State-Divinity; OR A SUPPLEMENT TO The Relapsed Apostate. WHEREIN Is prosecuted the Discovery of the present Design against the King, the Parliament, and the Public Peace: In NOTES upon some late Presbyterian Pamphlets, By ROGER L'ESTRANGE. Mon eant vos utriusque fortunae documenta, nè contumaciam cum pernicie, quam obsequium cum securitate malitis; Tacit. Hist. lib. 4. LONDON, Printed for Henry Brome, at the Gun in Ivy-lane. M. DC. LXI. PREFACE. HE that troubles himself, because he cannot please others, doubtless wants either Brains, or Business: He shall Live Miserable, and Dye with an Apology betwixt his Teeth. I think I am here upon my Duty; and till the King says Hold, I'll follow it, (to whose Authority, I owe my Breath, as well as my Obedience.) The Presbyterian Faction (under the Notion of the Commissioned Divines) have of late scattered several Libels, reflecting dishonourably upon His Sacred Majesty,— the Church,— Parliamentary Power,— This Parliament in Being;— and in fine, arguing from the Justice of the Late War, the Lawfulness of Another. To the First of Four, I returned an Answer, under the Title of the Relapsed Apostate: This Supplement, was particularly occasioned by One of the other Three, entitled Two Papers of Proposals to his Majesty, wherein their Designs upon the Public Peace are more avowed, and open, then in the Rest. Should These Seditious Papers pass uncontrolled, 'twould make either their Party; or their Arguments seem more considerable than they are. I will not foul my Paper, with the extravagancies of their Rage against me; but in their Intervals, (that is, when they are as Sober, as other people are when they are Mad.) Thus they Object against my Pamphlet; There's too much Fooling in't: and too much Railing, (They do well to vilify what they cannot Answer.) They are to know, that my Design was to expose their Practices, and Arguments to the People; toward whom, whoever Sauces not his Earnest with a Tangle of Fooling, misses his Marque; for 'tis not less necessary to make a Faction Ridiculous, then Hateful; their Power is Then gone too; and Then they are lost; whereas they'd make a shift without the People's Love. For Railing; I confess I was never taught in the Presbyterian-School;— where they call foul things by fine names. Sometimes perhaps I call their Combination, (as the Law Christened it) Treason:— Spilling of Innocent Blood;— Murder. Taking away an Honest man's Estate, Robbery. Rifling of Churches, Sacrilege, etc.— They have indeed a cleanlier Idiom for these Matters. A Treacherous Confederacy they call a Holy Covenant. Murder forsooth, is Justice upon Delinquents. Notorious Robbery, passes for Sequestration. Rifling of Churches, is but demolishing of the high-Places. Was the Murder of the late King ever the less execrable, because the Scaffold was hung with Black? The bloody Reformation ever the less Impious, because 'twas dressed up with Texts, and Covenants? Or Judas the less Treacherous for doing his business with a Kiss? Whether is the greater shame: for Them to Act these Crimes, or for Us, to Name them? Let no Converted, Honest Presbyterian take this to himself, which is Intended only to the Guilty. Decemb. 4. 1661. STATE-DIVINITY: OR A SUPPLEMENT TO The Relapsed Apostate. HE that disputes the Presbyterian Claim, does the Question more Honour than he does Himself: yet for their simple sakes that believe justice goes always with the Cry, and measure Reason by the Bulk; the Holy Discipline has received many a Fair Confutation. Silenced it is not; for though the Brethren have nothing to Say, they Talk on still, and truly to make john Calvin speak in his Grave, were not much harder than to make any of his Disciples hold their Tongues while they are alive. A man Sleeps over their Arguments, they are so Flat, and Spiritless; And I'm scarce well awake yet, since my last Answer to them, so that till I hear something back again, I hold myself discharged even upon That account, from any further search into the Controversy. In truth, as the case stands, to Controvert their Government, were to begin at the wrong end; we'll take a nearer Cut, and challenge them, First, as Criminals against the State: when they have avoided That Charge, we'll deal with them again upon the point of Conscience. Their Charge shall be Plain and Short. They Invade the King's Authority:— The settled Law:— And the Power of The Reformers Charge. Parliaments. They affront the Parliament Now Sitting:— Threaten the Public Peace: justify the Rebellion of 1 6 4 1. and Provoke Another.— Here 'tis, in Brief, and we'll run it over in as good order as we can. First, They Invade the King's Authority. They Indict Fasts;— Disclaim the Sovereign Power in things Indifferent; They invade the King's Authority. and without Warrant or Pretence, they vilify, and cast out the Established Form of the Church, and make Another: But This they'll tell ye is the Language of the Sons of Scandal: we'll strike it off the score then; and Try the Babes of Grace by a jury of the Holy Tribe. They can but ask to be both Parties and judges, and That we'll Grant them. The Able Teachers shall sit upon the Faithful Pastors:— R. shall Try B.— E. C.— T. M.— W. I. Hear now the words of the Reformed and Reforming Crew, to His Sacred Majesty. [A] WHether the Covenant were lawfully imposed or not. Proposals pag. 12. [B] We are assured from the nature of a Vow to God, and from the Case of Saul, Zedekiah, and others, that it would be a terrible thing of us to violate it on that pretence. [C] Though we are far from thinking that it obligeth us to any evil, or to go beyond our places and callings to do good, much less to resist Authority (to which it doth oblige us) yet doth it undoubtedly bind us to forbear our own consent to those luxuriances of Church-Government which we there renounced, and for which no Divine Institution can be pretended. [D] Not presuming to meddle with the Consciences of those many of the Nobility and Gentry, and others, that adhered to his late Majesty in the late Unhappy Wars, who at their Composition took this Vow and Covenant. We only crave your Majesty's clemency to ourselves and others, who believe themselves to be under its obligations. And God forbid that we that are the Ministers of the Word of Truth should do any thing to encourage your Majesty's Subjects to cast off the Conscience of an Oath. [E] Till the Covenant was decried as an Almanac out of date, and its obligation taken to be null, that odious Fact could never have been perpetrated against your Royal Father, nor your Majesty have been so long expulsed from your Dominions. And the obligation of the Covenant upon the Consciences of the Nation, was not the weakest Instrument of your Return. [F] We therefore humbly beseech your Majesty (with greater importunity than we think we should do for our Lives) That you would have mercy on the Souls and Consciences of your People, and will not suffer us to be tempted to the violation of such solemn Vows, and this for nothing, when an expedient is before you that will avoid it, without any detriment to the Church; nay, to its honour and advancement. The very Ink, is but the soul of Presbytery, Distilled: and Tinctured with the Spirit of Fraud, and Disobedience. We'll Taste it, Drop, by Drop. [A] Whether the Covenant were lawfully imposed, or not, Pag. 12. etc. NOTE I. A Doubtful point indeed:— a very pretty, and a pleasant Question left unresolved, when by an Act of this sitting Parliament the Institution's Damned, and the final Decision of the Case committed to the Common Hangman. Well: Forward. [B] WE are assured from the Nature of a Vow to God; Pag. 12. A miserable shift. and from the Case of Saul, Zedekiah, and others, that it would be a terrible thing to us to violate it on that pretence.] NOTE II. Mark now the miserable shift these people make; how Ignorant they are even in their Own Trade: for, Art there is in daubing. They must not Violate the Covenant, upon protence of Unlawful Institution.] The Question is not Here; the Lawfulness, or unlawfulness of the Power Imposing; The Covenant not binding. but the Liberty of the Party Swearing, as to the Drift, and Subject of the Oath. Suppose the Enforcers of the Covenant, had pressed a General Oath upon the Nation obliging every Man only to wash his hands before he went to Dinner. The Imposition had been Unlawful:— as the Act of an Usurping Power. The Taking of it had been unlawful likewise, as, in some measure, an Allowance of that Usurpation:— Yet having sworn to do a thing, at my own choice to Do, or let alone, till I had bound myself to do it, That Oath's obliging; yet not so Binding, but by a subsequent Command from the Supreme, and Legal Magistrate That Obligation may be Cancelled. The Reason's This. I cannot dispose of another's Right; of my Own I may. My Oath cannot operate beyond my Power, and Freedom; so far as I am Free, it binds me, but where my Superior thinks fit to determine That Freedom, Amesius. de Consc. lib. 4. q. 11. the Bond ceases. Parents (says Amesius) Mariti, Domini, Principes, irrita pronunciare possunt, vel juramenta, vel Vota, à Filiis, Vxoribus, Servis, Subditis facta, sine ipsorum Consensu, in iis Rebus, quae ipsorum Potestati subiiciuntur.] Fathers, Husbands, Masters, and Princes, may disengage their Children, Wives, Servants, and Subjects, from what Oaths or Vowes-soever contracted without their consent, touching matters subjected to their Authority. Now to their Cases of Saul, and Zedekiah: The former whereof is of so wild an Application, I know not what they drive at in it; The Other I confess is a little more perspicuously beside the purpose. In our Case, the People enter into a Covenant, without, and against the King; What passage in the story of Saul our Reformers intent for a Match to This, I cannot Imagine. Saul binds the People by an Oath to fast till Evening; Saul's Case examined. (1 Sam. 14. 