr. Owen Mr. Nye Mr. Sydraâ—â— Sympson Mr. Vines Mr. Manton and Mr. Iacomb § 51. I knew how ticklish a Business the Enumeration of Fundamentals was and of what very ill Consequence it would be if it were ill done and how unsatisfactorily that Question What are your Fundamentals is usually answered to the Papists My own Judgment was this that we must distinguish between the Sense or matter and the Words and that it 's only the Sense that is primarily and properly our Fundamentals and the Words no further than as they are needful to express that Sence to others or represent it to our own Conception that the Word Fundamentals being Metaphorical and Ambiguous the Word Essentials is much fitter it being nothing but what is Essential or Constitutive of true Religion which is understood by us usually when we speak of Fundamentals that quoad rem there is no more Essential or Fundamental in Religion but what is contained in our Baptismal Covenant I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and give up my self in Covenant to him renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil He that doth this truly shall be saved or else sincere Covenanting could not entitle us to the Blessings of the Covenant And therefore it is that the Ancient Church held that all that are Baptized duly are in a Justified State of Life because all that sincerely give up themselves in Covenant to God as our God and Father our Redeemer and Saviour our Sanctifier and Comforter have right to the Blessings of the Covenant And quoad verba I suppose that no particular Words in the World are Essentials of our Religion Otherwise no Man could be saved without the Language which those Words belong to He that understandeth not Credo in Deum may be saved if he believe in God Also I suppose that no particular Formula of Words in any or all Languages is Essential to our Religion for he that expresseth his Faith in another form of words of the same importance professeth a Saving Faith And as to the Use of a Form of Words to express our Belief of the Essential it is various and therefore the Form accordingly is variable If it be to teach another what is the Essence of Religion a dull hearer must have many Words when a quick intelligent Person by few Words can understand the same thing I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost expresseth all the Essentials intelligibly to him that hath learned truly to understand the meaning of these Words But to an ignorant Man a large plain Catechism is short enough to express the same things But as to the Use of Publick Professions of Faith to satisfie the Church for the Admittance of Members or to satisfie other Churches to hold Communion with any particular Church a Form of Words which is neither obscure by too much Conciseness not Tedious or Tautological by a needless Multiplication of Words I take to be the fittest To which ends and because the Ancient Churches had once a happy Union on those Terms I think that this is all that should be required of any Church or Member ordinarily to be professed In General I do believe all that is contained in the Sacred Canonical Scriptures and particularly I believe all explicitly contained in the Ancient Creed and I desire all that is contained in the Lord's Prayer and I resolve upon Obedience to the Ten Commandments and whatever selfe I can learn of the Will of God And for all other Points it is enough to preserve both Truth and Peace that Men promise not to preach against them or contradict them though they Subscribe them not § 52. Therefore I would have had the Brethren to have offered the Parliament the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue alone as our Essentials or Fundamentals which at least contain all that is necessary to Salvation and hath been by all the Ancient Churches taken for the Sum of their Religion And whereas they still said A Socinian or a Papist will Subscribe all this I answered them So much the better and so much the fitter it is to be the Matter of our Concord But if you are afraid of Communion with Papists and Socinians it must not be avoided by making a new Rule or Test of Faith which they will not Subscribe to or by forcing others to Subscribe to more than they can do but by calling them to account whenever in Preaching or Writing they contradict or abuse the Truth to which they have Subscribed This is the Work of Government And we must not think to make Laws serve instead of Iudgement and Execution nor must we make new Laws as oft as Hereticks will mis-interpret and subscribe the old for when you have put in all the Words you can devise some Hereticks will put their own Sence on them and Subscribe them And we must not blame God for not making a Law that no Man can misinterpret or break and think to make such a one ourselves because God could not or would not These Presumptions and
pretence of promoting Godliness so they fear'd the enraged Prelatical Party would renew their Persecution under pretence of Order and Government And some that thought R. Cromwell's Resignation was not plain and full did scruple it Whether they were not at present obliged to him for though they knew that he had no Original Right and though the condemned the Act of those Men as Treason who set up both his Father and him yet when he was set up and the Government had been Twelve years in their Hands and the House of Commons had sworn Subjection to him they thought it was very doubtful whether they were not obliged to him as the Possessor And withal many had alienated the Hearts of Men from the King making them believe that he was uncertain in his Religion c. and that the Duke of York was a Papist and that they would set up the revengeful Cavaliers but these things were quickly at an end For many Gentlemen who had been with the King in Scotland especially the Earl of Lauderdaile and Colonel Greavâ—â— who were of Reputation with the People did spread abroad mighty Commendations of the King both as to his Temper and Piety whereby the Fears of many at that time were much quieted § 69. As for my self I came to London April the 13th 1660. where I was no sooner arrived but I was accosted by the Earl of Lauderdale just then released from his tedious Confinement in Windsor Castle by the restor'd Parliament who having heard from some of the Sectarian Party that my Judgment was that our Obligations to Richard Cromwell were not dissolved nor could be till another Parliament or a fuller Renunciation of the Government took a great deal of pains with me to satisfie me in that point And for the quieting People's Minds that were in no small Commotion through clandestine Rumours he by means of Sir Robert Murray and the Countess of Balcares then in France procured several Letters to be written from thence full of high Elogiums of the King and Assurances of his firmness in the Protestant Religion which he got translated and publisht Among others one was sent to me from Monsieur Gaches a famous pious Preacher at Chatenton wherein after an high strain of Complements to my self he gave a pomâ—ous Character of the King and assured me that during his Exile he never forbore the Publick Profession of the Protestant Religion no not even in those places where it seemed prejudicial to his Affairs that he was present at Divine Worship in the French Churches at Roan and Rochel though not at Charenton during his stay at Paris and earnestly press't me to use my utmost interest that the King might be restored by means of the Presbyterians c. The Letter being long and already publisht shall not be here inserted But I could not forbear making divers Reflections upon the Receipt of such a Letter as this was § 70. This Excellent Divine with divers others living at a distance knew not the state of Affairs in England so well as we that were upon the place They knew not how much the Presbyterians had done to bring in the King or else they would not have thought it needful to use any Exhortations to them to that end And they knew not those Men who with the King were to be restored so well as we did What the Presbyterians did to preserve and restore the King is a thing that we need not go to any Corners or Cabinets to prove The Votes for Agreement upon the King's Concessions in the Isle of Wight prove it The Ejection and Imprisonment of most of the House of Commons and all the House of Lords prove it The Calamitous overthrow of two Scottish Armies prove it The Death of Mr. Love with the Imprisonment and Flight of other London Ministers prove it The wars in Scotland and their Conquest by Cromwell prove it The Rising of Sir George Booth and his Army's overthrow prove it The Surprize of Dublin-Castle from the Anabaptists by Colonel Iohn Bridges and others in Ireland and the Gratulations of General Monk in England the Concurrence of the Londonners and the Ministers there the Actual Preparations of the Restored Members of the Long Parliament and the Consent of the Council of State left by them and the Calling in of the King hereupon by the next Parliament without one contradicting Voice and finally the Lords and Gentlemen of the King 's old Party in all Countreys addressing themselves to the Parliamentarians and the King 's grateful Acknowledgments in his Letters and his Speeches in Parliament do all put this Matter out of question Of which I have said more in my Key for Catholicks § 71. And when I read this Reverend Man's excessive Praises and his concluding Prayer for the Success of my Labours I thought with my self how little doth the good Man understand how ill the beginning and end of his words accord He prayeth for my Congregation and the Blessing of my Labours when he hath perswaded me to put an end to my Labours by ssetting up those Prelates who will Silence me and many a hundred more He perswadeth me to that which will separate me from my Flock and then prayeth that I may be a Blessing to them He overvalueth and magnifieth my Service to the Church and then perswadeth me to that which will put a Period to my Service and to the Service of many hundreds better than my self But yet his Cause and Arguments are honest and I am so far from being against him in it that I think I am much more for it than he for he is for our Restoring the King that our Ministry may be freed from the obloquy of malicious Enemies but I am for restoring of the King that when we are Silenced and our Ministry at an end and some of us lye in Prisons we may there and in that Condition have Peace of Conscience in the Discharge of our Duty and the Exercise of Faith Patience and Charity in our Sufferings § 72. And I confess at that time the Thoughts of Mens hearts were various according to their several Expectations The Sectarian Party cried out that God had in Justice cut off the Family that Reigned over us and to return to it again was to betray the Church and the Souls of Men. Some others said That the Sectaries had traiterously and wickedly pull'd down the King and Parliament and set up themselves and broken their Oaths and pull'd down all Government and made the Name of Religion a Reproach and brought that Blot upon it which is never till the Day of Judgment like to be wiped off But yet that after Twelve years alienation of the Government and when a House of Commons hath sworn Fidelity to another and the King 's own Party had taken the Engagement their Obligations to that Family were by Providence against their Wills dissolved and that they were not bound to be Actors in that which will Silence
Interest in the Earl of Manchester who kept Correspondence with him in such Matters was much valued and followed by the London Ministers as their Guide and many frequently met at his House Mr. Calamy took Dr. Reynolds along with him as one whose Learnâ—â—â— and Reputation would be of use And he took Mr. Ash along with him as one whose eminent Holiness and Simplicity made him much loved and honoured by all And he had been the Earl of Manchester's Chaplain in the Wars and had concurred with him to bring in the King These three were the Leading Men that kept Correspondence with the Lords and had most Interest seemingly at Court as having been most serviceable to them To them joyned Dr. Bates Dr. Manton and most of the City Ministers But Dr. Seaman and Mr. Ienkins and some few more were a little estranged from them and hardlier spoken of at Court Mr. Calamy's Party and all that brought in the King were for Consultations with their Friends at Court for the preserving of the Churches Interest Dr. Seaman's Party medled not with them not as being unwilling but because the Court did give them no Encouragement § 88. For the Gratifying and Engaging some Chief Presbyterians that had brought in the King by the Earl of Manchester's means who then being Lord Chamberlain it belongeth to his place above Ten or Twelve of them were designed to be the King's Chaplains in Ordinary Mr. Calamy and Dr. Reynold's were first put in and then Mr. Ash was importuned to accept it and then they put me in for one Mr. Nath. Newcomen refused it And then Dr. Spurstow Dr. Wallis Dr. Bates Dr. Manton Mr. Case c. were admitted But never any of them was called to Preach at Court saving Mr. Calamy Dr. Reynolds my Self and Dr. Spurstow each of us once And I suppose never a Man of them all ever received or expected a Penny for the Salary of their Places § 89. When I was invited by the Lord Broghill afterwards Earl of Orery to meet him at the Lord Chamberlain's they both perswaded me to accept the Place to be one of his Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary I desired to know whether it were his Majesty's desire or only the Effect of their favourable request to him They told me that it was his Majesty's own desire and that he would take it as an acceptable furtherance of his Service Whereupon I took an Oath from the Lord Chamberlain as a Houshold Servant of his Majesty's to be true and faithful to him and Discover any Conspiracy I should know of c. And I received this Certificate from him THese are to Certifie That Richard Baxter Clerk hath been Sworn and Admitted Chaplain to the King's Majesty in Ordinary to have and Enjoy all Rights Profits and Priviledges thereunto belonging Given under my Hand this 26th of June 1660. in the Twelfth year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord the King Ed. Manchester § 90. When I was with these two Lords on this occasion I told them what Conferences I had with several Episcopal Men about the Terms of an Agreement or Coalition and how much it concerned the Interest both of the King and of Religion that we might be so united and what unhappy Consequences else would follow and how easie I thought an Agreement with moderate Men would be and on what Terms Bishop Usher and I had agreed in a little space A little after the Lord Broghill was pleased to come to me and he told me That he had told the King of the Business of a Conference for an Agreement and that the King took it very well and was resolved to further it And about the same time the Earl of Manchester signified as much to Mr. Calamy So that Mr. Calamy Dr. Reynolds Mr. Ash and my Self went about it to the Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain and after Consultations of the Business with him he determined of a Day to bring us to the King Mr. Calamy to whom â—â—th I and I think all the rest did leave the Nomination of the Persons to be employed advised that all that were the King's Chaplains of us might be called to the Consultation and that we four might not seem to take so much upon us without others if we did go once without them to the King which I well remember not that was all So Dr. Wallis Dr. Manton and Dr. Spurstow c. went with us to the King who with the Lord Chancellour and the Earl of St. Aiâ—ons c. came to us in the Lord Chamberlain's Lodgings We exercised more boldness at first thaâ— afterwards would have been born when some of the rest had congratulated his Majesty's happy Restoration and declared the large hope which they had of a happy Union among all Dissenters by his means c. I presumed to speak to him of the Concernments of Religion and how 〈◊〉 we were from desiring the continuance of any Factions or Parties in the Church and how much a happy Union would conduce to the good of the Land and to his Majesty's Satisfaction and though there were turbulent Fanatick Persons in his Dominions yet that those Ministers and Godly People whose Peace we humbly craved of him were no such Persons but such as longed after Concord and were truly Loyal to him and desired no more than to live under him a quiet and peaceable Life in all godliness and honesty and whereas there were differences between them and their Brethren about some Ceremonies or Discipline of the Church we humbly craved his Majesty's favour for the ending of those Differences it being easie for him to interpose that so the People might not be deprived of their faithful Paâ—ors nor ignorant scandalous unworthy Ones obtruded on them I presumed to tell him That the People that we spake for were such as were contented with an Interest in Heaven and the Liberty and Advantages of the Gospel to promote it and if this were taken from them and they were deprived of their faithful Pastors and Liberty of worshipping God they would take themselves as undone in this World whatever plenty else they should enjoy and the Hearts of his most faithful Subjects who hoped for his help would even be broken and that we doubted not but his Majesty desired to Govern a People made happy by him and not a broken hearted People that took themselves to be undone by the loss of that which is dearer to them than all the Riches of the World And I presumed to tell him That the late Usurpers that were over us so well understood their own Interest that to promote it they had found the way of doing good to be the most effectual means and had placed and encouraged many Thousand faithful Ministers in the Church even such as detested their Usurpation And so far had they attained their ends hereby that it was the principal means of their Interest in the People and the good Opinion that any had conceived of them