24.) jonathan knowing nothing of the Oath tastes a little Honey (v. 27.) Saul for This resolves to put jonathan to death; (v. 44.) and the People rescue him. What's this to us? we'll try again. jonathan and David made a Covenant: 1 Sam. 18. 3. (No Scotch Covenant I hope) The business was This; David had newly killed the Philistim, and jonathan transported with the Bravery of the Person, and the Action, strikes a League of Friendship with him. David's Victory being celebrated in a Popular and Triumphal Song, that [Saul had slain his Thousand, and David his Ten Thousand] from that day forward (says the Text) Saul had an eye upon David. 1 Sam. 18. 9] jonathan acquaints David with his Father's evil purpose, David minds jonathan of his Covenant of Friendship. (1 Sam. 20. 8.) and in the 42. verse of the same chapter, the Covenant is explayned. [jonathan said to David, Go in peace: that which we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, (saying, The Lord be between thee and me, and between thy seed, and my seed;) lot it stand for ever.] Thus far, there's no Proportion; the one is a Personal Covenant, extending only to matter of Kindness; the other is a Public League, of Opposition, and of Violence. Since This is nothing to our business, it must be That which follows, or nothing at all: Now see the Sequel; which, if any thing, makes the Case worse. David flees (Chap. 22.) and a malcontented Party gathers to him. Saul Hunts him; jonathan finds him in the Wood, and comforts him, saying Fear not, for the hand of Saul my Father shall not find thee. (here's no Resistance.) So they twain made a Covenant before the Lord etc.] During the League betwixt this Pair of Noble Friends, David asks Counsel of the Lord in all his Public Actions; [Shall I go and smite the Philistines?] (Chapt. 23. verse 2.) and the Lord answered David, Go and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah.] David discomfits the Philistines, and saves Keilah: Saul marches towards him, David again applies himself to God to know if the men of Keilah would deliver him up or no? it was returned, they would. So David fled, and afterward had Saul twice at his mercy, whom as the Lords Anointed, he still feared to touch. I have here traced the story at Length, and now let the Reformers choose what use they'll make of it. This part of Scripture has been often tortured in favour of the late Rebellion, but for the Covenant, they might as well have quoted an Indenture; so that either the Reformers business is to justify the Quarrel, or to abuse the Bible. Concerning the Case of Zedekiah, The Case of Zedekiah. take it in short. jerusalem was taken by the King of Babel, and Zedekiah carried away Prisoner, his Eyes being first put out by Nabuchadnezzar. Zedekiah Rebelled (says the Text) against the King of Babel, (2 Kings 24. 29.) who made him King in the stead of jehojakim, his Uncle, who was carried away in Captivity from Jerusalem, to Babel. The Provocations to that judgement are found at large in the Prophet jeremiah, to be These; Idolatry, Rebellion, and Breach of Covenant: But Breach of Covenant is the Question, and Zedekiah's the Case. Agreed. 13. Thus saith the Lord, Jerem. 34. God made the Covenant. the God of Israel, I made a Covenant with your Fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of Bondmen, saying; 14. At the end of seven years, The Covenant itself. let ye go every man his Brother, an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your Fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. 15. And ye were now turned, Zedekiahs' Covenant. and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his Neighbour, and ye had made a Covenant before me in the house which is called by my Name. 16. But ye turned and polluted my Name, And Revolt. and caused every man his Servant, and every man his Handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for Servants, and for Handmaids. 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord, For the Breach Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty every one to his Brother, etc.— 21. And Zedekiah King of Judah, he is Punished. and his Princes will I give into the hand of their Enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the King of Babylon's Army. Now here's the Case: God having made a Covenant with the Israelites, King Zedekiah makes a Covenant with the People, for the performance of That Covenant. Breach of Faith was the Sin that drew on their grievous Punishment. Can our Covenanters now show us a Text for the Scottish Discipline? The Case does not hold. or that the late King entered into Covenant with the People to Observe it? Can our judaising Brethren show us but a Levitical Law yet for our money? or dare they but pretend, that the jurors understood what they swore to do? In short, here's the Difference, They Covenanted to observe a Levitical Constitution, and Ours Covenanted to destroy the Fifth Commandment. There is another Covenant mentioned in the Prophet Ezekiel, The very Case. which is much fitter for Their Case: the Covenant of the Rebellious House, Ezek. 17. that after Oath and Covenant of Allegiance to the King of Babel, Rebelled, and sent Ambassadors into Egypt, (Scotland I had like to have said) that they might give him (Zedekiah) Horses, Ezek. 17. 15. and much People, etc.] That blessed Combination, and Our Covenant are of a Family. I have been large upon these Precedents; to show how grossly they abuse the very Word of God: and truly 'tis no wonder, for Those People to discover Antichrist in a Ceremony, that can draw arguments for Rebellion out of the Bible. They Proceed. [C] THough we are far from thinking that it obligeth us to any evil, A Presbyterian Oracle. or to go beyond our places and callings to do good, much less to resist Authority (to which it doth oblige us) yet doth it undoubtedly bind us to forbear our own consent to those luxuriances of Church-Government, which we there renounced, and for which no divine Institution can be pretended.] NOTE. III. THese words would have looked better from a Pagan Oracle, then from a Gospel-Ministry. Let any man either say what they can mean, but Mischief; or name That Mischief which (for aught we know) they may not intend. What was that Covenant which These people so much reverence, The Covenant an abjuring Oath. even in the Infamous Ashes, but an Oath of Anti-canonical Obedience, and of Anti-Monarchical Allegiance? A Religious Abjuration of the King and the Church.— A Perjury, consecrated in the Pulpit;— A League asserted by Bloody Hands, and Fire and Sword were their best Arguments. In sum; What that Covenant produced. These men Intent: they own as much, and 'twere ill manners to contradict them. Nay they adore the very Relics of the Martyred Idol. They will not go beyond their Places, and Callings.] So said the Solemn Fop it self: and under that pretext, pray'ye how far went they? for they profess so far they'll Go again. A thorough Reformation is their Business then. A thorough Reformation. That is to say, could they but Pack a Presbyterian House of Commons (which the Sovereign People should call a Parliament) to reform the State, they'd undertake the Ordering of the Church Themselves, and there's the Thorough-Reformation. If This be not a Justification of the last Rebellion, and a fair step toward another, I understand not English. They say the Covenant does not oblige them to any evil.] But in the Covenant-sense that's Good, which in a Legal, and Common sense is evil. Make them the Judges once again, and they shall think another war as Lawful, as they did the Former. They will not Resist Authority neither.] In their Places and Callings. (they say) so they told us of Old, but they misplaced it shrewdly. 