and Government in Ecclesiastical Affairs is evident to the World and this little part of the World our own Dominions hath had so late Experience of it that we may very well acquiesce in the Conclusion without enlarging our self in discourse upon it it being a Subject we have had frequent occasion to contemplate upon and to lament abroad as well as at home In our Letter to the Speaker of the H. of Commons from Breda we declared how much we desired the Advancement and Propagation of the Protestant Religion That neither the Unkindness of those of the same Faith towards us nor the Civilities and Obligations from those of a contrary Profession of both which we have had abundant Evidence could in the least degree startle us or make us swerve from it and that nothing can be proposed to manifest our Zeal and Affection for it to which we will not readily consent And we said then That we did hope in due time our self to propose somewhat for the propagation of it that will satisfie the World that we have always made it both our Care and our Study and have enough observed what is most like to bring disadvantage to it And the truth is we do think our self the more competent to propose and with God's assistance to determine many Things now in difference from the time we have spent and the Experience we have had in most of the Reformed Churches abroad in France in the Low Conntreys and in Germany where we have had frequent Conferences with the most Learned Men who have unanimously lamented the great Reproach the Protestant Religion undergoes from the Distempers and too notorious Schisms in Matters of Religion in England And as the most Learned amongst them have always with great Submission and Reverence acknowledged and magnified the Established Government of the Church of England and the great countenance and shelter the Protestant Religion received from it before these unhappy times so many of them have with great ingenuity and sorrow confessed That they were too easily mislead by misinformation and prejudice into some disesteem of it as if it had too much complyed with the Church of Rome whereas they now acknowledge it to be the best fence God hath yet raised against Popery in the World And we are perswaded they do with great Zeal wish it restored to its old Dignity and Veneration When we were in Holland we were attended by many Grave and Learned Ministers from hence who were looked upon as the most able and principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinions with whom we had as much Conference as the multitude of Affairs which were then upon us would permit us to have and to our great Satisfaction and Comfort found them Persons full of Affection to us of Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State and neither Enemies as they have been given out to be of Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such Alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present Distempers which the Indisposition of the Times and the Tenderness of some Mens Consciences had contracted For the better doing whereof we intended upon our first Arrival in this Kingdom to call a Synod of Divines as the most proper Expedient to provide a proper Remedy for all those Differences and Dissatisfactions which had or should arise in Matters of Religion and in the mean time we published in our Declaration from Breda A Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as shall upon mature deliberation be offered to us for the full granting that Indulgence Whilst we continued in this Temper of Mind and Resolution and have so far complyed with the Perswasion of particular Persons and the Distemper of the Time as to be contented with the Exercise of our Religion in our own Chappel according to the constant Practice and Laws established without enjoyning that Practice and the Observation of those Laws in the Churches of the Kingdom in which we have undergone the Censure of many as if we were without that Zeal for the Church which we ought to have and which by God's Grace we shall always retain we have found our self not so candidly dealt with as we have deserved and that there are unquiet and restless Spirits who without abating any of their own Distempers in recompence of the Moderation they find in us continue their bitterness against the Church and endeavour to raise Jealousies of us and to lessen our Reputation by their Reproaches as if we were not true to the Professions we have made And in order thereunto they have very unseasonably caused to be printed published and dispersed throughout the Kingdom a Declaration heretofore printed in our Name during the time of our being in Scotland of which we shall say no more than that the Circumstances by which we were enforced to Sign that Declaration are enough known to the World That we did from the moment it passed our Hand askt God forgiveness for our part in it which we hope he will never lay to our Charge and that the worthiest and greatest part of that Nation did even then detest and abhor the ill usage of us in that particular when the same Tyranny was exercised there by the power of a few ill Men which at that time had spread it self over this Kingdom and therefore we had no reason to expect that we should at this season when we are doing all we can to wipe out the Memory of all that hath been done amiss by other Men and we thank God have wiped it out of our own remembrance have been our self assaulted with those Reproaches which we will likewise forget Since the printing of this Declaration several Seditious Pamphlets and Queries have been published and scattered abroad to infuse Dislike and Jealousies into the Hearts of the People and of the Army and some who ought rather to have repented their former Mischief they have wrought than to have endeavoured to improve it have had the hardiness to publish That the Doctrine of the Church against which no Man with whom we have conferred hath Excepted ought to be reformed as well as the Discipline This over-passionate and turbulent way of Proceeding and the Impatience we find in many for some speedy Determination in these Matters whereby the Minds of Men may be composed and the Peace of the Church established hath prevailed with us to invert the Method we had proposed to our self and even in order to the better Calling and Composing of a Synod which the present Jealousies will hardly agree upon by the assistance of God's blessed Spirit which we daily invoke and supplicate to give some determination our self to the Matters in difference until such a Synod may be called as may without
about this time many Books if so they may be called were written against me One by Mr. Naufen forementioned a Justice of Peace in Worcestershire who being a great Friend of the Papists had spoken against me on the Bench at the Sessions behind my back as the Author of a Petition against Popery heretofore and was angry with me for evincing to him his mistake temerity and injustice And when he saw his time he had nothing else to be the fewel of his Revenge but that very Book which I wrote against the Papists and therein against the killing of the King which I aggravated against the Army and the Popish Instigators and Actors But because in Answer to the Papists I made their Doctrine and Practise of King killing to be worse than these Sectaries were guilty of and thereupon recited what the Sectaries said for themselves which the Jesuites have not to say he took up all these Reasons of the Sectaries and answered them as if they had been my own and I had pleaded for that which I condemned by writing in a time when it might have cost me my Life when the Gendeman that thus would have proved me a Traytor did himself act under the Usurpers and took their Impositions which we abhorred and refused § 244. And here I shall insert a Passage not contemptible concerning the Papists because I am fall's into the mention of them In Cromwells days when I was writing that very Book and my Holy Commonwealth and was charging their Treasons and Rebellions on the Army one Mr. Iames Stansfield a Reverend Minister of Glocestershire called on me and tod me a Story which afterwards he sent me under his Hand and warranted me to publish it which was this One Mr. Atkins of Glocestershire Brother to Judge Atkins being beyond Sea with others that had served the late King fell into intimate acquaintance with a Priest that had been or then was Governour of one of their Colledges in Flanders They agreed not to meddle with each other about Religion and so continued their Friendship long A little after the King was beheaded Mr. Atkins met this Priest in London and going into a Tavern with him said to him in his familiar way What business have you here I warrant you come about some Roguery or other Whereupon the Priest told it him as a great secret That there were Thirty of them here in London who by Instructions from Cardinal Mazarine did take care of such Affairs and had sate in Council and debated the Question Whether the King should be put to death or not and that it was carried in the Affirmative and there were but two Voice for the Negative which was his own and anothers And that for his part he could not concur with them as foreseeing what misery this would bring upon his Country That Mr. Atkins stood to the Truth of this but thought it a Violation of the Laws of Friendship to name the Man I would not print it without fuller Attestation left it should be a wrong to the Papists But when the King was restored and setled in Peace I told it occasionly to Privy Councellor who not advising me to meddle any further in it because the King knew enough of Mazarine's Designs already I let it alone But about this time I met with Dr. Thomas Gnad and occasionally mentioning such a thing he told me that he was familiarly acquainted with Mr. Atkins and would know the certainty of him whether it were true And not long after meeting him again he told me that he spoke with Mr. Atkins and that he assured him that it was true but he was loth to meddle in the publication of it Nor did I think it prudence my self to do it as knowing the Malice and Power of the Papists Since this Dr. Peter Moulin hath in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus declared that he is ready to prove when Authority will call him to it that the King's Death and the Change of the Government was first proposed both to the Sorborne and to the Pope with his Conclave and consented to and concluded for by both § 245. Another Book wrote against me was as was thought by one Tompkins a young Man of All-Souls Son to Mr. Tompkins of Worcester and a School-boy there when I lived in that County He called it The Rebel's Plea being a Confutation of such Passages in my Holy Commonwealth as he least understood and could make most odious All these Men made me think what one advised the Papists to do for the effectual Confutation of the Protestants viz. Not to dispute or talk with them at all but to preach every day against them in the Pulpits for there they may speak without any Contradiction and need not fear an Answer § 246. Shortly after our Disputation at the Savoy I went to Rickmersworth in Hartfordshire and preached there but once upon Matth. 22. 12. And he was speechless where I spake not a word that was any nearer kin to Sedition or that had any greater tendency to provoke them than by shewing that wicked men and the refusers of grace however they may now have many things to say to excuse their sin will at last be speechless and dare not stand to their wickedness before God Yet did the Bishop of Worcester tell me when he silenced me that the Bishop of London had shewed him Letters from one of the Hearers assuring him that I preached seditiously so little Security was any Man's Innocency that displeased the Bishops to his Reputation with that Party who had but one Auditor that desired to get favour by accusing him So that a multitude of such Experiences made me perceive when I was silenced that there was some Mercy in it in the midst of Judgment for I should scarce have preached a Sermon nor put up a Prayer to God which one or other through Malice or hope of Favour would not have been tempted to accuse as guilty of some heinous Crime And as Seneca saith He that hath an Ulcer crieth Oh if he do but think you touched him § 247. Shortly after my return to London I went into Worcestershire to try whether it were possible to have any honest Terms from the Reading Vicar there that I might preach to my former Flock But when I had preached twice or thrice he denied me liberty to preach any more I offered him to take my Lecture which he was bound to allow me under a Bond of 500 l but he refused it I next offered him to be his Curate and he refused it I next offered him to preach for nothing and he refused it And lastly I desired leave but once to Administer the Sacrament to the People and preach my Farewel Sermon to them but he would not consent At last I understood that he was directed by his Superiours to do what he did But Mr. Baldwin an able Preacher whom I left there was yet permitted § 248. At that time my aged Father
skill in Laws than they 12. They find that even the greatest Episcopal Divines approved by our Princes and most Learned Defenders of Monarchy and Obedience do yet set up the Laws above the King and write more in this Case than we can consent to◠Mr. Tho. Hooker whom King Charles the First commended to his Children to be read speaketh so very high not only in his whole Eighth Book dedicated by Bishop Gauden to the King but also in his First Book which was extant when King Charles the First commended his Works that for my part I do not believe him that the Body as such hath the Legislative Power and that the King is singulis major and universis minor with much of the like And therefore I have wrote a full Confutation of him in the Fourth Tome of my Christian Directory And yet he is one of the most magnified Authours with the Bishops And so is Bishop Bilson who in his Treatise for Christian Subjection dedicated to Queen Elizabeth hath that terrible passage for resisting Kings before-recited § 253. 13. And they find that not only Politicians speak more in this Case than we allow and the Roman Greek and other Historians but the Historians and Chroniclers of this Land For instance Hollingshead Lib. 1. in his Chapter of Parliaments saith This House hath the most high and absolute Power of the Realm For thereby Kings and mighty Princes have from time to time been deposed from their Thrones Laws either enacted or abrogated Offenders of all sorts punished and corrupted Religion either disannulled or reformed which commonly is divided into two Houses or Parts c. Here is more then I assent to or think to be justifiable Now when all these say so much more for Resistance than we judge sound it seemeth hard to us to go so far contrary to them all in Matters of other Mens Profession as to Subscribe That on no pretence whatsoever no one Commissionated by the King may be resisted by taking up Arms. 14. And we read how Dr. Mainwairing and other Divines have been condemned by Parliament for Matters of this Nature And whatever any Latitudinarian may say we are sure that on no pretence whatsoever are words that exclude all these fore-mentioned Pretences from being lawful And if it yet be said That it is disloyal to suppose that any such illegal Commission will be granted we do not suppose that it will be so but if it be not possible to be so in this Age or another then we are contented to Subscribe this Clause For Parliaments will not differ about Impossibilities § 395. Incident to this Controversie are other Clauses of the Declaration as that the Covenant was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed against the known Laws c. which though they contradict not yet many that were Children then and know neither Matter of Law or Fact no not so much as the Fundamental Laws and Constitution of the Kingdom do think themselves very uncapable of determining § 396. And for the Trayterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those that are Commissionated by him We see no position here recited and therefore must annex this Clause to the former as before supposing that the meaning is that it is a Trayterous Position to say That it is lawful by the King's Authority to take up Arms on any pretence whatsoever against c. And we all confess that it is a Contradictory and Trayterous Position for any man to say that he may take up Arms by the King's Authority against his Authority or Dignity or Honour or Person But all the Doubt is as aforesaid Whether the King's Laws have not his Authority and whether his Laws and his Commission may not be contrary or one Commission contrary to another And in that case whether it be Trayterous to say that one side hath his Authority against the other As if his Law allow Men to defend their Lives and Purses against Assaults and an Assailant produce a Commission whether the King's Authority in his Laws and Courts enable not a Man by Arms to save his Purse or Life against such a pretended Commissioner And how shall any Subject at the time of the Assault be sure whether the Commission be true or spurious If as Ioa◠and Abner sent the young Men to play mad play before them and the Romans caused their Gladiators to fight to make them sport so if the King to try the Valour of some Subjects would Commission a few on both sides to fight against each other doth it follow that both sides were Traytors because they both fought by his Authority against such as were Commissionated by him If it be said That this is not the meaning of the Act we answer◠That where Forms are supposed to be deliberately worded by a Parliament if we must not understand Universals universally but may put in Limitations or Exceptions at our Pleasure then their words are not the signifiers of their Minds and we know not whether to go to understand them nor what be the Exceptions and Limitations allowed but every Man may except according to his Fancy and thus all will be but Equivocation and Deceit And Dr. Sanderson resolveth it That when Oaths and consequently subscribed Forms are ambiguously worded and the Imposers will not explain them it is not fit at all to take them Some Lawyers tell me that if it came before the Judges they would judge an unlawful Commission to be no Commission and that the Judges are the Expositors of the Law I answer 1. We have no assurance that the Judges would so judge much less unanimously nor that they have so done 2. Lately Mr. Ioseph Read offered at the King's-Bench-Bar to take the Oxford Oath as expounded in that sence by the Vote of the Lords about the Test and he was reproved for his Offer and told that he must take it as the Law imposed it and was sent back to Jail 3. The Law-makers only can expound a Law as antecedently Obligatory to all the Subjects The Judges can only expound it consequently for the decision of a particular Case in order to Execution and ad hoc which warranteth no Man to take that for the true meaning of the Statute § 397. IV. The Fourth Controversie is about the Oath of Canonical Obedience And the Reasons why this is scrupled by the Non-Conformists are these Because they take the Power it self to which they are to swear to be specifically Evil and against the Word of God of which their Proofs are given before And therefore they dare not be guilty of swearing Obedience to them lest they 1. Take the Name of God in vain and Oath being a thing which is not to be ventured on but with the greatest reverence deliberation and sincerity 2. And lest they scandalously approve of Usurpation in Christ's Kingdom to the wrong of his Crown and Dignity and contract the guilt of Treason or Disloyalty
It is a transient Image used as a means of Worship Therefore unlawful by the Second Commandment 2. It is a stated Human Ordinance in God's Worship an instituted fixed Sacramental dedicating Sign 3. It is no less than the Covenant of Grace which it signifieth yea somewhat of God's part as well as ours and acted by the Minister and not by the Parents as a professing Sign It signifieth the Cross and Sufferings of Christ the Ground and Seal of the Covenant on his part And if God would have had such Sacraments used he could as well have instituted them as he did the rest VII § 414. The 7th Controversie is about Actual Administrations according to the Common Prayer and Canons 1. We dare not when we give the Sacrament to others refuse it to all those faithful Persons who fear to take it kneeling lest it be Idolatry Though I can so take it my self I cannot execute so unjust an Imposition as to cast out Christ's Members upon that account no more than to cast out Children for crying or for being Children And I think it better for me not to meddle with the Sacrament at all than to be guilty of such Oppression Uncharitableness Injustice and Division and to do such actual wrong to one part that I may give the Sacrament to the other part § 415. 2. And I dare not knowingly Baptize those Children that are not in the Covenant of God nor call every Child regenerate without exception that can but have Godfathers Nor dare I while I receive all these reject all the Children of godly Parents who dare not bring them to be Baptized with the Sacrament of the Cross. To say that others forbid me is nothing while I must be the Executioner of their Decrees § 416. 3. And I dare not if I undertake a Pastoral Charge give the Sacrament to the notoriously unworthy though the Chancellor absolve him or never question him nor utterly neglect all that part of Discipline which belongeth to my Office though Men forbid it nor be guilty of all that corruption and confusion which the neglect of Discipline bringeth into the Church 4. Nor dare I absolutely pronounce a wicked Man forgiven if in his sickness he superficially say I repent 5. Nor dare I at the Burial of every notorious wicked Man that is not Unbaptized Excommunicate nor a Self-murderer solemnly pronounce That God hath taken to himself the Soul of this our dear Brother c. lest I harden the wicked in their damnable Presumption If the Child of the holiest Parent die unbaptized we must not say these words for it that is in their Language we must not bury it by the Office of the Church with Christian Burial but such are numbred with the Excommunicate and Self-murderers But if a hundred Thieves Adulterers Drunkards die or Murderers or Traytors be hanged for ther sin though they never so much as say I repent but justifie themselves to the last breath yet must we bury them all with these words God hath taken to himself the Soul of this our dear Brother to teach the People to give him the lie who giveth himself the lie by preaching that the Impenitent and Wicked are not saved And to teach all the most ungodly to look to speed as well as others Purgatory is a better Doctrine than this for it leaveth the Wicked under some awe Yet all this we must Assent and Consent to and use if we will have leave to preach in the Publick Churches Nor do the little poor Evasions used for these things seem worth the answering It tendeth to the vitiating also of the Commonwealth to pronounce thus the Salvation of every Traytor Thief Murderer as well as of Drunkards Whoremongers and Atheists who never so much as said We repent How can we preach the Misery of Sinners or the Necessity of Renovation and Sanctification without contradicting our selves when we must tell a Man in the Pulpit That except be repent be shall perish and if he live after the flesh he shall die and without holiness he shall not see God And yet if he die without one Penitent word we must say God hath taken to himself the Soul of this our dear Brother So much of the Controversie between the present Conformists and Non-conformists § 417. Having thus interposed the State of the Controversie and Cause of the Ejected Ministers of England and so being got past Barthelomew-day I proceed in the History of the consequent Calamities When I was absent resolving to meddle in such Businesses there no more Mr. Calamy and the other Ministers of London who had Acquaintance at the Court were put in hope that the King would grant that by way of Indulgence which was before denied them And that before the Act was past it might be provided That the King should have power to dispense with such as deserved well of him in his Restoration or whom he pleased But that was frustrate And after that they were told that the King had power himself to dispense in such Cases as he did with the Duteb and French Churches Ane some kind of Petition I have not a Copy of it they drew up to offer the King But when they had done it they were so far from procuring their Desires that there fled abroad grievous Threatnings against them that they should incur a Premunire for such a bold attempt when they were drawn to it at first they did it with much hesitancy through former Experience and they worded it so cauteously that it extended not to the Papists Some of the Independents presumed to say That the Reason why all our Addresses for Liberty had not succeeded was because we did not extend it to the Papists and that for their parts they saw no reason why the Papists should not have Liberty of Worship as well as others and that it was better for them to have it than for all us to go without it But the Presbyterians still answered to that motion That the King might himself do what he pleased and if his Wisdom thought meet to give Liberty to the Papists let the Papists petition for it as they did for theirs But if it be expected by any that it shall be forced upon them to become Petitioners for Liberty for Popery they should never do it whatever be the issue Nor shall it be said to be their work § 418. On the 26th of Decemb. 1662. the King sent forth a Declaration expressing his purpose to grant some Indulgence or Liberty in Religion with other matters not excluding the Papists many of whom had deserved so well of him When this came out the ejected Ministers began to think more confidently of some Indulgence to themselves Mr. Nye also and some others of the Independents were encouraged to go to the King and when they came back told us That he was now resolved to give them Liberty On the Second of Ianuary Mr. Nye came to me to treat about our
Prelatical Dignity is not some way retrenched and whether they bear still that irreconcileable hatred against good and godly Presbyterians that they may not be suffered to exercise their Charge and Duty Or if they are wholly deprived of the power and authority to serve their Parishes as to our great Scandal we are informed I had many things more to write to you but dare not trouble you most worthy Sir any further fearing to keep you from your weighty Business Only I crave very humbly your Answer and as much Information of the true present Estate as opportunity will give you leave Whether we have so much cause to fear the Introduction of Popery in England as some by the News amongst us are wholly perswaded In the mean while we will continue to pray the Lord our God and most merciful Father with all our Hearts and Souls to preserve your Person for the General Good and Edification of his whole Catholick Church that your great Light may shine more and more and so I remain Reverend and most worthy Sir Your humble and most Affectionate Servant Iohn Sollicâ—ffer unworthy Servant of Christ. Saingall in Helvetia Reformatâ 16 April 1663. The vigilant Eye of Malice that some had upon me made me understand that though no Law of the Land is against Literate Persons Correspondencies beyond Seas nor have any Divines been hindered from it yet it was like to have proved my ruine if I had but been known to answer one of these Letters though the Matter had been never so much beyond Exceptions So that I neither answered this nor any other save only by word of mouth to the Messenger and that but in small part for much of this in the latter part was Matter not to be touched Our Silencing and Ejection he would quickly know by other means and how much the Judgments of the English Bishops did differ from theirs about the Labours and Persons of such as we § 443. About this time I thought meet to debate the Case with some Learned and Moderate Ejected Ministers of London about Communicating sometimes in the Parish Churches in the Sacraments For they that came to Common Prayer and Sermon came not yet to Sacraments They desired me to bring in my Judgment and Reasons in writing which being debated they were all of my mind in the main That it is lawful and a duty where greater Accidents preponderate not But they all concurred unanimously in this That if we did Communicate at all in the Parish Churches the Sufferings of the Independents and those Presbyterians that could not Communicate there would certainly be very much increased which now were somewhat moderated by concurrence with them I thought the Case very hard on both sides That we that were so much censured by them for going somewhat further than they must yet omit that which else must be our Duty meerly to abate their Sufferings that censure us But I resolved with them to forbear a while rather than any Christian should suffer by occasion of an action of mine seeing God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and no Duty is a Duty at all times § 444. In Iuly 1665. the Lord Ashley sent a Letter to Sir Iohn Trevor That a worthy Friend of his in whose Case the King did greatly concern himself had all his Fortunes cast upon my Resolution of the enclosed Case which was Whether a Protestant Lady of strict Education might marry a Papist in hope of his Conversion he promising not to disturb her in her Religion It came at Six a Clock Afternoon and knowing it was a Case that must be cautelously resolved at the Court I took time till the next Morning that I might give my Answer in Writing The next day the Lord Ashley wrote again with many words to incline me to the Affirmative for the Lady told them she would not consent unless I satisfied her that it was lawful Who the Lord and Lady were I know not at all but have an uncertain Conjecture So I sent the following Resolution The Case was thus expressed Whether one that was bred a strict Protestant and in the most severe ways of that Profession lived many years without giving offence to any well known in her own Country to be such may without offence to God or Man marry a profest Roman Catholick in hopes of taking him off the Errour of his ways he engaging never to disturb her My Lord's Letter was as follows SIR THere is a very good Friend of mine and one his Majesty is very much concerned for that this enclosed Case has the power of his Fortunes None but that worthy Divine Mr. Baxter can satisfie the Lady this has been the way by which the Romanists have gained very much upon us they are more powerful in perswasion than our Sex besides the putting this Case shews some inclination to the Person though not to the Religion Sir If Mr. Baxter be with you pray let me have his Opinion to this Case in writing under it Wherein you may oblige more than you think for Your very affectionate Friend to serve you ASHLEY For his much honoured Friend Sir Iohn Trevor at Acton To this Case I drew up the following Answer and sent it to Sir John Trevor to be by him conveyed to my Lord Ashley SIR THough I cannot be insensible how inconvenient to my self the Answer of this Case may possibly prove by displeasing those who are concerned in it and medling about a Case of Persons utterly unknown to me yet because I take it to be a thing which Fidelity to the Truth and Charity to a Christian Soul requireth I shall speak my Judgment whatever be the Consequents But I must crave the pardon of that Noble Lord who desired my Answer might be Subscribed to the Case because Necessity requireth more words than that Paper will well contain The Question about the Marriage is not An factum valeat but An fieri debeat There is no affirming or denying without these necessary Distinctions 1. Between a Case of Necessity and of no Necessity 2. Between a Case where the Motives are from the Publick Commodity of Church or State and where they are only Personal or Private 3. Between one who is otherwise sober ingenuous and pious and a faithful Lover of the Lady and one that either besides his Opinion is of an ungodly Life or seeketh her only to serve himself upon her Estate 4. Between a Lady well grounded and fixed in Truth and Godliness and one that is weak and but of ordinary setledness Hereupon I answer Prop. 1. In general It cannot be said to be simply and in all Cases unlawful to marry an Infidel or Heathen much less a Papist 2. In particular It is lawful in these following Cases 1. In Case of true Necessity when all just means have been used and yet the Party hath a necessity of Marriage and can have no better If you ask Who is better I answer A suitableness
Learned and Worthy Man Mr. Shaw another Silenc'd Miâ—ister and his Brother in Law who being shut up gave God Thanks for his Deliverance in a very Learned and Profitable Treatise which he Published thereupon And since being found not only very Learned but moderate and holding Communion in the Publick Assemblies and a peaceable Man hath got connivance to Teach a Publick School a great favour in these Times 3. Mr. Roberts a Godly Welsh Minister who also flying from the Plague fell Sick as far off as between Shrewsbury and Oswestry and died on a little Straw while none durst entertain him § 4. It is scarce possible for People that live in a time of Health and Security to apprehend the dreadfulness of that Pestilence How fearful People were thirty or forty if not an hundred Miles from London of any thing that they bought from any Mercer's or Draper's Shop or of any Goods that were brought to them or of any Person that came to their Houses How they would shut their Doors against their Friends and if a Man passed over the Fields how one would avoid another as we did in the time of Wars and how every Man was a Terrour to another O how sinfully unthankful are we for our quiet Societies Habitations and Health § 5. Not far from the place where I sojourned at Mrs. Fleetwood's three Ministers of extraordinary worth were together in one House Mr. Clearkson Mr. Sam. Cradock and Mr. Terry Men of singular Judgment Piety and Moderation and the Plague came into the House where they were one Person dying of it which caused many that they knew not of earnestly to pray for their Deliverance and it pleased God that no other Person dyed § 6. But one great Benefit the Plague brought to the City that is it occasioned the Silenc'd Ministers more openly and laboriously to Preach the Gospel to the exceeding comfort and profit of the People insomuch that to this Day the freedom of Preaching which this occasioned cannot by the daily Guards of Soldiers nor by the Imprisonments of Multitudes be restrained The Ministers that were Silenced for Nonconformity had ever since 1662. done their Work very privately and to a few not so much through their timorousness as their loathness to offend the King and in hope still that their forbearance might procure them some Liberty and through some timorousness of the People that should hear them And when the Plague grew hot most of the Conformable Ministers fled and left their Flocks in the time of their Extremity whereupon divers Non-comformists pitying the dying and distressed People that had none to call the impenitent to Repentance noâ— to help Men to prepare for another World nor to comfort them in their Terrors when about Ten Thousand dyed in a Week resolved that no obedience to the Laws of any mortal Men whosoever could justifie them for neglecting of Men's Souls and Bodies in such extremities no more than they can justifie Parents for fanishing their Children to death And that when Christ shall say Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these ye did it not to me It will be a poor excuse to say Lord I was forbidden by the Law Therefore they resolved to stay with the People and to go in to the forsaken Pulpits though prohibited and to preach to the poor People before they dyed and also to visit the Sick and get what relief they could for the Poor especially those that were shut up Those that set upon this work were Mr. Thomas Vincent late Minister in Milk-street with some Strangers that came thither since they were Silenced as Mr. Chester Mr. Ianeway Mr. Turner Mr. Grimes Mr. Franklin and some others Those heard them one Day oft that were sick the next and quickly dyed The Face of Death did so awaken both the Preachers and the Hearers that Preachers exceeded themselves in lively fervent Preaching and the People crowded constantly to hear them and all was done with so great Seriousness as that through the Blessing of God abundance were converted from their Carelesness Impenitency and youthful Lusts and Vanities and Religion took that hold on the Peoples Hearts as could never afterward be loosed § 7. And at the same time whilst God was consuming the People by these Judgments and the Nonconformists were labouring to save Men's Souls the Parliament which sate at Oxford whither the King removed from the danger of the Plague was busie in making an Act of Confinement to make the Silenc'd Ministers Case incomparably harder than it was before by putting upon them a certain Oath which if they refused they must not come except the Road within five Miles of any City or of any Corporation or any place that sendeth Burgesses to the Parliament or of any place where-ever they had been Ministers or had preached since the Act of Oblivion So little did the Sense of God's terrible Judgments or of the necessities of many hundred thousand ignorant Souls or the Groans of the poor People for the Teaching which they had lost or the fear of the great and final Reckoning affect the Hearts of the Prelatists or stop them in their way The chief Promoters of this among the Clergy were said to be the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Dr. Seth-Ward the Bishop of Salisbury And one of the greatest Adversaries of it in the Lord's House was the very Honourable Earl of Southampton Lord Treasurer of England a Man that had ever adhered to the King but understood the interest of his Country and of Humanity It is without Contradiction Reported that he said No honest Man would take that Oath The Lord Chancellor Hide also and the rest of the Leaders of that mind and way promoted it and easily procured it to pass the Houses notwithstanding all that was said against it § 8. By this Act the Case of the Ministers was made so hard that many thought themselves necessitated to break it not only by the necessity of their office but by a natural impossibility of keeping it unless they should murder themselves and their Families As to a moral Necessity as they durst not be so Sacrilegious as to desert the Sacred Office wholly to which they were consecrated which would be worse than Ananias and Sapphird's Alienating their devoted Money so they could hardly exercise any part of their Office if they did obey this Act. For 1. The Cities and Corporations are the most considerable part of the Kingdom and also had for the most part the greatest need of help partly because of the numerousness of the People For in many Parishes in London the fourth part nay in some the tenth part cannot be contained in the publick Temples if they came so as to hear what is said Partly also because most Corporations having smaller Maintenance than the Rural Parishes are worse provided for by the Conformists And every where the private Work of Over-sight and Ministerial Help is through their Numbers greater than many
In the mean time he wish'd us to use our Liberty temperately and not with such open Offence and Scandal to the Government He said our Meetings were too numerous and so besides that they were against Law gave occasion to many clamorous People to come with complaints to him as if our design was wholly to undermine the Church and to say Sir These are they that you protect against the Laws He instanced in the folly of Farringdon's Preaching in the Play-House We told him we all disliked the Action and that he had been sorely rebuked for affronting the Government under which we live with so much peace but I forgot to disclaim him He instanced in one more but with a Preface that he had a great respect for the Person and his Worth and Learning who draweth in all the Countrey round about to him this Person is Mr. Baxter of Acton he instanced in him because of a late Complaint from a Iustice of Peace who had a mind to be nibling at him bâ—t feared it would be with the offence of his Majesty we imagine Ross to be the person I replyed That you went to the publick did it in the interval between Morning and Evening Service beginning at Twelve That the first Intendment was for the benefit of your own Family that this great Company was not invited by you but intruded upon you that it was hard to exclude those who in Charity might be supposed to come with a thirst after the means of Edification I alledged the general necessity and that Nonconformists were not all of a piece and if people of unsober principles in Religion were permitted to preach a necessity lay upon us to take the like liberty that those who have invincible scruples against the publick way may not be left as a prey to those who might leave bad impressions upon them which would neither be so safe for Religion nor the publick peace To which His Majesty reply'd That the riffle raffie of the people were not of such Consideration they being apt to run after every new Teacher but people of Quality might be intreated to forbear to meet or at least not in such multitudes lest the publick Scandal taken thereby might obstruct his Intentions and Designs for our good He seemed to be well enough pleased when I suggested that our Sobriety of Doctrine and medling only with weighty things and remembrance of Him in our prayers with respect preserved an esteem of his Person and Government in the Hearts of his people and that possibly people of another humour might season them with worse Infusions Then Arlington pluck'd him by the Coat as desiring him to note it Finally I told him That you would have waited upon him with us if you had not been under the Confinement of a Disease This is the Sum express words I have not bound my self unto only kept as near as I can remember Since this our Address hath been considered by the Cabinet Council and approved the Business was debated whether it should be made publick most were for that Opinion but the final result was that we should be left at liberty to speak of it with such Restrictions as our Wisdom should suggest We met him privately in my Lord Arlington's Lodgings I am now in very great haste I must abruptly take leave of you with the profession that I am Sir Your Faithful Brother and Servant Covent-Garden this Friday Morning Some other things when they come to mind I will acquaint you with § 86. But the Minister that offered this acknowledgment did neither publish it nor give out any Copies of it