'Tis but taking his Majesty's Authority into the Faction, and Throwing his Person into a Prison again, and that Flaw is made up too. Now if a man had lily's Devil;— for none but a Presbyterian Familiar is able to help us out.— Much less to resist Authority, (to which it doth oblige us, etc.) The Question here, Quere. is how to understand the Parenthesis: whether they mean that the Covenant obliges them to Authority, or to Resist it, I am a Traitor if I comprehend them. We come now, to the binding part of the Covenant. They must not consent (say they) to those Luxuriances of Church-Government which they there, Renounced, etc.] If they must not Consent, may they not let them Alone? No, no, they'll tell us, 'tis their Calling to reform them. I demand, will they consent to the Civil Government, then? If they do That; the Law provides a Punishment for such meddling Reformers, and 'tis in vain to think of settling Presbytery, before they have (effectually) Destroyed Monarchy. But these Gentlemen know the way to Confusion, without a Guide. By their [Luxuriances] they understand, An Affront to the Parliament. Prelates, and all appendents to the Hierarchy. These they have Renounced, they say, and by their Covenant they are still obliged to make good their Disclaim. This Boldness requires rather the Severity of the Law, than dint of Argument: to prefer a Schismatical League to an Act of Parliament:— the skumm of the People to the Supreme Authority of the Nation. Let the gravest of their Galloping Lecturers answer me only to This one Question, Where lies the Last appeal; according to the Constitution of England? If in the King; (as what honest man doubts it) They are Judged already, let them be quiet. If in the Parliament, they are overruled There too;— the Covenant's gone. If in the People, why do they contradict themselves, and Petition his Majesty? if in the Presbyterian Pastors; why do they Supplicate the Bishops? As to the point of Divine Institution, 'tis worn Threadbare. But where's the Divine Institution of a White-Cap under A Black! of A Cloak in A Pulpit? of Reviling Bishops? and Speaking evil of Dignities: of the Heart-breaking Humms and Haws, and the doleful tunes they Teach in? Their next Period is a Bobb to the Cavaliers: let the Brethren make their best on't. [D] NOt presuming to meddle with the Consciences of those many of the Nobility, and Gentry, and Others, that adhered to his late Majesty in the late unhappy Wars: who at their Camposition took the Vow and Covenant. We only crave your Majesty's clemency to ourselves and others, who believe themselves to be under its obligations. And God forbid that we that are the Ministers of the Word of Truth should do any thing to encourage your Majesty's Subjects to cast off the Conscience of an Oath.] NOTE. IV. Mark the transcendent Confidence, and Weakness of these People. They will not meddle with the Cavaliers Consciences, The Reformers tenderness touching Oaths. that took the Covenant.] Did they not meddle with them neither to make them take it? They put them to this Choice, either to swear, or starve; and in that Desperate Extremity, divers submitted to their accursed Covenant. 'Tis true they did, and they are bound to a Repentance for't. But what's the portion then of those Impenitents that were the Barbarous Enforcers of it? Were Lucifer himself Incarnate, and a Subject, would he not blush to treat his Sovereign with their Arguments? Observe. They mind the King how bloodily they used his Friends by the obligation of that Covenant, The boldness of the Faction. by which they likewise ruined his Royal Father: and in the same Breath, they desire his Majesty to believe that all was Matter of Conscience: They plead, the Covenant's not discharged; and in effect they Fairly tell their Gracious Sovereign, that they are obliged to do now as they did before. Now see the Weakness of these People; Their weakness. while they Beg this, they stir the strongest Provocation, and most unanswerable Reason to Deny it. They labour to involve All in an Equal Gild, and to Confound the lewdest Villenies in Nature, with Common Frailties. But Here, a word to all sorts of People that ever took their Covenant. Some knew not what they did, and were to Blame to swear they knew not what. Let those of that From ask themselves, if ever they intended by that Vow, to raise a War against the King, and overturn the Church. They are now Free, and Pardoned, and if they are not Mad, they'll say their Prayers, and be Quiet. Such as Engaged through Faction, Malice, or Ambition; I have little to say to their Consciences. Methinks, if the King's Mercy cannot make them Honest, Experience should make them Wise: But they are Dangerous People to deal with, we'll to the next. A Third sort there is, that to save their stakes, sat still, and looked on. Those cannot but abhor the very thought of Repeating what they did, and suffered: especially in agreement with these persons, that now declare the Covenant against the Late King, to be Binding against this. (for that's the Logic on't.) There are a Fourth Sort, that having engaged their Lives and Estates in the King's service, Sank by the Fortune of the War, and being left a naked Prey to an insulting and merciless enemy, were forced to sad Conditions for their Bread, and Families. Now in requital for the Plagues they have brought upon us already; they are soliciting for leave to make us yet more miserable, and to have us declared for villains by an Allowance of their Treasons: A thing Impossible for so Generous a Prince, to Grant, but wondrous Easie for so Imperious a Faction to Demand. And who are the Petitioners all this while, but most of them the Old stagers? A man would think 'twere time now, for their Reverences to give over their juggling Divinity;— their Quailpiping in a Pulpit to catch silly women;— and fall at last to their Prayers in Earnest. But God forbid (they cry) that the Ministers of the Word of Truth, should do any thing to encourage his Majesty's Subjects to cast off the Conscience of an Oath.] ☜ Let the Heads that are Gone Blush for those they have left behind them. The Conscience of an Oath, do they say? Let the Three Nations rise against them; and tell how many hundred Thousand persons these Hypocrites have forced to swear against their Professed Consciences. But drive it Homer yet. This is to say, that All that acted in the late war according to the Covenant, are bound to do the same Things over again. There is a huge deal of Folly in this Assertion, and as it seems to me, a Spice of Treason. Does it not encourage the People to adhore to a Rebellious Princple? There is (says the Lord St. Alban) a thing in an Indictment, called an Inuvendo, you must take head how you Beckon, or make signs upon the King in a Dangerous sense.] This is a shrewd Beacken as I take it, to excite a Tumult to justify a Rebellious vow, and oppose a Pedantic Libel to an Act of Parliament. [E] TIll the Covenant was decried as an Almanac out of date, and its obligation taken to be null, that odious Fact could never have been perpetrated against your Royal Father, nor your Majesty have been so long expulsed from your Dominions. And the obligation of the Covenant upon the consciences of the Nation, was not the weakest Instrument of your Return.] NOTE. V. THat Odious Fact they speak of, was the King's Murder; which they that shot at him, were not less Guilty of, than that Monster, that severed his Sacred Head from his Body. 'Tis the Consent that makes the Sin; Hitting or Missing does not one jote after the Quality of the Action. But has any man the Face to mention Loyalty, and the Covenant, in the same Day? The Marquis of Montross was Murdered, expressly for his Loyalty to the King as a Desertour of the Covenant, Loyalty made Death, accordi●● to the Covenant and by a Public Ordinance 'twas made Death for any man to serve his Majesty having first taken the Covenant. They that first Voted War against the King, were every whit as Criminal, as that Mock-Court of justice that Condemned him. In Fine, the Independents murdered CHARLES STUART but the Presbyterians Killed the KING. What is a Prince without his Negative Voice? the Power of Life and Death, and the Militia? That is, what is a King, without the Essentials of Royalty; but a mere Name, and Property? But till the Covenant was decried, as an old Almanac, and the Obligation taken for Null, we are to take for Granted, all went well; and so far our Reformers plead the Covenant Binding still. Was not the Last King Persecuted, dethroned, Robbed, etc.