I suppose lest they should be thought to be the Persons that were opening the Door to a Toleration which should take in the Papists For ever since the King himself published a Declaration of his purpose to give such a Liberty as they also should have their part in and by the Observation of all that passed before and since by-standers made this Epitome of their Expections 1. The Papists must have the Liberty of exercising their Religion 2. The State must not be reproached by it as intending Popery 3. The Bishops must have no hand in it lest they be taken to intend the same which some of the People are already too apt to believe especially since they refused Concord with the Ministers and are for their silencing and so great severities against them 4. The Papists must not be seen in it themselves till they can be sure to carry it lest it stir up the Parliament and People against them 5. Therefore it must be done by the Nonconformists 6. The Presbyterians are four and will not 7. The Independent Leaders are for the doing it but they dare not say so for fear of becoming odious with the Presbyterians Parliament and People And they intend no good to the Papistsby it when they have done but to strengthen themselves Therefore they dare not appear in it till the Presbyterians join with them 8. When the smart of the Presbyterians is greater it may be their Stomachs will come down Who knoweth whether Extremity may not force them rather to desire a part in a common Liberty than to see others have it while they lie in Goals 9. At least when they wait and beg for their own Liberty that which is given to all others will seem to be given chiefâ—y in compassion to them that were the Sufferers and their Necessities will make it said that they were the Causes 10. And when it is granted it is easie to distinguish c. And the Presbyterians are the backwarder on these two accounts 1. When they are known to be the most adverse to Popery and to have made their Covenant and opposed the Bishops c. on that account and suspect the Bishops to design again such a Confederacy as Heylin defendeth and confesseth and to have promoted their silencing to this end after all this to force these Sufferers to take on them the task and odium of procuring the Papist's Liberty while they that would have it cry out against it seeemeth to them so intolerable an Injury that they cannot willingly submit to 2. Because if they had a part in a common Toleration they believe it is very easie to turn them out of it quickly and leave the Papists in by some Oath which shall be digestible by a Papist and not by them such as the Oxford Oath or some others 11. But either they are mistaken in some of these Conclusions or else the Papists desire to have two Strings to their Bow For Heylin in Laud's Life and Thâ—râ—dike in three late Books do plainly tell the World that one Business to be done is to open the Door of the Church of England so wide by reconciling means that the Papists might be the easilier brought in to us and may find nothing to hinder the moderate sort from coming to our Assemblies by the Pope's consent and so all notes of Distinction may so
what he had suffered by the War who it 's said was but a poor Boy and after a Schoolmaster and Phillips having but one Leg told me he had lost his Leg by the Wars and I thought then there was no remedy but Preachers must be silenced and live in Goals But with much importunity I got them once to hear me while I told them why I took not my Meeting to be contrary to Law and why the Oxford Act concerned me not and they had no Power to put that Oath on me by the Act But all the Answer I could get was That they were satisfied of what they did And when among other reasonings against their course I told them I thought Christ's Ministers had in many Ages been Men esteemed and used as we now are and their Afflicters have insulted over them the Providence of God hath still so ordered it that the Names and Memory of their Silencers and Afflicters have been left to Posterity for a Reproach insomuch that I wondered that they that fear not God and care not for their own or the People's Souls should yet be so careless of their fame when Honour seemeth so great a matter with them To which Ross answered that he desired no greater Honour to his Name than that it should be remembred of him that he did this against me and such as I which he was doing Then they asked me whether I would take the Oath I named a difficulty or two in it and desired them to tell me the meaning of it They told me that they were not to expound it to me but to know whether I would take it I told them it must be taken with understanding and I did not understand it They said I must take it according to the proper sence of the Words I asked them whether the proper sence of those Words I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Government in the Church was not of any time universally as it 's spoken they said yea I asked them whether it were in the Power of the King and Parliament to make some alteration of Church-Government Ross first said that before it was settled it was But better bethinking himself said Yea I told him the King once gave me a Commission to endeavour an alteration of the Liturgy and allowance to endeavour the alteration of Church-Government as may be seen in His Majesty's Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs If he should command me the like again am I not sworn by this Oath if I take it to disobey him yea or if the Law-makers change the Law c. At this Ross only laught and derided me as speaking a ridiculous supposition and said that could not be the Sence I told him that then he must confess the Error of his Rule and that the Oath is not to be understood according to the proper meaning and use of those Words And I bad them take notice that I had not refused their Oath but desired an explication of it which they refused to give though I had reason enough to resolve me not to take it however they that were not the makers of the Law should have expounded it And so Phillips presently wrote my Mittimus as followeth § 112. To the Keeper of his Majesty's Goal commonly called the New-Prison in Clerkenwell Middlesex VVHereas it hath been proved unto us upon Oath that Richard Baxter Clerk hath taken upon him to Preach in an unlawful Assembly Conventicle or Meeting under colour or pretence of Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom at Acton where he now liveth in the said County not having taken and subscribed the Oath by Act of Parliament in that case appointed to be be taken And whereas we having tender'd to him the Oath and Declaration appointed to be taken by such as shall offend against the said Act which he hath refused to take we therefore send you herewith the Body of the said Richard Baxter straitly charging and commanding you in his Majesty's Name to receive him the said Richard Baxter into his Majesty's said Prison and him there safely to keep for six Months without Bail or Mainprize And hereof you are not to fail at your Peril Given at Brentford the Eleventh of June in the one and twentieth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second J. Philips Tho. Ross. § 113. Here it is to be noted that the Act against Conventicles was long ago 〈◊〉 that I was never Convict of a Conventicle while that Law was in force nor since that the Oxford Act supposeth me Convict of a Conventicle and doth not enable them to Convict me without another Law That really they had 〈◊〉 but Ross's Man to witness that I preached who crept in but the Lord's Day before and heard me only preach on this Text. Mat. â—5 Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth presseth especially Quietness and Patience towards our Governours and denying all turbulent unpeaceable and seditious dispositions and practices § 114. They would have given me leave to stay till Monday before I went to Gâ—â—al if I would promise them not to preach the next Lord's Day which I denied to promise and so went away the next Morning â—115 This was made a heinous Crime against me at the Court and also it was said by the that it could not be out of Conscience that I preached else why did not my Conscience put me on it so long before Whereas I had ever preached to my own Family and never once invited any one to hear me nor forbad any So that the difference was made by the people and not by me If they come more at last than at first before they had ever heard me that fignified no change in me But thus must we be judged of where we are absent and our Adversaries present and there are many to speak against us what they please and we are banished from City and Corporations and cannot speak for our selves § 116. The whole Town of Acton were greatly exasperated against the Dean when I was going to Prison insomuch as ever since they abhor him as a selfish Perseentor Nor could he devise to do more to hinder the success of his seldom Preaching there But it was his own choice Let them hate me so they fear me And so I finally left that Place being grieved most that Satan had prevailed to stop the poor People in such hopeful beginnings of a common Reformation and that I was to be deprived of the exceeding grateful Neighbourhood of the Lord Chief Baron Hale who could scarce refrain Tears when he did but hear of the first Warrant for my appearance § 117. I knew nothing all this while of the rise of my trouble but I resolved to part in Peace on my part with the Dean not doubting but it was his doing And so I went to take my leave of him who took on him to be sorry and swore it was none of
them as we could and not to hold any Communion with any that did Conform having Printed his Third Reviling Libel against me called for my Third Reply which I Entitled The Church told of c. But being Printed without License Lestrange the Searcher Surprized part of it in the Press there being lately greater Penalties laid on them that Print without License than ever before And about the Day that it came out Mr. Bagshaw died a Prisoner though not in Prison Which made it grievous to me to think that I must seem to write against the Dead While we wrangle here in the dark we are dying and passing to the World that will decide all our Controversies And the safest Passage thither is by peaceable Holiness § 196. About Ian. 1. the King caused his Exchequer to be shut up So that whereas a multitude of Merchants and others had put their Money into the Banker's hands and the Bankers lent it to the King and the King gave Order to pay out no more of it of a Year the murmur and complaint in the City was very great that their Estates should be as they called it so surprized And the rather because it being supposed â—o be in order to the Assisting of the French in a War against the Dutch they took a Year to be equal to perpetuity and the stop to be a loss of all seeing Wars use to increase Necessities and not to supply them And among others all the Money and Estate except 10 l. per Ann. for 11 or 12 Years that I had in the World of my own not given away to others whom Charity commanded me to give it to for their Maintenance before was there which indeed was not my own which I will mention to Counsel any Man that would do good to do it speedily and with all their might I had got in all my Life the just Sum of 1000 l. Having no Child I devoted almost all of it to a Charitable Use a Free-School c. I used my best and ablest Friends for 7 Years with all the Skill and Industry I could to help me to some Purchase of House or Land to lay it out on that it might be accordingly setled And though there were never more Sellers I could never by all these Friends hear of any that Reason could encourage a Man to lay it out on as secure and a tolerable Bargain So that I told them I did perceive the Devil's Resistance of it and did verily suspect that he would prevail and I should never settle but it would be lost So hard is it to do any good when a Man is fully resolved that divers such Observations verily confirm me That there are Devils that keep up a War against Goodness in the World § 197. The great Preparations of the French to invade the Vnited Provinces and of the English to assist them do make now the Protestants Hearts to tremble and to think that the Low Countries will be Conquered and with them the Protestant Cause deeply endangered Though their vicious worldly Lives deserve God's Judgments on themselves yet they are a great part of the Protestants Humane Strength But the Issue must expound God's purposes without which Men's Designs are vain § 198. This Year a new Play-House being built in Salisbury-Court in Fleet-Street called the Duke of York's the Lord Mayor as is said desired of the King that it might not be the Youth of the City being already so corrupted by Sensual Pleasures but he obtained not his desire And this Ian. 1671. the King's Play-House in Drury Lane took Fire and was burnt down but not alone for about fifty or sixty Houses adjoyning by Fire and blowing up accompanied it § 199. A Stranger calling himself Sam. Herbert wrote me a Letter against the Christian Religion and the Scriptures as charging them with Contradictions and urged me to answer them which I did And his Name inviting my memory I adjoyned an Answer to the Strength of a Book heretofore written by Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury some-time Ambassador in France the Author of the History of Henry VII called de Veritate being the most powerful Assault against the Christian Religion placing all the Religion that 's certain in the Common or Natural Notices I entitled the Book More Reasons for the Christian Religion and none against it Or a Second Appendix to the Reason for the Christian Religion § 200. The foresaid Mr. Hinkley by his impertinent Answer to my former Letters extorted from me a large Reply but when I was sending it him in Writing I heard that he intended to Print some scraps of it with his Papers the better to put them off Whereupon I sent him word he should not have them till he satisfied me that he would not so abuse them c. The rather because 1. The Subject of them was much to prove that the War was raised in England by an Episcopal Parliament jealous of other Episcopal Men as to Popery and Propriety 2. And it was so much against Diocesanes and their new Oaths as would much displease them 3. And in a sharper stile than was fit for publick View And as to the first Reason I was afraid lest any Papists would lay hold of it to make any Princes that already hate the the Non-conformists and Presbyterians to hate the Conformists and Prelatists also and so to seem themselves the most Loyal And I had rather they hated and cast off the Non-conformists alone than both This mindeth me to add that § 201. About a Year ago one Henry Fowlis Son to Sir David Fowlis an Oxford Man who had wrote against the Presbyterians with as filthy a Language almost as a man in his Wits could do having written also against the Papists His Book after his Death was Printed in a large Folio so opening the Principles and Practices of Papists against Kings their Lives and Kingdoms by multitudes of most express Citatioâ—s from their own Writers that the like hath not before been done by any Man nor is there extant such another Collection on that Subject though he left out the Irish Massacre But whereas the way of the Papists is to make a grievous Complaint against any Book that is written effectually against them as injurious as they did against Pet. Moulin's Answer to Philanax Anglicus and against Dr. Stillingfleet's late Book or the contrary this Book being copious true Citations and History is so terrible to them that their method is to say nothing of it but endeavour to keep it unknown for of late they have left the disputing way and bend all their endeavours to creep into Houses and pervert Persons in secret but especially to insinuate into the Houses and Fantiliarity of all the Rulers of the World where they can be received § 202. The Death of some the worthy Labours and great Sufferings of others maketh me remember that the just characterizing of some of the Ministers of Christ that now suffered for not
Churches for we must love each other and promote the Work of Christ in each others hands as the old Godly Conformists and Nonconformists did and we now do with the Godly Part of the Conformists Our Work is not to keep up a Combination against our Superiours nor to strengthen a Faction but to Combine for Godliness and to strengthen our selves in the proper work of the Gospel which we must do though some Conform and some do not 11. And our Superiours will be the less Jealous of us as to Sedition when they see us so divided in Point of Conformity than if they see us strengthened by the Unity of a distinct Party 12. And especially the Unity of such as Conform with the present Conformists will strengthen the Publick Ministery against Papists Infidels and all Vngodliness And our continued Division will be the strength of all these 13. And it is a weighty Consideration that the keeping up of the different Parties tempteth all the People of the Land to continual Censuring Uncharitableness and contending and unavoidably destroyeth Love and Concord and so keepeth Men in constant Sin On all these Reasons they were most for as much Union with the Parish-Ministers and joyning with them as the Parliament would allow them § 216. But now they found that there was little hopes of obtaining any such thing For they that were most for Toleration were most against our Comprehension by Abatement of any of the Impositions and they were many 1. All the Papists and their secret Friends were most opposite to Abatements For it was their Design from the beginning to get our Pressures to be as sharp as possible that so we might have as much need as they of a Toleration and might be forced to Petition for the opening of the Door by which they might come in or speed at least no worse than the Nonconformists 2. Those that were for the Increase of the Regal Power and Interest did very well know that the more grievously good People and so great a number were used by Parliaments and Laws the more certainly Nature and Interest would lead them to fly from them to the King for ease and refuge And also that when Men's Religion and Liberties are in the Power and at the Mercy of the King their Estates must be so too For who will not rather part with his Money than his Liberty and Religion Yea and Men's Hearts will be more with him that saveth them than with those that destinate them to Jayls and Beggery 3. And the Independents Separatists and all the Sectaries were commonly against a Comprehension for the Reasons before given Only the visible Necessities of the Nation do so strongly work towards it that doubtless in time they will prevail with the Wills of those that are for the Protestant Religion and for Property but whether Consent and Repentings will come too late God only knoweth and time must tell us § 217. In the end of May 1672. was another Sea-Fight with the Dutch with like Success as the former The Earl of Sandwich and others of ours lost and they parted without any notable Victory or Advantage of either Party but that they had kill'd one another § 218. In May and Iune the French suddenly took abundance of the Dutch-Gaâ—â—â—sons § 219. In Iuly and Aâ—gust the Dutch-Rabble tumultuously rose up against their Governours for the Prince of Orange and murdered De Wit and his Brother § 220. In Answer to a Book of Dr. Fulwood's I now Published a small Book without my Name against the Desertion of our Ministry though prohibited proving it Sacriledge to Alienate Consecrated Persons from the Sacred Office to which they are Devoted § 221. There came out a Posthumous Book of A. Bishop Bromhall's against my Book called The Grotian Religion In which 1. He passeth over the express words of Grotius which I had cited which undoubtedly prove what I said yea though I had since largely Englished them and recited them in the Second Part of my Key for Catholicks with a full Confirmation of my Proofs 2. And he feigneth me to make him a Grotian and Confederate in his Design when-as I not only had no such Word but had expresly excepted him by Name as imputing no such thing to him And before the Book was a long Preface of Mr. Parker's most vehement against Dr. Oxen and some-what against my self To which Mr. â—ndrew Marvel a Parliament Man Burgess for Hull did Publish an Answer so exceeding Jocular as thereby procured abundance of Readers and Pardon to the Author Because I perceived that the Design of A. Bishop Brombal's Book was for the Uniting of Christendom under the old Patriarchs of the Roman Imperial Church and so under the Pope as the Western Patriarch and Principium Vnitatis I had thought the design and this Publication look'd dangerously and therefore began to write an Answer to it But Mr. Simmons my Bookseller came to me and told me That Roger Lestrange the Over-seer of the Printers sent for him and told him That he heard I was Answering Bishop Bromball and Swore to him most vehemently that if I did it he would ruin him and me and perhaps my Life should be brought in question And I perceived the Bookseller durst not Print it and so I was fain to cast it by which I the easilier did because the main Scope of all the Book was fully answered long before in the fore-said Second Part of my Key for Catholicks § 222. Many Changes in Ireland much talk'd of I pass over § 223. Dr. Fulwood wrote a jocular deriding Answer to my Treatise against Saâ—ilegious Desertion of the Ministry and after that Printed an Assize Sermon against Separating from the Parish-Ministers Divers called on me to Reply to the first and I told them I had better Work to do than Answer every Script against me But while I demurred Dr. Fulwood wrote me an extraordinary kind Letter offering to do his best to the Parliament for our Union and Restoration which ended my Thoughts of that but I know not of any thing to purpose done § 224. Mr. Giles Firmin a Silenced Minister writing some-what against my Method and Motions for Heavenly Meditation in my Saint's Rest as too strict and I having Answered him he wrote a weak Reply which I thought not worthy of a Rejoinder § 225. On Octob. 11. I fell into a dangerous Fit of Sickness which God in his wonted Mercy did in time so far remove as to return me to some Capacity of Service § 226. I had till now forborn for several Reasons to seek a License for Preaching from the King upon the Toleration But when all others had taken theirs and were settled in London and other places as they could get opportunity I delayed no longer but sent to seek one on condition I might have it without the Title of Independent Presbyterian or any other Party but only as a Nonconformist And before I sent Sir Thomas Player Chamberlain