— according to the Covenant? so by the Consequence of the Reformers Doctrine, may This King be Treated likewise. Nor had His Majesty been so long expulsed, they say.] Go to then; Let these Gentlemen produce (from First to Last of the Quarrel) any Proposals from the Presbyterian Party (in Power) either to His Majesty, or his late Blessed Father, that are not worse than Banishment. And for the Covenants bringing in the King:— they hung it up, and ●●ew'd his Name in't, to gull the People with it, as they had done before. Did they not after This, exclude both from the Next Convention, and the Militia, all the Kings Actual Adherents, and their Sons, to get the Power once more into the hands of their own Faction? But the next Choice proved other than They expected, and when they saw they could not hinder His Majesty, they seemed to help him. These are Distasteful stories, but 'tis the pleasure of the Reforming Faction to move the Dispute; and by a needess Challenge, and Appeal, to affront the Law, the King, and all that served him, in Opposition to their Covenant. If They are in the Right, (as they proclaim they are) then consequently We are Traitors, and our Gracious Master is no King. I do but take up the Defensive, and I hope a Cavalier may say he's Honest yet, though some will have it dangerous to say he's Poor: Reserving still a true Respect, and Kindness for all such Presbyterians as love His Majesty, whom I consider as Select Persons, and distinguished from the Notion of the Party. It were a good deed now to give the world a taste of a Covenanting spirit: and truly I'll venture at it. He is a Rabbi too I assure ye; One that gives Bishops, Ceremonies, and Common-prayer no Quarter; no, nor his Majesty neither, but that he has the grace (as Sir Francis Bacon says) to speak seditious matter in Parables, or by Tropes, or Examples.] In fine, the Gentleman is a Reformer, of the First Rank. Upon Sept. 24. 1656. he preached before the Parliament, (as they called it) upon this Text: [Kiss the Son, left he be Angry] Pag. 23. You may find these Words, if you can find him, and if you cannot, I can. Worthy Patriots, W. I. you that are our Rulers in this Parliament, 'tis often said, we live in Times wherein we may be as good as We please: wherein we enjoy in purity and plenty the Ordinances of jesus Christ. Praised be God for this, even that God who hath delivered us from the imposition of Prelatical Innovations, Altar-genuflections and cringings, with cross, and all that popish trash and trumpery. And truly (I speak no more than what I have often thought & said) The removal of those insupportable burdens countervails A taste of the Reforming Spirit. for the Blood and Treasure shed and spent in these late distractions. (Nor did I as yet ever hear of any godly men that desired, were it possible, to purchase their friends or money again, at so dear a rate, The Kings Murder justified. as with the return of these, to have those soul-burdning, Antichristian yokes re-imposed upon us: And if any such there be, I am sure that desire is no part of their godliness, and I PROFESS MYSELF IN THAT TO BE NONE OF THE NUMBER. The Odious Fact (they talk of) was already perpetrated, yet does this Gentleman profess, that to redeem the Life of our Martyred Sovereign, ☞ and gather up again all the Christian blood had been spilt, (if it were possible) he would not do it, to have Prelates, and Ceremonies where they were again. Here's Covenant-Divinity for you: the Gospel of our New Evangelists: and this Divine is now one of the Eminent Sticklers against Bishops. If any man say 'twas Conscience, I could tell him a Tale of a certain Petition: but we'll scatter no words. While my hand's in, take one more; a Public Preacher now in the Town too, and a troubler of the Church-Government. Upon Novemb. 29. 1648. he preached before the Commons, and pressed the Murder of his Sacred Majest in these Words. Think not to save yourselves by an unrighteous saving of them; G. C. who are the Lords and the People's known Enemies. You may not imagine to obtain the favour of those against whom you will not do justice; ☜ For certainly, if ye act not like Gods in this particular, against men truly obnoxious to justice, they will be like Devils against you. Observe that place, 1 Kings 22. 31. compared with chap. 20. It is said in chap. 20. that the King of Syria came against Israel, and by the mighty power of God, he and his Army were overthrown, and the King was taken Prisoner. Now the mind of God was (which he then discovered only by that present providence) that Justice should have been executed upon him, but it was not; whereupon, the Prophet comes with ashes upon his face, and waited for the King of Israel in the way where he should return; vers. 12. of Chap. 20. and as the King passed by, he cried unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go a man whom I appointed for destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life. Now see how the King of Syria, after this, answers Ahab's love: About three years after Israel and Syria engage in a new War, and the King of Syria, gives command unto his Soldiers, Chap. 2. v. 31. that they should fight neither against small nor great, but against the King of Israel. Benhadad's life was once in ahab's hand, and he ventured God's displeasure to let him go: but see how Benhadad rewards him for it, Fight neither against small nor great, The Application. but against the King of Israel. Honourable and Worthy, if God do not lead you to do justice upon those that have been the great Actors in shedding innocent Blood, never think to gain their love by sparing of them; For they will, if opportunity be ever offered, return again upon you; and then they will not fight against the poor and mean ones, but against those that have been the Fountain of that Authority and Power which have been improved against them. It is no wonder to find Rebellion in a Nation where Murder and Treason are the Dictates of the Pulpit:— where Surplices are Scandals, and such Discourses, none; and where the King's Murderers pass for God's Ministers. I know how close this Freedom sticks to some that have a Power to do me Mischief; and I forecast the worst that can befall me for it: Wherefore, whatever it be, I'm not surprised, for I expect it. But to proceed. [F] WE therefore humbly beseech your Majesty (with greater importunity than we Pag 12. The Covenant Revived. think we should do for our lives) That you would have mercy on the Souls and Consciences of your People, and will not suffer us to be tempted to the violation of such solemn Vows, and this for nothing, when an expedient is before you that will avoid it, without any detriment to the Church; nay, to its honour and advancement. NOTE. VI OBserve here 2. or 3. bold, and bloody Intimations. First; that the Souls and Consciences of the People lie at Stake. Next; that the King's Denial were great Cruelty: Especially considering the smallness of the thing they Ask; the Honour and advantage of what they offer. Thirdly; the Obligation of Their solemn Vow. To the First; We have elsewhere difcussed the point of Conscience, but we are Here to Note how this suggestion tends to Tumult and Sedition. The Sense it bears to the People, Sedition. is This: Stick to your Covenant, or, be Damned: but in the Sense of Conscience, Law, and Reason; it sounds the contrary:— Stick to your Covenant, and be Damned. By what Law were the People freed from their Allegiance, and made the judges, and Reformers of the Government? Well; but they have sworn to do it, and they must keep their Oath.] Put case they had sworn to Fire the City. At This Rate 'tis but Swearing First, and then pretend a Conscience of the Oath, to carry any thing. The second Intimation subjects the Piety, and Good nature of his Majesty to a Question; as who should say; what? will the King destroy so many Thousand Souls of his poor People for a matter of Nothing? Marque now their Matter of Nothing. It cost the late King's Life; A matter of nothing. the best Blood in the Nation; the Ruin of Church and State: a long Rebellion;— and Treasure not to be Counted. (This they make nothing of) And for the Honour they propose to the Church; 'tis but a Back-look, and we find it. Now to the Obligation of their Covenant. That which the Law makes Treason, They make Conscience; and in effect they urge, that they are bound to a Rebellion: for 'tis no less to attempt what they have sworn to do: which is to Repeat what they have already done. But what they are bound to by the Covenant, will from the Letter of the Covenant best appear. Where, in the second Branch, they Swear, Without Respect of persons, to endeavour the Extirpation of Popery, Prelacy, Superstition, etc. The sense of the Covenant. So that the King himself is not excepted, if standing in the way betwixt Those Matters which they call Luxuriances of Church-Government, and their pretended Reformation. To make it yet more evident, that their design is Factious; They Ask— THat the Youth of the Nation may have just Liberty as well as the Elder. Proposals pag. 24. If they be engaged in the Universities, and their Liberties there cut off in their beginning, they cannot afterwards be Free, etc. NOTE VII. TO see the Providence of these good men's Consciences! Their Care extends