received as gifts of Bounty from any whosoever since I was silenced till after An. 1672. amount not in the whole to 20 l. besides ten Pouud per Annum which I received from Serjeant Fountain till he died and when I was in Prison twenty pieces from Sir Iohn Bernard ten from the Countess of Exeter and five from Alderman Bard and no more which just paid the Lawyers and my Prison Charge but the expences of removing my Habitation was greater And had the Bishop's Family no more than this In sum I told the Bishop that he that cried out so vehemently against schism had got the Spirit of a Sectary and as those that by Prisons and other sufferings were too much exasperated against the Bishops could hardly think or speak well of them so his cross Interests had so notoriously spoiled him of his Charity that he had plainly the same temper with the bitterest of the Sectaries whom he so much reviled Our Doctrinal Discourse I overpass § 236. This May a Book was Printed and cried about describing the horrid Murther of one 〈◊〉 Baxter in New-England by the Anabaptists and how they tore his Flesh and flead him alive and persons and time and place were named And when Mr. Kiffen sensible of the Injury to the Anabaptists searcht it out it proved all a studied Forgery Printed by a Papist and the Book Licensed by Dr. Sam. Paâ—ker the Arch-bishop's Chaplain there were no such Persons in being as the Book mentioned nor any such thing ever done Mr. â—issen accused Dr. Parker to the Kiug and Council The King made him confess his Fault and so it ended § 237. In Iune was the second great Fight with the Dutch where again many were killed on both sides and to this day it is not known which Paâ—ty had the greater Loss § 238. The Parliament grew into great Jealousies of the prevalency of Popery There was an Army raised which lay upon Black-Heath encamped as for Service against the Dutch They said that so many of the Commanders were Papists as made Men fear the design was worse Men feared not to talk openly that the Papists having no hope of getting the Parliament to set up their Religion by Law did design to take down Parliaments and reduce the Government to the French Model and Religion to their State by a standing Army These Thoughts put Men into dismal Expectations and many wish that the Army at any rate might be disbanded The Duke of York was General The Parliament made an Act that no man should be in any office of Trust who would not take the Oaths of Supremacy aud Allegiance and receive the Sacrament according to Order of the Church of England and renounee Transubstanstiation Many supposed Papists received the Sacrament and renounced Transubstantiation and took the Oaths Some that were known sold or laid down their Places The Duke of York and the new Lord Treasurer Clifford laid down all It was said they did it on supposition that the Act left the King impowered to renew their Commissions when they had laid them down But the Lord Chancellor told the King that it was not so and so they were put out by themselves This settled Men in the full belief that the Duke of York and the Lord Clifford were Papists and the Londoners had before a special hatred against the Duke since the burning of London commonly saying that divers were taken casting Fire-balls and brought to his Guards of Soldiers to be secured and he let them go and both secured and concealed them 239. The great Counsellors that were said to do all with the King in all great matters were the Duke of York the Lord Clifford the Duke of Lauderdaile the Lord Arlington the Duke of Buckingham the Lord Chancellor that is Sr. Anthony Ashley-Cooper Earl of Shaftsbury and after them the Earl of Anglesey lately Mr. Annesley Among all these the Lord Chanchellor declared so much Jealosie of Popery and set himself so openly to secure the Protestant Religion that it was wondered how he kept in as he did but whatever were his Principles or Motives it is certain he did very much plead the Protestant Cause § 240. In Iune Mastricht was taken by the French but with much loss where the Duke of Monmouth with the English had great Honour for their Valour § 241. In August four of the Dutch East-India Ships fell into our Hands and we had the third great Sea-fight with them under the Command of Prince Rupert where we again killed each other with equal Loss But the Dutch said they had the Victory now sand before and kept days of Thanksgiving for it Sir Edward Sprag was killed whose death the Papists much lamented hoping to have got the Sea-power into his Hands But Prince Rupert who declared himself openly against Popery and had got great Interest in the Hearts of the Soldiers complained sharply of the French Admiral as deserting him to say no worse And the success of these Fights was such as hindered the Transportation of the Army against the Dutch and greatly divided the Court-Party and discouraged the Grandees and Commanding Papists c. § 242. In September I being out of Town my House was broken by Thieves who broke open my Study-Doors Closets Locks searcht near 40 Tills and Boxes and found them all full of nothing but Papers and miss'd that little Money I had though very near them They took only three small pieces of Plate and medled not considerably with any of my Papers which I would not have lost for many hundred Pounds Which made me sensible of Divine Protection and what a Convenience it is to have such a kind of Treasure as other men have no mind to rob us of or cannot § 343. The Duke of York was now married to the Duke of Modena's Daughter by Proxy the Earl of Peterborough being sent over to that end § 244. The Lady Clinton having a Kinswoman wife to Edward Wray Esq who was a Protestant aâ—d her Husband a Papist throughly studied in all their Controversies and oft provoking his Wife to bring any one to dispute with him desired me to perform that office of Conference They differed about the Education of their Children he had promised her as she said at Marriage that she should have the Education of them all and now would not let her have the Education of one but would make them Papists I desired that either our Conference might be publick to avoid mis-reports or else utterly secret before no one but his Wife that so we might not seem to strive for the Honour of Victory nor by dishonour be exasperated and made less capable of benefit The latter way was chosen but the Lady Clinton and Mr. Goodwin the Lady Worsep's Chaplain prevailed to be present by his consent He began upon the point of Transubstantion and in Veron's Method would have put me to prove the Words of the Article of the Church of England by express Words of
while these envious Preachers cryed out against our Preaching and perswaded men how fully we were maintained they laboured for Laws to increase their setled maintenance and some of them in my hearing Preached how miscrable a case the Clergy were in were they left to the people's kindness and bounty And yet proclaim our fulness who are left to the kindness of those few who also pay fully their Tythes to the Parish Ministers who these Envyers say are but the smaller and poorer sort in the Land which comparatively is true though by this time I think the far greatest part are grown into dislike with the present Prelates who yet cleave to their Church And if their noble rich and numerous followers would leave them in want were they left to their Charity it seems they take their Church to consist of men much more covetous and less Religious and liberal than our few poor men § 261. The Lord's day before the Parliament was dissolved one of these Prelatists Preached to them to perswade them that we are obstinate and not to be tolerated nor cured by any means but Vengeance urging them to set Fire to the Fagot and teach us by Scourges or Scorpions and open our eyes with Gall. Yet none of these men will procure us leave to publish or offer to Authority the Reasons of our Non-conformity But this is not the first proof that a carnal worldly proud ungodly Clergie who never were serious in their own professed belief nor felt the power of what they Preach have been in most Ages of the Church its greatest plague and the greatest hinderers of Holiness and Concord by making their formalities and Ceremonies the test of Holiness and their Worldly Interest and Domination the only cement of Concord And O how much hath Satan done against Christ's Kingdom in the World by setting up Pastors and Rulers over the Churches to fight against Christ in his own name and livery and to destroy piety and peace by a pretence of promoting them § 262. This foresaid Preacher brings to my remembrance a Silenced Minister who heard the Sermon Mr. Iohn Humphrey a man not strait and factious in Doctrin Government or Worship as his Books shew for the middle way about Election Justification c. and his former Writings for giving the Lord's Supper to the Ungodly to convert them and his own Reordination and writing for Reordination The former Sessions of Parliamen he printed a sheet for Concord by restoring some silenced Ministers and tolerating others for which he was Imprisoned as was Dr. Ludovicus Molinaeus M. D. Son to old Peter for writing his Patronus against the Prelatists but delivered by the Common Act of Pardon And this Session the said Mr. Humphrey again printed another sheet and put it into the hands of many Parliament men which though slighted and frustrate by the Prorogation of the House yet I think hath so much reason in it that I shall here annex it though it speak not at all to the righteousness of our Cause and the Reasons of our Non-conformity that the Reader may see upon what Terms we stood But the truth is when we were once contrived into the Parliament's Inquisition and persecution it was resolved that we should be saved by the King or not at all and that Parliaments and Laws should be our Tormenters and not our Deliverers any more Mr. Iohn Humphrey's Papers given to the Parliament-Men Comprehension with Indulgence Nihil est jam dictum quod non fuit dictum prius Terence IT hath pleased his Majesty by several gracious Overtures to commend a Union of his Protestant Subject to the consideration of a Parliament A design full of all Princely Wisdom Honesty and Goodness In this Atchievement there is a double Interest I apprehend to be distinguished and weighed that of Religion it self and that of the Nation The advance of Religion doth consist much in the Unity of its Professors both in Opinion and Practice to be of one Mind and one Heart and one way in Discipline and Worship so far as may be according to the Scriptures The advance of the Nation does lie in the freedom and flourishing of Trade and uniting the whole Body in the common Benefit and dependence on the Government The one of these bespeaks an Established Order and Accommodation the other bespeaks Indulgence Liberty of Conscience or to eration For while People are in danger about Religion we dare not launch out into Trade say they but we must keep our Moneys being we know not into what straits we shall be driven and when in reference to their Party they are held under severity it is easie for those who are designing Heads to mould them into Wrath and Faction which without that occasion will melt and dissolve it self into bare Dissent of Opinion peaceably rejoycing under the Enjoyment of Protection The King we know is concerned as Supreme Governour and as a Christian Protestant Governour As he is King he is to seek the welfare of the Nation as he is a Christian the Flourishing of Religion and the Protestant Religion particularly is his Interest as this Kingdom doth lie in Ballance he being the chief Party with its Neighbour Nations The Judgment now of some is for a Comprehending Act which may take in those who are for our Parochial Churches that severity then might be used for reclaiming all whosoever separate from them The Judgment of some others is for a free and equal Act of Grace to all indifferently the Papists with most excepted whether separatists or others abhorring Comprehension as more dangerous to them upon that Account mentioned than all the Acts that have passed Neither of these Judge up to the full interest of the King and Kingdom as is proposed It becomes not the Presbyterian if his Principles will admit him to own our Parochial Churches and enjoy a Living to be willing to have his Brethren the Independents given up to Persecution And it becomes not the Separatist if he may but enjoy his Conscience to Repine or envy at the Presbyterian for reaping any further Emolument seeing both of them supposing the later may do so have as much at the bottom as can be in their Capacities desired of either It is an Act therefore of a mixt Complexion providing both Comprehension and Indulgence for the different Parties must serve our Purpose And to this end as we may humbly hope there is a Bill at present in the House A Bill for the ease of the Protestant Dissenter in the business of Religion Which that upon this present Prorogation it may be cast into this Model I must present the same yet in a little farther Explication There are two sorts we all know of the Protestant Dissenters one that own the Established Ministry and our Parish Congregations and are in Capacity of Union upon that account desiring it heartily upon condescension to them in some small matters The other that own not our Churches and so are
at the Temple the violentest of them and Mr. Rose and Mr. Philips the same two Men that had sent me to the Goal four years before They offered Mr. Bedford the Oath but it proved that he had taken it before and so far defeated them But he was fined accordingly to the Act in 20 l. and the place 40 l. which the Lord Wharton the Countesses of Bedford Manchester and Clâ—re and other hearers paid But two of the Justices swore that he said that the King did not in good earnest desire the execution of this Law which he professed he never said And for this the King sent him to Prison § 284. An Accident at this time fell out which occasioned a little seeming stop of my trouble which I will relate as the Duke of Lauderdail told it me himself who was present The Lord Falcon-brigde being with the Bishop of Salisbury Ward after reported that the Bishop told him that it was nothing of the Bishops but of the Lord Treasurer that the Act was thus Executed The Lord Treasurer charged it as an injury on the Bishop The Lord High Chamberlain E. of Lindsey told it Bishop Morley who told it Bishop Ward who went to the Lord Treasurer and Complained of it as a false injurious report of the Lord Falconbridge The Lord Treasurer took him to the King who sent for the Lord Falconbridge who before the King the D. of Lauderdail the Lord Treasurer the Lord High Chamberlain c. was accused by Bishop Ward for a false report of his words The Lord Falconbridge could not make it good but tho he spake not those very words he took the Scope of his Speech to be of that Importance The King said the Duke to me said I must tell you this my self I called the Bishops to give me their advice what was to be done for the present securing of the Church and the Protestant Religion and they told me that there was something to be done but they thought it not safe for them to give advice in it I told them that I took this for a Libel and askt them who or what they were afraid of And I appointed these Lords to see them give their Answer Among other passages the Lord Falconbridge said that the Bishop called the Execution of the Law a trick The Bishop Answered I said not that the Execution of the Law was a trick but that to begin with Mr. Baxter was a trick of some to make it thought that we are unreconcilable to the most moderate and peaceable Men. And thus they were drawn in to give their seeming Judgment against my suffering tho there was great reason to think that Papists and Prelates were the Contrivers of it § 285. For the better understanding of many of these matters it must be known that at 2 or 3 of the last Sessions of Parliament Bishop Morley had on all occasions in the Company of Lords Gentlemen and Divines cryed out of the danger of Popery and talkt much for abatements and taking in the Nonconformists or else we are like all to fall into the Papists hands so that there were no Lords or others for agreement but he made himself the head of their Design and so got an Interest still in the work as the forwardest desirer of it Dr. Fulwood Mr. Collyer and Divers others came to me to advise about a way of Concord as encouraged by this Bishop's words I sent him word by them all that I had heard these many years of these agreeing peâ—â—emaking purposes and desires of his Lordship but having known so much of his Endeavours to the contrary I intreated him by some Deeds to convince me of his sincerity for till then I was not able to believe it And the Event shewed that my incredulity was not without cause § 286. At this Sessions of Parliament approaching he set upon the same Course again and Bishop Ward as his second and chief Coagent joyned with him and they were famed to be the two Bishops that were for Comprehension and Concord none so forward as they At last Dr. Bates brings me a message from Dr. Tillot son Dean of Canterbury that he and Dr. Stillingfleet desired a Meeting with Dr. Manton Dr. Bates Mr. Pool and me to treat of an Act of Comprehension and Union and that they were encouraged to it by some Lords both Spiritual and Temporal We met to consider whether such an Attempt was safe and prudent or what was not offered by some Bishops as a sâ—are to us I told them my opinion that Experience would not suffer any Charity to believe any better of some Bishops but that they knew Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Tillotson to be the likeliest Men to have a hand in an Agreement if such a thing should be attempted and therefore that they would make themselves the Masters of it to defeat it and no better issue was to be expected as from them But yet that these two Doctors were Men of so much Learning Honesty and Interest that I took it as our Duty to accept the offer and to try with them how far we could agree and so try them first whether they would promise us secresy unless it came to maturity to be further notified by Consent And that we might hope for this Success as quickly to agree with these two Men and in time it might be some advantage to our desired Unity that our Terms were such as these two worthy Men consented to § 287. Accordingly Dr. Manton and I were desired by the rest to try them We went to Dr. Tillotson who promised Morley and Bishop Ward that had set them on work and the Earl of Carlile and Halifax chiefly who encouraged them Here-upon we agreed to meet the next week with him and Dr. Stillingfleet to try how far we could agree on the Terms I had before drawn up the form of an Healing Act and read it to no one but Mr. Hampden who told me it would never pass Before the next Meeting Dr. Manton was fain to abscond at the Lord Wharton's being designed as is aforesaid to the Common Goal such was the Treaty which we were invited to But I went alone and met the two Doctors I found them sincere in the business and conceited that Bishop Morley and Ward were so also Upon their promise of secrecy I freely told them my thoughts of the Bishop of Winchester and what an attempt I had lately made with him besides all heretofore at the request of the Earl of Orery and that after his Calls for Concord he granted me no one abatement or alteration or indulgence desired I shewed them the form of the Act which I had prepared They desired me to leave it with them to consider on Shortly after Dr. Tillotson brought me a Draught with several omissions and alterations I drew up my own again with some little alterations required by his Draught This he and I debated till we came to an agreement of the whole
intend only Bishops and King by Church and State 1. It would suppose that King and Parliament do take Bishops and King for two coordinate Heads in governing the Kingdom 2. And that they set the Bishops before the King which is not to be supposed 5. And to put all out of question the Oath is but Conform to former Statutes Oaths Articles of Religion and Canons 1. The Statutes which declare the King to be only Supreme Governour of the Church I need not cite 2. The Oath of Supremacy is well known of all 3. The very first Canon is that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all Bishops c. shall faithfully keep and observe all the Laws for the King's Supremacy over the Church of England in causes Ecclesiastical And the 2d Canon is to condemn the dangers of it And the 36. Canon obligeth all Ministers to subscribe that the King's Majesty under God is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all spiritual and Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal And as the Parliament are called the Representative of the People or Kingdom as distinct from the Head so the 139. Canon excommunicateth all them that affirm that the Sacred Synod of this Nation in the Name of Christ and by the King's Authority Aslembled is not the true Church of England by Representation So that they claim to be but the Representative of the Church as it is the Body distinct from the Head Christ aud the King as their chief Governour 4. And all that are Ordained are likewise to take the Oath of Supremacy I do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that the King's Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal 5. And It is also inserted in the Articles of Religion Art 35. And it is added expositorily Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the Chief Government by which title we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the Ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments but that only prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastcal or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the Stubborn and evil Doers Here it is to be noted that though no doubt but the Keys of Excommunication and absolution belong to the Pastors and to the Civil Magistrate yet the Law and this Article by the word Government mean only Coercive Government by the Sword and do include the power of the Keys under the title of Ministring the Word and Sacraments Church Guidance being indeed nothing else but the Explication and Application of God's word to Cases and Consciences and administring the Sacraments accordingly So that as in the very Article of Religion Supreme Government appropriated to the King only is contradistinguish'd from Ministring the Word and Sacraments which is not called Government there so are we to understand this Law and Oath And many Learned Men think that Guidance is a fitter name than Government for the Pastor's Office And therefore Grotius de Imper. Sum. Pot. would rather have the Name Canons or Rulers used than Laws as to their Determinations Though no doubt but the name Government may be well applyed to the Pastor's Part so we distinguish as Bilston and other judicious men use to do calling one Government by God's Word upon the Conscience and the other Government by the sword as seconding Precepts with enforcing penalties and Mulcts § 301. While this Test was carrying on in the house of Lords and 500 pounds Voted to be the penalty of the Refusers before it could come to the Commons a difference fell between the Lords and Commons about their priviledges by occasion of two Suits that were brought before the Lords in which two Members of the Commons were parties which occasioned the Commons to send to the Tower Sir Iohn Fagg one of their Members for appearing at the Lords Bar without their consent and four Counsellours Sir Iohn Churchill Sergeant Pemberton Sergeant Pecke and another for pleading there And the Lords Voted it Illegal and that they should be released Sir Iohn Robinson Lieutenant of the Tower obeyed the Commons for which the Lords Voted him a Delinquent And so far went they in daily Voting at each other that the King was fain to Prorogue the Parliament Iune 9. till October 13. there appearing no hope of Reconciling them Which rejoiced many that they rose without doing any further harm § 302. Iune 9. Keting the Informer being commonly detested for prosecuting me was cast in Gaol for Debt and wrote to me to endeavour his Deliverance which I did and in his Letters saith Sir I assure you I do verily believe that God hath bestowed all this affliction on me because I was so vile a wretch as to trouble you And I assure you I never did a thing in my Life that hath so much troubled my self as that did I pray God forgive me And truly I do not think of any that went that way to work that ever God would favour him with his mercy And truly without a great deal of mercy from God I do not think that ever I shall thrive or prosper And I hope you will be pleased to pray to God for me c. § 303. A while before another of the chief Informers of the City and my Accuser Marishall died in the Counter where his Creditors laid him to keep him from doing more harm Yet did not the Bishops change or cease Two more Informers were set on work who first assaulted Mr. Case's Meeting and next got in as hearers into Mr. Read's Meeting where I was Preaching And when they would have gone out to fetch Justices for they were known the doors were lockt to keep them in till I had done and one of them supposed to be sent from Fullum stayed weeping Yet went they straight to the Justices and the week following heard me again as Informers at my Lectures but I have not yet heard of their Accusation § 304. But this week Iune 9. Sir Thamas Davis notwithstanding all his foresaid Warnings and Confessions sent his Warrants to a Justice of the Division where I dwell to distrein on me upon two Judgments for 50 pounds for Preaching my Lecture in New-street Some Conformists are paid to the value of 20 pounds a Sermon for their Preaching and I must pay 20 pounds and 40 pounds a Sermon for Preaching for nothing O what Pastors hath the Church of England who think it worth all their unwearied Labours and all the odium which they contract from the People to keep such as I am from Preaching the Gospel of Christ and to undo us for it as far as they are able though these many years they do not for they cannot
long if there be cause § 315. Whilst this was my Employment in the Countrey my Friends at home had got one Mr. Seddon a Nonconformist of Derbyshire lately come to the Gity as a Traveller to Preach the Second Sermon in my New Built Chappel He was told and over-told all the Danger and desired not to come if he feared it I had left word That if he would but step into my House through a Door he was in no danger they having not Power to break open any but the Meeting-house While he was Preaching Three Justices with Soldiers supposed by Secretary Coventry's sending came to the Door to seize the Preacher They thought it had been I and had prepared a Warrant upon the Oxford Act to send me for Six Months to the Common Goal The good man and Two Weak Honest Persons intrusted to have directed him left the House where he was safe and thinking to pass away came to the Justices and Soldiers at the Door and there stood by them till some one said This is the Preacher And so they took him and blotted my Name out of the Warrant and put in his Though almost every Word fitted to my Case was false of him To the Gatehouse he was carried where he continued almost Three Months of the Six and being earnestly desirous of Deliverance I was put to Charges to accomplish it and at last having Righteous Judges and the Warrant being found faulty he had an Habeas Corpus and was freed upon Bonds to appear again the next Term. § 316. By this means my Case was made much worse For 1. The Justices and other Prosecutors were the more exasperated against me 2. And they were now taught to stop every Hole in the next Warrant to which I was still as liable as ever So that I had now no Prospect that way of Escape And yet though my Charge Care and Trouble had been great for his Deliverance and Good People had dealt very kindly with him my usual Back-biters the Prelatists and Separatists talk commonly of me as one that had unworthily saved my self from Danger and drawn a Stranger into the Snare and therefore deserved to bear all the Charges Though as is said 1. I was Twenty Miles off Preaching publickly 2. They that askt him to Preach told him the Worst 3. He went into Danger from Safety by the Conduct of some Persons of that censorious humour 4. My Danger was Increased by it as well as my Charges But Man's Approbation is a Poor Reward § 317. Just when I came home and was beginning to seek Mr. Seddon's Deliverance Mr. Rosse Died the Fiercest of the Justices who had sent me to Goal before The other Two are one Mr. Grey and Sir Philip Matthews § 318. The Parliament being sate again a Letter was secretly printed containing the History of the Debate in the Lord's House the former Sessions about the Test and it was Voted to be burnt by the Hangman but the more desired and read it In which it appeareth That when it came to be their own case more was said by the Lords for the Cause of the Nonconformists than ever they were permitted to say for themselves § 319. A most Excellent Book was written for the Nonconformists for Abatements and Forbearance and Concord by Dr. Herbert Crofts Bp. of Hereford without his Name of which more afterward § 320. The Lords and Commons Revived their Contests about their Powers and Priviledges and the Lords appointed Four Lawyers to plead their Cause and the Commons set up Orders or Votes to forbid them And the Duke of Buckingham made a Notable Speech against Persecution and desired the Consent of the Lords that he might bring in a Bill for the Ease of His Majesty's Protestant Subjects in matters of Religion but while it was preparing the King on Monday November 21st Prorogued the Parliament till February come Twelve-month § 321. The Speeches of the Earl of Shaftsbury and others about the Test were secretly Printed and a Paper of Reasons for Dissolving this Parliament and Calling a New One which were given in the House of Lords And the Debates of this Test opening a little of the Noncouformists Cause as to the Oxford Oath together with what the Earl of Shaftsbury hath done with Wit and Resolution hath alienated many even of the Conformists from the present prevailing Bishops § 322. The other of the fierce Justices that Subscribed a Warrant for my imprisonment died shortly after viz. Colonel Grey The Death of Mr. Barwell Sir Iohn Medlicot Mr. Ross and Mr. Grey besides the Death of some Informers and the Repentance of others and the Death of some late Opposers of the Clergy made me and some others the more to compassionate Persecutors and dread God's Judgments § 323. The Town of Northampton lamentably burnt § 324. An Earthquake in divers Counties § 325. My Dear Friend Sir Matthew Hale Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench falling into a Languishing Disease from which he is not like to Recover resolvedly petitioned for a Dismission and gave up his Place having gone through his Employments and gone off the Stage with more universal love and honour for his Skill Wisdom Piety and resolved Justice than ever I heard or read that any English Man ever did before him or any Magistrate in the World of his rank since the days of the Kings of Israel He resolved in his weakness that the place should not be a burden to him nor he to it And after all his great practice and places he tells me That with his own Inheritance and all he is not now worth above Five hundred Pounds per Annum so little sought he after gain He may most truly be called The Pillar and Basis or Ground of Iustice as Paul called not the Church but Timothy in the Church the Pillar and Basis of Truth His digested knowledge in Law above all Men and next in Philosophy and much in Theology was very great His sincere honesty and humility admirable His Garb and House and Attendance so very mean and low and he so resolutely avoided all the Diversions and Vanities of the World that he was herein the Marvel of his Age. Some made it a Scandal but his Wisdom chose it for his Convenience that in his Age he Marryed a Woman of no Estate suitable to his Disposition to be to him as a Nurse He succeeded me in one of the meanest Houses that ever I had lived in and there hath ever since continued with full content till now that he is going to his Native Countrey in likely-hood to die there It is not the least of my pleasure that I have lived some years in his more than ordinary Love and Friendship and that we are now waiting which shall be first in Heaven Whither he saith he is going with full content and acquiescence in the Will of a gracious God and doubts not but we shall shortly live together O what a blessed World were this were the
and also how the Plot was laid to Kill the King Thus Oates's Testimony seconded by Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey's Murder and Bedlow and Pranse's Testimonies became to be generally believed Ireland a Jesuit and Two more were Condemned as designing to Kill the King Hill Berry and Green were Condemned for the murder of Godfrey and Executed But Pranse was by a Papist first terrified into a Denyal again of the Plot to Kill the King and took on him to be Distracted But quickly Recanted of this and had no Quiet till he told how he was so Affrighted and Renewed all his Testimony and Confession After this came in one Mr. Dugdale a Papist and confessed the same Plot and especially the Lord Stafford's interest in it And after him more and more Evidence daily was added â—â—â—man the Dutchess of York's Secretary and one of the Papists great Plotters and Disputers being surprized though he made away all his later Papers was hanged by the Old Ones that were remaining and by Oates his Teâ—â—imony But the Parliament kept off all Aspersions from the Duke The Hopes of some and the Fears of others of his Succession prevailed with many § 28. At last the Lord Treasurer Sir Thomas Osborne made Earl of Danby came upon the stage having been before the object of the Parliament and People's jealousy and hard thoughts He being afraid that somewhat would be done against him knowing that Mr. Montague his Kinsman late Ambassadour in France had some Letters of his in his keeping which he thought might endanger him got an order from the King to seize on all Mr. Montagues Letters who suspecting some such usage had conveyed away the chief Letters and telling the Parliament where they were they sent and fetcht them and upon the reading of them were so instigated against the Lord Treasurer they impeached him in the Lords House of High Treason But not long after the King disolved the long Parliament which he had kept up about 17 or 18 years But a new Parliament is promised § 29. Above 40 Scots men of which 3 Preachers were by their Council sentenced to be not only banished but sold as servants called slaves to the American Plantations They were brought by ship to London Divers Citizens offered to pay their ransom The King was petitioned for them I went to the D. of Lauderdale but none of us could prevail for one man At last the Ship-Master was told that by a Statute it was a Capital crime to Transport any of the King's Subjects out of England where now they were without their consent and so he set them on shoar and they all escaped for nothing § 30. A great number of Hungarian Ministers had before been sold for Gally slaves by the Emperour's Agents but were released by the Dutch Admiral 's Request and some of them largely relieved by Collections in London § 31. The long and grievous Parliament that silenced about 2000 Ministers and did many works of such a nature being dissolved as aforesaid on Ian. 25. 1678. A new one was chosen and met on March 6 following And the King refusing their chosen speaker Mr. Segmore raised in them a greater displeasure against the Lord Treasurer thinking him the cause and after some days they chose Serjeant Gregory § 32. The Duke of York a little before removed out of England by the King's Command who yet stands to maintain his Succession § 33. The Parliament first impeached the foresaid Papist Lords for the Plot or Conspiracy the Lord Bellasis Lord Arundel Lord of Powis Lord Scafford and Lord Peter and after them the Lord Treasurer 34. New fires breaking out enrage the People against the Papists A great part of Southwark was before burnt and the Papists strongly suspected the cause Near half the buildings of the Temple were burnt And it was greatly suspected to be done by the Papists One Mr. Bifeild's house in Holbourn and Divers others so fired but quenched as made it very probable to be by their Conspiracy And at last in Fitter-Lane it fell on the house of Mr. Robert Bird a Man employed in Law of great Judgment and Piety who having more wit than many others to search it out found that it was done by a new Servant Maid who confessed it first to him and then to a Justice and after to the Lords that one Nicholas Stubbes a Papist having first made her promise to be a Papist next promised her 5 l. to set fire on her Master's house telling her that many others were to do the like and the Protestant Hereticks to be killed by the middle of Iune and that it was no more sin to do it than to kill a Dog Stubbes was taken and at first vehemently denyed but after confessed all and told them that one Giffard a Priest and his Confessor engaged him in it and Divers others and told them all as aforesaid how the Firing and Plot went on and what hope they had of a French Invasion The House of Commons desired the King to pardon the woman Eliz. Oxley and Stubbes § 35. If the Papists have not Confidence in the French Invasion God leaveth them to utter madness to hasten their ruine They were in full junctness through the Land and the noise of rage was by their design turned against the Nonconformists But their hopes did cast them into such an impatience of delay that they could no longer stay but must presently Reign by rage of blood Had they studied to make themselves odious to the Land they could have found out no more effectual way than by Firing Murder and Plotting to kill the King All London at this day is in such fear of them that they are fain to keep up private Watches in all streets besides the Common ones to save their houses from firing Yea while they find that it increaseth a hatred of them and while many of them are already hanged they still go on which sheweth either their confidence in Foreign Aid or their utter infatuation § 36. Upon Easter day the King dissolved his privy Council and settled it a new consisting of 30 men most of the old ones the Earl of Shaftsbury being President to the great joy of the People then tho since all is changed § 37. On the 27th of April 1679. Tho it was the Lord's Day the Parliament State excited by Stubbes his Confession that the Firing Plot went on and the French were to invade us and the Protestants to be murdered by Iune 28 and they voted that the Duke of York's declaring himself a Papist was the cause of all our dangers by these Plots and sent to the Lords to concur in the same Vote § 38. But the King that week by himself and the Chancellour acquainted them that he should consent to any thing reasonable to secure the Protestant Religion not alienating the Crown from the Line of Succession and Particularly that he would consent that till the Successour should take the Test he should exercise