as well to Those that never took the Covenant, and looks still forward, to the Scruples of the yet unborn. What work this Motly would soon make in the Universities, let any sober man Imagine: when every Stubborn, and Untutored Boy shall have the Freedom to control, and overrule the Orders of his Mother. The Streams must needs be Foul that flow from a Corrupted Fountain. Just such another Project was That of the Long House of Commons;— I mean their offer of Freedom to all Prentices that would leave their Trades, and serve the (pretended) Parliament. That Liberty may start a Faction, but hardly settle a Religion. What Public Peace can be expected; when the Schools of Unity and Order are become a Nursery of Schism? But These are men will take no Nay; for if his Majesty denies them, mark the End on't. SHould we lose the opportunity of our desired Reconciliation and Union, Proposals pag. 12. it astonisheth us to foresee what doleful effects our divisions would produce, which we will not so much as mention in particular, lest our words should be misunderstood. And seeing all this may be safely and easily prevented, We humbly beseech the Lord in mercy to vouchsafe to your Majesty, an heart to discern aright of Time and judgement.] NOTE. VIII. Bless us from a Gun! Should we lose the Opportunity? And then their Prayer at last; that his Majesty may [discern aright of Time, etc.] Certainly these Folks would have said to the King— [While it is called to day harden not your heart] but that 'tis Common-Prayer. Or do they dream themselves at work again with the Poor Cavaliers? and mean, that if his Majesty come not In by such a time, he is not to be admitted to his Composition? Are these the men of Reverence that must Teach us Manners toward God Almighty, and are yet to learn it Themselves towards his Vicegerent? He that makes any thing form the Collation, of [Opportunity,] and [Time,] but a Cautionary Menace;— let him lend me his Spectacles. A Menace. But the coherence clears it, Should we lose (say they) the opportunity of our desired Reconciliation, and Union.] Must it be Now, or Never then? and their own way, or None? Is it not Reconciliation, if They Return to the Church? and Unity if they Agree with it? A Child runs from his Mother, and cries they are Fallen out. They cannot comply with Ceremonies:— nor the Church with Schism. Well; The Reformers Foresight. but put the Case they Lose this Opportunity, then forsooth [it astonishes us (they say) to foresee what doleful effects our Divisions would produce.] Just so did Peter foresee the Death of the late King:— judas; the Betraying of our Saviour; and so did I my self foresee the Printing of this Paper, just as these Gentlemen foresee confusion; or as men commonly foresee Eating when they are Hungry. If the Foresight (indeed) astonishes Them; the Prospect cannot but be Dreadful: for only Hell transcends those Horrors which these bold men have beheld with Pleasure; And in good truth, That may be it: for he that has Murder, and Rebellion at his Back, does commonly Fancy Fire and Brimstone before him. These Holy, ☞ and Fastidious Scrupulists;— these same spiritual Surgeons, that Live by dressing wounds of their own making;— must understand, we have some skill in Probing of a Conscience, too. If they are Mortified throughout, that's not Our fault; but if they have any Feeling Left, we'll Quicken it. Now leaving them to their Astonishments, we'll to the foreseen Product of our Divisions, [Doleful Effects,] they say. They Prophet jonas his [Yes within Forty days—] had scarce a sadder sound. It may be any thing:— War, another Covenant; Famine, Sequestration; Truce-breaking, Decimation: In fine, any thing, and now at last we are left in the Dark to grope it out. Doleful Effects; (they say) which we will not so much as mention in Particular, lest our words should be misunderstood. These good men are wonderfully put to't for want of Expression; the thing would imply Mutiny, and They are afraid it should be taken for Treason. No honest apprehension could in Their Case be Dangerous. What hazard of misconstruction were it, to mention any Trouble of Mind Imaginable? But if it tends to mischief of Action, That may prove perilous indeed. More Gunning, beyond Controversy, and their Sagacities smell the Powder. The People will Rebel they think; that's English, and the Truth they are loath to Speak. To lay their Souls as Naked now as their Bodies came into the World, The Faction laid open. I shall here Prove, (or I deceive myself) that These People are the Betrayers of the Public Peace: and of the Office of their Ministry. If they foresee any Seditious Consequence likely to arise from his Majesty's Refusal: why do they not rather in Private Supplicate the King to Grant, and in Public, Charm the People to Submit; Seditious. then so to Plead, and justify the Disagreement to the King, that their Arguments, and Importunities may be overheard by the People? They First and openly avow the Popular Cause, and shake the head Then at the Danger of it: giving a Double Encouragement to the Multitude, as well from the Equity of the Matter, as from the Strength of the Party. Upon the whole, Calumnious. what are their Libellous, and Creeping Night-works, but Poisonous Calumnies against the King; and mean, Incensing Flatteries toward the People? Or in a word, sneaking Complaints, as if his Sacred Majesty would not grant, what with Conscience, Honour, and Safety he cannot deny? Whereas the Sun's not clearer, than the pure Contrary. For; the King denies them nothing, but what with Conscience, Honour, and Safety, he cannot grant. They Demand Presbytery, that is; the confused exercise of it, and Liberty to the Minister of Praying at pleasure: which being admitted, makes Divine Service but a Spiritual scuffle; the one half of the Congregation Praying for that which the other Curses. Against This Proposition, his Majesty stands engaged by Oath, Honour, and judgement: being Persuaded in his Reason, and Obliged by the Other Two. They pretend next, the continuing virtue of their Covenant; (which never had any) wherein his Majesty can hardly gratify them, without blasting the Glory of his blessed Father's Memory: the justice of his Cause, and without shaking the Foundation of his Imperial Title. Their Reasons, I have un-reasoned already, and when the Nameless Divines of the Church Invisible, shall vouchsafe their Answer, I shall dispose myself to receive it. But nothing can be pleasanter than to hear them talk of their Cousins the People. Presbytery will never down with the People. (by Britannicus his Leave) Alas! their Sowrness of discipline, and the People's freedom of Constitution are Fire and Water. The people may endure to hear them Talk of Liberty, but the exercise of their Tyranny is intolerable. To have every Parish haunted with a Phantom;— every Church turned into a House of Correction;— and one man excommunicated for a walk upon the Lordsday, while Another is Canonised for a Murder. I do not plead for Impunity of Sinners, but for a pious differencing of Matters disputable from crying sins: for Impartiality in the Pulpit, and Charity to all men:— for Preaching Damnation to those that Resist, as well as Caution to those that are to Obey. The Expedient to prevent these mischiefs, is a Synodical Government; wherein they beseech the Lord in mercy to vouchsafe to his Majesty an heart to discern aright of Time, and Judgement.] This is, in plainer terms; to tell the King, that 'tis his best course to make use of a Seasonable Offer. Let This suffice for their Proposals. Some three or four days after the Publishing of these abovementioned Proposals, out comes a single sheet, in form of a Petition to his Majesty, from the Commissioned Ministers. 