or the Law and Canon Answ. It is an hard Task to a Minister of Christ either so to practice or so to speak as shall seem to accuse his Rulers and the Laws but when the saving of our own or other Mens Souls requireth it there is no remedy Our own silence if we ceased Preaching and our practice contrary to the Law in Preaching or Praying which is forbidden do against our wills unavoidably intimate that we suppose great sins to be commanded us And whether we preach or be silent while we Subscribe not Declare not Covenant not and Swear not and Practice not all that is required of us this cannot be hid Though our cautelousness and fear of accusing our Governours or the Conforming Ministers have given some Men occasion to affirm That we take not Conformity for a sin or that no considerable persons among us dare say so we spare the Authors whose published Names are dishonoured by themselves when prefixed to such words as he that will but read our Petition for Peace and our Reply unanswered delivered to the commissioned Bishops 1660. will say did ill beseem a Doctor a Preacher a Christian or a Man We profess from the first to this day that it is a great sin in us to forbear our Ministry or to exercise it in a forbidden manner especially when such doleful Divisions and Calamities follow it if it be not sin that is required of us and if it be not many and heinous sins our peace in suffering will have some less reason to that than we have thought it had Therefore being urged I cannot in Conscience deny a plain Answer to this Question But I despair of satisfying those Men that must have that which Augustine said he hated viz. A short Answer to a long and hard Question and that cannot away with distinction when distinct matters must be spoken to Let such Readers cast this Answer aside as being not suited to their Wits and Dispositions 1. We must distinguish between an Infant or Child in the Parents Family and one that is at Age or gone out of the Family 2. Between a thing that is either Duty or Sin or Indifferent in it self by the Law of God and Mens thinking it to be so or not so 3. And particularly between a Minister justly silenced and People justly prohibited to meet and those that are unjustly silenced and forbidden 4. Between the Prohibition or Command of the Civil Magistrate and of the Bishops 5. Between the Command of Laws or Parents to hear such and such Ministers and their Prohibition not to hear others nor joyn in such Assemblies 6. Between an Act of Formal Obedience to a Command and an Act of Prudence moved by the good or hurt that will follow 7. Between guilt of Divine Revenge and guilt of Humane Punishment I make use of all these distinctions in resolving your Doubt by 〈◊〉 following Propositions I. There is no Power but of God and none above God nor agâ—â—â—â—â— or any of his Laws All Laws are null to Conscience as being no Acts of true Authority thereto that are against the Laws of God in Nature or Scripâ—â—â—e II. Though only Rulers be Judges publickly to decide Controversiâ—â— and punish Offenders every rational Man must judge discerningly of his Duty what God's Law and Man's require else we were not governed as Men but 〈…〉 nor were accountable for our Actions to God any further than whether we obeyed Men And else all under Heathens Mahometans Papists Heretiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 be of the Kings Religion And then if the King and a Usurper strive for the Crown we must not be Judges whose part we must take All which are intolerable Consequents III. Every true Minister of Christ is in his Ordination devoted and consecrated to that Sacred Office during Ability and Life And it is from the Law of Christ that their Authority immediately ariseth as the Lord Mayor's from the King's Charter though Men elect and the Ordainers invest them in it by delivery And as he that crowneth the King cannot depose him or he that marrieth Persons cannot unmarry them no more can any depose a Pastor and dissolve his Obligations to his Office but in case of such Crimes as God's Law deposeth him for and enableth them to do it Of which Bishop Bilson of Obedience speaketh soundly too large to be here recited IV. For a Minister of Christ to forsake his Calling or Work while his Vow and the true â—â—cessity of Souls continue his Obligation and this meerly because he is unjustly forbidden by Man is to be odiously persidious and sacrilegious and a Deserter of his great Lord and Master's Work and a Murderer of the Souls which he neglecteth as verily as Parents murder their Children whom they give not food to And no Murderer hath Eternal Life were it but of the Body or Temporal Life such being as Cain of him that was a Murderer from the beginning and contrary to Christ who came to seek and save the lost V. The unjust forbidding Christ's Ministers to preach his Gospel is a sin so exceeding heinous as that no Christian should either concur in the Guilt or be so scandalous as to seem to do it Had I lived in Germany when many hundred Ministers were ejected and thereby the Churches cast into division and confusion and Protestant Preachers turned against each other about the Form or Book called the Interim while Melanchthon and some good Men partly conformed to save the Churches from ruine and Illyricus and more were Nonconformists I would not for all the Riches of the World appear before God in the Guilt of those three Men that did Compile that Book Iulius Pâ—â—ug Sidonius and Islebius Agricola or of those that for it silenced or banished Christs's Ministers 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom Preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine 1. Thess. 2. 15 16. Who both killed the Lord Iesus and their own Prophets and have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins always for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost When they persecute you in one City flee to another Shake off the dust of your feet against them It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Iudgment than for that City Matth 10. 14 15. and 23. 22. VI. God hath set up more Governments in the World than one and each hath its proper works and bounds and one may not destroy the other There is private Self-Government Family-Government Church-Government and Civil-Government each have their proper Ends also though all have one common End the pleasing of God The King in his manner and measure and to his Ends the Publick Good is
Rector of his Parish Church shall as such have power to Preach to them without any further License and to judge according to God's Word to whom and how to perform the proper Work of his Office on what Text and Subject to Preach in what Words and Order to Teach and Pray But if Canons also be made a Rule they shall not oblige him against the Word of God And if for Uniformity or some Mens disability he be tyed to use the Words of prescribed Forms called a Liturgy he shall not be so servilely tyed to them as to be punishable for every Omission of any Collect Sentence or Word while at least the greatest part of the Service appointed for the Day is there read and the Substance and Necessary Part of the Offices be there performed no though he omit the Cross in Baptism and the Surplice and deny not Communion to those that dare not receive it kneeling And if any worthy Minister scruple to use the Liturgy but will be present and not Preach against it he shall be capable notwithstanding of preaching as a Lecturer or Assistant if the Incumbent Pastor do Consent VII No Oath Subscription Covenant Profession or Promise shall be made Necessary to Ministers or Candidates for the Ministry besides the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and Subscribing to the Sacred Canonical Scriptures and to the ancient Creeds or at the most to the Articles of the Church excepting to them that scruple the Twentieth Thirty fourth and Thirty sixth as they speak only of Ceremonies Traditions and Bishops and the necessary Renunciation of Heresie Popery Rebellion and Usurpation and the Promise of Ministerial Fidelity according to the Word of God Or at least none but what the Reformed Churches are commonly agreed in And let none be capable of Benefices and Church-Dignities or Government in the Universities or Free-Schools who hath not taken the said Oaths Subscriptions and Renunciations VIII Let none have any Benefice with Cure of Souls who is not Ordained to the Sacred Ministry by such Bishops or Pastors as the Law shall thereto appoint for the time to come But those that already are otherwise Ordained by other Pastors shall not be disabled or required to be Ordained again And let no Pastor by Patrons or others be imposed on any Parish Church without the consent of the greater number of the stated Communicants And at his Entrance let some Neighbour Ministers in that Congregation declare him their Pastor as so Consented to and Ordained and preach to them the Duty of the Pastor and Flock and pray for his Success IX If any Pastor be accused of Tyranny Injury or Mal-administration he shall be responsible to the next Synod of Neighbour Pastors or to the Diocesan and his Synod or to the Magistrate or whomsoever the Law shall appoint and if guilty and unreformed after a first and second Admonition shall be punished as his Offence deserveth but only in a Course of Justice according to the Laws and not Arbitrarily Nor so as to be forbidden his Ministerial Labours till he be proved to do more hurt than good And if the supposed Injury to any who is denied Communion be doubtful or but to one or few let not for their sake the Church be deprived of their Pastor but let the Person if proved injured have power to forbear all his Payments and Tythes to the Pastor and to Communicate elsewhere X. Because Patrons who choose Pastors for all the Churches are of so different Minds and Dispositions that there is no certainty that none shall be by them Presented and by Bishops Instituted and Inducted to whom godly Persons may justly scruple to commit the Pastoral Conduct of their Souls whose Safety is more to them then all the World And because there may be some things left in the Liliurgy Church Government and Orders which after their best search may be judged sinful by such godly and peaceable Christians as yet consent to the Word of God and all that the Apostles and their Churches practised And Humanity and Christianity abhor Persecution and Human Darkness and great Difference of Apprehensions is such as leaveth us in Despair of Variety and Concord in doubtful and unnecessary Things Let such Persons be allowed to assemble for Communion and the Worship of God under such Pastors and in such Order as they judge best Provided 1. That their Pastors and Teachers do take all the foresaid Oaths Professions and Subscriptions before some Court of Judicature or Justices at Sessions or the Diocesan as shall be by Law appointed who thereupon shall give them a Testimonial thereof or a written License of Toleration 2. That they be responsible for their Doctrine and Ministration and punishable according to the Laws if they preach or practice any thing inconsistent with their foresaid Profession of Faith and Obedience or of Christian Love and Peace 3. That their Communicants pay all Dues to the Parish Ministers and Churches where they live And if such People as live where the Incumbent is judged by them unfit for the Trust and Conduct of their Souls shall hold Communion with a Neighbour Parish Church they shall not be punishable for it They paying their Parish Dues at home Nor shall private Persons be forbidden peaceably to pray or edifie each other in their Houses XI Christian Priviledges and Church Communion being unvaluable Benefits and just Excommunication a dreadful Punishment no unwilling Person hath right to the said Benefits Therefore none shall be driven by Penalties to say that he is a Christian or to be Baptized or to have Communion in the Lord's Supper Nor shall any be Fined Imprisoned or Corporally and Positively punished by the Sword meerly as a Non-Communicant or Excommunicate and Reconciled but as the Magistrate shall judge the Crimes of themselves deserve But if Non-Communicants be denied all Publick Trust in Churches Universities or Civil Government it is more properly the Securing of he Kingdom Church and Souls then a punishing of them But all Parishioners at Age shall be obliged to forbear reproaching Religion and profaning the Lord's Day and shall hear publick Preaching in some allowed or tolerated Church and shall not refuse to be Catechized or to confer for their Instruction with the Parish Minister and shall pay him all his Tythes and Church Dues XII The Church Power above Parish Churches Diocefan Synodical Chancellors Officials Commissaries c. we presume not to meddle with But were it reduced to the Primitive State or to Archbishop Usher's Model of the Primitive Government yea or but to the King's Description in his Declaration 1660. about Ecclesiastical Affairs and if also the Bishops were chosen as of old for Six hundred years and more it would be a Reformation of great Benefit to the Kingdom and the Churches of Christ therein But if we have but Parish Reformation Religion will be preserved without any wrong or hurt to either the Diocesans or the Tolerated And if Diocesans be good Men
the People this Protestation which caused some to be offended with me About that time the Parliament sent down an Order for the demolishing of all Statues and Images of any of the three Persons in the blessed Trinity or of the Virgin Mary which should be found in Churches or on the Crosses in Church-yards My Judgment was for the obeying of this Order thinking it came from just Authority but I medled not in it but left the Churchwarden to do what he thought good The Churchwarden an honest sober quiet Man seeing a Crucifix upon the Cross in the Church-yard set up a Ladder to have reacht it but it proved too short whilst he was gone to seek another a Crew of the drunken riotous Party of the Town poor Journey-men and Servants took the Allarm and run altogether with Weapons to defend the Crucifix and the Church Images of which there were divers left since the time of Popery They Report was among them that I was the Actor and it was me they sought but I was walking almost a mile out of Town or else I suppose I had there ended my days when they mist me and the Churchwarden both they went raving about the Streets to seek us Two Neighbours that dwelt in other Parishes hearing that they sought my Life ran in among them to see whether I were there and they knockt them both down in the Streets and both of them are since dead and I think never perfectly recovered that hurt When they had foamed about half an hour and met with none of us and were newly housed I came in from my walk and hearing the People Cursing at me in their Doors I wondered what the matter was but quickly found how fairly I had scaped The next Lord's Day I dealt plainly with them and laid open to them the quality of that Action and told them Seeing they so required me as to seek my Blood I was willing to leave them and save them from that Guilt But the poor Sots were so amazed and ashamed that they took on sorrily and were loth to part with me § 57. About this time the King's Declarations were read in our Market-place and the Reader a violent Country Gentleman seeing me pass the Streets stopt and said There goeth a Traitor without ever giving a syllable of Reason for it And the Commission of Array was set afoot for the Parliament medled not with the Militia of that Country the Lord Howard their Lieutenant not appearing Then the rage of the Rioters grew greater than before And in preparation to the War they had got the word among them Down with the Round-heads Insomuch that if a Stranger past in many places that had short Hair and a Civil Habit the Rabble presently cried Down with the Round-heads and some they knockt down in the open Streets In this Fury of the Rabble I was advised to withdraw a while from home whereupon I went to Glocester As I past but through a corner of the Suburbs of Worcester they that knew me not cried Down with the Round-heads and I was glad to spur on and be gone But when I came to Gloucester among Strangers also that had never known me I found a civil courteous and religious People as different from Worcester as if they had lived under another Government There I stayed a Month and whilst I was there many Pamphlets came out on both sides preparing for a War For the Parliaments Cause the principal Writing which very much prevailed was Observations written by Mr. Parker a Lawyer But I remember some Principles which I think he misapplieth as also doth Mr. Thomas Hooker Ecclis polit lib. 8. viz. That the King is singulis major but universis minor that he receiveth his Power from the People c. For I doubt not to prove that his Power is so immediately from God as that there is no Recipient between God and him to convey it to him Only as the King by his Charter maketh him a Mayor or Baliff whom the Corporation chuseth so God by his Law as an Instrument conveyeth Power to that Person or Family whom the People consent to and their Consent is but a Conditio sine quâ non and not any Proof that they are the Fountain of Power or that ever the governing Power was in them and therefore for my part I am satisfied that all Politicks err which tell us of a Magestas Realis in the People as distinct from the Majestas Personalis in the Governors And though it be true that quo ad naturalem bonitatem in genere Causae finalis the King be universis minor and therefore no War or Action is good which is against the common Good which is the end of all Government yet as to governing Power which is the thing in question the King is as to the People Universis Major as well as Singulis For if the Parliament have any Legislative Power it cannot be as they are the Body or People as Mr. Tho. Hooker ill supposeth who lib. 1. Polit. Eccles. maketh him a Tyrant that maketh Laws himself without the Body but it is as the Constitution twisteth them into the Government For if once Legislation the chief Act of Government be denied to be any part of Government at all and affirmed to belong to the People as such who are no Governors all Government will hereby be overthrown Besides these Observations no Books more advantaged the Parliament's Cause than a Treatise of Monarchy afterwards published and Mr. Prin's large Book of the Soveraign Power of Parliaments wherein he heapeth up Multitudes of Instances of Parliaments that exercised Soveraign Power At this time also they were every where beginning the Contention between the Commission of Array and the Parliaments Militia In Gloucestershire the Country came in for the Parliament In Worcestershire Herefordshire and Shropshire they were wholly for the King and none to any purpose moved for the Parliament § 58. Whilst I was at Gloucester I saw the first Contentions between the Ministers and Anabaptists that ever I was acquainted with For these were the first Anabaptists that ever I had seen in any Country and I heard but of few more in those parts of England About a dozen young Men or more of considerable Parts had received the Opinion against Infant Baptism and were re-baptized and laboured to draw others after them not far from Gloucester And the Minister of the Place Mr. Winnel being hot and impatient with them hardened them the more He wrote a considerable Book against them at that time But England having then no great Experience of the tendency and consequents of Annabaptistry the People that were not of their Opinion did but pity them and think it was a Conceit that had no great harm in it and blamed Mr. Winnel for his Violence and Asperity towards them But this was the beginning of the Miseries of Gloucester for the Anabaptists somewhat increasing on one side before I came away