'Tis likely that this was drawn from them by a general rumour than current, of a severe Declaration already in the Press against their other Pamphlets: for having so notoriously overshot themselves in the Rest, they mend the matter in This, by giving the same thing a fairer dress. [A] IF we should sin against God (say they) because we are commanded, Page 4. who shall answer for us, or save us from his justice? And we humbly crave, that it may be no just Gravamen of our dissent, that thereby we suppose Superiors may err, seeing it is but supposing them to be men not yet in Heaven.] And again, [B] Page 5. We know that Conscientious men will not consent to the Practice of things in their judgement Unlawful, etc.] NOTE IX. [A] SAint Augustine resolves this Point exceeding well; Reum Regem facit (says he) Iniquitas Imperandi, Innocentem Subditum Ordo Serviendi] Let the Governor account for an unjust Command, but the Order of Obedience saves the Subject Harmless. This must be understood of Matters not simply Wicked. Where we doubt, on the One hand, The safe way is best. and are sure on the Other, beyond Question, the surest side is Best. We are sure that we are to Obey, if the thing be not Unlawful, and we are not sure that the Thing is Unlawful. I must but touch upon This; If the Government offend some Particular Persons, 'tis hard they cannot agree, but let those Particulars march off: for They offend the Government▪ and it is better, that some suffer by an Imposition, then All by a Rebellion. They offer to Dispute; and then they pass for mighty men with the people. But what's the Question? Only forsooth, whether I Think This, or That Lawful: And if I say, I do, it is so; and no matter what the Law says to the Contrary. What I believe, binds me; and every Man being Free to pretend what Belief he pleases, every man's Private Humour becomes a Law. They Argue, that Superiors may Err. They may so; but their Errors are no Forfeiture of their Superiority. Cannot Inferiors err too? So that their own claim brings the Issue of this Strife but to a Drawn Battle. When Subjects question the Proceedings of their Governors; they do not so much tax their mistakes, as Usurp their Authority; and for some Slip perhaps in the Exercise of Government destroy the Order of it. [B] We know that Conscientious men will not consent, etc.] They borrow here, the Apostles Rhetoric. [King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets? I know that thou believest.] They seem to take for Granted, what they are now endeavouring to persuade them to. These are but hints to the Common-People, to say their Consciences cannot submit to the Law, and then there's a Party made against the King. Soon after the Publishing of their Petition for Peace, came forth a pretended Account of all the Proceedings betwixt the Commissioned Divines concerning the Liturgy. Not to insist upon the weakness of their Reasoning, I shall only produce one Mistake of Memory, (I had like to have given it a worse name.) The Bishops urge, that [while the Liturgy was duly observed, we lived in Peace, since that was laid aside]— the contrary. Now bless the Modesty of the Replicants. BUt Really hath Liberty to forbear, The Divines Account p. ●. produced such Divisions as you mention? The Licence, or Connivance that was granted to Haeretiques, Apostates, and foul-mouthed Railers against the Scripture, Ministry, and all God's Ordinances indeed bred Confusions in the Land. NOTE X. Would not this scandalous Recltal of their old Forgeries against the Government:— This Re-charge of our late Gracious Sovereign: and Imputation of the late War to the King's Party, (for There Their Malice fixes it) make a man lay the very Roots of the Rebellion Naked; and trace the Project up to the very Door of the Reforming Conclave? Nota magis nulli domus est sua, quam mihi, etc. Do not we know the Scotch Cabal, and the Confederate English; the Pack that hunted the Earl of Strafford? Yes, and the Beagles too, that Baited the Archbishop. [But Really, hath Liberty to forbear produced such divisions? etc.] Goodly, Goodly! your Reverences are Gamesome: Yes, Really it has. Are not Knaves and Fools the greater part of the World? and in the State of Freedom, they require, Those are the men we make our Governors. Without This Liberty of Freedom, where had been their separate Assemblies? Their Seditious Conventicles; Their Anti-Episcopal Lectures, and without These, their Desolating Reformation? Were we not in the highway to Unity, when Churches were turned into Stables, and houses of Infamy supplied the place of Churches? when Peter was fooling in One Pulpit, Martial Denouncing in Another: and when the Now-Pastor of Brainford threw the very Firebrand of the Rebellion into the King's Coach; that execrable Pamphlet, [To your Tents O Israe 〈…〉 But the Reformers assign our Breaches to another Cause. [The Licence or Connivance that was granted to Haeretiques, Apostates etc.—] When will These men's Mouths be Sweet again, after so foul a Calumny? Nay more; the very Crimes they charge upon the Government, in a high measure, they Themselves were guilty of. Liberty of Conscience was their First Clamour, a Notion which included all Sects and Heresies imaginable, whereof, great Use was made against the King. But notwithstanding the prodigious, and Blasphemous Opinions, then rise, and crying, both in their Conventieles and Pulpits; All passed for Gospel in the Godly Party: for Unity in the War was their business, not Unity in Religion: and it was safer to Deny the Trinity, then to refuse the Covenant. The bare Rehearsal of their Monstrous Tenants would make a man Tremble. There were among them that denied the Authority of the Scriptures,— Liberty of Conscience. the use of the Old Testament,— the Immortality of the Soul,— the Trinity in Unity. That affirmed the Soul to be of the Essence of God, etc.— and a world of other Impious Positions they held, such as either the Devil, or Distemper suggested to them. the Presbyterians were pleased to 〈◊〉 these fanatics, at first more needful to their Design, then Scandalous to their Profession; preferring at any time an Ordinance of the Two Houses, to the Obligation of the Two Tables. And so they scaped, not only with Impunity, but Encouragement; till the Declining of the Royal party, and the Increase of these wild Libertines, put the Kirk-faction upon other thoughts: which were, having now Mastered the King's forces, how to cast off the Independent Party, by whose assistance they had done the work. They began now to open their eyes, and to perceive, that what they called Gospel-Profession while they needed them, was become gross Heresy, when they had done with them: and that God's People in the Beginning, were Schismatics in the Conclusion. What is become now of the Liberty of Conscience these Faithless Creatures promised to all that sided with them? See the Minister's Letter from Sion-House to the Assembly in 1645. Toleration of Independents, as unseasonable so unreasonable. First, Not established in any Christian State by the Civil Magistrate. Secondly, It consists not with Presbytery. Thirdly, If That; then all Sectaries must be Tolerated.] Again; Such a Toleration is utterly Repugnant, and Inconsistent with the Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation.] See Bayly's dissuasive from the Errors of the Times in his Dedicatory. Printed in 1646. Liberty of Conscience, and Toleration of all or any Religion, is so prodigious an impiety, that this religious Parliament cannot but abhor the very naming of it. The whole Faction sing the same song, of Liberty, when they are Rising, and Non-Toleration when they are Up: and they are now upon their first concern; they Plead in pretence for all the Adversaries of our Church-Order, but they propose to set up only for Themselves. This is a point worthy a strict Enquiry, and we'll sift it Throughly, in that which follows. But it is to us matter of Admiration to observe (clean contrary to your Intimation) how little Discord there was in Prayer, The Divines account p. 8. and other parts of Worship, among all the Churches throughout the three Nations, that agreed in Doctrine, and forbore the Liturgy. It is wonderful to us in the Review to consider, with what Love, and Peace, and Concord, they all spoke the same things, that were tied to no From of words, even those that differed in some points of Discipline, even to a withdrawing from Local Communion with us, yet strangely agreed with us in Worship.] NOTE. XI. ACutely, and unanswerably argued; Those Churches that Agreed, did agree, wherein they Agreed. The Bishops infer the Expedience of restoring the Common-Prayer, from the Divisions which have ensued upon forsaking it. Nay rather; (reply the Presbyterians) the Licence given to Apostates, Haeretiques, and the like, caused those Divisions, etc. Whereas those that forbore the Liturgy, and agreed in Doctrine, were unamimous to a Miracle. Where lies the Wonder, if those that agreed in Doctrine, differed not much in other matters, when there was nothing else for them to differ upon? Or what Answer is it to an Objection that there were great and many Divisions, to say that there were some Agreements? And those Agreements were no other neither then a Conspiracy. The Question is, what was the Effect of that Popular Defection from the Practice of the Church? Was it not Heresy, and Rebellion? Nor is it possible it should be other; for a General Freedom is but a Licentious Combination against a Regulating and Limiting Order. But the Wonderful Love, Peace, and Concord that was among those that were tied to no form of words!] — Inter so Convenit Vrsis] They did in truth agree, to Catch the Prey, but not to share it:— they loved the Independency, but they hated the Independent: or with Doctor Donn; The One was con●ent the Other should be Damned, but loath he should Govern. Since these Gentlemen are pleased to boast the Unity of that Party that forbore the Liturgy; we'll confer Notes with their great Friend Mr. Edward's upon the Question; and first we'll see what precious Instruments these Tender-conscienced men made use of, as the conjunct Promoters of a Reformation. we'll then inquire, upon their subdivision, how they agreed among themselves. Certain Opinions frequent among the Godly Party (falsely so called.) THat the Scriptures are Insufficient, Edward's Gangraena, P. 18. and uncertain. That God is the Author of Sin: Pag. 19 not of the Action only, but of the Sinfulness it self. That the Magistrate ought not to Punish any man for Denying of a God: Pag. 20. if his Conscience be so persuaded. That every Creature is God: Pag. 21. an Efflux only from God, and shall Return to him. That there is but one Person in the Divine Nature. Ibid. That Christ came only to witness and declare the love of God, Pag. 22. not to procure it. That the least Truth is of more worth than jesus Christ himself. Pag. 23. That the Doctrine of Repentance is a soul destroying Doctrine. Pag. 25. That 'tis as possible for Christ himself to sin, as for a child of God to sin. Ibid. That the Moral Law is of no use at all to Believers. Ibid. That Peter's trouble after the denial of his Master, Pag. 26. issued only from the weakness of his Faith. That Infants rise not again. Pag. 27. The same Author tells us in the Second part of Gangraena, Pag. 18●▪ of a Sectary pleading for a Toleration of Witches, which he follows, with a recital of Instances in several kinds, the foulest, and the most impious, imaginable. Let these suffice out of that rabble of Infamous Collections, to show the blessed Effects of the Presbyterian Reformation. If it be objected, that these opinions no way concern the Presbyterian Party. They are not Charged with the Belief of these Heresies, but with the encouragement and protection of them, for they grew up and spread under Their Government. [All of them being vented and broached within these four years last pact, Gangraena, pag. 1. yea most of them within these two last years and less; Heresies the spawn of Presbytery. ] (This was in 1646. and more especially (says the same Author in the Page following) in London, and the Counties adjacent, in the Parliaments Quarters, in their Armies, and Garrison Towns, not maintained by Persons at Oxford, etc. for Then it had not been so much to us;]— but [in Thee London, in Thee Associate Counties, in Thee Armies, and that after a Solemn Covenant to extirpate Heresies, and Schisms, are found such and such errors, blasphemous opinions, strange practices, etc.—] Nor were the Sectaries only let alone, and suffered, Gangr. pag. 179. but highly respected, preferred, etc.—] Nay, says our Author; The Independents were but few; and other Sectaries a small Number, in the first and second year of this Parliament, some half a score or dozen Ministers, three or four hundred People, the Presbyterians gave them the Right hand of Fellowship, admitted them to their Meetings, opened their Pulpit doors unto them, showed all brotherly respect of Love and Kindness to them, even more than to must of their own Way, condescending to such a Motion, as to forbear Praying, and Printing against their Opinions and Way; making them (who were so small and inconsiderable a Party) as it were an equal Party, putting them into the Balance with themselves; they appeared not to hinder their being Chosen to be general Lecturers for This City, in several great Churches; and as at first, so all along, they have been tender and respectful of them, in Assembly, City, and in all Cases suffering them to grow up to Thousands, etc.] These are the words of a professed Champion of the Cause; a bitter Adversary he was to Independents, and to say no worse; he was a Presbyterian to Bishops. As he hath stated the Case, ☜ it was the Presbyterians, not the Bishops, that licenced Heretics, Apostates, and Foulmouthed Railers against the Scripture, Ministry, and all God's Ordinances;—] and the forbearance of the Liturgy, was the first step toward This horrible Confusion. Qui non prohibet, cum potest, jubet. He that permits, Commands; when he might fairly hinder. The Sectaries were but Few, he says, at the Beginning of the War, The Presbyterians nourished the Sectaries at first. till they were Nursed, and Cherished by the Presbyterians; so that it seems, 'twas Their Indulgence wrought our Mischief, and not Episcopal connivance. In Truth that Thing they called the Cause, was but the Sink of the whole Nation:— the common Receptacle of Lewd, Factious, and foul Humours. The Government was their grand Aversion; and next to King and Church, they hated one another. The Divines, Preached, and Printed up the Quarrel; the Brutish Multitude Maintained it: which kind of Combination is rarely Fancied by Sir Francis Bacon, in These Words. Libels against Bishops, and Ecclesiastical Dignities, calling in the People to their Aid, are a kind of Intelligence betwixt Incendiaries, and Robbers; the One to Fire the house, the Other to Rifle it.] We come now to the wonderful Love, Peace, and Concord, of those People that were tied to no Form of words, etc.] and first The Kindness of the Presbyterians to their Colleagues the Independents. The Sectaries agree with julian the Apostate, The Presbyterians love to the Independ. Gangrene, p. 54. The Sectaries are Libertines and Atheists, P. 185.] Unclean, Incestuous, P. 187.] Drunkards, P. 190.] Sabbath-breakers, Deceivers, P. 191.] Guilty of gross Lying, Slandering, juggling, Falsifying their Words and Promises: Guilty of Excessive Pride and Boasting, pag. 192]— Of insufferable Insolences, horrible Affronts to Authority, and of strange Outrages, pag. 194.] There never was a more Hypocritical, False Dissembling, Cunning Generation in England, than many of the Grandees of our Sectaries.— They Encourage, Protect, and Cry up for Saints, Sons of Belial, and the Vilest of Men, p. 240.] Gangraena 2d Part, 1646. These Imputations being attended with Public, and Notorious Proofs: and this Subject being at that time the Common Theme of the Presbyterian party; enough is said to show their Kindness to the Sectaries; we'll now to the Other side, and Manifest that there was no Love lost betwixt them. An Anabaptist said that he hoped to see Heaven and Earth on fire before Presbytery should be settled.] The Sectaries love to the Presbyterians. Another Sectary, that he hoped to see the Presbytery as much trodden under foot as the Bishops are. Gangr. p. 73.] The National Covenant is a double faced Covenant, the greatest makebate and snare, that ever the Devil, and the Clergy his Agents, cast in among honest men in England in our age. Gangraena, 2d. Part, pag. 220. The Presbyterian Government is Antichristian, a limb of Antichrist, Tyrannical, Lordly, Cruel, a worse bondage then under the Prelates, a bondage under Taskmasters as the Israelites in Egypt, Ibid. 221. The Assembly is Antichristian, Romish, Bloody, the Plagues and Pests of the Kingdom, Baal's Priests, Diviners, Soothsayers, Ibid. p. 230. The Seed of God in this Nation, has had Two Capital Enemies, the Romish-Papacy, and the Scotch-Presbytery. Sterry, England's Deliverance, p. 7. Behold the Harmony of the Non-Conformists: the wonderful Agreement of the withdrawers from local Communion with us.] But the Reformers argue Learnedly, Divines Account pag. 8. that if we tell them of those that differ from them in Doctrine, and are not of them, it is as impertinent to the point of their own agreement in Worship, as to tell them of the Papists.] Marque the Insipid flatness of This Evasion. If they Differ, they do not Agree; and if they Agree, they do not Differ. Have not the Independent Schismatics the same Pretence, as well as the Presbyterian? We urge that all the Factions were of a Party, not all of an Opinion; and that the Independent Heresies were hatched under the Kirk-Schismatiques Wing. This we have proved, and now, to a Conclusion. Wheresoever the Two Factions close, Conveniant in Tertio. there's a design upon the Civil Power; for their Principles are Inconciliable, save by the stronger malice they bear to the Government, then to each other. How great a madness is it then for those People to unite against the Public? when they are sure either to fall in the Attempt, or at the most, not to stand firm long after it! For whensoever they Break, (and Break they must) 'tis but a little Patience till they are i●, and the Third Party gives the Law to Both, Turning the Scale at Pleasure. But what a vails it to offer Light to those that shut their Eyes, or Reason to a man that dares not hearken to it? 