from their Houses and more such Penalties which I remember not so short Lived a Commonwealth deserved no long Remembrance Mr. Vines and Dr. Rainbow and many more were hereupon put out of their Headships in the Universities and Mr. Sidrach Sympson and Mr. Io. Sadler and such others put in yea such a Man as Mr. Dell the Chaplain of the Army who I think neither understood himself nor was understood by others any farther than to be one who took Reason Sound Doctrine Order and Concord to be the intollerable Maladies of Church and State because they were the greatest Strangers to his Mind But poor Dr. Edward Reignolds had the hardest Measure for when he refused to take the Engagement his Place was forfeited and afterwards they drew him to take it in hopes to keep his Place which was no less than the Deanarie of Christ's-Church and then turned him out of all and offered his Place to Mr. Ios. Caryll but he refusing it it was conferred on Dr. Owen to whom it was continued from year to year And because the Presbyterians still urged the Covenant against killing the King and pulling down the Parliament and setting up a Commonwealth and taking the Engagement some of the Independent Brethren maintained that its Obligation ceased because it was a League and the Occasion of it ceased And some of the Rump said it was like an Almanack out of date and some of the Souldiers said they never took it and others of them railed at it as a Scottish Snare So that when their Interest would not suffer them to keep so solemn a Vow their Wills would not suffer their Judgments to confess it to be Obligatory at least as to the part which they must violate § 100. For my own part though I kept the Town and Parish of Kiderminster from taking the Covenant and seeing how it might become a Snare to their Consciences yea and most of Worcestershire besides by keeping the Ministers from offering it in any of the Congregations to the People except in Worcester City where I had no great Interest and know not what they did yet I could not judge it seemly for him that believed there is a God to play fast and loose with a dreadful Oath as if the Bonds of National and Personal Vows were as easily shak'd off as Sampson's Cords Therefore I spake and preach'd against the Engagement and dissuaded Men from taking it The first hour that I heard of it being in Company with some Gentlemen of Worcestershire I presently wrote down above twenty Queries against it intending as many more almost against the Obligation as those were about the Sense and Circumstances And one that was present got the Copy of them and shortly after I met with them verbatim in a Book of Mr. Henry Hall's as his own one that was long imprisoned for writing against Cromwell Some Episcopal Divines that were not so scrupulous it seems as we did write for it private Manuscripts which I have seen and plead the irresistability of the Imposers and they found starting holes in the Terms viz. That by the Common-wealth they will mean the present Commonwealth in genere and by Established they will mean only de facto and not de jure and by without a King c. they mean not quatenus but Etsi and that only de facto pro tempore q. d. I will be true to the Government of England though at the present the King and House of Lords are put out of the Exercise of their power These were the Expositions of many Episcopal Men and others that took it But I endeavoured to evince that this is meer jugling and jesting with Matters too great to be jested with And that as they might easily know that the Imposers had another sense so as easily might they know that the words in their own obvious usual sense among men must be taken as the Promise or Engagement of a Subject as such to a Form of Government now pretended to be established And that the Subjects Allegiance or Fidelity to his Rulers can be acknowledged and given in no plainer words And that by such Interpretations and Stretchings of Conscience any Treasonable Oath or Promise may be taken and no Bonds of Society can signifie much with such Interpreters § 101. England and Ireland being thus Conquered by Cromwell by deluding well-meaning Men into his Service and covering his Ambition with the Lord Fairfax's Generalship the Parliament being imprisoned and cast out the King cut off and the Rump established as a new Commonwealth those great and solid Men Pim Hampden c. being long before dead and rid out of his way who else had been like to have prevailed against the Plots of Vane in the Parliament you would think there were nothing now standing in his way to hinder him from laying hands upon the Crown But four Impediments yet stood before him 1. The numerous Cavaliers or Royalists ready for new Enterprizes against him 2. The Scots who resolved to stick to the Covenant and the King 3. The Army which must be untaught all the Principles which he is now permitting them to learn For those Principles which must bring him to the Crown are the worst in the World for him when once he is there 4. The Ministers of England and Scotland and all the sober People who regarded them The first of these he most easily though not without strugling overcame making his advantage by all their Enterprizes The second put him harder to it but he overcame them at last The third proved yet a greater difficulty but he seemed absolutely to overcome it yet leaving still some Life in the root The fourth strove against him more calmly and prudently with invincible Weapons and though they were quiet were never overcome but at last revived the spark of Life which was left in the third and thereby gave a Resurrection to the first and second and so recovered all at last not to the state of their own Interest or to that Condition of Church Affairs which they desired but to that Civil State of Royal Government to which they were engaged and from which the Nation seemed to have fallen These are the true Contents of the following parts that were acted in these Lands The Rump I might mention as another of his Impediments but as they now were doing his work so I conjoyn the Relicts of them which then disturbed him with the Army who were the strength by which they did it § 102. The King being dead his Son was by right immediately King and from that time he dateth his Reign The Scots send Messengers to him to come over to them and take the Crown But they treat with him first for his taking of the Covenant and renouncing the Wars and the Blood that was shed in them by his Fathers Party By which I perceive that the Scots understood the Clause in the Covenant of Defending the King's Person and Authority in the Defence
Scripture without Exposition I distinguished the two parts of the Controversie 1. Whether there be Bread after Consecration 2. Whether there be Christ's Body And the first I proved by express Scripture and I thought gave him enough And after two or three hours he brake off fairly but yielding nothing He after affirmed that a Woman was but a Nurse aud no Governour to her Children and that if he commanded them to deny Christ they were bound to obey him else Families would be Confounded § 245. I had fourteen Years been both a necessary and voluntary stranger at the Court but at this time by another's invitation called to attend the Duke of Lauderdaile who still professed special kindness to me and some pious Scotsmen being under suffering one absconding another sequestred and undone and craving my interposition for them I went to him and desired his Pardon and Clemency for them which he readily granted And being to reprint my Key for Catholicks where his Name was in too low a manner in the Epistle he being then a Prisoner in Windsor-Castle I told him that to omit it might seem a Neglect and so to mention him would be an injurious dishonour and therefore if he pleased I would put to it an Epistle Dedicatory which he consented to and approved of the Epistle before it was Printed But being fain to leave out the second part of the Book and much of the first that the rest might be licensed I printed instead of that left out a new Treatise on the Subject on which I disputed with Mr. Wray called Full and easie Satisfaction which is the true Religion Wherein Popery is brought to sence of the meanest Wit But some were offended that I prefixed the Duke's Name as if it tended to honour him at that time when he was decried as a chief Counsellour for absolute Monarchy for the War with the Dutch and a standing Army and he was threatned as soon as the Parliament sat but went into Scotland as Commissioner and called a Parliament there for my part I never lookt for a Farthing Profit by any great Man nor to my remembrance ever received the worth of a farthing from any of them But I would not in Pride deny any Man his due honour nor be so uncharitable as to refuse to make use of any Man's favour for Sufferers in their distress The matters of their State Counsels are above my reach § 246. In October the Lord Clifford called the chief of the secret Council having the Summer before been at Tunbridge Water fell into several Distempers and shortly after died So near is the fall of the greatest to his Rising which was a great blow to his Party § 247. Mr. Falkener Minister of Lin a sober learned Man wrote a book for Conformity which that Party greatly boasted of as unanswerable Indeed he speaketh plausibly to many of the Nonconformists smallest Exceptions against some particular words in the Liturgy and some Ceremonies but as to the great Matters the Declaration and the Oxford Oath and Subscription and Re-ordination and the Image of the Cross as a Symbol of Christianity and dedicating sign in Baptism the Ministers denying Baptism to those that scruple the Cross or to the Children of those that dare not forbear Covenanting for their own Children in Baptism and lay it all on Godfathers the rejecting those from the Lord's Supper that dare not take it kneeling the Thanksgiving at Burials for the happiness of notorious impenitent wicked Men and other such like his Defence is so poor and slight as is fit to satisfie no Judicious Man that is not prepared for Errour by Interest and Will But pro captu Lectoris c. § 248. On the 20 th of October the Parliament met again and suddenly voted that the King should be sent to about the Duke of York's Marriage with an Italian Papist a-kin to the Pope and to desire that it might be stopt he being not yet come over And as soon as they had done that the King by the Chancellour prorogued them till Monday following because it is not usual for a Parliament to grant Money twice in one Session § 249. On Monday when they met the King desired speedy Aid of Money against the Dutch and the Lord Chancellour set forth the Reasons and the Dutch unreasonableness But the Parliament still stuck to their former resentment of the Duke of York's Marriage and renewed their Message to the King against it who answered them that it was debated at the open Council and resolved that it was too late to stop it § 250. Some one laid in the Parliament-House they say near the Speaker's Chair a wooden Shooe such as the Peasants wear in France with some Beads and on one end drawn the Arms of France and on the other the Arms of England and written between Vtrum horum mavis accippe And Henry Stubbs now Physician once under Library-Keeper in Oxford who was accounted an Infidel and wrote against Monarchy for Sir Henry Vane and against me perswading the Army and Rump to question me for my Life and after was drawn by the Court to write against the Dutch now Printed a Half-Sheet called The Parit Gazette containing many Instances where Marriage by Proxy had been broken for which he was sent to the Tower § 251. On Friday Oct. 31. The Parliament went so high as to pass a Vote that no more Money should be given till the eighteen Months of the last Tax were expired unless the Dutch proved obstinate and unless we were secured against the danger of Popery and Popish Counsellours and their Grievances were redressed 252. The Parliament Voted to ask of his Majesty a day of Humiliation because of the Growth of Popery and intended solemnly to keep the Powder-Plot and appointed Dr. Stillingfleet to Preach to them who is most engaged by writing against Popery but on the day before being Nov. 4. the King to their great discontent prorogued the Parliament to Ian. 7. § 253. The seventh of Ianuary the Parliament met again and voted that their first work should be to prevent Popery redress Grievances and be secured against the Instruments or Counsellours of them And they shortly after voted the Dukes of Buckingham and Lauderdale unfit for trust about the King and desired their Removal But when they came to the Lord Arlington and would have accordingly Characterized him without an Impeachment it was carried against that Attempt And because the Members who favoured the Nonconformists for considerable Reasons were against the rest and helped off the Lord Arlington the rest were greatly exasperated against him and reported that they did it because he had furthered the Nonconformists Licenses for tolerated Preaching § 254. Sir Anthony Ashley Cowper â—ometimes one of Oliver's Privy-Council having been a great Favourite of the King for great Service for him and made Earl of Shaftshury and Lord Chancellour and great in the secretest Councils at last openly set against others on the
account of Religion earnestly declaming against Popery and becoming the Head of the Party that were zealous for the Protestant Cause and awakened the Nation greatly by his Activity And being quickly put out of his place of Chancellourship he by his bold and skillful way of speaking so moved the House of Lords that they began to speak higher against the danger of Popery than the Commons and to pass several Votes accordingly And the Earl of Shaftsbury spake so plainly of the Duke of York as much offended and it was supposed would not long be born The Earl of Clare the Lord Hollis the Lord Hallifax and others also spake very freely And among the Bishops only that I heard of Sir Herbert Crofts who had sometimes been a Papist the Bishop of Hereford And now among Lords and Commons and Citizens and Clergy the talk went uncontrolled that the Duke of York was certainly a Papist and that the Army lately raised and encamped at Black-heath was designed to do their Work who at once would take down Parliaments and set up Popery And Sir Bucknall told them in the House of such Words that he had overheard of the late Lord Treasurer Clifford to the Lord Arundell as seemed to increase their Satisfaction of the Truth of all but common observation was the fullest satisfaction In a word the offence and boldness of both Houses grew so high as easily shewed men how the former War began aâ—d silenced many that said it was raised by Nonconformists and Presbyterians § 255. The third of February was a publick Fast against Popery the first as I remember that besides the Anniversary Fasts had ever been since this Parliament sate which hath now sate longer than that called the long Parliament did before the major part were cast out by Cromwell But the Preachers Dr. Cradock and Dr. Whitchcot medled but little with that Business and did not please them as Dr. Stillingfleet had done who greatly animated them and all the Nation against Popery by his open and diligent endeavours for the Protestant Cause § 256. During this Session the Earl of Orery desired me to draw him up in brief the Terms and Means which I thought would satisfie the Non-conformists so far as to unite us all against Popery professing that he met with many Great Men that were much for it and particulary the New Lord Treasurer Sir Thomas Osborn and Dr. Morley Bishop of Winchester who vehemently profess'd his desires of it And Dr. Fullwood and divers others had been with me to the like purpose testifying the said Bishop's resolution herein I wisht them all to tell him from me that he had done so much to the contrary and never any thing this way since his Professions of that sort that till his real Endeavours convinced Men it would not be believed that he was serious But when I had given the Earl of Orery my Papers he returned them me with Bishop Morley's Strictures or Animadversions as by his Words and the Hand I had reason to be confident by which he fully made me see that all his Professions for Abanement and Concord were deceitful Suares and that he intended no such thing at all And because I have inserted before so much of such transactions I will here annex my Proposals with his Strictures and my Reply To the Right Honourable the Earl of Orery My Lord I Have here drawn up those Terms on which I think Ministers may be restored to the Churches Service and much union and quietness be procured But I must tell you 1. That upon second Thoughts I forbore to distribute them as I intimated to you into several Ranks but only offer what may tend to a Concord of the most though not of every man 2. That I have done this only on the suppositions that we were fain to go upon in our Consultation with Dr. 〈◊〉 viz. That no change in the Frame of Church-Government will be consented to Otherwise I should have done as we did in 1660 offered you Arch-bishop Vsher's Reduction of the Government to the primitive state of Episcopacy and have only desired that the Lay-Chancellours have not the Power of the Keys and that if not in every Parish at least in every Rural Deanry or Market-Town with the adjacent Villages the Ministers might have the Pastoral power of the Keys so far as is necessary to guide their own Administrations and not one Bishop or Lay-Chancellour's Court to have more to do than Multitudes can well do and thereby cause almost all true Discipline to be omitted 3. I have forborn to enumerate the Particulars which we cannot subscribe or swear to or practise because they are many and I fear the naming of them will be displeasing to others as seeming to accuse them while we do but say what a Sin such Conformity would be in our selves But if it should be useful and desired I am ready to do it But I now only say that the matters are far from being things doubtful or indifferent or little Sins in our Apprehensions of which we are ready to render a Reason But I think that this bare Proposal of the Remedies is the best and shortest and least offensive way In which I crave your Observation of these two Particulars 1. That it is the matter granted if it be even in our own Words that will best do the Cure For while other men word it that know not our Scruples or Reasons they miss our Sence usually and make it ineffectual 2. That the Reason why I crave that Ministers may have impunity who use the greatest part of the Liturgy for the Day is 1. To shorten the Accommodation that we may not be put to delay our Concord till the Liturgy be altered to the Satisfaction of Dissenters which we have cause to think will not be done at all Now this will silently and quietly heal us and if a Man omit some one Collect or Sentence without debate or noise it will not be noted nor be a matter of offence 2. And he is unworthy to be a Minister that is not to be trusted so much as with the using or not using of a few Sentences or words in all his Ministration 3. And almost every Minister that I hear all the Year of the most Conformable do every day omit some part or other and yet are not Silenc'd nor taken notice of as offenders at all And may not as much for our Concord be granted to Dissenters in the present case He that thinks that these Concessions will be more injurious to the Church and the Souls of Men than our Uncharitableness and Divisions have been these Eleven Years and are yet like to be is not qualified to be at all an Healer In Conclusion I must again intreat you that this Offer may be taken but as the Answer of your desire for your private use and that no Copy be given of it nor the Author made known unless we have encouragement from our Governours to