'Tis with Notorious Sinners as with men much in Debt, they had rather Break then come to an Account:— rather run headlong the direct Rote to Hell, then pass the Purgatory of a Repentance. It is a remarkable saying of Sir Francis Bacon, that the great Atheists indeed are Hypocrites, which are ever Handling Holy things, but without Feeling.] Such are the people we have to deal with. Witness their Seditious Zeal;— their Wrested Allegations;— their Neglected Vows, and D●ring Scruples. No wonder then at their incorrigible Hardness and Impenitence. David, (we find) Repent his Adultery and Murder; Hypocr. impenitent. Manasseh, his Idolatry; Saint Peter, the Denial of his Master; Saint Paul, the Persecution of the Church, etc.— but not one precedent in the whole Bible of a Repentant and Converted Hypocrite. LORD, Luk. 18. 11. I am not as other men are, says the Pharisee: Num. 16. 3. The Congregation is holy, every one of them, 2 Sam. 15. 4. and the Lord is among them, (cry the Sons of Korah.) Oh that I were made judge it the land, (says Absolom) that I might do every man justice!] But what became of these People? He in the Parable was not justified;— The earth opened her mouth upon the Korites;— and the smooth Advocate for the People's Liberties was Hanged upon an Oak. Wherefore beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is Hypocrisy. Luk. 12. 1. Nor is this Crime more fatal to the Person than to the Public; Hypocr. dangerous to the Public. those that are tainted with it, being not one jot better Citizens or Subjects, than they are Christians: two or three are enough to infect a Parish, and half a dozen popular Hypocrites will make a shift to embroil a Nation. It is not credible, how greedily the heedless Vulgar swallow down any hook baited with forms of godliness, especially when they themselves are taken in fo● sharers in the work, and made the judges of the Controversy. Then they begin to talk of the Righteous Sceptre, and of subjecting the Nations to the rule of the holy Ordinance, abundantly supplying with revelation their want of common Reason. They (forsooth) must be conferred with about Church-Government, and Delinquents, Baal's Priests, and the High places, which way to carry on the Cause of the Lamb; against the Kingdoms of this world, and the powers of darkness. When once the poison of this cankered zeal comes to diffuse itself, and seize the mass and humour of the people; who can express in words, or without horror think upon the Blasphemies, Treasons, Murders, Heart-burnings, and Consusions that ensue upon it: We shall not need to ransack Foreign Stories, or past Ages, for sad and dismal Instances; this little spot of England and our own Memories will furnish us. Those that are struck with this distemper, Phanaticisme. take Fancy for Inspiration, their very dreams for divine Advertisements, and the Impulse of a besotted Melancholy for the direction of the holy Spirit. They fashion to themselves strange uncouth Notions of the Deity, entering into a familiarity with Heaven; and in this elevation of spiritual pride and dotage, having, as they imagine, the Almighty on their side, and the Eternal Wisdom for their Counsellor; they account▪ human reason a ridiculous thing, and laugh at the authority and power of Princes. So many of them as agree to oppose the Right, are called the Saints; the earth is their inheritance, and that which we style Theft or Plunder, is but with them taking possession of their Birthright. In order to their ends they reckon no violence unlawful. Princes are murdered for the glory of God, and the most barbarous mischiefs that fire and sword can bring upon a people, they term a Reformation. Their Combinations against Law and Order are (in the language of the Consistory) a holy Covenanting with their God; and all their actings (tho' never so irreverend and impetuous) only the gentle Motions of the Spirit. These are the pious Arts that take and lead the Multitude— the simple and the factious, together with such malcontents as are by guilt, disgrace, or poverty, prepared for lewdness. And this hath been the constant method of our devout Patriots, who with God's glory and Christian liberty still in their mouths, laid the foundation of our ruin in Hypocrisy. The word belongs to the Stage, and in That sense, to some of our Reformers; a great part of whose Pulpit-work it is, by Feigned, and forced Passions in Themselves, to stir up True Affections in their Hearers; making the Auditory Feel the Griefs the Speaker does but Counterfeit. Do we not see familiarly, that a sad Tale upon the Stage, makes the People Cry in the Pit? And yet we know, that he that Plays Cesar murdered in the Senate, is but some Droll- Comedian behind the Hanging. I thought to have ended here, but one Note more shall do my Business, and Theirs too, or I mightily mistake myself. THe Church judgeth not of things undiscovered: The Divines Account p. 12. non esse & non apparere, are all one as to our Judgement, we conclude not peremptorily, because we pretend not here to infallibility. As we are not sure that any man is truly penitent, that we give the Sacrament to, so we are not sure that any man dyeth impenitently. But we must use Those as Penitent, that seem so to Reason, judging by ordinary means, and so must we judge those as Impenitent that have declared their sin, and never declared their Repentance.] NOTE. XII. THis Point will be the Death of the [Invaletudinary] Ministers, The Elegancies of the learned. (as our Ciceronians) and they might ten times better have endured (by reading the Office of Burial, at the Grave) to expose their tender Bodies to the Excessively Refrigerating Air: (another Elegance) which Imposition they do not understand to be a sign of the Right and Ingenuine Spirit of Religion) Sure it Rains Solecisms: Three in the third part of a Page. Now to the Church's Faculty, and Power of judgement, according to the strictness of their own Rule. Not to Appear, and not to Be, are the same thing, as to the judgement of the Church— and Those are to be judged Impenitents, that have declared their Sin, and never declared their Repentance. Public Worship pag. 67. And That, in words only, will not suffice neither; for (say our Reformers) It must be Practice first, that must make Words Credible, when the Person by Perfidiousness hath forfeited his Credit.] They press further likewise, that according to his Majesty's Declaration of Octob. 25. 1660. Exceptions, p. 8. Scandalous Offenders are not to be admitted to the Holy Communion till they have Openly declared themselves to have truly Repent, and amended their former naughty Lives, etc.] Now try the Self-Condemners by their own Law. Self-condemners. Where's their Repentance for putting God's Name, to the Devil's Commission? under the Form of a Religious Vow, Couching an Execrable League of violence, against their Prince, the Law, their Country. Where's their Repentance, for the Souls they have Damned by their Seditious Doctrine? the Blood they have made the People spill, by their Incentives to the War?— Those Schisms and Heresies, which they have given us in exchange for an Apostolical Order, and Evangelical Truths; under the colour of a Gospel-Reformation. Where is the Practice (they prescribe) of their Obedience? Their Open Retractations and Amendments? Their Sins as Public as the Day; but where's their Penitence? These Gentlemen must justify the War; or by the method of their own Discipline, be excluded the Communion of the Church. But they're so far from That, they Claim a Right of Government. Acts of Parliament must submit to Their Authority: They put a Bar to the King's Power in Matters Indifferent; and just as the Last War began, are they now tampering to procure another. I had some thoughts of a Reply upon their Exceptions against the Liturgy: but truly for the Common-People Sake, rather than for their own; for I think them much more capable of a Confutation then worthy of it. At present, I am given to understand, that there is more Honour meant them, than they deserve; and I shall wait the Issue of it from a better hand. My Frequency of writing may persuade some, that I'm in love with Scribbling: but what I now do, is no more than what I have ever done, when I believed my Duty called me to it. And having done the same thing Formerly, and oftener, at a time when Rationally I could not expect any other Reward then a Halter: I think there are some People that believe I write for a Halter, still, and have amind to save my Longing. I know how I am misrepresented; which, if I had any thing to Lose, but what I'm weary of, perhaps would trouble me. But Soberly, (since so it is) here I declare, I do not ask the abatement of the strictest rigour of any Law, either Humane, or Divine, in what concerns his Majesty. But betwixt some, perchance from whom I have not deserved Ill, and others, from whom I have no great Ambition, to receive much Kindness, my Doings I perceive are Commented upon, and much mistaken. To These discourtisies, I shall only oppose This Word. Let the World renounce me, when they find me either less Innocent, than I say I am; or less Dutiful, than I have been. Mala Opinio benè parta delectat. Sen. Ep. FINIS.